Bridging the Digital Marketing Literacy Gap: Capacity Building for Rural MSMEs in Moncongloe, Indonesia

Abstract

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in peri-urban villages often hold competitive products yet remain invisible to the urban markets next door, because their marketing still travels by word of mouth. This community engagement programme addressed that gap among twenty MSMEs in Moncongloe District, Maros Regency, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The purpose was to raise digital marketing literacy and managerial capability to a level the partners could sustain without further assistance. The programme followed a participatory action approach in four stages: a door-to-door field assessment of all twenty enterprises, an internal focus group discussion that converted the assessment into a syllabus, a one-day workshop delivered by two university lecturers around a seven-step digital marketing campaign framework, and post-workshop sustainability support consisting of a printed self-study module and two on-site mentoring visits. Capacity was measured with an identical pre-test and post-test instrument built on the Technology Acceptance Model and covering five competencies. Aggregate digital marketing literacy rose from 19 per cent to 92 per cent, and the share of partners reaching comprehensive mastery rose from 5 per cent to 85 per cent, with the sharpest gain in WhatsApp Business and hashtag optimisation, from 0 to 95 per cent. The value of the programme lies in pairing measured diagnosis with hands-on demonstration, which dismantled the perceived difficulty of the tools before any technical instruction began.