With regards to the adoption of new media for market communications what are the key trends that are driving the Indian SME market?
What we have found is that most SMEs are now very comfortable with the use of digital media especially email and the use of websites both for search as well as for promoting their own businesses. The next trend that we are beginning to spot is the SMEs are understanding the power of mobile devices, tablets etc. so even though it is slightly early, we believe that going forward usage and importance of the mobile devices will be better understood and adopted by most SMEs.
Considering your dynamic focus for the Indian SME market, what is the road-map for your Go-to-market strategy for capturing business from the Indian SMEs?
Getit’s proposition to SMEs is the same is it was when we started out more than 25 years ago - ‘We Help Your Business Grow’. From that perspective our core belief and offering has not changed. The only thing that has changed is the way that we bring leads to the businesses. Earlier it was only through the Yellow Pages and now it is through a combination of digital media and Yellow pages. Earlier it was only through a paid service and now it is through a combination of fixed fee and variable performance-based products.
You already have one lakh Indian SMEs as customers. What expectations do you have from the next 12 to 18 months?
It is our effort that we will continue to serve the SME market well so that 80 percent or more of these customers will continue to increase their spends and avail more products and services from Getit. This being the case we will continue to acquire new customers in existing and new geographies and hopefully we should be touching 150,000-200,000 SME customers over the next 12-18 months.
What are the key industry segments that will be targeted from your side?
Broadly we classify businesses into B2B and B2C, the later includes retail clients. Recently, we have managed an array of products for the retail segment which have really been appreciated by them and we are seeing tremendous through-put on these products. Likewise our B2B services have always developed very high ROI for clients. The specific verticals that are of importance continue to be:
a) Energy & Power
b) Industrial Equipment & Machinery
c) Building & Construction
d) Transport & Relocation
e) Packaging & Printing
f) Metal & Mineral
Cost is a huge decisive element in SME's buying behavior. How does Getit look at this aspect?
When you see businesses from the perspective of an SME normally they had limited budgets at their disposal to promote their business. In this light, it becomes very critical for them to spend it judiciously on a medium which will serve their business needs.
At Getit, we help SMEs with digital presence across media so that their customers who are looking for them are able to connect with them at the time they are ready to buy. In addition, we promote the business of these SMEs by working with them closely to put them in all the relevant categories and relevant targeted promotions so that they are able to grow their businesses by getting new customers.
Thus, Getit as a leading directional media and digital marketing company is always being tested by each of its customers since they are able to measure the deliveries that we provide. Since these deliveries are at a high ROI, our customers keep coming back to us. As such, cost to them, in isolation is not an issue.