Around 75% of South Africans have Internet access, meaning 45 million people will likely Google you before ever interacting with your business.
If you’ve invested in digital marketing, this will give you some peace of mind.Â
If not, it might be a good time to consider growing your online presence.
Why Bother With Digital Marketing in a Developing Country?
The numbers don’t lie.Â
South Africa may be a developing country, but its people are as phone-dependent as many developed countries.
At BaseCloud, we talk to hundreds of businesses every day.
All our clients, whether large franchises or small family businesses, share the message that traditional marketing does not work the way it used to.
While some aspects of traditional marketing channels, such as billboards and radio ads, are still alive and kicking, engaging in this type of marketing without having a website and social media platforms only generates leads with nowhere to go.
Digital Marketing in SA
Being visible on digital platforms and investing in digital marketing gives your business credibility.Â
It’s considered a rite of passage into the digital age.
Your target audience is searching for your business on several platforms, but they will move on without a second thought if you’re not visible.
The digital age has not been kind to our attention spans.
Why Your Business Will Benefit From Digital Marketing
It’s cost-effective: Compared to old-school marketing like print and TV, digital marketing is much cheaper. Even micro-businesses can benefit from digital campaigns that reach specific audiences.
You can target a specific audience: Businesses can reach their target audience by targeting specific demographics, locations, interests, and behaviours. Precision is crucial for effective outreach, especially in a diverse market like South Africa.
The results are measurable: You get access to detailed analytics and data, helping you measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns in real-time. This allows you to make quick adjustments to improve ROI.
South Africans love their phones. The country’s high mobile internet usage necessitates mobile-friendly digital marketing strategies, including social media engagement and mobile-optimised websites.
They love socials even more: Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter) are hugely popular in South Africa, offering businesses a powerful channel to connect with customers, build brand awareness, and drive sales.
E-commerce keeps growing: Online shopping has never been more fun. Takealot packages and Woolies Dash, anyone? Digital marketing drives traffic to e-commerce platforms, helping you stay competitive in the digital marketplace.
We love a good joke: South African consumers enjoy engaging, relevant, and locally resonant content. Digital marketing lets you share content that resonates with your audience, fostering stronger brand loyalty. Nandos is great at this!
It’s as adaptive as we are: Things in South Africa are always changing, and businesses need to adapt their marketing strategies quickly to stay effective. Going digital lets you keep your marketing strategies agile.
You get a global reach: Digital marketing helps businesses reach a global audience while also letting them connect with local communities. You can adjust your reach according to your business goals.
What Are The Challenges?
You’ve been alive (and living in South Africa) long enough to know nothing is ever as shiny as it first appears.
There’s always a couch full of cash and a power outage looming.
While the various forms of digital marketing allow you to connect with your audience, they also have challenges.
It’s still an investment:
Digital marketing may be more cost-effective than traditional marketing methods, but doing it well will either cost you time or money. We’ve been around the block a few times and can guarantee that the cheaper options are cheaper for a reason.
Staying consistent:
One blog post, social media post, comment, Google review, or Google Ads lead means nothing. It’s like going to the gym once and expecting to look like the guy doing push-ups with one hand next to you at Planet Fitness. Doing something well once won’t move the needle; you need to stay consistent.
Not everyone laughs at the same things you do:
Even though we’re a nation that loves cracking jokes, South Africa is also incredibly diverse. Make sure you know your ideal customer and that your content marketing campaigns target them.
It requires you to trust the journey:
It’s hard to trust that some things take time, especially when immediate gratification is everywhere. Successful digital marketing campaigns require going on a journey of trial and error, trying new things, and learning what works for your business.
Some Examples of the Types of Digital Marketing
Let’s review a few digital marketing channels to see what you are potentially missing out on or where you can improve your strategy.
Google Business Profile (Local SEO)
Google Business Profile, previously known as Google My Business, is essential for all businesses with a physical location.
Your Google Business Profile is as vital as the sign above the door if you have a storefront.
What to update on your Google Business Profile
Business name: Be sure to have the correct business name on your profile. Potential customers who search your business name will expect to find you immediately.
Address: All GBPs require a confirmed physical location, even if you choose not to display it publically. Always ensure your address is correct and updated, as clients will use this address to visit your business.
Hours: Clients don’t want to call to find out if you’re open. Make sure to update your business hours, especially if they differ due to a weekend or public holiday.
Website: If you have a business website, ensure your website is correctly linked.
Phone: Many clients still like to call or prefer to send you a message. Ensure the phone number is correct and active to be responsive to potential clients.
Products and services: Add the products and services you offer to ensure your target audience understands your offerings and has realistic expectations of your business.
Company description: Update your company description to give your potential clients a clear overview of your business. This is a great place to strategically use your target SEO keywords to help you improve your local SEO ranking.
Bonus tip: Ask for reviews any chance you get!
We’ve seen it countless times: Reviews can make or break your business.
It’s often the decision-maker as to whether a client will contact you. If they see too many bad reviews, they are much more likely to navigate to one of your competitors.
Encourage your team to ask for reviews and interact with these reviews. Finally, if you receive a bad review, contact the client and do everything possible to turn their impression of you around.
Paid Ads
There are many different types of digital marketing, and paid ads are another popular channel. It’s also known as pay-per-click (PPC), a digital marketing method in which advertisers pay each time a user clicks on their ads.
Paid ads are everywhere.
You’ll notice them pop up while scrolling social media or during a quick Google search to check a fact you argued about with your colleague.
You might even see them when trying to get Checkers Sixty60 delivered before guests arrive for your Friday night braai.
1. Google Ads
Google has a much larger global market share than its search engine competitors. South Africans trust Google, too, with 94% of us preferring them to other search engines.
That’s why the fees are higher for Google Ads paid advertisements.Â
You will have seen ads pop up on Google, typically under sponsored content:
To advertise on Google, you bid to have:
- Your ads displayed
- Your services offered
- A product listed
- A video featured on Google.
Ads can also be displayed on mobile apps, videos, and non-search websites (search partners).Â
Find out more about our Google Ads services here.
2. Paid Social Media Ads
Paid social media marketing uses social media channels to display targeted advertising content in various formats, such as images, videos, and carousels.
These ads are typically labelled as “sponsored,” “promotion,” or “ad” and can help businesses increase brand awareness, reach new customers, and grow revenue.
A business pays for advertisements to reach a target audience, which helps it connect with potential customers and generate leads and conversions.
Unlike traditional advertising, such as direct mail, television ads, and billboards, paid social media ads provide direct access to audience and campaign data. This data includes information about who is seeing, engaging with, and clicking on the ad.
By using this information, businesses can create more targeted ad campaigns and increase their revenue.
Many social media platforms offer paid ads, but most South Africans prefer the following few.
Over 31 million South Africans, which is 59.6% of the population, use Facebook.
It’s also the most used social media platform worldwide, with over 3 billion monthly active users. This signals a huge opportunity for brands to promote their products to a large, diverse audience.
You can share various ad formats, such as images, videos, carousels, polls, and slideshows, and access Facebook’s advanced audience targeting features for each one.
When setting up paid social media advertising on Facebook, you can choose from six different campaign objectives:
Awareness: Increase brand recognition and reach potential new customers to make them aware of your business.
Traffic: Drives more traffic from social media to your website or landing page, guiding potential customers through their journey.
Engagement: Promote likes, comments, shares, and saves of your ad, increasing interaction with your content.
Leads: Prompt your audience to take action, such as filling out a form, sharing an email address, or registering for an event.
App Promotion: Helps you increase the number of app downloads.
Sales: Acquire more customers, boost sales, and generate revenue.
Be sure to set clear goals for your paid social media campaigns on Facebook to ensure a positive return on investment (ROI).
7.3 million South Africans have an active Instagram account. It’s a great platform for creating attractive and engaging advertising campaigns.
These campaigns can help you grab the audience’s attention, increase engagement, and expand your follower base. Ads can be displayed in feeds, Stories, Reels, the Explore page, and other areas on Instagram.
Paid social campaigns on Instagram can consist of images, videos, carousels, CTA buttons, and links, all of which help to promote engagement. Instagram offers the same six objectives as Facebook.
LinkedIn is a less popular social media channel overall, with 12,2% of South Africans using this platform.
But what makes LinkedIn unique is its users. It’s a platform for professionals to connect and network, making this the perfect place for B2B advertising.
It’s perfect for running paid social advertising campaigns that target knowledge workers, decision-makers, executives, and industry experts.
Ad types on LinkedIn include in-feed ads, sponsored messages, dynamic ads (personalized ads based on user profile data), and text ads. You can also target campaigns to audiences based on demographics, job title, seniority, company, and more.
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SEO: Search Engine Optimisation
If your business has long-term growth goals, SEO should be part of your digital marketing strategy.
SEO, or search engine optimisation, includes tactics to optimise your website for search engines like Google and Bing.
You want your website to be optimised for search engines so that when your customers search for a keyword related to your business, you’re on page 1 of Google.
You’ll find the organic (SEO) results on Google beneath the sponsored results. This is what organic results typically look like:
This might sound simple, but SEO is a complex field of marketing that requires continuous efforts to meet Google’s ever-expanding list of ranking factors.
It’s rumoured that Google has more than 1000 ranking factors.
These are Google’s Top ranking factors
Quality content: Relevant and well-written articles and landing pages on your website.
Keyword use: Optimal use of keywords relevant to your website in your articles. We researched these keywords and compiled a content strategy.
User experience: Overall experience of the user on your website (this includes content, website speed, good navigation, mobile friendliness, etc.)
Site speed: The speed of your website influences user experience and is a significant ranking factor.
Mobile-friendliness: Accessibility for all users is essential, so your website must be optimised for mobile.
On-page optimisation: This forms part of the user experience, as well as how easy we make it for search engines to understand your website.
Backlinks: A link from another website to your site. Backlinks are important for SEO because they signal to search engines that other websites consider your content to be valuable.
Remember that many other factors can influence SEO rankings, and the specific factors that are most important for your site will depend on your industry, audience, and other unique characteristics.
Creating An Effective Digital Marketing Strategy
Developing a killer digital marketing strategy in South Africa involves a few key steps that are tailored to the local market dynamics.
Here’s our step-by-step guide:
1. Understand Your Market
Understanding your target audience helps you connect with the local market and speak to the needs of your ideal customer.
Find your target market:
Start by researching the South African market, including the latest trends, consumer behaviours, and digital habits. Google Trends, local news, and marketing reports from publications like BusinessTech are great places to start.
It’s also a good idea to look at what your competitors are doing and how their marketing strategies work for them.
Identify your target audience:
Define your target audience based on their location, interests, spending habits, and digital behaviours. Other factors to consider to help narrow down your buyer are age, gender, language, and cultural nuances.
Once you know who to target, you can identify their challenges and position yourself as a solution to their problem.
2. Set Clear Goals
Spending time and budget on marketing only makes sense if you know exactly what you wish to achieve. Marketing can be expensive, so it’s crucial to know your desired outcomes before you start a campaign.
Define realistic goals:
Use the SMART technique to set your marketing goals; this means setting objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
For example, “Increase website traffic by 25% over the next six months.”
3. Build a Winning Website
We discussed some of the more prevalent digital marketing channels above. But the number one thing that needs to be perfect if you want to start your digital journey?
Your website.
It’s the cornerstone of your digital presence and can make or break your business’s success. Even if you spend thousands on marketing, if you send leads to a slow, confusing, cluttered website, they will navigate away within seconds.
None of us are willing to trust a company whose website looks like it was built in the 90’s.
10 basics you need to get right for a winning website
Unique branding: Use a design that aligns with your brand.
Easy navigation: Keep it simple and user-friendly.
Customer-centric writing: Use language that engages and speaks to the user
Valuable content: Offer resources that inform and inspire users to return.
Social proof: Include testimonials, case studies, and customer data to build trust.
Multiple contact options: Provide forms, email, phone, and chat for user convenience.
Simplified Forms: Use as few input fields as possible for contact forms.
Clear call-to-actions: Make what users should do next obvious.
Fast loading: Ensure your website loads quickly every time.
Subtle animation: Use movement to engage users.
4. Choose Your Marketing Channels
Use the section above to help decide which marketing channels you want to focus on.
Expert tip: Choose one or two channels, keep testing, and make changes as time progresses. You won’t win by doing everything at once.
Social Media Marketing: Use popular social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Customise content to engage with South African audiences, taking into account language preferences (e.g., English, Zulu, Afrikaans).
Content Marketing: Produce valuable, relevant, and locally significant content. Consider creating blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts that address local issues or interests.
Email Marketing: Develop and maintain your email list. Use email campaigns to share updates, offers, and personalised content with your audience.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: Use platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads to target specific demographics and drive traffic. Tailor your ads to local language and relevance.
SEO: Optimise your website and content for local search terms. Consider geo-targeted keywords relevant to South African users.
5. Create a Content Strategy
Create a well-structured content calendar that encompasses South African holidays, events, and seasonal changes to guarantee a consistent and strategic approach.
Be sure to tailor your messaging to resonate with South African culture and values by incorporating local examples, case studies, and testimonials whenever possible.
6. Budget Planning
Allocate your budget: Based on your goals, determine how much you will spend on each digital channel. Consider the cost of content creation, paid advertising, social media management, and any necessary tools or software.
Prioritise high-impact channels: Based on your research and past performance, concentrate on channels that provide the best (ROI). This is why we recommend focusing on one or two channels at first.
Measure everything: You’ll only know which channels have a high impact if you measure your results. A good marketing manager or marketing agency can do this in their sleep.
7. Get Going!
Once your planning and strategy are in place, we move on to the execution part of the process.
Your rinse-and-repeat checklist when everything goes live
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Launch your campaigns: Start your digital marketing activities according to your plan.
Monitor and performance: Use tools like Google Analytics, social media insights, and email marketing analytics to measure performance against your objectives—track metrics like website traffic, conversion rates, social media engagement, and ROI.
Adjust strategies: Based on your analysis, tweak your plan to improve performance. This could involve reallocating the budget, refining targeting, or changing your content approach.
Stay updated on trends: Stay informed about new platforms, tools, and consumer behaviours that could impact your strategy.
Engage with local communities: Participate in industry events, webinars, and online forums to stay connected with the latest South African digital marketing developments.
Engage and build relationships: Focus on building relationships with your audience. Respond promptly to comments, messages, and reviews. Create a loyal community around your brand through social media groups, newsletters, and exclusive offers.
Comply with local regulations: Comply with South African data protection and privacy laws, such as the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).
Ethical marketing: Be culturally sensitive and avoid any content that could be considered offensive or inappropriate in the South African context.
Getting Out There
Going digital in South Africa can be excellent for your business; it’s inevitable for most.
If you’re unsure where to start, chat with us, and we’ll develop a marketing strategy designed to make your business stand out.
