Firms expand reach and build brands with digital marketing

The internet brought email and websites. Now it has given rise to digital marketing, a whole new concept that promises to change how products are sold and brands built.

Digital marketing covers a broad range of channels marketers can use to communicate with their customers.

It could be anything from email, desktop text and banner ads, social media marketing or mobile and text ads.

But it is the banner ads placed on websites that have been attracting the attention of marketers and brand managers lately.

Most businesses have realised that internet adverts click with consumers.

With more than 25 per cent of the 40 million people in Kenya online, according to Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) figures, advertisers are increasingly realising that they need to “fish where the fish are.”

Higher returns

“The internet has become an integral part of everyday life in Kenya and Africa and it is changing the way people work, shop, look for information, communicate and meet people,” says Ms Olga Arara-Kimani, Google Kenya Country Manager.

“This, coupled with the fact that advertisers are increasingly looking for mediums that deliver high, measurable returns on their investment has led to higher proportions of ad spend going to online channels.”

A number of big businesses in Kenya are advertising online, and many are doing so through the Google AdWords service that lets advertisers pay per click.

Some of the companies using this medium include mobile operator’s Safaricom and yu, some banks and a host of small and medium size companies like Litebooks, an accounting services company based in Nairobi.

AdWords delivers ads that are relevant to a particular section of audience based on surfing interests and geographical location.

Most popular websites in Kenya like nation.co.ke, bdafrica.com, standardmedia.co.ke are displaying Google ads and earning commissions from the clicks.

Litebooks has a well designed website, but few clients could find them online. Joe Karuri, who heads the company, says the website (www.cleanbill.biz) wasn’t working for them.

Then he discovered Google’s AdWords, with the help of Digital Divide Data, a Nairobi-based digital marketing company.

“I was surprised how well AdWords seemed to drive interested customers to my website,” says Mr Karuri. “Traffic from AdWords is the now the single largest source of registrations on my website.”

Kenya has one of the highest internet penetration rates in Africa and emerging markets, currently at 25 per cent and growing at a rate of over 17 per cent annually, according to CCK. About $8 trillion exchanges hands each year through e-commerce, but only a tiny fraction of that is in Africa.

Tech analysts say Kenyan firms can grow their brands through search optimisation, whether potential customers are searching for their products online using computers or mobiles.

Digital Divide Data, the business process outsourcing firm based in Ngara area, Nairobi, has been certified by Google and now retains a team of 55 digital management operators who optimise online marketing strategies for local businesses.