Broadening Market Base Through Online Marketing in Brunei

Marketing, as defined by Investopedia, involves the “activities of a company associated with buying and selling a product or service. It includes advertising, selling and delivering products to people.” Most often, the term is associated with just the advertising aspect, but it involves more than that. The business site cites the four Ps of marketing, namely: product, place, price and promotion. This means that apart from posters, endorsements, packaging, and the like, it also includes all the activities that help, develop, and maintain a business’ relationship with a customer or a prospective client (such as thank you notes).

With the rise of Internet technology comes online marketing. Basically, it’s the use of online platforms to advertise, get noticed, connect, and develop a relationship with customers. People now rely heavily on the Internet to find out the latest trends, look for products and services, get better and more comprehensive information, and air our their feedback; thus marketers are using Web resources to reach out to more prospective customers and disseminate information about their brand.

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There are many different approaches to marketing, and it can be quite complex since it involves people, their behavior and perceptions, preconceptions and biases, social and cultural considerations, and the like. For instance, online marketing in Brunei can be quite different from online marketing in Italy. However, there are common denominators when it comes to attracting an audience, such as using visuals and keeping text rather uncomplicated, generating engaging content, and maximizing different media platforms. The bottom line is, a business has to know its market, and a marketer has to know their audience.

Entrepreneur provides three rules of marketing, which, one can surmise, are universal.

They are meant to keep a business from chasing away potential customers:

Attracting customers is more effective than forcing them to notice one’s product or service. To do this, a business has to be visible in search engines, social networking sites, and other online resources. But being easy to find online is not enough. One also has to provide visitors and potential customers enough information about the company plus fresh, engaging content so they will stay to find out more. And if the content is engaging enough, visitors would keep coming back to find out what’s new. In short, a business has to let people gravitate toward their product or service rather than pushing them toward it.
A wise singer won’t say that he’s remarkable, but he will sing so the audience would hear how good he is. In the same way, showing what the business has to offer is better than telling people how good one’s products or services are. As Entrepreneur puts it, “Those who are cool and remarkable don’t need to say it.” Therefore, through carefully crafted content and well-chosen visuals, a company can subtly show off without being a show-off.
There is a difference between begging a potential customer to do business and swaying them so they’d make that decision on their own. Also, broadcasting one’s product is different from sharing information about the product.

Online resources allow businesses and customers to interact and connect more closely than ever. It can be two-edged sword though. Used badly, it can be detrimental for a company; but used wisely, the Internet can be a powerful marketing platform.