If you’ve been slow on the uptake when it comes to online advertising, you should begin ramping up your efforts. Online ad spend has seen consistent growth and is projected to overtake print, states a recent IAB report. If you haven’t yet familiarized yourself with online advertising, it’s time to do so. If you’re of the belief that advertising online is wasting your ad budget, think again. Check these These are 9 reasons you should be advertising online:

1. Insight
Know exactly which ads brought in the highest number of qualifying leads. Know how many impressions were served, where they were served, and when. Identify your optimal channels, ad copy, and ad locations. The metrics and analytics available with online advertising allow you to see the exact cost of acquiring and converting a customer. Advertising online provides you with endless insightallowing you to become a more effective marketer. Marketers went from having no data to more data than we know what to do with. This is a great problem to have.

2. Targeting
Do you know the profile of your perfect customer? Online advertising gives you the ability to target and retarget the ideal prospects. Retargeting will serve ads based on prior engagement, enabling you to identify your ideal customer profile. Once you know what your customers look like, you will know just who to target and where to find all similar users online, making sure they too are being served your ads. When advertising online, you have the ability to target a population as specific as “men, age 18-35, who searched for Giants tickets between the hours of 7-10 pm” or as broad as “men, age 18-35” ensuring your message is in front of the right people at the right time.

3. Creative 
Your ability to target goes beyond reaching the right customers. You can take this one step further and serve the creative that will best resonate with each target. There is a common misconception that online ads are of poor quality, when in fact digital advertising provides the opportunity to be highly engaging with video and other rich media. Using flash and in-banner video ads can increase brand recognition and highlight your competitive edge. Is one of your ads under-performing  A/B test your copy, your image, your headline and serve ads that are as dynamic as the online space in which they are living. A well-designed banner ad can turn your digital campaign from good to great.

4. Brand Awareness
Online advertising can be used to drive traffic to your site and build brand awareness. Effectively targeted campaigns can create brand influencers and reach complementary audiences. Use the endless online display space to be creative with rich media, establish your online presence, make an emotional connection, and get online consumers excited about who you are and what you have to offer. Online display enables brands to focus on their ideal audience and tailor messages that improve both recall and engagement.

5. Flexibility
Online advertising campaigns can be adjusted with a few clicks or keystrokes. You have the flexibility to respond to incoming data and make changes instantly. Similarly, you have the ability to pause campaigns or adjust your strategy in minutes. This flexibility allows you to stay in front of your customers– anticipate customer needs and adjust your ads before anyone even notices.

6. Cost
Digital channels are highly cost effective for marketers. Rates are typically set through a combination of ad size, ad location, performance, and demand. Considering the reach allotted via digital channels, moving your campaigns online is often much cheaper than more traditional offline channels like radio, television, or print. Furthermore, digital campaigns have greater transparency allowing you to adjust your cost easily based on performance. In the offline world, once you’ve paid for the space in a print publication or a spot on the radio, there’s no adjusting your investment after the fact.

7. Reach
We’ve heard a lot of this lately — people are watching less live TV and turning to their computers for their favorite shows, music, and to access their news. As marketers, being effective requires staying in front of your customers; as it turns out, your customers are online, so you should be too, and sooner rather than later! Moving online gives you access to a global audience, if you so desire, and it means your ads can be working for you 24 hours a day. The options are practically limitless when it comes to your reach capabilities when you take your campaign online.

8. Engagement
Online advertising lets you know a customer’s exact level of engagement. You might have circulation and readership data for a print publication, but you can’t know how much time customers spent interacting with your ad, how much time they spent on your website, if they researched more of your products, and whether that ad led to conversions. An online presence gives you all of this valuable data and places you in a position to learn where your most engaged prospects live.

Online advertising is an essential element of anyone’s marketing mix. It provides you with numerous benefits, including lower costs, robust targeting, and valuable customer insights, that are not available through other advertising mediums. Your customers, competitors, and prospects are online — give them the attention they deserve, while getting more out of your budget.

You might think that starting up a new business is easy, but you couldn’t be more wrong. To build up a successful business, you will need to work incredibly hard. To successfully run a business there are certain things that you must have in place.

1.Create an incredible website

Every new business needs a website to give them a professional image and advertise their services. However, the type of website you choose will ultimately depend on your budget.

If you are computer savvy yourself, there is no reason you can’t create your own website. Just make sure it looks professional and runs correctly. If you are unable to build your website yourself, then it is a good idea to hire a professional web designer to do it for you.

Whilst you may be tempted to use a free online website template, this is not the best idea. Not only will it not run as smoothly as a specially built one, it may also look less professional. Your website says a lot about your business, so it is vital that it is created correctly.2.A realistic business plan

2.To create a successful business, you will need a well-written business plan. Your business plan should outline the structure of your company, including your long-term and short-term goals.

Creating a good business plan will take some time, but it is vital for building up a successful business. A good business plan will give you direction for your new venture and help you to understand things that need to be changed.

3. Set yourself goals

To keep you and your team (if you have one) focused, it is important to create a list of objectives. Start off with small goals, like getting five regular customers. As you reach your initial goals, you can set yourself larger goals to meet.

When setting yourself goals, make sure to put a date on them. Remember that a goal without a deadline is just a dream. If you set yourself a time limit, you are more likely to build your business up quicker

4.Market your business

Whilst you will probably have a small marketing budget, there is no need to despair. There are many ways you can market your new venture without spending too much money.

Start by creating social media pages for your business. Social media is one of the best free marketing tools. All you need to do is set up social media pages for your company, post interesting things, share other statuses and build up your followers.

Take advantage of word of word of mouth marketing. One of the best ways to get the information about your business out there is by word of mouth marketing. Give your customers the best service possible and then ask them to recommend you to their friends.

Entrepreneurial success actually has little to do with good ideas or bad ideas, strong markets or weak markets. It has everything to do with how you think and behave. Your thoughts and habits are the determining factor to success. John Morgan

1. Believing That Situations Are Unchangeable

You have the power and capability to change things. If you don’t think you can change and influence a situation then you certainly won’t and you’ll certainly be facing failure. Push away your self-doubt and dare to take action.

2. Believing Money Is Absolute and That You Can’t Take Action Until You Have It.

The tools available to entrepreneurs today allows us to build and grow our business with little to no capital. I’m not saying you don’t need money to start your business or that you won’t have expenses because you will. But too many entrepreneurs sit back and wait for money to fall in their lap before taking action towards their goals. The reality is that money loves action.

3. Focusing On The Past, Ignoring The Present, and Doubting The Future.

This is like 3 in 1…Merry Christmas! When you focus on the past you turn your back on the future. The past is over. Successful entrepreneurs certainly look ahead to the future but they are also very aware of the present. If your present situation isn’t ideal then you’re likely to doubt the future as you wonder how it will be better. This is a mistake you need to avoid. Be clear on your present situation and use it to make the necessary adjustments for the future.

4. Waiting To Act Until 100% Ready.

Successful people have the habit of taking action before they are ready. When you wait until you are absolutely certain about something before taking action, you are destined to fail. You can course-correct as necessary. Develop the habit of taking action first. You’ll get better and better at it as you go.

5. Stressing Over Minutia.

Way too many entrepreneurs focus on the little things that don’t matter and fail to focus on the things that lead to results. I recently spoke with someone who told me they couldn’t write new blog posts because their header wasn’t how they wanted it to be. So, their lead generation had come to a screeching halt while they waited for this small detail to be perfect. Unreal.

6. Accepting Failure As Permanent.

You can’t correct mistakes if you’re ashamed of making them. Don’t let failures and setbacks upset you. You can’t correct mistakes if you never make them. The faster you fail the quicker you reach success. There’s nothing permanent about failure UNLESS you stop pushing forward. Mistakes are essential to success. Learn from your mistakes and keep confidence in yourself.

7. Unwillingness To Adapt.

Your business WILL look different than your original idea. Every successful person has adapted along the way. Take Google for example, in the beginning they were determined to never allow ads on their site. Obviously they adapted and look at the success they’ve achieved since. Success is often determined by how quickly you move to plan B.

8. Unwillingness To Ask For Help.

No one achieves success on their own. Being afraid or unwilling to ask for help is a big step towards failure. Ask questions. Ask great questions. Don’t worry about looking dumb. There is no such thing as a stupid question (unless you’re watching a movie with my mother).

9. Being A Poor Student.

You should NEVER stop learning. Everyone I know who has achieved business success is an avid reader, attends seminars, and has a coach or mentor. It’s astonishing how many entrepreneurs and business owners there are who are not aggressive when it comes to their education. There is always something else to learn and you can always benefit from brushing up on the basics.

10. Exaggerating Challenges So You Can Have An Excuse For Quitting.

Some people make their challenges SO big that they convince themselves that no one could overcome them. It’s an easy out for quitting. Successful people deal with reality. Don’t make a challenge bigger (or smaller) than it truly is.

11. Focusing On Challenges Instead Of Solutions.

Focusing on challenges is unproductive and leads to more challenges. The moment you’re faced with a challenge stop and write out a list of solutions. Those solutions don’t have to be perfect but the process of shifting your mind to focus on answers will not only release stress, it will move you a huge step closer to overcoming the challenge.

12. Lacking 100% Clarity On What You Want.

Successful people know EXACTLY what they want and they are relentless about achieving it. You’re facing distractions every single day. When you have clarity on what you want, you spend your time wisely and only work on the tasks that move you closer to your goals.

Review this list and take a close evaluation of yourself. Don’t be disappointed if you’re making some of these mistakes. Be thankful you now know it. The key now is to do something about them and below is what to do to help yourself

you want to be successful, one of the best things you can do is emulate other successful people. While every successful person has his or her own unique approach, there are a lot of common patterns you can find when you read their books and watch interviews and lectures. Here are 10 things that many successful people do each day!

1. They focus on productivity, not on being busy.

We live in a pay-by-the-hour sort of world, but if you are an entrepreneur, you should never pay yourself like a boss would pay you! Do not reward yourself for spending time working; reward yourself for getting work done.1 When you run your own business, you are paid for products and services, not for time.

And what if you want to succeed in a corporate career? Look at it this way. When your productivity far outshines the productivity of your coworkers, you make an impact on your company, and you are the one who is likely to get the promotion!

2. They set S.M.A.R.T. goals.

What is success? Most people would probably define success as achieving a goal. But you can never be successful if you set unachievable goals. Many goals are unrealistic or too nebulous for follow-through.

Instead, try setting S.M.A.R.T. goals. S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely. The acronym pretty much says it all. These are goals which are concrete, narrowly defined, and which you can measure your progress towards.

You can achieve them within a finite amount of time, and they are relevant to your overall success.

Setting a series of S.M.A.R.T. goals is a great technique for achieving larger, more loosely defined goals. Think of each S.M.A.R.T. goal as a rung on the ladder of overall success!

3. They take the leap.

What is the number one reason why many people never succeed at their goals in life? Probably a refusal to try! The higher you set your sights, the scarier the prospect of failure can be. But that is no reason not to try. What you never know can’t hurt you—or so you might think.

The truth is, however, it is hurting you ever day not to give yourself a chance. So take that leap you have been putting off. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You never know; it could be the leap that changes your life.

4. They exercise and eat right.

Successful people who stay that way over the long term do not abuse their bodies. They take time each day to prepare and eat healthy meals and to work out. Even President Barack Obama manages to find time to get up every morning and exercise before work, often for 90 minutes a day.

If the most powerful (and busy) man in the world has time for a daily workout, so do you!

5. They lead balanced lives.

In the professional world, there is a lot of pressure always to be working. If you are not working 20 hours and sleeping 4, you must not want it badly enough. That is what people will tell you in pretty much any field.

However, that is simply not true, and people who live that way will eventually burn out and crash hard. They think they can sacrifice their health, relationships, and leisure time for a few hard years and then coast for the rest of their lives. Rarely if ever does entrepreneurship actually work this way. Most successful entrepreneurs work very hard for a long time.

That just makes it more important than ever to find time for other important things in your life, and especially for important people! A healthy, balanced life is necessary if you are going to have the strength to hang in there for the long term.

It also is essential to remember why you want success. Most of us want monetary success to support our lifestyles and families. But if you throw out your life and family along the way, what success will you have achieved?

6. They are realistically optimistic.

Successful people focus on the positive wherever possible—but not blindly. Optimism helps us spot opportunities we would miss if we were focusing on the negative.

While you must always plan for the future and for potential pitfalls, you must believe there is a way across the chasms that gape below. Otherwise you will turn back long before the journey is complete, or take a fall along the way.

7. They make the most of their networks.

The most successful people never try to go it alone if they do not have to, and they always look for opportunities to network and expand their circle of friends and business associates.

They realize that every conversation is an opportunity, and could hold the seed of potential for a new business relationship or venture. When they find themselves facing harsh times, they reach out to others for ideas. When others in their networks struggle, they offer solutions.

8. They keep failure in perspective.

You have probably met businesspeople who take pride in having very little experience with failure—or so they claim. But those people are typically lying to your or not as successful as they seem. Maybe they just got lucky and built an empire on a stroke of fate or a large inheritance.

In reality, success is typically built on a series of failures and lessons learned. Do not let your past failures weigh you down or make you feel like a failure. Successful people learn from failures every day and recognize that so long as they do, they are still on the road to success.

9. They know how to set boundaries.

Many of us are raised never to say the word “no,” but sometimes you have to say “no.” Not every business proposition is a good one, and not all partners are the right ones. Successful people realize they cannot take on every single project or work with every single person. They know they sometimes have to back off and take care of themselves first.

Of course, if you can say “no” in a creative way that still leaves the door open for future opportunities that is often a great idea!

Do not be afraid to occasionally say “no” to your own ambition as well. This goes back to the work-life balance point discussed earlier. You need to sometimes say “no” to another hour of work and “yes” to taking a little time off. It may not feel like you are working hard enough, but you are! You need time for you too.

Whether you're just starting out or have been in business for years, these proven marketing strategies will help your business find new customers without spending a lot

1.    If you don't have a website, get one set up. If you can't afford to have someone custom-design your website, put your site up using one of the companies like SiteSell.com or HomeStead.com that provide templates and tools that make it easy to create a basic website.

2.    Set up a listing for your business in search engine local directories.
With google and few other popular ad serving Companies in Tanzania like Horizon you can take your business to the next level with just a minimal budget .Its important to note that if you advertise on ad networks they will get your message to as many people as possible than using a single website where you will only get similar people every day.

3. Create social media profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter. Be sure your business profile includes a good description, keywords and a link to your website. Look for groups or conversations that talk about your type of products or services and participate in the conversations, but don't spam them with constant promos for what you sell.

4.    If you're just starting out and don't have a business card and business stationery, have them made up -- immediately. Your business card, letterhead and envelope tell prospective customers you are a professional who takes your business seriously. Be sure to list your website address on your business card and, letterhead and any handouts you create.

5.    Sign up for an email service, and send an email newsletter and/or promotional offers to customers and prospects for your business. Be sure you ask for permission to send email before putting any person's email name on your list. One good way to build a permission-based email list of people who want your mailings is to give something away. It could be a free ebook, or even a free tip-sheet on how to do something related to your business.   If you're a health coach, for instance, you might offer people who sign up for your free newsletter a tip sheet with "10 Easy Ways To Lose Weight Without Going on a Diet."  An email service like Constant Contact* makes it easy to manage your list and send professional-looking mailings. 

6.    Get your business cards into the hand of anyone who can help you in your search for new clients. Call your friends and relatives and tell them you have started a business. Visit them and leave a small stack of business cards to hand out to their friends.

7.    Talk to all the vendors from whom you buy products or services. Give them your business card, and ask if they can use your products or service, or if they know anyone who can. If they have bulletin boards where business cards are displayed (printers often do, and so do some supermarkets, hairdressers, etc.), ask if yours can be added to the board.

8.    Attend meetings of professional groups, and groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, or civic associations. Have business cards in a pocket where they are easily reachable. Don't forget to ask what the people you speak with do, and to really listen to them. They'll be flattered by your interest, and better remember you because of it.

9.    Look for something unusual about what you do, and publicize it. Send out press releases to local newspapers, radio stations, cable TV stations, magazines whose audiences are likely to be interested in buying what you sell. Be sure to post the press releases on one or more online press release services, too, being sure to include links to your website. To increase your chance of having the material published, send along a photo (but not to radio stations) with your press release. Editors of printed publications are often in need of "art" (drawings or photos) to fill space and break up the gray look of a page of text.

10.  Write an article that demonstrates your expertise in your field. Send it to noncompeting newspapers, magazines, and websites in your field that accept submissions from experts. Be sure your name, business name, phone number, and a reference to your product or service is included at the end of the article. If the editor can use the article you get your name in print, and possibly get your contact information printed for free, too.

11.  Publicize your publicity. Whenever you do get publicity, get permission from the publisher to reprint the article containing the publicity. Make photocopies and mail the copies out with sales letters or any other literature you use to market your product or service. The publicity clips lend credibility to the claims you make for your products or services.

12.  Ask for work or leads. Contact nonprofit organizations, schools and colleges, and even other businesses that have customers who may need your services.

13.  Network with others who are doing the same type of work you are. Let them know you are available to handle their work overloads. (But don't try to steal their customers. Word will get out, and will ruin your business reputation.)

14.  If your product or service is appropriate, give demonstrations of it to whatever groups or individuals might be interested. Or, teach others how to use some tool you use in your work.

15.  Put videos of your product or service on YouTube and other video-sharing and slide-sharing sites.

16.  Find out what local government programs are in existence to help you get started in business. Most offer free counseling, and some can put you in touch with government agencies and large corporations that buy from small and woman-owned businesses

17.  If you use a car or truck in your business have your business name and contact information professionally painted on the side of the vehicle. That way your means of transportation becomes a vehicle for advertising your business. If you don't want the business name painted on the vehicle, consider using magnetic signs.

18.  Get on the telephone and make "cold calls." These are calls to people who you would like to do business with. Briefly describe what you do and ask for an appointment to talk to them about ways you can help them meet a need or solve a problem.

19.  Get samples of your product or your work into as many hands as possible.

20.  Offer a free, no obligation consultation to people you think could use your services. During such consultations offer some practical suggestions or ideas--and before you leave ask for an "order" to implement the ideas.

21.  Learn to ask for referrals. Ask existing customers, prospects and casual acquaintances. When you get them, follow up on the leads.

22.  Use other people to sell your product or service. Instead of (or in addition to) selling your products yourself, look for affiliates, resellers or people who will generate leads for you in return for a commission on sales. Be sure your pricing structure allows for the fees or commissions you will have to pay on any sales that are made.

They Solve One Problem At A Time

There are undoubtedly a number of issues that need to be handled in the middle of a marketing campaign. There may be problems that you just can't ignore, but don't try to solve them all at once. Make note of the problems you're dealing with, and then prioritize them. Once you've done that, it's time to work on the biggest concern on your list, and find a solution for it. Then, the next complication can become the center of attention. By working through the list in that way, marketers stay focused and get more done.

They Set Short- And Long-Term Goals

The short-term goals they're working towards may be focused on areas that can be handled with a lot of immediacy, like their social media strategy for the upcoming month. Long-term goals are usually more broad, such as setting an ROI objective for the end of a campaign. Both types of goals are important, but to successfully make it through a campaign, a marketer must prioritize which goals need more attention at what time. Generally, short-term goals are a catalyst for long-term goals, in that a number of shorter goals have to happen before longer goals can be realized effectively. As short-term goals get met, the long-term goals will start to fall into place.

 Grasping the Big Picture

While so much of marketing today is all about the specialist, it's still important to be able to think like a generalist. It helps you see the big picture, according to Stan Valencis, president at Primacy, and it helps you work with a diverse and always-expanding group of marketing professionals.

"The old cliché, get the right content in front of the right people at the right time, has never been more apropos," says Valencis. "Understanding the full digital ecosystem and each role is the only way to optimize your content strategy and corresponding media spend."

A Customer's mind set

Many marketers want to think like the best marketers in their field. There's nothing wrong with that idea in theory, but the best thing you can do in practice is to train yourself to think like a customer, says Eric Schiffer, CEO of DigitalMarketing.com.

"[Marketers] need to be able to think about everything they do through the lens of the consumer," he says. "Consumers have more control and say than [they] ever [have] in history. So designing the user experience with keen insight into consumer motivation and behavioral dynamics is critical to success, and then it's about measuring, monitoring, and adjusting that experience in real time for each customer."

An Open Mind

If you're a digital marketer today, there's a good chance you didn't go to school for what you do. In fact, if you're over a certain age, the industry that you work in didn't exist when you were a kid. But if you're a Millennial in the marketing business, you shouldn't assume that you've got it all figured out because of your digital native status. In fact, one of the only constants in our industry is change.

"One of the most exciting parts of working in digital media is the endless number of first to market opportunities available to us," says Bruce Harwood, associate director at The Media Kitchen. "In traditional media, it's much harder to do something truly unique and out of the box that has never been done before. It's always a plus to have a client that is not afraid of these opportunities and appreciates the benefit of getting their foot in the door before everyone else, [and] it's important that marketers are open to new and untested opportunities."

But don't mistake "untested" for unmeasured.

"It's extremely important to realize the importance of measuring each portion of the campaign to understand the true value of each tactic," says Harwood. "The best marketers are committed to measurement."

Persistency and Gradual Improvement

"The very best marketers openly ask 'What could we do better?'" says Tania Yuki, founder and CEO of Shareablee. "Even if they are leading their category, they are not satisfied with where they are, and encourage those around them to stay restless, curious, and healthily paranoid."

While building that commitment in yourself isn't something that's easily done or understood, Yuki says some of the best evidence that a marketer has the building blocks to improve comes down to the willingness to face facts, especially when those facts aren't good news.

"[Strong marketers] know that success is not always linear, and they want to understand what's working and what isn't so they can learn and continually get better, so the truth does not scare them," Yuki says. "They acknowledge that new platforms require new rules, and what worked for one, or once before will not ensure future success. This can be particularly tough if it means reporting that a campaign was not as effective as it could have been, but it is the way the very best brands stay sharp and ahead of the game, and it also creates a culture where people do not fear failure, and are therefore willing to take risks."