Posts Tagged ‘incorporate your business’

Small businesses—of which there are nearly twenty-five million in the United States—form the backbone of the American economy. As more and more consumers turn to the Internet to find products and services, small business owners are faced with the challenge of making their presence known in the online marketplace.

A disparity exists, however, between consumer practice and small business response. While nearly 75% of U.S. consumers use the Internet when shopping for goods and services, less than 10% of advertising dollars are spent online, and nearly half of all small businesses don’t even have a website.

For years, many small business owners spent the bulk of their advertising dollars on traditional media such as print advertising in local newspapers or the yellow pages. (Some small businesses go so far as choosing outrageous names for the sole purpose of getting listed first!)

“In the online marketplace, small businesses often lag behind the competition due to lack of computer know-how and inability to adapt their messaging, resulting in a failure to be found online,” says John Wall, CEO of Innuity, Inc., a Software as a Service (SaaS) company headquartered in Redmond, WA, that delivers online solutions specifically targeted to small businesses. “There are myriad ways for America’s small businesses to grow online, from targeted online advertising campaigns to enhanced search engine optimization.”

Small businesses in need of some online marketing savvy in order to stay competitive in today’s plugged-in marketplace include everything from sole proprietors working from home, to local family doctors and dentists, to neighborhood restaurants, private law practices, and most everything in between.

“It became obvious we needed a presence on the web,” says Innuity client Dr. Dave Parker of the Washington Institute of Sports Medicine. “We knew we didn’t want to spend $10,000 to get started, and we also didn’t want to have someone do it for us who would turn around and keep charging us to maintain it.” Innuity’s Internet technology is based on an affordable, on-demand model that allows small businesses to interact simply with customers, business partners, and vendors, and efficiently manage their business.

“The Internet is a fantastic platform for businesses of any size and stripe,” says Mr. Wall. “Thanks to the power of the web, small truly is the new big.”

Considering the state of the real estate market presently, it is vital to offer your clients as many value-added services as possible.  And I’ve found a great online resource that helps to make moving more efficient.  Relocation.com and HGTV’s, FrontDoor.com have partnered their services and now provide free moving quotes from Relocation.com’s moving professionals that will be available to FrontDoor.com users through the Moving tab.

Relocation.com also will provide FrontDoor.com with original articles from its relocation experts and additional moving-related content that helps further engage consumers, providing everything from packing tips to planning tools to money savings tips for their upcoming move.

According to Relocation.com’s 2008 consumer survey, 66 percent of recent movers searched for their moving professionals online. This is a way you can offer a great service to your clients and enable their move to be as quick and easy as possible.

“Despite the challenges in today’s real estate markets, consumer interest in the real estate sector hasn’t waned. Working with a leading consumer media property such as HGTV’s FrontDoor.com is a natural fit for us,” said Greg Hebner, CEO, Relocation.com. “We know that consumers are using the Internet as a primary source for finding moving services, and this partnership is a great way for us to extend the reach of our unique moving content and resources with one of the Internet’s most visited real estate destinations.”

“We are dedicated to providing users with a robust real estate resource that pulls together in one place everything needed to find and then settle into a new home. Working with Relocation.com will allow FrontDoor to provide our site visitors with additional high quality, original content as well as access to moving professionals,” said Vikki Neil, vice president of real estate at Scripps Networks, parent company of FrontDoor.com.

If you’re a small business owner or planning to become one, it is vital to have a strong understanding of your potential consumers. And in this day and age, knowing your customers’ technological habits is crucial for success. Forrester Research released the results of its 2008 North American Technographics Benchmark survey, its largest annual data set about consumers’ technology adoption and attitudes, based on a mail survey of nearly 61,000 consumers representing 53,000 households in the US and Canada. A rich data asset for Consumer Market Research professionals’ product planning and go-to-market strategy assessments, the 11th annual Benchmark includes responses to more than 100 questions covering 1,500 elements and more than 450 brands. It is the largest ongoing survey in the world to explore consumer attitudes, ownership, and use of technology.

A generational analysis of the survey results is available in the new report, “The State Of Consumers And Technology: Benchmark 2008.” By examining the unique technology profile of each generation, Consumer Market Research professionals can gain critical insight into future buying and adoption trends for their target demographic and set their product strategies for the next five years.

“Gen Y is the audience that most companies are struggling to understand right now because it’s key to their future revenue growth,” said Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research. “One of the questions we’re asked most frequently is the difference between Gen Y and Gen X, and this year’s data clearly shows the distinction. Gen Xers use technology when it supports a lifestyle need, while technology is so deeply embedded into everything Gen Yers do that they are truly the first native online population.”

According to the report, although Gen Y is a small generation of 18- to 28-year-olds, comprising only 38 million US adults, it sets the pace for technology adoption. Nine in 10 Gen Yers own a PC, and 82 percent own a mobile phone. But it is technology use that sets this generation apart: Gen Y spends more time online — for leisure or work — than watching TV; 72 percent of Gen Y mobile phone owners send or receive text messages; 42 percent of online Gen Yers watch Internet video at least monthly.

In contrast, Gen X, which is comprised of 29- to 42-year-olds — 63 million US adults — uses technology when it intersects with a personal need or fulfills a desire. For example, 32 percent of Gen X households own an HDTV, and 29 percent have a DVR. In the past three months, 69 percent of online Gen Xers shopped online and 65 percent banked online, higher percentages than any other generation. Gen X is also ramping up its Internet and mobile activities, including reading blogs (21 percent of online Gen Xers do it at least monthly, up from 15 percent in 2007) and texting (61 percent of Gen X mobile subscribers do it today, up from 49 percent in 2007).