How to expand your market at the comfort of your own home

By Sai

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are usually bombarded by different marketing problems. Starting out small is okay and the problem of making your business boom is one major problem. There are different marketing strategies that are to be taken into consideration but here are some tips on how to expand your market at the comfort of your own home.

Internet is a big help to small and medium enterprises. An access to the whole world is one advantage of businessmen in this era. Compared to traditional businesses established during the 50s, 60s or even 90s, our generation today has the capacity to reach every continent in this world. This topic has been discussed in my previous article about Retail Industry Trends. One of the retailing trends today is globalization. How will you do this? The answer is very simple – through the Internet. I don’t want to give you an impression that this is very easy. This requires a lot of work and help from people who specialize in digital marketing.

1. Ebay. Ebay has been a big help not only to businesses but to individuals who want to earn extra cash from their old stuffs. If you want to penetrate the world, you can make a trial-and-error on different strategies in selling on ebay. 
2. Multiply. In the Philippines, Multiply has been the next resort to ebay in selling stuffs. What’s good about Multiply is that you can customize your site. You can make layouts that will suit your target market. Aside from this, many Filipinos are making Multiply their online shops. No wonder Multiply recently accepted the fact that most of their users are online sellers. That’s the reason behind the “online seller” option once you sign up for an account with Multiply.
3. Blog. Some businesses sign up with Blogger to build awareness about their brands. This is one way of communicating your products and services to potential customers and clients from different parts of the globe. Let’s take David Meerman Scott’s example in his New Rules of Marketing and PR book:

“Ben Argov uses his Wine Storage Blog to highlight good wine storage practice. His company, Le Cache Premium Wine Cabinets, sells furniture-quality wine storage cabinets primarily to individuals, helping them showcase, protect, and properly age fine wine. Although most of his product ends up in wine enthusiasts’ homes, another major market is upscale hotels, restaurants, and resorts. In a competitive industry with at least a half-dozen U.S. manufacturers of furniture-quality wine storage cabinets, Le Cache stands out because of the blog and because of Argov’s active participation in online wine industry forums and chat rooms.”

This blogging to business success topic will soon be discussed here. For the mean time, this will be your bird’s eye view of how blogging can help you communicate your business goals to every potential clients and customers, wherever they may be.
Forums. I have tested this new platform and it really works. Being active in forum sites can help you communicate your business goals as well as advertise your products and services. This is one way of communication between you and your customers. I recently posted an advertisement about our dress shop services in a forum site and there are people who replied. They are interested and I even closed one big deal from this forum advertisement. People talk about brands online. They talk about new products from different brands and how they love or hate new and old products. This is also one way of knowing how effective your products are and how people love your services. If you’ve read a bad review about your products or services, don’t get mad easily. This can be an opportunity for your business to improve more. Satisfying your customers is one of the ways to make your company successful. A growing number of satisfied customers means more business for your company.
Youtube. Youtube can be your avenue of videos about demonstrations and visual presentation of your services online. I see it as your own commercial opportunity. Given the right keywords and interesting content, your simple home-made video spread like a virus. The more number of people who talk about your brand means more awareness and more potential customers.