Online Reviews in Kenya
Business owners often dismiss the significance of online reviews. Responding to online reviews builds trust with your customers and it shows that you value their feedback. It shows that your business is reliable and credible. Most of the consumers always rely on your online reviews to make their purchasing decision. Therefore, the way you respond to online reviews in Kenya matters.
Responding to online reviews also plays a significant role in Google search engine because Google wants to recommend a credible business to people who are searching. You should reply to both the positive and negative reviews
If you receive a negative review, it is important to reply to the comment in a courteous manner and maintain professionalism.
How to respond to Positive online reviews
Thank the customer.
Show your gratitude to the person who took their time to write a review. If they asked a question or had some concerns respond to them also. You can continue the conversation by asking the reviewer for the recommendation on either the service or the product. This will show that you value their feedback and they will feel appreciated.
Don’t Delay to respond
Always aim to respond as soon as possible to online reviews. This will show your customers that you are available and you care about what they have to say.
Entice your reviewers to come back
You can tell your customer that you would like to hear from them again and ask them to bring their friends.
Check for grammatical errors
Check for grammatical errors
Before you hit the send button always re-read what you have written and ensure there are no grammatical, punctuation or spelling mistakes. Always ensure that the tone of your message is professional and the message is as brief as possible and to the point.
How to reply to Negative online reviews
Apologize and thank them for their feedback
Apologize even if the customer is incorrect and thank them for giving honest feedback. Being aggressive and bitter when replying to the comments will only harm your reputation. If you find that you are too upset, distance yourself from it and reply when you have calmed down.
Respond appropriately
Remember that the online reviews are public hence be courteous and don’t argue with the customer.
Invite the conversation offline
Don’t argue with a customer on the review site, ask them for more details and provide them with customer care contact. Online reviews in Kenya are important for any organization. Always keep the conversation courteous and professional.
DIGITAL STRATEGY IN KENYA
Developing a Digital Strategy for your business is key because without a digital strategy your business is directionless. A digital strategy defines the clear online goals of a business in terms of building relationships with their existing customers or new ones. It allows you to reach your target audience more effectively. This is the first step towards digital success.
There are several reasons why your business needs a digital strategy in Kenya.
1. Sense of direction
A digital strategy will help you create achievable strategic goals for your business. This will help you set goals that should be achieved and set measurements that will get you there. Structuring a vision will ensure everyone in the organization is on the same page and working towards achieving the same goals and objectives.
2. Deeper Understanding of Your Target Audience
With a digital strategy, it will force you to think who your target audience will be. Understanding who your target audience is will allow you to know how to structure your message for your audience and where they can be found online. It allows you to know which social media platforms can be used to reach a certain group of people so that you don’t have to waste money and time testing different channels and means.
3. Budgeting and Return On Investment (ROI)
With a clear understanding of the focus point of your online marketing goals, you can preset solutions in advance for the foreseen future problems and plan ahead. A digital strategy will help you to understand how your digital budget will be distributed per channel and the returns you will receive. This will help you plan your budget thus making it easier to plan and manage. A good strategy will help you know what is working for you and what is not.
4. Setting up Objectives and analytics
A digital strategy helps you to know your marketing strategy and the steps you need to take to achieve them. A digital strategy will help a company to keep in line with the objectives it set and with time they can analyse the progress and see if they are moving in the right direction or not. Digital marketing provides a company with a variety of analytics tools that enables them to check the progress of their marketing.
We provide Digital Strategy Services in Kenya at an Affordable price. CONTACT US TODAY FOR FREE CONSULTATION !!
Web Design in Kenya
Web design in Kenya is increasing with most small and big businesses realizing the importance of having an online presence for their products and services. Website design cost in Kenya varies depending on the type of website you need for your business. Below are some of the importance of having a website for your business.
Makes Your Business Accessible at All Times
A website never closes, it is available 24 hours to you and your customers. People can access your service and buy goods from your website any day anytime. Having an online presence is important as most people are now accessing the internet on their mobile phones which can be done anytime. Most people are now shopping online hence the importance of having a website.
Showcase Your Work
A website gives you an avenue that you can showcase samples of what you do. If you sell cars you can showcase the different models of cars, brands available, interior designs, colours, and prices. This will make your work visual to clients thus they will be encouraged to do business with you.
In your website, you can include testimonials of your customers and the companies you have worked with on your Home Page. This will give your customers confidence that they can work with you and you can be relied upon.
Builds Credibility
By being online your business will gain trustworthiness and professionalism. You need to make sure your website stays current and looks professional. Let the market know who you are outside the Home and About us pages by creating a blog page, where you can share your ideas and engage with your customers and encourage them to comment. Let your content be relevant to your customers. Install chatbots on your website to help in customer service.
Efficient Way to Promote Your Business
There are a lot of methods of advertising for your business through the internet when you have a website. You can optimize your website through SEO to boost your ranking on google search results which will increase your sales. Online marketing is faster, inexpensive and more efficient than any other form of advertising. Web design in Kenya has led to many businesses boosting their sales through their online presence.
Keep Track of Your Business in Real Time
Having a website can help you keep track of your performance in real-time through the use of analytics. Analytics will give you valuable data on how your business has been performing over time. It will give you the number of visitors in your website, page impressions on how many times your site has been visited, the number of comments and likes in each blog post and the bounce rate which is the percentage of visitors who leave your page without exploring past the page they landed on.
A Time-Saver
Having a website for your business is a time saver for both you and your customer. You don’t need to have a physical shop where your clients can see the goods, you can just have a storage warehouse for your products. Your customers will not need to drive all the way to your physical location or to keep looking from shelf to shelf. They can just browse through your website and look for what they need.
We provide Web Design Services in Kenya at an Affordable price. CALL US TODAY FOR FREE CONSULTATION!!!
How to Get More YouTube Views in Kenya
YouTube viewers in Kenya have increased over time with 80% increase in mobile usage which means that most people are spending time watching YouTube videos on their mobile phones. This has led to over 250 YouTube content creators in Kenya thus bringing competition because everyone wants people to view their content. As a content creator in Kenya you need to know how to get more people to watch your videos. Below we have summarized what we think is important for you to receive more YouTube viewers in Kenya.
Attractive Thumbnail Image
A thumbnail is a video’s preview image. The thumbnail image is the first impression people get of your video and it determines if they will click on your video or not.
Take time to develop high quality and clear image to use as your video’s thumbnail. If your thumbnail image discourage people from clicking to your videos. It means you are not going to get any likes, comment and subscriptions thus your video will not be ranked high.
Try to include the following in your thumbnail;
- Brightly colored backgrounds
- Text overlays
- Close-ups of faces
- Subtle branding — like a small logo or watermark
Optimize Your Video Titles
Search engine optimization (SEO) matters on YouTube for your videos to rank high and be discoverable.
On YouTube you can optimize your videos and channel this will include the title, descriptions, file name and tags. Know which keywords you need your video to optimize for, then use them so as to get more YouTube viewers in Kenya.
Optimize your YouTube channel
1. Optimize your YouTube channel description
Start with a quick description of your brand and the benefits of your products. Then tell your viewers why they should watch your videos (what is in for them). Make sure you include your keywords in your description.
2. Add your social channels, links to your website, and a way to get in contact.
List all your social media platforms for people to find more about your brand.
3. Enable related channels
Do not turn off the ‘related channel’ feature on YouTube. By turning off this feature, you remove your channel from YouTube recommendations. This will make you lose the network effect of YouTube.
Promote Your Videos on Other Social Channels
If you want more YouTube viewers in Kenya, you need to let your followers know when you upload a new video to YouTube. You can do that by creating a short teaser video (1 minute) long and post it on your with a link to the full video.
Make Sure Your Videos Are Embedding Enabled
Embedding your video allows your viewers to share the video on their website or their vlogs. This is an effective way of your brand reaching new audience and more YouTube videos.
If a video has been embedded, when a viewer clicks ‘Share’ underneath the video window, YouTube will show them the ‘Embed’ option to whichever platform they want to.
Invite Guest Vloggers
Inviting guest vloggers is another way to gain new viewers and followers. Identify YouTube content creator in Kenya who have a similar audience as you then invite them to one of your video. The content creator will most definitely share the video with his or her followers then you can get free views as well as new followers.
Know what is Trending
Be up to date with things happening in your industry. If you have an understanding of what is happening in your industry, you can create videos that are current and interesting to those that are researching for it. This will enable you to share information before anyone else. Being the first to share information will lead to more exposure to your content and more viewers.
EMAIL MARKETING IN KENYA
Email marketing in Kenya is important as the Kenya National Bureau of statistics confirms that emails are mostly used as a channel for communication at the workplace and is increasingly used by Kenyan business people to push products and services.
For email marketing, you only have a few seconds to make an impression to your target audience therefore when done right, you can successfully drive conversions.
Do’s and Don’ts for Email Marketing
DO’s
1. Define the purpose of your email
Know what you want your subscriber to do when they see your email. Define the main objective for your email. Make sure your attractive call to action speaks for your objective.
2. Know your target audience
Be aware of who your target audience is and write an email that matches their needs.
3. Deliver value to the customer
A good email is the one that provides a solution to a problem that the customer is facing so that they can give your email their attention.
4. Use eye-catching language
Highlight words that will grab the attention of the subscriber that will be scanning your message looking for what they want. This words are like improve, Introducing, fast.
5. Include opt out in every email you send
People are always looking to see if the email they are subscribing to has a unsubscribe button in case they no longer want to receive an email from you. This will lead to more people subscribing just to see what you will be sending them if they know they can opt out when they want.
6. Send emails only to subscribers
When people subscribe to your email it means they want to receive the emails if they don’t want to receive the emails, then they won’t subscribe. Therefore don’t send emails to people who have not subscribed to receive them.
DON’Ts;
1. Avoid using redundant words
Avoid using unnecessary words in your email because you only have a few seconds to grab the readers attention
2. Avoid using technical jargon(if not needed)
People do not have time to invest in reading things they do not understand, therefore use simple language as much as you can.
3. Avoid making the email too long
Let your email be short and straight to the point. If you have too much content, use attractive visuals that matches what you’re talking about.
4. Don’t forget personalization
Do not write flats emails like a robot. Write emails that will interest your readers
5. Don’t design emails only for desktop
Do not assume that people only open their emails on their computers, also design it in a way people will be able to view it on smaller devices
We do email marketing in Kenya and create emails that your readers will look forward to receiving, want to open and be persuaded to buy from you. CALL US TODAY FOR FREE CONSULTATION!!
Why your business needs a Chatbot
A chatbot is a computer program designed to have a conservation with a human being over the internet. They can take information, broadcast newsletters, setup appointments, direct customers to your website and landing pages, they can handle FAQ’s and can even be turned into fun games and targeted marketing agents.
Think of it as a 24/7 salesman, customer service rep, and lead qualifier. It works around the clock while you’re on vacation, while you’re sleeping, or while you’re doing something else!
Chatbots are catching up fast in Kenya with banks, insurance companies like Jubilee insurance and Barclays bank being among the first to use the chatbot to help with their customer service. Other organizations are now adapting chatbot in their organizations.
Reasons why your business needs a chatbot
1. Increase Customer Engagement
It’s important for a business to keep its customers engaged with their brand. Chatbot make customer engagement more interactive and keep the conversation flowing without giving the client any unnecessary information. They are programmed to give answers to repetitive questions so that you can deal with other issues other than responding to easy questions.
2. Improve Customer Service
Chatbot provide extensive customer assistance as they allow you to start a conversation with each customer regarding any issue, anytime of the day. They provide assistance in real-time like a sale person in a real store. They are programmed to give answers to repetitive questions so that the agent can focus on more important cases rather than on the easy questions. This engagement will make your client feel acknowledged and this will improve your brand perception in the long run.
3. Minimal cost and Maximum returns
Platforms like Facebook Messenger provide the necessary infrastructure and an application programming interface (API) for creating these bots therefore making it cheap. Chatbot require minimal maintenance and there is no intensive work since it is automated.
4. Always open and available
No business can be open and functioning 24 hours a day. For most businesses in Kenya, once the business time is over any calls or emails will have to wait until the next day. However, with a chatbot, you can allow customers to ask questions and get answers at any day or time. They can make bookings, buy products and find a wealth of information about your business.
5. Better Marketing and More Sales
Chatbot can be useful for any industry, food chatbot can order dinner, banking and trading chatbot can deal with your finances, Ecommerce chatbot help you purchase goods and services and booking chatbot can book hotels and flights. They help customers choose products, process payment information, enter shipping addresses, and complete orders. This makes it easier than even talking to a human.
Chabot can help send products or services to customers who are more likely to convert into sales depending on users purchase or preference. It can also send coupons to users for in-store purchases or discounts.
Chatbot are definitely the cheapest and the fastest way of providing an engaging experience to your customers. If you would like to understand how they work and if your business requires a chatbot, get in touch with us. We provide chatbot services.
Why you need a Mobile Optimized Website
A mobile optimized website is key for your business considering that 91% of Kenyans access the internet from their mobile phones or their tablets more than from a desktop or laptop.
Below are reasons why you need a mobile friendly website.
1. Google and SEO Improvement
Having a mobile friendly site is quite important as you get better google ranking. Google cares a great deal about the proficiency of a business’ mobile site thus if your site is mobile friendly then your SEO will be high and your website can appear high on the google search results. The better user experience you provide to mobile users, the better ranking your website receives on Google.
2. Enhanced user browsing experience for your visitors
Websites optimized for mobile, greatly enhance the user experience for your visitors making it easier for them to navigate your website, view images, read your content and share your content through the web.
When a website doesn’t render for small screens like mobile phones, the images and text appear to be distorted when viewed on a mobile device.
3. Reduces duplicate content
Instead of having different sites for each device, a mobile friendly site allows you to focus on SEO effort on a single website to improve search ranking on google. Mobile optimized and responsive websites work well across various platforms such as desktop, laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
4. The mobile user market is continuously growing at a very fast pace.
Kenya has 91% of Kenyans have access to a smartphone. Kenya has the highest share of internet usage from mobile phones as compared to desktops. Jumia Kenya, an online shop in Kenya, reported 70% of their traffic coming from mobile phones while 50% of payments done through the mobile also. This means that with a mobile optimized website, you will have the ability to reach a broader range of users that use mobile devices to search the web.
5. Faster loading speed
For you to rank high on the search results, loading speed to your site is an important factor. Mobile friendly sites load fast than the desktop ones mostly when accessed through a mobile device. This means that people can access your website faster hence getting more information on you. People end up not viewing your site if the loading speed is slow.
How to be Found on Google
Ranking high on the google search results is of great importance if you want to build a successful business. This will mean that more people searching your kind of business will be able to easily find you on google. This is also called SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which is the process of improving your websites ranking on search engines.
Considering that most people in Kenya refer to google whenever they want any kind of information be it directions, businesses contact information, jobs, services, products among other things.
1. Optimize for RankBrain
RankBrain is a machine learning algorithm that helps Google to determine the most relevant results to search engine queries. If you want to be found on google you need to be smart on how you create your content.
This requires you to focus on creating content that answers the unique questions that answers your audience so that the google Rankbrain can show your information when someone searches for it.
2. Submit Your Website URL to Google
It is not enough to design your website, you need to submit your website to google. This will enable google to find your content and to know of any important updates you might make. Search engines craw billions of pages that are on the web, collecting data and indexing content so if you have submitted your website to google your page will be easily found.
3. Select the Right Keywords
By google looking at the most common words used in your titles, content and meta tags, Google can understand what your business is about and show it in relevant search results. Key words can make or break your website. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Google’s autocomplete function to discover what your audience is looking for online.
4. Don’t Forget to Include Meta Tags
Use meta tags to tell people who are not familiar with your business what it is all about and why they should click on the results.
5. Add Your Website to Local Directories
If you want your page to show up high in research results optimize your site for local directories through Google Business Page. Include information such as your NAP (name, address and phone number), a map of your location, hours of operation and location based keywords such as the name of the city.
6. Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly
People in Kenya are now using their smartphones to read content online, book services and purchase good online. If you want your site to rank high in the search results, you need to have a mobile friendly site.
Create content that immediately answers your audiences questions and make sure your content loads fast and looks presentable regardless of the screen size.
You as a business person can follow the above process to rank high on the google search result or you can come to us as we offer SEO (search engine optimization) services and let a professional handle it for you, so you can do what you do best, your business.
Get in touch with us for FREE CONSULTATION!
Mistakes to avoid when identifying influencers for your brand
Social media Influencers in Kenya have emerged with many content creators investing in online channels that have amassed a large following.
Most influencers in Kenya are on YouTube and Instagram. You should be able to identify the ones that will represent your brand like you would want.
If you don’t identify your influencer correctly, then you will not be able to get your brand out there hence loosing your money with no gain. Try and avoid these mistakes for you to yield more success in our influencer campaigns.
1. Forcing a collaboration with an influencer who is clearly not a fan of the brand
Marketers should be targeting influencers who already have a positive believe towards their brand. Identify influencers who have interacted with your product or service before so that during negotiations you can tell if they are authentically excited to promote your product or if they only want to do it for money. The most successful influencer partnership is authentic.
If you notice any negative sentiment and lack of excitement from the influencer, this means that he or she will not represent your brand effectively.
2. Overlooking the demographics of an influencer’s audience
It is important for you to take into consideration the influencer’s audience so that you can know if the influencer has the target audience that you need for your brand.
If your target audience is females in Kenya within the age of 18-35 years you should check if most of the influencer’s followers are females ranging in that age group.
3. Putting too much weight on number of followers and not enough on engagement
As a business person in Kenya do not assume that any influencer with a large follower will be a good person to partner with. Also the quality of the content the influencer will post and how he or she will engage with the target audience will matter.
Check if the influencer’s recommendation will receive any action from the followers. You can achieve this by checking the previous likes and comments from the influencer’s page when they recommended something to their audience.
4.Targeting influencers whose feed is over saturated with sponsored content
Most of the influencers in Kenya and around the world do not want to create their own content but to use sponsored content. This will be a major turn off to the followers who don’t want to feel like they are constantly being sold to.
If you are looking for an influencer to promote your brand look for one that creates their own content and has connected with their audience from that.
Google is expanding when it shows ads to ‘people in targeted locations’
This advanced Google Ads location update, is going to apply to commuters whether they are on the road, at home or at work. Meaning that your ads will show to people who are physically at your targeted location in time of their search and also those who regularly travel to your targeted area even if when they search they are not physically there.
This means that if your ads target location is Nairobi Kenya, the people physically living in Nairobi will see the ad. The ad is also going to be seen by someone who searched for your target location which is Nairobi Kenya and lives in Nakuru but he or she travels to Nairobi regularly or passes by Nairobi to another location.
Google has changed “people in your targeted locations” option to “people in or are regularly in your targeted locations”. This is unlike the previous setting of “Reach people in your targeted locations” which only showed ads to people who searched for your targeted location and where there physically while they were searching.
This means that your location-targeted campaigns can reach people with ads targeted to their work locations when they are home and vice versa.
This will be a great win for Kenyans running Google Ads especially in the competitive markets like real estate, tourism, insurance etc who not only want people in a certain location, but can get business from people who frequent that location but live elsewhere.
Googles other services like Google Maps have been absorbed very well in Kenya, with most Kenyans using it almost daily to check traffic updates, new places and new roads to get to their destinations.