By Vivien Wamalwa
The digital migration in the media sector is key transformation for Kenya, with the recent launch of internet.org and free internet access for Kenyans by Airtel and Facebook, there’s no debate that Kenyans are fully digitized with the advanced technology.
2014-2015 statistics by Communications Council of Kenya (CCK) indicates that there were 14.8 million data/internet subscriptions up from 14.0 million subscriptions in the last quarter, representing 5.8 per cent increase, Mobile data/internet subscriptions rose by a similar margin of 5.9 per cent to reach 14.7 million up from 13.9 million recorded the previous quarter. Consequently, the number of estimated internet users stood at 23.2 million up from 22.3 million users in the last quarter, representing a 4.1 per cent increase during the period.
Internet penetration in Kenya is at 47.3%. Businesses whether multinational, big corporations or Small and Medium sized enterprises who have fully taken up the digital edge advantage have definitely seen results, be it revenue growth, brand awareness, penetrating new market or customer feedback which is undeniably any businesses’ ultimate goal.
Consequently this issue should ponder any business owner who is still running their business in analogue mode and still expect to compete with digitally advanced businesses. But not to worry you can still catch up with these basic steps:
- Find a web designer/developer
Your business main online image is your website, this how potential customers get to see and judge your product or services and connect with your business thus it is a vital marketing tool for any digital business. Find a professional web design company that can offer consultation on what type of site is idea for your industry and ensure all the content is to a professional level.
This will need a domain: www.yourbusinessname.com or co.ke, .net, org.
- Create your social media pages
Your website is now up but it needs more people to find it, this where social media comes in handy. Create your social media pages mainly Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest and if need be a company blog.
Have a branding expert guide on consistent brand message across all your social platforms, then link all the social pages to your website to drive traffic to your business website.
- Formulate a digital marketing strategy for your business
Ever heard of the saying ‘If you fail to plan you plan to fail’? Success in digital marketing needs a clear plan addressing the Who?, What?, Where?, When? and How? of your business. This strategy will address the what exactly you should do and how you should do it, what your rationale for online marketing is, be it brand growth, lead generation or customer interaction/feedback.
- Engage, Share, Interact and keep it social
Once you have your digital platforms all accessible by your customers, you need to either hire a professional company to manage your digital marketing or hire/delegate an in-house marketing staff to engage, share, interact and manage a social presence of your company.
www.latitudeconsulting.net your digital migration solutions expert.
