Why is Online Marketing Booming For MSMEs today? Here are the secrets for you.

Technology has developed faster and efficient mobile solutions for all your marketing needs. As an MSME, a business-to-consumer (B2C) model of marketing will only favor you if adopted in the right manner.

It’s worth noting that Kenya is among the countries with the highest internet penetration and users, standing at 85.2% as of March 2021.

Mobile users are the largest in the country, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. More so, MSMEs who had to blend with the technological trends during the pandemic are now winning today considering the breach of?Social commerce was at its peak.

A B2C marketing model might appear supreme yet it’s the weakest for you. The model has undergone a total transformation and it’s worth noting that your business needs adopt new ways in order to emerge as a market leader.

By carrying out a constructive SWOT analysis, you will realize almost every business is focusing more on leading in the market. Some MSMEs have gone under along the way since the pandemic while many continue to be phased out due to their inadequate marketing strategies.

The competition is now becoming heterogeneous with Technology!

Why is it that a B2C marketing model is undergoing hard press in the economy today when there are some clear winners?

Let’s now understand where the challenge lies for you as a business when utilizing the B2C model regardless of the huge muscle in internet connectivity in Kenya.

The Covid-19 pandemic completely revolutionized the marketing industry in Kenya in 2020. After a number of companies and organizations embarked on heavy salary cuts and retrenchment, unforeseen limitations of being employed began to come to light.

You probably noticed most people selling their items on their socials. The necessity that activated this kind of innovation was the long quarantine season and numerous lockdowns.

According to the World Bank statistics, almost 65% of MSMEs sprouted between the month of June and December 2020, which actively facilitated the stability of the Kenyan economy.

Interactions between sellers and buyers became very minimal as fear of the virus set in. It’s through this that different means and ways of ensuring the economy continues to bloom rapidly began.

Delivery companies increased, social shops became active, and the shift to E-commerce became the new wave of interacting with products and services.

Whilst B2C model involves sharing and active interactions between the two parties, the facilitation during the pandemic was not there.

As a business, you might be competing to invest more in normal interactions with the consumer while your brand is actively failing to get the perfect grip of the market.

Initially, we used to believe the B2C marketing model is here to stay, that it will eventually grow and there would be a lot of money to be made from this since you are interfacing with your clients directly, understanding their preferences, and knowing your competitors. Fortunately/unfortunately, this is no longer the case.

Social Commerce and online marketing continue to grow at a very fast pace. Measure by number of sales, number of referrals, number of buyers, engagement in product tastes and preferences, and also by the number of?new transaction websites.

Online marketing and consumer interaction are paramount in modern-day business transactions.

High internet connectivity has converged all models of marketing into a tech hub that’s convenient and highly repulsive for your local business.

The B2C model, however, might still work for your business but not as well as it can when mutually being subsidized with online marketing.

Your business might be struggling here because of undertaking the traditional way of performing a B2C marketing strategy. Clear SWOT analysis is very important when trying to break through, in your area of specializations.

For example, when specializing in online selling of clothes or just a Swahili ‘Dera’?it’s important to understand the number of people selling that similar product, which models are they using to market, where and to which target market are they displaying their merchandise.

The answers to such questions today are online. Go through the social shops and see how people are describing their commodities, set the same price range, identify your target market, and means/channels of reaching them.

A B2C model of marketing does not necessarily engage with your customers physically. Follow up with comments and reviews.

The biggest challenge with a B2C model of marketing is that?there are few as few certainties as ever. Traditional offline marketing has completely failed to hit the mark with online consumers.

According to Internet consultancy, a rare medium, with just 1,000 online consumers it engaged with, only 8% had visited new sites after following up on off-line advertising. B2C marketing models are often unrealistic and can lead to your business incurring huge costs.

Conclusion.?

As a business, the internet might seem like the most ideal place for marketing and engaging directly with your consumers compared to the traditional B2C models, few MSMEs have cracked the online relationships and marketing management puzzle, instead of just throwing money at it.

Investing in?social commerce platforms?that streamline your brand's online movement in selling and interactions is the first step. Jupiter, a market research company says that 76% of MSMEs are now able to monitor their businesses easily while in online marketing.

The supremacy battle among different marketing strategies has now been converted more into the online space.?

As a business, you need to set an agenda for your brand, demonstrating that as an MSME and market experience too. High costs and a lot of time are all that’s required for the success of a B2C. This is exactly the future your business yearns for.

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