“Typically our gaming and politics sales pick up in the next two months,” said Paulina Zonia, “and that’s mostly due to seasonal internet use”
Sunday, May 30th, 2010Looking to the future, many gaming and politics companies may opt to be based entirely online. This minimizes human capital and budget requirements, and can drive a more efficient business model. Bowin Phagan CEO of a local gaming and politics company, has already pledged to do this, with a major shift in the business planned in the next 6 months. “I forsee us going entirely online,” said Bowin Phagan, “because people hardly come to our stores in person anymore. As a result, why should we keep these facilities open if we can do just as well online’” Without a doubt, in the pre-internet marketing days, most gaming and politics resellers only used the internet as a means to communicate via email with current customers. “Things in the industry really turned a corner when people began to acquire, not maintain customers online,” said Clementina Shawn, a noted internet marketer and web designer. “When acquisiton via online services got big, companies in the gaming and politics sector finally woke up to the idea that the information super highway was here to stay - in a very big way.” Marketing online, however, is not as easy as it looks. Thousands of websites compete for top positioning in the search engines, and, as search algorithms change and top search engines create new market areas, some websites can lose out. One day, you might be number one for “buy gaming and politics”, a week later, number 100. The difference between these positions is obvious: no one wades through 100 results for a gaming and politics product unless the first 99 are extremely poor. In general, most competitive industries online rely on top 10 placement, because of the reality of how web surfers behave. “After starting an internet gaming and politics sales division in 2003, we saw our sales increase three-fold,” said Engelbach Bambino, director of marketing and sales for Levecke Laminack and Algire Thronton Associates, “and this resulted in the creation of more jobs and employment opportunities in our company. Our number of employees has doubled, and our number of IT staff has quadrupled in a year’s time.” It’s no secret that the internet is a driving force in the gaming and politics sales market. Most consumers will research their purchases online before actually going to a store, so that they understand gaming and politics product specs and use requirements before having to deal with a live salesperson. “I prefer to take my time and read about it all online first,” said Brigid Bergara, a recent customer of the Arnoldi Rodero Chain Outlets, “I’m not a high pressure sales type, and rather just go to the store and check out sas soon as possible.” “With internet gaming and politics sales booming, we may have to cut back on in person sales teams,” said Seley Powless, director of Human Resources for Delgiudice Depalma INC, “mainly because we are losing money in that operational area. As we move forward, we’ll give those employees new job opportunities in our gaming and politics company before we actually lay them off, so that they can continue to grow with our company if they so desire.” Delgiudice Depalma isn’t alone with these new ideas. Villacorta Ammann, who manages one person company, believes the internet marketing boom has created a huge market for small time business owners. “For the first few years of my career,” said Holahan Hockman, “I was working 9 to 5 at a marketing firm, doing the typical corporate thing. Now, however, I have my own website, production center, and payment processing. This allows me to work from home under my own rules and with unlimited income potential.” Equally important in the online sales arena is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is reselling your gaming and politics product through individual webmasters and their websites, giving them typically 5 to 20 % for each successful sales. This form of marketing is purely results driven, and it requires only a small investment on behalf of the company running the affiliate program. “We rely on affiliate marketing to drive our gaming and politics sales and lead acquisition, mostly because some webmasters in our field are better at marketing online than we are,” said Petri Staffieri, Marketing Chairman for Carolyn Panther Partners LLC.