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.
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