Entrepreneurs who do not have a website or a digital marketing plan yet have a new source to turn to: Google. The online search major is on a mission to take half a million Indian small and medium businesses online by 2015. As part of its SMB partner programme, Google has drawn up an aggressive outreach plan for 2014. This year, Google will move down from tier-3 cities to hook technologically challenged entrepreneurs and professionals to digital marketing. Many of the Google services, including the website, is for free.
Google channels partners can help all kinds of aspirants?be it ?a businessman, a farmer or a dentist??do digital marketing. ?Our partners will give them training, educate them, build their pipeline, get them online with resources, provide market intelligence and help them with monetisation programmes?, says Todd Rowe, managing director?global channel sales, Google Inc. Swell, can you ask for more?
Google, which has so far covered 62 cities with the partnership programme, intends to hit 100 cities this year, by doubling its sales force to 3,000 from 1,500. Apart from free counsel and website, the plan for this year includes making videos and social media strategies for small businesses.
Google has taken 300,000 SMBs online in the last two years through its 20 channel sales partners. Rowe, who was in India last month to review the partnership progress, said Google will invest heavily in India, given the ?exceptional? growth here and the huge potential to grow further. ?We see in India 100% growth (annual)
in local search queries. This much higher than in other markets?, Rowe told FE.
?India?, he informs, ?is the fastest growing market worldwide for Google in terms of SMB business.?
What makes Rowe upbeat about India is the opportunities that would come with greater internet penetration. India has 200 million-plus internet users and 100 million-plus mobile internet access. And smartphone usage is rising by 52% year-on-year. The country has the third largest population of net users worldwide, after the US and China. ?It?s a huge opportunity if 100 million more can get access to the internet?, he gushes.
He is equally excited about arming the technology have-nots. ?If we take all businesses, there are 47 million SMEs in India. Out of that those with five-plus employees are about 12 million. Of that businesses relevant to internet access is 8 million.? The opportunity is that only a half of them has got a website.
?Google effort in the last two years has been to increase the number of SMEs having a website. We?ve tripled the number of SMEs from 100,000 to 400,000. A year from now we may be talking about a still higher number.?
E-commerce, Rowe says, offers much scope for SMBs. ?India will see R45k crore e-commerce by next year. It is an opportunity for SMBs to get involved.?
?Again, India is the largest market in terms of YouTube usage. That is another opportunity for SMBs to market themselves.?
Digital marketing is the road ahead for SMEs, and Google wants to ?democratise the digital market so that small and medium enterprises can gain from it, and get equal value as large companies in the digital space. We want to digitise the whole India.?
Mobile marketing, he says, is a promising space for SMBs, as it allows them to reach a large population in a small area. But awareness about the possibilities of digital marketing is the first step towards realising the business potential.
