How Small & Medium Enterprises Use Social
Media To Get More Customers

It is estimated that there are 7.59 billion people in the world with about 2.95 billion social media users. In India there are 92 million active social media users in a population of 1.2 billion people, where 31% live in urban areas and 69% live in rural areas. Coming to SMEs, there are about 42.50 million SMEs in India, employing 40% of the country’s workforce while 20% of MSMEs operate from rural areas. This sector overall, contributes to 45% of India’s overall exports. In 2017, the International Journal of Commerce and Research recorded that only 10% of SMEs were using social media marketing services, yet 80% of these 10% users said that social media helped improve its products and services, as it allowed for better engagement between business owners and their customers.

Getting Started With Social Media Marketing!

The first thing SMEs need to do is, find out which social media platform their audience uses most commonly. In most cases this will be facebook because it is designed for users across all age groups. There are currently 241 million active facebook users in India, which exceeds the recorded 234 million TV owners back in 2015. Now, if your brand is looking for more of an urban audience, it is recommended to use Twitter along with facebook. Also, Twitter offers better customer support in terms of quicker turnaround time when it comes to responding to customers. If your brand has more of a young audience, then Instagram that will serve your business best because it is a social media marketing model that works more on visual appeal than anything else.

Strategizing Social Media Optimization

Once you have your page/account ready, it’s time to use social media in a manner where you get maximum footfall for the effort and money you invest into it. For instance, according to Sprout Social, the best time for a FMCG brand to post on facebook is thrice a week from Wednesday to Friday between 10am to 5pm. Posting on Sundays or any day between 10pm to 4am is a waste of your resources because these are the pit times of lowest engagement. If you want your posts to get even better traffic, it is better to boost them, but nothing beats the footfall that comes via gratification through engaging contest posts. Not even celebrity endorsements!

Prioritizing Your Digital Marketing Investments

In the global market, the biggest reason SMEs fail is because of cash flow problems and then they are also faced with having no market for their products and services. Another thing global statistics reveal, is that 66% of small business owners say that finding new customers is their top concern. So, what is the solution then? Well according to Blue Corona, which deals with Measurable Marketing Solutions. The solution lies in having an inverted pyramid approach when it comes to investing in marketing & communication. So, you have a 3-fold Digital marketing strategy, where Investing in Social Media is at the top, online marketing is in the middle and investing in SEO is at the bottom. Though search engine optimization is at the bottom of this pyramid, it is critical for SMEs as it serves more of a long-term strategy, in getting your business noticed online.

Managing Your Digital Marketing Portfolio

In most cases the business of digital marketing is very different from what SMEs are doing. So, it’s better for SMEs to hire an Agency to get this done for you because it helps SMEs focus on their business while their creative partner manages their marketing communication profile. At Eggfirst, we have been working with digital marketing and social media marketing companies for over 10 years with over 500 brand success stories to show for it. Not just that, we have also been awarded The Most Admired Agency In Rural Marketing by ACEF, for having successfully penetrated the Rural Market with the aid of Digital Marketing. So, with SMEs already contributing around 6.11% of India’s manufacturing GDP and 24.63% of Service sector GDP, we at Eggfirst believe we can push the envelope further via a strategic digital marketing plan that’s customized for SMEs.