by Shukuru Amos
The COVID 19 pandemic has brought a new awakening to big and small businesses in Tanzania. It has been obvious now that undergoing digital transformation is the only way to keep your business going.
In fact, businesses that did not have a digital presence of any kind are the ones losing the most during this pandemic.
And the reality is that things are not going to get back to normal! In fact, things were already beginning to change even before the pandemic.
Before Covid19, the digital landscape in Tanzania was already taking significant growth (over 26 million Tanzanians were using the internet by the end of 2019). So it is fair to say COVID 19 has brought the future early.
It was only a matter of time before businesses were forced to undergo digital transformations.
Welcome to the new digital Darwinism: If you don’t adapt, you are left behind and forgotten.
There is a big need for businesses to rethink how they operate in the world that is increasingly becoming digital. Not to mention recurring uncertainties.
Undergoing significant digital transformations can help you stay relevant and connected with your customers.
By saying digital transformations for businesses we mean, among other things, having infrastructures such as being able to collaborate online (remote work), knowing the best tools to use, leveraging online platforms such as websites, and social channels to grow brand awareness, as well as staying abreast with current trends in the digital world.
The way forward here is to adapt – so that you won’t risk being run over by your competitor in the disruptive digital communication’s race.
So, what are we doing to help?
Knowing the challenges small businesses and entrepreneurs go through on the journey of taking their business online, we have decided to be part of the help. Here is what we are doing to offer help during this pandemic.
- Content creation (that is customer-focused) and content promotion tactics to help establish themselves as thought leaders in their niche.
- Using data to measure digital success
- Providing resources such as content calendars, social media posting ideas, and other resources. This includes changing the focus of our blog articles into helping readers on how to grow their businesses in the digital world.
- Creating websites at affordable prices everyone can manage (we know these are hard times financially) plus a dedicated SEO strategy to help startups get noticed on the web just like we did on our business.
AND HERE’S A GIFT FOR YOU: Download our list of social media posting ideas that can help you to increase engagement on your social channels. We use these exact ideas for our clients and they have proved to boost engagement especially on Instagram and Facebook.
And the best part of all, we are open to giving a dedicated Digital Marketing consultation to small business owners. This includes giving our best secrets that helped put us on top of Google in less than six months.
Wouldn’t you want to jump in front of your customers right at the moment when they are looking for you? Feel free to contact us HERE.
by Shukuru Amos
With COVID 19 continuing to affect our everyday lives, digital marketing has never been more important to businesses than now. Businesses that didn’t have a digital presence of any kind are the ones losing the most during this pandemic.
It is obvious now that there is no way to go but take your business online.
It is important to invest in online marketing efforts to promote and grow your business. Most of your customers are online. Those who are not will hear about you from those who are online (social media is a good driver of word of mouth referral).
Now without further ado, we have gathered six ways you can give your business online presence. Let’s dive in.
- Through Social Media
This is the most preferred option. Social media is a good driver of word of mouth marketing. It helps you to connect with customers and build relationships. It only takes a few minutes to set up a profile for your business online.
Most social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn have features to create company profiles. It is important to note that social media channels vary in terms of content type and users. This will help you with planning a social media marketing strategy for your business.
A good social media profile must include relevant keywords and hashtags as well as a Call to Action.
- Google My Business (and other listing directories)
Google My Business is an ideal tool for local businesses. It is a free tool that allows your business to be listed on maps and create a profile. Google will show your business to people searching for services related to yours. For maximum visibility, make sure to encourage your customers to leave reviews on your profile.
There are also plenty of other local and international directories offering business listings. It is easy to find them in your location. For example, try to search a key phrase related to your business or any business and pay attention to search results. Youll see websites with a list of companies offering such kind of service.
- Create a website
This is the most obvious way to take your business online. It acts as your digital home or office where customers can visit and learn more about you. Creating a website is not that hard, thanks to free information. But the hard part is making it an effective marketing tool that brings leads to and converts visitors into subscribers or buying customers.
And the good thing is that creating a website is cheap these days. You can even do it on yourself through the help of free tutorials online. But if you too busy to create a website by yourself, we can help you create a corporate website that’s fully SEO optimized. Click here to get started.
- Online classifieds platforms
These are platforms that connect sellers and buyers. You can use these platforms to post classifieds advertisements for your product and drive sales. One advantage of these platforms is that they already have an audience of people visiting to look for something to buy. In Tanzania, Kupatana and Zoom Tanzania are good examples.
- Using influencers
These are people with big followers on social media. They can help you reach an audience of their followers. For this to work, your business must be online first so that an influencer can direct people to you by tagging, mentioning, or sharing a link.
- Through Email
Emails marketing is good for building trust and brand loyalty and the good thing is that everyone has an email account. To do this, you need to collect email contacts of your customers (such as through signup forms)so you can engage them through newsletters or other important updates such as new products and offers.
Taking your business online is easier. However, getting awareness and recognition takes time. You need to learn the best practices of navigating different digital communication channels to grow your business.
One quick method for you to get noticed is to use paid advertisements through Facebook Ads or Google Ads. This is a quick way to jump in front of your customers in minutes!
