Businesses not yet online are missing opportunities to grow. Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Many businesses are yet to embrace today’s technology and shape their marketing strategies to suit their customers’ behaviour. In Australia, despite increasing internet usage, approximately 50% of small businesses still do not have a website and it would seem no online marketing strategy.
Technology has given every business access to a global market. The number of internet users globally is huge as a recent post on Mashable detailed. As of September 2009, there were:
1.73 billion Internet users worldwide;
1.4 billion e-mail users worldwide who collectively send on average 247 billion emails per day, 200 billion of which were spam. In December 2009, there were 234 million websites
Social Media
The same report advised that Facebook receives 260 billion pageviews per month, which is equivalent to 6 million page views per minute; and that the number of Facebook users now exceed 400 million. Twitter users are tweeting more than 50 million tweets per day whilst You Tube viewers are watching 1 billion videos per day.
Online Downunder
In Australia, more households than ever before (nearly 6 million) are now connected to the internet. We’re also conducting more online searches. In December last year, 8 million Australians visited a retail site. We’re spending more online: IBIS World estimates that Australian online shopping revenue will increase by 5% to nearly $20 billion in 2010.
For businesses, web absence means missed sales and opportunities to build relationships, as both existing and potential customers are online.
How can businesses tap into this opportunity?
1) Identify how your customers are using the technology and then customise your marketing strategy accordingly.
2) Create a website. It really is the centre piece of cost effective marketing these days and need not be expensive.
3) Optimise. Research keywords that your customers are searching on and include these in your web copy.
4) Go where your customers are. Join the conversation in social media. Build your community – your own ‘tribe’. Interact, engage and listen. If your customers are women 35 years+, who happen to be the fastest growing demongraphic user of Facebook, a Facebook Business page is a natural next step. And it’s free.
Leveraging the technology is a cost effective marketing strategy; which offers significant benefits. Customers will do your marketing for you. As brand advocates, they will spread the word via word of mouth, decreasing marketing expenditure required. Your strengthened brand will attract new customers as well as reinforce relationships with existing ones.
As marketing author Seth Godin says:
‘.. the future belongs to marketers who establish a foundation and process where interested people can market to each other. Ignite consumer networks and then get out of the way and let them talk
Don’t delay any longer. If you need any help with getting online or you’d like to discuss current marketing strategies – please contact us. We’d love to assist.
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