The Need for Digital Integration During Uncertain Economic Times

The Business landscape in Europe remains somewhat clouded with a residual lack of business confidence that continues despite recent proactive measures by the European Central Bank that would be normally expected to energise local financial markets.

Recently E.C.B President Mario Draghi announced the extension of unprecedented easing of monetary policy where the European Central Bank has pledged to maintain its’ existing 60 Billion Euro a month program to buy bonds for at least another six months up until March 2017.  Significant is the fact that the prime interest rate has been cut by an additional 10 basis points to a new historical low of -0.3%.

Despite these measures the market reacted to the announcement with a selloff in both bond and equity markets, underlying concerns about both the size of the change and by implication, the medium to longer term economic outlook for Europe.

Against this backdrop of sluggish growth and marginal economic growth in domestic demand along with all the usual challenges faced by business such as rising operating costs, diminished levels of customer loyalty, decreased levels of differentiation and ultimately greater pressures to minimise selling prices, businesses are again having to search for ways to secure their growth for 2016 and beyond. To add to this Malta’s consumption levels have been 21% below the EU average over the last two years and continue to fall as a possible barometer of lower consumer confidence.

 One possible area of support emerges from the global analysis that continue to confirm 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 off shore.

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 (i.e. 53%) made at least one e-purchase during 2015. This figure is only marginally behind that of the EU average of 53% and by comparison dwarfs neighboring nations such as Italy with a modest 26% e-commerce usage during 2015.

Although it is not a universal truth, social media usage in certain industries has fallen behind that of other markets both for Europe and global rates and especially in the case of small to medium enterprises (SME’s), businesses can now with little or no real investment begin to compete effectively in this influential market arena against their key rivals. The last ten years has seen a gradual implication of social media strategy.


 Figure 1: The Spiteri Social Media Model For Demand Generation.


Based on the elegant and ultra-simple model by noted marketer Sharon Spiteri, the model demonstrates how the business website remains the central hub of the firms marketing efforts whilst the various social media outposts it utilises such as Pinterest, Facebook and YouTube, act as platforms for customer engagement as 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.  As well 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 point that the prospect 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 my 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 with discussion on social media rather than on parent sites. This approach not only provides businesses with qualified leads with customers that 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 that are known to be a key component of search engine algorithms.

With this evolving reliance on digital media and its already established dynamic in place, 2016 will be the time for many businesses that have not already done so, to take the first measured steps into social media marketing and avail themselves of the benefits that appear to be independent of and outside the reach of prevailing economic conditions and consolidate their positioning, branding and ongoing relationships with their respective target markets.

If you'd like more information on additional marketing and social media training for your business simply click on:  http://www.roadscholarstraining.com/services/accredited-courses.html
for a full list of nationally accredited business courses.

 So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,
Daniele.