What is the driving force behind successful individuals and successful technology companies?  What makes certain people leave a legacy of excellence and others a legacy of followership?

At Tech4Africa this year, Ndubuisi Ekekwe explored this fascinating divide specifically in Africa, and gave highly valuable insights.

Many years ago, Ekekwe explains, ideas and intellectual property had no rights and were free to all.  No one got any recognition for their thoughts and inventions and, for a period of time, people actually stopped inventing.  The implementation of IP rights in the USA saw the expansion of global GDP and higher standards of living.  Sadly, this is not the case in Africa even as of yet, which means there is no mechanism of investment to create the inventions and build Fortune 500 companies.  Minds as creative and inventive as Thomas Edison don’t get recognized financially.  They merely receive praise.

Furthermore, he expands on the fact that anything received for free is not perceived as valuable, leaving no drive or excitement for education and thus no knowledge to drive innovation within the industry.  With our technology landscape narrowing, there is a definite need to move from marketing and distribution to innovation, invention and creativity.

He believes that a monetary system + IP rights + technology will ensure that Africa will become Creators of technology VS mere Consumers of technology.

So what is your technology legacy?  What is our technology legacy?  Are we going to educate, recognize, innovate and lead, or remain comfortable followers?  Success depends on this decision.

It’s the 1st November and the shops are decorated with Xmas decorations which remind us that the holidays are just around the corner. The big question is: “Do you have a seasonal marketing campaign and is your business prepared for the festive season?

In this article we are going to have a look at how an online seasonal marketing campaign can help you generate more traffic to your website, gain more customers and then finally how to increase your sales.

With seasonal marketing you need to do the same planning as for any party – birthday party, Xmas party or a New Year’s party. First you need to set a date for when to start your marketing campaign. It is very important to have your December calendar in hand to make sure you start with your seasonal marketing in time! You don’t want to start your campaign after your competitors shops are sold out!

After you’ve decided the date for the birthday party, you should start to look at a theme for the birthday party and what invitations to give out. Now with an online seasonal marketing campaign your “theme and invitations” is your website and social media portals. Have a look at your website. Change the images to holiday images or festive season images like turkeys, presents or a company photo of your staff with Xmas hats on. Remember, images are a great way to draw your audience in and make them want to read more about your seasonal products / propmtions. This is the time to have fun and show your company’s creative side.

As soon as your website is “seasonal friendly” and your planning is up and running, you can start with your online marketing campaign. Firstly you need to do keyword research. It is very important to target the keywords which your market will type in the search box to get to your seasonal product/ promotional. A soon as the client types in the targeted keyword, your Adcopy will appear on the search page. In your ad copy, consider a promotional phrase in your title which will catch the client’s eye. If your campaign is live, don’t just sit back and relax, now you need to optimise and maximise your campaign by optimizing the key phrases and keywords, audit the channels, test contact us forms, test coupon cards, look out for 404 error messages and then make sure that most active pages link to your seasonal promotions.

The sweet taste of success with an online seasonal marketing campaign lies in the conversions! You can track your conversions on Adword and Social Media Marketing. You can see exactly where your client came from and how many convert into a sale!

Then after any party you need to clean up the place. It is very important to change the seasonal images to images relevant to your business and update your content to relevant content. It is very bad for a company’s online reputation if it is the middle of the year and the people still see the old seasonal images on your website!

Happy Marketing!

You’ve spent hours working with a team of designers and developers to create your unique footprint on the worldwide web.  Days and weeks to conceptualise the exact image, content and portal you want to use to interact with the world out there.
But now – how will those millions of potential clients know about you?  What is the next step?  And where do you begin?

Two prevalent methods have given you the tools to do just that – get yourself known.

The first of these is similar to an online banner marketing campaign, except you can splash your adverts across many websites at the same time.  This we call Google Display Networks (GDN), and the adverts run across all the sites that have opened themselves up to this kind of marketing.  The beauty of GDN is that it creates awareness before people necessarily know about you and actively go looking for you or your products.

Furthermore, Google almost ‘tracks’ the user’s general application of the web, so if they are on certain websites often, and your advert is relevant to them, it will show to them when they go to other sites.  Kind of eerie, but from a marketing point of view phenomenal!

Having had said that, Display Network allows for a lot of awareness and positioning, but not necessarily a conversion to a sale or direct response.  People often see something, and then go in search of it later, which is why the second method is absolutely vital, we believe.

This second method is Search Engine Marketing.  This is also the most effective way of advertising online, as you have a captive audience that are ready to engage and interact with you.  The quickest way to get your product, brand or service ‘out there’ on Search Engine Marketing is by making use of Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising as it is immediate and guaranteed when managed correctly.  Besides this, Pay Per Click is flexible and can be changed and optimized real-time.

That said, however, to have a complete online visibility and presence, and to ‘dominate’ search engines cost effectively in the long run, is by optimizing your website and website content in such a way that your brand will be on the top of all major search engine listings.  This is called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).  Search Engine Optimisation is done over a period of time, and thus does not necessarily yield immediate success, but in the long run is the most cost effective way to market yourself online.

Our advice, then, would be to start with GDN en PPC, get results and increase the proverbial bottom line, and then proceed to SEO – and eventual online success!

Long before automobiles came into existence, business entrepreneurs worldwide saw the potential of advertising.  They instinctively knew even then, that if people saw the names of their companies before that of their competitors, they would more likely purchase from them before they would their competitors, firstly due to awareness, and secondly because it would establish them as trusted brands that people would want to associate with.

The first of these industries to understand the value of this kind of lure, was the hotel industry, and they not only advertised their motel or inn on the first real en masse method of advertising, but quickly adapted their billboard signage to include distance to and amenities at their establishments.

The rise of the automobile meant more people were travelling, many other industries started seeing the value of this form of advertising and quickly adapted their strategies to include a billboard (or six) along the side of industrious motorways.

Many years later, radio and television were introduced, and around that formed a hype and a belief that these forms of advertising would reach masses faster and more effectively than that of traditional advertising.  And, while this is true to certain national and multi-national companies, it does not detract from the fact that, if someone is not listening to or watching at the exact time that your advert is showing, you will not be seen or heard.

This, while the faithful billboard stands -24/7, for everyone to see, at any time, all the time – for as long as you keep your advert showing.

But, advertisers say, isn’t it expensive?
In light of TV and radio?  In light of a 15s or 30s advert possibly lost on a phone call, a thought, or the 10seconds it takes to read a billboard instead whilst in traffic?

But, advertisers say, is it measurable?  How do I know it is not a complete ‘spray and pray’ approach?  And what is my return on investment?
In lieu of these absolutely valid questions, we have set up a few questions to ask yourself before considering a billboard, or any other form of marketing, to see its viability:
1.  What is my strategy? Is it brand awareness or direct response?
2.  How will I structure my messaging to incorporate my strategy?
3.  And finally, where will I place said message?

Either way you look at it, though, people will need to be aware of you before they will associate with you.  And in reference to cutting through the clutter, this is one of the effective ways of standing out above the rest.

It goes without saying, then, that a business without a sign is not only a sign of no business, but a recipe for disaster.

A number of well-known products and media have been promoted by means of an ARG (Alternate Reality Game). Some highly successful examples of these include: ‘Year Zero’ ARG for the Nine Inch Nails album of the same name, the ‘Lost Experience’ for the television series Lost, ‘The Beast’ for the film Artificial Intelligence, and ‘I love bees’ for Halo 2 to name but a few. There are numerous other examples and new ARGs are emerging frequently due to a rise in popularity.

You might be wondering what an ARG is? ARG stands for Alternate Reality Game and is an interactive narrative experience that takes place within the real world. A formal accepted definition is, however, not in existence yet.

Usually, players should initially not be sure if the experience is real or not. If they do find out that they are participating in a game, it requires a certain suspension of disbelief in order to remain immersed and engaged in the experience. They pretend that the narrative is real and happening within their own reality in order to remain immersed. An ARG often comprises of multiple media elements and contain puzzles and other game elements for ‘players’ to solve. The elements used to communicate the narrative and interact with ‘players’ include telephone, email, websites etc. The actions of participants shape and influence the outcome of the narrative. ARG creators are called the ‘Puppet Masters’ and design, run and manipulate the game and narrative. They represent the characters of the ARG and shape the player interaction and experience. Participant entry into an ARG is referred to as a ‘rabbit hole’ (a reference to Alice In Wonderland). These entry points are usually planned.

Some design principles of Alternate Reality Games include: [1]

• Storytelling as archaeology. Participants are required to find and piece together the story. Often not in order.
• Platformless narrative. The narrative is presented via various media
• Collaborative Storytelling.
• Designing for a hive mind.

ARGs can be created purely for the fun of it, or specifically designed alongside a product as a viral marketing campaign. A downside of an ARG is that it can cost a lot of money, time and resources to create. Therefore successful ARGs are usually run by large companies.

I encourage you to read up more about Alternate Reality Games, specifically the methods used in the highly successful ones. ARGs can be an excellent way to run a viral marketing campaign if you have the resources to pull it off.

References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game