Most common digital marketing mistakes
Most common digital marketing mistakes Digital Marketing, being the most evolving field, possesses significant challenges to marketers and businesses. If your business is currently failing to get the desired results in sales, lead conversions, traffic generation, and more, then it’s possible that mistakes are being made with your current digital marketing efforts. Here are some of the most common mistakes to avoid: When the focus (and optimization) is on channels as opposed to users. By focusing too much on the channel or trying to optimize for those channels, it takes the attention away from the user and the value you are providing them which will, in turn, become increasingly counterproductive. SMEs often spread themselves far too thin. Don’t get distracted by shiny new platforms and tools. The reality is that many small businesses and a portion of big brands aren’t delivering on the basics of digital marketing. For most SMEs the majority of their business growth still comes from the foundational tools in digital marketing: social media, digital ads, email marketing and SEO. So get that right first. Lacking realistic and measurable goals. If you don’t have clearly outlined goals, then you don’t know what results you hope to achieve. How will you know if you have reached your goals if you haven’t outlined what that looks like? Start by creating SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. Ignoring competition. The online platform is full of competition, and you need to stay very active to stay ahead of your competitors. Anyone who is ignoring the competition is making a big mistake. You need to analyze the performance of your competitors and their marketing strategies. If you want to make a smart move, you need to be smarter than your rivals. For this, you need to be well-updated about their strategies and methods. Not doing retargeting. Your online customers have a lot of options in front of them. So, if you want to be in their mind at the time of purchase, you need to focus on retargeting. With effective email marketing activities and bulk SMS services, you can quickly inform your audience about your latest products and offers. They are the most effective retargeting methods adopted by digital marketing experts to increase sales volume. Buying followers. There are ways to increase your followers without buying them. Buying them is a huge mistake you can make since followers that are bought don’t interact with your page. It can also get expensive, and you don’t always see the return you hope to see. Instead look at hosting giveaways and contests, running ads and campaigns and using the right hashtags. Be sure to engage with people on your page by creating engaging and relevant content. Believing email marketing is dead. With the improvement of technology over the years, many people are under the impression that email marketing isn’t effective any more – but they couldn’t be any more wrong. In a matter of seconds, marketers have the ability to find out the best times to send emails in order to increase open rates, what subject lines should be used, and what to expect from each email. The future of email marketing is something no marketer should avoid. So don’t underestimate its potential. All CEO's Thoughts Interviews and Insights Industry News Interviews and Insights Why Black Friday 2022 will differ from before 26 Oct 2022 Why Black Friday 2022 will differ from before Despite current downturns in the economy, evidence shows that the e-commerce industry is picking up and going back to pre-pandemic… Read More CEO's Thoughts Never stop marketing 26 Oct 2022 Never stop marketing There’s a LOT going on in the world right now. This is not a political piece, yet it is diffiult to ignore the world-shaping events… Read More Interviews and Insights Interview with Sandra Jardim, Blogger/Founder of MammaBearLove 26 Oct 2022 Interview with Sandra Jardim, Blogger/Founder of MammaBearLove Our October profile is Sandra Jardim, mom to twins Gisela and Alaia and blogger/owner of MammaBearLove. She uses her blog as… Read More Prev123Next
Interview with Ryan Nienaber, Co-founder of Greenfish
Interview with Ryan Nienaber, Co-founder of Greenfish This month we chat to entrepreneurs and brothers Ryan and Andrew, founders of Greenfish, a supplier of sustainably caught, low environmental impact fish and seafood to the restaurant industry, and since Covid, also directly to consumers’ homes. Growing up as artisanal hand line and tuna pole fishermen, their combined 60 years of fishing experience has instilled in them a deep respect and connection to the ocean that underpins everything that Greenfish does. Describe yourself in 3 words High-energy, passionate, hardworking. Tell us a bit about your love for fishing and the ocean I’ve been fishing since the age of five and it’s an amazing privilege and passion that my brother and I have shared. We love all things fish! If we’re not fishing for work we’re fishing for fun, or dive, or spear fish or I’m taking my daughter fishing – that’s how much we love it. How did you and your brother come upon the idea to start Greenfish? The company was actually born out of chance. As a student I was catching and selling fish to make money to pay for my studies. Unfortunately I was bunking class a bit too often so my lecturers eventually asked whether I am going to stay in class or drop out and I said I will only bunk class and go fishing to make money. I eventually started selling tuna door-to-door to restaurants directly from the boats I was fishing on. I think I sold three to five tuna every 2 weeks while I was at varsity. I eventually graduated, but never went on practising. Greenfish was born from my mom’s drive-way with one freezer in the garage and we grew organically into the business we are today with a full team, factory and a fleet of vehicles and boats. It’s a proudly family-run business. How has the past two years impacted your business? Greatly. For the past decade we only supplied to restaurants and wholesale, so during the pandemic restaurants effectively stopped paying us. Our cash flow was hugely affected as businesses went under and we had to write off a lot of money. Luckily we pivoted early in the pandemic. Already after the first lockdown we changed over from B2B to B2C which resulted in us putting a lot more focus into online. That was how our beautiful online deli was born, which now allows every household to have a fisherman in their fridge. What has been the most challenging so far about taking your business online? I’m a fisherman, not an IT guy! Give me a piece of fishing line, bait and a hook and I’m comfortable. I’ve had to learn a lot about dealing with end users and home consumers and their needs and requirements vs the B2B side which I’ve done for a very long time and where the customer is very educated. So one of our biggest challenges has been to educate home consumers about fish, the values of how it is caught, and how not all fish are equal in terms of quality. What digital channels do you mostly rely on to find new customers? Right at the beginning when we went over to B2C I went onto Instagram and announced to Cape Town that we were launching our online fish store – we immediately got some orders. So Instagram started the process for us and after that we went on to Facebook and now Google – which is what AdMarula is helping us with 😉 On your website you promise delivery on the same day if orders are placed before 11am. That must be quite a challenge logistically? Initially when we started the business we figured we would allocate each suburb a delivery day for example Stellenbosch on a Monday, Southern Suburbs on a Tuesday etc. but we quickly realised that was not what the consumer wanted. What they wanted was fresh fish that day and so we opened up same-day delivery every day to all of Cape Town and suburbs if orders were placed by 11am that day. Yes, it has been an interesting challenge logistically, but by re-purposing our fleet of vehicles that we used to use for restaurant deliveries, into different zones and by managing it in-house we have made it work. We only use a third party when absolutely necessary. What aspirations do you have for the business? To stay honest to the business and what we do, to the product and to continue our deep love and respect for the ocean. I never want to lose that – it is what makes us Greenfish. In time we may expand slightly, but we will do it very cautiously to make sure it still falls within our beliefs. Your favourite seafood/fish recipe? Keep it simple. Salt and pepper with a dollop of butter. Rather undercook it than overcook it – that applies to almost anything. Follow Greenfish! On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenfishsa/ On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenfishsa/ All CEO's Thoughts Interviews and Insights Industry News Interviews and Insights Why Black Friday 2022 will differ from before 26 Oct 2022 Why Black Friday 2022 will differ from before Despite current downturns in the economy, evidence shows that the e-commerce industry is picking up and going back to pre-pandemic… Read More CEO's Thoughts Never stop marketing 26 Oct 2022 Never stop marketing There’s a LOT going on in the world right now. This is not a political piece, yet it is diffiult to ignore the world-shaping events… Read More Interviews and Insights Interview with Sandra Jardim, Blogger/Founder of MammaBearLove 26 Oct 2022 Interview with Sandra Jardim, Blogger/Founder of MammaBearLove Our October profile is Sandra Jardim, mom to twins Gisela and Alaia and blogger/owner of MammaBearLove. She uses her blog as… Read More Prev123Next
Getting started with social media-based affiliate marketing
Getting started with social media-based affiliate marketing While traditional affiliate channels like blogs, websites and email marketing can still be very effective, affiliates who have not yet added social media channels to their mix should seriously consider doing so. Not only will this allow you to reach new, highly relevant customers as well as influencers and creators, but most platforms also provide affiliates with the tools they need to create content and seamlessly share referral links to their built-in audience of followers. Here are a few tips to help you get started. Choosing which social media platform really depends on your social media objectives; for example, are you aiming to build your brand or looking for lead generation? Either way, you need to consider which channels are used by your target audience, the channels that your competitors are using, and the type of content that is most likely to engage with your audience. Facebook – Facebook is by far the biggest channel for posting affiliate marketing links as they now reach around a third of the world’s population. Most businesses consider it as the second website for their products these days. Since their market penetration is so large, you can target almost every age group on Facebook. Start by setting up a business FB page from which you can share your affiliate links. And be sure to keep content fresh, highly relevant and original. Also don’t forget to regularly analyze your stats so you can easily decide your future strategies. Youtube – The video-sharing site now has around 2 billion users so competition for eyeballs is quite stiff, however, there are no limits to the niches for which you can create video content for. As with other social media channels, you can monetize your video content as part of your affiliate marketing campaigns by creating videos and placing affiliate links in the video and the video descriptions. Affiliates can also place a small image overlay on the video with the tracking link. Affiliate marketers can use tracking to redirect the user to the affiliate website or affiliate landing page, where the user will make the purchase and generate the commission. Twitter – Although not as popular as Facebook, Twitter has incredible engagement rates that could benefit your business. Using Twitter for affiliate marketing will help you to increase your brand awareness and most importantly, to start building your own audience of loyal followers. Once you have signed up to Twitter, make sure that you have a good profile for your future visitors to get an idea of who you are, including a short description of you, your hobbies, interests, and the URL of your website as well. You can get followers by following users in your niche first, posting engaging posts with useful advice to your followers, and retweeting advice from trusted users. It’s also very important to get the timing of your Tweets right. B2B posts do well on weekdays whereas, for B2C companies, weekends are the most engaged. Instagram – Insta has grown into a great platform for affiliate marketing since it gives you the chance to monetize your audience easily. Instagrammers can promote a merchant’s products by placing a discrete affiliate link in published content. You can also promote your affiliate offers by just writing them on the images as a text overlay and using a tool to shorten the long tracking URL, for example, Bit.ly. Instagram affiliates can also use coupons instead of tracking links and display the coupon as a text overlay on images to enable affiliate tracking. There are of course several other social channels like Tiktok, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, Telegram etc. but as a beginner, it is best to start with a few and build it up from there. Feel free to get in touch with us if you need any assistance. Good luck! The Publisher Management Team All CEO's Thoughts Interviews and Insights Industry News Interviews and Insights Why Black Friday 2022 will differ from before 26 Oct 2022 Why Black Friday 2022 will differ from before Despite current downturns in the economy, evidence shows that the e-commerce industry is picking up and going back to pre-pandemic… Read More CEO's Thoughts Never stop marketing 26 Oct 2022 Never stop marketing There’s a LOT going on in the world right now. This is not a political piece, yet it is diffiult to ignore the world-shaping events… Read More Interviews and Insights Interview with Sandra Jardim, Blogger/Founder of MammaBearLove 26 Oct 2022 Interview with Sandra Jardim, Blogger/Founder of MammaBearLove Our October profile is Sandra Jardim, mom to twins Gisela and Alaia and blogger/owner of MammaBearLove. She uses her blog as… Read More Prev123Next
Privacy please!
Privacy please! The world of Martech (marketing technology) is developing at a breakneck pace. Marketers can bearly keep up with the rate at which new technologies and solutions are coming into the market. From video & audio to AI, the Metaverse, Web3 (crypto) and the rise of marketing fortresses (think Amazon, FB, Tiktok, Instagram), competition for eyeballs and consumer dollars is stiff indeed. But the word that is likely to rise to the top of the priority pyramid in 2022 is undoubtedly Privacy. Whether you are an advertiser or a consumer, we’ve all been there. We’ve signed up for a newsletter with a company we like/trust or want to buy from, and the next day we get emails from companies we’ve never even heard of, using personal information we never gave them. We don’t like it. Or you want to buy some coffee pods for your morning cuppa, but in turn, the sales lady needs your cell number, ID etc. WHAT?? That’s too much information. We don’t like it. Each year we grow more and more suspicious, and every time we hear about a data leak or a hack, our trust goes down even further. Because of the way data has been treated in the past, consumers have become angry, confused and suspicious. We want a personalised experience without personal infringement. This will be the biggest challenge for marketers in 2022. Marketers need to be or become mini data scientists in today’s tech-driven world. They must be prepared to invest and get the right tech in place to develop its first-party data (the data a customer shares with you directly). Customers want brands to have this data and want them to use it to personalize experiences. They don’t want brands to share it with others. Of course, there will always be those who won’t share data at all. For that, mass personalization is still a viable strategy: tailoring experiences, content, ads, and products to known segments of consumers. That delivers a “personalized” experience feeling without requiring the data that true personalization requires. Delivering it successfully demands new skills, however. There is no doubt that marketers have their work cut out for them. The focus will need to shift towards building their own audiences and communities and embracing new types of data using intent-based solutions. As we head towards more privacy-focused advertising, contextual targeting has become one of the main viable ways to reach a target audience, and thanks to technological advancements, the solution has become much more scalable. Those who do the best job at integrating these contextual tools with the entire programmatic ecosystem will ultimately be the most successful. Happy selling! The Publisher Management Team All Interviews and Insights Industry News CEO's Thoughts Interviews and Insights Why Black Friday 2022 will differ from before 26 Oct 2022 Why Black Friday 2022 will differ from before Despite current downturns in the economy, evidence shows that the e-commerce industry is picking up and going back to pre-pandemic… Read More CEO's Thoughts Never stop marketing 26 Oct 2022 Never stop marketing There’s a LOT going on in the world right now. This is not a political piece, yet it is diffiult to ignore the world-shaping events… Read More Interviews and Insights Interview with Sandra Jardim, Blogger/Founder of MammaBearLove 26 Oct 2022 Interview with Sandra Jardim, Blogger/Founder of MammaBearLove Our October profile is Sandra Jardim, mom to twins Gisela and Alaia and blogger/owner of MammaBearLove. She uses her blog as… Read More Prev123Next
Interview with Laura le Roux, Blogger & Head of Social at Fio
Interview with Laura le Roux, Blogger & Head of Social at Fio This month we chat to Laura le Roux, founder of the HarassedMom blog which has become one of the most read blogs amongst South African mothers in recent years. The blog aims to help mothers understand their own unique challenges and how to overcome them as part of a community. Laura is also a self-taught Social Media maestro who has spent the last 14 years working with clients as Head of Social at her digital agency Fio. Describe yourself in 3 words Creative. Organised. Passionate. What made you decide to start your HarassedMom blog? We are especially intrigued by the name 😁 I was going through a divorce (16 years ago) and needed an outlet to share life as a single mom and a friend suggested I start blogging. The day I started I was feeling particularly harassed by my kids and so HarassedMom was born. How do you find and keep your readers? Initially, it was pretty easy because I started blogging 16 years ago when it was still pretty new and developed an audience of single moms just by people sharing my content with their friends. We were all going through the same things so that’s why they hung around. What is your content strategy – in a nutshell? I fly by the seat of my pants a lot so my strategy is often not clearly defined. But as blogging has evolved so have I. My kids are also bigger now so I shifted from posting predominantly about parenting to more about sustainable living and our journey to a zero-waste life. I try now to post a mix of our personal journey and general educational-type posts. What are the benefits (for you) of working with affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing allows me to share new brands and products with my audience that I support while also generating income. It is a little less intrusive that doing product reviews or sales types posts. You also run your own digital agency, how do you juggle the two? By planning and staying organised. I try to schedule a time to work on HarassedMom each week as if it was a client because in a lot of ways it is. But I am not perfect and don’t always get it right. What are the biggest challenges your clients face in building a solid social presence? Being heard in the noise that is social media. We are quick to blame the algorithms, but the fact is we are all now competing against so many more voices than we were previously which means it is harder to be heard – even if you tick all the content creation boxes. What advice do you have for aspiring bloggers and social marketers? Just start. I believe everyone needs to start blogging. We all have a story to tell, and we should all tell it. Don’t focus too much on the numbers in the beginning, just start and the rest will come. The best advice anyone has ever given you? When you know better do better! Read more at harassedmom.co.za https://www.instagram.com/harassedmom/ All Interviews and Insights Industry News CEO's Thoughts Interviews and Insights Why Black Friday 2022 will differ from before 26 Oct 2022 Why Black Friday 2022 will differ from before Despite current downturns in the economy, evidence shows that the e-commerce industry is picking up and going back to pre-pandemic… Read More CEO's Thoughts Never stop marketing 26 Oct 2022 Never stop marketing There’s a LOT going on in the world right now. This is not a political piece, yet it is diffiult to ignore the world-shaping events… Read More Interviews and Insights Interview with Sandra Jardim, Blogger/Founder of MammaBearLove 26 Oct 2022 Interview with Sandra Jardim, Blogger/Founder of MammaBearLove Our October profile is Sandra Jardim, mom to twins Gisela and Alaia and blogger/owner of MammaBearLove. She uses her blog as… Read More Prev123Next
Interview with Hans Overbeek, CEO at Cyber Finance
Interview with Hans Overbeek, CEO at Cyber Finance This month we chat with Hans Overbeek, Founder and CEO of Cyber Finance, a leading financial solutions provider offering a range of effective debt counselling services that provide consumers with an affordable repayment solution and ultimately financial freedom. To date, his company has helped over 5,000 SA consumers become debt free and has been voted Top 10 National Debt Solutions Provider. Describe yourself in 3 words. Precise, modest, no-nonsense approach. Describe the Cyber Finance business model briefly. Cyber Finance operates as a personal debt and financial management company (registered Debt Counsellors). For the last six years, we went for a niche position: “best in the market”. Our personal approach to our clientele, excellence in service and care, and high expertise in solving complicated financial problems for our clients are what sets us apart from other debt counsellors. How do Cyber Finance’s services differ from traditional banks? Cyber Finance is not a bank. We give advice to all consumers in South Africa about their financial situation and wellbeing and offer solutions to improve them. We do this without creating new loans and more debt. What are the main requirements for an individual to be approved for a debt consolidation program with Cyber Finance? The main requirements are; they need to be over-indebted according to regulation 23A of the National Credit Act. This relates to credit risk profile, salary level, debt levels and cost of living. The past two years have been especially hard on consumers. How has that impacted your business? We have had an influx of inquiries and we expect an increased interest in our services for the next 12 months. Especially with our excellent reputation for our “free financial assessments” which enables the consumer to have a 360-degree view of their finances (in-depth analysis). What are the main focus areas in your digital marketing strategy? Communicating clearly and penetrating the awareness of consumers with lots of good articles and honest advice. We strictly follow the code of the NCR. How will developments in technology change business in South Africa in the near future? With the increase of mobile apps, better mobile devices and increased internet access, consumers will have more access to valuable information and make better decisions. The costs of client service can be decreased and translated into better products and services at a lower price. What advice do you have for aspiring tech entrepreneurs? Success comes through hard work and never giving up. Follow the direction of your dreams and don’t deviate. At all times be open to learning and improving. When I’m not working, I’m… Working. I am very passionate and involved and feel dedicated to improving people’s lives. 1 day per week I dedicate to my children, my son who is 8 and my daughter who is 11. In order to balance out my life better I have started my first hobby; making my own salamis, cooked hams and parma hams. This passion started while I worked as a consultant for a meat producer in the Parma, Italy region. All Interviews and Insights Industry News CEO's Thoughts Interviews and Insights Why Black Friday 2022 will differ from before 26 Oct 2022 Why Black Friday 2022 will differ from before Despite current downturns in the economy, evidence shows that the e-commerce industry is picking up and going back to pre-pandemic… Read More CEO's Thoughts Never stop marketing 26 Oct 2022 Never stop marketing There’s a LOT going on in the world right now. This is not a political piece, yet it is diffiult to ignore the world-shaping events… Read More Interviews and Insights Interview with Sandra Jardim, Blogger/Founder of MammaBearLove 26 Oct 2022 Interview with Sandra Jardim, Blogger/Founder of MammaBearLove Our October profile is Sandra Jardim, mom to twins Gisela and Alaia and blogger/owner of MammaBearLove. She uses her blog as… Read More Prev123Next
How influencers are reviving the affiliate model
Before the pandemic, the traditional affiliate model’s long-term prospects were questionable. With Facebook ‘s acquisition of Youtube, the phasing out of third-party cookies and the rise in popularity of Instagram, things were looking a bit tough. Now, 2 years into the pandemic, and the outlook has changed somewhat. Statista estimates that spend on affiliate marketing will reach $8.2 billion in 2022 – it’s highest jump since 2015. This is in no small part due to the increase in popularity of influencer marketing and influencers using the commission payment model. Affiliate marketing for influencers is essentially a way to earn a commission payment on the clicks or sales you drive on behalf of brands. In order to earn this commission, influencers will use uniquely trackable links (known as affiliate links) to track how many clicks or sales were made. Some influencers and content creators are making a full-time income just by using affiliate links on their Instagram account. The attraction for influencers lie in the fact that they can share affiliate links whenever they would use a regular link, with the added bonus that they’ll earn a commission payment on the sales they drive. And there are generally no contractual obligations for how and when they share affiliate links, so they pretty much have control over how the content looks. Of course it is important to appropriately disclose affiliate links and be transparent. It is always a good idea to include a clearly visible label or hashtag. While the “old” way of doing affiliate marketing is still alive and well, it doesn’t always highlight the unique strengths that influencers bring to the table, especially for brands. Many brand affiliates were traditional bloggers or media publishers who had their own websites to promote or review a brand. You could only find product demonstrations, walk-throughs, or reviews from these kinds of publishers. Real, high-quality influencers don’t recommend products they don’t use or trust themselves, and their vast audiences are often aware of that. So this makes influencers one of the best ambassadors you can have for your brand. As true fans of your brand, they’ll champion your products and recommend you more times than the average consumer or traditional publisher. As a brand, looking for influencers to promote your brand there are a few things to bare in mind; always make sure they aren’t already promoting your competitor; create collateral they can use in their accounts; consider launching co-branded landing pages; consider offering an exclusive affiliate rate. Happy selling! The Publisher Management Team
Interview with David Kay, CEO at Business Fuel
Meet David Kay, CEO at Business Fuel, a leading financial lender to South Africa’s SME market and part of the Genfin Group. Having spent much of his time in recent years across system innovation, tech development and customer UI and UX, he is a man who gets a kick out of building effective solutions with very little, and solving seemingly impossible problems. Branch Out was lucky enough to get a few minutes of David’s time and learn more about the business that has provided loan facilities of over R950 million to its SME clients. Describe yourself in 3 words. Father, adventurer, thinker. When I was a kid I wanted to be… That changed every year. From an archaeologist to a marine engineer. Much like my hobbies growing up, I bounced from one idea to the next quite quickly. Describe the Business Fuel business model in a few words We offer a more convenient and practical way for SME’s to access funding for their business, one not wrapped in red tape, complex forecasts or time consuming due diligence. Importantly, we provide certainty in outcome. Whether we can or cannot fund the business, at least the client will have that answer in a short space of time. This is incredibly beneficial to any business; uncertainty of available options creates missed opportunities. How is Business Fuel different from traditional banks? Firstly, our hands on service. Clients will engage directly with the team that is assessing their application and not navigating through call centres. Secondly the onboarding process and how we assess the business. We require very little documentation or effort from the client, we do the work while the client can continue running their business. It is an fully digital process. Thirdly, we do not require assets to be provided as collateral for the facility. This immediately opens the doors for many SME’s who otherwise would not be considered fundable by traditional lenders. We assess the business on how it performs, not on the amount of available assets it has. What are the main requirements for a business to be approved for a BF loan? That really depends on the performance of the business. All we need from the client to assess if we can help, are the last 12 months of bank statements for the business. This assessment we can make within a day and at no charge to the client. The past 18 months have been especially hard on SME’s. How has that impacted your business? As a lending company, one would expect to have taken a hard knock during the past 18 months. However, when lock downs started, we shifted our credit analysts’ focus to assisting existing clients with grace periods and payment plans. We decided to not take a blanket approach on all clients as other lenders may have done, instead assessing the needs of each client individually and offering a customised plan. This approach minimised the risk of clients defaulting much more than we were expecting and assisted them through that difficult time. How would you describe the company’s digital marketing strategy (in a nutshell)? We do like to understand what is happening in the space (we are quite a data-centric business), but ultimately it is important to partner with experts in the field and trust their experience while doing our part to ensure that they are properly briefed on who we are and what we do. Your view on the future landscape for online businesses in South Africa? Promising. I do believe it is important that any business that shifts more to online, retains that human element – don’t make your business now cold or intangible to your customers. Make sure that your customer service is brilliant. If a client reaches out, make sure they quickly can talk with someone who understands what is going on. Online platforms help with process, but it shouldn’t become the DNA of the business. When I’m not working, I’m… Trying my best to be a good father – I finally have realised just how hard it was for my parents. Outside of that, I love a good trail run or hike, playing a little guitar, going for a paddle. But over time I have built up too many hobbies and with two young kids, I just don’t have enough time to really do any of them. But I wouldn’t change it, my girls are awesome.
Merchants, Publishers: Are you ready?
With exactly four weeks to Christmas, the end of another year is in sight, and most South Africans will be getting ready to take their annual holiday and get their gift shopping sorted. For some retailers, the holiday season can represent as much as 30 percent of annual sales with hobby, toy and game stores reporting the highest percentage. However, with the current dip in our economy, customers will be more selective than ever about where they spend their hard earned cash. Here are a few tips for optimising your site to attract more eyeballs this festive season. Beyond ensuring fast, efficient website performance, there are a few other things you should keep in mind when prepping your e-commerce website for increased holiday traffic. Display, display, display – Physical retail stores often set up special holiday displays during the shopping season. You can take a similar approach to your website. Dress up your digital channel just like you do your brick and mortar. But this doesn’t necessarily mean adding Christmas trees and flashing lights to your homepage. Update your content to be more upbeat, and tie offers of your products to festive dates like Christmas, New Years, Black Friday etc. and highlight why this product or offer will delight the customer. Check your site speed – Large photos and interactive elements could slow your site down significantly, meaning all your effort to make a gorgeous website could get wasted because the page doesn’t load in time for the consumer. Make sure your Web hosting solution has the necessary bandwidth and speed to support higher holiday traffic. Customer support – Holiday shoppers want a positive customer experience, so make your contact details easy to find on all pages of your website in case customers have questions about their orders. You may even want to consider adding temporary help to answer the additional calls, if you think you will need it. Security – With the increase in online activity, hackers are sitting ready to make the most of this opportunity. Educate your time on recognising cyber attacks and ensure you have a solution in place to deal with such an attack, should it occur. Make them laugh – the use of humor is a good way to stand out during a very competitive shopping season. JibJab allows visitors to personalize hilarious videos and send them to friends and family. Special offers & discounts – Make sure that your holiday offers are featured prominently on your home page and post post your special offers to your top social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Email marketing – It’s easy to get caught up in making sure your website is perfectly festive. However, remember that many customers won’t see it — unless you email them with a link and a good reason to return to your homepage. After all, your subscribers opted into your email list for a reason. Give back – remember that although your thoughts will be on the bottom line, this is the season of giving so give back to your customers. For instance, you could make a donation to a charitable organization or sponsor a company-wide day of service. Hope you find these ideas useful, and remember the AdMarula Team is here to assist you if you need help. Happy selling! The Publisher Team
What to expect from Black Friday 2021?
It’s that time of year again when retailers are scrambling to prepare for the year’s biggest discount sales hype: Black Friday. While it used to consist of the last Friday and Monday in November, Black Friday has now become a month-long affair for most retailers and many reckon that as much as 60% of their annual revenue will be generated during that month. While many expect to see the same bounce back as we did at the end of 2020, experts warn that businesses may have to adjust their expectations. Covid and the after-effect have carried on for much longer than many of us had anticipated – and it’s now that many businesses are starting to feel the brunt. The bad news is that so are consumers. Two hard lockdowns, job losses, poor economical forecasts and ongoing restrictions mean that consumers are holding on tight to their pennies and the initial confidence for an economic recovery is now somewhat dampened. Also many smaller ecommerce companies have been forced to slash their margins since the first lockdown in order to survive, so for them the last 18 months have basically been one long Black Friday promotion. There are however still a few things you can do as an advertiser or retailer to try and make the most out of this opportunity to boost your online sales: Don’t discount everything – only what customers actually want – look at more recent sales data as opposed to last year’s. Remove seasonal products and then discount the top sellers. Pushing products that aren’t currently in demand is a lesson in futility and a waste of money. Update those feeds! – ensure you have the correct product descriptions and the right pricing ready for the day of the sale. Cookies – No it’s not dead, yet. This is probably the last Black Friday where you can use the power of the third-party cookie, so use it. Don’t trick consumers. They are savvy i.e. don’t increase your prices a few weeks ahead of the sale and then promote ‘sale prices’ which are actually just the normal retail price. Stock – If you haven’t already, now is the time to start speaking to partners now. Decide early on what stock to discount and then begin preparing suppliers well in advance. This will ensure that you have stock to deliver and that your logistics are in place. Happy selling! Suretha Swart – Campaign Manager
