The major marketing challenge for businesses today
If you run an SME in Africa, you likely want to know what marketing challenge you are likely to face. Just like you, a survey was conducted a few days back by a team I worked with for the same reason. They wanted to know the challenges faced by Small and medium organizations.
Out of more than 200 votes collated from LinkedIn, 23% of businesses and entrepreneurs selected generating sales as a challenge. Another 21% chose lead generation as one. This statistic alone shows how much your business needs to have the marketing and sales plan for continuity. The market today would only smile at the audacious.
Facebook has more than 150 million users, while WhatsApp alone has millions of users that can buy from you. That means that the excuse we tell our self that the market is saturated is so we can have a good night’s sleep.
The market is not saturated because what you don’t have is a growth strategy. Do you want to grow and beat odds? Then we have highlighted a few tips for you to grow your business, get leads and make sales.
Strategies to get you started
· Word of mouth:
Word of mouth is still the best form of marketing out there and, for most of us, our siblings, family, or neighbors don’t even know what we do or sell. You can change that from today by being intentional when you have conversations with them by telling them what you do. Share your flyers on your WhatsApp status.
· Establish leadership:
People want to buy from those who know their stuff. As a business owner who sells software, you want to be the go-to person for everything tech. Start writing blogs, posting on your preferred social media about the industry you belong with.
· Create industry events:
Industry events don’t have to be expensive. There are cost-effective ways to book halls and get speakers for your event. These events allow you to put your business in front of those who matter. They are ways to generate leads and sales. Some of the things you can do are pick up your Sunday best outfit and talk with owners with whom you can collaborate with. You can also write a pitch and proposal that cost absolutely nothing.
· Create more content online:
Content is consumed in a different form from videos to text. On Instagram, reels (a 15 secs video) are a favorite for lots of Instagram users. This information can help in planning your content for social media.
· Run Influencer ads:
Influencer ads are not expensive if you can strike a deal with these influencers. In some cases, you can offer them your product and implore them to share the results with their community.
· User-generated content:
Customer feedback stories can jumpstart your sales. Encourage your customers to share feedback and use this feedback as content to lure customers back.
· Run Facebook ads:
Facebook ads cost $1 or less to run daily and can be a good source of generating business leads and sales for your business. Many businesses hire Facebook ads consultants to manage their advertising.
Business owners can learn more by watching and taking training on sites like Hubspot or Udemy.
Overcoming marketing challenges
There are cases where businesses are failing and, it looks like there is no way out. How does such a business get back up? Here are a few tips to help you out:
- The first thing to do is to identify who your customers are and where you can meet them. Everyone cannot be your customer or client, be specific about their demography and likes.
- The second thing is to start charging a premium for your offering to cover running costs. The free discounting that your favorite coach told you is not working. Charge people for using your services even if they are friends because you can’t afford revenue leakages.
- The third thing is to get dirty. As a business owner, start learning to use skills like designing content using Canva, running ads yourself, and following up with customers. These can cut down expenses by more than half.
- The fourth thing is to look out for partnerships that are mutual and complement each other. Instead of paying for office space, you can consider sharing the space with another business owner to reduce expenses.
- The fifth thing to look at is your offerings by breaking them into varieties or different forms. Coca-Cola offers bottled coke, canned coke, and plastic as well. These will allow brands to cater to different audiences.
- The sixth thing is to fine-tune your collaborations with other brands that can help you boost your brand. Go on guest speaking hunts or guest blogging.
- Last on this template is to focus on your cash cow. The cash cows are the product that can bring in immediate sales and are hot in demand.
Conclusion
Ensure to increase the capacity to accommodate more of those products so you can keep your business afloat. We know you are passionate about that solution that you designed. However, we need to think of business continuity and long-term results. We are in the business to drive sales and, any activity that is not resulting in sales should be cut off.
Focus on cost-effective ways of leveraging your network for marketing and sales.
