One of the greenest—and smartest— ways to amp up your marketing strategy this year is to create an online presence, or improve your existing one. Electronic marketing will cut down on your paper trail and increase your return on investment for each dollar you spend. We asked Thomas Harpointner, CEO of e-business solutions provider AIS Media in Atlanta, Ga., what small retailers need to know before developing an online strategy this summer.

Q: Why is it important for small businesses to have an effective online strategy, especially in the current economic climate?
A: Operating efficiently is the objective of every business owner today. Taking into consideration that six out of 10 consumers use the Internet as their first choice to research items prior to making their purchases, small businesses must focus their attention on consumer behavior.

Q: How should a small business looking to create an online marketing strategy get started?
A: Small businesses need to first understand that online marketing takes time, patience and expertise. The biggest challenges with online marketing are keeping up with the latest technologies and making the right decisions. If Internet marketing development, deployment and monitoring sounds too complicated or time-consuming, or there are simply no internal resources to manage a campaign, working closely with a professional Internet marketing consultant may be the most cost-effective solution.

Q: What easy steps can a business with a small budget and limited staff take to improve or create its online presence?
A: Start an e-mail database. This can be as easy as placing a fishbowl near the register and encouraging customers to drop their business cards or customer satisfaction cards that ask for e-mail addresses. Once the Internet budget increases, the business can invest marketing efforts into an e-newsletter that highlights the latest promotion or the newest product.

Q: What common mistakes do businesses make when creating their online marketing strategies?
A: A lot of businesses take an “all-or-nothing” approach with their marketing strategies. This prevents many businesses from going online. The best approach is a multiphase strategy. Rolling out an online campaign in several parts, measuring and improving upon success, and following consumer trends closely is the remedy to the common mistakes businesses make.

Q: Can e-mail, e-newsletters and websites take the place of a direct marketing campaign?
A: With postage rapidly climbing and green initiatives taking foothold, electronic communications and sales are the future of business. More relevant to today’s economy is the cost; e-mail and online marketing are easy to measure, modify and distribute with a cost that’s far less than the traditional marketing channels, and a return on investment that far exceeds them.

Q: How has the current economic climate changed the way that small retailers are doing business online?
A: Small businesses are keeping a close eye on their marketing dollars as they tighten their budget belts. Internet marketing is the perfect solution because it provides a very precise way to measure results and to attain them at a cost that is significantly lower. Return on investment is king online. In this economy, businesses make two mistakes: they either stop marketing, which will save money in the short run, but allow the business to wilt long-term; or they continue sinking money into traditional advertising where they only have a 50/50 chance to recover their investment.

Q: How can a brick-and-mortar location and a strong online presence work together and benefit each other?
A: Studies show that the Internet influences more than $3 of in-store sales for every dollar spent online. Consumers are already shopping both online and in the store, so the key is to promote your website in the retail store and promote your brick-and-mortar location on your website. Retailers can divert their customers from fleeing to competitors by promoting and selling their product through multiple channels, whether online, through e-mail and mobile messages, on an e-commerce website or at the brickand- mortar location.

Q: Is an e-commerce site an essential part of a small retailer’s online strategy?
A: In a few cases where the retailer-client relationship must take place by phone or face-to-face, a shopping cart is not an essential component. What we’re seeing the most is a hybrid model, where the online storefront complements the brick-and-mortar storefront, and vice versa. In either case, the retailer can gather invaluable “browsing” information to allow them to better gauge the popularity of products.

Q: How are current e-commerce sales comparing to those of years past?
A: While brick-and-mortar sales plummeted sharply in late 2008, e-commerce sales flattened out. However, holiday and postholiday season spending attributed to an online sales growth that was five times the rate of retail.

Q: Is it possible for small retailers who decide not to develop an online presence to thrive in the coming years?
A: It is unlikely. Small businesses, especially those that have a local or hyperlocal presence, have realized that as their customer base is being affected by the economy more and more each day, having an online storefront can significantly increase their footprint. With an e-commerce enabled website, small businesses can successfully target and acquire new customers just about anywhere in the world.