Sales & Marketing Simplified Toolkit Iraq - Zaid Sami Oct 2020 - SPARK
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Sales & Marketing Simplified Toolkit
Iraq
Zaid Sami
Oct 2020
This toolkit was prepared by Zaid Sami for SPARK as a part of the Iraqi SMEs COVID-19 Response under Jobs & Perspectives Programme. The Programme is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and aims to accelerate economic development in Iraq. SPARK provides access to higher education and supports entrepreneurship development in fragile states so that young, ambitious people can lead their societies into stability and prosperity. SPARK provides a variety of full-service business and entrepreneurship programmes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We believe that sustainable, economic growth is essential for the alleviation of poverty. By offering private-sector development services to young people in conflict- affected regions, we believe that the potential for further conflict is significantly reduced. © 2021, SPARK All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold without express written permission of SPARK. Designed by: Rami Shabarek
Contents
Country Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Current challenges (Political & security) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Future projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Sales Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Knowing your Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Product positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Marketing Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Types of Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Marketing tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Digital Marketing Tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Social Media Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Search Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
SEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
Mobile Apps & SMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
Case 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Case 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Country Review
Current challenges (Political & security) • Since Oct 2019 Anti- corruption • Under the street pressure the protesting started demanding government changed and many for employment, better life other structural changes started conditions & Infrastructure in to follow. Central and southern cities of • Although changes started to Iraq. take place still, out of state • Security deteriorated again control armed groups remains a since the war against ISIS due to concern for Iraq stability mainly out of the state control armed groups.
Current challenges (Covid continues decline
19 Pandemic) • Public sector represented by
Employees salary is severally
• First cases emerged in Iraq in Mid-
effected and Salary Cuts & delays
March 20
is Projected to take effect in Q4
• Daily cases increased rapidly in
Sep averaging 4K cases daily
• Government imposed full curfew Future projection
several times and regulated new
• Politically the current government
precautions against people and
is building positive trend in terms
organization in Iraq including mid-
state structural reforms, if this trend
small businesses to minimize virus
continues reforms would start in
spread.
infrastructure development and
• Health system collapsing
other vital projects in the country
quickly due to lack of proper
with in the coming 5 Years.
development from the past
• This wouldn’t happen if the
government leaving the system
security threats remains, this is
vulnerable
why part of the government
• Later on The government decided
commitment is to restrict the
to open up with no further curfews
arms with in the state, full security
and Live on with the Pandemic
recovery is projected in a matter
of 2 years because of the
Economic Impact:
continuous internal and external
• Many businesses slowed down/ stress.
closed which they released • Ending the Covid 19 pandemic is
all/part of their employees & projected to be mid-end of 2021,
reducing their salaries several Vaccines and drugs are
• People became more being heavily tested to find the
conservative in their spending most proper solution, results are
and started looking more value promising and estimates made
for money offers according to these results, Iraq
• Oil prices and Production also is assigned for early Vaccine
declined leaving Iraq Budget in a supplies (MOH report).
Future projection
(Economic recovery)
Economies worldwide are eventually reaching the baseline
projecting 2 types economic level of growth again.
recovery after the pandemic ends: For the Iraqi economy the trend is
• V Shape: A V-shaped recovery showing a U shaped recovery
means that the economy where recovery could be seen
bounces back quickly to its around the end of 2021
baseline before the crisis, with no
hiccups along the way.
• U Shape: Under this scenario,
the economic damage lasts for
a longer period of time before
Overview Actual Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 2021
GDP Annual Growth Rate (%) 4.40 -5 2 2 2 2
Unemployment Rate (%) 7.90 8 8.3 8.3 8.3 8.3
Inflation Rate (%) 0.00 1.3 1.5 1.7 2.1 1.5
Interest Rate (%) 4.00 4 4 4 4 4
Balance of Trade (USD Million) 41524.00 30259 30259 30259 30259 30259
Current Account to GDP (%) -1.20 -22 -14 -14 -14 -14
Government Debt to GDP (%) 48.40 55 62 62 62 62
Government Budget (% of GDP) -0.90 -22.5 -12.5 -12.5 -12.5 -12.5
Corporate Tax Rate (%) 15.00 15 15 15 15 15
Personal Income Tax Rate (%) 15.00 15 15 15 15 15
I’m a business owner, how - Minimize overall cost and
can survive all of this?! spending (If avoiding a specific
spend will not kill your business
Main issue small businesses are
then don’t spend it).
facing to keep business running
- Change employee’s dynamic,
is limited revenue due to shift in
focusing on the outcome versus
consumer/costumer habits, tackling
the routine.
this issue is not easy specially its
- Make sure you have positive ROI
more related to the overall situation
(Return Of Investment) for any
& economic crises, but here are
Investment you do.
some tips to help staying alive in this
- Try to learn the new sentiments
volatility.
and habits of your costumers
- Shift the Business goals & plans
and build your plans accordingly.
to focus on Business continuity
- Have an Online presence
rather than revenue, profitability,
(Less cost and better return if
Market share… etc.
managed properly)
Sales Strategy Knowing your Market
Giving the current situation and
In order to build the optimum
declining economy, defining your
sales plan there are several points
market has never been more
needs to be identified, for instance,
important than now, Knowing
understanding your market,
the market means knowing your
customers and channels, are vital to
customers including demography,
build your strategy.
your competition and whereabouts
According to that you would have
they market their product and
a better chance to optimize your
their customer base, With a clearly
product journey according to the
defined target audience, it is much
needs of the market, also drawing
easier to determine where and how
your sales process starting from
to market your company.
manufacturing/ sourcing your
product, positioning, & delivering to
end user.
Your product/ Service Customers Competition
Demography
(Age/ sex/ location/
Product Features Product features
Income level/ Occupation/
education …etc)
Psychographic (Interest/ Per-
Main advantages sonality/ Attitudes/ Life style/ Pricing
Behaviors… etc)
Added Value for your custom-
ers (Product unique features, Where do they sell?
price..etc)
Cost structure/ Value Chain How they sell?
Promotion activities
Hints & Tips:
• My Own Top: Market visit, product but competition as
maybe theoretical study of well.
the market is very good, But • Surf the internet for data, it’s
in Iraq to gain sharp insights for FREE!
the best way is do it yourself,
and go to the market, meet
customers, meet end users
and take notes, visit several
regions and try to identify the
differences between these
regions.
• Start with your customer
base: If you already have
a customer base even if it’s
small, it would be great to
gather their opinion and
feedback, not only on yourProduct positioning
What is product positioning? - Effective product positioning
considers your target audience
- Product positioning is where
and their needs and how
your product or service fits in
your product can directly and
the market. It highlights all of the
effectively address those needs.
features that make your product
- Product positioning for products
unique and communicates how
can be done without existing
and why it’s better than other
Market (product Innovation)
products or solutions.Marketing Strategy Marketing is the process of getting people interested in your company’s product or service. This happens through market research, analysis, and understanding your ideal customer’s interests. Marketing pertains to all aspects of a business, including product development, distribution methods, sales, and advertising. Types of Marketing ATL (Mass Marketing) TV/ Radio/ Billboard/ Newspaper TTL (Online Marketing) Social media/ e-mail/ PPC/ SEO/ content Marketing BTL (Individual Marketing) Trade/ sampling/ Discounts & Promotions/ Direct Selling events/ Guerilla Tactics
The very purpose of marketing is suggests, it is a mix of many tactical
to make your promising customers marketing tools. The role of the
aware of your products. A marketing expert is to prepare the
marketing mix is the set of those right combination to bring out the
factors which a company can excellent synergy between the
leverage to make the consumer product and the targeted audience
purchase its products. As the term
Channels Price strategy
Market coverage Pricing
Assortment Allowances
Location Discounts
Inventory
Transport
sales promotion Features
advertising Quality
public relations place Prıce Branding
Direct marketing Packaging
Services
Warranties
promotıon Product
Marketıng
mıxSWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis will help you It reveals your weaknesses and
understand the company’s position provides a chance to reverse
which will encourages ideas and them
decision-making on how to build • Explore Opportunities - It helps
on strengths, exploit opportunities, your to explore the opportunities
minimize weaknesses and protect that lies ahead. Using this you
against threats. can draft your strategic growth
Benefits of SWOT: plans based on your strengths
• Identify Core Strengths of your and weaknesses
Organization- It provides a clear • Recognize Potential Treats - It
view of your core competencies, helps you analyze possible
and allows you to build on them threats to your business, and
to meet your business objectives you can subsequently make
• Identify Weaknesses - necessary changes to the
Recognizing your company’s business policies and necessary
weaknesses is one of the first actions.
steps to improving your business.
[what are your weaknesses?]
[what do your competitors do better than you?] [what trends or conditions may positively impact you?]
[what can you inprove given the current situation?] [what opportunities are available to you?]
[what do other perceive as your weaknesses?]
[what trends or conditions may negatively impact you?]
[what are your strengths?] Weaknesses Opportunities [what are your competitors doing that may impact you?]
[what do you do better than others?] [Do you have solid financial support?]
[what unique capabilities and resources do you possess?] [what impact do you weaknesses have on the threats to you?]
[what do other perceive as your strengths?]
Strengths Threats
SWOTMarketing tactics
Content Marketing PPC advertising offers marketers
excellent opportunity to sell
The main idea behind content
products directly to searchers.
marketing is creating content that
It’s also great because it makes it
helps inform your audience and
possible to see exactly how much
solve their problems. This achieves a
you’re spending vs. how much
few important goals:
revenue your advertising efforts are
• Building an audience.
generating.
• Establishing authority.
• Driving sales. Public Relations
Social Media Marketing Even in an era packed with new
and flashy channels and tactics,
Organic reach on popular social
good old-fashioned relationship-
networks is declining on popular
building remains essential for
platforms like Twitter and Facebook,
effective marketing. PR is all
but social media marketing is far
about managing perceptions and
from dead. It’s effective for building
relationships, ensuring people think
brand awareness, developing
positively about your brand.
community, and getting your
content and products in front of Influencer Marketing
new people.
Why promote your products yourself
Guerrilla Marketing when you can have trusted people
promote them for you, That’s the
This including On- Ground activities
crux of influencer marketing, which
using human to human interactions
involves working with popular
using promoters (Mall activations,
people within a given niche or
Outdoor activations)
industry to put your products in front
Advertising and Pay-Per-Click of their audiences.
Have you ever seen those ads at
the top of search results? Those
are pay-per-click (PPC) ads,Digital growth
indicators
Changes in key
indicators of digital
adoption
Total Active social
population media users
+2.3% +9.8%
JAN 2020
vs
Mobile phone Internet JAN 2020
vs
JAN 2019 connections users APR 2019
+894 +1.9
Thousand +2.6% +55%
Million
JAN 2020 JAN 2020
vs vs
JAN 2019 JAN 2019
JAN +1.0
Million
+11
Million
2020Digital usage in Iraq as per the research from Hootsuite shows great
potential, surpassing 55% growth in number of internet Users comparing
to 2019, this without considering the Pandemic effect which globally
increased the internet users more than average due to lockdowns and
staying at home, this once again shows the importance on digital presence
of any business regardless the product / service, having an online presence
in today’s businesses is a must.
What is Digital marketing?
Digital marketing is promoting or creating brand awareness for product or
service using internet and online technologies
Why Digital Marketing?
Reach
Specific
Targeting
Cost Data
Efficient AnalysisTraffic
Social media
Organic Content marketing
SEO
Object relational mapping E-mail marketing
Analytics
Data
Digital
marketing
Classification
Paid
Mobile apps PPC
SMS Mobile Display ads
Marketing Social media
E-mail marketing
Digital Marketing
Tactics
Social Media
Marketing
In Iraq Social media usage is high, the latest reports from company
almost having 21 Million Iraqis on they have almost 11 Million users
several social media platforms in Iraq. Such penetration made it
growing almost 10% comparing to inevitable for all businesses Specially
last year, Most of these users are on SMEs to exist on these platforms
platforms like Facebook. Youtube in addition to its physical entity,
& Instagram, in addition to Instant benefits of being on Social media
messaging platform like Viber & as a Business can be summarized
Telegram, on Viber according to with the below:Increase brand awareness
As the content clearly
focusing on the Brand
making such tactics as
Brand awareness
Increase website traffic
Social media posts and ads are key ways to drive traffic to your website.
Sharing great content from your blog or website to your social channels is a
great way to get readers as soon as you publish a new post.
Any content that
promotes for website
click along with
incentive (Home
delivery) is considered
as Website traffic
tacticBoost sales
No matter what you sell, social media can help you sell it. Your social
accounts are a critical part of your sales funnel—the process through which
a new contact becomes a customer.
Pushing sales Ads with
incentive like discount, Bundle,
Free delivery ... etc
Is promoted to increase and
boost sales
Partner with influencers
Word of mouth drives 20 to 50 percent of purchasing decisions. When you
get people talking about your product or company on social media, you
build brand awareness and credibility, and set yourself up for more sales.Promote content Promoting your content on social channels is a great way to get your smart, well-researched content in front of new people, proving your expertise and growing your audience. Learn more about your customers Social media generates a huge amount of data about your customers in real time. You can use this information to make smarter business decisions. All of the major social networks offer analytics that provide demographic information about the people interacting with your account. This can help you tailor your strategy to better speak to your real audience.
Keep an eye on the Targeted advertising competition Social ads are an inexpensive It’s also important to know what way to promote your business and people are saying about your distribute content. They also offer competitors. powerful targeting options so you For example, tracking mentions of can reach the right audience and your competitors might reveal pain make the most of your budget. points with their products that you could reach out to address, winning new customers in the process.
Search Advertising SEO • Paid search advertising (also What is SEO? known as sponsored ads, • SEO stands for “search engine search marketing, search- optimization.” It’s the practice of engine marketing, pay-per-click increasing both the quality and marketing, and cost-per-click quantity of website traffic, as marketing) is a technique that well as exposure to your brand, displays ads in search-engine through non-paid (also known as results whenever someone “organic”) search engine results. searches for the services or • Search engines are answer products offered by the advertiser. machines. They scour billions of In this way, the ad displayed pieces of content and evaluate perfectly matches each query. thousands of factors to determine • Search advertising is very which content is most likely to effective; it is based on the explicit answer your query. need of the users, rather than just • Search engines do all of this by on implicit information about what discovering and cataloguing all they might be after. This, naturally, available content on the Internet increases the likelihood of clicks (web pages, PDFs, images, videos, and conversion. etc.) via a process known as • While the global search-engine “crawling and indexing,” and then market is currently dominated by ordering it by how well it matches Google with an 77% market share the query in a process we refer to (and growing), it is impossible to as “ranking.” ignore the audiences gathered by some of the other search runners- up: 1. Google (77.43%) 2. Baidu (8.13%) 3. Microsoft Bing (7.31%) 4. Yahoo (5.6%) 5. Ask (0.13%)
Mobile Apps & SMS • Effective mobile advertising
means understanding your
• Mobile marketing is a multi- mobile audience, designing
channel, digital marketing content with mobile platforms
strategy aimed at reaching in mind, and making strategic
a target audience on their use of SMS/MMS marketing
smartphones, tablets, and/ and mobile apps.
or other mobile devices, via
websites, email, SMS and MMS,
social media, and apps.
• Mobile is disrupting the way
people engage with brands.
Everything that can be done
on a desktop computer is now
available on a mobile device.
From opening an email to
visiting your website to reading
your content, it’s all accessible
through a small mobile screen.
Consider:
• 80% of internet users own a
smartphone.
• Mobile platforms, such as
smartphones and tablets,
host up to 60% of digital media
time for users in the U.S.
• Google anticipates search
queries on mobile devices
to surpass desktop searches by
the end of 2015.
• In Iraq as per the research
presented earlier, Every Iraqi has
at least 1 Mobile phoneDeveloping a Marketing Understanding the
Strategy Marketing Funnel
• Getting to Know Your Audience When determining actions you want
First things first, companies exist to your audience to take, it’s useful
serve customers. to understand how the marketing
Well, figuring out exactly who those funnel works.
customers are, and what problems Funnels help illustrate where
they need solved, is easier said than customers are at in the buying
done. process, from being unaware of a
• Figuring Out What You Want product (or having a problem), to
Them to Do researching different options, down
Once you’ve determined who to making an actual purchase.
you need to reach, the next step
is figuring out what’s required to
move them toward a sale.
For some companies, this is simple:
convincing customers to grab a
product and buy it at the store. But,
there may be actions you drive
them toward before reaching that
step (such as getting in to a mailing
list or becoming a social media
follower).
For others (for example, service-
based companies), you might want
Purchase
to get leads (potential customers) to
place a phone call for a demo or a
consultation before they commit to
purchasing.Case 1 These people try to find help using
Google search & Youtube tutorials
A small IT solution company that The team work on a new strategy
consist of less than 10 employees with the aim to acquire new
with 2 years record, economic customers and recover the revenue
crises erupted that led to losing to accommodate the cost required,
almost 50% of the customer base, strategy summary:
the company revenue cuts to half - Utilize the team to put more time
while having the expenses at the on the company Website aiming
same level of serving twice the to improve its content & ranking.
current base, the owner doesn’t - Create relevant Video content
want to lose his employees neither that amplify a clear value
the business and thinks of business proposition.
continuity plan crossing the - Run 2 Digital campaigns
declining times and he decides the targeting audience with interest
following: near to what they provide (The
- Stop all un necessary spend first campaign is search Ad on
& hold all planned Hiring & Google, the Second campaign
promotions Youtube Ad utilizing the video
- Pick up the phone on the content they created)
continued customers and ask - Both campaigns aim to increase
them more about their current the traffic on their website,
needs and why they still pay for Since the team also worked on
the service developing the website with
- Utilize the excessive time for appealing content, some of the
employees to conduct a visitors contacted the company
research for their target audience asking about their services, with
and how can they approach in time the a percentage of the
new potential costumers interested visitors converted in to
After the research done some key customers & revenue started to
points the team found as the below: increase again due to focusing on
People who may need their services relevant customer needs.
are still there and willing to payCase 2 - To start online learning for the
technical team on content
Marketing Agency that operates creation
to serve restaurants & Hotels with - Utilize experienced freelancer
5 employees, working with several to help them build a marketing
accounts on retainer fees model, a strategy for their services to
pandemic started causing closure reach potential customers.
of all accounts. - Run a targeted marketing
Immediately the team researched campaign on specific channels.
the market and found a rising After pushing the campaign
demand in marketing video interested customers started to
content in specific sector, after enquire about their services, after
running a SWOT analyses and brain sometime with no conversions,
storm the team decides a strategy the team pushes the campaign
focusing on revenue by acquiring with special discount and start
new accounts, the strategy converting customers bringing back
summary: the revenue stream.Contact Follow SPARK on Facebook LinkedIn Twitter YouTube Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter via www.spark.ngo General contact SPARK Haarlemmer Houttuinen 15H 1013 GL Amsterdam The Netherlands Email spark@spark-online.org Phone +31 (0)20 753 0311 Website www.spark.ngo
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