Marketing your business online is one good option to promote your business to a larger market. Even if you only cater to a local market, the presence of your business online can be a big factor to be visible to them. People are now using the internet to look up for businesses even within the vicinity, thus being visible online can be a great advantage.Competition nowadays has also shifted online. Even if you have a small business or a budding business, going for the usual marketing techniques will not allow you to compete in the same level with businesses that have been around for some time. Online marketing indeed levels the playing field for large and small businesses, which also makes it easier for you in marketing your business online.To take advantage of this marketing opportunity, here are some tools and techniques that will help you jump-start your marketing efforts.(1) Build your website. One very basic key to marketing your business online is to make your own website. You should keep in mind that your ability to attract potential customers online also depends on your website design. It does not mean you have to have a complicated website. You just have to consider having a user-friendly website as well as a search engine friendly website. If you are not adept into web designing, hiring freelance webmasters can be your option.(2) Get your own domain. Getting your own domain name is also another important consideration in marketing your business. Advantages? – It will help you climb up to the search engines easily than having your site hosted by some free web hosting sites. It also helps build credibility aside from having a professional sounding domain name.(3) Create good copies. Marketing your business online indeed requires a good copy. Your edge online depends largely on getting the attention of site visitors as well as good copywriting. Take advantage of the larger market on the internet. When you get to draw them to your business’ site, you have to convince them too to purchase your product and patronize your business. Giving them the site may not be enough, so you have to work on giving them the information they need and introducing what your business can do to answer their questions.(4) Take advantage of cost-effective online marketing tools. Unlike the traditional marketing strategies, online advertising strategies can be a lot cheaper, and there are many options you can choose from.  If you are looking for almost-instant results, you can make use of pay per click marketing like Google AdWords, search engine optimization and banner advertising. If you want long-term results, you may want to make use of article marketing. If you want to take advantage of free online advertising, you may want to make use of social networking sites, blogging, participating in forums and writing articles.(5) Monitor your sites. The internet is quick-changing and you may want to keep a close monitoring on how your online tools are working for you. If you are maintaining a number of websites, which is also a strategy in marketing your business online, of course you would always want to check on them regularly and find out if they are generating money or not. As this can eat up a large chunk of your time, you can also take advantage of technology to automate the routine business functions you have daily.Keep in mind that in starting with these techniques in online marketing, you may be engrossed with the many tools and details of online marketing thus, you have to find ways to manage your time and automate some tools to help you focus not only in marketing your business online but in making your business grow as well.