Bring Your Online Marketing to the Offline Businesses Platform

I may not know about your instincts bus as for me, I find it so disgusting when I want to know more about a given business then find out that it doesn't have a website.  Although there are a number of on-line dictionaries and directories in Kenya where you get your business listed including your contacts and location, I suppose this is not sufficient and not the true representative of your business on-line.

You need an online presence to succeed in business

When looking for your business online, consider this, I may be aware of its location, that is a fact, but what I want to know is by the time I search it online is I sure will be seeking more than your location. I will probably be interested in knowing what products you have, maybe the sources, credibility, working hours and so on. This is like a brochure of some sort. Unfortunately, even with the cheap domains and free sub domains in the market, it still appears like many small businesses in Kenya are not up-to the task of having their product menu online.

Okay, let’s face it, in Kenya; Safaricom came up with a product called Zidisha Biashara, a product that gives you subsidized airtime and data, a website and website management lessons. Although this was taken up, the progress in taking up the domains is still sluggish. This clearly indicates that the Kenyan marketers and business people are yet to take their businesses to the next level.

Now, where do you think we are headed? The online platform and social media presence are tools that are set towards propelling our businesses. Any marketer needs to take up these two marketing choices as they are bound to work for anyone.

Google also has started a campaign to bring offline businesses into the online world with its KBO (Kenya Businesses Online) product and this also seems to be picking up on a slow note. I consider this an interesting concept since as the oldies would say ‘you can take a donkey to the river but can’t force It to drink water’.  Another company, Armand has created a piece of software which enables you to create a website just by filling in the blanks you get something eye catching and with quality content as per your business profile

We also have directive videos that will guide you while setting up your KBO website or the Armands website creation application meaning, this is not an uphill task. All you need is time. You don’t necessarily need the Technical know how to set these two up.

So what's so special about these approaches? These approaches have been created with small businesses in mind as a solution of promoting themselves online, directly linking them to their customers who will then come to their physical shops and do business.

Many articles have been written about social media marketing, advantages of having online presence, and even more deals created by service providers to encourage Kenyan business owners to venture into the online market.

It is a high time that business owners and marketers created an online marketing strategy and work towards making the venture a success. Among other alternatives are Blogspots, Facebook pages, twitter handles and sub domains. You can take advantage of these online tools and make your business a success in the online marketing platform.

Entrepreneurs pick.

For you to market your business online, you don’t necessarily have to have that big amount of cash to set up a nice website… you can actually start with Blogspots, Facebook pages among others.