Читать книгу The Small Business Guide to Online Marketing - Lola Bailey - Страница 5

The time has come for businesses of every type and size to have an effective online presence.

According to recent data from Internet World Statistics (December 2011; www.internetworldstats.com) there are an estimated 52.7 million people in the UK who are online – representing a staggering population penetration of 84.1%. This places the UK in third position for internet usage within Europe, behind only Germany and Russia.

Despite this, many UK small business sites remain undynamic; in reality they appear as brochure sites with very little done to actively market them online. Worse still, according to Google’s ‘Getting British Business Online’ campaign, there are an estimated 1.5 million businesses in the UK that do not yet have a website. The important point here is that their customers are searching online for products, services and information. According to Jupiter Research, 80% of internet users find new websites by searching; not through the commonly cited ‘word of mouth’ from a friend or colleague. They do not even see it on a television advert or a billboard. What most people do is go on to Google, type in what they are searching for and go to the sites suggested by the search results.

Ergo, if little is done to encourage the process of being found on Google then a business will find it difficult to succeed.

Simply having a website, however, is not a marker for online success. A June 2010 study – commissioned by Thomson Local, to establish how well those UK businesses with websites were prepared for the increasingly competitive world of online competition – found that a significant proportion of businesses had inadequately invested in establishing their online presence. (Source: www.analyticsseo.com/blog/state-uk-business-websites-2010).

During my time as the editor of a successful lifestyle magazine aimed at helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups promote their offerings locally, it became clear to me why so many of these businesses resisted the opportunity to market themselves online as well as offline; many of them still did not have a website. Why? Preconceptions, myths and unanswered questions about the internet abound and provide the reasons behind the reluctance to embrace its vast potential to maximise marketing outcomes.

Examples of frequently cited concerns are:

 The belief that online marketing offers little more than traditional marketing methods.

 Feelings of inadequacy – including not knowing how to identify what is a real opportunity from what will reap no rewards or even cost money.

 Lack of knowledge and understanding of how to plan a strategy, set objectives and allocate resources.

 Fear of making costly mistakes.

Do you recognise any of these concerns? The purpose of this book is to move you forward from these challenges to a place where you feel confident and willing to embrace the incredible opportunities that lie in wait for you. This book uses simple language, which cuts through the jargon, along with step-by-step examples, case studies and interviews with experts in their field. At the back of the book you will also find a range of useful resources, including helpful websites and a jargon buster.

I hope that by reading this book the hitherto seemingly complex world of the internet will be much more accessible to you, and ultimately generate improved outcomes and of greater success for your business, at a fraction of the cost you may have expected.

The journey may not be an easy one, but neither should it be difficult. What I am confident of is that either way, you will be in a much better position to take advantage of a very exciting marketplace.