eBusiness Weekly
Today’s small business can reach anyone, anywhere as long as it is online. In the digital age, marketing strategy must without a doubt include a digital strategy never mind the nature of one’s enterprise. Digital marketing is very broad and it can be overwhelming when one considers all the available options.
Often, the small business owner is quite busy running the core business and cannot find time to research what works for them. The best place to start, however, is with the basics. These include having a business website, email marketing and social media.
The Website Angle
A website is the most critical first step for any business that takes its’ digital marketing seriously. Every business, regardless the sector or size must be present online or it is as good as not there.
There must be some kind of digital presence and footprint that allows potential clients and partners to understand what a business is about. This is the online residence or address of any business. Websites are simple platforms on the World Wide Web that all your other digital marketing endeavours point to.
As such, the website must be aesthetically pleasing, easy on the eye but also easy on the fingers — simple to navigate. Your website is your online representative, engaging with the world on your behalf, sharing information, answering questions and pointing to the right direction for those that want to commit in some way.
The key word for a website is responsiveness, and a win is when a visitor is converted to a client that follows up with an email, a phone call or coming through to your physical location.
Invest in a good quality website, there are now many more providers of these than there were in the past, but do not sacrifice the responsiveness of the site for the pretty looks.
The important aspects for the optimal site are a home page that welcomes visitors, a promotion landing page that engages them through an immediate call to action which enables you to harvest further information, an about page that summarises your work and a product and services page that details it.
Finally, it is recommended to have a blog page, where you can continually write and share information that is too long to put on social media. Getting both a beautiful and functional site is what matters the most. With this in place, even the sole trader can compete with other businesses.
The Email Marketing Angle
Email marketing is yet another important factor in digital marketing. Some are of the opinion that social media overtook emails but time and experience have shown that nothing beats having direct access to someone who is definitely interested in your product or service and whose contact details you have because they were voluntarily given.
The fact is that social media is extremely broad, throwing out an advert is not a guarantee of conversion and a very small fraction of the people you seek is reached by a simply posting without using the sponsored option that pre-assesses the market.
Email remains extremely effective and there are tools available for free or nominal cost like MailChimp that allow you to better organise your email marketing through creation of databases, ready templates, personalised addresses and the opportunity to share content straight to the inboxes of present and potential clients.
Done right, it has a positive personal touch and can point to additional information on a website or ongoing activities on a social network. Emails can be sent containing abridged versions of blog articles, running promotions, special offers and brief updates, if any. It is also wise to ensure that every email sent gives recipients the option to unsubscribe or opt to receive emails less frequently.
The Social Media Angle
Social media is a big hit and in fact, is the very (or only) internet many Zimbabweans know. It is not strange to ask anyone if they know what the internet is and they have no clue, but they are an eager user of WhatsApp and Facebook.
This perhaps necessitated the “bundle” offering by the telecommunications companies and popularised them.
The argument of whether bundles are real internet (net neutrality) is a discussion for another day, but the fact is that social media such as WhatsApp is used in a big way and many of its’ features are very handy for small business marketing.
Facebook has also become a very handy marketing tool in Zimbabwe, starting with simple individual enquiries on where specific products or services can be acquired by potential customers. Many micro-entrepreneurs have used Facebook pages in place of full blown websites and one will encounter shared and sponsored pages where clothing, electronic goods, party accessories, cakes and a plethora of services are being offered.
Instagram is being leveraged in a similar way, lending credence to the old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words”.
Twitter is also quite handy but is popularised more for being the platform where queries are sent out and handled in the public eye for better accountability. In each of these platforms there are “celebrities” — personalities that have a huge following and some of them have begun to monetise their lot by charging modest amount to share posts to their followers, with short videos proving especially popular.
The important issue in social media for any small business is also engagement, likes are great, comments are better but shares are the best because that is your people reaching out to other people and giving you a vote of confidence. Lots of interesting things can be done on social media, promotions, quiz competitions, testimonials, images and videos. True to its’ name the idea is to get very social and push one’s brand until it is foremost in the minds of the people.
Most of our internet in Zimbabwe is accessed through mobile devices therefore businesses must ensure that their websites are easily used from such devices, and that social media promotions are sensitive to the applications that are popular.
Internet penetration rate is sitting at just under 50 percent with potential to grow. Small businesses can leverage this low cost opportunity to advertise and place themselves in the path of clientele. The internet has truly made it possible for any serious entity to achieve scale and reach, and this, combined with growing opportunities for digital payments, is a huge opportunity to thrive.
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