Tag: digital marketing

  • Pakistani digital freight marketplace, ‘BridgeLinx’, raises $10 million

    Pakistani digital freight marketplace, ‘BridgeLinx’, raises $10 million

    A Lahore-based digital freight marketplace called BirdgeLinx has raised nearly $10 million in the country’s largest round. The round was led by Harry Stebbings’ 20 VC, Josh Buckley’s Buckley Ventures, and Indus Valley Capital.

    According to the details, the deal was oversubscribed twice and even included the participation of Wavemaker Partners, Quiet Capital, TrueSight Ventures, Soma Capital, Flexport, Untitled, and some of the largest business groups of Pakistan, including Maple Leaf Capital. This included several angel investors as well as founders of Convoy (US-based freight marketplace) and Bazaar (Pakistani B2B marketplace) also joined the round.

    BridgeLinx enables businesses to move freight by connecting them with carriers such as truckers, owner-operators, transporters, and private fleets through its online marketplace. The startup was launched nearly nine months ago and already the startup has claimed to have onboarded thousands of carriers who are moving thousands of shipments every week.

    Moreover, the platform offers an end-to-end solution for load execution starting from matching payments whereas businesses can use the startup’s mobile app to book different types of vehicles to move their load. In addition, clients can track their shipments in the app and oversee all shipment-related documents.

    Salman Gul, co-founder and CEO of BridgeLinx stated the following:

    “With logistics averaging at 10 per cent of GDP globally, deploying technology to optimise and create visibility across global supply chains is a trillion-dollar opportunity. At BridgeLinx, we are on a mission to redefine the way in which businesses manage supply chains – from procurement and shipping to warehousing and distribution. Our journey starts with road freight in Pakistan, and the talent-dense team we are building is incredibly privileged to be backed by some of the best investors from around the world.”

    According to Harry Stebbings of 20VC: “For me, the best investments combine incredible, category-defining entrepreneurs with macro headwinds. BridgeLinx is just that – a team of phenomenal entrepreneurs operating in a space with limitless potential.”

    Indus Valley Capital’s Managing Partner Aatif Awan also added: “BridgeLinx has cracked the code for making end-to-end freight work in a hassle-free manner and therefore signed up some of the top businesses in Pakistan. We believe this team is well on its way to bring unprecedented efficiencies to the country’s economy and are really excited to partner with them.”

    As of now, BridgeLinx aims to utilise the funds in order to “consolidate its position as a market leader by broadening its product stack and expanding across additional verticals, segments, and lanes” as mentioned by the startup.

  • Facts that you did not know about Pakistan’s digital scene

    Moiz Sayed, who is Google’s Industry Head for Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka has shed light on what brands in Pakistan can achieve if marketers adopt a shift in mindset and break away from traditional forms of marketing and advertising in the digital era.

    Compared to the 90s, the way Pakistanis communicate and connect has changed drastically. “Pakistan now has 169 million cellular subscribers, 85 million 3G+ subscribers, and 87 million broadband, subscribers.”

    In the digital era, advertisement budgets appear to follow a traditional model, based on strategies that have succeeded in the past. “I’ve realised our industry believes Pakistan has limited internet penetration and poor access to smartphones, thus thinking digital won’t have sufficient reach.”

    Here are some of the facts presented in the article regarding Pakistan’s digital scene that you did not know :

    Fact 1 : Despite being in the digital era 65-70% of current ad spend being allocated to TV by default in Pakistan.

    Fact 2 : Most brands only leverage 20%-30% of the available reach on YouTube among their target audience.

    Fact 3 : Over 90% of the campaigns don’t capture their full target audience because of low funding. 

    Fact 4 : YouTube brand campaigns Drove an 89% increase in awareness and consideration of brands.

    Fact 5 :95% brands saw a significant offline sales lift after a YouTube campaign.

    Fact 6 : YouTube has a reach of over 36 million people

    Fact 7 : Watch time for YouTube has grown to 45% from 2019 to 2020

    How Nestlé Pakistan challenged traditional thinking

    The company focused on their Cerelac brand.They did a two-years of brand activity, which included studying media investments, impressions, sales volume, and revenue across TV and YouTube.

    This is what they found out :

     67% incremental increase in sales per dollar on YouTube than TV.

    The study revealed that even without increasing the overall media budget, they could improve the incremental sales per dollar by 21% by simply reducing the dark periods of online video.

    Constant coverage on YouTube could generate 40% more impressions per week than the 2019 average.

    A similar study from Nestle Australia revealed that in more than 93% cases, YouTube had greater incremental sales per impressions than TV.

    After the analysis, Nestle has since taken a more data-centric approach, rather than only relying on their past experience to guide their media strategy. Moiz suggests that experiment with new channels to keep up with ever-changing consumer behaviors.

    This article was originally published on Think with Google.

  • Here’s why you should market your business on social media

    Here’s why you should market your business on social media

    With emerging technology, social media is one of the best platforms to market your business. You don’t have to miss this phenomenal marketing strategy for your business growth. Here are some of the best reasons to market your business on social media.   

    1. Increased brand awareness 

    The best approach to discover the needs of your clients than directly speaking with them, is marketplace awareness. Market place awareness is to enhance your ability to assess the entire marketplace from a macro level. Primarily, the basic way to analyze this is to use Google keyword planner and Google trends. Google keyword planner will tell you how aware the market is on a very basic level. Implementing the right strategy will greatly increase your brand recognition since you will be dealing with a broad audience of consumers.

    2. Engaging with your customers

    Social media is the best route for drawing in and communicating with clients. Focusing on your social presence is extremely important. Moreover, you need to ensure that you have quality content. posting visual content (Photos/Videos) is a plus, you are more likely to grab customer’s attention through it.The more you interact the more possibilities you have of knowing their mindset, you can conduct polls and interact via comments. Set up a two-way communication with your intended interest group so their desires are known and their interests are satisfied easily. Besides, correspondence and commitment with clients is one of the approaches to win their consideration and pass on your message.

    3. Cost-effective

    Social media is one of the most cost-effective digital marketing methods used to market your product and increase your business visibility. Just by contributing minimal expenditure and time, you can essentially generate revenue. Invest less and gain more. All you need to invest is your time in creating quality content and interact with your customers. It will cut your marketing costs without sacrificing results.

    Improved brand loyalty

    The main goal of every business is to develop a loyal customer base. Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty go hand in hand, considering this it is very important to engage with your customers regularly for effective bonding. Delivering value to your customers should be your priority. Also, make sure that your brand is consistent.

    It is clear that social media marketing has its own advantages, so what are you waiting for? People who need to know about your brand/business are mostly using social media and your call will surely reach them with the right marketing strategies and approaches.