Intervention(s)
The intervention is part of a larger export promotion program for SMEs implemented by a development agency in corporation with the Tunisian export promotion agency. The objective of the intervention is to increase the adoption of e-commerce technologies and digital marketing practices by firms to improve their visibility to foreign clients, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the ultimate goal to increase and diversify the exports of the participating firms. The interventions has three phases:
The first phase consists of 27 hours of classroom training (three 7 hour presence sessions and two online session of 3 hours each) where information about the benefits and technical implementation of different e-commerce channels (website, marketplaces, social media etc.) and specific e-commerce solutions for export are presented. Due to the Covid Pandemic we opted for a hybrid model with both in-presence and online parts. Furthermore, digital marketing practices such as search engine optimisation (SEO), Google Analytics, online advertisement and how to create a digital communication strategy and online content creation are also discussed. Participants are split into 12 groups of 6-11 participants and the training sessions were held in four major Tunisian cities to reduce travel time for participants. Teaching in groups enables peer discussion and exchange, which we believe is important when teaching about digital technology. In addition, teaching in groups enables significant cost-savings and is one promising avenue for export promotion agencies to reach out to more firms. The aim of this first phase is to improve participants' knowledge about the benefits and technical possibilities that different e-commerce solutions and digital marketing practices offer. The goal is to persuade them to invest resources to expand and develop e-commerce and digital marketing activities. At the end of the training, companies are asked to formulate a list of actions that they aim to implement during the second and third phases of the intervention.
During the second phase, companies receive a student from digital marketing or related areas for 10 days (80h) during a two month period to assist the company in non-technical, preparatory exercises that were defined at the end of the classroom training. Tasks are firm-specific but include the benchmarking of their website against competitors, creation of a digital communication plan or keyword identification for SEO. This phase was created because the training literature suggests that hands-on assistance is crucial to help SMEs adopt the general digital marketing concepts learned. For example,\textcite{Dalton.2020} find in a RCT with small retailers in Indonesia that firms only improve business practices if a handbook about best practices is combined with two individual assistance sessions. Secondly, having students assist the firms seems promising in several regards. Senior businessmen and women may be intimidated by experts, in particular when it comes to the use of computer and digital tools. They may be more at ease to admit their weaknesses to young students. \textcite{Iacovone.2021} find encouraging results in a RCT with small scale retailers in Mexico City in which students, supervised by senior consultants, can help small firms substantially change their physical marketing with a positive preliminary impact on sales (15-20 percentage points). The objective of this phase is for the firms to develop in detail the action plans they considers most suitable to pursue after the classroom training and prepares them for technical implementation.
For the third and final phase of the intervention, firms receive a total of 17.5 days of customized technical support from an IT consultant to improve their online presence (10.5 days) and digital marketing tools (7 days). The objective of this phase is to technically implement the solutions that companies identified together with the students during the second phase. Due to differences in the original levels of e-commerce readiness we regard this as a crucial step to improve the sophistication of the firms' online presence and digital marketing practices.