Online marketing to grow in South Africa
The Internet has been like a rolling twister, growing larger and larger by the day. South Africa has been no exception by growing nearly 163% last year to a total of 7,8 million unique users. Yes, South Africa has finally joined the Internet growth phenomena. We are growing despite the high costs involved with surfing the net. But what does this mean for business and how should we deal with this growing industry, so we as business owners can benefit from it?
Technology empowers you
When we look at the ability of Internet technology to track visitors and their behaviour the benefit is clear for SME's. The costs involved with setting up a website is relatively low and can give you an armoury of available marketing weapons.
The biggest benefit any small business has is the fact that they are able to resort to targeted marketing in order to make every cent they spend on marketing give them the desired return on investment (ROI).
General Obstacles
South Africa has no shortage of web design, advertising and media companies that offer so called online solutions to business owners. The problem is that very few of them actually understand the true nature of the Internet.
The Internet is a wild horse that will literally through you the moment you do not hold on. The Internet can also be an empty desert if your website is not correctly designed.
These businesses would sell you so-called solutions that you pay a lot of money for. It looks pretty with flash and graphics that makes you proud to be the owner of the website. But after a couple of months the website still doesn't make some in return or any money for that matter.
One thing that must be understood from the first time you decide to enter the online industry is that it is very different from conventional marketing and selling, as it merges selling and marketing into a website.
Visitors rate content #1 but this is only a small part of the pie
Research has shown that visitors rate content higher than anything else on a website, this should not be a surprise because this is a line that are regularly used by SEO's and internet marketers, however the typical content driven website will not make the website a successful marketing tool.
Online marketing is the techniques used to apply as many marketing techniques to work together in reaching a common goal.
If you do not combine all acquisitions, conversion and retention methods in one, the chances are pretty good that your website will find itself in the desert where the wild horse will through it of because there is no green grass or water to drink.
Why websites do not work for what they are intended
When you approach a company or individual to design a website for you, they will sell you the product that they feel will be most suitable for your budget. However, few of them will design a site that actually works, purely because they lack the understanding of online marketing and that a website is not just a billboard or information brochure.
A website is much more, it combines branding, image, marketing, sales and public relations of a business. It is supposed to be the ultimate marketing tool but is approached from either an conventional marketing view or simply an information brochure that tell people who you are and what services it offer. Will either of those two sell? No!
People need to be assured that a company or business is worth dealing with online. Although this is true, the old rule of repetition with conventional marketing also plays a role. The Internet is filled with choice, that is why it is so successful, but that is also the reason why a proper online marketing strategy is extremely important. People needs to see your logo and business name as often as possible, else they forget about you, 5 seconds after leaving your website, that is if they could find it in the first place.
It is time for business to take the Internet seriously and equip themselves with the knowledge to utilize their websites to the full.
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