A STUDY ON THE DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING OF ONLINE B2B

PORTALS WITH RELEVANCE TO E-COMMERCE

College Guide: Dr. Shivaji Banerjee

Office Guide: Mr. Amit Surana (Business Head)

BY AYAN DUTTAROLL NO: 97 ROOM NO: 13

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION CHAPTER 4: COMPANY PROFILE CHAPTER 5: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CHAPTER 6: FINDINGS

RECOMMENDATION CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTIONWhat is a portal?

A portal is defined as an access point to World Wide Web. A portal is a combination of web pages, features and services which become a primary destination for users. The word was first used to describe the sites of popular Internet access providers or search engines such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo! At a later stage, the word “portal” evolved into something bigger covering business websites, where a corporate portal or enterprise information portal acts as a base for employees, customers, suppliers and other associates of a company to access corporate information and web services. A B2B portal is a distinct kind of website with features to conduct electronic business and manage significant parts of corporate business processes.A web portal is most often one specially-designed web page at a website which brings information together from diverse sources in a uniform way.

What is an Online B2B Portal? An online B2B portal is a platform set where one business serves the needs and requirements of another business. Online B2B marketplace has become a perfect place for all the respective buyers and sellers to meet and fulfil various trading purposes involving minimum effort. This method has revolutionized the ways in which trading was done earlier. Specifically talking about the Indian B2B portal, the Indian market has come up as a major marketing tool, which is used to give benefits to every distributor, manufacturer and supplier. This advanced way of trading has helped the traders to generate revenue so as to add productivity to their business. This in turn offers greater scope to manufacturers to cater the needs of suppliers, distributors both nationally as well as globally.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Determine for AlCircle Pte. Ltd., the following: To highlight the importance of online B2B portals in the current

market scenario and their relevance to e-commerce. To determine the scope of online B2B web portals enlightening on

the major players, their market share and future prospects of the same.

To provide a detailed analysis on how B2B portals help in increasing operational efficiency and reduce costs to enable customer retention.

To give an overview of how online B2B portals operate and make lives easier for companies and consumers by establishing a global platform for easy communication.

To discuss in detail how AlCircle Pte. Ltd. {www.alcircle.com}- the comprehensive aluminium portal creates a niche for the aluminium market and brings all leading aluminium player from all over the world under a single platform.

To elucidate on the relevance of www.alcircle.com in the current B2B market, its competitors and the scope and prospects of the company.

To give a brief report on my work in the company during the period of my internship discussing in depth the findings, methodology and limitations of the research.

To provide an insight on the statistical analysis of major players in the B2B marketplace and their share in this field.

To signify the importance of AlCircle Pte. Ltd. and its position in the market with the help of statistical data.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

• The first and foremost limitation of my research is that the online B2B aluminium markets have limited scope for expansion. They are restricted to aluminium and do not deal in other products.

• The E-Commerce market is still nascent and not yet taken off with regard to the online B2B portals.

• Indian registered customer database is heavily skewed making it difficult for online B2B marketers to create an impact.

• AlCircle Pte. Ltd. has limited manpower with a working committee of 1-10 members and there is vulnerability to turnover.

• Since AlCircle Pte. Ltd. is a start-up, it has limited reach in the aluminium market and must commence its operations under intense competition from other dedicated aluminium portals.

• Since Aluminium is a metal industry, there is always a touch and feel look that companies expect while transacting their product. Therefore, buying/selling through a web portal may not give that level of confidence to the marketer and hence, he may be rigid to advertise on internet portal.

• E-Commerce is not suitable for every B2B business in the online market• B2B firms have less leverage over their customers than B2C firms.

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURECOMMON B2B SEO MISTAKES AND HOW TO SOLVE THEMBy Lee Odden Working with a variety of companies large and small, local and international, B2B and B2C, on SEO projects over the past 12 years has revealed a variety of common obstacles to success.  For many reasons, B2B marketers often lag behind B2C in terms of tactics and adoption of new marketing technologies.  The customer acquisition and buying cycle are very different for business to business than consumer oriented products and services.Since SEO presents the biggest opportunity to generate a high quantity and quality of B2B leads, more B2B marketers are speeding up their ability to test innovative search engine optimization programs. Unfortunately, there are a mix of common mistakes that persist.  Here are 5 common mistakes and how to avoid them.• Using keywords more important to you than your customers• Content is not reachable by search Bots• Lack of new content• Keywords missing in Content and text links• Not monitoring KPI’s and Ongoing Optimization of Content Marketing

MOTIVES AND BARRIERS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETINGBy Nicole BusscherMotives - Research has acknowledged that social media could be valuable and essential for B2B companies and that especially social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook and LinkedIn, could be used for the communication with customers and suppliers, for relationship and trust building and for identifying potential partners. Furthermore, social media can also be used to increase traffic to the corporate website, disseminate significant information, attract new customers, gain feedback, fostering customer relationships, and establish a two-way conversation, which provide the marketers some help with getting insight in the preferences and the loyalty of the buyers and promoting the brand identity.

CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION

The popularity of social media marketing is spreading like wildfire across the world of B2B commerce. A new report from CMI shows that B2B marketers have increasingly recognized social media as an essential platform for initiating relationships with new business accounts. As one would expect, LinkedIn reigns supreme over the pack, with over 90 percent of B2B marketing professionals distributing content on their site. Not far behind is Twitter, at 85 percent.Of course, these are social media platforms, so marketing on them requires a certain finesse and premeditation. At the same time, many B2B companies have found out the hard way that simply being present on social media isn’t enough. If you want to raise awareness and increase impressions for your brand on social media, it’s absolutely crucial that you plan out a content strategy in advance. Here’s a breakdown of three key angles to keep in mind when plotting your B2B marketing push on social media:1. Building brand awareness2. Showcasing your expertise3. Making contact for salesThe online brand that will be delivered in social must align with a B2B organization’s brand promise, mission, and value proposition. Choosing the appropriate channel(s) depends on a number of factors including:Audience breakdown of network.Target audience types.Content types by audience.Purpose of social network.Tone of network.Engagement levels of network.

SEARCH MARKETING Search marketing should be a top priority for organizations in any industry. But B2B search marketing efforts take a slightly different form than the tactics used in consumer focused SEO and PPC programs. Typically, B2B markets are smaller, products and services are more complex, and sales cycles are longer. Therefore, B2B marketers must think a bit differently in terms of target keywords, online content and link building.‘Top Rank’ has worked with many companies using search marketing to reach Business to Business audiences over the past 8 years. The 5 B2B search marketing tips that can help companies maximize their results are as follows:a. For B2B Companies, getting found is just the beginningb. Content is key for B2B websitesc. B2B target keyword glossaries must be more robustd. B2B organizations must think outside the box when it comes to

link-buildinge. B2B search marketing efforts have to speak to multiple entities

within a business

CHAPTER 3 (CONTINUED……)

CHAPTER 4: COMPANY PROFILE

AlCircle Pte. Ltd. (www.alcircle.com) is global aluminium industry portal which was formally launched for operations in June 2010. With its registered office in Singapore and its editorial, technical and commercial operations located in India, the site has gained considerable popularity within this short time and its registered user population has reached the critical 10,000 and daily hits have crossed 1 million with many more unique visitors coming in on day to day basis.www.alcircle.com covers the whole ecosystem and value chain of the global Aluminium industry starting from Bauxite mining to Alumina refining, Aluminium smelting, finished and semi-finished products and recycling. The aluminium ecosystem is modelled on the basis of natural ecosystem where a network of industrial processes extracts resources from the earth and transforms those resources into commodities which can be bought and sold to meet the needs of humanity. In that sense, www.alcircle.com covers all the interacting organizations and individuals within the aluminium ecosystem. The member organisms include raw material suppliers, lead producers, mid-stream and downstream product manufactures, recyclers, and at the end of the day consumers. Based on a smart B2B platform, the portal lets you access news, event information, price updates, directory data and business, service and HR leads on the aluminium industry with the help of smooth icon based interface. Created by industry veterans and experts, alcircle.com aims to be a highly professional for the industry players to support their decision making needs.• AlCircle is the leading comprehensive aluminium b2b portal company.• The parent company of AlCircle is JIWANRAM SHEODUTTRAI GROUP.

CHAPTER 5: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

SEARCH ENGINE SHARESEO for www.alcir-cle.comSEO for www.alunet.comSEO for www.alu-planet.comSEO for www.alu.com.cnSEO for www.alu-miniumnetwork.com

WEB PORTALS SEARCH ENGINE SHARE

www.alcircle.com 32%www.alunet.com 64.70%www.aluplanet.com 61.90%www.alu.com.cn 47.20%www.aluminiumnetwork.com 35%

A Pie Chart determining the Search Engine Share of major B2B aluminium Web Portals in SEO

www.alcircle.com

www.aluplanet.com

www.alunet.com

www.alu.com.cn

www.aluminiumnetwork.com

COMPANY LISTING

COMPANY LISTING

WEB PORTALS COMPANY LISTINGwww.alcircle.com 55000www.aluplanet.com 3446www.alunet.com 5570www.alu.com.cn 2212www.aluminiumnetwork.com

5680

A Bar Diagram showing the number of companies enlisted under each Web Portal

A Column Chart showing the Registered User Base of each Web Portal

www.alcir

cle.co

m

www.alu.c

om.cn

www.alun

et.co

m

www.alup

lanet.

com

www.alum

inium

netw

ork.c

om0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

REGISTERED USER BASE

Axis

Tit

le

A Line Diagram showing the Daily Hits of respective Web Portals

www.alcir

cle.co

m

www.alu.c

om.cn

www.alun

et.co

m

www.alup

lanet.

com

www.alum

inium

netw

ork.c

om0

400000

800000

1200000DAILY HITS

Axi

s Ti

tle

Graphical Presentation of the RANK of Top 5 B2B General Web Portals of the World

Aliba

ba (w

ww.aliba

ba.co

m)

Manta

(www.m

anta.

com)

Indiam

art (

www.india

mart.c

om)

made-i

n-chin

a (www.m

ade-i

n-chin

a.com

)

dhga

te (w

ww.dhga

te.co

m)

0200400600800

10001200

RANKAx

is T

itle

Graphical Presentation showing Percentage of B2B marketers using various Social Media Sites to distribute Contents!

BrandingWebsite Traffice Building

Community BuildingProduct/ Event Promotion

Search Engine OptimizationCompetitive Intelligence/ Listening

Lead Generation Customer Feedback

Sales/ RevenueProduct Development

69%

58%

58%

56%

45%

45%

42%

41%

24%

23%

ACHIEVEMENTACHIEVEMENT

CHART: What marketing goals are Social Media most effective in realizing?

COMPANY SWOT ANALYSIS

CHAPTER 6: FINNDINGS

i. The online B2B market is flourishing at a steady pace through social media marketing. However, Linkedin still remains the primary target for B2B marketers and is fetching them maximum business. The other sites for marketing like Facebook, twitter, Youtube, etc. has still not made considerable impact.

ii. Internet has not yet reached the remote areas of India and e-commerce still remains a dark entity in some parts of the country without having much of an effect. Broadband facilities are not available everywhere.

iii. AlCircle Pte. Ltd. is still a start up and has not yet captured the online aluminium market. It’s contents and services are of international standards. With a variety of circles under its belt and a customer query chat option, it is moving towards personalized services to better serve the enlisted aluminium companies and a huge customer database of more than 10000 registered users.

iv. B2B aluminium portals are still not predominant. Therefore, not much information is available for the same.

RECOMMENDATIONS

For AlCircle Pte Ltd, my first recommendation will be to maximise on the Search Engine share which is still at a 32% and is a concern considering its other competitors. This can be done through extensive social media marketing by making the consumers aware of the portal and the benefits derived from it. The goal of the Portal should be to be the first reference point in the aluminium industry.

www.alcircle.com is basically a news and information portal for the aluminium industry, bringing the aluminium market under a niche with variety of verticals like the news circle, HR circle, value circle, business circle, event circle, etc. My suggestion to the company will be to give priority to a particular circle which will yield maximum return for the company. According to me, more emphasis should be given to event circle. AlCircle can tie up with various exhibitions & events held around the globe with respect to the aluminium industry by being a media or event partner which will enable the company to achieve recognition and increase customer database thereby increasing scope for more advertisements since the portal mainly relies on advertisements for revenue.

A B2B portal survives on its contents. Therefore, my third recommendation is to strategize on the contents of the site which is suitable for the portal and appreciated by the market in large. Up to date information and news about the market is a must for any B2B portal.

Since www.alcircle.com is primarily based on advertisements and corporate page for its revenue, its advertisement costs are quite high with only 9 advertisement spaces. It must therefore increase space and decrease costs to generate more revenue by being economical and providing full value for money.

 

CONCLUSION

From the above slides, we may conclude the following: Search Marketing of B2B web portals is very crucial because it

is the first step to recognition and holds a major role in the success of any portal. Thus, every B2B marketer much work upon their Search Engine Share.

B2B web portals play a major role in modern day E-Commerce and make lives easier for the companies and customers dealing with it by providing a global platform for easy communication, personalizing for one click access to critical information, increasing awareness among buyers and sellers, growing business through

E-Commerce and providing exposure to the world’s leading businesses. E-Commerce is still at early stages, there is immense scope for

growth and creativity for B2B web portals. As seen and established, all B2B platforms must concentrate on

providing the right content for its site according to the dealing markets. B2B marketers must focus on content marketing. Rightly so, it occupies 91% of marketing programs.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Search Engine Journal- Online Magazine www.alcircle.com- the comprehensive aluminium portal www.alunet.com www.aluminiumnetwork.com www.aluplanet.com www.alu.com.cn- China Aluminium Network Relevanza War of Words: Myth-Busting Social Media, SEO & Content

Marketing Bit Rebels Word Press Hosting SEO Linkedin (www.linkedin.com) www.alexa.com Google fight Marketing Charts- online magazine www.heidicohen.com

THANK YOU