Small Business; Big Plans: How to use digital marketing to help your South African business thrive was written after the authors saw a gap in marketing knowledge among many South Africans. Picture: Supplied
Durban - Digital confidence is lacking among some older South Africans who are no less vulnerable than the younger generation when it comes to financial security and need to learn to survive better.
Belinda Mountain and Catherine Black, co-authors of Small Business; Big Plans: How to use digital marketing to help your South African business thrive, discovered this during the Covid pandemic when friends, family and strangers told them they “don’t have a job, need to grow a side hustle, need cash”.
“They weren’t marketing right, and we found a gap in knowledge,” said Mountain.
“South African entrepreneurs have their strengths. They are adaptable and have good ideas. But many lack basic marketing skills and digital confidence, especially the older ones.
“They are good at what they do, but the digital world is overwhelming and confusing. There is so much available. They don’t know who to listen to.”
Mountain said that because much of what is written was for a US or UK audience, they had written the book for South African readers.
“We use real life examples, like a small family-owned furniture business that wants to grow.”
The language, without using slang, is appealing.
A section on how to use the book reads: “Our book follows alongside the format of the business creation journey and what you’d need at each stage when it comes to digital marketing ‒ starting from the seed of an idea through to defining your target markets, developing a brand, building a website and other marketing collateral, and then using various digital tactics to connect with your audiences.
“If your business has progressed from the newborn stage to being an unpredictable toddler, you may find it more useful to dip in and out of the chapters relevant to you instead of reading it from beginning to end.”
Subjects include website designs, digital copywriting, social media marketing, influencer marketing, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), email, SMS and conversational marketing, common writing mistakes and tips about TikTok, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram.
Load shedding had not been included because it was not their field of expertise, and was something South Africans knew about.
“They do not need to be reminded that it’s a reality,” said Mountain.
She also said they would have loved to have included the topic of artificial intelligence, which “exploded in December”.
“We would have loved to have written more about that, but somewhere you must draw a line in the sand,” said Mountain.
She stressed that the advantage of digital marketing was that it was flexible, trackable and made it possible for entrepreneurs to spread the word of their products further.
“It’s better than a billboard.”
The Independent on Saturday