Effectiveness of internet marketing in South Africa

There is little doubt that the internet is the fastest growing vehicle for marketing today and has overtaken long-established advertising methods such as TV, radio and magazine advertisements.

Technologically aware consumers are now surfing the internet or communicating with peers over social media networks and on cell phones and marketing on these media is not only more effective, it is also more cost effective than the traditional approaches.

Any company not involved in or, at the very least, seriously considering, an internet advertising campaign risks missing the boat completely. This applies not only to first world countries but also to developing countries where consumers are increasingly interacting via the internet and cellular phones.

But are South African companies climbing on the bandwagon?

According to at least one local company, which also happens to be a leading player in the global online marketing sector, they are. Pretorius, president of Acceleration, claims that local companies are following the international trend and embarking on online advertising and marketing in growing numbers.

Certainly there are a number of success stories to be told about South African companies which have invested in online marketing and experienced significant growth not only in visitors to their website but in the resulting sales and customer awareness.

However, according to Goldstuck’s “Online Retail in South Africa, 2004” report, only 8 companies completely dominate the South African online market. While this has grown somewhat over the following few years, this is still only a fraction of the number of companies which should be represented.

Well known retailers such as Woolworths, Checkers, and Pick n Pay have seen the writing on the wall, have taken up the challenge and have set up their own websites. However, independent research has shown that, while using an innovative marketing medium in the form of the internet, these companies, and others who have spent years promoting their particular brand names, are still using this traditional approach to advertising, promoting their brand rather than what they have to offer the customer.

The problem is that, online, what you sell is a far more important consideration than who you are. While potential customers might seek out a ‘Woolies’ shop at the mall, when online they are far more likely to search for the item they are wanting to buy.

Clearly, then, those companies who make the best use of keyword search options will attract the most traffic to their websites. However, if you type ‘ladies fashions’ into Google’s South African pages you would not, as you might expect, find Woolworths heading the list, and ‘fresh produce’ although part of Checker’s advertising campaign, fails to list this company on the first few pages of the search engine results.

Despite the large amounts these companies have spent on setting up their online marketing campaigns, the design of the websites does not make them easily accessible on any of the major search engines.

The fact is that the traditional business approach just does not work on the internet and until retailers acknowledge that they are working in an entirely new field, using very different skills and techniques, they will fail to benefit from the opportunities that online marketing can offer South African companies.

http://www.justinharrison.co.za/internet-marketing-south-africa/effectiveness
-of-internet-marketing-in-south-africa.php