Khushboo Chandak - Final SIP Report-Eli Research- Faridabad

SIP/Eli Research India (P) Ltd/13BSPHH010272 Page 1

A REPORT

ON

STUDY OF MARKET OPPORTUNITIES FOR NONPROFIT

ORGANZIATIONS IN THE US

By-

Khushboo Chandak

13BSPHH010272

Eli Research


A REPORT

ON

STUDY OF MARKET OPPURTUNITIES FOR NONPROFIT

ORGANIZATIONS IN THE US

Khushboo Chandak

13BSPHH010272

Eli Research

A Report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement of

MBA Program of

IBS Hyderabad

Distribution List:

Company Guide: Faculty Guide:

Mr. Jayanta Kumar Mohanty Dr. N P Prabhakr

Associate Director IBS Hyderabad

Eli Research India (P) Ltd., Faridabad

Eli Research India (P) Ltd., Faridabad

16 May, 2014


AUTHORISATION

This is to certify that the project report has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements of MBA program (2013 2015) of IBS, Hyderabad. This report document titled

STUDY OF MARKET OPPORTUNITIES FOR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

IN THE U.S. is a submission of work done by Ms. Khushboo Chandak. This report has

been formally submitted to Dr. N P Prabhakar, Faculty Guide, IBS Hyderabad and Mr.

Jayanta Kumar Mohanty (Associate Director, Eli Research India). This report is authenticated

and verified by

Dr. N P Prabhakar Mr. Jayanta Kumar Mohanty

Faculty Guide, Associate Director

IBS, Hyderabad Eli Research, India


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Words are indeed inadequate to convey my deep sense of gratitude to all those who have

helped me in completing my summer project to the best of my ability. Being a part of this

project has certainly been a unique and a very productive experience on my part.

I am extremely grateful to Mr. Ajay Gupta, Country Head, Eli Research India Pvt. Ltd,

for providing me an opportunity to work with the organization and for encouraging me to

take up this challenge.

I am deeply indebted to my company guide, Mr. Jayanta Kumar Mohanty, Associate

Director, Eli Research India Pvt. Ltd, who always stood by my side and helped me avail

resources which were essential for the completion of my project work. He took special

interest in ensuring that I got ample exposure and therefore, learnt the intricacies of the

business. His tremendous encouragement made me walk that extra mile.

I would like to thank my Faculty Guide, Dr. N P Prabhakar for the unconditional

supervision and support during the course of internship that helped smoothening the

internship program, and guide through every step. His co-operation is highly appreciated.

Last but not the least; I take this opportunity to thank all other members of Eli team, Mr.

Balram Singh, Pulkit Saxena, Debshuvra Chowdhury and others for making my entire

sojourn at Eli Research India Pvt. Ltd, an extremely smooth and unforgettable experience. I

would never have been able to accomplish my goals without their support.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Heading No. Topic Page No.

Cover 1

Title Page 2

Authorization 3

Acknowledgement 4

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 9

2. INTRODUCTION 10

2.1 Purpose of Study 11

2.2 Key Challenges 11

2.3 Methodology 12

2.4 Scope 13

2.5 About the Company 14

2.1.1 About Eli Global 14

2.1.2 Companies under Eli 15

2.1.3 The Coding Institute 18

3. PROJECT SPECIFIC ANALYSIS 22

3.1 Understanding The 7 Ps of Service Marketing 22

3.1.1 Product 22

3.1.2 Price 27

3.1.3 Place 29

3.1.4 Promotion 33

3.1.5 People 44

3.1.6 Physical Evidence 45

3.1.7 Process 48

3.2 Competitive Analysis 52

3.2.1 Product Portfolio for US Nonprofit Market 53

3.2.2 Broad Categories 58

(i) Compliance 58

(ii) Finance 60


(iii) Human Resource Management 62

(iv) Management and Operations 64

3.3 Marketing Tool Analysis 66

3.3.1 Analysis of Total Visits on website by potential customers 69

(i) Total Visits 69

(ii) New Visitors for the month 69

(iii) Bounce Rate 70

(iv) Pages and average time spent per visit 70

(v) New visitors 71

(vi) Daily Visits 72

3.4 Porters Five Force Model 72

4 PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION 73

4.1 Product 74

4.2 Price 75

4.3 Place 76

4.4 Promotion 76

4.5 People 78

4.6 Physical evidence 78

4.7 Process 78

4.8 Findings and Analysis 78

4.9 Sector Analysis (Pros and Cons) 79

4.10 PESTEL Analysis 80

5 RECOMMENDATIONS 81

6 ATTACHMENTS 82

7 REFERENCES 85


List of Illustrations

Table for Figures

FIGURE 1: UNDERSTANDING THE METHODOLOGY OF THE PROJECT. ................. 13

FIGURE 2: FLOW CHART EXPLAINING DIFFERENT COMPANIES UNDER ELI

UMBRELLA .................................................................................................................... 15

FIGURE 3: EXPLAINING THE CODING INSTITUTE ....................................................... 18

FIGURE 4: FLOW CHART EXPLAINING TYPES OF ON PAGE SEO ............................. 37

FIGURE 5: FLOW CHART EXPLAINING TYPES OF OFF PAGE SEO ........................... 39

FIGURE 6: SOCIAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE ......................................................................... 43

FIGURE 7: FLOW CHARTS EXPLAINING THE PROCESS OF TCI ............................ 47

FIGURE 8: A PIE CHART SHOWING PRODUCT PORTFOLIO OF THE PLAYERS IN

US NONPROFIT MARKET. ........................................................................................... 56

FIGURE 9: A BAR GRAPH SHOWING TOTAL NUMBER OF WEBINARS MAJOR

COMPETITORS ARE OFFERING IN US NONPROFIT MARKET. ........................... 56

FIGURE 10: PIE CHART SHOWING NUMBER OF WEBINARS OFFERED BY TOP 5

COMPETITORS IN COMPLIANCE CATEGORY. ...................................................... 58

FIGURE 11: A BAR GRAPH SHOWING THE NUMBER OF WEBINARS FALLING

UNDER PARTICULAR PRICE RANGE. ...................................................................... 59

FIGURE 12: A PIE CHART SHOWING NUMBER OF WEBINARS OFFERED BY TOP 5

COMPETITORS IN FINANCE CATEGORY. ............................................................... 60











FIGURE 18: PORTERS FIVE FORCE MODEL .................................................................. 72


Tables:

TABLE 1: A TABLE SHOWING DIFFERENT CATEGORIES THAT ARE RESEARCHES

FOR US NONPROFIT MARKET. 25

TABLE 2: A TABLE SHOWING THE PRICING STRATEGY OF TOP 5 COMPETITORS

WITH THEIR TIME DURATION IN COMPLIANCE CATEGORY. 59







TABLE 6: A TABLE SHOWING THE TOPICS THAT HAVE BEEN SUGGESTED TO

THE COMPANY FOR POTENTIAL WEBINAR OPPORTUNITIES. 75


1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Eli Global is into acquiring, investing, and operating a portfolio of healthcare, media, market

intelligence, certification, and associated service businesses. It follows B2B business model

which hold multiple verticals and brands serving the company in providing online business

training in the U.S. market.TCI (The Coding Institute) is an affiliate of Eli Global which has

established itself very well in the healthcare sector via audioeducator. TCI, expanding its

business further has stepped into new verticals serving new target markets through

audiosolutionz and explore its webinar business into non-healthcare sectors like Nonprofit

Organizations in the US, which further includes various sub-sectors like Compliance, General

issues and management issues etc. The company renders its services through webinars which

are online seminars or audio conferences, recorded form and other forms.

The website offers a vast array of products such as webinars and audio conferences (which

are available in both live and pre-recorded formats) along with added products such as

CD/DVD packages as well as e-books and transcripts, to provide quality training solutions to

professionals of their respective industries and sectors.

The project work that was given by the company was carried forward by doing secondary

market research on the US Nonprofit sector. Since TCI found the sector as a potential market

to enter into, the project revolved around on gathering information and increasing the

knowledge base of Nonprofit sector. This has been done by doing extensive online secondary

market research and developing strategies to create informational webinars for the target

audience, keeping in mind to increase the customer base and revenue and stay ahead of the

competitors, along with designing strategies and deciding on new channels of digital

promotion and campaigns to capture attention of the target audience.

Analysis of the current competitors was a pre requisite to check their current and past

offerings, in order to improve our own market offering and devising the pricing strategy.

Since the company is into service sector, therefore 7 Ps analysis of the market was

performed along with a brief SWOT analysis. Another task was to identify the target

audience who could benefit from the webinars offered by the company. Yet another

important task was promotion of said webinars, in order to ensure proper and effective

communication with the target audience, and so various online promotion tools also need to

be looked upon.


2 INTRODUCTION

2.1 Purpose of the Study

The primary objective of the study is to understand the market potential of Nonprofit

sector in the U.S. since it is an upcoming vertical of the company.

Thus, to have a complete understanding of the sector is a pre requisite. The marketing

strategy that is being followed is go to market strategy.

One of the most important objectives is to research for the speakers/experts to deliver

an effective webinar. Since TCI is a potential entrant into new market, finding the

speakers is a challenge. Speaker research is one of the most important tasks at hand.

Getting the speakers on board so as to deliver the webinars is of paramount

importance so as to successfully diversify into this new sector.

By studying the U.S market thoroughly, understanding the trend in the U.S nonprofit

market, the topics have to be researched accordingly. The topics to be selected for the

webinar/audio conference should be suitable and beneficial for the target market.

Competitor profiling is also an important task, in order to enter into the new sector.

Since TCI being a new entrant, understanding the market, the trends in the market

place along with the competitors, is an important task. Also at the end of my research

I need to deliver a comparative analysis so that it becomes easier for the company to

work on its 7 Ps.

In addition to all this, finding the target audience is also important. The webinars

should be beneficial to the customers, only then would they pay for the webinars.

Reaching to the correct customers is the key to successful entry into the new market.

For my vertical specially, target audience could be ministers of religious institutions,

clergies, volunteers, managers, attorneys, board of directors donors and donees and

owners of any nonprofit organization.


Since TCI offers paid webinars, devising of the pricing strategies is also very

important part of the project. Being a potential entrant in the markets, pricing strategy

can be devised by looking at the competitor pricing initially.

Another important aspect is Promotion. Promotion being one the most important Ps

of the marketing mix, online promotion strategies are needed to be looked upon, for

entering into the new market. Company is already into email marketing, tele

marketing, fax marketing, web promotion.

2.2 Key Challenges

Lack of market insights

Since TCI is looking Nonprofit sector as a potential market, the information through

company sources, thus, making an understanding over the sector is a very difficult

task.

Issues related to competitors:

Looking into competitor profiles always gives you better idea on potentials of the

sectors specially, when you are new into the market. Nonprofit sector doesnt have

many competitors to look into and since its nonprofit, most of the legal education is

provided for free or at low price which doesnt match companys expectations.

As mentioned above, most of the legal information is provided for free, thus, we have

to follow unconventional way of thinking and bring such topics onboard which are

new in the market.

Speaker related challenges

Speaker search is itself a cumbersome task, and even after the speaker is found, the

key challenge is to get that speaker on board to deliver webinars/ audio conferences.


Speaker Search and Conversion

Speaker search is itself a cumbersome task, and even after the speaker is found, the

key challenge is to get that speaker on board to deliver webinars/

Speaker Honorarium

Negotiating with speaker for speaker honorarium is another hurdle to overcome.

There may be a disagreement over amount of the honorarium with the speaker, which

needs to be taken care of.

Spam Issues

Even while contacting with the speakers, there is a possibility that the mail wouldnt

land into the speakers inbox but rather in his spam. As a result of which the speaker

doesnt revert back

Target Audience

Being a U.S market, reaching to the correct target audience is the biggest challenge. It

takes a lot of time to build comprehensive list of the target audience.

Product Differentiation

The only thing that makes you stand out in a highly competitive market is your

PRODUCT, how different is your product from the competitors both in terms of

quality of the webinars or the quantity also in terms of the speakers.

SEO for AUDIOSOLUTIONZ

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of

a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search

results. Since AudioSolutionz is still in its developing stage, optimizing the website is

one of the biggest challenges faced.

2.3 Methodology

The project is to be accomplished by using secondary research.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is a method of collecting data that has already been gathered by someone


else. It is a technique used when performing marketing research. It is a useful method as it

allows the researcher to identify a new topic rather than one that has exhaustively been

researched.

To understand the consumer behavior from different aspect meaning their priority towards

the type of feature that they focus more on, benefits, SWOT Analysis etc, secondary research

such as internet, reports and journals would be used. Also the websites of different

companies, ebooks, articles and blogs, use of multiple search engines and companys sources

are sources of secondary research.

Figure 1: Understanding the methodology of the project.

2.4 SCOPE

Working on increasing search engine ranking of the website by bringing good topics

with its expert speaker onboard.

Once the sector is established, company has to look into introductory offers for high

sales like offering a bundle of webinars at low price to the consumers.

Looking into different online and offline channels of promotions through which

company can increase its visibility.

Exploring the new untouched aspects of Nonprofit sector like providing webinars on

upcoming issues than limiting it to compliance.

Data Collection

Data Analysis

Developing Strategy & Methods

Decision Making for Company


2.5 About the Company

2.5.1 About Eli Global

Eli Research India is part of the Eli Global group of companies. Eli Global was founded in

1991 by Greg Lindberg in New Haven, CT and has grown rapidly through acquisitions and

organic growth. Today, Eli Global companies employ over 1,500 professionals working from

over 14 offices worldwide.

Eli Global, LLC acquires, invests, and operates a portfolio of healthcare, media, market

intelligence, certification, and associated service businesses. It offers sports and specialty

market collectibles and enthusiast publications; market research services; information

intelligence and services for the architecture, engineering, and construction industries;

healthcare newsletter publications; and software and training services for the medical coding

industry. The company also provides collection and debt management services; and grocery

store advertising services. In addition, it designs and implements marketing programs for the

healthcare industry.

Eli and its SBUs serve customers ranging from baseball card collectors to medical coders and

provide a broad range of media for each interest group we serve, including magazines,

newsletters, online communities, subscription web sites, e-commerce solutions, workflow

software, certifications, training, seminars, conferences, and webinars.


2.5.2 Companies under Eli include:

Figure 2: Flow Chart explaining different companies under ELI Umbrella

BCC Research

BCC Research is the leader in covering market changes driven by science and technology.

BCC's market research coverage provides detailed market size forecasts that incorporate the

major economic, scientific, and technological developments in industrial, pharmaceutical,

and high technology organizations. Industry analysis and market forecasts for advanced

materials, high-tech systems and components, nanotechnology and novel processing methods

are at the forefront of the company's expertise.

For more than 40 years, BCC's in-depth market analysis has provided businesses with the

insight needed to make intelligent and strategic business decisions.

ELI RESEARCH GLOBAL

Bekket Media

Credit Management Company

Shopper Local

The Coding Institute

Harverd Collection Services

BCC Research

Engaged Enthusiastic Media


The Coding Institute

The Coding Institute has provided healthcare education and information for more than 60

years, with roots going back to 1947 and is dedicated to offering quality products and

services to help healthcare organizations succeed. Their focus is on providing specialty-

specific content, code sets, continuing legal education opportunities, consulting services, and

a supportive community of healthcare professionals and experts. It has now widen the

business by entering non health care sector by providing consulting services, leagal education

and business solutions to different sectors like construction and housing, energy and

environment, education, management, leadership and so on.

Harvard Collection Services

Harvard Collection Services was established in 1982 and has built a reputation for its

outstanding performance in Debt Management and quality customer service. Harvard

Collection is a full service, nationally licensed, results oriented receivables Management

Company with over 30 years of history serving clients in range of markets. Services provided

by Harvard Collection services include:

Extended Business Office

Contingency Collections

Debt Purchasing

Consulting Services

Credit Management Company


Credit Management Company (CMC) is a premier, full service collections and accounts

receivable management agency that is dedicated to accelerating cash flow and is committed

to providing their business partners with optimum service through expertise, knowledge,

technology and open communication.

Beckett Media

Beckett Media has been the voice of record in the collectibles industry since its pioneering

beginning in 1984. The preeminent publisher of sports and specialty market collectible

publications in the world, Beckett Media also operates Beckett.com (www.beckett.com, an

award-winning third-party professional sports card grading service.

. In addition to its industry-standard sports collectibles publications, Beckett Media's

entertainment division produces magazines devoted to the vibrant, high-interest worlds of

Pokmon, massively multiplayer online gaming and plushy collectibles. Beckett, in

partnership with NBC Sports' Rotoworld.com, also produces award-winning fantasy sports

guides for baseball and football. Circulation of all Beckett titles combined - including a stable

of regular-frequency magazines and books as well as a bevy of hot-market specialty titles -

exceeds 1.1 million copies.

Shopper Local

Shopper Local has grown to become the largest and most respected highly targeted media

company in the world. Their contingent of offices throughout the United States, and Canada

provide our advertisers the unique ability to precisely target their current and potential

customers. The client base ranges from the local shoe repair to international conglomerates.


2.5.3 THE CODING INSTITUTE

The Coding Institute is dedicated to offering quality products and services to help

healthcare organizations succeed. They are primarily focused on providing specialty-specific

content, codesets, continuing education opportunities, consulting services, and a supportive

community of healthcare professionals and experts. The Coding Institute have a host of

products and services that are broadly classified under our three main brands:

Figure 3: Explaining the Coding Institute

Super Coder It is a division of The Coding Institute that provides resources and

education for coding and billing professionals through online code look-up tools,

books, and print and electronic newsletters. Super Coder consults with the brightest

minds in coding to bring savvy how-to advice, plain-English coding updates, and time

saving and denial-reducing tools.

Audio Educator.com - It is TCI's leading provider of healthcare-related audio

conferences and webinars in the industry today. Their top-notch, professional speakers

bring the latest information directly into offices and conference rooms of busy

healthcare professionals all across the country. In addition, their CD and transcript

libraries provide convenient learning around the clock. Whether it's coding and billing,

compliance, audit prevention, customer service or something more,

AudioEducator.com has it covered.

Audio Solutionz.com - AudioSolutionz.com, the leading source of business-enhancing

information. Their audio conferences, CDs, transcripts and other quality products are

designed to educate and improve the lives of professionals on a daily basis. Audio

The Coding Institute (TCI)

SuperCoder

Audioeducator

Audiosolutionz


Solutionz deliver the most useful, practical and pithiest, up-to-the-minute information in

areas both technical and inter-personal and cover a plethora of topics in the technical

ground like Microsoft Office, Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook as well as the

critical people skills for customer service, leadership, teamwork, sales and marketing.

TCIs Training in Healthcare

The Coding Institute is the provider of choice for medical coding, billing, and compliance

resources, education, and information. TCIs portfolio of products and services targets high-

end decision makers with direct financial responsibility for their organizations. More than

60,000 consultants, physicians, compliance officers, practice managers, and medical coders

in both the physician practice setting and the facility setting rely on the information and

resources provided by The Coding Institute. This group of savvy healthcare professionals

actively seeks information that will help them improve their coding, reduce denials, and

improve the overall profitability of their organizations. The Coding Institute offers a host of

products and services for the medical community through www. audioeducator.com

TCI provides a wide array of products for the healthcare professionals including

1. Medical Coding Newsletters

2. Medical Coding Books

3. Healthcare Audio Conferences/ Webinars

4. Online Coding tools

5. CDs and Transcripts for audio conferences/ Webinars


B2B BUSINESS MODEL OF THE COMPANY

The company is into business to business model. Since TCI has a niche market segment

focusing only on professionals and business entities related to specific sector, it provide

online training to attorneys, managers, government agents, owners of any nonprofit

organization and so on which further render their services to common masses. This makes

TCI business model as B2B model.

WEBINAR TECHNOLOGY

A webinar is an online seminar. It is an online event that is hosted by an

organization/company and is broadcasted to a selected group of individuals through their

computers via the Internet. (A webinar is sometimes also referred to as a webcast,

online event or web seminar.)A webinar allows a speaker from the hosting

organization/company to share PowerPoint presentations, videos, web pages or other

multimedia content with audiences that can be located anywhere.

Webinars typically have audio and visual components. The visual component of a

webinar is shared through a web conferencing tool or Internet browser. The audio portion

of a webinar is usually broadcast through the audiences computers (through speakers and

media players) or through the telephone. A webinar also allows the hosting

organization/company to interact with an audience. The audience can ask the speaker or


the moderator (who is leading the webinar), questions in real-time through an instant

messaging tool or e-mail.

Convenience

Since webinars take place over the Internet directly on your computer, there is no

need to leave the office or home. Because of this, many professionals are using

webinars as a time-efficient, cost-effective method of training.

Affordability

Besides the fact that there is no travel costs involved with attending a Webinar, the

price of attending a webinar is typically much lower than other training options.

Additionally, multiple participants can train together by viewing the webinar at a

single location and therefore pay for only one connection. An entire team can gather

in one conference room to attend together and discuss the webinar contents without

having to invest time and money traveling to and from a physical seminar location.

Efficiency

Most webinars are designed to last around 60-90 minutes in length and are usually

scheduled to fit the work day of busy professionals. Because of their short length,

webinars typically pack a lot of information into a very short period of time.

Long term value

Many webinars offer the option to access the contents and materials again for some

time after the event has ended. Because of this, participants can review the

presentation multiple times, helping them revisit the materials for reference and apply

the contents as needed.

Ease of use

Registering for and attending Webinars is usually an easy process achieved over the

Internet with a standard computer browser and requires no more skill than using the

average email program. Most webinar applications are designed for ease-of-use and

require very little additional downloading of software, if any.

But there are certain disadvantages as well associated with webinar trainings.

Computer and Internet required

While a large meeting space is not needed, both presenter and participants will need a


computer and Internet connection. Participants will also require an email account to

receive an electronic invitation to the webinar.

Computer literacy

While most webinar applications are designed for ease of use, participants must be

able to navigate a computer and perform basic browser operations such as accessing

the Internet.

No interaction

Because the presenter will not be face to face with participants, all communicating is

through his voice and presentation. The instructor cannot gauge the level of

understanding among her participants because she cannot see their expressions, and

the participants may lose some of the excitement about the subject when they cannot

see the instructors face.

3 PROJECT SPECIFIC ANALYSIS

The main objective of the project is to provide on go market strategy to TCIs (The

Coding Institute) webinar business in Nonprofit sector in the US. TCI being a key player

in the heath care sector where it provides specialty-specific content, codesets, continuing

education opportunities, consulting services, now intends to extend its webinar business

to other allied sectors as well.

3.1 UNDERSTANDING THE 7 Ps OF SERVICE MARKETING OF TCI

3.1.1 PRODUCT

The product, which is the online training provided by TCI is intangible and electronic in its

form. The delivery and consumption are inseparable as the date and time of the delivery of

online training is pre decided. The services provided are hybrid in nature. The speaker, topic,

date and time of the webinar is pre decided. The customization part comes when the

webinars/ audio conferences are recorded and provided to the customers in different forms.

Types of products offered by TCI are:

Audio Conferences

Webinars


Transcripts

On Demand webinars

E-Newsletters

Recorded CD or DVD

Ebooks (not for all the verticals)

TOPIC/ CATEGORY RESEARCH

Topic research is another important area to be considered. The topic for the webinars/ audio

conferences is also an important aspect on which one can differentiate their product. Since

entering into new markets, those topics should be researched on which there currently no

training is being given.

Also the current hot topics should attract more potential customers. But for this entire topic

research, understanding of the market place is a pre requisite. The topics which are

researched should be beneficial to the target audience and also could attract more and more

customers who would want to buy the audio conference. With so many competitors in the

market, identifying the topics that would make TCI stand out is a challenging task. Hence

different broad areas for the market have been identified.

CATEGORIES TOPICS

Taxation Tax Issues for Nonprofits

Unrelated Business activities Tax

Compliance Tax Exempt Organizations From Start to Finish

Filing 5500 Schedule C: Ensuring Compliance with

Disclosure and Reporting Requirements

Preparing IRS Form 990: A Guide for Lawyers on

Non-Profit Boards

Nonprofit Revitalization Act

Finance Charitable Giving Techniques

How to Position Your Nonprofit for a Government

Grant or Contract

Nonprofit Accounting for Contributions and

Pledges


Income

Raising Funds

Accounting& Auditing

Grants & Gifts

Insurance

Investments

Operation Guidance on lobbying activities

Day to day events to attract people

Maintaining tax exempt status

Formation and dilution of organization

Expansion- Franchise, partnership, mergers

Property Intellectual Property

Real estate issues

Technology Strategic Social Media

Online Fundraising

Software

Cloud Computing

M technology

Website

Management Nonprofit Executive Director

Understanding Fiduciary liability

The Role of Trust Protectors and Special

Fiduciaries

Human Resource Employee Benefit Plans of Tax-Exempt and

Governmental Employers

Retirement Plans

Stewardship

Payrolls

Board of Directors

Recruitment

Structure of the organization

Leadership Leadership Succession


International Working Internationally

Nonprofit Mergers

International Activities of Domestic

Charitable Organizations

Foreign Religion

International Charities

International Organizations

Legal risks Volunteers

Regulatory Authorities

Donor Donor Management

CRM

Table 1: A table showing different categories that are researches for US nonprofit market.

SPEAKER/SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT RESEARCH

One of the most important aspects of the webinar business by TCI is the SPEAKER or the

SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT, the one who delivers the webinar/ audio conference and

provides training. The speaker forms the basis of the training that is imparted through the

webinars or the audio conferences. Hence, speaker research is one of the most important pre

requisite before entering into any new markets.

Additionally, not only researching for the speaker, but also making them a part of TCI is also

important. After searching for a particular speaker, right from getting their contact details to

reaching out to them, negotiating with them are some of the major challenges that are

encountered during this entire process.

Since, TCI would be a new entrant into this market, differentiating their product, which is

training on a particular topic for a specific target group, can also be done in terms of the

speaker. How good a conference or a webinar is depends on the topic on which the

conference is being presented as well as the speaker.

There are a number of challenges that are associated with the speakers in general, the most

important being Speaker Conversion. The number of speakers who actually respond back or

revert back is very less as compared to the number of the speakers who are contacted. There


may be issues of spamming, wherein, the mails sent to speakers may not land in their inbox,

but in their spam. Then in some cases, the speaker themselves may stall and not respond

because he is too busy.

All in all, speaker research forms the basis of the business, and for market, Nonprofit

organizations, in total of 687 speakers have been found, who are experts in their own fields.

And, the next stage would be to get in contact with the speakers and then making these

speakers a part of TCI.

TARGET AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION

The next important determining factor for entering into new markets would be identifying the

TARGET AUDIENCE. Determining the correct audience and reaching to them is a crucial

factor in having a successful conference or webinar. Understanding what the customer wants

is very important in scheduling a conference.

Identifying the target group is one task, but then reaching out to them is also a challenging

task. Designing a comprehensive list of the target audience is a cumbersome task and takes a

lot of time. Even after generating a list, determining which group of people will be interested

in buying the audio conference is also important.

Also for identifying the target audience, understanding of the market is required. Since, TCI

is entering into new markets for training using the audio conference, a thorough of the

marketplace is must, because only can then TCI correctly identify its target audience.

Targeting as we know is an important aspect of the marketing mix, hence targeting to the non

target group, would obviously not be beneficial to the company.

For TCI, one has to keep in mind is that it render its services only into niche market. Its target

market is very specific. It does not cater to the needs of common masses and only provide

business solutions/ trainings.

Its target audience for nonprofit sector can be divided into two categories:

Attorneys


Non Attorneys (includes business owners, managers, government agents,

professionals, board of directors, clergies, ministers, volunteers and so on.)

3.1.2 PRICE

Pricing is a dynamic process. One has to be always on its toe to see what market is offering

and what our competitors are offering. Companies design a pricing structure that covers all

their products. They change this structure over time and adjust it to account for different

customers and situations. The nonprofit sector conferences can be priced in the range of. The

competitors currently providing training in the nonprofit sector are between the price range of

$0 to $950. The company generally adopts competitive based pricing.

The following pricing strategies could be adopted by TCI, since they are entering into new

market.

Penetration Pricing In case of Penetration pricing, the organization sets a low price

initially, to increase the sales and market share and once the market share has been

captured, and the organization may then increase their prices. Since TCI is entering

into new market of Nonprofit sector, they should follow penetration pricing. Being a

new entrant, they should keep the prices of the webinars/audio conferences low, so

that they can create a place for themselves, and once that goal they might as well

increase their prices.

Bundle Pricing In case of Bundle pricing, several products are offered for sale, in

one combined unit that is often marked at a reduced price compared to the sum of

their separate purchase prices. Apart from providing the live audio conference or the

webinar, TCI also provides the transcript and CD of the conferences. So it would be a

good option to bundle the products together and provide them at a lower price.

Competitive Pricing Competitive pricing is one where the price is set in

comparison with the competitors, and it could be higher or lower or similar to the

competitors. Since entering into a new market, competitors should be looked at before

deciding the price of the webinar/ audio conference. Keeping a price similar or a little

less than the competitor would be the best option.


In addition, since it is a new sector, TCI could also provide some free complementary

webinars or audio conferences. It could also be used as a promotional strategy to attract

customers, and hence broadening the customer base.

Price has a lot of impact on the buying decision of the consumer. Factors that affect the

pricing strategy of TCI are:

Duration of the webinar

Depending on the duration of the webinar, the prices also changes. Generally a

webinar is for 60 minutes. If its extended, company charges higher price.

Topic of the webinar

Depending on the topic and the market demand, prices are set for a particular event.

Number of speakers in the panel

It has been observed that more the speakers more is the price charged. Since it

increases the marginal cost of the product, the price is also set high.

Honorarium Payments to the speaker

Speakers are paid the money against the service rendered in the form of honorarium

payment. It is negotiated before delivering the webinar while signing the contract. The

payment amount is decided on the basis of how renowned the speaker is in the

market, his expertise in that particular field and his experience in the field. This is one

of the important factors the company looks while deciding on the price.

Popularity of the speaker

If the speaker is well renowned in the U.S. market for his expertise, he/she would

always charge very high which would push the company to place its webinar on

higher price.

Prevailing Price in the market

Company has to follow the prevailing trend of the market in order to survive into it.

Since TCI will be new entrant into non-profit sector, it would be beneficial to keep

low prices initially in order to attract larger audience and gain a competitive

advantage over its competitors.


3.1.3 PLACE

Place, in literal terms, is how a product is reaching to the customers and making them

purchase the product. However, when it comes to online business, place or location refers to

how easily customers can locate your product or service. The website can act as a brand and

packaging of the product/ service one is offering.

There are a number of factors that should be taken into consideration while designing the

website, since website is the medium through which the customers can avail the products

being offered:

Users ease

While surfing the website, a consumer should find it easy to have complete access

over the site.


Navigation

Navigation of the website is a key component when the company is offering its

services online. Thus, website becomes the only interface that connects you to your

target audience. It is often what stands between the user and the users goal also. And

as a marketer, one should want to make that distance as short as possible. Specifically,

the navigation should enable users to choose from a small selection of pages to visit,

provide clear labels for the pages where navigation tabs take them, tell customers

where they currently are and how to get back and provide a search function. In

technical terms they are called BREADCRUMBS.

There are 3 main components of a well-designed navigational system

1. Current locator - This is also known as a site ID and is a way for users to know

where on the website they currently are. For instance, when you select a given tab in

the website navigation, the appearance of that tab changes to reflect that it has been

selected.

2. Navigation method - For visitors, this is a way to find out where on a website you

can go and how to get there. It gives you access to the primary content sections and

utilities and then places you can get to that aren't part of the primary content hierarchy.

3. Trace Route - This is a way for the visitor to find where on the website he/she has

been. This is also known as a home link or breadcrumbs and it traces back to where

the visitor initially started. In case of the AudioSolutionz site, by clicking on the


AudioSolutionz icon, one can get back to the home page.

Search

This is the search functionality visitors have access to. It's a way to quickly find

specific information the visitor might be looking for.

Visibility

In the dense scenario of competitions, it is very necessary for TCI to be visible on

search engine platforms when a consumer searches for online training services.

GOOGLE RANKING is one of the important aspects to look upon.

Secured Payment Gateway

A payment gateway is an e-commerce application service provider service that authorizes

payments for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar

and it facilitates the transfer of information between a payment portal, such as a website and

the Front End Processor or acquiring bank.

AudioSolutionz employs Pay Pal and Authorized net for the online payment system.


Category Segmentation

When there is a vast array of products available, it is important to make sure that the products

can be easily found. Category segmentation refers to division of services offered in such

away all the similar topics of a one field are visible under same segment. It allows setting the

products to appear in any number of main and sub categories. Category segmentation is

important, so that whenever a potential customer visits the website, he can easily find the

product and is not lost or confused in the process of finding it. So it is important to have clear

and distinct categories of products available on the website.

Audiosolutionz is dealing into 10 categories and its website shows these categories on the top

which provides highest visibility to the customer.

Geographical Coverage

Place may also cover geographical regions where company is catering its services. Eli

Global has a very niche market for USA because of its wellstructured nature.

But its competitors are tapping into new market specially Canada and United Kingdom.

Thus, Eli can also find a potential market beyond the USA.


3.1.4 PROMOTION

Promotion is extremely necessary to entice the consumer to the website. Promotion of a

website can be done in two ways: online strategies and offline strategies.

Online strategies include search engine optimization, banner ads, multiple points of entry,

viral marketing. For the customers to know of the Companys existence, Google Ranking

does make a lot of effect. The visibility of the website becomes very important on any search

engine platform. There can be traded links or banner advertisements for the same.

Content on the website and words used in the content should match the keywords by which a

consumer will search for the results on any search engine. Company has to keep an update on

such activities. This helps a company to navigate a consumer and understand his/her actions

The following promotional tools that are being used by TCI, for the online promotion of their

new audio conferences/ webinars:

DIRECT MARKETING

Direct marketing includes connecting the directly to the target audience which is chosen

carefully to obtain immediate response and look for long term relationships. Here marketers

communicate directly with consumers, often one to one, interactive basis. Beyond brand

and relationship building, direct marketers usually seek a direct, immediate and measurable

consumer response.

There are many different direct mailing tools, but the four major categories include

1. E-mail marketing

2. Telemarketing

3. Direct mail marketing

4. Fax marketing

Others may include, distributing flyers; door-to-door solicitations; FAX broadcasting;

television marketing (i.e., infomercials); coupon ads in print media; and voice mail

marketing.


E Mail Marketing

Email marketing is directly marketing a commercial message to a group of people

using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be

considered email marketing. It is usually done by using email to send ads, request business,

and is meant to build loyalty, trust or brand awareness. Sending email messages with the

purpose of building the relationship with its current or previous customers as to

encourage customer loyalty and repeat its business and also with the purpose of acquiring

new customers or convincing current customers to repeat its purchases.

Entering into a new market would require extensive promotion; E-mail marketing is the best

promotional tool available for the company. Both bulk mailing as well as personalized

mailing can be done, informing the customer about their new products. E-mailing is an easy

and inexpensive method. Also, keeping in touch with the customers will help in an increase

in the frequency of repeat purchases from the existing customers.

Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail marketing involves an offer, announcement, reminder, or any other item to a

person at a particular address. It is basically, contacting carefully targeted prospects with

custom tailored offers or promotional materials like brochures, circulars, letters or newsletters

on one-to-one basis via ordinary mail.

Direct mailers can be sent to the target audience, and this could be more effective since it is

more personalized, and is highly selective and targeted. Although the new digital direct mail

forms are gaining popularity, the traditional form is still by far the most widely used. Despite

the clutter, traditional direct mail can be highly effective, especially for reaching certain

segments that dont get as much direct mails as the general population.

Fax marketing

Fax broadcasting or Fax marketing is one of the most cost effective and direct methods of

promoting products. It is a medium which produces instant results and easily monitored for

results. Broadcast fax is a feature that allows someone to send a document or documents to

many recipients simultaneously. Documents that need to be sent to a large audience, such as

announcements, press releases, newsletters, or other types of information, are often sent by


broadcast fax. One advantage of faxing is that direct mail pieces can be lost in regular mail.

Broadcast fax also has an automatic redial feature that ensures delivery.

Henceforth, fax broadcasting can also serve as an effective tool for online promotion.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing is the most interactive marketing medium available, which allows one to

answer their prospects questions, address their concerns, and overcome their objections. It is

the only marketing medium that allows adjusting your strategy midstream and making any

changes at any time necessary to increase results.

Telemarketing involves lower overhead costs than employing an outside sales force, saving

small businesses money. Another advantage of telemarketing is that one can expand their

business by selling to customers in other sales territories, whether locally or nationally.

Telemarketing also offers a way to follow up with existing customers. Staying in contact with

the customers gives an opportunity to find out more about the clients needs and build a better

relationship. In the end, improved customer satisfaction can have a significant impact on the

profitability of the business.

But on the other hand, a main disadvantage of telemarketing is that it is considered a nuisance

by many people and it is governed by many legal rules that must be followed. It may be time

consuming to train the staff on how to sell the product over the phone and may also require a

well prepared script.

But nevertheless, it may serve as an effective method of promotion. Once, the lists for the

target audience has been generated for the new nonprofits market, outbound telesales can be

very useful, since it allows for interaction and personal selling; one can immediately respond

to the feedback from the prospects while still being engaged in the sales process.

Sales Promotion Techniques

Sales promotion is needed to attract new customers, to hold present customers, to counteract

competition, and to take advantage of opportunities that are revealed by market research. It is

made up of activities, both outside and inside activities, to enhance company sales. It can be

discounts, any added utility and so on.


Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of internet marketing that involves the promotion

of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through

optimization and advertising. SEM may use search engine optimization (SEO) that adjusts or

rewrites website content to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages or use pay

per click listings or Web analytics.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or

a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. In general, the

earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the

search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people

search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search

engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its

content, HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and


to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase

the number of back links, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.

SEO is further divided into two main areas -

1. On Page SEO this includes what can be done on the pages of the website itself.

2. Off Page SEO this covers activity that takes place elsewhere (e.g. link building).

On Page SEO

On-page SEO is a process of optimizing the specific sections of your website/blog content to

make it more clear and simple for search engines like Google, so that search engine can

easily assign a rank to your site.

Figure 4: Flow chart explaining types of On Page SEO

There are a number of factors that affect a SEO campaign.

1. Content

One of the crucial factors of on page SEO is CONTENT, which should be unique and

relevant. For a webpage to be indexable for a given keyword, it must have content

that fulfills the users search query. Further, the content should be interesting and

useful for the users and should be at least 50 words in length.

2. Keywords

3. Keyword Density

More usage of the targeted keyword is not always good for SEO, because if the same

keyboard is used in every line and every image, it will raise a red flag to the search

engines, and hence the keyword density should be between 4% to 7%.

4. H1 tags

A header tag, also known as the H1 tag, is like the subject line of the web page, and

On Page SEO

Keywords Title tags H1 Tags Keyword Density

Keyword Placement

Description


the keyword phrase should be used only once in the H1 tag. H1 tags should be

included on a page, where the unique traffic is to be diverted.

5. Title Tags and Meta Description

After selecting the keyword, the next important factor is the title. The keyword apart

from being present throughout the webpage should also be present in the page title,

since the page title is given the maximum importance by the search engine, and the

title should be limited to 65 characters. Meta description is where the content of the

page is described, and the Meta description should also contain the keywords.

6. Alt Tags of Images

Alt tags should be added to the images which are related to the content. Alt tag is the

targeted or desired keyword(s) But the same keyword shouldnt be used in all tags of

all images.

Another aspect which can be used as a promotional tool is FEEDBACK FORMS. The

customer feedback can be used to improve the website and can also be used to provide better

service to the customers.

The company has started with the one page SEO, optimizing the website for AudioSolutionz,

which would help in improving the visibility of the website.

Off Page SEO


Off page SEO is doing things off site to improve ones websites search engine rankings. The

only thing one can do off site to increase the rankings is to build up more links. More links

will generally lead to better search engine rankings.

Figure 5: Flow Chart explaining types of Off Page SEO

Link Submission - Linking strategies provide an effective way for customers to learn about

the company through other sites related to the same subject. The key to developing an

effective link program is to identify sites that are not direct competitors but have a similar

target market as one has. It is also necessary to find a balance between the amount of traffic

that exits your site through a link and the number of people who visit your site through a link

on another site. Building links from other sites to ones site also increases the sites relevancy

to search engines.

Article submission - Article submission generally refers to the writing of articles that are

relevant to ones online business and then getting them added to the popular article

submission directories. The main purpose behind article submission is to attract a large

number of visitors (and links) to the website without incurring a great cost. Article

submissions can enhance and improve the ranking of the online business in search engines by

increasing the quantity of back links. But certain things should be taken care of like, the

articles should be keyword rich but not excessive to the point of keyword stuffing, and the

average length of keyword should be anywhere between 500 to 700.

Short articles and links regarding the conferences can be submitted by the company to

various articles directories as well as websites for the promotion of these new markets.

Banner Advertisements - A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World

Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an

advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking to the

website of the advertiser. Implementing a banner ad campaign is one of the most effective

methods for increasing the companys brand awareness. Banner ads are an effective direct

Off Page SEO

Content Social

Networking Articles Bookmarks Video Blogs


marketing tool that can increase site traffic if they are creative and include a call-to-

action. The best website to put a banner ad is the one which is highly relevant to ones

business, without it being a direct competitor. In case of these new markets, banners can be

put on the websites of NCNP (National Council for Nonprofits), it is NCNP that provides

guidance to the respective sector and also provides information about laws or updates in the

existing one, and it is very likely for the attorneys and all those associated to assisted

nonprofit sector to visit this website. In addition, banner advertisements can also be put on

websites like American Bar association as well as guidestar.

Since most of the prospective customers visit these websites, it would serve as an important

promotional tool.

Pay Per Click

It is a model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked.

Essentially, its a way of buying visits to your site, rather than attempting to earn those visits

organically.

Search engine advertising is one of the most popular forms of PPC. It allows advertisers to

bid for ad placement in a search engine's sponsored links when someone searches on a

keyword that is related to their business offering. PPC relies heavily on keywords research,

and keyword grouping. The goal is to create lists of keywords that are relevant to your

business, and that people are searching for.

PPC or pay per click is a model of internet advertising in which advertisers pay a specific

amount each time one of their ads is clicked. Often pay-per-click marketing is used with

search advertising, enabling businesses to advertise on search engines such as Google.

Websites that utilize PPC ads will display an advertisement when a keyword query matches

an advertiser's keyword list, or when a content site displays relevant content. Such

advertisements are called sponsored links or sponsored ads, and appear adjacent to, above, or


beneath organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a web developer chooses

on a content site

PPC is a vital promotional tool and it insures that the website is listed prominently on the

search engine result pages, and a properly managed PPC campaign is a great way to drive

traffic to the website.

Web Analytics

Web analytics is the process of analyzing the behavior of visitors to a Web site. The use of

Web analytics is said to enable a business to attract more visitors, retain or attract new

0customers for goods or services, or to increase the dollar volume each customer spends.

It is often used as part of customer relationship management analytics (CRM analytics). The

analysis can include determining the likelihood that a given customer will repurchase a

product after having purchased it in the past, personalizing the site to customers who visit it

repeatedly, monitoring the dollar volume of purchases made by individual customers or by

specific groups of customers, observing the geographic regions from which the most and the

least customers visit the site and purchase specific products, and predicting which products

customers are most and least likely to buy in the future. The objective is to promote specific

products to those customers most likely to buy them, and to determine which products a

specific customer is most likely to purchase. This can help to improve the ratio of revenue to

marketing costs.


Google Analytics (GA) is a service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about

a website's traffic and traffic sources. GA can track visitors from all referrers,

including search engines and social networks, direct visits and referring sites. It also displays

advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing and digital collateral such as links

within PDF documents.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through

social media sites.

Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts

attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. The resulting

electronic word of mouth (eWoM) which refers to any statement consumers share via the

Internet (e.g., web sites, social networks, instant messages, news feeds) about an event,

product, service, brand or company. When the underlying message spreads from user to user

and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as

opposed to the brand or company itself, this form of marketing results in earned media rather

than paid media.

It is a form of internet marketing that implements various social media networks in order to

achieve marketing communication and branding goals. Social media marketing primarily

covers activities involving social sharing of content, videos, and images for marketing

purposes.

Social media marketing provides a low cost way for businesses to reach large numbers of

users and gain brand recognition. Since social networking websites already have large

established online communities, businesses and organizations can gain exposure by simply

joining these websites. Organizations can create custom social media profiles, and then build

their own communities within these sites by adding users as friends or followers. Many

companies attract users by posting frequent updates and providing special offers through their

social media profile pages.

The main advantage of social media marketing is cost-related. The majority of social media

sites are free to access, create a profile and post information. The advantage of reaching your

targeted market for little or no cash investment is substantial, and the audience wanting your


information voluntarily joins or follows you. The viral nature of social media means that each

person who reads your posts has the capability to spread the news farther within his own

network, so information can reach a large number of people in a short time.

One of the disadvantages of social media marketing is that updating the social media

accounts takes time and effort. A senior person with knowledge about the company and

products should handle the companys social media presence, and the cost in time means the

media is not completely free. It is ongoing work to find new angles about your products

continually and to post and re-post information. The information is only visible for a short

time before newer posts replace it.

Since TCI is entering into new markets, creating brand awareness is very important, and

social media marketing can serve as an important promotional tool. Social networking sites

like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn would be just the right place to promote itself, by

creating profiles where they could upload information about the upcoming conferences. Also,

the snippets of the conferences in these new sectors could be uploaded on You Tube. The

company can use social bookmarking sites like Stumble Upon, Reddit, where users bookmark

many sites and then tag them with many descriptive words. This allows other people to

search by those terms to find those pages. In terms of its potential for marketing, the more

often a web page is submitted and tagged, the more traffic that website will likely receive.

Social Media Landscape

Figure 6: Social Media Landscape

Social Media

Marketing

Discuss

Social Netwoks

Microblog

Livecast Virtual World

Publish

MMO


Another important part of Social Media Marketing is BLOGS.

Short for weblog, a blog is a type of shared online journal. It's written by an individual,

published on a web page, and usually available to anyone with access to a web browser. It

contains the blogger's thoughts, observations, recommendations, reflections, opinions, and

feelings on whatever he or she wants to write about. And the entries are displayed in reverse

chronological order, with the most recent posting at the top.

Blogs can include photos, audio clips, and video, and they frequently contain links to other

blogs or websites. Blogs can be publicly viewable, or tucked safely behind a company

firewall.

As the Internet has become more social, blogs have gained in popularity. Today, there are

over 100 million blogs with more entering the blogosphere every day. Blogs have become

more than online diaries. In fact, blogging has become an important part of the online and

offline worlds with popular bloggers impacting the worlds of politics, business and society

with their words.

Social Media Marketing is a growing trend these days, and is one of the most widely used

online promotion tools. Hence, using social media for promoting the new markets would be a

great option.

3.1.5 PEOPLE

The fifth P of the marketing mix is people. People inside and outside of the business are

responsible for every element of sales and marketing strategy and activities of the company.

Getting the right speaker on board and appropriately delivering the webinar is essential if the

organization wants to obtain a form of competitive advantage. Audience make judgments and

deliver perceptions of the webinar and the company based on the speakers they interact with.

The speaker should have the appropriate interpersonal skills, attitude, and service knowledge

to provide the effective webinar that consumers are paying for. Thus, speaker identification

is a very crucial task in the organization. One has to carefully go through speakers profile,

qualifications and expertise before hiring the person.

Additionally, not only researching for the speaker, but also making them a part of TCI is also

important. After searching for a particular speaker, right from getting their contact details to


reaching out to them, negotiating with them, deciding on dates on which webinar has to be

delivered are some of the major challenges that are encountered during this entire process.

Since, TCI would be a new entrant into this market, differentiating their product, which is

training on a particular topic for a specific target group, can also be done in terms of the

speaker.

There are a number of challenges that are associated with the speakers in general, the most

important being Speaker Conversion. The number of speakers who actually respond back or

revert back is very less as compared to the number of the speakers who are contacted. There

may be issues of spamming, wherein, the mails sent to speakers may not land in their inbox,

but in their spam. Then in some cases, the speaker themselves may stall and not respond

because he is too busy.

The employees of the company helps in pre and post delivery of the webinar by lead

generation, solving queries regarding the topic or speaker, taking feedback from the audience

on the webinar attended.

3.1.6 PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Physical Evidence is the element of the service mix which allows the consumer again to

make judgments on the organization. Physical evidence is an essential ingredient of the

service mix, consumers will make perceptions based on their sight of the service provision

which will have an impact on the organizations perceptual plan of the service.

Most services cannot be offered without the support of tangibles. Customers cannot see the

service provided, but they can definitely see the tangibles that accompany.

In case of TCI, it provides attendee package to its consumers for references during the


webinar. It is complementary in nature.

The company also provides an option of additional material which can be bougjht by the

consumers for their references and ease while taking a webinar.

3.1.7 PROCESS

Process is an important to deliver a quality service. Webinars being intangible, process

become all the more crucial to ensure standards are met with. Process mapping ensures that

the webinar we deliver is perceived as being dependable by the target segment. In TCI also,

the process of delivering a webinar is very standardized.

The process in TCI is two sided: one involving speakers to the company and another

attracting and retaining costumers in the company.


Figure 7: Flow Charts explaining the process of TCI

SPEAKERS ACQUISITION PLAN

Resource identification

One of my key tasks in the project was resource identification. It refers to the process of

identifying right person with appropriate expertise and experience who can come on board an

For Speakers

Identifying the speaker

Contacting the speaker

Following Up the Speaker

Negotiation

Deciding on dates and topics of delivery of the

webinar

Signing the contract

Asking for MIW ( Marketing Information

Worksheet)

Delivery of the webinar

Speaker Retention

For Target Segment

Identifying the target audience

Sending the Flyer related to the topic

Attracting through more promotions

Solving Queries

Providing audience with all the required material

Taking questions/ queries after the webinar

Asking for feedback


deliver a webinar on specific topic. It includes rigorous research as finding potential speakers

online is a cumbersome task.

Email/ Phone appending

Once the resource is identified, email/ phone is appended which means that all the points of

contact, mainly email ID or phone numbers are searched so that the potential speaker can be

approached.

Speakers Contact

The next step is to contact the speaker which is done by the marketing team. The

conversation may include terms and conditions of working, expertise and area of interest on

which speaker wishes to deliver a webinar.

Negotiation

Company and the potential speaker have to decide on common honorarium fee that company

is willing to pay and the person is ready to deliver.

The decided fee can be affected by number of factors like expertise of the speaker, experience

in the field and popularity of the speaker.

Topic Discussion

Once negotiation is done and terms and conditions are decided, the topic of upcoming

webinar is decided keeping in mind the expertise of the speaker and market demand.

Marketing team should also have thorough knowledge of the topic which helps in

promotions.

Copyright issues

US as a market and experts are very strict about copyright issues. The content in the flyer,

PowerPoint presentation which is sent to the audience as a reference and content of the

webinar has to be given a copyright. Company plays a significant role in copyrighting the

content. This further helps the company in trust building and relationship management.

Date Scheduling

Its not necessary that webinar can be delivered on the day the company wants. Dates are

decided on keeping the hectic schedule of the speakers in mind. Plenty of time is given to the

speaker to prepare his/ her content that has to be delivered in the webinar.


Signing of the contract

Once the appending, negotiation, topic, and date scheduling is done, the speakers has to sign

the formal contract in which all the details related to webinar and working conditions are

specified.

The contract is the final stone of speakers acquisition.

Relationship Management

Acquiring speakers into the team is not sufficient; their retention is most difficult one. Once

speakers have come on board and are part of the team, company has to work on relationship

management. It is the most dynamic task as different speakers have different needs and

expectations.

Thus, speaker acquisition is the primary task in the work profile of TCI as the company

cannot move forward without an efficient panel of speakers. The speakers also help in

building brand of the company.

Customer Acquisition Plan

Identifying Target Segment

Targeting the right target audience is very important while positioning the product/ service

into the market. Reaching out right audience is like hitting the bulls eye.

In TCI, identifying the target audience is a difficult task as for every new webinar theres a

lot of different audience one needs to cater to.

One can understand through competitors actions which segment one needs to target.

Sending Flyers

Online flyers are one of the common tools used to promote an upcoming event. Flyer is

generally a one- sheeted pamphlet in HTML or XML format, which has information about

the upcoming event, title, areas to be covered, agenda, date, time and venue, time duration

and name of the speaker. Sales promotions tools like discounts are also mentioned to attract

larger audience.

Sending flyers online has its own issues like spam, privacy issues and bouncing back and

content issues. The content and keywords used in the flyer have to appropriate and

universally accepted else it may cause reporting issues.


Other promotional tools

Sales promotions are commonly used to attract larger audience like discounts, free webinars,

bundle offerings and so on.

Other than sales promotions online banners, personalized emails are also send to attract

audience.

Solving Queries

TCI is very particular about their customers. For solving their queries a special team has been

trained only to address the customers. Reverting back their queries regarding event, agenda,

speakers are the important activities which are taken care of.

Providing required material

Generally, all the information about the speaker and PowerPoint presentations are made

available for the audience who have bought the product for their reference. This helps


customers in relating the topic, giving a brief understanding beforehand of the topic that

will be discussed and understanding the agenda of the event.

Providing material pre- hand also helps in clearing most of the doubts of the customers.

The material is a proof and also helps in trust building.

Taking Queries right after the webinar

All the events conducted in TCI are no a monologue. Audience is given full opportunity to

ask any sort of query from the speaker related to the topic. In 90 minutes webinar, 10- 15

minutes are kept for Q&A round which is only dedicated for audience query.

This helps the company understand how effective the webinar was, what and where were

the loop holes and audience interest in the topic and the speaker.

Taking Feedback

After every event, company requests audience to provide their valuable feedback on the

webinar. This helps company in understanding customers needs and demands and areas of

improvisation. This also helps the company to meet customers expectations.

Company also provides the option of feedback on their main website.

In a price-sensitive and competitive world, quality, trust, reliability and brand are

competitive tools that a company can use to grow. To achieve this, the technologies must be