Online marketing needs to be on every firm's schedule, and for small
businesses it's a particularly powerful way to enable them to be
discovered.
You'll probably share our view that online marketing is important for
firms of all sizes, but many small firms asked for a little help from us
in understanding some of the steps they need to take to get digital
channels right. That's why we wrote some simple hints and tips about the
steps in the process to encourage smaller firms to be braver in
embracing digital channels. Our ten simple steps for getting on the
right track can be useful for sequencing activities, and if you find it
useful then you're welcome to forward it on to clients. If you have some
comments about the value of online marketing for SMEs then add them to
the comments on our sites.
When we've been teaching online marketing, it's become clear that
hundreds of thousands of small firms are starting to harness the power
of the web to get customers, maintain relationships and sell direct. For
managers looking for a simple roadmap, this guide gives practical steps
that many of our clients have found useful.
We hope you find the report useful and stimulating.
Danny Meadows-Klue
Founder and Chief Executive
Digital Strategy Consulting
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Web marketing for
smaller firms
www.DigitalStrategyConsulting.com/insight |
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the findings
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The right approach
for smaller firms
If
you're a small firm, getting
your web marketing off the ground can be a real challenge. Simply
knowing what needs doing or where to start might seem daunting,
but there are some simple steps and well-trodden paths that will
make it both easier and faster for you.
In compiling this short guide we spoke with hundreds of small
firms across Western Europe to learn what worked for them, and out of that distilled
these elements of best practice. For our definition of 'smaller'
firms, we consider businesses with no dedicated web marketing
staff, and little in-house expertise. Typically whoever is
responsible for the sales function will drive the marketing, and
their focus is normally tactical rather than strategic. What we
discovered is that only with a strategic plan can the web be
truly woven into the way a firm acquires and services its
customers, and that the actions of just one or two people inside
any business can have a transformative effect on the impact the
website makes. The pressures of managing small businesses and
micro-businesses typically mean that senior staff have a wide
variety of roles and are, by nature, generalists.
Web marketing should now be at
the core of every firm's marketing and as the tools of search,
email, website building and blogging have become more accessible,
the barriers to achieving effective basic online marketing have
melted away. There's no reason not to be online and there's no reason
not to be mobilizing now.
Speed read
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Start small, but start quickly.
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Develop a lightweight plan that will help you and the business
learn about how web marketing can become a critical commercial
asset.
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Select simple easy channels (like search engines and email) to
explore first.
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Use the low cost and proven technologies to get you started.
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Focus on understanding how web marketing works, as well as on
delivering immediate results.
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Use this knowledge to refine your marketing plan, and help you
take larger decisions about online marketing.
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Invest in learning and understanding. Train your team and
encourage all stakeholders to share experiences.
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Record your results so the team can analyze what worked, and feed
this knowledge back into your marketing planning for the next wave
of the campaign.
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Five steps: To get up and running |
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Five
steps: To unlock your future growth |
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Learning
together
Use local business networks and industry associations to get the
inside track from other similar sized firms.
Look for relevant experience from across all of your team: find
out who uses the web most, who shops online, who is a whiz with
email - you may already have many of the skills you need!
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"Forget online marketing and you forget the key channel many of your
customers want to use. For the firms that get it right, they gain
the edge; but can any business afford not to be there?"
Danny Meadows-Klue,
Author of the Ten Simple Steps
Editor, Digital Insight Reports |
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