We have had pretty good luck with blogging. You have to write blog entries that are least mildly related to your industry but then promote them like crazy to bring traffic into your site. Write about things you know people actually care about and are searching for. Then you can build up a reputation for your site as a good provider of information + possibly build trust with your potential consumer base. Hope that helps.

Hello all, In this day and age, it is extremely important for businesses and organizations to diversify their marketing mix. By Integrating mobile, social, traditional and nontraditional media companies can increase their ability to communicate with their current and potential customers. That’s the easy part. New marketing approaches--especially those that are web-based--become difficult and many businesses become discouraged when they begin to utilize new media, especially social media, and they do not have an audience.QR codes can be used as linking tools that get customers from A to B: From one marketing component to another. For example, if a business placed an ad in a local newspaper and that ad said “find us on Facebook,” what are they depending on? They are depending on their consumers actually taking the initiative to “find them on Facebook." With a QR code on an ad, businesses can ask readers to scan the code which can be done with their phone which is probably within reach. Consumers can take action right then and there without typing or searching for anything. It’s instant gratification. Imagine if you have multiple web-based communication tools for your business like a Facebook page, Twitter page, Blog, videos, etc… How can you get your audience to view each and every one of those platforms? You can start by using QR Codes. --Casey Cid Media Thirty Seven

I cannot say that I am an expert in the field, but I can say that you really want to bring people to your site who want to be there.  So be careful with your keywords.  If you attract someone because they thought they were getting somthing other than what you offer, they will leave your site quickly and that will hurt your site.  So don't just focus on keywords, focus on quality content that people will want in your industry.

Social Connections and Brand Marking   Free stuff always attracts people, but in order to keep your visitors and to get known throughout the internet and your niche in particular you need to utilize the power of social media. The first step is to create accounts and promote your brand with the same images and same approach so that people will remember you or your brand, here is what you shouldn’t miss: -      Build a fan page for your website or brand on Facebook -      Create a Twitter account and engage with your niche and niche leaders -      Do the same with LinkedIn -      You can also start a group on Facebook -      Create social profiles on sites like Ning, About and even Soup  

I use social media however I target potential customers. I in custom auto and upholstery however not everyone who sees my work is in the market for it. My facebook marketing isn't as directed however with using twitter I've found it very useful to follow people in my community. It's paid off with them following back and their friends' friends also following. I hope this helps.

Keep an interesting, fun, informative blog and update it regularly. Not only will this increase the amount of indexed pages you have on your site, but it will also generate traffic from people all over who benefit from the entries you post to your blog. Then you can link to new blog entries on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. This has been helpful for us. 

The biggest way for us so far has been by using Facebook, we use PPC advertising on Facebook and direct the clicks to our fan page, NOT our website.  That helps build our fan base of bakers, we sell cake boxes and bakery supplies.  But you have to follow through with it and give people a reason to actually "LIKE" you, not just click the "like" button.  We do things like including personal notes in all of our shipments and are available 24/7 via email and on twitter and facebook.  We are a very small company (3 family members) and promote that to our customers, who are also small businesses.  We also mean everything we say, we don't puff ourselves up to sound better and we don't make empty promises or boast about things that aren't true.   We have had some success with Adwords, but no where near what we have with Facebook.  Twitter is a good medium for some, not for others, it really depends on if your customers are using it or not.  You can see by going to twitter and searching for your keywords, are people talking about them? Also, NEVER spam people, not just by email, but on their facebook page, twitter page, etc.  It is the quickest way to ruin your reputation. The other way we saw a big difference was by revamping our website.   We used Homestead and ProStores in 2010 (we went live in late August of 2010).  We were lucky to get 5 orders a month, even though we were on Google.  The store just wasn't inviting and the site looked amateurish.  We switched to BigCommerce in January, so far we've done 379 orders this year, over 190 have been in the past 30 days. Our bounce rate is close to 0% and our conversion rate hovers around 5%. I'm not an affiliate of BigCommerce, but I should be, because I promote them to everyone, they really have made our business!  Iit really is in the content, not just the words you write, but also the background of the page they are shown on. And if you truly love and believe in your business and customers, SHOW THEM, and they will come, link to you, and tell their friends.  Good Luck!