BACKGROUND
Back in 2016 when we started Onesha, our mission was to help 1M+ SMEs in Africa have access to the best creative talent that the continent has to offer while helping thousands of creatives access paid work. We have now cemented this mission with a strong belief of helping create the next 1 million jobs in Africa while helping SMEs grow by working with the best talent there is in the market, on-demand. We believe this is important because the current methodologies and processes used to access the best designers, top web developers, skilled photographers and other professionals in Africa’s creative industry are currently broken.
We now have 100+ SMEs in five countries within Africa and outside Africa that rely on our network of 1000+ creatives who have helped founders, entrepreneurs and marketing teams execute 1000+ jobs on our platform. It’s our desire to partner with more businesses in Kenya and Africa at large that seek to work with world-class creative talent while keeping their creative and marketing budgets low.
COVID-19 APPROACH
It’s a privilege for our creatives to work with different businesses in these trying times to help them communicate effectively on digital and other mediums using different formats of content to pass out their message to customers, partners and various stakeholders. To unify how our creatives work with businesses be it the smallest task in graphic design to bigger projects like software development or marketing campaign design, we developed a simple framework to help them structure their creativity and thoughts centered around how the crisis unfolds. Get in touch with us on Whatsapp here or shoot us an email here (hello@onesha.co.ke) for complete guidance on how to apply this for your business.
COMMUNICATION
Connect with your audience
You and your business are probably impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, and you may be worried about how to sustain your business or how to stay connected with your audience during this time. Typically, audience acquisition and connection campaigns would increase spending as the COVID-19 eases out in various parts of the world. However, the current environment suggests more of an “audience connection” approach that intends to preserve awareness of what your organization does and stands for in order to keep your business at the forefront of people’s minds.Here is a post from one of our customers on how to create a connection with your audience at their points of interest based on what is happening at the moment.
Audience engagement
Research shows that current and potential visitors to cultural organizations are generally super-connected to the web. This means that they have access to the web at home, at work, and on a mobile device. Social media, web, and mobile web are their go-to channels for information. Thankfully, these are also channels in which cultural entities are able to be relatively agile in their messaging, continually promulgate content, and maintain connections with their audiences.
Current and potential visitors are active on digital platforms even when the nation is not wrestling with a pandemic. But in this time of social distancing, people may be using digital platforms to remain connected more than usual. Your business, therefore, needs to develop strategic content on how to keep the audience engaged in this period on various platforms, they will remember you when markets open. Here is an example of how our creatives are helping one of our Hotels& Resorts customers engage with their audience.
Frequent on-ground updates
Even when under quarantine, coronavirus shouldn’t shut down your brand’s strategy. Your audience still wants and needs to hear from you moreso any on-ground developments or important updates. Journalists need news stories outside of the pandemic to share with their audience.
So, don’t put your strategy in stasis. Look for ways to stay relevant to your audience. Explore what type of content your audience may appreciate if you were to broadcast it on your various communication channels.
Sure, there are going to be projects and plans that you have to put on hold — but that doesn’t mean your whole strategy needs to be, moreso important updates that matter and affect your audience either directly or indirectly. The sample posts below shows how one of our creatives is helping this brand communicate important on-ground developments.
Relevant updates
There’s no denying that these are tough times. When times are tough, it’s really common for brands to struggle with what to say, particularly on social media. Do you stick with your old messaging and pretend it’s still business as usual? (Hint: no). Do you commit your feed to only COVID-19 related posts from now on? (Hint: probably not).
Your customers are looking for ways to be social, to connect with others and even to be distracted from everything that’s going on. Social media is the perfect platform for brands to engage with customers in this way and create opportunities for now and into the future moreso by churning out updates that may make your audience take a second look at what you have posted,the example below is of the accounts managed by one of our network of creatives for one of our insurance clients.
Complimentary Industry Content
Look, we get it. You’re a business, and you have to make money to survive. we are not suggesting that you forget that entirely. We are suggesting (firmly) that the middle of a global pandemic might not be the best time to focus on the KPIs you’ve always held dear. Don’t discard them altogether; they’ll move back toward the top of your list eventually, but it’s in your best interest to assess what success looks like now versus what it looked like before. This is the time to compliment good deeds being done by industries that affect your business either directly or indirectly.The example below shows how onesha creatives are helping this business communicate using complimentary content along an industry that affects their direct operations.
Communication is essential during but also after the crisis. Onesha creatives helps you communicate with your audience key facts on the crisis. That way, they can have a better understanding of the crisis overall and how their attitudes and behaviours helped during the recovery process. By enhancing an open communication after the crisis, our network of creatives helps you share key learnings from the crisis with your employees, customers, partners and various stakeholders.
What’s next? Get in touch with us at hello@onesha.co.ke to get a comprehensive plan and guidance on how to develop effective communication strategies and content to get you through this crisis.
