Let’s Get Famous and Be Seen Everywhere

Gee, I am really glad that I am kinda getting regular with my blog posts. Well, blame it on my excitement of exploring the Internet in India and its potentials or call it my eagerness to share all that with you. J In my last post, I had talked about why we need online presence and what is it that we can do. Although I had said very little about it, still I will sum it up for you – I said Indian businesses are going online, because most of the businesses are waking up to the potentials of having an online presence. Various sectors like the Real Estate, Jobs, Travel and Matrimony are already making their presence felt in a big way.
Here, I would talk about why we need to put the screws on Internet in India. Internet in India still has a very minuscule penetration. But as per the growth percentage in the number of internet users, every year, we can expect it to be the most dominant factor in each of our lives, very soon. From 32.2 million users in Sept 2006 to 46 million in Sept, 2007… and counting…
More and more people are going online, and they have different reasons.
The e-technology group of IMRB International has found out that smaller and non metro towns are more responsible for the increase in usage of Internet. People are hooked on to the net primarily for e-mails and for searching information on the net. As per a report in TOI in the month of October 2007, 78.5 lakh people use the net for email and nearly 37 lakh, for information search, the entertainment segment enjoys a whopping 15.4 lakh users followed by e-commerce ( online travel, share trading, banking and buying products etc.)
With growth of Internet and its usage in India, we can soon expect the number of users, who search information on internet, to cross expected figures, as gradually more and more Indians are getting the concept of online search. This will surely give search marketing a tremendous boost. Search marketing, which has been here in India for around 2 years, has already perked up its growth. At present, Google dominates this side with a major share of 70 – 80% in searches and bagging more than 95% revenues.
With such growth and evolution and come to think of it – it will only get better than this – far far better and beyond – one really can not afford to stay behind and invisible. That being said, with the way competition is getting stiffer and tougher, it would be foolhardy to be there in the virtual world, but lost in the herd, in oblivion....!!
To mark your presence, you really have to break through the clutter and create your own dominance among competitors. For that you need a strong branding strategy and meticulous media planning that will give you presence in all the relevant places. Also it is necessary to have the required technical backup to realize the plans that you build for online promotions. With everything right in place, you will find your website all over the place sooner, creating an online brand awareness, something that you will always love to have.

Your Target Audience is Online – Where Are You?

What is common between jobs, gadgets, matrimony and real estate? OK, don't have to guess so hard, I'll give this one to you. All of them, plus many more such services have hopped in to the virtual world and are doing smashing good business online. Till some years back, they were still availed through traditional methods. I still remember how I used to highlight jobs on the classifieds sections of leading dailies. And wrote in to the organizations with my résumé attached. And today, Naukri, Monster Jobs and their ilk are doing it all for us, even preparing the cover letter for us, helping us make the résumé more interesting and delicious! – and all that ONLINE!!
Naukri.com, 99acres.com and Jeevansaathi.com, together accounted for Rs.97 million worth search spends in the year 2006. Not just jobs or matrimony, almost everything today is going online. People are fishing the virtual world for almost everything that is required – whether it's a one time buy or a daily requirement. Some of the verticals that are leading the revolution of investing in the search marketing are – Retail and e-commerce with Rs.189 million followed closely by Jobs and Travel at Rs.175 million approx. Technology, Automotive and the others follow suit.
People, the masses and the ranks, ARE buying from the online shops. Take for example, gadgets – my friend bought her digicam recently. Before buying she scoured all the web pages for the best brand and model – she read everything she could find, about Sony, Panasonic, Canon etc. Not just information, she also made the purchase online at one of the online showrooms of Sony – she said she just saw their ad while searching info and clicked to know more.
Online Showrooms!! And we always thought showrooms are shops of brick n mortar... :)
OK. So let us come to the crux of the whole thing. Indian Businesses ARE Going Online. Period. Take any sector – real estate (one of the booming industry in India, especially in North India, Delhi & NCR et al) is going online, which is one of the main cause and effect of the rise and rise of Real Estate here. People are buying plots, houses and apartments and are also looking out for renting options in websites like 99acres.com, Magic Bricks.com, Real Estate.com and Realtor.com. And if you can make yourself visible like one such highly viewed web pages, there are high chances that your potential customers might end up buying from you.
Again, look at it from a different direction. You want to advertise some honeymoon packages. Alliances are sought and finalised through portals like Bharat Matrimony, Shaadi.com, Jeevansaathi.com, Simply Marry and many such matrimony web sites. If you are a travel agent, or you have wonderful honeymoon packages to offer, then you can make yourself visible to potential customers, right at the beginning and as the saying goes... early bird catches the worm...! :)
Every one is looking for the right organization online. And you can not afford to miss the opportunity and let your potential customers go to your competitors. Your presence online – at the right time and at the right place – increases your visibility and prominence. This in other words would mean more eyeballs on your website, on your products (or services) and the more you get closer to the much coveted position of – consumers' top of mind.