What makes us tick?
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Since 2000, prior to the .com boom and bust era, the uptake of IT and e-commerce was heavily promoted but at that time understanding was poor and a web presence was generally considered to be nothing more than an online brochure.
Through national initiatives such as the DTi's ISI (Information Society Initiative) and subsequently the UK Online for Business programmes, considerable public sector investment was made towards developing more awareness of opportunity through value added integrated site development such as e-commerce, CRM, accounts etc but uptake and full implementation in the main was ill-thought through and once investment was made, many companies then stopped working on their website wrongly assuming that all the work was done.
As an advisor, Adrian Bereziuk saw the challenges faced by businesses at ground level, having engaged with over 600 companies between 2001 and 2011 and as Regional Champion for the UK online for Business programme for Scotland and the North East of England between 2002 and 2004, dealt with the strategic end of programme management to promote the national awareness of Information and Communications Technology uptake in this generally unregulated industry.
Throughout the years since then, he has been on a continuing quest to promote the benefits and strategic methodologies of online trading supported with robust ICT infrastructures behind the scenes and the resulting wealth that can be generated - this effort in part contributed to an uptake of best practice in companies he engaged with leading to the acceptance that well developed and marketed websites are the vehicle to drive additional sales to companies.
However - in the general business community, there was always a very important missing link that would ensure businesses could truly reap the benefits of Internet sales.
This missing link was the inevitable evolution of websites and internet marketing.
In such a dynamic and ever changing world and in the current economic climate, now more than ever the need exists to fill that missing link:
There is no point in having a truly great looking website if in the first place it cannot be found intuitively and easily through search engines.
With Search Engine algorithms constantly evolving and becoming more intelligent, there is an absolute need to educate businesses to the issues and pitfalls that are in evidence in Internet Marketing terms through poor keyword research, optimisation, analytics, copywriting and link building strategies.
To prove the point, Adrian demonstrated the benefit of adopting a structured approach to website marketing by running two consecutive projects led and run by him through Scottish Enterprise.
A group of 36 selected companies had 'enterprise level' web audits carried out to benchmark areas of varying concern and without exception, every one significantly failed on aspects that should otherwise have been delivering much better results.
The companies attended a number of customised and topic-specific workshops to educate their nominated ‘Champions’. The learning journey led without exception to a situation where the companies gained not only the additional knowledge required to direct their web developers/marketers, but they had a clear view of what needed to be done to improve sales opportunities making their original and ongoing development investments show a return on investment.
Within 24 months of the project starting, those companies saw a £3m increase in turnover in web based sales which for businesses operating in a rural environment, was exceptional – Adrian was very proud to have been the driving force behind a major part of that awakening.
Having thought beyond the negative recession-based headlines the media generously provide SMART Partnerships continues through working with companies to overcome the now inherent feeling of helplessness and lack of confidence in online sales potential.
There are always a few glowing exceptions to the rule – those who have captured their market, those who understand what needs to be done – those who have invested wisely etc but unfortunately these tend to be the few.
Businesses that contact SMART Partnerships for support advice are crying out for assistance to improve their online positioning in the marketplace.
The business community is generally frustrated because they know that consumers are spending billions of pounds every month online in the UK and they are not getting a decent slice of this action.
The problem comes down to the websites they have not being ‘fit for purpose’ in today’s marketplace and the marketing knowledge they need is critical to ensuring web visibility and gaining online visitors that convert into real business.
Consequently, companies are losing out on additional profit for their business by not being at – or even close to - the leading edge of internet marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
SMART Partnerships address this issue and educate businesses to improve their online presence and wealth to deliver greater opportunities for online sales with modest investment that can be converted to a tangible return on investment.