FrontlineSMS and SMS Marketing

I have been wondering how possible and feasible will it be to run a SMS (Short Message Service) marketing campaign for businesses in Africa. I have also been thinking of the tools and possibly opensource SMS tools for the job. For your information, i believe in opensource tools and always advocate for its use.

If you have a mobile phone, chances are you've received a SMS text message at some point in time. SMS has been used for ages to reach out quickly to colleagues, friends and family members. The same can be used to reach out to cherished customers with your deals and special offerings.

I found frontlineSMS to be the tool that can help you do your SMS marketing effectively and efficiently. One good thing about it is that it's an opensource tool hence, it's free. Setting up frontlineSMS is very easy and in my opinion, this product is specifically made for Africa.



Technorati Tags: frontlinesms, sms marketing, african businesses

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Web Advertising Return On Investment (ROI)

Relying exclusively on expensive advertising and the media to deliver organization's message is long gone. It is worth noting that the mainstream media is still important, however, innovative marketers create compelling information/content/story and use the web to tell that story.

The Web allows organizations irrespective of the size to reach both buyers and sellers directly without the hassle involved in the mainstream form of advertising. Web advertising investment provides the most significant form of return on investment (ROI) for organizations.

I keep on wondering why African businesses are not actively involved in moving their advertising investment to the Web. Is it that they are afraid to make a move and prefer to stay in their comfort zones or what? It is important for marketers to know that potential clients are searching online for answers that only their products/services/information/contents can provide.

The Web has liberated businesses including businesses emanating from Africa from relying on exclusively on buying access through advertising or convincing mainstream media to talk about their organization. Since potential clients are eager to consume your organization's content, now is the time to publish your content on the Web.

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Online marketing - The African Perspective

Online marketing is an innovative strategy adopted by organizations to either brand themselves or drive sales leads.

Online marketing can take several forms namely; display advertising, search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing (SMM), email marketing, referral marketing, affiliate marketing, inbound marketing, video marketing, etc. The internet has grown to be an obvious tool for brilliant marketers since that enables them to really measure their marketing spending.


But let me hesitate to ask this question -  Is Africa ready for an online marketing experience? You can answer this question for yourself. But what i know is that Africa is a developing continent and no doubt one of the fastest growing continent in terms of internet usage. Figures about internet usage on the African continent will keep increasing for a long time to come.

However, business on the African continent are yet to come to terms with the anormous benefits derived from the internet. Business in Africa are cool with their traditional forms advertisement and do not want to change. The innovative once are somehow doing well to embrase this new wave of advertising while the majority are just literally standing watching.

Businesses that are not embrassing this new form of marketing are really doing a great disservice to their businesses in terms of branding.

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