Introduction
Online advertising is the best modern way to attract, capture and retain customers in a mass market where they will be informed about the availability of the product in the market, the exact locations where it can be purchased, the advantages of using the product, the company policy regarding usage of the product and any other relevant information like company history in terms of provision of competitive products for some period of time, having qualified staff who are ready to assist incase the product turns hazardous and also what first aid procedure to be adopted in such a case.
Online health care business will help to provide timely cure for ailments and so will contribute towards reducing deaths in the society.
Main body
Business expansion begins by carrying out an analysis which explains whether there is need for expansion, advantages to be derived from the business expansion and also how consumers will benefit from the expansion, thereafter the current financial position of the business will be assessed to determine the actual increase in business as a result of the expansion.
This will come along with costs related to the expansion like recruitment of more staff members, acquisition of new equipment and training staff members.
A time frame has to be worked out for training or acquiring new staff and educating them about the goals and objectives of the new business. An analysis needs to be made to determine source of capital for expansion and this will begin by doing a budget on cash needs.
If need be, capital can be raised for the expansion process and this will be via bank loan, or increasing share capital for shareholders and so they will have to inject more capital (Kotler & Keller, 2008).
While planning on the online business, the company will carry out a visibility cost analysis, assess the staffing needs to carry out the web designing, maintaining and providing frequent press release, responding to consumer queries, receiving online orders dispatching products purchased and carrying out general administration for the new business.
Web designing will cost around $500, the rest of the staff members will be permanent employees who will earn a monthly allowance, and their key performance indicator will be the number of customers served. Enough investment will be made for machinery which includes computers and laptops which will be used to provide consumer feedback.
Proper advertising strategies will have to be put in place to help make consumers aware about the business expansion through various media. This can be done via television, radio advertising, preferred magazine pull outs, Google ad word adverts and also though social sites like face book, all this is aimed at increasing the web presence.
After this analysis, a good business plan has to be drawn; it will give an account of the current business operations, expected operation after expansion, details of experience and qualifications of staff and also employment status.
This will help consumers know more about the company profile so they can decide if they want to create a relationship with the business, also this will help the company to secure financing from banks (Kotler & Keller, 2008).
The product needs to be viable in order for it to satisfy consumer needs, since viability of the products is what provides a market outlook on the product, how it will be marketed, who the target market is, the purchase locations, and so this provides an analysis on the way consumers will perceive the product or service in terms of how this will satisfy their demands, and help increase the possibility of using the product again.
The company must present the product attractively online, give an account of all the benefits of using the product and this must be followed by a detailed account of the presence of that product for some time and it has been proven to be beneficial to consumers.
For instance, if it is an insurance health product, the company should explain the channel of processing claims, how accidents will be reported, how payments will be made and time frame among other attributes which will make people consume the product. Before going online, the company will analyze the product using the BCG model where the product will be classified as a star, a cash cow, a problem child or a dog.
Once proper analysis has been made, the company will do a budget analysis to determine the extent of budgeting requirements.
If the product is a star, more expenditure has to be incurred to ensure that there is wide market coverage for the product to make sure there will be a long period of consumer usage of the product but if a cash cow, modest expenditure should be incurred since the objective is to get as much revenue as possible from the product before phasing it out of the market.
To carry out a proper online expansion, the company must identify potential competitors, which are companies offering similar products or services, after that an assessment will be done to determine the competitors strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
We will take into serious consideration the strengths and opportunities of the competitor, try to see where the competitor is doing very well and how that is made possible so that we can look for ways of making that our opportunity aimed at taking that market share.
Online marketing will help to attract more people to the website, increase customers and enhance brand loyalty, so we will begin by having a web promotion plan which will start with an effective web design and development strategy which must be appealing to consumers and in return will give us good search optimization techniques.
Good online marketing goes hand in hand with an efficient email marketing tool where customers can be briefed about new products’ features and any other information worth knowing.
We will introduce reseller affiliate programs and associate programs all aimed at getting to refer more clients from the existing ones, build a responsive opt-in email list where consumers will communicate directly to us, publish online web releases, facilitate and run online contests and introduce a blog/online chart where the company staff charts directly with online clients and provide answers to their queries.
In order for the company to reach a wide market for its online product sale strategy, we must optimize the online content, we have to ensure the information we have on the website is targeted to consumers, has the right words consumers will be looking for.
We must have a clear hierarchy and text links, where every page will be easily accessed by one link, the information on every link should be useful, with a clear and accurate description of the content.
We must limit flash files, portable document files and dynamic content since this will reduce our search optimization progress or we employ Meta tags to exclude such content from search engines to increase or ranking (Brigham & Daves, 2004).
Social media integration has to be put in place, it will be aimed at increasing web presence and takes the form of search engine optimization, allowing other companies to advertise on your site, carrying out email marketing, buy online media space and carry out frequent press releases which detail the milestones the company is taking to ensure that it offers the best products in the market, and above all, offer the best design of the social sites placed strategically and prominently exposed.
Online customer relationship management is the way the company manages its relationship with customers, clients and any other sales force by organizing, automating and synchronizing sales, marketing, customer service and technical support activities, all this aimed at ensuring customers get the satisfaction they deserve, the objective being to retain current customers, entice and acquire new ones, this will reduce marketing costs and customer service level agreement.
We shall have dedicated staff who will answer customer questions in real-time, we shall work on an online agents offering live chart with customers, and this will help customers get immediate solutions to any immediate concerns (Eley & Tilley, 2009).
A proper and secure payment system should be in place which enables customers to pay online for products and services and delivery of the products must be real-time as per the information provided by the customer during time of purchase. The product must be tested to make sure quality is guaranteed so as to eliminate cases of customer complaints and consequent shipping back the product.
Online business will reach the entire world at the click on the website link so the company must anticipate and expect to make sales to a very wide market, it should strategize to have feedback from potential areas away from home country where purchases are high and so it should plan to have a franchise operating there if this will be economical as opposed to sending the products from home country.
The website should have a translation tool which will help customers not able to read English to translate the data to a language of their choice, and adequate measures should be put in place to accommodate different cultures for instance in terms of packaging, advertising might be restricted in certain ways in some cultures (Eley & Tilley, 2009).
Conclusion
Basically, there must be a detailed plan for the expansion/growth of an online healthcare business, which gives the framework of operations, detailed account procedures to be followed and an outline of the expected benefits resulting from the expansion.
This is what the company management will look at and assesses the possibility of having the business expanded and therefore try to increase sales though online advertising. The expansion should be carried out in stages since this will give the company room to introduce new online products, give employees time to study and understand the systems and be able to assist clients.
References
Brigham, E., & Daves, P. (2004). Intermediate Financial Management (8th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western.
Eley, B., & Tilley, S. (2009). Online marketing inside out. Melbourne: SitePoint.
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2008). Marketing management (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Appendix
Appendix A: Projected Costs
Projected web development costs = $500 (one off)
Projected maintenance costs: Web hosting = $100 Per Year
Web search optimization = $100 Per year
Maintenance = $200 per year
Appendix B. New Website Index
International Healthcare and drug seller’s website index
A
Access drug database
Acquire vaccinations for new born children
C
Customer registrations
Consumer feedback
D
Drug prescriptions
N
Names of drugs and prescriptions
O
Online help
Online purchase of drugs
P
Product range
Purchase criteria
S
Staff qualifications
T
Talk to the doctor on duty