Why you need to be on Google?

It’s true. Google can make or break your business. It’s safe to say that Google can be a sturdy back bone to your business and help you achieve success that you could not have imagined with the traditional marketing efforts.

Still not convinced why your small business needs to be on Google? The answer to that is simple and complicated. It is simple because Google is our answer to every question. Did you know that 62% of searchers never go on to the second page of the results and 90% do not go after page 3? This also means that one has to be on the first page of Google search results to be really able to make a possible mark into the target audience’s mind.

Here are a few reasons why your business needs to be in Google‘s good books:

1. Huge market

There are billions of searches happening on Google every day. Some of these searches might be pertaining to your business and if the search leads to your company website, you might get a small share of the big pie.

1. Local searches

If your target audience is city specific, then Google is even more effective and affordable. In case you are planning to advertise on Google for reaching out to potential customers in a specific city only, you might have to spend less and get a high ROI.

2. It’s complicated!

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea to understand Google and make it work for them. If you can do it for your business first, you will be beating a lot of competition even before they think of getting there. Hence, start now and understand how you can get there. An easier and effective way of doing so is to enlist your business on a B2B product search engine such as bizporto.com.

Bizporto.com spends a lot of time and effort in making the website very search engine friendly. Once you are listed there, you will be on Google’s first page result when a potential buyer is searching for your category of products.

3. New business

It is estimated that for every 10 online searches, 7 searches happen on Google. Thus, if those 7 people cannot reach you website when looking for your products or services, you are allowing potential customers to go to your competitors. Don’t you think you should do something about it?

4. It’s worth it!

It might seem cumbersome and tedious and too high a cost, but investing time and money on Google pays off. Imagine being the top search result for your business on Google. Business will go exponentially and all the efforts will then seem worth it.

Word of Mouth marketing – a great boon for small businesses

Do you think WoM is good for your brand? Will it suit your marketing goals and help you achieve them too? If you are a small business enterprise, Word Of Mouth marketing may help you achieve many goals. A lot of brands include everything possible in their marketing plans without understanding what’s good and what’s bad for them. If you are a small business and fit in the following scenarios, then you can implement WoM strategies for your benefit. It’s free and more credible than advertising.

1.       Women Oriented Products

WoM works very well for products that are aimed at women. Products like cosmetics, hair colors, clothing line, beauty parlors, kitchen amenities, etc can be easily marketed by WoM. When women use these products, they generally discuss with friends and family. Whether or not they like the product, they definitely have an opinion about it which gets passed on to their circle. From one to another, they tend to try the product if they hear something good about the same from their trusted group of friends. Thus, women oriented products can be marketed through WoM. A unique way of doing so can be sponsoring small kitty parties where women can experience the product for free and then spread the word about it.

2.       Niche Business

Brands that have a very niche audience can make use of WoM. This is an apt strategy for those who have a much targeted group to reach out to. It is so because niche groups are most likely to be intertwined in some way or the other – online forums, groups, association, etc. If a few people use the product and have a positive opinion about it, they would definitely want to share it with the rest of the group. For example, a shampoo that is made of natural ingredients and has not been animal tested will be termed as ‘Vegan’. All those who wish to live a 100% vegan life are connected on various platforms and if even a few of them are convinced about the product’s quality and the claim of being ‘Vegan’, they would spread the good word. Also, when the target audience is niche, spending in huge advertising budgets doesn’t make sense as the RoI will be extremely low.

3.       Local Business

Local businesses which are geographically confined to a small area can use WoM to a large extent. Consider the example of Pune based the Four Fountains Spa. It started with one branch in the city and then the good word spread about it as an affordable spa that can rejuvenate you completely. Its popularity spread like wild fire as people who went to the spa shared their experiences with friends and family and started gifting spa vouchers as gifts to their parents, friends and even as corporate gifts, which fuelled the WoM even more and increased their sales. Today, the spa has expanded to various Indian cities with more than 10 branches, all this in just a period of about 3 years.

4.       No Advertising Budget

Brands that do not have any advertising budget should focus more on WoM strategies to drive the business. It is a great marketing alternative when the cash reserves do not allow for spending on newspaper ads or TVCs.

Simple Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

You have a small business and limited resources to market. Is that a problem? Absolutely not! Here are a few tips on how you can best utilize your time, effort and money on marketing your business:

• Add a personal touch: Be it a Facebook post or an email message, add a personal touch to it. Make your brand more human by giving its voice a touch of emotions and sentiments. Whatever you write or send out, even the content on your website, should have a personal touch and a human tone because It helps in connecting with your target audience faster!

• Use your existing network: Charity begins at home and so does marketing. Your family, friends, associates are the first target audience that you have to reach out to. Their support will help you get further. It’s like a ripple effect. If your network promotes you on their social network or circle of friends. Their network promotes it among their network. That’s how the word gets out! But the most important in this is how you sell your business idea to your own friends and family and make them believe in you and your product.

• Let the picture talk: A picture speaks a thousand words! It has been concluded that images can potentially attract more attention, capture mind share and engage people. Hence, use images more than text on Facebook, websites and elsewhere. It allows you to build a better positioning of the brand. Even product images should be good quality so that the user experience on your website and other online portals is enhanced.

• Contests: Small contests and giveaway are a great way to engage existing and potentials customers. Keep aside a monthly budget based on your will and utilize that money for gifts and giveaways. Such activities go a long way in increasing your number of loyal customers. And if they like what they win, they will come back to you and buy the product!

• Get together: If other similar players in your industry are also small and mid-sized, it would be a great idea to join hands for joint promotion. A combined marketing activity is a great way to increase awareness about the product segment and reduces cost of marketing. You can approach media for PR stories on all the brands together. It’s a win-win situation for all.

• Network: Networking helps increase your personal brand and generate credibility in the market. You are the brand ambassador for your product by default hence people judge your product and brand based on your personality. Hence, meet as many people as possible and create a good impression on them to be able to generate a good impression for your brand.

7 mantras of successful positioning

Positioning is about building a brand image and sustaining it. Brand experts often find themselves wondering as to what is the best way possible for positioning a brand that captures the mind space of the potential consumer. While every brand has its own course to follow to build an impactful positioning, there are some basic mantras that can help put the brand on the right track.

Here are some tips that one should keep in mind while setting out to implement a positioning strategy:

 

1.     Aim to be different

You have to position yourself something different from what already exists in the field. There are various products in the category, why should they choose you over the rest? If you can answer this question, you have a focus as to how you want to position yourself.

 

2.     Find your core competence

You will find that there is an advantage that you have which your competitor doesn’t. Figure out what it is – what are you able to do better than the competitor, and focus on that while positioning.

 

3.     What do you stand for

If you had to describe your brand in one word, what would it be? When you say ‘Tata’, you invariably think of trust. That’s what they stand for, what do you stand for? When you know what you stand for, you get more aligned with your positioning strategy.

 

4.     Competition monitor

You know what you stand for, but do you know what your competition stands for? Your positioning should be stronger than your competitor. But for that you need to overrule what your competitor already positions it to be. If Idea stands for social causes, Vodafone stands for best Value Added Services. Both have made a very strong positioning for themselves, and both have their own audience to appeal to.

 

5.     Customer’s Quest

Do you know what will make your customers happy? Do some firsthand research, talk to people and see what they are missing in the options available to them. When you know what your customers want, you can easily align your offering to their needs. And that will be your positioning guiding light.

 

6.     Stay Focused

In all your communication with the existing and potential customers, hammer only what your key positioning is. There should be a very clean alignment between all forms and medium of communication when it comes to the message you are giving out.

 

7.     Relevance is the key

Your positioning should be relevant to the product as well as to the customer. If there is no relevance, establish it. Again, look at Idea. It has made social causes relevant to the brand, thus generating a soft corner for itself in the minds of the people. Now everybody perceives Idea as a brand that is very sensitive to social issues. The positioning is relevant to the Indian consumer.

Use blogging to build your brand!

Did you know that there are specialized bloggers who write about particular subjects and are great influencers when it comes to guiding people through their purchase decisions? For example, there are tech bloggers who review every new gadget and publish it on their blogs. Those looking out to buy a new gadget, look up their blog and decide which one to choose. If these bloggers write a positive feedback on the product, the brand will be benefitted manifold.

Blogs have a far greater reach when it comes to search engine results. A blend of SEO techniques and relevant content can do wonders for a brand.

Consider the following ways in which brands can get themselves to be talked about by bloggers.

1.      Blogging Contests

A brand can announce a blogging contest and get bloggers to generate content in the online space for itself. The blogging contest can be given a well-defined theme, like the USP of the brand, etc. When a good prize is attached to the contest, bloggers would automatically be willing to participate and write about the brand in their blog.

For eg, recently, Dove held a Real Beauty blogging contest where in the bloggers were asked to write about what real beauty meant to them. It had huge cash prize attached to it. It created a lot of hype around the brand. These contests can be announced through various blogging directories or social networks for bloggers.

2.     Blogger Meets

A brand can announce a blogger meet where in the city based bloggers can come together and experience the brand first hand. This can include seeing the product, using it and learning about it. The bloggers can then go back and blog about their experience. This creates a valuable user generated content for the brand.

3.     Company’s Blogs

A brand can have its own blog that can not only talk about the brand itself but about other things related to it. For example, a cosmetics brand can write about various beauty problems, prevention and precaution, etc. Along with it, it can write about the brand products, their usage and how it can help solve those beauty problems.

4.     Celebrity Blogs

These days a lot of celebrities maintain their blogs. If a brand can get a celebrity to publish a post about its products and the brand experience, it will immediately generate a lot of publicity for the brand. It will be like having a celebrity endorsing the brand in the online space. Celebrity blogs are closely monitored and thus have high readership.

5.      Micro Blogging

Micro blogging platforms like Twitter can also help in creating a viral or an instant publicity for the brand. There can be contests especially for those using Twitter. With the use of hash tags and the brand’s Twitter handle, consumers can post a lot of content about the brand that can be read by their followers. This is a great way of engaging consumers as tweeting requires very less time. However, the shelf life of a tweet is very short.

What is PR and how can it help you?

Public Relations or PR is all about building a positive brand recall. The benefits of PR can be seen only in the long run and one needs to be consistent with the PR efforts to be able to reap its benefits. Over a period of time, PR helps a business in the following way:

1. Increase the credibility of the brand, business service/product and the entrepreneurs behind it.
2. Increase the brand exposure and build the brand name in the chosen target market.

A big benefit of media PR is that it is free of cost. Hence, if you can utilize this medium properly, it can give you long term brand credibility without costing you anything. Advertisements come and go but PR stories are archived and remain forever.
So how do you initiate PR for your brand?

1. Understand how media works
A newspaper, magazine or a TV show wants to present content that is worth the time for their readers. Any story which is fresh, newsworthy and interesting has a good chance of getting published. Hence, give the media something that their readers what like to read and not what you would like them to read. Is your product / service / brand doing something that has not been done before? Is it a new trend that hasn’t been spoken about? Is it something that is relevant to the media you are speaking to? If yes, you stand a good chance to get published.

2. What is your target audience reading?
This question is important for you to decide on your PR strategy. Is your target final consumers or trade associates? If you want to reach out to those in your industry, look at trade media, financial papers, and business magazines. If you want to reach out to the final consumers, explore opportunities with popular national dailies, magazines, etc. If you want to reach out to people in a specific geographic location, look at local newspaper and regional media.

3. Story ideas
You cannot possibly go to a journalist and say, “here is the information about my business/product/service. Write about it!” You have to give them a story angle that they would like to write about. May be an industry trend, or how it is helping the people, how it is a breakthrough in a certain way, what it aims to achieve, etc.

4. The Pitch
This is the most important part of any PR activity. A journalist is bombarded with emails and phones every day. How do you ensure that he/she notices your pitch? The answer is to think like a journalist. Give them crisp information which is to-the-point and simple to understand. Keep it as minimal as possible with an eye catching subject line.

5. Follow Up
As mentioned before, a journalist receives tons of emails and phone calls in a day. They might not remember to call you back even if they agree that they will. Thus, it’s a good practice to keep in touch with the journalist and follow up on the pitch, but only if they show interest in your story idea.

6. Don’t pester the journalists
Do not chase the journalists. Respect their time and don’t waste it. Even when they show some interest in your story idea, be very precise and cooperate with them through the shaping up of the story.

What can Facebook do for me?

Every business, big or small, is investing time and money on social media. Are you doing that too? Most companies get on to social media without thinking what it can do for you. Without clear understanding, the expectation from social media and the actual results sometimes lead to disappointment for companies, especially startups.
Social media should never be seen as a sales channel or one should never expect direct increase in sales due to social media. It should purely be look at as a brand building exercise that will add to your brand image and consumer engagement. It can also serve as a source of company information or industry insights.
Why Facebook cannot generate sales?
Research shows that a Facebook user likes 200 pages on an average. Let’s say one of the pages is your company page. In your understanding, the user is a ‘fan’ of your brand and everything you post on your page is keeping him in mind. However, the remaining 199 brands feel the same way about him. But if you ask that user, he probably doesn’t even remember all the pages that he has liked or if he knows the names of all the brands that he is a ‘fan’ of.
Also, everything that you post does not show on your fan’s newsfeed. So there’s a good chance that they may never even see what you are writing there. Another important thing to keep in mind is that not everyone who is a fan of your brand on Facebook is your target audience. The person liking your page may not be using your product/service at all. But here’s the catch – he is aware of your brand. And if you are posting interesting content on your page, he might engage with you in conversations or share your content. This is a slow step towards building your brand.
And this is what social media does the best. It builds your brand. It makes you well-known; it gives a platform for the general public to reach out to you.
A Facebook page can be used to:

• To share content about the industry
• To share content about the company
• To showcase the product / service
• To engage with the fans through interesting / humorous content
• To open an channel for interaction with the consumer

There are applications that you can install on your Facebook page to set up an online store that operates from the fan page. This tool can be used to generate sales but for that the brand will have to promote or advertise the Facebook store.
Thus, when you take the decision to invest on Facebook, understand what your objective is and plan the strategy accordingly. Knowing your social media objectives will help you in setting your expectations right.

Twitter for MSMEs

Is Twitter for you? Well the answer does not depend on whether you are a big company or small but it depends on what is your objective to be on Twitter? If the objective is to increase sales through Twitter, you might be disappointed in the short run. But if the objective is to build a brand name over a period of time, Twitter is the place for you! Here’s how you can use Twitter for your small business:

1. Use and follow Hash tags
The best part about Twitter is the hash tags – the words which are used with ‘#’. For example, you are looking for ‘internships’ in ‘Mumbai’ in ‘marketing’. In such a case you can search for #internship #Mumbai #marketing together and you will see relevant search results. Similarly, for businesses, if you are looking for new employees in Mumbai for Sales, you can post a tweet with the hash tags: #job #Mumbai #sales together.

2. Follow the influencers
Find out who are the influencers for your industry or your business type on Twitter. For example, if your company works in the auto mobile domain, search for people whose opinions are sought after and valued in the auto mobile sector. Even following journalists who cover stories on your sector will help you in the long run as you will be aware of what kind of stories they are filing, latest trends in the industry, etc. You can even follow research organizations who conduct research in your domain. That will help you in keeping a tab on the latest industry numbers.

3. Have conversations
Just following influencers and other will not help but having conversations with them around the subject will be beneficial. This will bring you in their notice and they might endorse your views and points that you are discussing with them.
Even when you tweet something and that gets a reaction from someone on Twitter, respond to them with appropriate answer. This will help you gain credibility over a period of time and also gain you some followers.

4. Focus on your area of interest and expertise
Don’t go haywire with your content on Twitter. Focus on your area of interest and tweet around the same topic so that people can follow you for updates on a particular subject. Overtime, they will trust you as a reliable source of information on all things related to that subject. Plus, you will gain a targeted set of followers audience that would be interested in what you have to say.
Start tweeting! You can begin by sharing this article on Twitter!

B2B Marketing – What is it?

B2B is an acronym for Business to Business. There are over 10 crore B2B traders in India and the number is increasing as you read this. These B2B traders want to connect with each other to form win-win partnerships so that they can benefit and grow together.

A B2B trader thus has unlimited opportunity to grow and capture market however there are a few hurdles that he faces on the road to success. These hurdles are specific to the B2B sector:

1. Different target audience
Since the target audience for a B2B trader is not the final consumer, the marketing techniques cannot be the same as those used by a retailer or a B2C trader. This means that the marketing communication strategy for a B2B trader has to be different and most traders do not know how to develop the most efficient marketing plan for them

2. Lack of budgets to develop an online presence and branding
Most traders do not have the budget to set up an online presence for their brand. In fact, they are unaware of the benefits that they can derive out of ‘branding’ initiatives.

3. Lack of skilled man power
B2B traders do not have the skilled man power to develop a team that can handle sales through direct marketing. Thus, they need an alternate sales channel that is cost effective, efficient and easily manageable.

4. Buyer decision making influenced by online search results
These days, all prospective buyers do an online search before approaching a seller. This means that if somebody wants to buy a raw material, he will look for that online, see which traders are offering it, at what price. There will also be a comparison based on quality, credibility and brand recognition of the seller. Based on this preliminary research, the potential buyer will approach a potential seller. If both agree to each other’s terms and meet each other’s requirement, a B2B transaction takes place.

But what if your business is missing from the online search results or has not online presence at all. In such a scenario, you are completely losing out on a huge set of potential buyers who are looking for the product that you are offering. A B2B trader might be aware of this but does not know how to go about in setting up an online sales platform for its business.

5. Too many products
A B2B trader usually has hundreds and thousands of SKUs and finds it difficult to maintain the online presence for those because they are so high in number and do not have ready-made software that can come their rescue.

6. Competition
There is a lot of competition based on price point and thus all traders of a particular type of product offer similar products at a similar price point. To make a mark in the buyer’s mind, a trader needs to develop his brand and most of all, create an online presence.

7. Traditional marketing does not help
What works for retailers for mass marketing – such as newspaper insertions, point-of-sale display, banner ads, etc will not work of B2B traders since the target audience is not mass but niche. Hence a specialized approach is required when planning marketing for B2B sellers.

CSR for Internal Marketing

CSR can give the employees a sense of pride. They feel they are working with a responsible organization. A lot of organizations are now realizing the importance of internal marketing for higher employee retention and internal brand building. CSR comes as a great tool of internal marketing and employee development in the following ways:

1. Self Enhancement
CSR initiatives in an organization provide for self enhancement opportunities to employees that helps them with their personal and professional growth. They learn to be more sensitive towards the society along with displaying the attributes of being a responsible citizen. CSR initiatives can sensitize them to the growing societal concerns that demand attention. Employees appreciate that they get the opportunity to work towards these causes through their organization. As a result of this, they develop affinity and respect for their employers.

2. Work Life Integration
CSR initiatives help employees make meaningful integration between their work and life. It is observed that by indulging in socially responsible practices at work, employees find themselves capable of blending work and life seamlessly. While employees try to keep the two separate, it is practically impossible to do so. Although some employees might be interested in getting involved in social work, they may not find time and right space to do so. In such a scenario, if employers provide that much platform, it keeps the employees motivated. This is another way CSR can help the organizations in internal marketing.

3. Higher Self Perception
When employees get involved in socially responsible work, they develop a higher self-perception about themselves. When organizations enable them in these kinds of activities, their connection with the organization becomes stronger and goes beyond just employee-employer relationship which helps the organization in bringing the employees together and building a more profound internal team. This also goes a long way in keeping the employees motivated, as their respect for themselves goes up. They feel a sense of satisfaction by contributing to the society.

4. Internal Team Building
CSR initiatives can be a great team building tool as well. Organizations that take up activities and involve their employees directly in implementing them on field can succeed in making the initiative a team building exercise for the employees that brings them closer and helps develop informal groups within the organization. This can result in a congenial working environment and smoother work flow too. For eg, a field visit to the village which the organization had adopted or a trip to the school which the organization has established can bring the employees together to do something apart from the official work. Something as small as visit to a local NGO can help organizations in taking their internal marketing a step further.

5. Employee Needs
Certain CSR initiatives are focused towards employees of the organization. For eg, health camps for employees, relevant employee training and development, special activities for employee’s families, etc. These initiatives help the organization in fulfilling employee needs by way of CSR. These policies differ from one organization to another.