The impact of the online environment on companies in Romania, according to Klain’s study

Over the past decade, we have personally felt the strong trend towards digitalization, both generally and within the entrepreneurial environment in our country. Numerous reports and statistics have confirmed this subjective observation. They have shown an increase in internet adoption rates in Romania, growing consumer interest in digital brands, an increase in online orders, and greater use of platforms by local companies. 

To confirm these market figures and determine the impact of companies’ interaction with the online environment, we conducted the study “The importance of the online environment for the development of companies in Romania” from August to December 2023, in collaboration with the Center for Communication and Social Innovation Research (CoRe) at Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB), BT MIC, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). This study involved 1,285 entrepreneurs and managers from all counties in Romania, from various sectors of activity, with annual turnover ranging from under 300,000 lei to over 3,000,000 lei. 

The results were as intuitive as they were surprising. While we expected the majority of respondents to have a website for their business, we did not expect that a majority, specifically 57%, would state that they have developed a marketing strategy for one or more years. In many cases, planning online marketing actions is not a priority for companies, even for those that conduct such activities. Entrepreneurs often enter the digital environment without a clear strategy, based only on a few vaguely defined objectives. Defining a strategy before implementing the actual actions is a positive aspect. 

However, the results show that businesses in our country face difficulties in implementing the constructed strategies. Thus, only 23% of respondents manage to apply at least half of their annual marketing strategy. The causes of the obstacles encountered in implementation can be multiple. They range from poorly set objectives, incorrect budget allocation, to insufficient knowledge of online marketing. 

Knowing the problem, the question that arises at this point is, of course, how can it be solved? Unfortunately, there is no universal solution. However, companies can take certain measures to overcome these obstacles. These include internal training, redefining objectives based on a SMART model, or collaborating with an agency to create an online marketing strategy that is easy to implement and achieves the desired results. 

Even though companies in Romania face issues in applying their marketing strategies, they continue to use multiple online communication channels in their business activities. The most popular among these are social media platforms. Thus, nearly 75% of respondents state that they have a Facebook page, 46% an Instagram page, and 30% communicate on LinkedIn. Additionally, approximately a quarter of the companies participating in the study invest in paid campaigns, both on Facebook and Google. 

Online presence is important for Romanian companies. But is it profitable? The study results show that, from the perspective of the participating companies, there are some channels that are more efficient for their business activities. These are primarily social media and their own website. The reasons for the perceived high profitability of these two channels are multiple, including their increased usage, the ease of creating content, and their central position in online communication. On the other hand, PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns are not perceived as profitable by the participating companies, even though numerous market studies demonstrate their benefits. From our point of view, this is another consequence of implementation difficulties, as paid campaigns require extensive knowledge, careful monitoring, and continuous adjustment. 

Furthermore, we aimed to find out the impact of the online environment on the turnover of companies in our country. The study results show that nearly half of the respondents generate between 1% and 15% of their turnover from this medium. On the other hand, for more than 20% of them, digital produces over half of their total turnover. 

In conclusion, online marketing actions can influence the evolution of a business, leading to increased turnover and profitability. The uncertainty does not concern the viability of digital, but the methods of implementing the marketing strategy. Improvements in this area can come from both internal efforts, through the internal education of staff who develop and implement online marketing actions, and external efforts, through collaboration with an experienced marketing agency capable of utilizing specialists’ knowledge to build effective planning, intelligently use company budgets, and achieve visible results. 

 

Discover the study results here! 

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