Unlike large corporate executives, small business executives or owners are hands on. They can easily have direct customer feed back and see actual ground reality. However, they also need big picture perspective and this is what it is missing. Earlier to get holistic picture of their industry environment, small business owners had to wait for a magazine or newspaper to do a cover story. Now they can search and find lot of information on Internet. Let us see how web research can help small businesses -

Defines marketing problems and opportunities in local markets
Small business owners are close to their customers and have a clear sense of their needs. However, there is chance to get carried away in identifying the opportunities and threats in the market. Web research begins with identifying the issues on a broader sense from different angles and defining the problems and opportunities. It captures the vital information on product consumption, the product substitutes and their reputation as well as other data that can trace out the problems and build the case.

Helps in setting objectives and budget
Lack of proper planning is one of the major reasons for failure of a business. A survey by Michigan CFO Associates on 500 firms states that 99 percent of small business had no written plan for growth. They are ‘driving without a map’ risking their companies. Web research helps small businesses to predict future trends and helps them to be aware of issues. This makes them prepare for both positive and negative outcomes that may occur in the future. As web research predicts future trends and issues, it helps in planning the budget accordingly to avoid unexpected surprises.

Helps in pricing the products
Most small businesses do improper pricing of their products in order to gain more profits or to sell more products. These kinds of false beliefs will result in loosing out a business opportunity. Statistics state that only 23% of businesses price their products or services properly. Web research provides the crucial information on the pricing of the products. It helps you understand how much consumers are willing to pay, what is the pricing structure of your competitors etc.

Provides information on competitors
One of the important things a small business owner needs to remember is that his company faces local, national as well as international competition. Many small businesses succumb to the intense competition in the globalized business environment. In order to survive and sustain, it is necessary to be aware of the competitors’ business strategies and developments. Web research could provide key information such as strengths, weaknesses, products, pricing, distribution etc. of the major competitors.

Less investment on research
Though some of the small business owners are aware of the advantages of market research, they are not willing to invest in it, as quality market research is expensive. However, the fact is web research that can provide crucial information is inexpensive. Generally, business owners presume that research means only primary research, which is expensive. Though web research is not a complete alternative to primary research, it can satisfy the basic needs of the research. Many of the small businesses owners are running their companies without necessary information needed for sound decision-making. At least, they can be directionally accurate with the help of web research.

Small business owners and executives can use Internet to find information. However, this can be done only for small data requirements. To get reliable information, analysis and expert suggestions to make serious decisions, they need the help of qualified specialists. This is where professional web research helps small businesses to take well-informed decisions.

Marvist Consulting is an Internet marketing research firm providing professional seo, pay per click management and web analytic services to help companies to increase online sales and improve their profitability. Marvist Consulting also provides custom Internet market research Services (Professional and affordable) to find, analyze and summarize published information by our expert researchers to help you find information for decision making.

Search Engine Optimization
A weak presence on Internet and an ineffectively optimized website of a Real Estate business can lead to loss of business and potential clients. A search engine friendly design of a website is a prerequisite for the optimization process. Search Engine Optimization is the process of increasing the ranking of a website using business specific keywords, effective content, informative articles, and blogs. A Higher ranking on the search results page leads to higher traffic to your website and lead generation. As potential clients use a city name and a specific geographic location to search for potential property, the specified keywords can be used on a website for maximum optimization. Informative articles, resource pages, and blogs describing the subject property can encourage the customers to visit the website again.

Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Advertising
With pay-per-click search engine advertising, sponsored links are put on search engine results page. The advertisers pay only when their link is clicked. Any commercial real estate business, which targets a specific region, should be ensured that campaigns and advertisements are formed with the business specific keywords. The Pay-Per-Click advertising can generate significant amount of traffic to the real estate website and can generate leads. Pay-Per-Click advertising allows you to track the results of your keyword campaigns and helps you optimize which specific keywords work or don’t work for the business.

Online Classifieds, Banner Ads / Contextual Text Ads
Banner ads are the small advertisements put on webpage intended to bring traffic to advertisers’ website. Putting banner ads with city specifics helps to promote real commercial estate businesses. Properly placed and targeted Banner Ads catch the attention of potential clients thereby increasing the chances of lead generation. Commercial real estate businesses are increasingly using online classified advertisement websites for a range of real estate related services and offerings like searching for vacant retail space in a specific market, researching rental rates for office space etc. A larger number of customers can be reached by putting advertisements on websites dedicated to online classifieds, as Commercial real estate related services are searchable from any place, region, or country. Customers perform city specific searches for real estate on online classified ads websites. Contextual Advertising targets customers by putting ads, which are relevant to the context of the webpage the customer is viewing. Thus these ads in the form of banner or pop-ups helps to target the buyer based on his needs, promote real estate businesses, and generate leads.

Various methods of Internet marketing make it easier to tap potential clients interest by generating traffic to website as more and more people are shifting towards the Internet to search for various real estate opportunities. Some techniques like pay-per-click, banner ads, and contextual ads directly target the potential client and results in lead generation.

Market Your Center is a commercial real estate marketing, advertising and consulting company that offers fast, cost-effective, high-impact designs and advertising solutions. Market Your Center helps commercial real estate firms as their professional commercial real estate consultant with a comprehensive suite of products, services and solutions to meet their marketing needs. It also provides shopping center marketing services for various commercial real estate professionals and organizations.

Only off late, due to increased competition, customer awareness, and changing buyer preferences, companies have started realizing that increased production does not translate into higher sales. Since sales has been called as marketing in India, when a real position has been created it causes much confusion.

Here is an approach to let you know what Marketing actually mean. Marketing and sales are two separate and distinct processes, but they are very much intertwined. Marketing exists to support sales.

Marketing is the wide range of activities involved in focusing on customer needs before developing the product, aligning all functions of the company to focus on those needs and realizing a profit by successfully satisfying customer needs over the long-term.
The marketing cycle is composed of four segments:
•    Market research,
•    Planning,
•    Visibility, and
•    Client development.

The marketing research includes knowing the marketing environment (external and internal), gathering the market information (about competitors, commodities, supply and demand situations), studying the market segments and market trends. Once the research is completed, it can be used to make a plan to determine how to market your product.

Would you start a business without a proper plan? If you are among the majority of business owners you probably answered no, similarly marketing also needs planning. The Marketing plan includes setting clear objectives and explaining how to achieve them.  This will help in identifying new product areas and new or potential customers and also helps in identifying the competitors, their advantages and disadvantages to stay ahead of the competition.

After execution of the plans there must be a proper visibility/communication to the outside world is required and is called Marketing Communications. It is the actions of a firm to communicate with end-users, consumers, and external parties.

Marketing communications consists of four channels, which include:

•    Advertising: Advertising is getting the attention of potential and current customers towards a product (or service). It mainly focuses on attracting the customer and is done by using signs, brochures, commercials, direct mailings or e-mail messages, personal contact, etc.,
•    Public Relations & Publicity: Public relations include communicating the information to the investors and public to understand the company and its products/services. The higher authorities of an organization will play an important role in building public relations. It is generally done in the times of crisis. Public relations and publicity are not similar; publicity is the spreading of information to gain public awareness for a product, person, service, cause or organization. We can say that publicity is an unpaid advertisement.
•   Promotion: Promotion includes the ongoing activities of advertising, sales and public relations. It tries to project the image of the product in the minds of the customer and encourages demand for the product.

Sales: Sales mainly focus on product/service. It involves directly interacting with the people to persuade them to purchase the product by conveying the features, communicating the advantages and benefits of a product or service, and closing the sale. It may also involve delivering the product and collect the payment.

In most situations there are many companies offering similar products in any specific product/service category. Sales involves finding potential buyers and selling their company’s product despite the competition from other companies having similar product.
The sales goal simply is to beat the competition to get as many customers as possible the sale with little regard to customer satisfaction.

Locate many potential buyers and contact each one on a one-to-one basis through phone calls or personal visits. Understand their company’s product features, advantages, and benefits. Find the issues, problems, and challenges that can be solved by the product. Explain how that particular company’s product is a better choice for the issue or the problem. Convince the customer to buy the product explaining how it can be helpful comparing with the competitor’s product. Get the orders, deliver the product, raise the invoice, and collect the payment.

Good marketing facilitates the success of the sales. Marketing plus sales is the winning equation.

Marketing-guru.in provides information on state of marketing India, history of evolution, current development in marketing in India and marketing sales difference. It caters to educate people at ground level to know what marketing really is and to understand the importance of marketing. It also acts as a refresher for marketing professionals.