How to... Marketing for Small Business
How to... Marketing for Small Business
Nicolae Sfetcu
Published by Nicolae Sfetcu
Copyright 2014 Nicolae Sfetcu
Introduction
With the exponential growth of the popularity of the Web – the primary instrument using the Internet – an increasingly profitable activity began to be used by a growing number of companies: electronic advertising and marketing, instruments that offer tremendous opportunities at minimal cost .
With more than billion of users worldwide and a big growth rate in the number of users per month, marketing on the Internet is much easier than the traditional methods. Taking into account that a typical marketing campaign causes a response rate of at least 2%, theoretically gives a huge number of answers on the Internet.
Increasingly more businesses – from all sectors – are beginning to realize the enormous potential of the new medium of electronic communication, the Internet. To have access to an audience of several million of “fans” – and potential customers – the major television networks offer tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for commercials 30 seconds to reach such audiences. Only giants like IBM, Coca Cola or Ford could afford million dollar advertising campaigns. But through the Internet, any company can ensure a continuous presence 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for prices incomparably lower. In addition, this permanent presence, the company provides service support and continuous information quickly and effectively to customers.
Marketing or advertising?
There is an essential difference between marketing and advertising concepts. There is no free Internet advertising. True, many sites (especially the most popular search engines) sell space in their pages which show firms commercials. But they can not compare with commercials on TV or radio. In fact, initial ethics even condemns the use of Internet for commercial messages. The primary purpose of the Internet is information sharing.
This is the main objective of Internet users … and this is the way in which you attract prospective customers. This exchange of information involves the following mechanism:
*** User needs, which will seek to inform the Internet the same way as looking for a TV program appropriate to their needs of the moment, looking from channel to channel to find a particular show that they keep their attention;
*** Your wish to be found, assuming a specific strategy;
*** Your offers of products, services and information that must match the user’s needs for it to turn into customers.
The key to success in online promotion
A general finding that emerges from the experience of the companies already activating on Internet: to be successful in online market, this advertising must be taken into account, if not appreciated. Web population grows rapidly every month and the rate of increase in the number of available documents is even higher, making it impossible to ” discover ” an isolated page. A very big help is a link to the so-called ” search engines ” – indexes and huge database containing billions of URLs. These indexes, becoming more and more comprehensive, include specialized categories, and there are indexes specifically dedicated to business .
Just like the websites, these indexes are divided into two categories: free and commercial. Usually, the basic rule is that non -profit pages (informational pages, resource lists , etc.) – and such websites – are included for free in general indexes, that uses “search bots” to automatically index largest possible number of sites. On the other hand, commercial resources – websites commercial enterprises – are generally listed in the commercial indexes that offer their services for not negligible payments.
Another method is the rental of advertising space on a popular website, with high traffic. As television networks charge proportional to the number of viewers of a program, so rates for a “banner” advertising – which points to the company’s website that rent advertising – depend on the traffic on the site.
To be bound to such a service provides important visibility to commercial companies, without which their presence on the Web would remain ineffective. Unfortunately one or more connections are by no means sufficient . Extremely important emphasis should be placed on the construction and design of advertising pages, requiring much attention, good taste and style.
However, a great graphic design can not by itself to guarantee the success of a website. A good content associated with a good graphic design complement together, ensuring the success of a Web page.
Failures and solutions in web design
Signs of an unsuccessful site are clearly identified. Briefly, here are some characteristics of a doomed page: a page with a reasonable design (somewhere around the average), but the administrators have not tried to index the website at any major search engine or directory, or on no popular page with high traffic, so no one can visit it being unknown, hidden. They are the so-called “invisible websites.”
Another category is the “dead site“. It is a site remained unvisited for quite a while, which was not brought up to date regularly. On a site such thing never happens, no changes or additions.
Not far from such a site is a site where visitor sends an e-mail, hoping for a contact, an information, a help, but receives no response (“stray site“). It is obvious that such a move will lead visitors may not return soon.
Another danger is the use of huge graphs (complete pages whose textual content is displayed graphically, for example) that take too long to load (“tree sites“). Also there are “ad-hoc sites” that use inadequate equipment with a very slow connection, it will be quickly ignored by visitors looking for more rapid and convenience information.
Solutions
A good solution to avoid such problems is, a link to a reasonable speed. What is considered reasonable vary from one site to another, and especially from one country to another.
Also, the reduction of (as much as possible) the size of the image. This involves a change of ratio between the image text size (if the image has also a textual content) and the physical size of the image, to prevent loss of readability. In the same vein, there are useful tools like gif tool – programs that allow “blending” (interlacing) GIF images. Thus, these images loads faster, since a weaker resolution for the visitor – although unable to see immediately all the details – to quickly make a general idea about the content of the image, and so may decide whether or not to continue charging the entire image.
Finally, another type of pages that “does not work on sale” are those that are maintained by a small team, with inadequate material resources, the group is not integrated into the environment and culture of the company, and therefore fails to transmit the same perception, image or message. This mini-team fails to work in cooperation with other marketing services of the company, does not follow the same directions, and the advertisement has suffered.
Content
Design and management of a successful website is therefore not a trivial task. It is rather an activity to be coordinated, which can become expensive both in time and money. However results may far outweigh the investment. Particular attention should be given to how to combine the content information with graphics, without leaving the one hand, to the extent possible, the technical content.
A large number of websites that have registered a strong success, however, have a modest and under-developed graphic and technical design, but brimming with informative, new, fresh and interesting content. Because the Internet key is: content, content, content.
The goal of web marketing
Once you have decided on the information and services that you offer on the Internet, you need to set some goals. These are:
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Promoting and maintaining company reputation
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Create a certain image of the company
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Generating traffic to direct sales
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Collection of database and e-mail lists and then used in the marketing process
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Directing certain trends
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Direct sale of goods and services.
Table of Content
Introduction
Marketing or advertising?
The key to success in online promotion
Failures and solutions in web design
Solutions
Content
The goal of web marketing
The e-marketing concept
So what is marketing?
Elements of a successful presence on the Internet
Domain names
Design
Promotion
Visitors interest
Market research
Business Plan
Audience
Visitors
Size and structure of the market
Consumption research
Methods for the investigation of the needs
Investigation of consumer behavior. Regaining lost customers.
Pricing Policy in Online Businesses
Web design
Attracting customers
The shift from marketing to sales
Merchant account
Order form
Online authorization
Order tracking
Technical challenges
Subcontracting
Conclusions
Short tips on online promotion strategy
Marketing policy
When should you start?
Marketing plan
Guerrilla marketing
Link strategy
Banner strategy
e-Mail strategy
Web forums and mailing lists/e-groups
Advertisements
Online contacts
Online magazines / Newsletters
12 advices for a newsletter
Contests, prizes and freeware in marketing
Organization of contests
Awards
Freeware
Viral marketing
Where it comes from the power of the system?
How does viral marketing work?
Planning online business
Key Practices:
Key resources:
Planning elements:
Collecting and analyzing information
Planning online business
Key Practices:
Key resources:
Planning elements:
Network marketing
Affiliate programs
Choosing an affiliate program
Setting up an affiliate program
Method #1
Method #2
Method #3
Online advertising
Establish a clear goal
Define the advert
Site optimization
Use the interactive capabilities of the Internet
Copywriting
1. Gathering information about the product
2. Identify the essential characteristics of the product
3. Identify the target audience
4. Establish objectives of your message
5. Identify the format of the message
6. Develop the message
Direct marketing techniques
Increase the exposure
Marketing brochures and flyers
Advice #1: Look - and only then try to see
Advice #2: Extreme simplicity
Advice #3: Bars and boxes
Advice #4: Do not forget the "nothing"
Advice #5: Less is more
Advice #6: Proportions
Advice #7: Adequacy
Advice #8: Color
Advice #9: Paper
Advice #10: Details
Using the business card as a marketing tool
Increasing sales through catalogs
Television versus Internet in advertising
Similarities:
Differences
The marketing myths
Myth #1: You can advertise for tens of millions people on the Internet
Myth #2: If you currently do not act on Internet, you will lose a big chance
Myth #3: You cannot advertise on the Internet
Myth #4: If you try to advertise on the Internet, you will be burned alive
Myth #5: You can make lots of money quickly on the Internet
Myth #6: No one makes any money on the Internet
Myth #7: Nobody can find you on the Internet. (Alternative: You can not find anything on the Internet)
Finally,
Book
With the exponential growth of the popularity of the Web – the primary instrument using the Internet – an increasingly profitable activity began to be used by a growing number of companies: electronic advertising and marketing, instruments that offer tremendous opportunities at minimal cost .
With more than billion of users worldwide and a big growth rate in the number of users per month, marketing on the Internet is much easier than the traditional methods. Taking into account that a typical marketing campaign causes a response rate of at least 2%, theoretically gives a huge number of answers on the Internet.
What do you expect from Internet Marketing? If you have the patience to deepen understanding of your products and services, and you will design and implement a detailed and valid marketing plan, you can relatively easily to achieve any goal you propose. Perhaps this will not bring immediate material gain, but you will easily notice that you have already created a reputation among clients and competitors, and have been known your offers, at a price much lower than the classic approaches.
In short: you have to give valuable information in an attractive framework... change its content as often as possible ... spread them using the many resources offered by the Internet ... and use them in such a way as to facilitate client activity... being sure that you are on your way to SUCCESS!
Digital edition (EPUB, Kindle, PDF): https://www.setthings.com/en/e-books/marketing-small-business/
Print edition: https://www.createspace.com/5137333
Publication Date: August 8, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-1505272666
ISBN-10: 1505272661
ASIN: B00MENQL22
BISAC: Business & Economics / Marketing / General
About
Nicolae Sfetcu
Experience in the domains of engineering, Quality Assurance, electronics and Internet services (translation, web design, Internet marketing, web business solutions).
Owner and manager with MultiMedia
Developer of MultiMedia Network
Partner with MultiMedia in several European and national research and development projects
Project Coordinator for European Teleworking Development Romania (ETD)
Member of Rotary Club Bucuresti Atheneum
Cofounder of the regional association and president of the Mehedinti Branch of Romanian Association for Electronic Industry and Software
Initiator, cofounder and president of Romanian Association for Telework and Teleactivities
Member of Internet Society
Initiator, cofounder and ex-president of Romanian Teleworking Society
Cofounder and ex-president of the Mehedinti Branch of the General Association of Engineers in Romania
Physicist engineer - Bachelor of Physics, Major Nuclear Physics
Internal auditor for the Quality Management Systems
Specialist in industrial Nondestructive Testing
Attested for Quality Assurance
Hundreds of publications (books, e-books, articles), mainly from the IT domain.
Languages: Romanian, French, English
Services
web design, e-commerce and other web applications * internet marketing, SEO, online advertising, branding * software localization, English - Romanian - French translation * articles, desktop publishing, secretarial services * powerpoint, word and pdf presentation, image, audio and video editing * book and e-book conversion, editing and publishing , isbn
Contact
Tel./ WhatsApp: +40 745 526 896
Email: nicolae@sfetcu.com
Skype: nic01ae
MultiMedia: http://www.multimedia.com.ro/
Web Portal: https://www.setthings.com/
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Impressum
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 13.04.2018
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