MANILA, Philippines – A free advertising service has been launched by a giant Internet company to raise income for the country’s micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) through online websites, an official of the firm said Tuesday.
Over 25 million Filipinos and over a billion people worldwide use the Internet and search engines to find detailed information on products and services they want to buy offline or an offline-online-offline buyer mentality – thus, paving the way for local SMEs to grow their business via the Internet, said Derek Callow, marketing head of Google Southeast Asia.
“The Internet democratizes marketing whether you are a small or big business. In times of economic slump, MSMEs should realize the power of technology to streamline costs and efficiency in marketing. A simple website can help MSMEs promote their presence on the Internet and enable more buyers visit their shops personally if their products and pricing can be found online,” said Callow.
“The country's 800,000 MSMEs can find more local and global customers know the Internet can help them grow revenues but it looks complex and daunting for them. Together with the students of STI, we will create simple websites for MSMEs to get an online presence and a free advertising to include Adwords that they will pay per click on their website,” said Callow.
Students from the Science and Technology Institute (STI) were trained and tapped to design simple websites for clients of Google's business stimulus package online advertising platform that allowed 24/7 availability of product information to consumers, said Callow.
Myleen Abiva, Philippine Marketing Association president, said it would involve its 13 chapters nationwide to realize the power of the marriage of marketing and technology.
The meltdown requires an integrated marketing strategy – from face-to-face to online presence – to grow revenues, especially for MSMEs that make up 99.7 percent of the country's businesses and create over 70 percent of the country's jobs each year, Abiva said.
“Online advertising can be a cost-effective channel for our local businesses to reach more customers, even those abroad. The trend now is niche marketing and with this platform, we can gauge who clicks on the website and if we are meeting our target clients for the product,” said Abiva.
“Under the business stimulus package, we are offering our MSMEs a trackable and targeted marketing. They can track the number of clicks and if their target clients’ visits their website,” said Callow.
Any Filipino company with a valid business permit can apply for the pay-per-click advertising platform – under which MSMEs can bet on keywords to promote their products and services and pay Google for every unique click on his website, he said.
“For MSMEs to appear on the first page of the Google search page, quality content not advertising money is key to influence the results that a person can click on. The search engine rewards websites with good product marketing content that fits the needs and searches of consumers,” said Callow.
The first 200 MSMEs who register for the package will get the website for free and subsequent participants need only to pay a one-time fee of P3,000 to STI college for the website development, said Callow.
Any MSME can sign up at www.google.com.ph/stimulus until December 15 to avail of the business stimulus package, he said.
Google will also offer P2,000 worth of free credits to start an online marketing campaign with Google's online advertising platform AdWords.
Meanwhile, customers will also get a free tutorial from STI College on starting a website, marketing products online and using AdWords to promote their business, said Callow.
The platform was also launched in Singapore and Thailand in the third quarter and a wide array of retail shops from restaurants, boutiques and home cleaning services, said Callow.
