Top 5 Digital Marketing Strategies for SMEs in Africa
What are the top digital marketing strategies for SMEs in Africa? Digital Marketing has become an indispensable part of the overall marketing mix of small businesses in Africa. This type of marketing refers to all forms of marketing done through digital platforms.
Businesses, regardless of size or industry, now employ digital marketing to increase brand awareness and induce sales to generate revenue. In 2020, digital marketing became an integral part of many businesses, due to the global pandemic. Small businesses in Africa, employed digital marketing strategies to keep their business afloat.
Statistics also reveal that 81% of shoppers do research online before purchasing a product.
To stand out in an already saturated digital space, you will need to employ the most effective digital strategies.
Top Digital Marketing Strategies for SMEs in Africa
In this article, we will explore 5 top digital marketing strategies for SMEs in Africa.
- Search Engine Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Mobile Marketing
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing is a fundamental part of digital marketing. It is also one of the most effective digital marketing strategies for SMEs in Africa. Through search engine marketing, SMEs can compete with bigger businesses and drive traffic to their business websites.
With modern shoppers searching online first for products or services, your small business must rank high enough to become visible. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) ensures that your website ranks high on search engine results. It employs SEO techniques like keyword research, link building, and optimization of relevant content.
Social Media Marketing
Social media platforms have become increasingly popular in the 21st century. Millions of people are now connecting with their favorite brands through social media.
As a business owner, it will interest you to know that 54% of people use social media to search for products. Most buyers check for reviews from other customers on social media before making a buying decision.
Social media is an effective channel to connect with potential audiences, build trust, and increase sales. It also helps to drive traffic to your website.
Here are a few tips to help you get started with social media marketing:
- Craft your goals and objectives. What do you want to achieve on social media? Is it brand awareness or sales? Or both? Clearly craft out what your goals and objectives are.
- Create a social media account. To determine what social media business account to open, you need to consider where your target audience is. What social media platform does your target audience engage with the most? Answering this question will help you become more strategic with which social media account to open.
- Create relevant content that appeals to the needs and desires of your audience
- Run social media ads to promote your product or service and reach a wider audience
- Build a relationship with your customers and monitor your growth results.
Content Marketing
“Content is King” and is the fuel of any digital marketing strategy. All other digital marketing strategies hinge on the content you put out to your audience.
Content marketing involves strategically creating and sharing valuable content to attract new audiences and retain existing audiences. One thing you must consider in content marketing is your audience. The reason your potential audience will engage with your content is that it is relevant to them. Your content should address the needs, problems, and desires of your audience.
After creating content, distributing it appropriately comes next. You want to make sure your content (blogs, Ads, sales copy, etc) is optimized for search engine results. Also, you can promote your content using social media platforms.
Not only is content marketing one of the most effective digital marketing strategies for SMEs in Africa, but it is also one of the cheapest forms of digital marketing.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies for SMEs in Africa. You can create a relationship with potential and existing customers via email marketing. It also keeps them updated on the latest trends in your business by simply sending an email. This email could be a newsletter, product update, or promotion.
Here are a few tips to help you create an effective email marketing strategy:
- Build your email list. You can do this by driving traffic to your website. To get people to sign up, you will need to lure them using a lead magnet. You could give out a discount coupon, an ebook, or a free audio resource.
- Develop an email campaign that will engage email subscribers. Create relevant content that your audience can relate to. It could be educating or thought-provoking.
- Personalize your emails. This will get the attention of your audience and make them feel more comfortable reading your emails.
Mobile Marketing
According to research, 69.4% of internet users use shopping apps on their mobile phones. Also, 54.8% of global traffic comes from mobile phones.
With this, it is clear that getting a good mobile marketing strategy can largely impact your business. Mobile marketing aims to reach customers through their mobile phones. Businesses can do this through mediums like text messages, websites, social media, an app, etc.
The key to a good mobile marketing strategy is making sure your website or apps are mobile user-friendly. A poor user experience can increase bounce rates on your website and make you lose potential customers.
Conclusion
With effective digital marketing strategies, small businesses in Africa can become visible and increase their sales and revenue. You can start today to employ any of the top 5 digital marketing strategies for SMEs in Africa, as discussed above. Do you have questions or comments on SMEs in Africa? We’d love to hear them. Kindly drop them in the comments section.
