A practical guide to consolidate your business in the digital world

This text was translated from our Spanish edition.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their very own.

^{Arturo Garcia Hernandez / Transformation Supervisor Fundación Wadhwani}

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced a number of adjustments in several areas. SMEs in Mexico aren’t any exception, in response to INEGI, 60% of small and medium-sized corporations within the nation had been compelled to enter the waters of digital commerce.

In comparison with america of America, the place 50% of gross sales are concentrated in two retailers ( Amazon and Walmart ), e-commerce in Mexico continues to be a territory that’s maturing. Throughout the previous couple of months we now have seen an explosion of “ supply ” functions, which has modified customers’ buying habits in a sure manner. Going from a give attention to value to practicality, paying as much as greater than a 30% surcharge for not having to depart house.

The massive query that corporations in Mexico face is: What’s the manner ahead to have the ability to digitize my enterprise? The reply has many implications, which are sometimes not thought-about, main corporations to lose cash and growing a sense of frustration in entrepreneurs.

Subsequent, I share the primary conditions that we now have seen with SMEs benefiting from the Wadhwani Benefit program and the way to remedy them.

Growth of a worthwhile digital enterprise mannequin

One of many primary limitations SMEs face in Mexico isn’t realizing the place to begin. It is extremely frequent for entrepreneurs to wager on what they contemplate acquainted floor. Opening a number of social media accounts and an unoptimized web site, which they have a tendency to desert after just a few months once they see no outcomes.

The advice that I at all times give is to make method to the enterprise mannequin, the place they don’t sacrifice the margin, high quality or client expertise. To resolve this case, it is vitally necessary to know intimately who your consumer is and provides them choices that greatest swimsuit their habits.

Taking that element into consideration, you possibly can decide one of the simplest ways to speak together with your buyer in response to their habits and decide what kind of digital commerce they’re all in favour of ( BOPUS, house supply , bodily buy). There are very ingenious options that we now have seen with the businesses benefiting from this system, from alliances with taxi websites with a set freight charge or the adoption of a CRM to automate communication with prospects, closing gross sales with a greater ratio.

Adoption of applied sciences that facilitate the operation of the enterprise

As soon as the enterprise mannequin is resolved, choosing the correct instrument is important to make sure flawless execution. This level could be as broad as your corporation technique requires. I share some issues so to apply it to your corporation:

• On-line retailer: There are a number of choices to develop a web based retailer, which isn’t an choice for all companies. It is very important perceive in case your consumer will intend to purchase immediately out of your web site and if that’s the case, be sure that there isn’t a danger of knowledge leakage. The providers that I like to recommend to begin your on-line retailer are Shopify and WordPress , which you’ll simply program by yourself, have choices for optimization and to enhance your place in search engines like google and yahoo, compatibility with Google Analytics and have excellent free tutorials.
• Buyer Relationship Administration (CRM ) Software program: A quite common state of affairs isn’t documenting interactions together with your clients. Dropping your self within the operation can usually lead you to not observe up on enterprise alternatives together with your clients and prospects. This was one thing that Jeff Bezos , founding father of Amazon , understood very properly. Thankfully, there are instruments in the marketplace for each price range and even free trial providers. The necessary factor is that you just consider the variety of shoppers you might have and attempt to provide essentially the most personalised service.
• Market place: The choice of establishing your retailer to a longtime platform is at all times enticing, particularly if you end up beginning your corporation. What they do not let you know is that the info generated by all of your interactions belongs to the platform and doesn’t help you attain a stage of personalization of your provide. It is a level to contemplate, relying on the character of your corporation and the habits of your clients. The advantages are that the logistics points are resolved by the service supplier and lots of occasions it additionally permits the optimization of your retailer (clearly contemplating an funding of their platform).
• Mass mail providers (E-mail Supply) : Though for brand new generations this will sound out of date, in response to COMSCORE, electronic mail campaigns are nonetheless fairly efficient, particularly for B2B gross sales. Good practices for the sort of service contemplate personalization, immediacy and above all eye-catching headlines to encourage the opening of the e-mail.
• Automated responses ( bots ): If you have already got expertise in digital platforms, you’ll have seen that regardless that the knowledge is seen, the consumer will at all times ask and if they don’t reply you’ll generate a nuisance. A quite simple answer is to program the automated responses contemplating exactly essentially the most regularly requested questions you obtain. This not solely means that you can generate a greater expertise for the prospect but additionally often improves your analysis on the platforms.

Construction your presence in digital media

There are numerous choices to have a presence in varied digital media, I’ll let you know which of them I contemplate important to consider in your corporation technique:

1. Web site: No matter internet hosting service (CMS) you select, it’s extremely related you can optimize it to be related to search engines like google and yahoo. One other level to contemplate is that it has the safety certificates (SSL) and the privateness discover. Lastly, there are good practices comparable to picture optimization, making a comparability of your competitors’s key phrases and figuring out how your consumer does the search when their want is triggered.
2. Blogs / Vlogs: Curiously, in Spanish-speaking nations the consumption of audiovisual content material is excessive, touching 3.5 hours a day in response to some sources. This has positioned YouTube because the second most used search engine and a key ingredient to contemplate in your technique. Utilizing these platforms means that you can affirm your dominance inside the class, which can make you might have higher positioning in search engines like google and yahoo, primarily Google.
3. Social Networks: Though social networks have advanced and now it’s good to pay to achieve audiences, they’re nonetheless related to have the ability to set up communication. All of it will depend on the traits of your corporation and the habits of your shoppers. A foul behavior is to open accounts in enterprise networks and never feed them, it is a unhealthy cowl letter since you point out to your potential consumer that you’re not severe about updating your info. Structuring content material technique and being constant are the keys to gaining relevance on this medium.
4. Digital gross sales platforms: In Latin America there’s not such a marked conduct as in america and digital gross sales are distributed amongst a number of platforms. Mercado Libre and Amazon signify the leaders and every has its personal peculiarities. It is very important contemplate that in case your technique entails utilizing these platforms, it’s not sufficient simply to open them. Fixed optimization, interplay together with your prospects and constructing fame are keys to with the ability to excel in them.

Digitally reworking your corporation is possible

As I discussed on this article, there are various components to contemplate when growing your digital advertising technique. Nonetheless, understanding of your consumer and proposing enterprise mannequin will make it a lot simpler so that you can be worthwhile, saving many moments of frustration and lack of capital.