Muscat - The Marketing Team at Knowledge Oasis (KOM), the Rusayl-based Technology Park, suggests the global move to digital means that more Omani businesses and government organizations will be going online to communicate their offer live.
Ibtisam Al Faruji, KOM's Marketing Director and organizer of the Park's quarterly Digital Nation Seminar Program says: "The web is moving from experience to participation. The upshot of this trend for local business and government marketers is the need to communicate and interact online in real time as effectively as they would face-to-face with prospects, customers and colleagues."
In an effort to encourage digital marketing, KOM is holding an introductory seminar on the topic on Sunday 28 February at the Muscat Grand Hyatt Hotel. "We've Yousef Tucan, CEO, Flip Media, the Middle East's leading interactive agency presenting - he'll also be interviewed by Cisco's Graham Porter, so, it's going to be a highly interactive evening. The seminar is free of charge and open to all," added KOM's Saif Al Riyami.
Given the current economic climate, more and more local marketers are meeting over the web using video, uploaded assets, chat facility, creating virtual meeting rooms, presentations, round tables and training. "It's not just about web conferencing," smiles Al Riyami.
But where is digital marketing heading? "it's impossible to predict more than a few months down the line," suggests Al Faruji, adding: "Just look at the power of blogs and Twitter. Even a year ago, the vast majority of local marketers had never heard of Twitter, let alone thought about introducing it as a sales and marketing tool. And it's not that long ago that Dell announced they'd earned over US$3 million through Twittering. So, isn't this a marketing tool firms and government agencies should be considering?"
So how does a business determine which digital elements to adopt and which to decline? By asking simple questions like what are our goals and objectives and are we looking in the right places to achieve these; where are the people I need to be influencing, at what stage of a sales process are they and what do they want to hear from us?
"If your customers are not on Twitter or Facebook then why waste your time using them as marketing tools? All too often, marketers and sales people spend their time telling customers and more critically prospects what they think they want to hear and not what they actually want to hear," says KOM's Marketing Director.
According to Al Faruji: "These are the issues Yousef will be tackling on Sunday evening. We want local businesses and government departments to have a stronger web presence and I'm confident Yousef will help push marketers in the right direction. Indeed, as a nation, if we want to compete on the global stage then we need a more robust web presence. It doesn't matter if you're promoting hotel rooms, car batteries, local cuisine, professional training courses or high-end frankincense candles and soaps - in today's inter-connected and wireless economy, digital marketing is a must," concluded Al Faruji.
-Ends-
© Press Release 2010
