Foreword
Nowadays no one asks whether a company should have a website or not, the question is more about whether or not it should have e-commerce. According to Eurostat 2017 77% of European companies have a website. According to the same organization, but already with Spanish data, 20% of companies in 2017 have achieved more than 1% of their total turnover, through the internet. Comparing these figures with those of the previous year, 19%, the figures are positive and the increase is notable, but there is still a lot of work to be done with the remaining 80% of companies, not to mention the 27% that do not have a website. The problem is not creating the website, the problem is how to attract traffic to that site and convert it into paying customers. Companies do not know how to transform their websites into a real business tool. Nor do they know how to generate value for their customers beyond online sales or customer service.
Thanks to Fernando and this book “Estrategias del Marketing Digital” the professionals dedicated to this subject are a little closer to achieve this transformation of which we speak. Fernando’s experience, together with his desire to continue learning, make him an exceptional, knowledgeable and rigorous person. His advice is useful and helps you deal with the panic you feel when you realize how much work you have ahead of you, how little time you have, and that you don’t really know where to start.
I would also highlight Fernando’s generosity. As I write this foreword I am trying to remember when we met, but I can’t… it must be more than 15 years ago, and we have coincided in masters, postgraduates, talks and conferences. But all the images in my memories have something in common, Fernando and I, sitting around a table, eating good food and drinking good wine, while sharing knowledge and experiences: those little tricks that make SEO’s life easier, those strategies that have worked better than others, those clients that had challenges that were almost impossible but that we have managed to overcome. Fernando has always shared his knowledge. Its mission is not to be the one who knows the most, but the one who can add the most value when helping professionals and companies. And this book is one more example of the generosity that characterizes him.
Fernando offers us here an overview of the main strategies that can be carried out to create a good website, to attract visitors who will really be our target audience, and also strategies to convert visitors into loyal customers, who will repeat purchases, try new products that we will suggest and recommend us to others. Quite a challenge, if we take into account that this is what is taught in a Master’s Degree in Digital Marketing that lasts at least one year. As Fernando points out a little further on, the book does not go into depth, since there are more extensive monographs for each of the topics, and some of them, such as the one on SEO, have been written by Fernando himself. But by reading this book and using it as a professional bedside book, you get a holistic view that allows you to see in perspective everything you need to do to achieve success in your online initiatives and enables you to create a digital action plan.
It only remains for me to thank Fernando for inviting me to write this foreword. It is an honor. And I wish you, dear reader, that you enjoy the book, don’t get overwhelmed with all the work ahead of you and simply read a chapter a day and try to apply what Fernando advises you.
Enjoy it.
Montse Peñarroya
Director of the 3ISIC Research Institute.