Month: October 2022

Why you should partner with Bookings Africa today 

Posted on by Sandra Adodo

 

 

In September 2022, Google announced Bookings Africa alongside other startups as beneficiaries of the Black Founders Fund Africa. While this might be popular, we thought it would be great if you also understood what we do and why you need to partner with us today. 

Bookings Africa is Africa’s largest online gig marketplace, connecting brands and clients with top talent to meet their business and industrial needs. We use cutting-edge technologies that allow clients to Search, Compare, and Book service providers without having to haggle. Our app makes it simple for service providers to be booked. Interestingly, we have amazing features that are unique to our platform which aid in simple and quick bookings. Visit our website to learn more about our services.

 

Some of the reasons you should partner with us include 

Track record of consistent successes 

In our Estee Lauder blog post, we revealed to our readers how our partnership with this top beauty and skincare manufacturer resulted in a significant increase. Our results at Bookings Africa are evident to the blind as we were able to scale our partners’ brands. 

We contributed to the success of the blockbuster film “Blood Sisters” in 2021 by giving the cast a tight deadline. Without a doubt, we provide the solutions our clients require to have faith in us and focus on other business activities.

 

Easy Bookings of top talents in various fields

Our digital solutions also include matching professional talent with the appropriate clients. The testimonials on our website amplify this point and demonstrate that we are exceptional at what we do. Currently, the platform has over 46,000 service providers with in-demand skills that clients are looking for. Signing up as a freelancer or client is simple, and you can start immediately.

 

Provision of quality influencers for your brand 

At Bookings Africa, we have a one-of-a-kind influencer marketing strategy. We have provided influencers for Betway, Mac cosmetics, Essenza, Coca-Cola, and many other brands. Before deciding to use an influencer for any campaign brief, we ensure that the influencer is tailored to the brand’s objectives. You can read the feedback of these listed brands to get a sense of the quality we always provide.

Bookings Africa is the future of digital work. Now is the time if you haven’t booked talents, partnered with us, or trusted us with your brand’s marketing through influencing. You can contact us via chat or direct message on any social media platform. 

We are ready to provide you with the best solutions for all of your business needs.

Types of Influencers

Posted on by Sandra Adodo

The influencer marketing industry seems to be taking giant strides into becoming one of the most frequently used industries every year. With this increase and the significant impact influencer marketing has had on the rise in profit made by different organisations; other brands are considering investing in the market.

While that seems like a good idea, you must note all the different types of influencers and how they best suit your business. Read on to see how to begin your search on the right influencer.

Categories of influencers and when to use them

 

There are four distinct categories of influencers available in the influencing industry.

  • The Nano influencers

These are the smallest category of influencers with followers between 1k and 5k. This type of influencer is excellent for businesses trying to target a specific audience that the nano influencer is managing. This influencer will do well with a particular product because of the credibility they have built with their audience and the consistency in representing a type of product. For small businesses with a small budget or those willing to pay with their products, partnering with a nano influencer will be cost-effective and be a reasonable positioning.

 

  • The Micro-influencers

These types of influencers are the ones with about 5k to 50k followers who are also committed to the content produced. Like the nano influencers, the micro-influencers also have a high engagement rate and are committed to communicating to their followers better. If the budget for influencing is a little above that for nano-influencing, the best option is to go for the micro-influencer category. If your company’s audience is active on social media, sourcing micro-influencers from the platform where they engage more will be a great move.

 

  • The Macro influencers

If you want to reach a larger audience of 50K to 500K followers, macro influencers will help your brand. These influencers have a strong understanding of influencing and would produce excellent content to promote top brands. All it takes for your brand to gain traction through these influencers are a few posts, and the message will be spread. However, because of the high level of engagement produced by the macro influencer, the budget required will be higher than for the micro or nano influencers.

 

  • The Mega influencers

This type of influencer reaches beyond your local community. They have a fan base of more than 500K followers and would get several reposts from loyal followers. Most influencers in this category are known as celebrities and usually have verified social media pages that show they are major influencers. Before partnering with mega influencers, you must sign legal documents as they are also brands. Note that you must exercise patience when working with such brands, as they are usually on different projects simultaneously. But they are worth the budget, especially if you want to reach a wider targeted audience at once. 

 

How to source for the different categories of influencers

 

The next big question is how to get the right influencer for your business. 

Depending on the budget, you can get nano-influencer by scrolling through the different influencers on social media or you can choose an employee who is ready to target your brand’s audience and has the range specified for nano-influencers.

For micro-influencers, the fastest way to reach them is through Instagram and the number of times they use your brand’s hashtags. If they fall into the category of micro-influencing and they already have an interest in your brand, then you can partner with them.

You will find macro influencers on Youtube, Tiktok, Instagram and any other platform used by content creators. By using platform tools, you can locate them quickly but check if they align with your brand’s goals before partnering.

Mega influencers are easily found as they occupy the social media space largely. If you have the budget and they are the right fit for your brand, you can get them on board effortlessly.

Bookings Africa has a bank of influencers that you can partner with for any influencing gig be it nano, micro, mega and macro influencers. Search, Compare and Book verified  influencers suitable for your business.

Freelancers or Employees: Whom Should You Hire?

Posted on by Ugochi Obilonu

This is a long-standing debate that has left many business owners perplexed. Oftentimes, employers wonder if they should invest in hiring freelancers or full-time employees as their foremost challenge is a performance difference. At the end of this article, you will get a better understanding of what to do as regarding hiring labour.

 

Are Freelancers your employees?

While we all know what traditional employment generally entails, the dynamics of navigating working with a freelancer are quite different. Before you consider only hiring freelancers at your organization, it is important to have first-hand knowledge about how freelancers work.

Freelancers consider themselves partners as opposed to employees. Most freelancers start the practice because they want to achieve financial and time freedom. They would usually set their working hours, determine their pay rates and also decide the scope of the work or services they will offer to the employers. 

Employers of labour will usually hire freelancers for project-based work that have stringent timelines. You will also see freelancers being hired when companies are short-staffed and have to deliver on a project. 

Since freelancers consider themselves partners, they would usually strive to meet the client’s demands excellently as they know that they could get referred. 

 

Pros of Hiring Freelancers 

There are a few perks to hiring freelancers. Some include:

  1. Reduced Costs: By hiring freelancers, organizations can save overhead costs. Freelancers can work from home rather than from the office; thereby, saving the company a few bucks from running their building.

 

  1. No Employee Benefits: Since freelancers work on a temporary, project-based job, there is usually no need for an employment contract upon job resumption. Freelancers have no access to health benefits, pension payments, or add-on work benefits. Freelancers are also responsible for paying their taxes as well. At the end of the projects, they are paid the amount they requested. This also saves employers some costs.

 

  1. Simple Hiring Process: All a company needs to do when hiring staff is to contract the services of a freelance company such as Bookings Africa: Search, Compare, Book. You find a suitable freelancer, hire and get on with the project. This is a simpler process than employing traditionally. Recruitment costs companies money, time, and resources and as such, most companies would rather hire a freelancer.

 

Challenges of Hiring Freelancers

Just like life, nothing is perfect. The same goes for hiring freelancers. Some of the challenges listed below can be managed when they arise. 

  1. No Organizational Growth: For a company looking to grow and expand, hiring freelancers might be a futile pursuit in the long run. You cannot desire to cut costs at the expense of your business growth. Freelancer hiring is often short-term. Establishing Company Culture becomes difficult when the hired personalities have no desire to grow or establish the business, learn the work culture, or adapt to the company’s values. In the long run, no business grows on temporary employment.

 

  1. Unavailability/Unresponsiveness: Most freelancers set their working hours. Deciding to work with a freelancer is deciding to work on their terms. If an urgency ensues, there’s no guarantee that the employer’s urgency will be responded to outside of the freelancer’s work hours. It’s best to delegate time-sensitive work to full-time employees as opposed to hiring a freelancer in such a case.

 

  1. Lack of Effective Communication: Employers will most likely encounter challenges in communication during the tenure of work with a freelancer. What we believe can salvage such an occurrence is signing a detailed contract before work kicks off.

 

Pros of Hiring Full-Time Employees

  1. Loyalty: Full-time employees are expected to be committed to the organization’s growth. Unlike freelancers, whose loyalty lies with the highest payer, employees are expected to be loyal to only their employers and not dabble in issues of conflict of interest.

 

  1. Cost-Effective: After some time of hiring only freelancers in any business, the organization might soon realize that is cost-ineffective and will eventually resolve to hire full-time employees. 

 

In conclusion, it is best to hire a blend of employees and freelancers depending on the gravity of the work at hand. It is also important that employers take into consideration, the financial, behavioural, and company-standard implications of hiring either a full-time employee or a freelancer.

Grow Your Business Using Influencers

Posted on by Ugochi Obilonu

Marketing as we know it has evolved over the years. Many businesses have emerged across several industries and the competition is steep and fierce. 

To be top of mind to your target audience, your marketing strategies must be direct, frequent, and effective. The ‘top dogs’ in business are pulling all the stops to ensure that they retain existing customers and attract new customers. Hence, these businesses have also incorporated influencer marketing into their marketing alongside other marketing.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Before we address what influencer marketing is, it is best to define who an influencer is. 

An influencer is any person who has a large following online, is recognized or known for their creative content, and is able to affect the purchasing power of the community they have built for themselves. Now, it is important to note that not all celebrities are influencers, and certainly, not all influencers are celebrities but influencers can work their way up to becoming celebrities. 

Influencers are online sensations popular for their ability to create engaging content that keep audiences glued to their pages. Influencers care about their reputation & online community, and will most likely only endorse or collaborate with brands they trust.

Influencer marketing is a collaboration between a brand and an influencer to promote a product(s) or service. The influencer creates creative content that their audience can relate to, and will influence them to either purchase the specific product or use the service.

The whole point of influencer marketing is for brands to reach existing or new markets in a more personalized way than digital ads; using the services of influential people in the industry they want to target. Influencers will usually have a niche. These niches include lifestyle, fashion, education, etc.

 

Reasons for Influencer Marketing

There are several reasons why a brand should engage in influencer marketing. The top reasons will include to:

  1. Create brand awareness 
  2. Market a new or existing product
  3. Illustrate the use and importance of a product or service
  4. Amplify the effectiveness of a product or service

 

Is Influencer Marketing Effective?

In the end, business owners just want to know if the risk is worth taking. 

According to Influencer Marketing Hub, influencer marketing was worth $13.8 billion in 2021, and businesses are making about $5.78 ROI for every $1 spent on influencer marketing. That sounds unbelievable, right?

 

But there has been a 465% increase in searches for the phrase “influencer marketing” on Google alone since 2016. 90% of survey respondents believe influencer marketing to be an effective form of marketing. 67% of brands use Instagram for influencer marketing. 1360 Influencer marketing-focused platforms and agencies entered the market in the last 5 years alone and every other day, someone is trying to start a career as an influencer.

 

 

How to Grow Your Business with Influencer Marketing

With all the information in this blog post, you are probably wondering how you can start using influencer marketing to grow your business and we’ll share that in a bit. 

The first step to a successful influencer marketing campaign is understanding which influencer is suitable for your marketing campaign. Without this, the campaign might be ineffective and capital investment wasted. 

By choosing the right influencer, we don’t just mean the person but the influencer category. The individual is also important but that is a minor challenge compared to choosing the wrong category.

After determining the suitable influencer for your campaign, launch your campaign in the following ways:

  1. Engage the influencers or use an influencer marketing agency such as Bookings Africa. 
  2. Create an influencer brief stating the deliverables of the influencers
  3. Distribute the products to the influencers
  4. Initiate posting on social media
  5. Track the results

 

Collaboration: The Key to Business Growth in Africa

Posted on by Sandra Adodo

Launching a new business in the African market or anywhere in the world is a great move but building it requires more than your internal business team. The key you need to more growth is business collaboration. According to a high growth study conducted in 2022, business partnership ranks among the top ten techniques every business needs to grow in this age and time.

Interestingly, the technique of business partnership didn’t just begin in the 20th century; it has been a significant pillar used by ancient reputable businesses to scale up hundreds of years ago.

The idea is simple; every firm needs something another firm already has, and the best way to get it is to partner with the firm and grow mutually. This is more like trade by barter, but it has been proven effective today.

The major drawback in all these juicy benefits of partnering with other businesses is collaborating with the wrong fit for your company. To succeed in business growth through partnership, you must get the right partners and build strategically.

This article will delve into choosing the right partners and how best you can work with your business partners to achieve explosive results. Ready? Let’s get to it!

Choosing the right partner

The ideal business partner will do one or all of the following for your business;

  • Promotion 

Every business needs to be promoted one way or another, and it can be achieved through strategic partnerships. If you are just launching your business, you need a partner with a larger audience that can promote your product to more users. If your business needs to promote a specific product, you can partner with podcast, TV or radio stations to help with the promotion while you also contribute to the mutual relationship.

 

  • Distribution

You can also build a partnership with businesses to help distribute your product. This is a step further from promotion, as the distributors will ensure your product gets into the hands of their available audience. In this partnership agreement, your firm brings the sale while the distributor ensures the product gets to the end users. We at Bookings Africa use the power of influencing to get our products to the right audience. Partnering with us as the “marketer” will be seamless because we would do the heavy lifting with influencing while you focus on making the products solid and saleable.

 

  • Visibility/social appearance

This 21st-century partnership is the most common form of collaboration, as you wouldn’t need to be directly connected to the partners before you can build your business in the process. What this means is that you affect the community, and it automatically brings the audience you need and helps you sell your product. It could be through sponsorship of events, giving to an organization or other similar projects. In 2021, Bookings Africa partnered with Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSEFT), the University of Lagos and MTN to give back to the community by providing digital literacy. This partnership was aimed to help over 500 small Lagos businesses with smartphones that also act as POS machines. This type of partnership is also very effective.

How to collaborate effectively with potential business partners

Having discovered what kind of partnership you need for your business; the next milestone is to connect with the partners as soon as possible.

  • State The Goals of Both Partners

It is essential for every partnership to begin with a clear understanding of partners’ goals. If you need to share your brand manual to understand how to promote your business, then do so. Ultimately, both companies must know how they fit in and what they can do to help in fueling mutual growth.

  • Share Resources

If you want to grow faster, you need to understand your partners, and what they need to run effectively, then share the assistance needed. Even if there is already an understanding of the role of the partnered companies, it is also vital to ease off each other’s stress by sharing information. 

  • Strengthen the partnership

At every opportunity, show your partner that your company is a great asset. Let them observe the successes that have been achieved since the partnership began. In the same way you focus on your business growth, you should invest in doing the same for your partners.

Business collaborations are proven ways every business needs to build its growth. Whether you are a small business or just launching out, follow these tips to make your company grow faster and reach the desired goals. Happy collaboration!