Our Blog - Know your RSS from your elbow...

Today’s FT carries a short piece on some research recently carried out by Cranfield School of Management on behalf of Pipex Business. The upshot of the report is that many SMEs are struggling to see the real benefit of internet use.

Here is the most telling sentence:

The report concludes that the popularity of online communication in society has created more competitive markets and more picky customers.

Imagine that. Basically, what that sentence says is that customers are finding ways to get better information before making choices. And businesses are suffering because of it. The report’s co-author - Andrew Burke - draws a dispiriting conclusion: he thinks that widespread uptake of internet use means that SMEs struggle to gain competitive advantage with it.

Now, pardon me, but that really is a case of looking at things the wrong way round. Or, as we say in online marketing circles, RSS about T/T.

The majority of the 422 businesses that took part in the survey need to stop and think about their customers. It’s apparent that the company’s use of the internet is currently passive. There is no sense that they feel they should be trying to drive a conversation. If their customers are looking for information, what are they doing to provide it? If they want to seek competitive advantage, they should be looking to what they offer, not what the technology is doing.

If all businesses are doing the same thing, to stand out you must do one of two things: be remarkable in your sector or change sector. How do you become remarkable? Start off by changing what you do that everyone else does. Get rid of your dull corporate web site and replace it with a blog, for instance. Create a forum for all your customers to post up complaints about your service. Stop issuing press releases to media outlets that never use them and write pieces that will interest your customers instead.

Above all, change.

Tags: Andrew Burke, Cranfield School of Management, FT, Pipex