Marble rolls out online

The Life: Small companies in the Middle East need to think big and the next step is to create a good website.

Mohamad Mourad of Google says the best way for small and medium-sized businesses to get customers is by advertising online. Pawan Singh / The National

A decade ago Mosaic Marble was a small company with big ambitions.

Aiming to export its products abroad, the Lebanon firm tried several ways to drum up trade.

But it wasn't until it started promoting itself online that business really started to take off. Now the firm has branches in other countries and sales in excess of US$1 million (Dh3.6m).

And other small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could repeat its success, says Mohamad Mourad, the regional manager for the Gulf region at Google.

"The internet provides no barriers and no borders, so any SME in any country can send [products] to any other country," he says.

Companies should think and act global even if they are small, he says.

"If the scope of your business is two or three streets because you are a local grocery shop, you can now reach the whole world."

Just 10 per cent of companies in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region have websites - and most of those are "not that great", he says.

Ideally, SMEs should have a presence on all platforms, but setting up a website is the first - and easiest - place to start.

"The first step is to have a website, and the second step is to have a really good website.

"Having a website is very easy and very cheap … We are providing the tools to SMEs that allow them to create a website in 15 minutes," Mr Mourad says.

Once SMEs have a website, they can analyse which sections and products customers are searching for, allowing them to make decisions about strategy.

"We believe that where people search online is a direct reflection of what they are thinking," Mr Mourad says.

"If you have a website you can see the behaviour of your customers, you can see what people are looking at and which section of your website they are visiting and where they are spending more time."

Other benefits include making a business easy to find and telling a story.

"You might be a small shop but sell the best chocolate in Dubai," Mr Mourad says. "Tell your story and let users comment on your product. Lots of tourists come to Dubai. Make it easy for them to find you."

Tony Assi, the chairman and founder of Mosaic Marble, attributes much of the company's successful international expansion down to online advertising.

"We started feeling that there was a large demand on our products abroad," he says.

"Sales increased and after a few months with the help of the Google AdWords team we came up with the idea of expanding the coverage to target several countries and languages. Quickly our network expanded from one website to 12 websites."

As a result, the business was able to boost the number of its employees from eight to 14 in less than a year.

Online advertising is affordable, Mr Mourad says, but if SMEs feel they cannot afford to pay for advertising space, there are still plenty of other ways to promote their businesses.

Options include booking a place on Google Maps or Google Earth, or even uploading an advertisement on YouTube at no cost.

"SMEs in the region are not yet where they can be," Mr Mourad says. "I see no reason why every company shouldn't have a website, so my target is 100 per cent. There's no excuse."