9 Marketing Strategies to boost your Small Business in South Africa

Marketing is one of the most important factors needed for any business to succeed. As a young entrepreneur, you’ve already set up your small business, hire skilled professionals, and acquired all the legal documents, it’s now time to get your business known to the public. This is where marketing comes in. However, coming up with the best marketing strategy can prove to be a hassle especially if you are new in the entrepreneurial world. Therefore, if you are stuck on coming up with efficient marketing strategy for your small business in South Africa, then worry no more. I’ll be more than glad to give you an insight into some of the most effective strategies you can adopt for your business today.

9 Marketing Strategies to boost your Small Business in South Africa

Clearly define your brand

Your brand is the image your customers have of your business. Therefore, you have to create a unique image that is very strategic. Establishing a brand requires you to identify your unique selling point. That is, try to find out what makes you different from your competitors and work on what sets you apart. There are so many ways in which you can stand out from your competitors maybe through speed and convenience, customer service, product quality, and reliability. Another key factor to take into consideration is that it is not a must you possess all the mentioned qualities, just find a few things that your business is good at and work towards improving those you are not good at. With this, your brand will be well established in the competitive South African market.

Your brand is the image your customers have of your business

Identify the right target audience for your brand

Over the past few years working as a marketing strategist, I have come to learn that customers operate in the; “See, Think, Do, Care” framework. Therefore, if you are know your product isn’t what certain customers want, they’ll probably ignore it and find a brand offering what they need. Therefore, spending huge sums of money on advertising before identifying your target audience can milk your business dry before it even blows up. With this in mind, any small business owners ought to ask themselves questions like:

• Where do my target customers go while looking for products?
• Where helps my customers make a purchase decision?
• What is my target customers’ sex distribution?
• What are their ages?

Having the right answers to these questions will help you advertise your business to the ride audience who may turn out to be regular customers.

Create a Website

Having a website for your small business is one of the most effective ways to market your brand online. Some of the advantages that may come with creating a well-organized website are: increased traffic via search engines and offering more information about your business to potential customers. You can hire a professional to create an appealing website for your brand or you can create one by yourself.

Use Paid Searches (Pay-per-click advertising)

This is yet another effective marketing strategy used by numerous small businesses whereby they get to display ads each type a person types in a word or phrase on a search engine. For a small business, the bidding war is relatively cheaper as compared to well-established businesses. This may be a result of a lack of competition in local markets. You are probably wondering how PPC Advertising works, right? Here’s the thing, you’ll be allowed to bid on certain keywords such as: “coffee shops” or “Coffee shops in Johannesburg”. Afterward, you’ll be required to select catchy phrases around those phrases. Your ad will then be displayed on various search engines. When someone clicks on your ad, you’ll have to pay the advertisement company for each click.

Social Media Marketing

As a small business owner in a fast-developing country, you must adopt the use of social media advertising if you want to attract larger audiences. Social media will go a long way in seeing that you create awareness and establish your brand in the market. Social media can also make you or break you depending on how you’ll use it. Therefore, focus on advertising yourself to the right audience on social media. Do thorough research on which types of content amazes them and on which social media platforms they spend most of their time on. Only after these will you know what exactly to post on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Content Marketing

Another marketing strategy that can help you to reach more people is content marketing. For you to arouse interest and build trust with your customers, it is very prudent to create relevant and fascinating content on your blog or other platform. This marketing strategy will help you engage with customers more in terms of answering some of the most important questions about your brand and also persuading potential customers and investors as to why you are the best in the game. You can distribute your content through e-books, videos, infographics, and even articles. Most of the content should be posted on your website to gain strong domain authority.

Venture into affiliate programs

Affiliate programs have over the years proved to be effective marketing strategies. They are well incentivized to give you that breakthrough you desire for your business. Another advantage that is associated with affiliate programs is that they are very affordable and are only paid once they are successful. Affiliate programs can be in form of a review or coupon sites, influencers, and content publishers.

Start Partner Marketing

It is always said that two heads are better than one. The same can apply in business. When two businesses with a similar target audience can partner with one another and put together their resources to establish their brands, then the market reach might increase massively. If you are a small business in South Africa, you can look for a relatively bigger company with whom you have similar target audiences and work out a plan to increase your reach and improve your marketing abilities.

Use the Referral Marketing technique

This marketing strategy involves persuading satisfied/delighted customers to spread the word about products offered by your business and also refer a potential investor to you. A happy, existing customer’s word of mouth might provide referrals with high time value. It is a very cost-effective marketing strategy that guarantees you steady business growth.

Final Thoughts

If you’d like to strategically, creatively, and tactfully gain lifetime customers, then it is high time to invest in some of the mentioned strategies if not all. As a small business in South Africa, the marketing might be competitive due to well-established companies, but it doesn’t mean you have to lose hope. Just focus on proper marketing and ways on improving your brand each day. Always Remember: For you to be successful, always deliver more than is expected!!