Traditional vs new online marketing technology

September 5, 2008 by Liberty Chirove ·
Filed under: Business, Technology

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As someone involved in IT, I try by all means to convince other people to do likewise. It is said Zimbabwe, and Africa as a whole lag behind in ICT usage. According to Zimbablog,”It is said that less than 2% of ALL content on the web is from Africa.” Does this mean Zimbabeans or rather Africans resist to change?

Early this year, I was having a meeting with one big dhara in the tourism sector. I wanted to offer him online marketing services. He seemed not to be in the room and nodded all the way till the meeting ended. At the end, I was suprised when he simply said, “Send an email to my secretary and she will print it for me to read.” I looked around his office and noticed the dude had no computer on his desk.

Also one of these days when I subscribed a cousin of mine to a new service launched by Lists of Africa, an email group called SuddenlyZW that enables anyone who signs up to send short email messages advertising goods and services to thousands of potential customers, he unsubscribed from the mailing list. He said it was boring receiving emails from people you don’t know.

Well, I met him a couple of days ago, and he asked to be subscribed. I asked him why? he replied,”I’m looking for a house to rent.” Glad he realised the importance of that much like a DIY classifieds service.

I have noticed,not many people advertise on the internet or use online services to market or advertise their stuff. Many rush to print (Newspapers), radio and TV. Of course, I believe we have more Zimbabweans with access to these resources than the internet but, this country is full of great innovative minds in the IT industry. For example, with SuddenlyZW, you don’t have to worry about rushing to a print publication to book your advert or the amount you will spend on that. Just by clicking, you send your advert to thousands of people who in turn respond instantly simply by responding to your email.

I dream of a day when I get to work or home and check the newspapers on the internet, do my proper banking and shopping online, among other things. Let’s push forward the internet/ online culture.

Last but not least, thanks to Zimbablog for this new initiative. Hope to share views and ideas in growing Zimbabwe, especially from the IT/web side.

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