Samenvatting

This report was written to provide OMS International (OMS) with online media that would help them generate leads in market segments they were not previously active. OMS is a small business-to-business company that sells Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems. EDI systems allow the transmission of data between suppliers and customers (EDI, n.d.). OMS was mainly focused on one segment of the EDI market, but that market segment is almost completely saturated. Therefore OMS decided to expand to new market segments, however, they are not known outside their current market. In the world of increasing online B2B interaction OMS has not yet developed successful activities. OMS feels that online media can help them gain new customers, and do more business with existing customers. They want an online strategy to generate leads and increase their market share in different EDI sectors. In order to provide OMS with online media to reach their goal a research question with regards to online media was formulated. Which online media can be used by OMS, a small B2B company to generate leads from markets that are new to them?
There are some restrictions to this report, as there was a limited time frame, the sample size for the questionnaire was small, and there is no complete overview of the EDI market, which is partly because the market is so big, and partly because there was no time to investigate the entire market.OMS aims for three marketing strategies from Ansoff's matrix; market penetration, market development and diversification. Meaning that they want to sell more to current markets, sell the current product in a new market, and bring new products to new markets. Looking at Chaffey et al.'s Internet-specific SWOT OMS employs an attacking Strengths-Opportunities strategy. Jumping at opportunities that arise, instead of having to defend. The main message OMS should communicate are the benefits of EDI systems bought from OMS, and thus the benefits of OMS itself, e.g. experience and knowledge. First OMS's website needs to be redesigned, and the content should be updated and matched to the business buying stages. Secondly the website needs to be optimized for search engines. Meaning the inclusion of keywords in the website coding, URLs, headings and website content, but also internal and external links leading to the OMS website. Thirdly the newsletter OMS offer should be visible on every page of the website, in order for people to sign up. A bit of experimenting needs to be done as to what writing style customers prefer.Fourth OMS can use e-mail marketing to update customers on market developments, or inform them on product/service offers. Lastly, OMS wants to use some form of online media. Currently they use Twitter, but the questionnaire pointed out that this was not the preferred medium by the customers. LinkedIn on the other scored relatively well. LinkedIn has an interesting feature called Groups, here people unite around the same kind of subjects, and can start relevant discussions. OMS can provide information to customers, get their trust, and increase exposure.