Not all businesses are created equal. Some have vision - they plan, estimate and intelligently invest budgets in promotion, growth, and development. Meanwhile, other businesses don't take enough time to analyze their competition, their consumer, or their budget for online promotion. To find the real reasons, the SEOLITTE team decided to do an investigation in the digital environment and answer the following questions:
- Why do some businesses in the Republic of Moldova fail in the online environment, while others increase their income several times from a single campaign?
- What are the mistakes the market makes most often when it comes to going online?
- What obstacles can arise in the online environment that businesses were not at all prepared for?
In this vein, to find out the challenges of Moldovan companies, we decided to become "spies" and follow the actions of some SMEs on the local market and beyond. We have noted down all our observations and want to share them in this article.
Let's start over!
Incompetence in Digital Marketing
The typical entrepreneur is apathetic about developing in the Online promotion segment. He is doing well - thank you, he has steady sales on certain products and services. Why evolve into marketing? This "laziness" generates total ignorance towards quality promotion in the digital environment.
2. Engaging in the wrong decision-making process, activating superficially, or starting completely random activities
Namely they:
- Organize In-House marketing, but without a Marketing Director to set the directions Online.
- Take action on your own, being sure that promoting in Google and online in general is extremely easy and anyone can do it if they know how to press a few buttons. Or...
- He hires a single person (in many cases even one with no experience in digital marketing), who would set him a few campaigns per month, without well-defined goals.
3. Lack of a Budget (thought) for Online promotion services
Let's start with numbers: a budget accepted by companies for paid advertising varies between 200-500 euros/month. Entrepreneurs say that's a reasonable figure. Why? Simple! Because they don't see it as an investment, but as an amount they can afford to "lose" if a promotional campaign doesn't bring them results.
In this situation, the perception of the budget is extremely important.
Throughout SEOLITTE's experience, I have met clients for whom even 100 euros was worth more than the subsequent sales resulting from those campaigns. I also had funny situations when I received budgets of 50 dollars for 3 months for Facebook Ads or Google Ads. But we also managed to convince the client that it was worth investing an average budget of $500 in paid promotion.
4. Lack of a digital marketing strategy
Some newly launched businesses do not realize that they will have to compete not only with the competition but also with their strategies for promoting the site on Google or Social Media. The losses in this battle start from day one, if entrepreneurs do not have a comprehensive plan to promote the brand/product/service...
Also from the survey conducted with Moldovan entrepreneurs, we were amazed to learn that 45% of businesses do not communicate online about promotions or offers that would attract their potential customers.
It seems to them that if they post a product online and do paid advertising, the consumer is bound to buy it. And if it doesn't, it's the fault of that manager who didn't set up the campaign correctly. Does he always have to be a scapegoat? Not! From this moment on, it's time for them to realize that they need a well-designed strategy, in which they will have set: goals, objectives, and sales funnels!
5. Confusion about promotional channels and wrongly set advertisements
Since online came with a lot of business opportunities, entrepreneurs got lost among social networks, streaming platforms, video content, and the possibilities offered by search engines... Too many, too different, where else do you need budgets?
From our survey, we deduced that due to insufficient financial resources, 35.3% of businesses in the Republic of Moldova do not do digital marketing (even if they would be open to learning as much as possible about online marketing).
Here we have come to notice an interesting trend: business owners or novice marketers do not understand the mission of each promotion channel. He tries them all, invests thousands of dollars in each (lucky those with budgets like that!), then chooses the one he finds to be the easiest to use and - of course - the cheapest. If it brought them a few more quality leads, then they're even happier.
Nota bene: If you've noticed or admitted to yourself that you make these mistakes, be sure that they all work out. It all depends on your determination to invest daily effort, time, and perseverance in your business.
Let's continue with our list!
6. The information from irrelevant sources
Promotional campaigns of famous brands stay in the memory for a long time and - why not - become real hype. Apple and its "Think Different" campaign, Samsung with "Share the Light", and Audi and the "Unleashed" model, all came to unconventionally promote new products in the market. From here, most businesses wanted "just like theirs".
It's good to follow sources of inspiration from the world of global marketing, but it's not rational to want the same promotion campaign for completely different niches, products, budgets, and audiences. The mistake of entrepreneurs consists of getting information from sources irrelevant to their business and desires not calibrated with the respective niche, especially in the context of COVID-19.
7. Misunderstanding customer needs
Why are global brands successful? They understood a "small" axiom: pay maximum attention to the needs and wants of your customers. Probably, this escapes the Moldovan businesses that start promotion online. Let's take an example from Offline that is quite relevant, observed right in the showroom of an air conditioner shop. The consultant approaches a visitor who is lost, but interested in a device that will cool him on hot days.
Not knowing how to get the buyer's attention, the manager begins to tell him about the technical specifications of the filter or the number of gears. Why complicate him with this data, if the poor customer came to procure a device that will rid him of the congestion in the house? The consultant should only give him information relevant to his needs, right?
The same rule is valid Online: the needs of the users should be at the forefront of building the relationship between the Brand and the Consumer. You can find out what people are searching for on Google and provide them with information relevant to their needs and wants.
8. Absence of a professional photographer and graphic designer
You too admit that the age of technology set us on fire and made us love with our eyes. So do consumers when they see different business banners online. The absence of a graphic designer's hand can be seen... from 10 km away. A banner with a bad design will not attract you. Moreover, it will not make the user click on that ad.
Additionally, investing in a professional photographer seems to be a challenge for some start-up businesses. Why? Again, it's about the wrong perception of money. They end up being "spent", not "invested". Quality photos on the website or Social Media, a graphic in simplistic but relevant details - all attract and "flirt" directly with users.
9. Lack of training and development of the digital marketing team
We kept thinking why some companies change their employees in the marketing department very often. Some go, some come.
From the stories of our customers and businesses in the market, as well as from my own experience, I understood the importance of in-house training. To perform quality work, employees must be trained in-house by the most experienced like them. At least one training per month will increase the efficiency of employees and inspire them to put maximum effort into their professional development.
You are free to organize different events internally and encourage your employees to actively participate in the growth of your brand.
10. Non-optimized sites
I will not mention site optimization for Google as a complex process, but I will give importance above all to the user experience on the website and its impact on rankings in this search engine. This can be about the design, loading speed, and buttons of the website.
If you make him wait more than 4 seconds for the page he needs to open, consider him lost! The bounce rate (site rejection rate) increases considerably and you can forget about leads and sales.
CURIOSITY: In the previously mentioned survey, we found out that 66.7% of the interviewed businesses in the Republic of Moldova did not know what the conversion rate of their business website was. In addition, 78% of businesses do not have a keyword analysis for website promotion.
To get to the heart of this issue, I've been surfing the internet for a while and I've come across too many sites with 10+ second loading times and frankly, I've lost the nerve to investigate seeing how long it takes JUST to wait for a certain website.
In addition, I have also seen several Moldovan landing pages that are not attractive to the average user: fonts that are too big or too small, bright colors that do not match, too many pop-up windows, and blurring of buttons with all kinds of calls to action.
Here we have finished the list of reasons why Moldovan businesses fail to promote their business online. It was not a boring "investigation", but on the contrary, I understood that the online market in the Republic of Moldova needs some major changes in certain chapters:
- Trust in professionals.
- Rethinking budgets for digital marketing.
- Strong promotion strategies.
- More care towards the consumer.
- More care towards employees too.
The SEOLITTE team is wondering, are you also planning to implement these changes? And if so, then where will you encounter difficulties?
We offer you a free one-hour consultation, to see what your challenges are in the digital field and to come up with solutions adapted to your business.
Call +373 69 809 235 and let's chat about your promotion!