This paper presents the outcomes of a research regarding the Internet marketing practices and strategy followed by a large sample of Greek SMEs. Specifically the paper examines the methods and the volume of the applied internet marketing techniques, the dedicated resources and the expertise of the people involved in it. The paper provides conclusions and managerial directions for the improvement of the internet marketing efforts of Greek SMEs.

1. Presentation by:
Mouratidis Ioannis
Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and
the Performance of Greek SMEs
Mouratidis Ioannis, Garyfallos Fragidis, Dimitrios Pashaloudis

2. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
Theoretical Framework I
• “Companies managing and increasing their technological asset bases successfully
will gain a major competitive advantage in the market” (Capon and Glazer,1987)
• “The evolution from marketing on the averages to marketing on the differences is a
very prominent theme and a major advantage of the Web market compared to real
environments” (Reitman, 1994)
• “Small business firms can survive in e-market only if they use their resources
carefully and allocate them properly” (McCole and Ramsey, 2004)
• “Internet marketing operations may reform the way a firm interacts with its
customers, or even destroy its investments in existing marketing policy (Johnson and
Bharadwaj, 2005)
• “The obvious course for marketers is to engage the new social media in passive and
active ways as part of the overall marketing strategy” (Constantinides and Fountain,
2008)

3. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
Theoretical Framework II
Internet marketing
techniques are used
more or less by SME
companies
worldwide against
competition.
What about
STRATEGIC internet
marketing
development?
but…

4. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
Setting the background: Greek reality
Is this true?
The hypothesis
Due to Greek economic
depression of the last 4 years,
SMEs have to be oriented to
innovative activities and new
practices, such as internet
marketing, in order to expand
their customer reach and cope
with internal and external
challenges.

5. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
The aim of the study is to investigate whether and to what extent Greek
SMEs are implementing internet marketing practices and if this
implementation is part of their overall strategy.
Specific objectives:
• to identify the applied internet marketing trends and techniques in
Greek SMEs
• to investigate the central determinants of internet marketing adoption
and utilization within the Greek SME context
• to measure the impact of internet marketing policy on strategic
planning
Research Aim and Objectives

6. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
Planning
Survey
Development
Data
analysis
Research Methodology
Basic Parameters:
• Type of survey: online research
• Research tool: structured questionnaire
• Time: 11-17 of July, Place: Greece
• Analysis: statistical package SPSS 19.0 and
Microsoft Excel

7. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
The Questionnaire
Purpose: obtain information on the implementation of internet
marketing techniques and strategy by Greek SMEs
Number of questions: 18 (4 question groups)
Type of questions: 5-point Likert scale, YES/NO questions and
multiple choices
Business elements examined:
• background information such as activity, area of interest, age and size
• extent of internet marketing techniques adoption and important
determinants
• resources dedicated to internet marketing policy
• internet marketing strategy and its effectiveness

8. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
Describing the sample I
Sample size: a total of 202 Greek SMEs
Sample key variables: sector, age, geographical distribution, size
38 manufacturing companies, 88
trading companies, 87 service
and 29 tourism companies
*multiple answers available
Sector of economy Number of workers
Geographical distribution Age
68.8% of the companies (139)
employ less than 10 workers,
while only 12.4% (25) employ
more than 50 workers
Companies from all regions
are participating in the current
survey. 81.7% is located in the
regions of Attica (41.1%) and
Central Macedonia (40.6%)
65.8% of the companies (133)
operate for more than 10 years,
while new companies (0 to 2
years old) represent only a
3.5% of the sample

9. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
Describing the sample II
Taking a closer look (graphically)…

10. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
Research Results I
•Over 60% of Greek companies make systematic use of
internet marketing techniques, while the respective
number for traditional marketing techniques is only
42.1%.
•Only half of the respondents that make systematic use
of internet marketing techniques, are including it as part
of their strategy
•Greek SMEs seem to prefer online (42.6%) over
traditional advertising (28.7%).
•18.3% of the companies considers internet sales to
reduce / restrict the conventional/traditional sales

11. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
Research Results II
• Greek SMEs rely on internet marketing because of direct communication
(75.7%), accurate targeting (75.2%), low cost (71.8%), efficiency and
effectiveness (68.3%) and transactions (61.4%).
• The vast majority (90%) of Greek
companies agrees that internet
marketing increases sales and
improves business image.
• 64% confirms that internet
marketing is required due to
competitors’ relevant policy.
Internet marketing incentives

12. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
Research Results III
Internet marketing techniques applied by
Greek SMEs, are mainly websites,
newsletters and social media, while e-
shop and affiliate / viral marketing are
applied in a limited degree.
Internet marketing results are monitored
by Greek SMEs -that adopt
systematically such techniques- mostly
via visits of website, likes and
notifications in social media and site's
ranking in search engines.
Internet marketing techniques Result measures

13. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
Research Results IV
• 51% of Greek SMEs have invested on internet marketing budget lower
than 5000€ during the last 5 years.
• 47% of Greek SMEs invests on internet advertisements budget lower than
500€ per year.
• 28% of Greek SMEs employs staff capable of managing websites and e-
shops and 41% has no employees with software programming capabilities.
• 38% of Greek SMEs relies on internet marketing outsourcing

14. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
Research Results V
More in depth:
•Apart from Promotion, all the other elements
of marketing mix are equally affected by
internet marketing policy in companies with
less than 3 employees.
•In medium sized companies Price is much less
influenced by internet marketing policy.
•In tourism industry figures are markedly
higher than in other sectors.
Marketing mix affected
What about strategy?
• Greek SMEs’ marketing mix seems to be affected by internet marketing
policy.
• Promotion and Place came in the first two places for all the different sectors.

15. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis
Main Conclusions
•Greek companies, regardless size, sector of economy, area or age, have
many reasons, almost equally important, to turn to internet marketing
techniques and practices.
•Despite the fact that a large proportion of Greek SMEs are motivated
towards internet marketing by the fear of falling back in competition, they
also have experienced or expecting sales increase by these new practices.
•Internet marketing in Greek business reality is by far more preferable than
traditional marketing techniques.
•Resources invested on internet marketing are considerable low.
•Most Greek SMEs, doesn’t even measure the results of internet marketing
in terms of sales and costs

16. Internet Marketing Strategies and Practices and the Performance of Greek SMEs
by Mouratidis Ioannis