Marketing Magazine - November 18, 2005

New portal offers Web marketing tools for SMEs
By Sarah Dobson (Reprinted with permission.)

A new Toronto-based website is providing small- and medium-sized businesses with online marketing tools and services to compete with the bigger players.

The new portal, eliteweb.cc, includes a “best-of-the-web” search engine, online virtual community, news items, web-based e-mail, and search engine marketing through keyword options. Eliteweb customers can track which keywords are bringing visitors to their websites and purchase those keywords to reach more consumers. Should there be more than one interested party for a keyword, Eliteweb.cc runs an auction system with real-time bidding. Many smaller marketers don’t know how to use search engines such as Google without spending a lot of money on research, says Robert Burko, president and founder. Eliteweb.cc aims to remove the guesswork and provide easy-to-use, affordable options. While the tools are designed to be user-friendly for SMEs, eliteweb says U.S.-based clients like Saks Incorporated, CNNSports Illustrated and Tek Gear have all logged in to use its search engine marketing tools.

The site is also offering marketers, with up to 250 employees, various business tools such as email marketing–with real-time tracking and click-through stats–and a BizInfo Site, with templates to build websites.

Burko says sites have been “flooding in” since the official launch last week, signing up for the database and logging in to see the activity for their site. Currently there are 6,500 active sites while 860 marketers have sent out e-mail campaigns.

Toronto-based personal trainer Natalie Cogan said she tried the eliteweb e-mail tool to improve communication with clients and lure back those no longer working with her. “Out of 30 inactive clients I had contacted, I got nine to sign up for sessions again,” she says.

The new site is being promoted through banner ads and e-mail campaigns directed to the U.S. and Canada, Burko says. Direct mail campaigns are also targeting businesses in Toronto and will spread to other major cities in Canada.