dotRED is comprised of industry professionals from advertising, marketing and
technology backgrounds. We listen to you and help drive your business forward.

i.lab

FAQ's


    What does dotRED do?

  • 1) dotRED is an organisation that operates in the digital media and business solutions environment. Simply, dotRED assists companies to reach their business objectives utilising digital media. The extent of our services ranges from consultancy and planning to basic website development through to extensive business solutions architecture and management.

    dotRED also has an innovation branch which focuses on the changing face of the digital environment and its technologies in order to develop state-of-the-art solutions.

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    Why should I use dotRED?

  • 2) The dotRED team is comprised of seasoned professionals from the IT, Marketing, and Business community. It is through this melding of professional backgrounds that we are able to structure viable and relevant business solutions to meet commercial needs. We do not just build websites - we are your business partners, with our primary focus being to help grow your business through leveraging online capabilities.

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    Why should our organisation invest in digital / online initiatives?

  • 3) There are many reasons to (re)invest in online marketing and developing a comprehensive business presence.

      • Credibility

    • 3.1) The first and most simple reason is that the internet is now an accepted part of business and not having an integrated web presence can harm your credibility. Your website sends out a powerful message about who you are.

      • Lead Generation?

    • 3.2) The internet is now regarded as one of the primary (often THE primary) medium for potential clients to conduct product or services research and information gathering. This research can often be the sole factor accounting for the entire sales process from information gathering, communications, through to final purchase.

      • Market Research?

    • 3.3) One of the internet's most powerful attributes is its capacity for two-way interaction between you and your potential clients. This interaction can be either direct or oblique. Direct interaction includes devices such as newsletter subscriptions, surveys, feedback forms, consumer satisfaction polls and questionnaires. Oblique interaction includes analysing the amount of time viewers spend at your site, which pages they visit and for how long. It can track where they come from and the rate of subsequent interactions. Either form of interaction can provide you with valuable (and often hard to obtain) facts and figures on consumer trends.

      • Cost / Operational Effectiveness

    • 3.4) Cost / Operational Effectiveness. Used strategically, your web site(s) can be a developed to directly meet a great many business functions and support many more secondary functions. For example, a website can be an extensive brochure site as well as offering an environment for supplying quotes, invoicing, payments, direct mail and advertising initiatives, creating micro sites for seasonal promotions, running competitions, and tracking consumer trends - and all this can be updated, managed, and controlled by you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (see 'what is CRM').

      • Brand Value and Development

    • 3.5) Brand Value and Development. No matter what stage your business is at, be it at inception or well established, having effective and comprehensive digital solutions in-place and utilised by your consumers and suppliers will add significant value to your brand. This will make your company not only more efficient, reduce operating costs, and increase returns but also make your brand a more attractive proposition for potential buyers in both operational terms as well as brand value (recognition and reputation).

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    How much does a website cost?

  • 4) How much does a car cost? It all comes down to performance and objectives. No matter what your budget is, its a good idea to start developing your digital solutions (see 'Why should our organisation invest in digital / online initiatives?'). One of the advantages of digital solutions is that they can be scaled according to your changing needs and budgets. Having said this, it pays to have a clear cut strategy in place before you start building. After all, you wouldn't start building a house without plans and it doesn't pay to start building business architecture without plans. To ensure that your long-term objectives are met and there are no cost or time blow outs, talk to a consultant first and develop an understanding of what is possible, prudent and viable.

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    What is Online Marketing?

  • 5) Wikipedia states that 'Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing, Internet advertising, or eMarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner advertising, google adwords, e-mail marketing, affiliate networks and social and viral networking.

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    What is SEO and SEM?

  • 6) SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. A search engine is what delivers your search results such as Google or Yahoo. The process of optimising your site involves applying specific practises to increase the ranking of your site when people conduct searches. Naturally, the higher up the list of results you are the more web traffic you will get. Due to the increasing amount of reliance companies place on their web presence, the competition for traffic (viewers) and the increasingly sophisticated means of optimising sites, SEO is becoming a recognised job in its own right.

    SEM is Search Engine Marketing. This is simply marketing your website so that it can be found more easily by people conducting searches. SEM includes SEO as well as running campaigns based on PPC (pay per click) or pay per inclusion through search networks (such as Google, Yahoo! etc).

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    What is CMS?

  • 7) A CMS (Content Management System) is a web-based application that is used to manage and create content in an organised fashion for websites and other web-based applications. A web-based CMS is also sometimes called a web content management system. A content management system will allow a user with little knowledge of HTML (Hyper-text Markup Language) to manage a website easily and effectively using a web-based control panel or desktop application. A web-based content management system is usually a database driven application and may contain a template feature to change the look and feel of the front-end website.

    There are other types of content management systems that can manage computer files, image and multimedia files, and electronic documents. These systems can be desktop applications that do not need an Internet or a network connection. They are sometimes called inventory management systems or asset management systems and may be used to manage items ranging from movie film reels and books to automobiles.

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    How should I integrate my traditional marketing with my online marketing?

  • 8) The Internet has three primary benefits. Firstly, you can present a huge amount of company information at relatively low costs. Secondly, you are able to disseminate this information to a global audience without escalating distribution costs. Finally, it allows for two-way B2B or B2C communications facilitating as much or as little of the entire sales process as you choose.

    Despite these significant advantages, the fact remains that the Internet is fundamentally a communication medium (like press or radio) and therefore similar principles of communication are likely to apply. There are many models that explain how consumers engage with marketing communications but for the purposes of this explanation, let's use the AIDA model, which describes how people move through stages in their interactions with your company.

      • Attention

    • 8.1) First, you need to draw Attention to your company/promotion. Given that the Internet is a highly competitive environment, you need to promote your site aggressively. Attention is a key priority for any business with an online presence. Without it, nothing else covered in the AIDA model will happen. Gaining attention can be achieved by using both online and offline promotional strategies and may involve the use of a wide range of Internet marketing tactics as well as press, radio and TV for directing the consumer to your site. It simply isn't enough to expect significant traffic by hoping people will visit your site.

      • Interest

    • 8.2) As with all promotions or sales, your product or service has to be of interest to the prospective consumer. This necessitates targeting your promotional activities to the those most suited to your product/service. Again, the promotional channels and activities you choose should reflect the habits and preferences of your target audience. These can include type of online affiliates (co-promoters), traditional media promotions, POS (point of sale) promotions, DM (direct mail), email promotions, and viral promotions through online social networking to name a few. You can see how a synergistic approach, combining traditional and online strategies, can start to develop significant interest.

      • Desire and Action

    • 8.3.4) Desire and subsequent Action (purchase, subscribe, enter etc) can be achieved through tried and tested marketing devices. These can be as simple as time limited promotional offers such as buy one get one free, buy online for a discount (eg. airfares), or activities such as competitions and giveaways. While traditional media are good for mass audience awareness, the Internet is ideal for conducting these activities as it enables you to track, record, and analyse the data in real time (as opposed to collation and analysis a week or two after the promotion).

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Please feel free to contact us anytime, we will endeavour to get back to you ASAP.