FOR years, small businesses have relied on the magic of WOM (word of mouth) to attract customers. Yet, with young Filipinos lately turning into entrepreneurs, too many small companies are creating too much buzz that customers now find it hard to tell apart the best from the bluff.

Consider these facts: Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) make up 99.4 percent of the Philippine business sector, generating nearly 70 percent of the jobs available locally and contributing more than 30 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Now consider the clutter: Most SMEs spread the word offline—advertisements, direct mail, flyers, calling cards, booth displays in exhibits and conventions and merchandising like T-shirts and bumper stickers.

“With the onslaught of new competition and a tougher operating environment, you can’t expect to compete as a small business today without using an arsenal of marketing tools,” says Jonas R. de los Reyes, e-commerce manager of Yehey.com, one of the leading Filipino Internet portals.

With Internet usage growing annually by an average of 42 percent in the past five years, the World Wide Web now brims with promises for the local papaya soap dealer, the barako coffee supplier or the flower farmer who used to merely ply their trade downtown and rely on satisfied customers to get the word out that their businesses exist.

Of the SMEs that participated in a 2004 ACNielsen survey, 58 percent said they were able to grow their business through their web sites, while 49 percent said they were able to cut down costs with an online presence.

“Customers want to see you online for simple reasons: to get pricing information, see samples of your work, request more information, buy something from you or just to see whether you have what they’re looking for,” says de los Reyes. He adds that web sites can also level the playing field as even the smallest business could compete more effectively with larger companies.

Yehey!’s e-commerce manager offers these tips to get SMEs noticed online:

1.       K.I.S.S. even when you are online. Once potential customers open your web site, you have only 5 to 8 seconds to convince them to keep on clicking. Within that blip of time, they should have already known from your brief, succinct and compelling text and visuals what products or services you offer and if it answers their potential needs.

Your home page should have the bare essentials. “You already have their foot in the door when they searched for something and they get to see your site. That’s not already a ‘yes’ but a ‘maybe,’” de los Reyes says. “Get to the point. Keep it simple.”

2.       After you K.I.S.S., engage. Once you successfully get your potential customer into the door, show them the rest of the house and make them feel at home. Get them to interact with your web site and feed you more with information. When people visit your web site and e-mail you, follow up immediately. Once they feel welcomed and at ease with your site, get them hooked so they will be frequent visitors.

3.       Be constantly present. This relationship is not the absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder type. Your potential customers already found out you exist; now you must strive not to be relegated to the archives. Be highly visible, whether online (e-mail marketing) or offline (in-store, merchandising or advertising). Your site should appear high on search engines’ results pages. Yehey! helps you do this through its web directory and through the assistance of its Google Authorized Professionals who will show you how to promote your business online through Google AdWords. This online marketing tool is part of the package Yehey! offers to customers of Kaban, its web and e-commerce solutions arm.

4.       Don’t leave them on the altar, waiting. So you got them engaged, hooked and raring to establish a customer relationship with you online. Now it’s time to pay. Nothing is more frustrating than getting them to the altar of e-commerce and leaving them waiting for you to e-mail them the pricing and shipping information. You should have an online store that makes it easy for your customers to place and order, send the payment and get their goods.

One solution is through Yehey!’s Kaban Internet Payments (www.kaban.com.ph), an online payment gateway system that enables SMEs to accept customer payment through ATM, credit card or electronic cash modes such as Globe G-Cash.

Using Kaban is easy: an online buyer simply clicks on the Kaban payment button on the web site, and instantly gets redirected to the user-friendly Kaban web site interfaced with the merchant template. After a secure form is completed, a payment option is made and the transaction is processed in no time.

Local SMEs that have started using the Kaban payment gateway system include computer shop Qube PC Technologies, Medicard Philippines, Job1Global and OPM Radio. Conference organizers such as the Philippine Marketing Association, the Philippine Ad Congress and the Management Association of the Philippines have also started using Kaban for participants registering and paying for conference fees online.

Yehey! developed Kaban to meet the e-commerce needs of SMEs in the country. Aside from being one of the top three most-viewed Filipino sites, Yehey! is also being positioned as an online marketing solutions company.

Tattoo you

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From WOM to www

FOR years, small businesses have relied on the magic of WOM (word of mouth) to attract customers. Yet, with young Filipinos lately turning into entrepreneurs, too many small companies are creating too much buzz that customers now find it hard to tell apart the best from the bluff.

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