LinkedIn provides insights on small business resurgent activity (Infographic)
LinkedIn shared insights on the current small business landscape which will be beneficial to those looking to market to this sector which looks set for even more growth over the next couple of years.
With the current global pandemic, small businesses have been hit hard with many being forced to close. But with the rollout of the vaccine, there is a level of recovery in 2021 with many small businesses emerging in niche interest areas where they are offering solutions to the current market challenges.
According to LinkedIn, the top priorities of small businesses are developing products, hiring and retaining employees as well as establishing category ownership.
“In the next 12 months, roughly one in five SMB leaders plan to purchase email marketing software, customer service software, project or task collaboration tools, or e-commerce software.
But what’s important to them when evaluating vendors? Salesforce’s report confirms its “ease-of-use, price, and trustworthiness.” They’re looking for technology that is agile, flexible, seamlessly integrates, delivers high value for its price and is reliable. And they’re turning to LinkedIn to inform those purchasing decisions.” LinkedIn noted.
According to data from LinkedIn,
- Small business owners have 2x more connections and share content 2.5x as often on the platform and are more likely to join and actively participate in industry groups.
- Since April 2020, Monthly small business engagement on the platform (defined by comments, clicks and shares) has grown by 24%.
- The Media & communications industry grew the most in the number of solopreneurs (Companies on LinkedIn that are owned and operated by 1 person).
There are more detailed insights in LinkedIn’s full report, which is summarized in the infographic below.
Six Reasons Why People Unsubscribe from your Email List
Email marketing is no doubt one of the most budget-friendly forms of marketing and the best way to reach consumers in Kenya and around the globe.
91% of consumers check their emails daily compared to 61% of users who access social media daily.
An opt-in email list is a great asset to growing your business which results in more sales, improved customer relationships and growth through recommendations.
In your email reports, you can tell the number of unsubscribes but not why they unsubscribed. Today we are going to look at why people unsubscribe from your email list and how to stop the exodus.
Too many emails
According to research, this is the top reason why people unsubscribe from mailing lists. If you’re sending emails every day and you are seeing high unsubscribers rate you might want to rethink your email marketing frequency.
If you have a newsletter you might consider sharing it once a month or at least twice a month but have a time gap between the two.
Your email subscribers don’t want to hear from you as frequently as you might think.
Irrelevant emails
If you signed up to learn about cars and instead receive emails on beauty you will most likely unsubscribe from that emailing list, right?
Relevant emails are personalized, useful and timely to your customer. Sending the right content to the right person and at the right time is the goal of your email marketing otherwise if you send irrelevant content people will just unsubscribe with the thought ‘This email isn’t for me’.
Take time and segment your email list subscribers according to behaviour, demographics and engagement because a generic one-size-fits-all messaging might not work out.
Emails not mobile optimized
Most people open their emails on their mobile phones and if your emails are not optimized for mobile it means that they won’t look great when opened.
Links may not work correctly, images might not display and the text could be small and unreadable. If your subscribers can’t read your emails they might not want to stick around.
Non-personalized emails
Studies show that personalized emails yield an increase in revenues and transaction rates. Why? When they receive content that is relevant to them they feel valued and are most likely to respond.
How to personalize your emails?
- Greet them by name
- Deliver exclusive offers and discounts for them
- Celebrate their birthdays
- Tailor the email to their gender
- Track their website usage and personalize emails according to their preferences and habits.
Your customer’s circumstances have changed.
This is where we say it’s really not you but them.
Their life progress and interest might change which will affect their mailing subscriptions too.
Why so? They might have changed jobs, moved abroad, gotten married, had kids or simply changed their minds.
On the other hand, it can be a very helpful move because your emailing list will no longer have subscribers who will ignore your emails or who you can no longer do business with.
Subscribed unknowingly
A person might open a legitimate email newsletter and then realizes he/she didn’t sign up for it and unsubscribe immediately. Ask readers to subscribe/opt-in to receive emails from you. You might consider having a double opt-in which will get you people who really want what you are sending. This means that your list will have engaged customers who will read your emails and make a purchase. Don’t be afraid of the double-opt-in, sometimes quality is better than quantity.
Most companies in Kenya are adopting email marketing in their marketing strategy because after all, businesses are looking for avenues to sell their products or services. Other forms of marketing can be a bit expensive but email marketing is not. Don’t be afraid to test all your email marketing strategies until you get ones that work.
These tips come in handy for both businesses that are starting or those that have already started email marketing in Kenya.
We offer FREE consultation on email marketing and on other areas of digital marketing. Feel free to give us a call.
Also Read:How to Attract, Nurture, Convert & Retain Customers- Email Marketing Funnel
5 Do it Yourself SEO Tips to Increase your Website Rankings
Search Engine Optimization services in Kenya can be very expensive, but what can you do to at least improve your rankings on search engines when you don’t have a budget for hiring SEO services in Kenya?
Below are some tips that can help you improve your website’s SEO in Kenya.
First things first. What is Search Engine Optimization? SEO simply means the process or steps of improving your website so that it ranks on google/search engines for relevant searches. Most companies and businesses in Kenya are now competing for the first spot on Google and other search engines. Why? Most people don’t go past the first page of google therefore your business needs to be on the first page otherwise your competitors who are ranking on the first page will get the bigger share of the pie.
Among the things in a website’s content that are considered by search engines when evaluating the relevance of websites for keyword searches include the headers, page titles, formatted texts, links, URLs and page content in websites.
Tips to help improve your SEO rankings for free in Kenya
Identify your target keywords
There are many tools that can help you discover keywords that your target audience are using to find your site or your competitors. You can use free sites like Google keyword planner, SEMrush or ubersuggest to get keywords. Researching on your keywords will help you to get firsthand information about your target audience, the information they want to know and how they want it and this will help the reach of your site’s content in search results.
Write great content optimized for SEO
There is no substitute for great content. Quality content is the best way to increase your website traffic and your search rank. Your site should have quality content created for your audience which will increase your site traffic and improves your site’s authority and relevance.
In your content, repeat your keyword phrase several times- for instance, in your opening and closing paragraphs you can use it once or twice and two to four times throughout your content. But don’t overuse the keywords as google algorithms can detect this. Never sacrifice good writing for SEO because the content is written for the user and not for the search engine.
Update your content regularly
The best indicator of a site’s relevancy is having regularly updated content. You can do this by republishing your existing content. If you have top-performing content that is still relevant and valuable, you can refresh it with more content and images. This will not only optimize your site but also build upon the existing SEO value that your content has gotten over time.
Use alt tags
Alt tags also known as alternative text descriptions allow search engines to locate your page. When you upload images and videos to your site always ensure that you describe them.
Limit duplicate content
Find any duplicate content and either rewrite it or remove it altogether. There is no advantage in repeating content over and over and google will penalize you for it. You can use a canonical URL to let search engines know that you have intentionally duplicated a page.
We provide SEO service in Kenya and we offer FREE website audit so that you can know how your website ranks and the areas that you need to improve on. Call us for a free consultation today.
Also Read: How to Write Blog Post Headlines for SEO
How to Attract, Nurture, Convert & Retain Customers- Email Marketing Funnel
You can use email marketing to attract, convert new customers and retain your existing customers. Email marketing in Kenya is one of the most effective ways you can share your message, sell your services, and build a relationship with your customers.
Email marketing can prove to be a tool that can help you bring in more business. Most people usually access their emails several times during the day and them opening your email and giving you business takes a bit of time and strategy.
People receive hundreds of emails from different companies offering them the same products or services as you are and standing out from other companies can take you a step closer to converting them.
This is where an email marketing funnel comes in handy. An email marketing funnel can help you win customers at all stages of their buying journey from lead generation to customer retention.
Here are some tips that can help you improve your email marketing process.
Email marketing platform
You can’t succeed in email marketing without an email marketing platform/software that can help you make the whole process seamless. There are several most common platforms that can help you with email marketing such as MailChimp, SendinBlue, ActiveCampaign and Hubspot among others.
Some of the key features that you should consider checking out from the platforms are:
Automation: Select a platform that can allow you to automate the whole email marketing process because it will make work easier for you.
Templates: Email marketing needs a well-structured email for both your content, CTAs and images. An email marketing platform should have a variety of pre-made templates with a variety of flexible, visually attractive, mobile-friendly designs.
Tracking: You need to know how your email campaign performed in terms of open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates. Most of the platforms have a dashboard for this but it is important to check before you pay for a platform.
Mobile Responsive: Your emails need to be readable on a mobile device. Where mobile responsiveness used to be an afterthought adjusted after desktop, now most people are on mobile.
Create Email sign-up forms
You need an email database for your email marketing campaign. Email sign up forms will help you collect email addresses that can help you build a subscriber list.
How go get email addresses?
- Provide some value or incentives for people to sign up
- Create a free resource or gated content. This means that the content is exclusive for people who sign up
- Create a simple form with only a few necessary steps. If your questions are many people might leave before filling out the whole thing. You can opt to have the name, email and company field in your form.
- Avoid long and complicated processes. Make it as easy as possible.
Send an introduction/Welcome Email
As soon as someone subscribes, your first email should go out to them. That’s why you need to get an email platform that automates this process so that it makes work easier and sends out timely responses.
How to go about it?
Welcome your new subscribers and thank them for signing up. This could be the first email. Then the second email could be an introduction to your products or services. Space the time between the two emails but don’t wait for more than a day between the two emails.
Nurturing your leads
It is important to nature your leads with educational emails. Send at least 2-3 emails including follow-ups so as to create an interest in your products or services. Create informative content that highlights your Unique Selling Proposition that you can send to them. Also offer an incentive and direct them to your website either by providing links to your content or CTAs.
Convert your leads
Your subscribers who have responded to your previous emails are likely interested in what you are offering. You need to encourage them to make a purchase.
How so? You can provide an offer or discount to encourage conversions, you can as well generate ‘fear of missing out by making it an exclusive, limited stock promotion (no one wants to miss out), you can as well generate a sense of urgency by making the offer a limited time offer.
Add clear CTAs to your emails and highlight your offer as well. If you are in the e-commerce business, send abandoned cart emails to those who didn’t finish making a purchase, they could be potential customers.
Retain your customers
Just because your customers have purchased, it doesn’t end there. Loyal, repeat customers are more profitable in the long run. Retarget your existing customers with an offer or an exclusive discount just for them.
You need to come up with a clear strategy for your email marketing campaign in Kenya. Set specific time intervals between different emails.
Email marketing can be a valuable asset for your business. Most businesses in Kenya are using email marketing to get clients for their business. If you are not sure about whether the email market can provide value to your business or don’t know where to start, we offer FREE Consultation and will be happy to answer your questions. Call us Today.
Also Read:3 ways to improve your email open rates
Simple Steps To Grow Your Facebook Audience
As of the second quarter of 2020, Facebook had over 2.7 billion monthly active users making it the biggest social network worldwide.
Facebook boasts of having an audience of around 9.50 million users in Kenya. Meaning that you have the potential to reach so many people on the platform and boost your sales.
This is why building a Facebook following is important for connecting with potential customers.
Here are Five simple steps to help you increase your following on Facebook.
- Cover basics
Basic things are often overlooked simply because sometimes we focus on the bigger things forgetting the basics that can help us achieve the bigger things. Don’t start posting yet, start by first providing all your business information, call to action button ” Learn more” and link your website, WhatsApp or other social media pages.
When you have covered all these basics you can now start posting great content.
- Invite people to like your page
The easiest way to begin building an audience is to start inviting your colleagues, friends and email contacts to like your page.
On Facebook, when a friend likes a page, it often pops to the newsfeeds of their friends too meaning that more people will see your page increasing your brand visibility. Also, you can invite your Facebook personal profile account to like your page.
- Collaborate with and tag influencers in your industry
Tag pages of influencers in the same field and ask them to do the same for you, which will help you get your page off the ground. Gaining page likes from influencers or bloggers will also have a positive impact on your brand credibility.
- Produce quality content
Start sharing quality content on a regular basis once your fan base begins to grow. But also avoid being overly-promotional, remember nobody wants to be sold to every time. People follow you to gain something so make sure you give them exactly what they are looking for.
This will help you increase engagement and traffic.
- Carry out Page Likes Campaigns (Paid Advertising)
Page Likes Campaigns is a form of paid advertising which can dramatically increase your page likes on Facebook.
Facebook has great potential in helping you increase your brand awareness as well as increasing your sales in Kenya.
Check our article on how to advertise on Facebook
Also Read: How to pay for Facebook Ads in Kenya
Tips to help you increase your e-commerce sales
So you have set up an amazing e-commerce website with a great design, products updated and are ready for the sales to come in.
But so far your results are nothing but short of underwhelming.
Getting your e-commerce store up and running is only the first step of launching a successful business online. You need to know how to market your store so that you can start making sales.
Many businesses are taking their business online and you should definitely stay ahead of your competitors. These tips will help you define tactics that you can put into action and get you those sales.
Let look at the tips that can help you increase your e-commerce sales in Kenya.
Social Media
Having a business, you cannot sit in the corner and keep quiet. Social engagement is essential in today’s world. The more people talk about you the more they buy. Social media is the best way to drive new visitors to your store, convert them into paying customers and reengage them to buy more.
Open social media channels that suit your brand and start posting your products there. For most e-commerce stores Facebook, Instagram and Twitter work best. On Facebook and Instagram, you have the option of creating a shop where you can post your products by categories and people can easily browse through them and later go to your website to buy the products. Facebook and Instagram provide a wide-open window of sales opportunities mostly if your store’s visual branding is on point.
Brand Awareness
Be everywhere. The more people know and trust your brand the higher your sales will grow.
Brand awareness impacts trust which in turn impacts sales and repeat purchases. Be active on your social media, invest in paid ads that can reach more people, focus on quality content, consider partnering with influencers who have a following that can consume your products and partner with other businesses in your industry whose products compliments yours. Doing this will give you more audience, brand authority and affinity which will, in turn, give you more sales.
Paid Ads
Utilizing online advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and google will give you more visibility to your potential customers. Paid ads are one of the best ways of generating sales quickly for your e-commerce store. Even if people will not click on your ad, they will start becoming familiar with you which is the first step of building brand awareness.
You might think that paid ads are expensive but you can always start small before you find your footing.
If done well, paid traffic can, in fact, be quite affordable and once you have a winning campaign on your hands, paid traffic can really take your business to the next level.
When you are starting, you can set aside a budget of ksh.5,000 which you can use to test different ads and then increase the budget of the most performing ads.
Email list
Building a tribe of loyal customers is very critical for your business. It means that you are targeting people who are already interested in your products and creating an opportunity of building a community.
In an era where competing is a norm, being able to directly contact customers to encourage repeat purchases is very important.
With an email list, you can update your customers when you have discounts, sales and new products which is a great way to upsell other products.
People opt into your email list because they like your products, so use it to engage and make sales.
Provide excellent customer Service
Your customer’s opinion matters a lot. Online reviews can make or break your business. Most people look at products reviews before making a purchase and if they don’t find any review their probability of buying the product is minimal.
Respond to comments and messages on time on your social media as well as your online reviews. If people can actually talk to you they will realize they are speaking with a real human, rather than just a faceless business.
Reviews or testimonials show you’re open and honest. Showcasing both good and bad reviews shows your customers that you have nothing to hide. If you get a bad review you can use it to showcase your excellent customer service by resolving the issue in a professional manner.
Listen to your customer’s feedback and improve your products so that your product ratings and sales can improve. Great products with great service will build your brand in the long term.
Add Live chat
You can also add a Live Chat option to your e-commerce store. Automate the live chat to answer most of the questions people ask. Having an automated chatbot will decrease the number of chats you have to answer manually and increase the number of orders you get. In case of complaints send personalized email messages to your customers and reply to them immediately.
Live chat allows your customers to directly speak to you in case they have a question. Sometimes your customers might have a question that they need to be answered first before they make a purchase and making them go through many processes to get an answer might make them not buy from you.
There you have it. Make a big impact on your e-commerce business. Just remember that increasing the number of orders you get is a gradual process. You won’t see a change in a day or two. However, you will see a significant increase in your store’s order volume with time.
We offer digital marketing services in Kenya as well as developing e-commerce websites in Kenya. Give us a call for a free consultation.
Also Read: The ultimate E-commerce website checklist
The ultimate E-commerce website checklist
As more people go online, the e-commerce business in Kenya is growing with more people trusting online products mostly when offered an option of paying on delivery.
When you start an e-commerce site you realize that there are loads of items that need to be checked, cross-checked and tested to ensure that your customers have a nice experience.
Customer experience remains paramount with an e-commerce business, then, before launching, make sure your platform fully provide the customer with values.
If you are having your e-commerce website developed or if you are in the process of getting one, here are some of the things that an e-commerce website should have to help you grow your business in Kenya.
Make a good first impression
It takes about 50 milliseconds for a user to decide if they will stay on your website or not and you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Your website design is the first point of contact between your store and your customers.
You need to invest in a great and reliable web design with the right structure that is visually comfortable for your users. If your homepage interface and navigation are not appealing to your users they will definitely leave.
Ensure your website is responsive
Most people are on their mobile devices these days so it is crucial that you ensure that your e-commerce website is responsive on both a personal computer and on a smartphone/tablet. Responsive means that your website appearance changes depending on the screen size and orientation of the device being used to view it. Most web design companies in Kenya can develop a responsive website but be sure to ask.
A prominent search bar on every page
An e-commerce website will definitely have tons and tons of products therefore having a search bar on top of every page will enable users to find products in your catalogues easily. If you are able to provide alternatives search terms while your customer types, that’s even better.
Cart icon must be on every page
In most e-commerce websites you will find the cart icon on the top right corner of every page. If your customer adds an item to the basket, it shows how many items are in the basket. This is very convenient for your customers while navigating through different pages. Give customers an option of adding or removing items from the basket.
Clear checkout button
E-commerce checkout button is normally found next to the basket icon. Make it easy for people to check out after they are done shopping otherwise you will have so many abandoned carts.
Clear navigation menus
Navigation menus help your customers identify the different types of products that you sell on the website. If you sell electronics you can identify your products range by ‘mobile phones’ ‘tablets’ ‘accessories’ etc
Contact information
Most people in Kenya still have doubts and anxieties while buying products online. Therefore having contact information and mostly on every page can help reduce their anxiety as they are assured they can contact you.
Include a Live chat
Having a live chat on your website is very important. It means that people can ask questions if they experience any challenge while shopping in real-time and this can help you sell more.
Indicate stock availability
Indicate stock availability on the product listing page instead of having a customer click through to the product page and finding out the product is out of stock.
Make the ‘Add to basket’ or ‘Buy’ button prominent
Incorporate the 3-second rule whenever a customer visits a product page. Therefore make the ‘Add to basket’ or ‘Buy’ button visible on the website and if possible use bold and bright colours to make them stand out.
Add ‘wishlist’ button
The wishlist button should not be as prominent as the ‘buy’ button but it should be there to help a customer put aside items that they would like to buy later.
Use products images and videos
Show a variety of clear images showing different angles of the products and if possible add a zoom-in feature for customers to get a closer look. Use videos as well to demonstrate how to use products.
Show estimated delivery time and cost
Give your customers an accurate or estimated time when they can expect to receive their items as well as the delivery costs. You can as well include a premium for the customers who would want same-day delivery.
Return policy
Don’t forget to include a return policy on your website, it gives customers confidence that in case of anything they can return the product.
Showcase customer reviews or testimonials
Customer testimonials are usually found at the bottom of the products page. Reviews give potential customers confidence and affirmation before buying a product. Using customer reviews on products can help you sell more.
Payment options
Add more than one payment option such as a credit card or debit, PayPal or Mpesa.
Order process
To ensure the order process is smooth for your customers, you can break the process into the cart interface, customer’s details and delivery address, payment information then the confirmation page. You can as well automate emails such that after their order is confirmed on the website they also get an email for the confirmation of their order.
We hope this checklist will help you optimize your e-commerce website for conversions. We also develop e-commerce websites that can help you generate sales. Give us a call today for a free consultation.
Tips to improve your Instagram marketing strategy
No social media strategy is complete without Instagram marketing. If your business is not active on Instagram or other social media platforms then your competitors definitely are.
The thing is, having an Instagram profile does not necessarily translate to sales you need to have a strategy to help you get the best out of it. Instagram marketing in Kenya can help your increase your brand awareness, increase sales and build a community.
These tips will help you improve your Instagram marketing strategy today.
Optimize your profile
First impression matters. When someone visits your Instagram account what is the first thing they see?
Your profile should communicate who you are and what you do from your bio, profile picture to your recent posts.
Consider using your logo as your profile picture because its is more recognizable than a picture of your products. You can as well include your website URL on your bio for people to visit your website because you can’t link your website on your posts.
Post regularly
Your Instagram account needs to be updated regularly. You just can’t be posting once a month and expect to grow your account.
You might consider having a content calendar that will help you in coming up with content and scheduling them in advance using free scheduling tools like Hootsuite.
You might consider posting one post per day if you want your brand to be fresh in the minds of your followers. Also if you have lots of content that you want to share each day, it’s better to add it to your Instagram story than flooding your followers feed which might be perceived as annoying.
Don’t be too ‘salesy’
The aim of your Instagram account is to ultimately drive sales but that doesn’t mean all your posts should be product promotion.
As we have always said, people don’t want to be sold to all the time, therefore mix up your content. Throw in some funny images, educate people on your products, motivate your followers, have some giveaways so long as it doesn’t stray too far from your brand image.
46% of users say they will unfollow a brand on social media if it posts promotions too frequently. Keep your posts short and to the point and keep off from using all caps in your posts if not necessary.
Use Insta Story
You can add videos and images to your Insta stories. You can add multiple images or videos a day without having to populate the timeline of your followers. If you have an Instagram shop you can even tag a product and people can view it on your shop.
Go Live
Instagram has a live broadcast and users love it.
As a business take this to your advantage and use it to connect with your audience in real-time. Don’t forget to comment on your followers’ comments while you are at it this will help you increase your engagement metrics.
You could use a live stream to introduce a new product, demonstrate the usage of a product, introduce your team or even have a QnA segment.
Partner with influencers
We know that 82% of people are likely to follow recommendations made by micro-influencers. And 94% of consumers believe these influencers are highly knowledgeable.
Influencers can help you promote your products, brand and services in an effective way. Influencers are a good way of helping with brand awareness and also getting you more sales. Most Influencers charge less compared to celebrities.
In Kenya, some influencers charge from as low as Ksh 1,000 to advertise on their Insta stories or their posts.
You can as well send them free products and then they can mention you on their videos.
Captions and Hashtags
Imagine if you post a product image without a caption, what do you want people to do?
Captions are as important as the images and videos in your posts and hashtags are definitely necessary.
You can use a branded hashtag or a popular hashtag to give you more reach.
Invest in Ads
The easiest way to reach people who don’t know you or follow your account is through the use of paid ads.
You can use ads to reach more people through Instagram targeting by age, location, interest among others. This can help you increase your brand awareness and get you more sales. You can run ads with as low as ksh.200 per day. Though it won’t get you as much results it will still be something.
Run Contests and giveaways
Contest and giveaways are the most effective ways of getting more people to follow your page as well as get more engagement. The tweak is that you need to know how to do it to effectively get a good response and also what you are giving away.
From the contest, you can make more than what you gave away. You can as well ask your followers to upload a picture and tag your brand this will expose your company to the people who follow the user’s account.
From this contest, the page will get more traction as well as more followers. It’s the easiest way of increasing brand following and brand awareness within a short period of time.
Shoppable posts
If you’re an e-commerce brand then you need to take advantage of this feature. You can sell your products directly through Instagram and you tag the products on your stories and posts. From the post, you can tag a product from which people will see the product name, price and a link to purchase.
Repost your products
If you post a product just once and never post it again, chances are people might have missed it or forgotten about it.
The first time they see your product, they may not have a reason to buy it. But if they see it more than once, it may start to pique their interest.
According to a study from Sprout Social, more than 60% of people need to see something on social media between two and four times before they buy it.
Don’t use the same image four times, have a strategy around it from the first post. You can use images as well as videos.
Remember posting the same product multiple times can increase the chances of people buying it.
Respond to comments and messages
In this day and time, you need to respond to people’s comments and messages no matter how tedious and time-consuming it is otherwise it will boil down to negative reviews.
People appreciate when they ask a question and they get a response. Responding to comments shows users that you value customer services. Even if it’s negative feedback, respond to it in a courteous and professional manner without defending yourself. Customer’s reviews can build or break your business and you need to tread carefully.
If you can’t respond to the comments or messages hire someone to do it for you otherwise it may tamper with your brand reputation.
Hopefully, these tips can help you with your Instagram marketing in Kenya and help you get more sales.
Also Read: The Ultimate Instagram Marketing Strategy Guide in 2021
The Ultimate Instagram Marketing Strategy Guide in 2021
After Facebook, Instagram is the second most accessed network with users browsing for an average of 53 minutes per day.
Instagram marketing in Kenya has gained popularity with many businesses adopting it as a marketing tool to help increase sales and brand awareness.
According to research, about 59% of Instagram’s active users visit the site daily and spend at least 7 hours per week browsing and interacting with friends and brands.
Instagram can help you increase your brand awareness through the use of captivating images, videos and shopping features. Instagram’s biggest advantage is that it is visual in nature: through videos and images.
I know it can be a little intimidating at first but with this guide hopefully, you can find your way around it and increase your brand awareness and sales.
Before you dive into any social media no matter how well it works for other businesses, it is important to establish a strategy that will keep you focused on your goals and your audience.
How to build your Instagram Marketing Strategy
Set your goals
This might seem like a no-brainer, but you need to answer exactly why you want to be on Instagram. Do you want to generate leads, build a community or increase your brand awareness?
Setting goals will help you determine the content that you will have on the platform, how much money to spend, the time you will spend on the platform and the returns that you will get from the platform.
As a business, you can use Instagram to post and sell your products to your customers. You can create an Instagram shop to display the different products that you sell from which your customer can shop directly or add the items to their wishlist.
Some other businesses use Instagram to showcase their products or services without directly selling, while other use the platform to build brand awareness by posting fun visuals, quotes, gifs among others.
Each brand’s goals are different so be sure to determine your Instagram goals.
Determine your target audience
Who do you want to reach on Instagram, if you have any social media or marketing strategy you can draw from it to keep your efforts consistent. From this, you can know the type of content that they would want to see depending on their age, location, income, pain points and interests.
Having this information prevents you from shooting in the dark and wasting a lot of time trying to figure it out.
When you know who your target audience is, you can create content that is curated to fit their needs which will make it easier to sell to them.
Competitive analysis
It’s good to check what other businesses in your industry are doing on the gram. If you know your top competitors search for their accounts and see what they are posting and the posts that are getting more engagements. If you don’t know who they are use your industry keywords to search for them.
Conduct an audit of their accounts and check on the type of images they are using, their captions, frequency of posting, their hashtags and how they are growing.
Don’t forget to check out the opportunities that they are missing out on. With this information, you can know how to strategize on your content and make your business stand out.
Content calendar
If you are in business I know you are on other social media channels and keeping up with all of them can be a bit overwhelming at times.
That’s why having a content calendar is important. A content calendar can help you plan your Instagram posts groom the image you will use, captions, hashtags and the time you will post.
Take time to create your content calendar and update it either weekly or monthly depending with your industry. There are also some scheduling tools that can help you schedule your posts in advance so that you are not overwhelmed eg, Hootsuite and Sprout Social which are free.
Consistent brand
Try to maintain a consistent brand aesthetic on your Instagram. Try to keep up with your brand colours and values.
Brand aesthetic means that someone can see your picture in their feed and instantly know it’s you without seeing your name.
You can do this by using the same background, lighting, font type or even the same filter. The thing is whatever you choose to go with use it consistently.
Grow your Instagram follower base
We saved the best for last. Growing your Instagram account takes time and energy and you might be tempted to buy followers but DON’T. Why? Purchasing followers won’t drive engagement and Instagram will automatically delete those followers.
How to increase your Instagram followers
Username – Make sure your username is searchable and recognizable. If people can’t find you they can’t follow you. Optimize your profile with your information including who you are and what you do.
Posting– Once your profile is optimized start posting. If your account is new populate your feed with at least 10 to 15 high-quality posts before you start engaging with people because if people visit your profile and it’s empty they will most likely not follow you.
Following– Start following other accounts that interest you or are similar to what you do. Look for businesses in your area or influencers who might be interested in your products or services.
Interact– This is the most natural way of drawing attention to your account without appearing spammy. After you follow people interact with their comment by commenting on their posts or even leaving a like. By doing this, other people might check out your account and follow you.
Collaborate– Invite influencers to share your accounts or collaborate with similar accounts.
Instagram marketing in Kenya has gained traction with many businesses preferring it as their platform of focus compared to Facebook. If you are looking to take your business on Instagram, it could help you in making sales and increasing your brand awareness.
We hope these tips can help you come up with a clear strategy that will help you sell more on Instagram.
Also Read: How to Get Your Instagram Stories Featured on the Explore Tab
Youtube adds new analytics options for creators
Youtube has added a new range of analytics tools for creators to provide them with more insight on the performance of their specific revenue impacts, uploads and channel membership growth.
Membership Insights
On the new membership insights, it displays the total and active members over a chosen period.
You should note that this is paying members through channels memberships, not YouTube channel subscribers who follow your channel and watch it for free.
Channel membership allows your users to join your channel through monthly payments and get members-only perks such as emoji, badges and other goods. Kenya is among the locations that have access to channels memberships if you have more than 1,000 subscribers among other YouTube requirements. You can check out the YouTube channel membership requirements.
Audience tab on Mobile
On Mobile, YouTube is also making an Audience tab from which creators can see ‘Other videos your audience watches’ and ‘other channels your audience watches’. Both add ons are already available on the desktop version.
Performance Analytics
YouTube is also making its video performance analytics more visible on desktop where a creator can see the number of views, watch time in hours, subscribers and estimated revenue per video. On top of that YouTube will also provide more detailed data which will help you manage your content.
YouTube Revenue
On revenue, YouTube is also adding more insights on revenue changes by highlighting potential shifts by reviewer region.
According to YouTube: “If revenue is going up, or down, because of the fact that the audience has shifted to a higher or lower CPM country, we’re calling this out.”
In order to provide more transparency on YouTube revenue impacts such as variable tax laws and processes, YouTube is going to provide more specific data or regional impacts to creators revenues.
Post engagement
YouTube has added a new post engagement metrics display which will show like and votes on the creators top posts on the channel over the last 28 days.
The new options are refinements of the available tools but they will help you as a creator with more and specific information on your YouTube channel performance.
From this information, you can align and develop a strategy that will help you gain more from your YouTube videos.
As a YouTuber in Kenya, you can analyze your channel’s numbers and depending on what you want to achieve in terms of revenues, subscribers and viewers, you can map out a better strategy to improve your performance.
