Why all small businesses should have an online presence

It has never been more important for small businesses in Kenya to have an online presence. Out of the approximate 23.2 million Kenyans who use internet in Kenya, 97% access the web through their mobile phones. With internet penetration standing at over 45%, Kenyans are spending relatively longer periods of time on their smart phones than on any other device.

The average internet user, for instance, spends a total of 174 minutes on their smartphone compared to 132 minutes on TV and 65 minutes on their laptop. Conditions, for online marketing campaigns, are optimum.

According to Charles Murito, Google Kenya Country Manager, “small businesses must be found online when their consumers search since search is what leads to discoverability. Google attempts to support small businesses make money online since being online is recognised as a net contributor to the economy.”

However, the challenge for small businesses - with regards to marketing – is/has always been low amounts of money allocated to marketing drives, both online and offline. Moreover, there exists a disconnect between online advertising spend and online media consumption with Kenyans spending up to 22% of their time online while companies on average allocate less than 4% of their marketing budgets to online marketing efforts.

“When it comes to advertising, the media investment is not parallel to media consumption. This is not an ideal situation because marketers always attempt to find and target their respective consumers on the platforms they use. Therefore, if the average consumer spends 22% of their time online, then the allocation for online marketing should attempt to match that. Considering the rapid growth, of amount of time people are spending online, we perceive this as a gap that ought to be be bridged ,” Murito adds.

Google Adwords, that enables businesses to advertise online in an affordable and highly-targeted manner - by way of text-based ads that appear next to users’ search queries - avails a relatively better alternative for small businesses and endeavours to bridge this gap.  

“With as little as Ksh. 2,800, one can run a campaign for a month, or the equivalent of Ksh. 180 per day,” notes Murito.

By matching user interest - and queries - with relevant search results, Google AdWords has effectively levelled the playing field for marketers of all sizes and businesses no longer have to worry about fighting for a place on the high street so that they can pay over the odds to be 'seen'. They can use AdWords to target their consumers and users online at a time and cost of their choosing.

“AdWords gives you a leeway to determine your budget, where you are only required to pay when users/customers click on your ads that are normally displayed next to search results,” adds Murito.

As a result, sponsored links, newspapers, authors and publishers are reaching more readers than ever before and their content no longer limited to local newsstands or bookstores.  Publishers are taking advantage of this new visibility in multiple ways - from opening all of their content to readers, to creating pay-to-view or premium content accessed by subscription.

In order to reap abundant benefits from online marketing, it is important for small businesses to ensure that they are present on all devices – since 90% of Kenyans access the internet via mobile devices, 27% through smart phones, 8% via desktop computers and 1% through tablets. Through, search ads, Google also provides a platform through which businesses can advertise next to or above relevant Google search results whilst reaching potential customers on all the devices they use to search for information.