The digital presence of companies via websites and social networks has become in recent years an elementary practice integrated into communication strategy. Indeed, it is very rare to find companies that do not have websites dedicated to their activities. However, if the relevance and profitability of the digital existence of companies is no longer to be proven in the rest of the planet, what about companies in Algeria? Insofar as online payment does not exist, can one have a return on investment when financing a project to create a corporate website? Apart from the financial contribution, what other concrete contributions can the creation of a website bring us? We will endeavor to answer these questions through this article.
Before reaching the study conducted on the profitability of websites in Algeria, it is important to present general figures to have a clear vision of the digital marketing environment.
First of all, it is important to define the technological specificities related to our article and we will focus on quantitative aspects to start. In the digital, social, and mobile guide published by We Are Social in January 2015, key figures on the digital world were disclosed. Out of the 7.210 billion humans, 3.10 billion (+ 21%)40 are connected to the internet via a fixed line or via a mobile. 2.78 billion (+ 12%) have an active account on social media. 3.649 billion (+ 5%) have a mobile line and 1.685 billion have a mobile social account (+23%). It is important to note that since 2009, the use of the telephone as an internet navigation tool has climbed from 0.7% to 33.4%.
Figures in Africa are also interesting: out of a population of 1.135 billion inhabitants, 298 million are internet users, which is 26% more than in 2014, there are also 103 million active accounts on social media (+ 9%), 900 million active mobile lines with an increase of +79% and finally 85 million have a account on mobile social media (+ 7%). In 2015, the use of 3G/4G was observed in 16% of African users.
The figures we have concerning Algeria date from July 2014 and come from the same source of information. The guide specifies that out of the 38.8 million Algerians, 6.70 million are connected and 7 million use social media; concerning mobile telephony and according to the ARPT, there are 43 million subscribers, 39.79 million are GSM network subscribers, i.e., 80.35% compared to 8.51 million third-generation (3G) network subscribers, i.e., 19.65%. We thus open a parenthesis to present the evolution of 3G use between 2013 and 2014, the progression of use increased from 308,019 users to 8,509,053 users a year later, the penetration rate for this service is 21.54%, which is 22 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
The use of social media via mobile concerns 3.4 million people, which represents 9% of the global population and 45% of social network users.
We can therefore see that Algerians, like the rest of the world’s population, are using the internet more and more, we present for information purposes the 30 most visited websites by Algerians. Here is the ranking of sites according to the web analysis tool Alexa.com recognized by professionals and researchers as one of the most reliable and efficient tools.
Table N°1: Ranking of websites according to the number of visitors in Algeria Source: www.alexa.com
Worldwide, it is the site google.com that takes 1st place followed by Facebook then YouTube. According to this ranking, Algerians are an exception since it is Facebook that takes the lead followed by YouTube then Google. We can therefore hypothesize that Algerian users have a particular affinity with this social network. Indeed, if we consider that the Algerian internet user finds in Facebook a means to communicate, to get information and to be entertained, the 2nd position of the social media youtube.com becomes perfectly logical. Finally, Google is the preferred search engine for Algerians, just like the majority of internet users worldwide.
Among Algerian sites, we note that it is ouedkniss.com that ensures the title of the best-ranked Algerian site, followed respectively by echouroukonline.com and ennaharonline.com. Ouedkniss.com is a classifieds site that allows individuals to sell and buy a wide variety of products. Since 2006, it has become the essential site for good deals, its current value is estimated at 1.49 million US dollars according to the site www.estimasite.com, its Alexa world ranking is 1,556 and it generates advertising revenue amounting to $2,040 per day for a traffic of 84,104 unique visitors per day.
Let us note all the same that most Algerian sites are not hosted in Algeria. According to Mr. Karim Khelouati founder of Kooteo and web marketing expert, only 6,725 websites are hosted in Algeria, most of which are state-owned companies. The reason pushing other companies to host their sites abroad is directly related to quality, technical stability, and price reasons, which are much more advantageous than those offered by Cerist.
1- SURVEY METHODOLOGY:
We will present in this article the results of a qualitative survey that took place between the month of February and the month of March 2015 among 10 companies having a website and an internal structure that manages its digital presence. We managed to carry out our study thanks to the collaboration of the digital managers of these 10 companies. As the qualitative study was quite complicated to do, we opted for the administration of an interview guide to these managers. Initially, we tried to reach many more companies randomly, but given the efforts provided, we noticed that some companies put in much more effort than others. We had difficulty reaching a large number of companies with our interview guide, so we kept it only for companies that were willing to devote time to answer our questions.
Here is the list of companies that agreed to grant us an interview:
1- SURVEY OBJECTIVES:
The general objective of the survey is to draw up an inventory of digital practices in Algeria; more and more professions are revealing themselves in Algeria via English names like Community management42 and this whetted our scientific curiosity to want to know more about the validity of the existence of this kind of practice with the hypothesis that the Algerian ecosystem is not yet ready to allow companies to generate a profit from their website, thus considering the case of www.ouedkniss.com as an exceptional case.
From this follows a second objective, and it is the latter that interests us most in this article: we will try to find out if, concretely, a website can bring added value to the company, whether in financial form, and there we will see if it ensures at least a return on investment, or in the form of a contribution to the communication strategy.
2- SURVEY RESULTS:
We will present the results of the survey summarized in points; each point will determine response elements that will mainly shift between the objectives of digital practices, the investments linked to them, and finally their impacts.
Reasons why these companies created their dedicated site
For 8 of the companies surveyed, having a website is obvious, even a necessity. These companies seem to have become aware of the new opportunities offered by the digital world and have integrated a new vision into their policies by relying on the web and digital technologies. An important confirmation to highlight: no company chose to be on the web by imitation or as a fashion phenomenon, which indicates that it is a fully thought-out decision.
Website completion times:
As projects are closely linked to deadlines, it is relevant for us to evaluate the importance of the site creation project through the implementation times. Between the idea of launch, the project of creating the website took at most 6 months for most companies. This means that the creation of the site was a matter of urgency. Similarly, a maximum of six months elapsed between the project launch and the actual creation and online release of the website, which allows us to see that the website project was one of the company’s priorities.
Recruitment and internal creation or outsourcing:
During our interviews, we noted the undeniable evidence of the outsourcing of site creation. 5 companies called on an external agency to carry out the site creation project.
Concrete objectives for creating sites:
Increasing turnover is not a very realistic objective according to the companies in our sample given that online payment does not yet exist in Algeria. The existence of the site has a much closer relationship with communication objectives, whether for issuing information or collecting it by listening to customers.
A new target reached and new behaviors:
We tried to find out if the website allowed reaching new targets and if its existence revealed new behaviors among customers. This idea pushed digital marketing managers to express themselves on several segmentation criteria. 8 out of 10 managers indicate that they have reached a new target. Some talked about connected youth, others about professionals, others about product segmentation similar to that of their offline marketing; geolocalization is important for some and they think of offering distant potential customers the possibility of knowing their offers. 8 companies found that internet users need to inform themselves more about the company’s products. There lies a huge opportunity for these companies: it is enough to build the customer’s trust by providing what they are looking for as information in the fastest and simplest way.
Social media:
All companies are present on social networks, which means they are seeking better digital visibility. What is interesting in this case is to see how these networks are managed. These companies expose themselves mainly on Facebook and Twitter in first position, followed by YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ and Instagram.
Website or social media:
A company’s presence on a social network must be the result of a strategic reflection that never dissociates the website from the other tools that will promote it; we see that there are still dissociations within companies that can only weaken a company’s digital marketing. We nevertheless note that 80% of our sample is composed of an audience aware of this subject. Some Algerian companies think, for example, that the simple fact of being present on a free social network can avoid expenses related to the creation and management of a website. That said, digital presence requires much more than being present on social networks; this same presence has no meaning if the company does not have its dedicated website because traffic to the social network page does not contribute to the company’s SEO on search engines, which causes a great loss against more aware competition.
Investment in terms of human resources
It is interesting to know that 80% of our sample has a dedicated internal digital marketing structure.
Trying to find out more, we noted that for 20% of companies, having one person in charge of digital marketing means having a structure; managers justified this by the recent introduction of this discipline within the company. Digital professions are very numerous and all important. It seems that the management of the digital presence of these companies is a bit more oriented towards social networks; thus, the position of Community manager43 exists in 6 companies compared to 5 webmaster44 positions which have an orientation much more towards the website. Web analysis, although it is within reach by choosing the right tools, does not seem to be well exploited; remember that the use of web analysis tools allows for very precise and real-time numerical data of any action taken by the company and to instantly calculate its impact and flaws, something that other media do not offer. Finally, we also note that recourse to advertising via AdWords45 and Facebook Ads platforms only has specialists in two companies; this indicates that recourse to paid advertising via these platforms remains embryonic, not because companies don’t want it, but because it requires special qualifications, especially since it uses online payment which has not yet been authorized in Algeria.
The website and return on investment:
7 companies have a precise idea of the costs relating to the management of their site, but knowing that the website cannot be considered an independent entity, it was necessary to know if there were other costs related to digital marketing, which is, we can never say it enough, more global.
Only one company out of the 7 that claimed to know the amount of costs relative to their website seems to lack information concerning the global cost of its digital marketing.
We arrive here at a crucial point of our study: finally, and despite the absence of online payment, do the websites of these companies generate a return on investment? The answer is yes for 60% of companies. Even if the creation of the website did not initially aim for a return on investment in the financial sense, we note that the creation of the site allows not only greater digital visibility but also a certain additional financial contribution that decreases or cancels out the costs of creating the site and, for 60% of companies, even brings an additional profit. Let us further note that the absence of online payment hinders all forms of electronic commerce; the unblocking of e-payment should facilitate return on investment in the short and medium term. It would be necessary to make electronic payment methods available to customers and above all to sensitize and reassure them so that they can adopt this new behavior. Apart from service companies that will quickly have e-payment solutions as is the case for Air Algérie, it is important for companies to equip themselves with new distribution systems, especially when dealing with the general public.
Other concrete added values of a website:
The managers we met indicate that digital marketing concretely brings positive effects to companies, and if we remember the three types of communication objectives, we will talk about the informative objective “Make known”, the affective objective “Make liked” and the behavioral objective “Make act”, we find ourselves almost in this framework. 30% of companies have positive results from an informative point of view, 30% on the affective aspect and 20% on customer behavior.
Alternatives to online purchasing:
In the absence of online payment, websites can offer alternative solutions to purchase; thus, we tried to find out if the sites in our sample have tools allowing the acceleration of the classic purchasing process such as the possibility of placing an order. 7 out of 10 companies do not allow online ordering. Theoretically, at first, ordering requires registration on the site, meaning that customers will themselves fill out the company’s database, which will allow after a short time having important data on its customers and being able to study their behaviors in a simpler and more precise way. The company can then send them offers, inform them, etc.
In a second stage, ordering is undeniably a possibility to ensure the sale of products; in the absence of online payment, ordering remains a very good alternative to hook a new audience.
Natural or paid SEO:
All companies say they are well indexed on search engines, so internet users find these companies quickly. This good indexing is the result of natural optimization work and/or paid work. Only three 3 companies do not provide effort to be well ranked on search engines, 7 are more or less dedicated to doing good SEO. Apart from content improvements and regular updates, 3 companies use paid SEO and use a budget to boost the number of visits via advertising on social media. These same companies consider that their website generates additional profits, which implies that these expenses actually ensure more profit.
Traffic generation:
This is about knowing how companies invest in traffic generation on their website. We notice, then, that recourse to social media seems to take on significant weight in communication about the website; only one company does not consider Community management efforts as a function that brings traffic to the site. Free advertising on social media is also considered as another lever, except that it is once again the Community manager who must handle it, which demonstrates the weight that can be carried in this position. Paid advertising on social networks is also used well and we see that recourse to offline marketing always remains important, whether by putting the site link in newspapers or on other paper media. On the other hand, placing the link on other sites is not very used.
CONCLUSION:
The common point between the companies in our sample is the existence of a digital project that materializes through the creation of a virtual showcase that offers different targets the possibility of being in a relationship with the company. In an era where information is ultra-abundant, it is preferable to be part of those who produce it with quality than to be part of those who suffer that of the competition, and it turns out that websites are channels that are part of a medium that not only attracts audience but allows touching each member of a target. The improvement of a certain number of technical, visual, and editorial elements to make the site quickly recognizable on search engines and therefore appear as a result on the first page.
Individually when the communication strategy is well thought out. The development of mobile technologies is a perfect example: it is no longer a question of going home to find an offer in one’s email, it is now about offers that arrive directly in our pockets on our mobile phone.
All this indicates that the digital presence of companies is also becoming a strategic obligation in Algeria given the increasingly growing number of internet users. We believe, therefore, that we have answered in this article the main questions asked at the very beginning. Like other companies in the world and even in the absence of online payment, we were able to observe, following our survey of 10 companies investing at different scales in their digital marketing, that there is a concrete return on investment noted by most companies in our sample. It is important to specify that for some companies the financial contribution of the website goes far beyond simple cost coverage and even contributes to generating an additional profit for the company.
As for the other non-financial contributions of the website, they are characterized by all aspects of interactive communication which allowed these companies to reach a new customer base or to improve its targeting, to listen to its customers, to inform them, to gather them in a community of which they are the center and to influence them.
We thus conclude by saying that www.ouedkniss.com is perhaps not an exceptional case; it is perhaps a case in which the creators of a site had the audacity to believe in a digital project and invested in it to the point of transforming a virtual platform into a very real gold mine.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
- ARPT, Observatory of the mobile telephony market in Algeria, year 2014
- Simon KEMP, Digital, Social & Mobile in 2015, We are social’s compendium of global digital statistics, January
- Wearesocial, Digital landscape: middle east, north Africa & turkey,
