You promote your business by getting the word out. The first axiom of business promotion is that you have to do this consciously. Promotion absorbs the major chunk of budget for marketing. The second axiom of business promotion is that like every other aspect of your business, it's a budgeted activity. But business promotion doesn't have to be expensive. Marketing professional are always on the hunt for new channels for promotion.

Internet has emerged as the most admired channel for business promotion. Following are the widely used tools on internet:

1) Use every outgoing electronic document as business promotion.
2) Email campaign.
3) Use buddy marketing to promote your business.
4) Search engine optimization.
5) Banner advertisement.
6) Pay per click campaigns.
7) Video/multi media ads.
8) Business to Business (B2B) portals.

All the above marketing tools are widely used. One of the major advantages of all these tools are their performance can be measured. Except SEO and B2B portals, the rest either lacked scale or authentication. Initially SEO looked an attractive option. But, later people started shy away from that due cost and time involved in SEO process.

Like traditional channels B2B portals brought authentication and added to that portals cost much less than traditional channels for business promotion. B2B portals provide a full range of web services, including applications and e-commerce support for a customized, integrated e-business hub. B2B portals has also an edge over print advertising as it can give the surfer both visual and graphic treat and like print it is can be viewed over and over again. B2B portals started becoming darlings of marketers.

B2B portals are much cheaper than print advertising and television. Small businesses find this medium as the most convenient way to promote their brand as they find print advertising outside their budget. B2B portals promotion has a world of difference with newspaper advertising. B2B portals are more interactive and most of the customers visit these portals are serious buyers. Added to above discussed benefits B2B portals coverage is much higher than that of news papers. Research shows that B2B Portals can deliver quantifiable returns on investment (ROI) in a matter of months. Companies of all sizes can use B2B portals to lower their marketing costs.