Businesses are again having to search for ways to secure their growth for 2016 and beyond, against a backdrop of sluggish and marginal economic growth in domestic demand – along with all the usual challenges of rising operating costs, diminishing customer loyalty, decreasing levels of differentiation and greater pressures to minimise selling prices.
To add to this, Malta’s consumption levels have been 21 per cent below the EU average over the last two years and continue to fall as a possible barometer of lower consumer confidence.
Global analysis confirms the increased preference consumers have for digital media and in particular social media marketing and by inference the potential this offers Maltese businesses to better position, differentiate and commercialise their businesses against larger and more resource-rich rivals, regardless of whether they are local or offshore.
Recently released data from a new survey conducted by Eurostat highlighted the importance of e-commerce, in particular to Maltese business, by revealing that over half the Maltese collective market (53 per cent) made at least one e-purchase during 2015. This figure is only marginally behind that of the EU average and by comparison dwarfs neighbouring nations such as Italy with its modest 26 per cent e-commerce usage during 2015.
Although it is not a universal truth, social media usage domestically has fallen behind that of other markets, both in Europe and globally, and especially in the case of small to medium enterprises (SMEs). However, businesses can with little or no real investment begin to compete effectively in this market arena against their key rivals.
The last 10 years has seen a gradual implication of social media strategy. Marketer Sharon Spiteri has designed a model to demonstrate how the business website remains the central hub of the firms’ marketing efforts while the various social media outposts it uses such as Pinterest, Facebook and YouTube, act as platforms for customer engagement, a first step to selectively driving qualified leads to the website where the monetarisation (sales) process occurs via e-commerce.
This is driven through the use of inbound links to the website, where buyer interest can be actioned in a private, secure and effective way.
Traffic can also be driven from one social media site to another to continue the process of customer engagement and provide additional information in different forms until the customer is ready to buy.
In this setting each outpost has a related but different strategic function. For example, YouTube videos help to demonstrate a key product or operation, Pinterest is ideal for highlighting the look of a product line, blogs are the world’s leading platforms for providing detailed information by way of daily or weekly posts, and review sites such as Trip Advisor and Urban Spoon provide sought-after product reviews for validation.
Research has universally highlighted the fact that the market has a higher level of trust and confidence in discussions on social media rather than parent sites.
The social media approach not only provides businesses with qualified leads to customers who are motivated to buy but also has the added benefit of driving the businesses’ organic ranking in key search engines such as Google and Bing by the use of the inbound links – a key component of search engine algorithms.
With this evolving reliance on digital media, 2016 will be the time for many businesses to take their first measured steps into social media marketing. They will be able to avail themselves of the benefits that appear to be independent of prevailing economic conditions, and to consolidate their positioning, branding and ongoing relationships with their respective target markets.
www.roadscholarstraining.com
Daniele Lima is a content marketing strategist and the managing director of Road Scholars in Australia.