Does the phrase internet and video marketing make your head spin and your eyes start to glaze over, with visions of endless streams of pound coins pouring out your front door?

You already have a web site…and it looks ok? When you give people the address and they visit your site, they tell you it looks good? When was the last time somebody actually found your site through natural searches without using the company name or already having the site address?

With a few exceptions, those of us running our own businesses will be on the lookout for new customers, while at the same time making sure our current customers are happy to remain that way, and are not looking round and assessing our competition. There is no doubt that the current recession is not over, and will not be over in real terms for a good number of years yet. And this means that if our businesses are to survive, we need ensure that our customer acquisition programmes are working, are visible, are cost-effective…and better than the competition's.

The arrival of road and air transport sounded the start of the decline of the railways. It was because the shift in the transport industry was so significant that it changed the way society operated. The internet and online shopping is the same today, and as business owners we must recognise the shift and embrace it, or be crushed by it. If you are currently relying on newspapers, yellow pages, or local directories for business...then you run the risk of being left behind by your competition. Old media is just not as effective as it used to be.

To stay ahead of our competition today, we must be operating where our customers are every day – online and on their mobiles.

Our customers, young and old, are using new media to make informed buying choices…and if you are not there and if you are not highly visible, they just will not find you. Examine the world of new media and the staggering facts surrounding it. Just look at web video. Online video views are up 37 per cent in the UK. Online video accounts for more than 60 per cent of all internet traffic. Video content is very desirable to consumers, and video search results show up right in the main organic search pages.

And what about mobile phones? If the figures above are mind blowing, check this – there are 4 times as many people now using mobile phones as there are internet users. What if you could reach them with a mobile marketing campaign?These are not only incredible numbers, they represent a huge opportunity for businesses, and not just large corporations, for local businesses too. More than 30 per cent of all internet searches are local and include a location in the search term used.

Highly targeted and extremely effective campaigns using leading edge techniques and new media sites can be used to dominate search engines in your local marketplace. And the results are replicable and sustainable using a carefully constructed programme of new media accounts, video, lead capture and other elements which combined together are built into a skillfully managed internet and video marketing campaign.

A campaign that will not only keep new customers coming to your door, but will leave your competition at a significant disadvantage as we all try to build our businesses through these uncertain times.

It is not enough just to have a web site any more