Last updated on February 26th, 2024 at 08:24 am
Do you want to get your business online in South Africa?
This article will show you exactly what to do and how to do it the right way.
Getting your business online is one of the best decisions you will ever make.
Why?
Look at these numbers.
As of January 2020, there were 36.54 million internet users in South Africa.
And out of that number, 34.93 million were mobile internet users.
(source: Statista)
This means that more people here in SA access the internet through their phones.
Why is this important?
If you are going to do anything, make sure it works on a mobile phone.
For example;
From these statistics, it is the best idea to create a mobile application for your business.
But you realize that not everyone has got the budget need to create an app. So, what other options are available?
Table of Contents
Get your business online: Create a website
Quick question;
Where do you think these over 30 million South Africans go online?
All of them are visiting websites, be it social media, news websites, or shopping online. All of these are websites.
As such, it is a no-brainer to start your website.
And considering that the costs of creating a website in South Africa are at their lowest.
You will never get a chance like this ever again.
Question is, how do you get started?
First, you need a domain.
How to get a domain in South Africa
A domain is the website name.
This is the address people will type into their browsers to access your website.
For example;
To access our website, you typed truehost.Africa into your browser.
That is our domain, and you can get one for your business.
Here are some guides to help you;
- How to register a website (step by step guide)
- Domain pricing in SA.
- How to pick the best website name
A domain name is not enough to get your business online in South Africa, you also need hosting.
How to get cheap web hosting in South Africa
This about a website this way;
A domain name is an address to your ‘house.’
Web hosting allows you to have this ‘house’ where you can store everything.
Without hosting, you just have a website name without anything.
A hosting account allows you to store your site’s files; articles, images, video, audio, and other files.
Based on this, there are different types of web hosting in South Africa;
- Shared hosting in South Africa – this is the cheapest hosting because you are sharing server resources with other users
- Dedicated web hosting in South Africa – here, you get the whole server to yourself. For this reason, it is expensive because you are footing the entire bill
- VPS hosting – it is a hybrid of shared and dedicated hosting. You are in a shared server but under an independent compartment. Cheaper than a dedicated server, but better than shared hosting.
Here are some guides to help you;
- Web hosting pricing in South Africa
- Best web hosting providers in SA
- Cheapest web hosting packages in South Africa
Moving on with how to get your business online in South Africa.
Get Your Business Online: Create social media accounts
South Africa currently has a population of 58.93 million.
Of these numbers, 40% are active social media users.
That means 22.89 million people are using social media here in South Africa.
What does that mean?
If you don’t have social media accounts, you are missing out on selling to half of South Africa!
What should you do?
Go ahead and create social media accounts!
Now, that is where a challenge occurs, what platforms should you join?
Well, according to statistics, these are the most popular social media platforms in South Africa;
As you can see, the top sites are;
- YouTube
Go ahead and have a WhatsApp number where your customers can text you.
Also, create a YouTube channel, Facebook page, and Instagram account.
But here is the secret;
Go where your target audience is hanging out.
If your market is using Facebook more, what are you doing on YouTube?
Get Your Business Online: Get on Google My Business
Google my business allows you to be found locally.
It empowers you to engage with customers on Google free of charge.
You don’t have to pay anything.
All you have to do is open an account and provide all the information about your business such as working hours, names, location, and contact information.
And whenever someone searches for something related to your business, you have higher chances of showing up.
For example;
When I search ‘barber shops near me’ this is what is get;
Get Your Business Online: Join local online directories
You are missing out on capturing customers browsing through local online directories looking for services and products.
Here are some of the most popular business directories here in South Africa;
- https://www.nichemarket.co.za/
- https://www.yellowpages.co.za/
- https://southafrican.za.net/
- https://www.sawebdirectory.co.za/
- https://salistings.co.za/
There are more others.
Go ahead and join all of them.
Wrapping up
If you are not marketing your business online in South Africa, you are leaving a lot of money on the table.
These are some of the proven online marketing strategies here in South Africa. Pick one and execute it fully.
In fact, you can use all of them.
