Local entrepreneurs are advised to plan a business where their products or services will be purchased by a target market and boost their profitability even in the time of pandemic.

Janette Toral, an e-commerce, social media and internet marketing expert, said it is more imperative to start a business during the quarantine amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

“Many need services now. Because a lot of people cannot go out (of their homes) so one way or another, they will find a way of fulfilling the need. So either you do it or someone else will. So it’s not as if you don’t move, it will not be available in the market. It will still be available in the market one way or the other, the only question is, will you be the provider or someone else?,” she said during a webinar series conducted by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), in partnership with the Dutch Employers’ Cooperation Programme (DECP).

To increase sales influence online, Toral said entrepreneurs should believe in themselves and the products they are marketing.

“You also need to know your target market, people that you want to work with, who you need to work with. It is becoming a challenge for the marketers that they become not successful because they are targeting the wrong market,” she added.

Toral said they also need to build on relationships and fulfill commitments with their customers until these are done.

“But the most important especially for a lot of entrepreneurs, employers, is to generate sales, generate bottomline, profitability. So in our whole marketing strategy, online sales strategy, how we solidify our relationships in the face-to-face world, the same aspect also applies on how we are going to solidify it in the online world,” she added.

Toral said there are effective but cheap or even free marketing options for businesses.

However, she urged business owners to invest a small amount of money for solutions that will show suggestions.

To beat competition, Toral said they have to be better with the service, adding the importance of appropriate keywords that will enable their products to appear in search results.

She added entrepreneurs also need to respond to customer inquiries and deliver products promptly.