Series of recommendations on marketing that allow to increase the presence and participation of the brand in the HVAC / R sector.
by Julián Arcila*
Your small-medium-sized enterprise (or SME as companies are usually called between one and 50 employees) is fundamental to the economy of Latin America, so in need of reactivation in the midst of a scenario of generalized slowdown. Need proof? The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says that SMEs comprise a fundamental component of the regional economy, representing about 99% of all enterprises and providing employment to about 67% of total workers.
This is also recalled by the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), according to which growth opportunities multiply exponentially every year. But along with this, there are more and more challenges that you have to face to guarantee their subsistence.
And you probably know that the competition is strong, but it's not just your case. According to the 2019 edition of the annual survey "Vision SMEs" conducted by Brother International Corporation, the biggest challenge expressed by 800 SMEs from countries such as Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Costa Rica is global and local competition.
In those circumstances, you have most likely heard of digital marketing and you will ask yourself: "What benefits does digital marketing have for an SME?".
First of all, digital marketing can help your SME stand out from the competition, by using modern communication spaces with your current and potential customers. In addition, adopting digital marketing can help you establish a strategic framework for your SME, which not only touches marketing but also the general operation of it, as it will teach you to define activities and programs based on the objectives you want to achieve. Finally, it will help you give your SME and its services a more professional look, by using a more modern and professional communication system to inform and educate about your products or services.
How can you start using marketing in your SME?
One of your big challenges as a small-medium business owner is using marketing strategically. If you don't think about what you're going to do, you can end up spending a lot of money without producing a message that really connects with your ideal audience. What's worse: you can end up talking to the wrong audience.
But within marketing we have an idea that is very effective in times of limited budget: do not work hard, work smart. This applies perfectly to marketing.
Some of the services you can use to start your company in the world of marketing are:
• Development of your website.
• Creation of your business profiles on social networks.
• Launch of campaigns in media, but also of the PPC type in systems such as Google, social networks or even in the web pages of the media of your industry.
• Manage your customer lists in an organized way using a Customer Relationship Management or CRM software.
There are other complementary services to consider such as the following:
• Development of brand identity.
• Content production.
• Video production (very important at the moment).
The truth is that all these strategies seek to take advantage of the digital tools offered by marketing today.
Do you have questions about digital marketing? Ask... we are here to help you.
Are Latina SMEs ready to invest in marketing?
We can't ignore the impact of Google on the world of marketing (I think you know who Google is, right?). In a visit by one of its executives to the region, the multinational detected that Latin America is experiencing a boom in the investment that SMEs make in digital marketing.
"We see now that developing markets, such as Latin America, are growing much faster than larger countries, and therefore we are opening up our efforts much more here on this issue," said Todd Rowe, director of Google Channel Sales, as he passed through Bogota ( Colombia) in 2017.
And while he highlighted Colombia as one of the fastest growing in digital marketing, he acknowledged that in general the progress of the region surpasses leaders such as England and the United States.
And why has this happened? Because small and medium-sized entrepreneurs like you have lost their fear of that virtual ecosystem in which you are part of a global community. Hence the opportunity to compete on the same stage, as any large company does.
How does a good website help your business grow?
By bringing your business to the web, you have the possibility to centralize a digital marketing campaign from your page or blog. From there opens a wide range of possibilities to achieve greater visualization in the digital world. There SEO (Search Engine Optimization) positioning takes preponderance.
These three acronyms allude to a set of techniques to improve the search of your company by any Internet user, so that it appears among the first results of the most important browsers with a domain of authority on the subject.
What does that entail? Create quality content optimized according to keywords and frequently asked questions asked by your potential customers. This can be a user who, attracted by your content, makes constant visits to your page, and at some point, from a form to be filled out for the visualization of it, provides their data and begins to interact with you more directly. At that time, this user has become a lead.
Make every visit to your website count!
But this is not the only way to generate leads. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) allows you to maximize a customer's knowledge to understand their needs and maintain a relationship of loyalty over time. From this, it is facilitated to improve the services of attention and after-sales to it.
This tool is part of a larger strategy in which social networks play a primary role. These are the ones that in principle allow you to reach a wide audience and generate engagement with interested users through a like or a share, and that can then become potential customers that we manage to segment through the CRM.
However, it is possible to generate traffic and monetize each of the visits to your website through Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns.
All this positioning process to multiply the visualization of your brand, and thus effectively reach your different customers, requires a multidisciplinary team focused on accompanying that long-awaited growth, which knows no limits in the digital ecosystem.
If you have questions about how to apply marketing to your SME, you can access more information by clicking here.
* Author: Julián Arcila - [email protected]
