TiE Conference: Marketing in the 21st century

Created by umair.shah under General Discussion

The tech industry within Pakistan is very small with major industry players knowing one another very well. As a result, the entrepreneur and technology activists often get together showcase their ideas and get some input. One of the key facilitators for such events has been TiE – The Indus Entrepreneur. Recently, they invited the elite of the tech world to get together at the Royal Palm Country Club to get a firsthand perspective of online marketing for local tech companies. The keynote speaker was Carlos Cashman, an experienced venture capitalist with quite a few successful companies launched in this time. He aimed to provide an overview into how online marketing can easily help reach international and local customers while providing a strong focus on the metrics to ensure measurable ROI. Along with Mr. Cashman’s keynote speech some of the key players in the industry were also moderating a Q&A session afterwards including Zafar Khan from Sofizar, Badar Khushnood as Google’s local country consultant, and Amer Sarfraz from Bramerz.

Although the focus was for local technology evangelists in Pakistan, the techniques and ideas discussed clearly are applicable for any company that plans to utilize the concept of online marketing to generate leads. The concept holds significant weight in Pakistan considering the year on year growth for local Internet users is in the triple-figure growth rates. With the number of mobile users also exponentially growing every year – an impressive 252% growth every year – it’s pretty clear that many people will move towards a digital front where traditional marketing channels will slow down. Looking specifically at Pakistan, digital marketing is looking to overtake traditional radio ads – it’s a staggering feat considering that digital marketing and high-speed broadband Internet has only taken off in the last 3 to 4 years.

The focus remained on how companies need to maintain a strong numerical side for digital marketing considering that almost any metric can be measured. Cost Per Click or Cost Per Thousand Impressions was also another area discussed which showed how local companies could easily reach international customers. Along with these concepts, the focus on maintaining a variety of options for testing was prominently brought up. This is an important concept considering that the metrics of website design can change how customers interact and view a company’s webpage.

However, the most interesting point made by the panel was that most companies attempt to become excessively visible through SEO (Search Engine Optimization) while ignoring their key focus. Considering that contract services and business process outsourcing continue to form the majority of the revenues for most local companies, it’s a very strong reminder to maintain a clear focus. The general approach is to find the “long tail” of the market and cater to them. By doing so, you build a market reputation which helps bring you into the mainstream. An example is a web design company who constantly works to bring their SEO to the top while ignoring their specialty in the actual web design. The company should look to find customers through their portfolio and services rather than SEO. Once the customers start rolling in, they automatically garner more business. If they were that good at SEO then they shouldn’t be in the web design but rather in SEO.

After the keynote speech and the Q&A session, there was opportunity to network with some of the key players in the industry. It was great talking with some of the leading minds about how they approach the industry and what they’re doing to revolutionize Pakistan’s digital image.

Such events help refresh the focus on how local businesses can easily capture international clients without having to create a presence abroad which is cost-prohibitive. The insights given by the experts have certainly refined some of our strategies and given us food for thought. We’re looking forward to the event organized by TiE.