In the part one of this two part article, I mentioned content marketing and email marketing as some of the things Ghanaian businesses have taken for granted and as a result are paying dearly for. In this part, I will continue to mention the three other things.
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is a collection of tactics that help a website rank in the first positions of Google for search terms that describe their business.
Everyday, millions of people use Google to search for everything from 'which premier league team won the championship in 1987' to 'electronic appliance shops in Accra'. These people click on the first results Google returns and have no time to check what is in the 25th page of the results.
How do businesses make sure they are also among the top results to be shown to the 'Googler'. This is where SEO becomes very important.
When SEO is done right, businesses see significant growth in organic visitors to their site and once the business site contains all the information needed by the information seeker, then the seeker becomes a customer.
There are many consulting service providers in Accra who are mostly small businesses and as such have financial constraints that prevent them from carrying out aggressive advertising campaigns. With SEO, all they need is an expert who will use keywords to make sure whenever someone googles 'consulting services in Accra', their business shows at the top.
Several small businesses abroad don't engage in mainstream advertisement but in SEO and they have regular customers because whenever someone googles for the kind of services they offer, they appear at the top and the 'googler' checks them out.
It is the time for Ghanaian businesses too since the usage of the internet in Ghana is at an all time high. Take advantage.
Content marketing is one great way to boost a business' SEO.
4. Social Media
I agree that many small and large businesses in Ghana are most likely to have a social media presence. But one challenge for these businesses is how to curate this social media pages.
It is common to see a business start a facebook page or twitter page with much enthusiasm which results in regular posts from the pages but after a while, the enthusiasm fades and the pages are left to 'grow weeds'.
The full potentials of the businesses behind these pages will not be harnessed if social media is run like the way ECG runs electricity in the country.
Maintaining a social media presence requires dedication and I must say some Ghanaian businesses understand the importance of this and as such put much effort into it.
Maintaining a social media presence is like a marital relationship, initially there is much excitement until the positives you thought were present begins to ellude you. Patience and constant updates is what is needed to keep your brand alive socially.
Businesses should make atleast a post everyday so as to keep their brand in the minds of their fans. Too many posts a day will also annoy your fans and so a proper balance must be sought.
The positives of social media are obvious and I would not say anything about that.
5. Brand Personality
The tone of voice of a business can make or umake that business. Despite the importance of brand personality, many small Ghanaian businesses care less about this.
It is important to know how you want your customers to perceive you. Do you want your customers to think of your business as a serious one, a humorous one or an energetic one.
In choosing a brand personality, the sector in which your business falls must be taken into consideration. You don't want your business to be seen as humorous in a banking or finance sector.
Once that personality is chosen, the tone has to cut across all your mediums of communication. And so if the tone of your business is that of humor, it shouldn't happen that on your website and advertisements the business appears serious whereas on social media it is humorous. Potential customers will take your business as a fake and disregard the genuineness of your personality.
So stick to your personality all way out.
Many small businesses in Ghana do not have a personality for their businesses and this deprives them of the benefits of having one. Customers will connect more with the business if the personality of your business is similar to theirs.
For example if your business is a paedriatic clinic, your brand personality might want to be a little less serious since you are dealing with children and parents who are mostly stressed from the role of parenting. To lighten both the children and parents up, a less serious tone will connect more with them. Bear in mind children like fun.
Take another paedriatic clinic whose personality is that of a serious business and it sticks to this. I am pretty sure the parents might not have an issue with this if they do not know another clinic exists that helps them to de-stress with their less serious tone. One thing is for sure, the children will not connect with such a clinic.
So that's all for this article, if you have followed this article from the beginning stay loyal to OpinionGhana.com as there are other interesting articles to read on this platform and many more to come. If you missed the Part I try to have a read of it. Remember to share this with a friend or colleague.
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