Tie up to provide Web Genius online marketing services

by Elmo Leonard

Web Genius, Wellington, New Zealand, an online marketing service provider signed an agreement last week, with Web Genius Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, Colombo 3. With it, the local firm becomes the New Zealand company's sole representative in providing Web Genius online marketing services in Sri Lanka.

Richard Calkin, the founder and chairman of Web Genius, in New Zealand was in Colombo for the launch. Calkin, is "primarily, a marketing man," and uses on line advertising as a tool. He described Web Genius as an efficient, cost-effective, personalised electronic marketing communication tool - offering website, e-newsletters and e-commerce.

Web genius allows the user company to communicate, present offers, manage relationships and increase loyalty.

Calkin described Web Genius services as, "quick to implement, powerful, and incredibly simple to use."

Calkin said that Web Genius takes a fundamentally different approach to most similar applications in taking organisations online. The traditional approach has been to build a relatively static web site ('brochureware') and communicate frequently (if at all) with the customer base via email.

Calkin explained that more sophisticated attempts with higher levels of dynamics and interactivity are usually the result of custom design and development and are often "prohibitively" expensive and difficult to maintain.

Web Genius has been designed from the ground up, to overcome such limitation and put the communication and one-to-one marketing power to the Internet, including the ability to generate dynamic and interactive web sites, back into the hands of the user themselves, at relatively low cost, Calkin said.

Web Genius users build loyalty with their customers. In five years, the product had become world class, and has expanded to Australia, USA, UK, and recently to the Maldives, with increasing acceptance to SMEs, organisations and entrepreneurs.

The traffic listed towards this website is listed in over 300 search engines and directories, thereby the response and interest of clients and visitors to this website makes it a very powerful marketing tool, Calkin said.

Web Genius, director, business development for Asia, Ifthi Idris, explained to clients, that at the hub of the Web Genius system "is your customer database and everything revolves around it." Taking an example, Idris said that, any e-newsletter or web page, (or even a section within each) can be linked to the database to provide personalised presentation of information to the reader - easily and automatically.

This could be as simple as presenting a directory of service available to a customer in a particular region to something as powerful as referencing a customer by name in the opening paragraph of a web page.

And, of changing content and/or service offerings on that (or any other) page to match their reference.

Idris, described this as an incredibly useful marketing mechanism that until now had been the domain of large enterprises with access to high level programming resources and was just not available to the majority of smaller/medium organisations.

Yet, this is but a glimpse of the possibilities of Web Genius, Idris said. He described Web Genius as a comprehensive and integrated 'modern marketing' system. "Its modular, so clients subscribe to the service and choose only the functionality they need."

Last week, a seminar was held in Colombo, to create awareness of Web Genius services, in the local market.

With Web Genius, when a website is reached, it sends a message, thanking the sender. "Its friendship in an electronic way," Idris said. Also, that profit does not come from sales, but through fostering a good relationship with customers.

Web Genius, also provides the like of an advertising feedback. It informs who, and how many people have visited the Web Genius website, Idris said. Among other plus points are that messages could be sent upfront; Christmas and birthday greetings, are examples. Also, that pages can be made on lap top, Idris said.

Web Genius Lanka, chairman, Yoosul Mohamed Jiffry said that it is a fast-growing product all over the world - a web, internet and IT related business, yet young to the user.

Jiffry, earlier, an educationist, is intent on marketing the product in an appropriate way, with fitting infrastructure. He had not come across another web service, with total solutions, for day to day businesses, he said.

Jiffry said that India is a base for computer hardware and software, backed by the medium of instruction in India, being English, for relevant subjects, from year one. Sri Lanka has to follow suit, to be competitive.