Visibility for SMES: the ideal strategies

There is a famous saying in the marketing jargon that “visibility is equal to profitability. If people can’t find you, they can’t buy from you.”  Visibility has been always an obstacle SMEs face around the world. They struggle to make their products visible. Harrish Bheemul, Chief Executive Officer of Train 2 Gain Group Officer and an expert in marketing, provides an insight of this issue and as well as solutions to enhance the knowledge of businesses when it comes to visibility.

According to Harrish Bheemul, “visibility’, in marketing terms, is a function of persistence, precision and repetition. He argues that the corporate message with regards to its services and products need to be heard repeatedly to rise above the background noise of daily business. For him, visibility should also carry the message of the Unique Selling Point (USP) for customers and stakeholders to identify or define a niche market, to outline a segment of customers, to project business growth and ambitions, and to showcase previous success stories. “Today we are living in a very competitive world. It’s the survival of, not necessary the best products or the best services, but the one we see the most, we hear the most about. One big example is the continuous business growth of some unhealthy food and drinks, despite the enormous healthy living campaigns generated at the highest level. The logic is very simple: the visibility of these foods through robust and aggressive advertising outshines the healthy living ones, and by far. So, the outcome is completely independent not on the quality of the product, but on the visibility.”

The importance of visibility

There is no doubt that SMEs rely a lot on visibility for the sales of their products and services. The CEO highlights that the sector use the in-house traditional advertising and marketing means to enhance visibility, as well as a media plan, PR exercises, partnerships, sponsorships, as well as linking to CSR projects. “With the support of the Ministry of Business, Enterprise and Cooperatives and the SMEDA, SMEs are given the opportunity to be present at a number of fairs – locally and internationally. A number of incentives such as refund of air tickets and accommodation, as well as tax holidays are provided to the SME sector to encourage them to improve their business visibility and brand awareness. It’s only through an improved visibility that stakeholders will be aware of the existence of the products and/or services provided by the SMEs. Any business growth will have a Domino effect – it entails an increase in employment, business expansion and diversification without ignoring an increase in B2B, B2C and even B2G.”

However, as elaborated by the marketing expert, SMEs should try to define their target audience first, that is, who will use their products and services. “From there, they must outline a business and a financial plan that also define the route to enhance their visibility in order to promote their products and services. However, one important factor, that is very often ignored by the SME sector, is Continuous Professional Development of staffs, as the latter could be, and should be, the real ambassadors of the company and help to improve visibility and brand propagation though an excellent service provided to its customers or stakeholders.”

Another aspect to be taken care of is the traditional advertising methods that improve visibility, although it must be accompanied together with innovative strategies or messages in order to increase brand awareness. “Today, the digital means have become rampant and businesses are adopting them to communicate continuously, as well as regularly updating, their target audience. Such strategies are also helping many to cross the local border and explore international markets. Unfortunately in Mauritius, due to a lack of investment especially at start-up level, SMEs tend to ignore experts consultation. Most of the time, SMEs adopt the old-fashioned generic formulae instead of customised and modernised methodologies to position themselves ‘in the crowd.”

Social media marketing: What strategy to adopt?

Social Media Marketing (SMM) has taken over the world and provides SMEs with a greater platform. Nevertheless, if the correct strategy is adopted, social media marketing can prove to be the most powerful tool for marketing.  Harrish Bheemul explains that considering Facebook as the main tool for SMM, usually a company will need to have a private profile, for example, with the name Company X, which will be used to register in several groups of common interest, or in groups that host his potential customers. “This profile can also be used to hold conversations, blog, but most importantly create corporate pages that will depict the products services. Today, with a corporate Facebook page, the need of a website has reduced, as it is much easier to maintain and update, and it is cost effective.”

He further elaborates that there are certain basic ‘rules of thumb’ that needs to be taken into account in SMM.  He states that posts should be regular (minimum once a day); messages should be innovative and catchy; posts should include videos and testimonials; important messages should be boosted to reach maximum audience and increase visibility; queries should be answered in real time; 5-stars feedback should be encouraged; cross-posting strategies should be adopted, that is, simultaneous posts on other social media platforms that are integrated with the main one.

The expert recalls that even social media marketing needs visibility, and there are wonderful tools to promote the visibility, such as Google Ads, and mass emailing techniques. “E-marketing software such as GetResponse or Active Campaigns is already integrating SMM into their system development to promote cross-posting, although that is seen as a win-win situation for both the software company and the advertised products/services.”