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5 reasons why tech companies need quality content for their comms strategy

While almost every business owner or manager has heard the modern day marketing phrase ‘content is king’, the tech industry still seems to be on the fence when it comes to executing content and communications strategies that produce desired results. This is in spite of compelling statistics — such as this 2022 Hubspot Marketing report — that shows that companies, tech firms and startups included, can drive growth with solid content marketing. 

If you’re a savvy tech firm/start-up founder or business operator, you’re probably considering content marketing to help promote your business, that’s if you haven’t made the leap already. But you might also be wondering if it’ll be worth the time, effort and money. We’ve brought you a few phenomenal benefits that will convince you that content marketing and communications in tech is indeed worth all the hype.

A brief foray into the world of content marketing

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – and ultimately to drive profitable consumer action.”

In the content marketing context, ‘content’ would be different kinds of information that is valuable and relevant to a clearly defined audience which in this case would be prospective customers,  clients or investors. The mediums used could be written articles, images, social media posts, infographics, videos and much more. 

The game changing words that differentiates content marketing from any other form of advertising is valuable and relevant. You provide content that is of high value and relevance to your audience. It is tailored towards meeting your audience’s needs or pain points with a few bits and pieces about your products or services here and there. If they find your content pretty useful, then there’s a higher probability that they’d buy from you. 

Content marketing and accurate brand communications in general, should be a significant part of any company’s marketing strategy but technology firms in particular, can benefit from exceptional content marketing. Investors and other major stakeholders will most likely spend some time researching a tech firm before engaging or investing. With the ever-widening information gap between the average person and new innovations in tech, buyers and tech solution users will go the extra mile in getting knowledgeable and gaining much needed insights from peers and of course, the internet before engaging with a tech firm. 

Why content? 

The tech industry is large, with more and more companies and start-ups being founded every day and each of these competing keenly for visibility and adoption by users. The tech market is jam-packed, dense and characterised by sheer noise. Companies that will succeed and stand the test of time have to really stand out. How can good content and communications make your tech firm or start-up distinct from the rest? 

It increases visibility

As mentioned earlier, the tech industry is a hectic space, full of people vying for attention – from users, customers, clients and of course, investors. This can make getting found – by users and investors alike – difficult. While paid searches and advertisements can help you stay afloat for a while, adopting a more sustainable approach through good content is the way to go. Good content can be the boost your brand visibility and awareness needs. 

If your company consistently creates valuable, high-quality and valuable content that are relevant to your target audience, you not only become the go-to person for them, you stand apart from your competitors. Consistent content creation and distribution is a fantastic way to establish your business as an authority and thought leader in your industry or specific niche. That’s a pretty powerful benefit. Knowledge sharing is key to help your business grow in prominence especially if you are in a saturated industry. 

Content aids PR

If you’re keen for the attention of local and international investors, you’d want them to be met with fascinating stuff when they check your company out right? An array of exciting content can help your tech firm with that. 

Another benefit is the fact that your tech brand’s content marketing strategy can serve as a tool to build exceptional public relations and disseminate company information to the public. New developments upcoming at your company? Post it on your company blog. 

Your business showcased at an Industry event? Place the video highlights on YouTube/social media. Had a particularly rewarding customer experience or received a great review? Put it on your blog. Planning to host an event? Your blog/video channel is a great place to post the press release and stir up interest. Let your email list know about it too! 

More than selling, your content and content channels can help humanise your brand and tell your company’s ongoing story. 

Content is key to brand messaging

Brand messaging is critical for modern day tech startups because at first glance, tech products and services almost always come across as too technical or complicated for users to understand. A recent Hubspot research found that 47% of buyers look at three to five pieces of content before they make a direct contact to the company and if the content they see isn’t engaging or useful to them, they probably won’t. Beyond the technicalities of a tech product or service, users want to get acquainted with the company behind a tech product or service. Great content is a fantastic way to provide help and support information for people looking to use your products or engage your services and also solidify your tech brand’s voice and identity. It helps to refine and fine tune your tech brand’s messaging, such that prospects can find your brand relatable, friendly and welcoming, even if your products or service are a tad complicated. 

It adds value and trust

By creating educational, useful and high-level content for your prospects, you’re doing more than just market yourself. You’re positioning your tech firm as a company that is knowledgeable, can add value and most importantly, that can be trusted. When your content fulfills your target audience’s curiosity or helps them solve a pain point, you’re more likely to stay top of mind when they need your service. 21st century tech solutions customers and users want to feel empowered, they want to feel like your propositions are highly valuable or relevant to their specific situations or unique needs before investing in your service or products. If your firm’s online channels stand out as a place to get exciting, valuable information, customers will view you as an industry expert and be more inclined to trust/buy from you. 

Low cost & high ROI

In comparison to paid advertisements and other traditional forms of marketing, content marketing is relatively cheap. The cost might seem a little steep at the beginning, but the benefits span out into the long-run. Rather than a one-off approach to ROI, it delivers enduring and compounding results over the long term. For example, a regularly updated blogpost on your website can contain classic, informative content that helps drive prospective customers and users to your site months or even years after it was first written. Content marketing, when given adequate time to gain traction, can yield your initial Investments multiple times. 

A consistent and consolidated content marketing and communications strategy can be the real stand out point for your tech company. It can position your brand as an authority in your niche, attract more qualified leads for your sales or user engagement pipeline as well as improve your position on search engines and improve your brand’s general visibility online. 

How about jumping on the leverage content marketing and brand communications provides to fast track your tech company’s growth? We recommend hiring a great content creation company like Contentloft to get you started. Contentloft specialises in exceptional text content that connects your brand with intended audiences — creating awareness, driving engagement, and conveying the brand essence. We provide a broad range of writing solutions including business writing, script writing, transcription, content writing, proofreading and editing, content development consulting — that are of high-quality, well researched, SEO optimised and unique for local and international brands who seek to inspire their audiences to take action.

Xend Finance opens transactions in Ghanaian Cedis and Kenyan Shilling on mobile App

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The first international global crypto bank, Xend Finance just made another great stride in providing users in developing countries the opportunity to live above inflation. It announced the addition of the Kenyan Shilling and Ghanaian Cedis to the list of currencies for transactions on its mobile app.

This addition advances its mission of helping people live above inflation, despite the constant devaluation of their local currency. Previously, Xend Finance has taken Nigeria by storm, becoming one of the top downloaded crypto apps in the country before expanding to Ghana and Kenya.

Developing economies are no strangers to the plague called inflation. For instance, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) recently revealed that Ghana experienced a 23.6% inflation surge in April 2022, the highest since 2009. 

With inflation affecting the lives of countless citizens in Ghana, the addition of Cedis to the Xend Finance app ushers in a feeling of relief, especially with the realization that their funds can be unaffected by the devaluation of their fiat currency and the resulting inflation surge. 

Thanks to this update, Kenyans and Ghanaians can easily convert their fiat currency into stable cryptocurrencies like BUSD. Furthermore, it allows citizens in those countries to save in stable cryptocurrencies and earn up to 15% annual interest, compounded daily. 

The mobile app, which was released in December 2021, serves as a mobile wallet for carrying out daily transactions. With the support of activities like payment for deliveries, sending money to loved ones, and many more, users can carry out seamless transactions for even the most basic aspects of their lives. 

The addition of these currencies to the mobile app was done alongside the company’s expansion into Ghana and Kenya. In an interview at Joy 99.7 FM, a radio station in Ghana, Mercy Emmanuel, Head of Growth Xend Finance, stated that the company seeks to help Ghanaians and Africans in Africa “save value by saving your money in stable cryptocurrencies.” She further explained that saving value means saving the value of your funds such that they do not depreciate over time. And that is only possible when savings are made in stable currencies. 

As a global crypto bank, we are leveraging decentralized finance and blockchain technology to combat the menace of inflation in Africa. Inflation is a wealth killer in Africa but with the Xend Finance platform, we are able to help people hedge against inflation and moreso, make it work in your favour,Chima Abafor, Chief Technology Officer, Xend Finance. 

He goes on to say. “The addition of Cedis and Shillings to the app follows our commitment to solve the problems facing everyday Africans, living and earning in Africa.” 

Xend Finance’s goal is to provide blockchain solutions to everyday financial problems. This move is just one of many strategies the company has put in place to achieve this goal. Many more products will be announced before the end of 2022.

Havenhill Synergy, 4 others receive $2.3 million grant to power healthcare facilities across Africa

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Leading clean-tech utility and energy access company, Havenhill Synergy Limited, has been awarded grant funding from Power Africa through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the electrification of 50 primary healthcare facilities in Oyo State, Nigeria.

About 60% of healthcare facilities in Africa do not have access to electricity and of those that do, less than 30% have reliable access to electricity. In order for these healthcare facilities to deliver quality and efficient services, access to reliable electricity is important.

Similar to the grant funding received by the company in 2020, the funding will boost the scale up of the solar and energy storage systems to additional 50 primary healthcare centres in Oyo State using the energy-as-a-service business model. In addition, Havenhill will be injecting substantial equity & debt as counterpart funding alongside this grant provided by Power Africa in order to electrify the healthcare facilities.

“This is a win for the industry and the healthcare facilities to be electrified. We are excited for this scale-up phase of our Energizing Healthcare Initiative that will enable over 700,000 patients annually to receive better healthcare service. We are grateful for yet another opportunity from the Power Africa team,” said Olusegun Odunaiya, CEO of Havenhill Synergy Limited, while speaking about the grant. “We are delighted to further contribute to the improvement of the Nigerian health sector through the provision of reliable electricity that would aid the work of medical practitioners and caregivers and also impact the lives of those within the communities.”

As part of their Energizing Healthcare Initiative, Havenhill is committed to deploying clean-energy solutions to bridge the energy gap and improve healthcare service delivery across the country. In the past 2 years, the energy access company has deployed over 1MW of solar-hybrid systems across rural, peri-urban and urban healthcare facilities in South-West and South-South Nigeria. 14 Tertiary Healthcare Facilities in South-South Nigeria were electrified under the ‘COVID-19 and Beyond’ programme under the World Bank and African Development Bank Group-funded Nigeria Electrification Project.  

Havenhill will share the $2.3 million grant with four other companies with competence in healthcare facility electrification (HFE) — Aptech Africa, D.Light, Equatorial Power Ltd., and Solar Works B.V. — to electrify 245 off-grid healthcare facilities in Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Uganda.

Since its launch in 2010, Havenhill has recorded groundbreaking strides in the provision of reliable electricity to businesses, off-grid communities, industries and healthcare facilities. 

Vive Africa partners University of Sussex to release debut UK/Nigeria education sentiment report

Vive Africa, a full-service media and communication consultancy, recently partnered with leading UK institution, University of Sussex to release the debut edition of the Nigeria Market Sentiments and Study Motivations Report 2022

Conducted by Culture Intelligence from RED, the brand and market intelligence unit of RED | For Africa, the Report examines issues surrounding Nigerians studying abroad — especially in the United Kingdom — in the years following the COVID-19 global pandemic. The study polled over 4,000 teens, young adults, and adults from the six geo-political zones of Nigeria with active interests in studying beyond the shores of Nigeria. It reflects market trends, general conceptions, and preferences in the Nigerian tertiary education sector as it relates to acquiring foreign degrees — especially qualifications from UK universities.  

An overwhelming majority of respondents (89.87%) expressed their interest to study abroad, with a large percentage (65.52%) noting that they were looking to get an undergraduate degree abroad while 34.48% said they were open to pursuing postgraduate qualifications. The study sample size was made up of prospective undergraduates, undergraduates, new graduates, early career professionals and Master’s degree candidates. 

Tosin Adebisi, Senior International Officer (Africa & The Middle East), University of Sussex, noted that the study was aimed at providing stakeholders on both sides of the spectrum — prospective students and international institutions — a treasure-trove of useful data and insights that are crucial to decision making. 

The study outcomes point to many well-known, as well uncommon trends in the way people seek international education. We are delighted to have this study in partnership with Culture Intelligence from RED and other stakeholders, and we believe it would further underscore our commitment to Africa, especially Nigeria which boasts of a considerable number of University of Sussex alumni,” Adebisi said.  

The study revealed that the most preferred destinations for Nigerian students are the United Kingdom (32.71%), Canada (16.67%), United States (16.54%), Germany (10.60%) and Australia (7.96%). Other countries, mainly Turkey, Hungary, Finland, Cyprus, Italy, France, Lithuania, Ireland, Poland, Estonia, Greece, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway and China, also came into consideration. 

Majority of the respondents agreed that factors such as general insecurity in the nation, slow economic growth, and economic recession, combined with the numerous limitations of the country’s education sector, have triggered their desire to acquire academic qualifications outside the country. 

The UK/Nigeria study motivations report is the first indigenous report that looks deeply into the issues that influence people’s choices regarding the institution they intend to study,” said Isime Esene, Chief Intelligence Officer at RED | For Africa. “We hope that the study not only contributes to contemporary discourse as it relates to both countries, but ultimately serves as a valuable resource for all stakeholders with interest in the development of the Nigerian education sector.” 

Bobby Mehta, Chair of the British Universities’ International Liaison Association (BUILA), added that the report brings to fore the key factors that inform students’ choices to study in the UK. “The report presents us an opportunity to respond effectively to the changing dynamics we are witnessing in the international education sector particularly as it relates to Africa in the post-COVID era. It validates our efforts towards developing increased synergy with relevant stakeholders with a view to making the UK the leading study destination across the world,” he added. 

With a focus on the profile of the average Nigerian seeking foreign academic qualifications abroad, the study revealed that Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics are amongst some of the most popular course options for international education in both the undergraduate and postgraduate categories with Arts (Fine and Applied), Social Sciences and other related courses remaining a growing sector. 

The report which has been cited on leading global education sector platforms including ThePIENews is available for download HERE