There is a strong demand for digital advertising from small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in the country, To cater to them Google India has launched a ‘SME Partner Programme’.
Through this, the company will train premier SME partners to offer the highest level of expertise and proficiency in developing, launching and managing digital campaigns for SME ventures. The partners will offer end-to-end marketing solutions like search engine marketing, localised marketing solutions across Google properties and a mobile advertising platform.
Google will invest in helping partners with dedicated marketing and sales support that includes direct access to Google, co-branded market collateral, market research, training offers (incentivised sales model), technical and operational support, assigned account managers and joint sales pitches.
Rajan Anandan managing director and vice president (Sales), Google India, said: “India is a hot-bed of SME businesses and digital advertising lends itself well to help them grow and compete at equal footing with large established players online. Our SME business has seen phenomenal growth in India, making us the fastest growing SME market for Google globally. With the launch of this programme, we want to expand our reach by recruiting 30 new partners across India by end of next year, so that more and more SME can benefit from a direct engagement with a Google-trained professional.
“India is a strategic market for Google, and we will continue to invest in other capacity building initiative through our existing Google Engage platform, which is focused on training and supporting businesses that specialise in helping other SME succeed online,’’ he added.
Google India has already short-listed six such premier partners and has been working with them to help them ramp up their sales force through training programmes. The partners include Sokrati from Pune, Getit from Delhi, O3M Directional Marketing from Chennai, Effective Responses from Delhi, AdGlobal 360 from Delhi and ISPG technologies from Bangalore.
