A new tool for local entrepreneurs to strengthen their business
The Digital Guide presents new solutions that are hoped to give businesses the tools to find and develop ways to sell their services and products. It will also provide concrete ways to use digital tools for customer and service management or even new ways of doing business.
- The aim is to provide concrete examples and guidelines, especially for companies that have not yet digitalised their marketing, but also for those who have already mastered digitalisation," says Marko Lehenberg, Director of Vitality in the City of Järvenpää.
The guide is aimed specifically at local entrepreneurs in cooperation with Catapult International Oy.
The first part of the guide provides a background to digital marketing. The following chapters cover the different aspects of digital marketing and give examples of how to use them.
Download here Digital sales and marketing guide
For the guide, nearly three thousand companies providing sales and marketing services were surveyed
The finished digital guide is the final product of a broad mapping of sales and marketing companies from a database of companies screened by Catapult. A total of 2 547 companies developing digital solutions worldwide were included in the search. Advanced algorithms were used to analyse the search and extract the companies that were considered to be best suited to deliver the entire marketing and sales value chain, especially for SMEs in Lake Constance.
The main selection criteria were the suitability of the service offered for the needs of small businesses, cost-effectiveness and speed and ease of implementation.
Among the companies that fit Järvenpää's criteria, 20 technology companies were selected for the guide, which are believed to be able to provide particularly high benefits to companies in the region in terms of sales and marketing development. Companies in Järvenpää can directly contact technology companies providing services. The companies are from Finland and around the world, and the prices of the services range from free tools to larger and more expensive solutions.
- Covid-19 has challenged the sales of small and large companies alike, but especially for small companies, the resources to develop their own sales in these times are extremely limited. We wanted to produce a simple and plain-language manual of the sales and marketing development tools that are currently available in Finland and around the world," says Lehenberg.
Digital is driving sales and marketing
Digital marketing and sales have grown during the koruna, but also before it. But finding new channels can be a matter of life and death for businesses. Digital data mining has also become an established way of finding answers to questions that manual work cannot possibly answer.
Järvenpää's partner was the Finnish research company Catapult International Oy, which uses a completely new kind of methodology, artificial intelligence and the work of analysts combined in its research on the international technology and innovation field. Catapult's clients include large, international listed companies such as Kone, Neste and Fortum, as well as a number of major European companies in their respective sectors, from energy to construction and all the way to the financial sector.
- The whole field of technology and innovation has only accelerated during and enabled by the pandemic. This makes it crucial to keep abreast of the changing business environment. The opportunities brought by marketing and sales automation are just one area, albeit an extremely important and valid one, especially from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises," says CEO Mikael Juntunen.
Järvenpää challenges normal business development practices in an open-minded way
Järvenpää was ranked fourth in the recently published EK ranking of municipalities, but still wants to improve its own service level. One way to achieve the mission of becoming Finland's most business-friendly city is to find ways of business cooperation that give local companies real added value from being just a Järvenpää resident.
- In Järvenpää, business cooperation is something many municipalities can learn from. For this sales and marketing guide, too, we naturally used the needs and views of local entrepreneurs," says Susanna Aramo, Business Services Manager.
The City of Järvenpää also wants to be a pioneer in promoting the operating conditions for local businesses.
- We just produced a big data package around sales and marketing, but we are already exploring how a similar methodology could be used in many other contexts to benefit local businesses," says Lehenberg.
For more information:
City of Järvenpää
Marko Lehenberg, Director of Vitality, tel. 040 315 3590, [email protected]
Business Service Manager Susanna Aramo, tel. 040 315 3130, [email protected]