The document discusses ways for small businesses to maximize their use of the internet and e-commerce. It outlines a 7 step process: 1) connecting to the internet, 2) using the internet for information searching, 3) advertising online, 4) creating a website, 5) using the internet for purchasing, 6) receiving online payments, and 7) fully integrating e-commerce and online business functions. The benefits of e-business include business growth, convenience, and efficiency. Statistics are provided on internet and e-commerce usage among Australian small businesses. Examples of small businesses effectively using various online strategies are also highlighted.
2. Maximising Your e-Business Investment
• There are a number of ways to maximise your
Marketing activity, the Internet is just another
• An integrated approach will increase your
success
• 7 Steps in use of the Internet and e-commerce
• The e-commerce journey for small businesses
– Current state of play
– Benefits of participation
– Opportunities for improvement
– Practical examples
• Questions & discussion
3. Business efficiency benefits
increase
Connecting
81%of small and98%of medium businessessurveyedareconnectedto the Internet
Searchingforinformation
67%of small and91%of medium businessessurveyedwhoareconnectedto theInternet
searchforinformationregularly
Advertisingonlineand beingfound
36%of small and82%of medium businessessurveyedhavea home page
Purchasing
45%of small and64%of medium businessessurveyed
usetheInternetto make purchases
Onlinepayments
32%of small businessesand63% medium businessessurveyedusethe
Internetforreceiving payment
Managingmy business online
62%of all SMEssurveyedwouldlike to becomea fullyonline”business;
only29%of theseactuallywill
E-mailusage
93%of small and96%of medium businesses surveyedcurrentlyusee-mail
Source : 2003 YellowPages ® BusinessIndex - SpecialReportJuly 2003
In July 2003,some49% of all SMEs
indicated a potential to use e-
Commerceto selltheir products
and services.
7 Steps In Use of the Internet and e-Commerce
4. Benefits of e-Business
• Business Growth
– Can generate new customers and markets, lower costs,
quicker billing and payment cycles, more advertising and
communication options
– Identifies you as a growth business
• Business Convenience
– Simple and quick advertising and communication options,
greater access to business advice, simple process for
updating product information
• Business Efficiency & Customer Service
– Can provide reduced operational costs, improved cashflow,
more time, more convenient
– Immediate response to customer’s inquiries, accurate and
up-to-date business and product information
– Open 24/7, more accurate billing and greater choice for
customers
5. The Net By Numbers
What Australian Businesses and
Consumers are Doing Online
6. A Third of All 14+ Australians Go Online Daily
Frequency of Internet Usage
21.0%
10.8%
18.7%
4.2%
5.9%
1.9%
6.5%
3.4%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
More than
once a
day
Once a
day
A few
times a
week
Once a
week
A few
times a
month
Once a
month
Less often Can't say
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, July 2002 - June 2003: Note total ‘ever’ usage - 72.3%
7. Buyer Traffic is Significant
Traffic to Selected Online Categories - July 2003
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Top 13 Search Engines
Yellow Pages® OnLine site
White Pages® OnLine site
FMCG
Automotive
Insurance
Travel
Million unique users (estimated commercial traffic)
Source: Red Sheriff Australian Ratings Reports: July 2003: www.redsheriff.com.au
9. Step 4. Own Website for Advertising
• Can save on advertising costs but web sites need to be
advertised
• Set up costs can be relatively small if carefully planned
• Return-on-investment can be measured
• Develop a consistent brand
• Develop a consistent way to communicate with
customers
• Improve the speed of your sales process
• Provide 24 Hour Support to your customers
• Deal direct with your customer
10. Step 4. Own Website for Advertising
www.stonelea-landscapes.com.au
11. Step 5. Purchasing
Opportunities
• Convenient - reduces transaction costs
• Participate in auctions to buy at negotiated rates
• Use third-parties to sell unwanted stock
• High level of security available through a range of
providers.
13. Step 6. Using Internet to Receive Payment
• Some 27% of small and medium businesses surveyed
now claim they are using the Internet to receive
payment.
Opportunities
• Security issues can be managed without exposing your
customers or becoming liable to them.
• Many leading vendors are specifically focussing their
efforts on addressing the IT concerns of small business
with products and services that are simple, affordable
and intrinsically secure
• Example:-Large technology organisations such as
Microsoft develop appropriate small business solutions
15. Step 6. Using Internet to Receive Payment
• Businesses are more likely to sell online to other
businesses
– some 64% of online payment transactions were from
business to business
– Improve delivery times
– Improve description of products
– Improve instructions sent with products
– Eliminate hidden costs for customers
– Improve customer service
• Example : Wishlist and eStore
16. Step 6. Using Internet to Receive Payment
Good site design for receiving payments
17. Step 7. Full e-Commerce & e-Business
• Encourages business planning
• Highlights your businesses strengths and weaknesses
• Focus on service levels for customers
• An active e-commerce plan signifies a growth prospect
18. Key Learnings: Empowering Your Advertising Online
• The Internet is a growing, mainstream advertising medium
• Use traditional ‘broadcast’ advertising to build awareness and
interest
• Buyers will look for you when they are ready to buy:
– Print and online directories and classifieds
– Search engines
– Online magazines, related sites and reseller web sites
• These people are highly qualified buyers
• To maximise your ability to reach and influence them:
– Advertise everywhere they may look
– Know what they are looking for - talk to them
– Deliver what they want better than your competitors
– Plan and manage your site to keep it fresh and relevant
– Use permission marketing for efficient, ongoing communications
• Measure the results
– Web site measurement
– Talking to customers and polling store traffic
Welcome messages.
For those of you unfamiliar with Sensis, we are an advertising and media company that provides advertising solutions to over 400,000 Australian businesses - most of whom are small to medium enterprises. We do this through a range of advertising products that span print, online, voice and wireless. These products include:
The Yellow Pages and White Pages print and online directories
The CitySearch city guide
The Sensis MediaSmart online advertising agency
The Sensis WebWorks web site development solution
What we will be seeking to do over the next 40 minutes is provide you with some information and experience that we hope you will find valuable in managing your businesses. We will be focusing on the areas of advertising and the Internet - in particular, how to use the Internet to make your advertising more powerful and win more customers.
My presentation will look at:
Consumer and business usage of the Internet
The advertising opportunities created by the web
How to develop a web site that meets your goals
After that, we will break up into two groups.
For those people who do not have a website, we will provide you with ‘hands on’ experience in planning, building and managing your own web site.
Others will have the opportunity to work with us in the development of your own integrated advertising plan to ensure your online presence is incorporated in your advertising mix.
We will then close with a short wrap up where the two groups will get to share some of the things they have learnt with each other.
I thought it would be valuable to start with a quick look at what consumers are doing online today.
When it all boils down, what I really want to focus on today is a relatively simple proposition. That the emergence of the Internet has lead to very significant growth in the numbers of buyers using media to research potential purchases. This provides advertisers with a great opportunity because it gives them a way of influencing these buyers and guiding them to a purchase. To do this successfully can really build the power of all your advertising, but, to do so, requires some new knowledge and expertise. It is this knowledge we hope to contribute to today.
First up, it’s worth noting that the web is now well and truly a mainstream medium.
Recent research from Roy Morgan shows that:
Over 30% of all Australians aged 14+ go online daily - most of them more than once
Almost 20% use the web a few times a week
And over 60% of Australians use the web at least once per month.
This is an incredibly high level of usage. In many ways, however, it’s not the numbers that are interesting, but what people are doing online. We’ll discuss that shortly.
I mentioned before that it is what people are doing online that is particularly interesting.
I was referring to the fact that it has become a preferred medium for people looking to research purchases. Chances are you do it yourself. You want to buy a product that you need more information about, instead of spending a day shopping around different outlets, you go online, see what they have to offer and ‘short list’ those companies you will actually contact or visit.
This is a great for consumers because it means they spend less time shopping around but, can actually compare more potential suppliers. As such, they can make better purchase decisions.
It is also a great opportunity for you because you can use the web to reach real buyers right when they are making decisions and when they have already decided they need or want what it is they are looking for.
The chart above seeks to give an indication of how much buyer traffic is being driven online. As you can see, over 2 million people use one of the top 13 search engines for what we call ‘commercial search’ each month. This doesn’t cover all searches - just those for a product, service or business. At the same time, over 1.4 million people are looking for products and businesses at YPOL, and around 1.2 million at WPOL.
It is important to put these figures in perspective. While they are large numbers, print channels such as the print directories and print classified still dominate this area of advertising. For example, approximately 10 million Australians turn to the Yellow Pages print directory each month.
This slide gives us a sense of just how much ‘shopping’ is going on online and how quickly it is growing. These people may not be buying online, but what they are doing on the web is having a huge impact on what they buy offline.
If I can mention one brief example. There is a major home electronics retailer in the USA called Best Buy. Over Christmas 2002, they surveyed their in store shoppers and asked them if they had visited their web site before coming to the store. They found that a staggering 42% of shoppers had been to their web site and, of those, 56% said the web site had been extremely important in helping them make a decision.
Top 13 Search engines:
In the last few minutes, I would like to touch briefly on the issue of online advertising and permission marketing. If you don’t mind, I’ll start with an analogy. Imagine building a new shop. You fill that shop with quality, highly desirable merchandise that is beautifully displayed and at really good prices. Sounds like a recipe for success.
Now, imagine building that shop in the middle of the Simpson Desert and telling no-one it exists. No matter how good the shop is, you know it’s going to be a dead duck.
As ludicrous as this might sound, it is exactly what a lot of businesses do when they set up a web site and fail to publicise it. If you are establishing a site that is designed to turn potential buyers into paying customers, you need to publicise it in order to maximise the number of buyers that find it.
Clearly, one thing you can do is include your web site address in all your advertising - everything from business cards to TV or radio ads. If you can, there is a lot of value in trying to include not only your web site address but some form of enticement to visit. It maybe a special or it maybe valuable information or a service that buyers can access on the site. In this way, you are not only making potential buyers aware of the site, but giving them a reason to visit it.
At the same time, technology has created a whole new array of powerful advertising channels that become increasingly important when you have a web site. Not only do these channels have very significant reach - as demonstrated by the statistics I provided earlier in this presentation, but they offer unique value in a number of other ways:
They are directional. They target real buyers right at their point of interest.
For this reason, they can be very cost effective. In fact, some online advertising opportunities are actually free.
They are highly measurable. You can see, by reading reports from the provider and monitoring your web site statistics, exactly how many people found you.
Okay, so you now have a web site that services the needs of visiting buyers and drives them to the point of sale. The question now is how do you maximise the number of potential buyers that visit your site.
As small and medium business operators you will be well familiar with the constant challenges associated with marketing ensuring your well earned dollars are best used to effectively promote your business in today's every changing market.
This illustrates the current landscape of some of the tools Australians use when seeking a product or service like your own.
At the top
Traditional media, powerful builders of awareness and interest, Word of Mouth
However when a potential customer is ready to buy they will reach for one of the growing ranges of resources to assist them in making a buying decision.
Telephony:
Yellow & white Pages Directories: This includes print directories such as Yellow Pages and White Pages Household Brand name
Online: However there is ‘another door’ to our businesses that has become a popular medium which assists the Australian market in researching information to assist in making buying decisions. 15 million searches for products and services last month alone
This market has grown massively and is known as the Internet or Online.
Lets explore some of the interesting facts and information that is relevant to SME’s as a result of this shift in behaviour.
Background for speaker:
1. According to the Sensis Heading Usage Study, which looks at the information sources people turn to when they are searching for a business product or service, word of mouth is the second most popular source behind Yellow Pages metro directory.