Looking for a business opportunity? Guess what; a small device people carry with themselves at all times...
COVER STORY
Looking for a business opportunity? Guess what; a small device people carry with themselves at all times can give you that chance to bring your business to life. Yes, I’m talking about your mobile phone through which you can reach out to customers through social media.
We see it all the time – the “fear in today’s world of being without a mobile device” (a phenomenon known as nomophobia). People are more willing to lose their pinky than their phones is how this behaviour has changed the world, is changing, the world for businesses and consumers. Entrepreneurship 101, a workshop conducted successfully by Sheops, discussed business modelling, product photography, and Facebook ads and boosting.
Understand your customer, and you understand the problem
“Problem” here refers to the reason you are doing the business that you’ve begun - photography, ethnic jewellery, etc. They are all solutions; a way you are filling the gap in society, providing services that people need and don’t have access to, your products solving “problems” your customers are facing.
Once you’ve figured this out, your next step should be to understand who would buy it. For every service that’s in the market, there’s always someone who’d want it; there are always two sections – us (one who provides services) and them (one who needs the services). Sheops, for instance, Pakistan’s first online women’s marketplace facilitating women entrepreneurs and women-oriented businesses, connects Pakistani women around the world to buy and sell to each other. Sukoon, another online one-stop solution for home repair and maintenance, aspires to make their customers’ lives pur-sukoon (filled with ease) by providing electricians, plumbers and carpenters right at their doorstep. Careem, a car-booking app, is simplifying people’s lives with safe and affordable transport tailored to suit their daily requirements.
Can you see the pattern developing? Of convenience. Of reliability. Of timeliness. Of basically using mobiles to shop.
Developing a customer-centred business
Tell me, why should I buy your product? Tell me, how is it different from others?
It should not be something you’re doing just because you like it. Your business should have customer appeal. Only then would it be valuable. They can get a greeting card from another shop as well; what is it that would force them to stop and reconsider your offer? The difference lies in the appeal, in the service, and the overall experience. Like, Apple products have the emotional appeal (privilege factor, “cool” factor) for their customers as compared to the Samsung users.
After segmenting your customers, make a canvas for every customer profile in your data. It would help you remain focused on building the right solutions for them. Remember, it has to be personalised.
Entrepreneurship demands a lot of work
You may be creating the product from scratch yourself (every time if you are a crafter). You may, further, be handling the marketing and social media of your brand. If you want to improve and continue growing, you no other option. What should help you, though, is a proper step-by-step plan following the segmentation of consumers:
Photography: create the impact
One of the things you need to run a successful business these days is photography. Your customers should feel guilty if they did not order your homemade, cheese-oozing snacks for evening. And miss that impressive ‘Game of Thrones’ phone charger. And that drop-dead gorgeous dress which had them drooling even though it was a size smaller. Lol. For some businesses, excellent photography translates to additional cost and worry they can’t really afford right now. Buy a DSLR. Coordinate shoots with models. Hire a photographer. Log kya kahegy (yes, even this is a valid reason!). The list goes on. However, what’s that saying – where there’s a will, there’s a way. (Or maybe I should skip this given sub-eds have to cut extra words and clichés.) Anyway, you get my point.
The good news is technology is of great help, too. In this context, your mobile phones can help you capture and present an image the way you want it. If you forget, for a moment, the challenges of product photography), the prospect is exciting!
Coming back to appeal, that lipstick you’re selling has to be visible. If that is blurred and the focus is on the background – oops! So keep in mind the other stuff is merely to grab customers’ attention.
Second, there’s no denying an haute couture collection would look good on a model. But, if you don’t have the budget or are unable to find a good model for the scheduled shoot, why not get a mannequin? Oh, and did you know there are places like Frere Hall and Hill Park where you can take it to for awesome background and lighting? No extra charges there, and it doesn’t has to be a studio shoot every time! If it’s pret, you can fold and place them next to matching accessories.
Third, it’s not necessary an expensive Android or iPhone would get you the desired results. Companies such as LG and Huawei sell phones with a good camera (and good camera only). Besides, your photography equipment should not be worrying - your angle and how you enhance your product counts.
Going beyond boosting posts on Facebook
It took mobile phones 10 years to reach two billion people, faster than radio and television could manage. When we talk about two billion people with mobile phones, we talk about two billion people who have the ability to start up a business in a second and two billion consumers who have the ability to see you brand come to life on their 5” screen.
A misconception is people pay more attention to what’s on T.V. Another is that mobile behaviour is completely different from desktop and laptop behaviour. Last but not the least, the consumer journey is fragmented across devices and channels. On average, a person has three devices connected to internet; identifying that person on a 1:1 level (not just that they are Device 1, Device 2, Device 3) would be difficult.
Delivering people-based marketing
Earlier when businesses relied on cookies to measure digital advertising efficacy, the idea that they’d actually be able to identify the people was unfathomable. You can now measure your true business value across consumer journey even if the consumer is using multiple devices.
Facebook and Instagram make 20% of time spent on mobile. With Facebook, you have access to 2.1Billion monthly active people. With Instagram, you have access to 800Million active people. The “placement optimization” is a Facebook feature which lets you advertise across Instagram and Audience Network (basically a network of third party websites and apps where Facebook is able to show your ad) as well, helping you achieve the desired result at cheapest possible rate.
If you have “pixel” placed on your website, you can tell Facebook to build you an audience. Pixel is a very small piece of code that allows you to build audience, optimise and measure. Let’s say you create an ad and the ad was created to drive purchases; 100 people went to your website after seeing the ad; 10 of them purchased. Through pixel, Facebook would be able to access the data of those people and keep on delivering the ad to more of such people. Pixel would also let you see how many people saw your ad, how many came to your website, how many of them viewed the product, how many added the product to cart, and how many of them purchased.
Fortunately, in Pakistan, the user base is increasing simultaneously with the number of advertisers, so advertising has not gotten expensive. However, advertising strategy from even a year ago would not be efficient so you have to change it.
The shift to video is massive. 75% of all mobile data by 2020 would be video. You know how people swipe up over and over again as they come across static content; a video makes them stop naturally. It’s a richer experience so if you aren’t using video (be it GIF or 10-15s animation), your business is going to be irrelevant very soon.
Other recent updates like Facebook Watch and IGTV are great tools for you to create longer videos and give your customers a leanback experience. For example, how to use your product or tutorials. Facebook has also launched Creative Hub where you can go and learn what other businesses are doing on Facebook.
A final thing you need to understand is that when you run an ad on Facebook, you are part of an auction. Facebook Ad Auction is a system where ads compete with other ads trying to reach the same audience. It is designed to deliver relevant content to thousands of people while providing maximum value to your advertising budget so you achieve your business goals. When you place an ad it’s given a total value number based on the amount you have bet. To stay competitive, you should choose the objective that aligns with your business goals; give maximum amount to your business; set the budget so that you capture some of your desired results each day; choose ad content that is relevant and interesting to target audience.
So, the next time I’m think of purchasing a camera, going to websites, browsing reviews on Facebook groups and pages, and basically showing an interest in the product, a number of “relevant” ads will pop up on my social media feed. That’s no coincidence, is it?
Amazing product photography shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg. You can either buy a photo light box or build one yourself (check out the tutorial videos online) to take better video and photos. Since you’re surfing, hop onto Pinterest for some ideas. Visit the local weekly bazaar (e.g. Sunday Bazaar, Friday Bazaar) and get cute props that match the message you’re aiming to portray. Further, get hold of backdrop prints to make it more special; they’re light and portable, which is a bonus.
While it’s great if your picture doesn’t need any editing, there are apps to improve them: Snapseed, VivaVideo, Quik, Pic Collage.
A good framework is a funnel called AARRR: Acquisition (how do users find you?); activation (do users have a great first experience?); retention (do users come back?); revenue (how do you make money?); referral (do users tell others?)
