GhostDraft, a South African company, has established itself internationally – specifically in the insurance industry – but wanted to create a local presence across various sectors, to showcase their capabilities and expertise in Customer Communication Management (CCM), and the company partnered with DUO to achieve this through an integrated PR and Digital Marketing approach.
With the primary goal of achieving brand elevation and credibility, GhostDraft agreed to quarterly focus areas with regular reviews. The first year was dedicated to strengthening awareness of GhostDraft’s solutions among local enterprise decision makers, through traditional media and digital platforms.
Strategy as the foundation
Laying a strong foundation was fundamental to success, and in order to align, DUO held a full marketing strategy workshop in order to understand GhostDraft’s business at the start of the engagement. This included identifying key differentiators, developing key messaging to relevant audiences, determining objectives, defining metrics and measurement, and sharing a recommended approach and ideal tactics to achieving client goals.
With a thorough understanding of the business, DUO could draft insightful, relevant thought-leadership articles to position GhostDraft spokespeople as industry experts in CCM (a term which was not yet well understood in SA media and business), securing a strong media presence in vertical titles, channel media, mainstream enterprise business publications and relevant platforms. This included securing feature opportunities in key industry publications such as Brainstorm Magazine and Intelligent CIO, where it was one of the most-read articles.
Familiarity with the business, its areas of expertise also allowed DUO to take advantage of trending news (Newsjacking), such as the growing pervasiveness of AI (Artificial Intelligence), in order to secure broadcast media interviews with company spokespeople. One of these opportunities included a Business Day Spotlight podcast episode dedicated to unpacking AI and CCM expertise. Another highlight was having GhostDraft co-founder Mark Todes featured in TechCentral’s TCS Legends podcast series, focused on leading figures who helped shape South Africa’s technology industry.
Testing to prove the value of digital
Building GhostDraft’s digital presence in South Africa included the creation of a local LinkedIn Company Page, with organic content focusing on building awareness of the brand, educating audiences around the concept of CCM, highlighting solutions and key differentiators, and amplifying secured news coverage. In one year, DUO achieved over 20,700 organic LinkedIn impressions and more than 1,500 organic engagements.
Through testing and designed images provided as added value, DUO was able to demonstrate the benefits of investing in graphic design for organic posts, with such content types outperforming the previously used stock imagery in terms of reach and engagement. Similarly, a paid LinkedIn campaign was carried out to prove the effectiveness of advertising on the platform in order to place the brand and its key messages in front of relevant audiences.
DUO worked closely with GhostDraft in order to initially develop and then continue refining the audience to ensure that only the most relevant members were being reached by campaigns, based on the overall objective and messaging. Attributes such as job title, job function, job seniority, company and company size were used to reach senior decision makers and influencers at local insurers and financial services companies – while still aligning with LinkedIn’s best practice around audience sizes and hyper targeting.
These efforts combined have helped build brand awareness and credibility for GhostDraft in South Africa, both among the media, as well as relevant enterprise audiences on digital platforms such as LinkedIn, setting the foundation for future lead generation campaigns.
Wayne Toms, GhostDraft CEO, said: “Over the last year, DUO has enabled us to achieve exposure in the South African market to audiences we could never have reached otherwise. Your extensive networks in the tech media industry, your insightful contributions to our articles and thought leadership pieces, your proactive management of our monthly goals and targets, and your wise guidance to us as we embark on our PR journey have all been invaluable”.
Looking to boost your exposure, and credibility across consumer, SMME and enterprise audiences? Contact DUO to chat about the potential of an integrated business and consumer PR and digital campaign to give your tech innovation and expertise a voice in the market.
