I am quite active in Linkedin these days and have started answering questions related to web development and small business marketing blogging etc.  This is what I do day in day out. Which marketing method is best for small business gets asked quite often. There is no one standard answer. Depends on the target market.  The best channel of marketing is decided by gender, age group, tech savy, interests etc. Best is a mix of different marketing methods. For some Google is best for others Facebook works and for some others email marketing works best – Or word of mouth  or referrals. The trick is to test each channel and track the opt ins and conversions over a period of time. Track like crazy. Then expand on what worked for you best. If it was blogging start writing quality posts more often. Update your articles more often. Engage your fans more often on FaceBook. Increase your activity on those areas and increase the quality as well. Interact with your target market & find out what they want. Then tweak your content and modify your product to increase conversions. There is nothing like offering the right offer in the right way to the right market. The methods that work for me are

• Word of mouth
• Referrals
• Google Organic ( I am no 1 for a bunch of  important keywords)
• Google pay per click
• Blogging

I am venturing now into social networks, email marketing and subscriber list. Analysing your lead generation and finding out which method is working will be a very useful exercise for your business. Offline marketing needs to be integrated as well. Local networking functions, trade shows,  Handing out information at these events may generate leads. So do as many channels as possible then focus on what works and expand that channel.