Covid-19 has come and upended the way we have been doing business. Talk to any business owner and the conversation will veer towards taking their businesses online. The global lockdown has had business owners rethinking their marketing channels and so it is not surprising that almost everyone whose business can be moved online is looking to do so. Those still holding out on taking your businesses online because your business has not been affected by covid-19, know that you are missing out on an important constituent for your business that is online and should make plans to engage them.
But, before one thinks of taking their business online one should come up with a digital marketing strategy, and in this article, we will look at some of the issues you as an entrepreneur should consider.
1. Target market & segmentation
It is vital that you have a clear understanding of whom your target market is. To do so, you should be able to clearly break them down by demographics, geography and psychographic elements. You will also need to understand your customer buying process, i.e. how long it takes them to move from need awareness to purchase. Once you are clear on whom your target market is, you will find reaching them becomes easier and cost-effective.
2. Channel
Tied to the target market is knowing where your target market congregations online. When you sold your wares in a shop, you relied on footfall for your clients, with an online business, you have to be clear on where your target market spends its time or searches for your products. Here you could be thinking of using a website to drive sales, online shop like Shopify, e-Bay, Amazon, FB, etc or you could use social media, mobile apps to reach your target market. However, given the many social media platforms available there is a need to decide on which of these you will use- FB, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
When thinking of the channel(s) to use and how to use them, consider what purpose that channel will fulfil. Are you using the channel for informational purposes where you share content? If you are, how engaging will your content be? Or is the purpose to convert your leads into sales? Also, consider whether you would like your channel to be interactive and how responsive will you be?
3. Reach
Determine how you are going to reach your target market. Will you do so organically or use paid ads? If you plan to use paid ads, do you have a budget for this and what outcomes would you consider as successful utilisation of your budget? If using organic growth what activities are you going to engage in that will allow you to reach your target market at the level you want? Who will be responsible for engaging with your followers- you or a hired social media manager?
4. Goals and expected outcomes
Set SMART goals that are aligned to your business objectives. This will guide your actions and ensure that you focus only on activities that lead to your expected outcomes. Once your goals and expected outcomes are set out, you will want to track your performance, so you need to decide on which metrics to measure e.g number of followers, the number of shares, engagement, post reach, mentions, conversion rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, testimonials, etc, There are many metrics out there that you could use but focus only on the ones that help to meet your marketing objectives and by extension your business objectives.
5. Payment systems
For some businesses, the payment systems they used while offline will be redundant while operating online, so it is important to device payment systems that will suit your online clients. The beauty of living in 2020, covid-19 excepting, is that there are myriad of ways that payments can be made, so select the ones that are convenient to both you and your customers from mobile money, to Paypal to stripe, credit cards, etc.
6. Returns
Selling products brings its own challenges with regards to the inability of customers to try on a product (clothes, shoes, etc) before buying and the same is true for services too. To counter this problem, some service providers offer free trial periods during which time a client decides whether or not the service meets their needs before they splash money on it. So, determine how you are going to deal with clients wanting to return products they had purchased. How you handle this will in part determine your customer's satisfaction with your service.
6. Listen to your followers
Finally, the most important point I would live you with when operating online is to listen to your customers. Client feedback has never been more important and easy to get than now. Act on their concerns.
Point on. Things wont go back to normal its high time to arise.
ReplyDeleteIndeed!It's time to adapt to the new normal.
DeleteNice pointers. Zim has largely been very traditional, face to face meetings and deal closures seems to still be of high priority. People just waiting for the pandemic to be "over" for things to go back to "normal". How do we slowly transition to the new global norm?
ReplyDeleteGood question! It is interesting that Zim is still behind the curve when it comes to adopting technology, but sometimes circumstances force people and businesses to change the way they operate, and I am sure Zim will not be spared.
ReplyDeleteAny company cantransition from relying solely on a face to face kind of setting, regardless of the nature of work they do and how established their company is in the market. Take for example a bank offering loans.There is no need for a face to face encounter. The bank just needs to provide a platform where loan applicants can upload all the necessary documents without needing to visit the bank or a relationship manager visiting a corporate client. This actually saves both the bank and the customer on time wasted in queues by the client and by bank employees performing mundane tasks instead of value adding ones. It also reduces overcrowding in banking halls.
To transition online a company needs to strike a balance between the parts of their processes that can be handled online and the ones offline. Instead of going on a client visit, you could schedule a video call with them.
You would be surprised at how ready companies are to move to dealing online, after all, most have experience doing so in their personal lives where they buy and import goods online without ever meeting the seller in person.
I hope you’re doing well during this pandemic time,
ReplyDeleteI agreed with you, that COVID 19 has changed almost everything surrounding us, some in positive ways and some negative. Most of the physical ways of doing business are adversely affected by COVID 19; meanwhile, the online business has taken new momentums. Can all business be taken online? (This is important questions revolving on the head of most entrepreneurs). The answer is “Yes” all business in some extents can be taken Online. As you have explained little on your article, thinking about taking the business online should follow different perspectives such as digital marketing, digital payments, digital ordering, and digital customer engagement. Before the businessman decided to take his/her business online, must have quality digital marketing skills and wiliness to invest in digital technologies.
The few people who decided early (before COVID 19 )to take their business online as e-commerce platform has succeeded a lot during this pandemic time. Perhaps, not only products business can be taken online but also the service business can be taken online is some extents. For example, the hospital may have an online platform to provide the services to they are patients, HR companies may engage with their clients through digital ways by conduct interview through video conferences, receive the application through digital ways, e.ct. ICT companies can remotely provide support to their customers, as well as banks can deploy digital payment gateways. This showed us how it possible for all business to be conducted online in one-ways or another.
As an entrepreneur, taking your business online, it requires you to invest in digital technologies and learning applications of those technologies to your business. Those technologies must link and reflects what you aim to achieve on your business. Below is a kind of digital technologies you may have, to take you are business online:-
-Modern websites to engage with customers,
-Digital call centres (Depend on the size of your business)
-Video conferences technologies (you may opt to use available like zoom and Skype)
-Business email
-Digital payment gateways (Small business may opt to use M-pesa, tigo pesa, e.c.t)
-Digital ordering platform
- Business social media Platform (For digital marketing and customer engagements)
-Reliable internets and digitals equipment such as a computer, Smartphone’s, tablets, e.c.t
-Digital document /data management system i.e e-KYC
-Digital delivery system (Nowadays this segment grow in first world countries, where a drone, and self- driving cars used)
Do not get shocked as you may think the technologies may cost more than your Capital. Most of these technologies are available to us, and it only us who we suppose to explore it in a least-cost as possible. Example digital payment, we can use available M-pesa, tigo pesa or even airtel platform. Social media is also available to us, only what needed is a proper skill on how you can get the most out of social media. Moreover, Websites, emails, video call, and e-commerce platform can be hosted in cloud bases, which may cost not much.
Important knowledge your worker must have, in this digital era:-
-Digital marketing skills, such as SEO, contents writing skills, e.c.t
-E- commerce operating skills
-Digital social media engagements skills
-Customer care skills
COVID 19 challenges you to take your business online. It is time for business owners, to act and explore the benefits of online business.
You are very correct! Companies should have been making inroads into the online platform well before Covid-19 hit, but some companies are slow in transitioning because they are either afraid of technology or they simply have no idea about how to go about it. That's the reason I wrote this article- to give pointers to those who are unsure about how to go about it.
DeleteThank you for providing a list of a number of platforms and payment systems that entrepreneurs can use. This will come in handy for other entrepreneurs.