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Fifth
Straight Quarter of Record-Breaking Revenue
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Internet advertising
grew to a new high of $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2004,
according to the latest independent research conducted by
PricewaterhouseCoopers for the Internet Advertising Bureau.
ONLINE
AD SPENDING HITS NEW HIGH
Expert
panel: Karen Salamon, Andrew Cooper and Beth Langley were asked what are the criteria for
small businesses planning their online marketing?
Small to medium-sized businesses
begrudgingly accepted long ago that a
spot of regional press or radio
advertising was all they could afford in
a vain effort to compete with the high
profile marketing campaigns of their
bigger rivals.
Karen
Salamon
Director Marketing and Small Business
Overture Northern Europe
For the last few years, more and more
businesses have been turning to the
internet to market their product or
service online - and to paid placement
search, the online advertising growth
story of the last few years, in
particular. In fact, sponsored search is
now even bigger than banner advertising
in the UK - the latest 'Online
Advertising Spend' media audit from the
Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and
Price Waterhouse Coopers revealed that
more money was spent on paid placement
search than banners during 2003 and the
first half of 2004.
So why is sponsored search proving to be
so popular with businesses of all sizes?
Unlike some forms of advertising,
sponsored search does not exclude small
businesses. Entry costs are low and
campaigns are totally accountable.
Sponsored search enables any company to
get listed in the search results on some
of the UK's busiest web sites, including
Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista and Wanadoo.
Unlike other forms of advertising, there
are no significant costs up front in
terms of media buying or creative costs.
With prices starting from as little as
10p each, advertisers 'bid' on search
terms relevant to their business and are
then listed in order of bid price in the
search results on major web sites and
portals. The advertiser then only pays
the bid price once a prospect actually
clicks through to their website. This
means the smallest local shop can
advertise on equal terms with the
biggest chain - for example, a boutique
hat shop in Brighton could be listed
alongside a large department store like
John Lewis.
What's more, sponsored search is a
highly targeted form of marketing.
Targets are not 'cold prospects' - they
are people who are already actively
looking for the advertiser's product or
service. As a result, the lead is more
likely to convert to a sale than most
other forms of advertising.
www.overture.com
As Christmas approaches, businesses will
be furiously marketing their products to
customers. E-marketing offers new ways
to reach them, which are often cheaper
and more effective. A recent survey by
Continental Research predicts that a
record 10.1 million shoppers in Britain
will buy presents online this year, an
increase of 2.8 million on last year. It
is therefore vital that small businesses
use online marketing as a tool to
increase product sales, run in
conjunction with existing marketing
activities.
Andrew
Cooper
DTI Achieving best practice champion
So, how do you go about developing an
online strategy? Firstly, you must
research the market and set specific
goals for implementing the e-marketing
campaign, for example reducing cost per
sale or expanding the business into new
markets. It is wise to set measurable
objectives such as an increase in sales,
more leads or an increase in the average
value of each sale.
There are several options available for
e-marketing, including marketing through
your website, email marketing and you
could choose one or both of these to
deliver the campaign effectively.
Email marketing is a quick, easy and
often extremely cheap method of getting
your message across, but it should be
planned with care in order to be
interesting and relevant to customers.
This type of marketing is beneficial in
that it is a flexible method of
communication that is less intrusive
than telephone marketing. It also
encourages customers to forward the
message on to others, increasing your
potential customer base immediately.
However, you must carry out market
research in order to target the right
market. You will simply be wasting your
own time and irritating people who are
not interested in your product, which
could potentially damage the brand in
the long run.
Another effective method of online
marketing is through a website, whether
it is simply promoting the company or
encouraging sales. The vast majority of
businesses now have a website but not
all are user-friendly and easy to
understand and this may discourage
visitors from returning. A good website,
with the right design and features can
attract passing trade from anywhere in
the world.
Once you have put the online marketing
campaign into action, you must ensure
any necessary training is carried out
and you keep up to date with online
marketing regulations as these change
often.
Lastly, evaluation is key to the
strategy. Feedback from both staff and
customers is imperative to ensure the
marketing campaign is worthwhile.
Monitoring the impact on the business of
the campaign against the original
objectives and goals will show what went
well, and where changes need to be made.
A number of tracking tools are available
that can tell you where your visitors
come from. However, there is obviously a
cost involved for this so alternatively
you could contact customers via a pop-up
survey to find out how and why they
visited the site. A prize or incentive
could be offered to ensure customers
respond.
For more information on marketing and
customer service please go to:
www.dti.gov.uk
E-Marketing needn’t be approached with
an ‘out with the old, in with the new
attitude’ – tools such as email
communications and websites can be
interwoven with traditional marketing
methods to broaden marketing horizons,
rather than to alter their direction.
e-Marketing opens up doors for SME’s,
putting them on a level playing field
with bigger companies - as your business
reach increases so does your potential
customer base – and all for a
palatable price tag.
Beth Langley
Online Marketing Coordinator
The Chartered Institute of Marketing
One of the great things about e-Marketing is the accessibility it
offers. There’s no waiting for brochures to be proofread, printed,
proofed again, an email campaign can be devised and sent out with much quicker
turnaround. What’s more, with a website, your business is open 24 hours
even if your office isn’t. Improved conversion rates can also be secured
since the distance between your customer and your product can be bridged by a
couple of ‘clicks’ rather than a phone call, a second class stamp or a
fax machine that’s run out of toner. The accessibility of e-marketing means
‘calls to action’ require much less effort on the part of your customer.
With ROI vital, the ease of tracking your e-campaigns proves invaluable.
Finding out who clicked on what in your emails, how many times your webpage has
been visited, how many people clicked through to your website from a search
engine are all simple to achieve and use standard technology. The figures are
calculated for you and you can soon find out what you’re doing right and
who’s really interested in what you’ve got.
e-Marketing isn’t a call for laziness, a quick get out clause. Marketing
campaigns still need to be thoroughly devised and your brand or service
mustn’t suffer as the result of shortcuts. The new technological mediums
open to SME’s should be used to enhance what you already have on offer.
A website doesn’t suddenly solve your problems – it’s not enough to build
an all singing and dancing site, you’ll need to work to get it noticed.
Same as it’s not enough to send out an email if you’re not sure who it’s
going to. The new customer base that you’ll have access to via e-marketing
are all people who you need to get to know. Once you’ve found out what they
want you’ll be better equipped to use these e-channels to give them it.
The
importance of e-Commerce for UK
businesses
Mike
O’Brien, Secretary of State for
Energy and E-Commerce says that UK
business must continue to adopt
and innovate in ICT
UK
companies have embraced technology
as a key element for improving
productivity and efficiency over
the past few years. Studies show
that UK businesses are making more
sophisticated use of ICT than ever
before, connecting at higher
speeds and deploying ICT in an
increasingly wide range of
business processes.
Mike
O'Brien
Secretary of State for Energy
& E-Commerce
From nowhere a couple of years ago
the UK has now reached a position
in which the competitiveness of
our broadband market is among the
best in the major industrial
countries. And in its 2004 survey
of e-Readiness, the Economist
Intelligence Unit ranked the UK
second in the world in its
assessment of technology
infrastructure, general business
environment, and social and
cultural conditions that influence
usage and support services to
e-business.
More and more evidence is now
emerging of the clear link between
the effective use of ICT and
improvements in business
performance and productivity, it
is vital therefore that UK
businesses continue to adopt and
deploy ICT pervasively and
innovatively.
That is why I was delighted to be
involved in this year’s DTI/InterForum
E-Commerce Awards, which revealed
a highly sophisticated use of ICT
by businesses in the UK. For
example, nearly one third of
entrants across all categories are
users of broadband and mobile
technologies, highlighting the
growth in UK businesses adoption
of ICT.
The Awards aim to reward and
recognise small and medium-sized
companies across the country for
their innovative use of ICT to
improve business processes. Now in
their sixth year, the Awards
reflect how the UK has developed
one of the most innovative and
exciting e-commerce environments
in the world.
ICT have become a critical factor
in business success, and these
entries show how companies in the
UK are deploying them more
innovatively than ever before. The
Awards have evolved significantly
over the years, with new
categories added this year
including Use of Mobile &
Wireless Technology and Best Rural
E-Business.
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This year being my first
involvement at the Awards
I was delighted to see the
standard of the companies
that entered, and
obviously those that were
winners. Whilst use of
technology is now taken as
a given within businesses
in the UK, these companies
are really ahead of the
pack, demonstrating
constant creativity and
persistence in order to
improve their businesses
through technology.
As the fastest-growing
sector of UK businesses,
it is important that SMEs
are highlighted as
achievers in the use of
ICT. This year’s winners
are real life examples of
companies displaying best
practice through
e-business, showing other
organisations how they can
really exploit technology
in order to increase
efficiency, productivity
and profitability, and
ultimately contributing to
a stronger economy in the
UK.
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"More
evidence is now
emerging of the
clear link between
the effective use
of ICT and
improvements in
business
performance and
productivity"
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The national winners of the 2004
awards, Trade Appliances, an
online appliance retailer based in
Nottingham, was awarded the title
for its implementation and use of
e-trading and supply-chain
technology, enabling the company
to grow and double its turnover in
a year. The company sells built-in
kitchen appliances and offers
products from various leading
manufacturers at massive
discounted prices.
Through the use of SMS messaging
and email updates, as well as a
successful website, the company
has excelled in its use of
technology and has managed to
increase its turnover over 100 per
cent to over £23 million. Using
technology innovatively, Trade
Appliances is demonstrating best
practice in customer service,
helping the company to transform
itself from a traditional retail
and supply chain business to a
genuine e-business.
Trade Appliances is an excellent
example of a company that others
in the UK could look to for
inspiration. Businesses say that
learning from other organisations
is one of the most powerful means
any organisation can adopt to
achieve immediate, measurable and
sustainable productivity
improvements.
So, by showing what works in other
businesses, DTI Achieving best
practice in your business can help
companies achieve best practice
and adopt new ideas and approaches
that other businesses have shown
help improve performance and
productivity. It can help
businesses see which approaches
can work for them and then support
them in their successful
implementation of technology and
other business processes.
For more information go to www.dti.gov.uk
Mike O’Brien is Secretary
of State for Energy and E-Commerce
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