It is very likely that you may be losing out on additional profit for your business by not being at the leading edge of internet and emarketing. So the following are some of the key essentials, in what is obviously a huge subject. Please feel free to print this out or forward it to anyone who may be interested. Your internet/emarketing strategy will change and grow in the weeks and months ahead and you may like to refer back to this email.

I was asked to speak recently to a group of 80 small business owners. I asked how many of the people in the room had ever received an email from their dentist. Not one person raised their hand.

This left me with a strong desire to open a dental practice. But it also raised an important question. How could so many dentists be so daft? It's the perfect business for emarketing.

I am convinced that for the dentists ? and for 90% of business owners, the problem with email and the internet is, it's too good to be true.

Let's step back a decade. Imagine if ten years ago, someone had told you that in the future you would be able to communicate directly to your customers or potential customers, sending them any message you chose and that it was absolutely free. No paper required, no printing, no envelopes, no brochures, no stamps. In addition, that message could be sent to anyone anywhere in the world. And as an added bonus, instead of having to wait 24 or 48 hours, it would arrive with them within seconds.

It would have sounded to good to be true, right?

Welcome to the world of the internet and Emarketing.

Too many business owners and managers still haven't appreciated the power of email and the internet. The dot com bust caused many to write off the profit potential of the internet ? a big mistake. In addition, the irritation that many people choose to feel about spam fails to take into account that email has become an incredibly important form of business communication.

The answer to the spam issue is simple. Make your emails stand out from everyone else by using them to add massive value to your customers and potential customers. How?

The key is not to think of Email as a selling tool ? but as a powerful communication tool. Use it to give ? to add real value to your customers? lives and to keep them informed on your activities. Make your emails creative, different, fascinating, irresistible, funny ? anything that sets you apart from the rest.

So let's start with a simple question. Do you capture the email address of everyone who comes into contact with your business? You've heard this a thousand times before, but would you believe that most businesses still do not collect the email addresses of everyone who contacts them? You may as well take a huge bucket of cash, go to the top of your building and throw it out of the window. Every time a business fails to capture someone's email address they're turning down the opportunity to contact them for FREE, for weeks, months and years ahead. This is insanity. It's also insane not to offer visitors to your website an easy way of submitting their email address. Your web designers should be able to set up a simple way of doing this. I'll return to the subject of using your website to collect email addresses in a moment.

Of course, once you have everyone's Email address ? you need to use them! Of the businesses that are good at collecting email addresses, hardly any of them follow up by communicating regularly with their customers and clients in an effective way. You don't just have to use email to sell stuff. You can use email to thank people for their business, make them a special offer, give them a free article or report, send a newsletter, recommend a product or service they may be interested in, ask for referrals, share some news they may be interested in, ask why they've not done business with you, tell them about your holiday?the list is only limited by your imagination. The point is this: You could grow your business by 10, 20 or 30% just by adopting an effective Emarketing strategy.

Which brings us onto the subject of websites. I'm not going to go into great detail on website design. You know a good website when you see one. The golden rule is to step into the shoes of your customers and make sure that your site is packed with information that they will find useful.

But there is one very important development in website marketing that I want to share with you.

A few years ago, your website was regarded primarily as a selling tool It would supposedly convince visitors to contact you and become customers. But website owners soon realised that even if their site was a good source of new business, for every one person who visited the site and then contacted them directly, hundreds or thousands of others would leave the site without getting in touch. That's a lot of wasted potential customers.

So the emphasis has changed now ? and it's important that you are aware of this as you plan your internet strategy. For many highly successful businesses, the key purpose of the website is not to instantly convert people to customers ? instead it is to use the website to capture visitors? contact details.

Let me repeat that. It's very important. With a few exceptions (such as online stores) you should seriously consider changing your internet strategy so that the prime purpose of the site is to capture visitors? contact details ? specifically their email address.

Let's say you have a company that sells garden supplies. You have a steady stream of visitors to your website. Some become customers but most just browse and then move on. All those people that you never hear from again are going to want garden stuff for years to come. Wouldn't it be great if you could get their email address and their permission to email them every month forever!

So how do you get their email address? If you ask them to fill in a form, they wont bother. Why should they? There's nothing in it for them. So instead you need to offer them something in exchange for their email address. You want to offer something of significant value to them that will leave them delighted to receive emails in the future. Here's what you could put on your gardening website:

?Join our Green Gardeners Email Update and in addition to our Free monthly gardening tips, we'll send you a Free Report ?Five Top Tips to make your Garden look Stunning this Summer.?

Then there's a small box for them to fill in their name and email ? and through the wonders of technology they get their free report emailed to them within seconds. The technology to do this is fairly straightforward (an autoresponder) ? your web designers should be able to help.

I know dozens of Entrepreneurs who've implemented this strategy who are building up thousands of email contacts every year. If you stick to your word and start a good monthly newsletter that has useful tips and advice on your area of interest, you will build a great relationship with these people and a good percentage of them will convert to customers.

So rather than your website giving you just one chance to convince people to become customers ? building an email relationship gives you all the time in the world to create great relationships and show people that the person sending the email is so superb at what they do, you end up with a burning desire to get to know them better and do business with them!

When you think of your current website, how many visitors leave the site without contacting you? What could you offer that will be of real interest to people, in exchange for their email address?

This article seems to have turned into ?War and Peace? so I'll give you a few more short tips on internet and email, then perhaps we'll return to this subject in the future??

Personalise your emails. Again there's technology that lets you do this automatically.

Don't even think about those people offering you a million email addresses. It wont work ? but it will get you in big trouble.

Consider testing pay per click advertising. This basically lets you pay to be at the top of the search engines. We're seeing businesses getting a 200% to 300% return on their investment. Google and Yahoo are the main companies to check out.

Consider adding audio to your website. It makes your communications with your customers far more personal.

Make sure that your contact details are on every page of your website.

Make sure that all of the copy on your website constantly communicates the specific benefits of what you have to offer.

Put as much free, useful information on your website as possible.

Take action on this today! Internet and Email marketing is virtually free ? and it's NOT too good to be true!! When it's done properly, a good internet strategy can add significantly to your profits.