Chartered Institute of Marketing – CIM Malawi Chapter says digital marketing has a great potential for business growth and profitability.
CIM – Malawi Chapter General Secretary Isabel Kachinjika who also Heads the Training and Development Committee said this at the side line of a two day training for businesses on digital marketing held at Game Haven Lodge.
“As CIM we feel that even though you are using the existing principles of marketing where you are getting insights from customers or developing different products I think you cannot avoid using digital marketing because that is the direction in which this world is going for you to compete on national or even international platform,” said Kachinjika.
Kachinjika said, “You will agree with me that more and more will find lots of businesses even small medium enterprises are using the digital space such as Facebook to promote their products because they have seen its benefits. You are able to have a sponsored advert and be able to reach out to thousands of people at a minimal cost for as little.”
She said Digital marketing enables businesses to create a competitive advantage through targeted communication while also provide the customer a platform to engage the organization.
“The direction that business is taking at the moment we can see that we are actually operating in a global market where I can sell my products to someone in another continent and create awareness on what I am doing throughout the world so it is very important that any business whether you are selling a product or creating awareness to maintain a consistent digital platform,” she said.
She said the training was organised to enable organizations and businesses to maximise the power of digital marketing in order to increase their visibility, relevance and build customer loyalty.
“We want to make sure that marketers in the country are equipped in line with the different trends in our profession so at the moment one of the key things when we look at marketing is the introduction of digital marketing. We have seen that a lot of businesses have started doing things in the space of digital marketing but we felt that as CIM it’s our responsibility to equip marketers so that they are able to use this space more effectively, to be able to increase their visibility and have a better return on the investment,” said the CIM Secretary General.
One of the participants, Old Mutual Malawi Marketing Specialist Eric Mataka said various businesses need to adopt digital marketing in their operation because the world is changing and everything has been digitalised.
“We don’t want to be left behind, if we are to compete with other companies both locally and internationally we need to learn how other people are doing it and apply it here so that we can develop our country,” Mataka said.
