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I was at the typical pre-event “meet and greet” at a conference. As I was enjoying a few drinks and networking – I ended up in a rather revealing conversation.
I asked their name (a waste of time, due to the prominent name badge) and enquired about what brought them to the conference. I proceeded to ask more questions because I was curious.
For the next 10 minutes, I was able to discover this person’s motivations and a bit about their background and life.
I was then asked a typical question that I was happy to answer. “So what do you do?”
I started to reply, only a few words into my first sentence before I noticed that their eyes were glazed over and they were scanning the room.
We’ve all met those people.
Your impression of them plummets as you know they don’t care about you or are even faintly interested.
You can do two things. Persist or leave.
I exited stage right.
The only person in the room
Occasionally we meet someone who makes us feel like we’re the only person in the room.
A simple but often forgotten practice. It’s not hard to do but its importance is lost in the ego. It’s a skill that is certainly not taught at school.
Bill Clinton was renowned for his charisma and engagement. When he was in conversation with someone the art of listening was on full display. He was not only able to achieve this “one-on-one” but he could also do it from the stage.
Focused active listening skills
What does that mean? Here are a few tips.
Start with healthy, friendly eye contact (one way of helping you do that is to ask yourself the question ‘What is the color of their eyes?’). But be careful not to stare too much or they will think you are creepy.
Ask open questions. Eg: What brought you to the conference?
Clarify their answers with tentative feedback to see if you heard them and are sensing the feeling behind their answer. Eg: “So I am suspecting that you maybe don’t want to be here as it was just a demand from the boss?
Listen for the response and if you hear words like, “absolutely” then you have nailed it. If you hear a phrase like “not really” then you have more to do.
Refrain from getting distracted by making sure your internal chatter is not ready to take over the conversation. While you are thinking you are not listening. Active charismatic listening is about them and not about you.
There is a lot more to the skill of listening but if you can keep a person talking about themselves for 30 minutes and then they say “I don’t know anything about you”, you have succeeded at communication 101.
You have suspended your ego for half an hour and as I have learned “Your ego is not you amigo”
And that is a superpower.
The problem?
Talking is overrated and listening is underrated. And this is why:
It’s not taught at school.
It is also something we often don’t learn from our parents.
It is largely ignored
It is time to change and we need a listening revolution.
We need to change the game
The art of listening is often seen as a secondary skill to speaking or presenting. That game needs to be flipped. If we listened more there would be fewer wars and more understanding.
We have courses and organizations that promote talking like “Toastmasters”, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But maybe we need a movement that celebrates more listening and less telling.
It’s a superpower
How do you feel when someone listens to you and understands where you are and what you do? Special. Engaged.
It is essential for nurturing personal relationships. Try applying good listening skills on a date and see what happens. You’ll have a much better evening and more sex.
It’s vital for professional development. Listen to all the smart people in your office and ask questions and listen and learn.
Salespeople that develop the skill of listening are some of the highest-paid employees on the planet.
Learn by listening to your clients. They don’t care about the features of your product or service. They only care about what it will do for them. So ask them questions and quietly listen. Let the silence do the work.
I did a course on listening after observing my father’s talking skills for decades. It changed my life.
What does it take?
So what does it take to develop the communication skill that isn’t often taught or talked about?
It starts with self-awareness (you may discover that you talk too much) and then that allows you to be aware of others.
On the other side of that is a world of growing, engaged personal and business relationships that will open the doors to a world of opportunity.
We now find ourselves in the digital age of music, which means consuming it is easier than ever.
It’s possible to access all types of music at a moment’s notice, both old and new – literally whatever music you want to access is at your fingertips.
There are several websites for streaming online music where you can find all sorts of songs and albums that you want to listen to. Spotify is one of the most popular.
Spotify boasts over 320 million users spanning 92 countries, which means it has gained a lot of traction on a global scale. It even lists global charts as well as charts by country.
Even still, on Spotify, you can do more than just listen, and it’s a popular social media network for musicians to expand their success.
On Spotify, many existing and emerging musicians release their work and get paid when users stream it, making it a viable way for thousands of musicians to make money. After all, people aren’t selling CDs anymore, so it’s tough to make money from music otherwise.
Spotify pay rates, however, are not very impressive, so if you want to be able to earn anything notable, you need a large number of streams and followers.
Achieving that, especially for new musicians, can be a daunting task. For that reason, there are plenty of websites that will give you the opportunity to buy Spotify followers, streams, and more.
It’s not as simple as that, unfortunately. When attempting to purchase Spotify streams or followers, you have to be especially careful that you don’t buy from a company that is out to scam you or take you for a ride.
Many social media growth companies just want to make a profit, so you won’t find much value there if you don’t choose one to provide you with real and valuable Spotify followers and streams.
After reading this article, you’ll know:
Why you need more Spotify streams and followers
What buying Spotify followers and streams from a reputable site looks like
The 11 best sites to buy Spotify followers (Click HERE to Jump to the List)
We want to help you make the right choice and protect your Spotify account and progress. Let’s get started!
Spotify, as we mentioned above, is a massively popular music streaming site with millions of global listeners worldwide. That gives you a unique opportunity to get seen by millions of people and take your fan base to a global scale.
What’s great about that is you can take your success to new heights; when you build fans all around the world, you could even potentially find yourself touring in new parts of the world and selling more merchandise.
Those are incredible benefits to having more Spotify followers and streams, but how does buying them help you get more over time? Let’s take a look at one of the biggest factors in getting more popular on Spotify – social cred.
Social Cred
Social cred, also known as social proof, is the reason why buying Spotify followers and streams can help you perform better on Spotify and get more and more attention over time. When you have a lot of followers, you become admirable, and people are more likely to buy into what you’re offering.
When you have more followers, your music looks more popular, and people will want to be a part of that community; people don’t like to feel like they’re missing out.
If your music has a lot of streams, people are going to want to check it out and see what it’s all about. That’s how having more streams can help you perform better.
Buying Spotify followers and streams can help you gain the necessary traction to draw in more people naturally over time, thus amplifying your popularity on the platform and in the music community.
Before you decide to buy from just any site, however, let’s talk about how to choose the right one, because you don’t want to put your Spotify at risk.
How to buy Spotify followers and streams from a reputable site
You will find websites selling all types of social media followers and engagements – you’ll see them for any social media network imaginable, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, SoundCloud, and more.
The problem is that this industry is notorious for having shady practices, and you can find companies who deliver low-quality followers and engagement, to nothing at all.
In order to maintain the integrity of your Spotify and build your credibility, you want to make sure that you’re getting real followers and high-quality streams, so you should buy from a reputable company that can deliver on its promises.
There are lots of options out there, but it’s worthwhile to do your research and make sure you know what you’re getting before you throw your money away.
We’re going to give you the top 10 sites for buying Spotify followers and streams so that you can have a solid list of 10 options that will without a doubt help your Spotify popularity grow to the levels that you’re hoping to achieve.
Let’s take a look and see what they have to offer!
Top 12 sites to buy Spotify followers
Below you’ll find our top 12 list for Spotify streams and followers. All of these sites can offer you valuable engagements that won’t harm your account; they all protect your security and deliver followers and streams that will help you grow.
BoostHill is a top Spotify promotional service provider that offers the fastest ways to get Spotify followers. They allow their customers not to buy just followers but also allow them to buy Spotify plays at economical prices. They offer a vast range of packages that start from lower prices, and they pledge to deliver real and organic Spotify followers for their customers.
Whether you belong to the USA or Canada, Italy or Nigeria, France or Germany, they offer a worldwide service to buy Spotify followers, which opens new horizons of listeners for you and help you to get success for your Spotify account. You can also buy plays on your playlists daily, weekly, or monthly.
Compared to other websites, they provide 24/7 support so that they are on their customer’s backs if they have any issue or concern related to purchasing Spotify followers. With their secure payment processing and aim to deliver 100% real and active users for their customers, they are making an outstanding image in the market. Moreover, they offer Spotify plays, Youtube subscribers, viewers, and many other social media platforms to deliver an exceptional promotional service to their customers with affordability.
They don’t need your personal information, especially passwords, yet they will ask you to paste your Spotify profile link so that you can place your order. Get 100% organic, non-dropable, and real Spotify followers to grow your channel from BoostHill by clicking here.
Our second pick for buying Spotify followers is Stormlikes.
They offer a range of packages. starting for as little as $2.61 where they guarantee fast delivery and real and genuine Spotify users.
When you buy Spotify followers from Stormlikes you’ll also get 24/7 support just in case you have any questions or concerns. They also follow the best practices for securing your account and making sure the followers you gain abide by Spotify’s terms of use.
Social Viral has some of the top results in social media growth. They stick to their slogan of “fast, affordable, & genuine” because they truly care about their clients and the service that they offer.
You’ll see a big change in your Spotify presence when you use Social Viral, and they truly care about what they provide. They’ll get you your Spotify followers and streams fast, in as little as 12 hours in some cases.
They are affordable, with 1000 Spotify plays costing you just $5.99. They also don’t mess around with fake users or bots, so everything you buy from SocialViral is genuine and high quality.
Social Viral builds trust and is a reputable company to increase your Spotify followers and streams. They’ve got tons of positive reviews, so they’re doing something right.
4. UseViral
With years of experience in social media growth, UseViral can help your Spotify reach new heights and help you achieve the goals you’ve always had for making money and getting more fans on the platform.
Remember, as we mentioned earlier, you need more streams and plays to make money on Spotify, so when you have more loyal listeners and followers, you’re likely to get more plays and streams, bringing in more income.
UseViral has a network of thousands of partners that help to provide you with real Spotify followers and streams so that you’ll keep growing; you don’t have to worry about fake or bot accounts.
UseViral doesn’t require your password so they keep your account totally safe, and they also deliver your order in a safe timeframe so that everything looks natural and kosher. You’ll also get 24/7 customer support if you need any assistance.
You can also buy playlist followers, artist followers, and monthly listeners so that you can get more comprehensive engagements to help boost your Spotify reputation. This is key in getting more followers over time and becoming a more popular musician.
When choosing packages on UseViral, you can pick anywhere from 500 followers for just $10 up to 10k followers for as low as $89. That’s a great way to boost your popularity!
You can also grow your cross-platform presence through UseViral, increasing your follower count and other engagements on YouTube, SoundCloud, Twitter, and more.
UseViral provides guarantees for its packages and are completely reliable and trustworthy for buying Spotify streams, followers, plays, and more. This is why they’re the top in the biz, and if you buy from them, you’re bound to love the results.
5. SidesMedia
You need to call SidesMedia when you’re trying to get your Spotify follower and stream count off the ground. They’re a reputable and effective company that will definitely make all the difference in your Spotify performance.
SidesMedia has built up an impeccable reputation since they’ve been in the business, which is years, and they’re now considered one of the top sources for all social media growth, including Spotify and other platforms.
They can help with platforms such as Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Soundcloud as well, among others. SidesMedia is without a doubt one of the ultimate choices for social media growth.
In just 72 hours, their Spotify followers and stream packages can be delivered to your account. Some of the packages you can choose from include Spotify monthly listeners, Spotify artist followers, Spotify playlist followers, and Spotify song plays, so you can choose what you think will work best for your account, or buy a bit of all four.
If you want Spotify artist followers, for instance, you can get anywhere from 500 followers to 10,000. The price ranges are super affordable and their delivery is totally safe and secure. They don’t require your password, either.
Your Spotify growth is in the best hands when you use SidesMedia. You’ll also get 24/7 customer support and many budget-friendly options when choosing your Spotify growth packages.
6. FollowersUp
FollowersUp is a fan favorite for Spotify followers and streams, and they’ll be able to offer you incredibly flexible packages through their sliding selector. You choose exactly how many you want to buy, and you can even choose how quick they come.
FollowersUp will provide Spotify playlist plays, playlist followers, regular followers, single plays, and monthly listeners. Since you have so many types of engagements and followers, you can build a well-rounded Spotify platform and reputation.
You can also enjoy a lifetime warranty on all of your purchases through FollowersUp, so if anything happens to your followers or streams over time, you’ll be able to count on them to back up their service.
FollowersUp is gaining popularity every day, and offers some of the best pricing and service options for Spotify and other social media platforms out there.
7. Media Mister
One of the oldest social media growth companies out there, Media Mister is a pro that has been around for ages. Not only can you get Spotify followers and streams, but you can also get pretty much anything that you want for any other social media network out there!
In terms of Spotify, you can get plays, followers, and saves, but it doesn’t stop there. You can choose what kind of plays, including options like track, album, playlist, or podcast. The level of flexibility is really top-notch with media mister.
Let’s say you’re looking for playlist streams. You can even select the target country from which the streams come from. That’s pretty cool in our book.
If you choose USA streams, you can get 1000 plays and up, starting at $4. That’s a fair price for what they’re offering on Media Mister, and you’ll see what the delivery timeframe is when you select the quantity.
Many social media growth companies adjust the delivery timeframe when you have more orders; this means that they care about your safety and that your account appears natural and reputable.
They have many payment options and all of them are secure, as is their site. Media Mister is a great choice for your Spotify and social media growth overall.
8. Social Packages
Social Packages is a social media growth company that has been in the business for a while, so they have quite a few regular customers that consider them to be a great growth option, especially for Spotify.
They have spent years developing a reputation for themselves and exploring what the market wants. They are probably one of the biggest promoters of social media and one that you can definitely rely on if you want to buy Spotify followers and streams.
They have a smaller selection of plans, but the quality is pretty noteworthy.
If you’re going to purchase Spotify plays, for instance, you can get 1000 plays for $10 and it goes all the way up to 10k. They offer quick delivery so you’ll get them within just a few short days.
Social Packages provides drop cover as well. You can rely on their 24/7 customer service to help you if you need anything in terms of replacement or help with your order.
9. Viralyft
When it comes to purchasing Spotify followers and streams, Viralyft is a top option among musicians on the platform. For other platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and of course, Spotify, it works well with no exception.
Viralyft will offer you a great opportunity to buy Spotify engagements and followers that provide you something of value. They are a bit on the pricier side, so they may not be the best option for everyone, as there are more budget-friendly options out there.
There are four choices to buy followers from Viralyft; the smallest package is 100 followers, and you’re looking at a price of $10. That’s pretty high for only 100 followers. Viralyft claims that these are all real people on a global scale, so that’s good.
They’re not the only ones that provide real followers, though, and you can definitely find more affordable options out there. They provide an awesome service, but if you need something that works with your budget, don’t be afraid to check out another option.
If you want to purchase streams for Spotify, there are 5 plans available for that, and you can get anywhere from 1000 to 100k plays starting at $5.
With drop safety, both the plays and the followers are protected. If you ever lose any stream or follower, the company will refill them to match the amount you paid for. Two more of their useful features include instant delivery and 24/7 customer service.
10. StreamKO
StreamKO will offer you many different options in terms of Spotify, as it has a service that is mostly dedicated to audio or visual social media sites. You can get Spotify plays, premium plays, or followers.
If a site offers you normal plays vs. premium plays, you should always take premium. If they have that distinction, they’re most commonly fake or low-quality. StreamKO has a bunch of different options and some requirements for their plays to take effect.
Check out the StreamKO website and see if their unique service is something that can work for you.
11. Venium
Venium is a newer company out there, but they’re well on their way to becoming one of the most popular options for social media growth.
They try to help you boost your account traffic so that your Spotify will gain more interest and get more followers and plays. They can help you gain a lot of popularity in a relatively short timeframe.
Venium offers a few different packages for Spotify plays as well, which include Spotify plays, followers, and monthly listeners. You can customize these plans and choose however many you’d like.
You can track your delivery via Venium’s tracking tool, which is a pretty cool feature that they offer their clients.
12. GetViral.io
GetViral takes our final spot on this list for Spotify followers and streams. GetViral makes purchasing easy and straightforward, and they offer high-quality services for other social media sites in addition to Spotify.
GetViral has services for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, among others. You’ll have eight options for Spotify growth, including plays and follower options. They give you drop protection and 24/7 customer support if you need help with an order.
You’re protected through their secure website and payment gateways, and you also can rest assured that your account will stay safe, as they don’t require a password to deliver your Spotify followers and streams.
Final thoughts on buying Spotify followers and streams
All in all, when you buy Spotify followers and streams, you’re giving yourself a leg up against the competition in terms of gaining more plays and making some money through your Spotify music.
Not only that, you’re building a bigger fan base that can lead to success in your musical career. Sometimes you just need a bit of a boost, and all of the 11 sites on our list can help you buy Spotify followers the right way.
Don’t mess around with fake or low-quality Spotify growth – choose a reputable company that is honest and cares about your success.
Guest author: Johnny Pulling is a serial tech entrepreneur who has been living in Serbia for the past 12 years. Passions are crypto and growth hacking to help companies succeed online.
A continent made of up 54 different and diverse countries comprising over 1 billion people.
The mere mention of that name elicits images of pot-bellied children with houseflies swirling around their mouths.
Wars. Poverty. Corruption. Hopelessness. Rooted at the bottom of every possible statistic.
Even though Africa boasts around 25% of the world’s population, it only accounts for between 3-5% of direct Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and carries 24% of its disease burden.
On 13th May 2000, The Economist, one of the world’s premier news magazines had a telling headline:
Africa: The hopeless Continent.
There were a lot of outcries on that headline, but few could doubt that the article rang true.
But no one could have predicted what would have happened just 10 years later.
Between 2000 and 2012, what happened in Africa was nothing short of revolutionary. More wealth was created in that decade than at any point in the continent’s history. For arguably the first time since the ’60s, that transformation was both bottoms up – new businesses and even whole new sectors sprung up spurning new unicorns such as in fintech (Cellulant) and telecommunications (the MTN Group and Econet Global) sprung up and engulfed the continent.
Governments finally began to get their act together and created the macro-conditions for this growth to take off- low debt, low inflation, and stronger democratic institutions.
GDP growth began to double, exports quadrupled, and public debt plunged to the lowest of any continent.
The change was so profound that it triggered an opposite headline from the same magazine.
On the 3rd of December 2011: Africa Rising.
This growth was also boosted by enthusiasm for technology (over 700 million mobile users – more than in the US or Europe), a boom in commodities – discovery of new swathes of oil, gas, and rare elements, as well as the arrival of new partners: China, India, Turkey, Indonesia and Brazil, and a fast-growing middle class.
However, post-2018, like almost every other continent in the world, the continent experienced significant economic hardships partly due to the widespread impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising debt levels, and soaring inflation.
For instance, the inflation rate in Ghana, one of the continent’s rising stars is now 34%, triggering Fitch downgrading the country to CCC from B- on 10 August 2022. GDP growth across the continent slowed to 3.3% last quarter.
However, the real story in Africa is in its power of innovation and entrepreneurship. Africa is by far the most entrepreneurial continent in the world, and many of its companies have had to use the most ingenious and innovative ways to overcome serious challenges and problems. They have had to do more with less.
The key to investing in Africa successfully is to investigate what major problems the continent faces and come up with ingenious ways, in partnership with like-minded Africans, to solve them.
In this article, we will discuss 7 sector opportunities, challenges to investments, and practical ways to invest to yield good profits, with purpose.
The opportunities literally are endless.
Investment opportunities in Africa by sector
Fintech
The rise and growth of Fintech in Africa has been nothing short of extraordinary. It is currently the fastest-growing start-up industry in Africa.
According to a 2022 report by McKinsey, African fintech companies have already made significant inroads into the market, with around 2,500 companies, an average penetration of between 3-5% (excluding South Africa), and an estimated revenue of between $4-$6 billion in 2020.
Even though many analysts say the market in Africa is becoming saturated, over 90% of transactions in Africa still involve cash – suggesting that the scope for expansion, scalability, and profits is only just beginning. There are also significant areas for more investment into more advanced sub-sectors such as insurance, retail lending, transport, full banking services, and credit scoring.
Notwithstanding, the fintech sector has opened massive opportunities for the financial sector and delivered significant value to its customers. COVID-19 has only accelerated this trend.
For instance, Sendwave, a popular money-remittance company with origins in Dakar, Senegal does not charge for remittances to Africa whilst offering very competitive forex rates, and the unicorns Flutterwave (Nigeria) and Cellulant (Kenya) have enabled selling online, processing payments and account management to be possible at up to 80% less cost than traditional banking across the continent.
Telecommunications and E-payments
Closely related to fintech in the investment space is a more traditional investment base: The mobile/smartphone. Over 800 million Africans now own a mobile phone, and companies such as MTN, Glo,Safaricom, and Airtel have dominated the African smartphone market.
However, the real innovation in Africa is not with the traditional smartphone but in human commerce and the shift in e-payments using the mobile phone.
Here, Africa leads the world.
Even though cash still represents up to 90% of transactions on the continent, electronic payments are increasingly displacing cash, generating around $24 billion in 2020.
East Africa has led the continent in this regard, with the famed M-PESA from Telecom giant Safaricom enabling money to be sent digitally across Eastern Africa at no charge. Countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania are also accelerating digital payments: mobile money transactions in Nigeria totalled 800 million in 2020, doubling from just a year ago.
This has led to a plethora of possibilities – Uber, Bolt, and Yacmo for fast affordable transport, in Ghana and Nigeria; Glovo for mobile food deliveries in Ghana and many others. However, despite all this activity, only around 7-10% of all payments in Africa were electronic in 2021, thereby signifying a major growth opportunity especially when digital infrastructure by companies such as Econet Global and being built at a record pace across the continent.
This growth is being driven by Africa’s young population who have a vociferous appetite for adopting new technology, new payment infrastructure being built at an astonishing pace as well as disruptive innovations such as bitcoin making inroads.
Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa are already in the top ten of Bitcoin trading globally, according to a Statista report in January 2021.
Healthcare
Africa carries a significant health burden. It only has 3% of the world’s qualified healthcare professionals but has 25% of its disease burden.
Furthermore, rising income levels and Western-style diets have meant that on top of infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS, the continent is beginning to witness an alarming rise in non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cancers, high blood pressure, and respiratory illnesses.
This has placed significant stress on Africa’s already strained health systems. Bad roads, lack of access to quality medicines, infrastructure, and treatment options as well as a lack of qualified personnel have also significantly added to the strain.
However, as is always the case in Africa, there is always a silver lining to this dark cloud – a string of innovations, resourcefulness, and creativity from African entrepreneurs sometimes bordering on the insane.
A huge opportunity, therefore, exists to bring these fascinating innovations from the fringes to the centre of African healthcare, which is worth $66 billion annually and could rise to $260 billion by 2030.
Massive opportunities exist in primary healthcare, access to medicines, diagnostic services, pharmacies, and many others.
Zipline is an African-based start-up founded in 2018 which bypasses Africa’s decrepit transport infrastructure to use unmanned drones to deliver vaccines, medicines, and other critical supplies to healthcare facilities throughout Ghana, Rwanda, and some parts of Nigeria.
It recently raised $ 190 million to expand its activities to Kenya, Nigeria, and more countries in Africa.
Mpharma was formed by award-winning Ghanaian entrepreneur Gregory Rockson in 2013. It is now a network of community pharmacies present in over 9 countries on the continent.
In 2019, MPharma interviewed across Africa and realised that 55% of patients preferred a community pharmacy as the first point of call to a clinic or hospital. Funders agree – the company has raised over $65 million, has close to 1000 pharmacies and drug stores across the continent, and has over 2 million patients.
In 2015, my company, BlueCloud Health, worked with 2 entrepreneurs who had just identified a problem – over half the medicines in Nigeria were counterfeit, made worse by Africa’s fragmented and poor pharmaceutical supply chains.
They founded an e-health drug procurement company called DrugStoc to tackle this problem. They recently secured a $ 5 million Series A funding to embark on an expansion drive to reach 100 million people within Nigeria, plan to expand outside Nigeria to West Africa in the next 2-3 years and are dispensing over 6 million prescriptions to Nigeria annually.
BlueCloud Health is also working with a Swiss-based investment firm, raising $30 million to bring to market a revolutionary diagnostic device birthed in Africa that can easily diagnose Tuberculosis.
Tourism
Tourism has long been one of the most important sectors in Africa – contributing an estimated 8.5% or $194.2 billion of the continent’s GDP in 2018, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
It was also the second-fastest growing region with an estimated increase of 5.6% in 2018 compared to 3.9% of global average growth. The growth potential is enormous: Morocco and South Africa, for instance, average between 10-11 million visitors per annum.
Boosting tourism investment in Africa requires a combination of ingenuity and an appreciation of its rich and varied culture – for instance, 2019 marked 400 years since the first enslaved Africans set foot in Hampton, Virginia in the US in 1619.
The government of Ghana, along with the US-based Adinkra Group, a tourism consultancy specialising in Africa launched The Year of Return, Ghana 2019, as a program for people of African descent in the diaspora to come to Africa and Ghana to reunite, invest and settle back on the continent. It was a huge success, with 1.9million tourists heeding the call, airport arrivals increasing by 45%, and $1.9billion added to the economy.
On a personal note, my family and I went to Ghana for a tourist holiday, and I was astounded at the quality of the top-end hotels and facilities we visited – local entrepreneur Samuel Afari-Dartey had spent $50 million to build two of Africa’s best holiday and tourism resorts Aqua Safari in Ada, Ghana, and West Africa’s biggest resort, Safari Valley “African Disneyland” in Akropong, Ghana.
The quality was second to none, as well as its occupancy – we struggled to get rooms, and both hotels were bustling.
The sector took a huge hit during the COVID pandemic, – $87 billion according to Statista – but with pent-up demand for leisure travelling, this could be the perfect time for investment in this sector.
There is huge potential for expansion – countries such as Rwanda, Angola, Gabon, Zambia, and Senegal have massive potential, and demand is set to increase in already established tourist hotspots such as Kenya, Botswana, Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt (who’s Sharm El Sheikh resort is hosting the COP27 climate conference in November 2022).
Agribusiness
The agribusiness potential in Africa is well understood, but not fully realised. The paradox is that Africa spends about $25 billion each year importing food, according to the World Bank, but nearly half of all economic activity in Sub-Saharan Africa is related to the agribusiness sector.
Hunger is still a major problem in many African countries even though the World Bank forecasts that by 2030 agribusiness could grow to become a $1trillion industry.
Conglomerates like the Olam Group, operate in 25 African countries and are well established. However, the sector has not had the same disruptive entrepreneurial models that fintech or even healthcare has. The sector is still dominated by greenfield smallholder farmers, who are unable to scale to the point where the proposition becomes attractive to large-scale investment.
These problems are also compounded by a fragmented, inefficient, and broken supply chain – an ‘infrastructure-deficient environment’ as Peter Njogo, CEO of Twiga Foods says on the podcast Built Tough.
It is estimated that 50% of fresh produce never makes it from farm to fork, an estimated wastage of $4bn annually.
Entrepreneurs are cashing in on these problems such as Reel Fruit, a Nigerian snack food start-up that recently secured a $ 3 million series A funding, and Ghanaian start-up Melach Coconut which supplies coconut products worldwide.
Maphlix, another Ghana-based start-up supplies fresh produce as far afield as the Netherlands, the UAE, and the UK and companies such as KFC and Shoprite.
Women-owned businesses
For every dollar invested in women, $25 goes to men in the African start-up space – an estimated $42 billion shortfall. This is a travesty as women entrepreneurs in Africa are by far the highest on the planet, at 26%.
Women owned business are estimated to contribute around $250 billion to African economic growth, reckons Victor Basta, host of the podcast Built Tough.
My company, BlueCloud Health can testify to this, as we have worked with some of the most hardworking women entrepreneurs on the planet. Entrepreneurs like Mrs. Patience Tsegah, CEO of one of Ghana’s leading pharmacy chains, Unicom Chemists, who recently claimed the woman entrepreneur of the decade award in her home country of Ghana.
Or Nigerian Elizabeth Adeshina, CEO of Wazima Health an integrated telehealth platform start-up that links patients in Africa with healthcare professionals across the planet via video link.
Or Sierra-Leone- born entrepreneur Mariama Kamara whose company, Smiling Through Light focuses on clean energy access – working with women to provide clean, reliable and sustainable energy in Sierra Leone and throughout Africa through the distribution and sale of solar products.
It took Wazima a decade to finally secure funding for its award-winning healthcare innovation from two early-stage genderless investors – shEquity and Rising Tide Africa, who between them have invested in close to 30 start-ups led by women across the continent.
According to Eloho Omame, co-founder of First Check Africa, there is a persistent gap between the general acknowledgment that there is an excellent layer of female operational management in Africa in general, but unfortunately, that acknowledgment does not translate into trusting women with allocating capital – trust with ambition, scaling, building high growth companies and all the hubris that comes with starting and scaling a multi-million-dollar business.
The other persistent problem is that messages are being reinforced that women are not suited for the high growth, fintech ‘not enough impact’ and hence there are a lot fewer venture-backed, female-owned scalable high growth companies.
Financial models and Investment funds
Possibly, the easiest way to toe-dip into Africa is to invest in funds that are already deploying into the continent.
According to Vijay Mahajan, author of the best-selling book Africa Rising, How 900 million African consumers offer more than you think, he divides the consumer segments in Africa into three areas:
Segment
Percentage of Market
Estimated Population Across Africa
Africa One
5% – 10%
50-150 million
Africa Two
35%- 50%
350-500 million
Africa Three
50%- 60%
500-600 million
Most companies and funds in Africa concentrate on Africa One, which has the most disposable income and behaves like the elite segments in other global markets. This is the lowest-hanging fruit of the African market. However, they constitute only up to 10% of the entire market.
The real potential success is Africa Two or as is popularly termed, the ‘missing middle. This is the future of the market – upwardly mobile, educating their children, have some disposable income, can shop in Africa’s supermarkets, can rent a small high-rise apartment, or two-room apartment within a housing complex, can afford a mobile phone, buy medicines in a pharmacy, afford local produce and now and again, engage in local tourism.
Not many companies and start-ups in Africa can absorb large chunks of capital safely and sustainably.
Thankfully, a small, but increasing number of investment funds are recognising this segment and are backing companies and scaling start-ups which are serving these markets.
These funds are structured and set up in a way that supports the innovation that is needed to unlock the potential of Africa Two.
They specialise in identifying entrepreneurs and start-ups that need funding of up to $100,000 to around $2-3million and working with them to scale across the continent. A few examples:
Loftyinc Allied Partners call themselves an ‘innovation development company that supports start-up teams, innovation enterprises, and social impact projects in Africa. This involves not just investing in companies but providing the handholding, the tools, the support, and the technology that enables these innovative companies to scale to make a real impact on the continent.
They were an early investor in Flutterwave in 2016, which in 6 years, has now become one of Africa’s few unicorns. They recently launched their third fund, a $ 10 million start-up fund for tech start-ups in Africa.
The Afya Fund is a $25 million fund to be managed by BlueCloud Health and its partners in Switzerland, Dubai, and New York which is currently slated to begin operations in late 2023 to early 2024 to support, scale, and invest in innovative healthcare start-ups and SMEs on the African continent.
Injaro investments have recently closed a $10 million fundraise which enables it to ‘support and build sustainable African innovative companies that create value.
In their own words, “We work with partners to use business as a force for the good of the planet and its people. For entrepreneurs with a dream, we work alongside you to refine your vision and to grow your business profitably as a good corporate citizen.For investors who care as much for the planet as for profit, we combine international business acumen with deep-rooted local knowledge and hands-on entrepreneurial business experience to deliver profit with a purpose.”
Through the Investment Fund for Health in Africa ($170 million assets under management including 40 clinics and 3 private hospitals) and the Medical Credit Fund, PharmaAccess specialize in investing in SMEs in Africa’s health space – but also with the added benefit of SafeCare, an in-house system of in-built internationally recognized safety standards to protect the quality and build the capacity of healthcare delivery and sound business practices.
SHequity specialise in addressing the three key challenges facing African female entrepreneurs: access to seed capital, access to structured building venture support and high-value networks, and de-risking their start-ups and companies to increase their attractiveness to potential investors
FirstCheck Africa is an early-stage VC fund that specialises in investing in pre-seed and seed tech start-ups with at least one female founder or co-founder. Their success stories include Pivo, a digital bank that creates tailored credit products and banking services for SMEs serving Africa’s major supply chains, and Healthtracka, a home diagnostic testing platform that allows customers to order laboratory tests, get fast results and book personal reviews with healthcare professionals.
The great thing about funds like this is they offer a low risk, but high-return entry into African markets for the early, toe-dipping investor, which may go some way to offset the many challenges in investing in Africa.
Challenges to investing in Africa
In my best-selling book, Pay The Price: Creating Entrepreneurial Success Through Purpose, Pain, and Purpose, I talk about the four kinds of pain which can affect an entrepreneur on their journey to success.
Incidentally, these four kinds of pain are exactly the problems and challenges faced when investing in Africa:
The model seeks to explain the model of pain in entrepreneurship, and in reflective ways, exactly explains the challenges and issues facing investors as they try to navigate the complex map of the African landscape.
Pain (and risks) for investors potentially seeking to invest in Africa comes from 4 main sources. I have categorised these forms of pain and the corresponding responses with four colours: Red, Amber, Green, and White. The model is shown in the diagram above.
According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, Africa scored an average level of 32, making it the worst-performing region in the study.
It’s evident that these practices hamper investment and governments in Africa need to do more to combat this self-sabotaging behaviour (hence the red flag – STOP).
So, what to do?
In their revolutionary book The Prosperity Paradox, the solution to corruption may not be in trying to fight it with limited resources, but to invest that energy in enabling the creation of new markets that help citizens solve their everyday problems. This has been evident in the Fintech and e-payments sectors, where the market-creating solutions have almost completely eradicated corruption in these sectors.
Another way to fight corruption is to integrate and internalise operations to reduce opportunities for corruption, and the increased use of technology.
In my recent acquisition of a national identification card, everything was done online, which reduced the potential for corruption. Regarding integration of operations, one of our clients, Fedco, a cocoa buying agency has also incorporated a transport freight agency to make sure its cocoa gets to the ports.
It also reinforces the need to select countries and sectors carefully – some sectors and countries are simply more prone to corruption, and a risk/benefit analysis is crucial to investment success.
This will be discussed further under strategies for investment in Africa. Therefore, it is imperative to consider countries in Africa individually, as indicated earlier.
Amber Flag Pain: The pain of timing
Amber Flag Pain in investing refers to a mismatch between the market and the said opportunity. Much like an amber at a traffic light, the only solution is that of timing and pivoting.
Sometimes the failure in investing in Africa is due to bad timing. BlueCloud lost a lot of money in some countries in Southern Africa mainly due to a lack of appreciation in market timing.
When we started working with Africa Two in 2010, we were simply too early for the middle market, and so were many of the funds mentioned above.
For example, LoftyInc was able to close its very first fund in 2016, even though a lot of research (including our own) had shown that the real proliferation of opportunity was in Africa Two.
Another Amber Flag Pain is also to the developing nature of institutions in Africa, it takes longer and is more difficult to start businesses and investments, even though Africa is now the world’s top region for reforming business – an entrepreneur can now register a business in 20 days or less in 12 of sub-Saharan Africa’s 48 economies, this was only possible in three countries a decade ago.
There are wide variations in the countries, though, Rwanda, Botswana, Togo, Kenya, Namibia, Ghana, and South Africa boast easier processes – only two countries rank in the top 50, whilst many from the bottom 20 are African according to the World Bank doing business 2020 report.
Investing in Africa, therefore demands a strategic approach – which we will discuss in detail in the next session.
White Flag Pain: The pain of unfair disadvantage
White flag pain refers to the kind of pain which results from the unfairness of the world system in which we live.
Africa has had more than its fair share of unfairness which has resulted in historically low levels of investment and productivity.
The slave trade, which lasted for over 400 years left (and still leaves) an indelible black mark on Africa, the effects which are still felt today. From 1500 to 1860, around 12 million enslaved Africans were traded to the Americans in British ships -which according to some studies has cost 72% of the average income gap between Africa and the rest of the world (Nunn, 2008).
Colonialism also dealt Africa a further blow by creating economic dependence and exploitation, the problem of disunity- and has also catalysed the brain drain of valuable human resources from Africa to the west.
Racism is also partly responsible for why Africans tend to get exploited, overlooked, and discriminated against when it comes to issues of investment, and African companies start from a position of disadvantage purely because of their origins.
In 2020, for instance, over $300 billion was invested globally in healthcare, technology, and other sectors, but less than 2% went to Africa. Nearly 10 times that flows to the city of San Francisco each year.
Green Flag Pain: The pain of wrong assumptions and stories
The last major hurdle to investments in Africa is due to wrong and negative assumptions – wrong optics.
These are due to stories – stories that Africans tell themselves, stories in the media, and stories of people that have had bad experiences on the continent. They all feed into one narrative – that Africa is a bad place to do business.
In entrepreneurship and investment, there is always a difference between scary and dangerous. Yes, it is scary to start a new venture, in a new continent under new rules, but it certainly is not dangerous.
Not if you follow the right procedures and do the right research. As I mentioned before, Africa has the highest rates of entrepreneurship of any continent in the world, with the majority being women, and the working population in Africa is set to double by 2050.
So, as Strive says, the solution to Africa’s investment landscape is an investment in mass entrepreneurship.
And the solution to green flag pain is simple. It’s what I call an open-minded authentic curiosity –which for many people will begin by reading this article.
So how do we start the process? Here at BlueCloud after mountains of research into successful African investments, we distilled 5 factors that will ensure success in African investment.
How to invest in Africa – The five determinants model
At the Emerald Group and BlueCloud Health, we developed the 5 determinants model which took a year of research. We studied over 100 papers, did on-the-ground work in the continent as well as interviewed over 30 top CEO thought leaders and investors.
This model governs the best way to invest in Africa – for the best impact and the best financial return. A summary:
Affordability: As quoted from the book Africa rising, the best demographic to try to reach is the middle class, Africa TWO. For this demographic, affordability is crucial, and a study of all the unicorns in Africa demonstrates that they have been able to find them. This means choosing portfolio companies that can target the middle class, have a scalable model, and can diversify into related fields as the market becomes saturated.
Tangibility: Because African markets are relatively underdeveloped, projects need to measurable, visible, and should be data-driven. This is especially relevant for intangible benefits, such as healthcare. For instance, the market for private and public healthcare insurance failed to kick start in many countries in Africa initially failed because healthy people could not understand why they had to pay a premium monthly when they weren’t going to the hospital.
Risk: Different countries offer different risk-to-benefit ratios, depending on the sector, population, political stability, and institutions. Prior studies on individual countries are crucial.
Human Capital: Due to the massive brain drain away from Africa and the relative lack of skilled human capital particularly in the healthcare and other training-heavy sectors, the use of technology, down skilling, and measures to attract, recruit, train and retain qualified staff is key to success.
Competitive strategy: As has been emphasised throughout this article, a comprehensive investment strategy must be mapped out for each country – and each sector – due to the considerable differences between countries in Africa. The easiest way to do this is by partnering with local companies on the ground with a proven track record.
Scalability and systems thinking (taking each determinant individually and dynamically before integrating them into the whole to form a comprehensive strategy) is key. Scalability will bring economies of scale into play, thus driving down costs and increasing profitability in the long run.
Guest Author: Steven is a British-Ghanaian author, poet, healthcare consultant, and entrepreneur. He is the founding partner of BlueCloud Health, a UK-based, African-focused healthcare firm that exists to provide solutions to health businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa. BlueCloud is part of the Emerald Management Group, a multi-sectoral consultancy firm with offices in London, Dubai, and Delhi. Steven is also an award-winning consulting pharmacist who has worked with Britain’s NHS and several pharmacy multiples in England and Africa.
Wouldn’t you like more traffic coming to your website from diverse channels?
Using social media to generate traffic seems like a logical choice here: Social media platforms are diverse and can expand your audience by sending clicks.
And yet, social media traffic is not easy to achieve.
What you need is to create an effective visual marketing strategy to ensure your social media updates and ads stand out and trigger well-targeted clicks.
We used to talk about images as something you may want to use in order to improve your results.
These days visual marketing is essential.
Every brand – however small – is into publishing awesome images and visuals on a daily basis. It can be hard to stand out from the crowd.
So how can you create effective visual content for your brand’s social media channels? Here are a few ideas.
Innovate: use new tools
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen out there is being overly dependent on an old set of tools. Lots of marketing teams and freelancers have been using the same well-known image editing tools for at least 5 years.
How can your content stand out if you are using the same tools as everybody else?
New technology brings new inspiration, new capabilities and more ideas.
I know embracing new technology is tough: Oftentimes you need some training for your team. Image creation becomes slower because it takes time to learn the software.
And yet, it is well worth it.
I have found that simply playing with the trial version of a new tool immediately gives me new ideas as to what I can do for an existing channel or even which new social media platform to try.
And when it comes to image creation, there are a few powerful visual marketing tools that don’t require much training to figure out.
Lightricks Photoleap is one such example: It offers you advanced layer-based editing options allowing you to blend pictures, and apply visual effects and filters – all right on your iPhone.
Photoleap offers a free 7-day trial if you want to experience its power.
If you are looking for an ad creator, give Creatopy a try. The ad creation platform offers advanced editing and analytics options allowing you to put together effective social media ads.
You can create and edit one ad in multiple sizes, collaborate with team members and freelancers, as well as track your campaign performance.
Make the most of topic associations
The real power of visual marketing is its power of building associations, mentally connecting your brand to the niche. If your company is selling wristbands, you want your customers to think about it when thinking about wristbands.
That’s the higher-level goal of any visual marketing strategy out there.
And therefore association-driven visual marketing is what you need to focus on.
Text Optimizer is a great tool for exploring niche associations based on semantic analysis of Google’s search snippet for your current keyword. Simply enter your keyword and let the tool do the job:
Another great tool for exploring niche associations is – quite predictably – Google. In fact, it’s Google Images which as of recently has started to smartly suggest refining your search by choosing a group of images:
Google Images provides more abstract associations with your core topic, so it make sense to combine the two tools to create images that build the desired image of your brand in your customers’ heads.
Create consistency across multiple channels
They say your customer may need at least 7 touchpoints with your brand to remember it.
A touchpoint is anything from a Facebook like to a purchase.
This means that you need to pop into your customers’ eyes again and again for them to start recognizing your brand and engaging with your business.
Visual marketing helps a lot with that. Thanks to its ability to catch an eye and get stuck in the mind, images help make the most of each touchpoint, but only if you do them right:
Each image should contribute to the overall association you want your brand to inspire (see above)
All the images should adhere to your brand’s visual identity (logo and color palette) to remind your target audience of your brand
All the visuals should be consistent across multiple channels for people to see them again and again.
These are the fundamental rules of building brand recognizability. But the key is being consistent.
Remember that brand recognition takes time, and every detail counts. You create your brand’s digital image every day, image by image. To keep things organized, try setting up your brand’s visual identity using Visme that allows you to create a Branding Kit which would store your brand’s visual elements and help apply them to every image your team creates:
If you don’t have your visual identity set-up yet, give Namify a try. The tool will help you pick a logo that reflects your niche and brand name in the best possible way:
Once you have your visual identity defined and the consistent visual marketing process set, use those images everywhere:
On your own site (for people initially referred to your page from social media to see the same or similar image they saw when clicking the link). Creating cross-channel consistency is the fundamental driving source of conversions. There are quite a few useful widgets that bring images from your social media feeds to your site automatically.
In social media ads, and especially in your remarketing ads: You can reach your site past visitors through retargeting ads to remind them of your brand. Facebook remarketing can be set up using Facebook pixel.
Keep an eye on your competition
Finally, what are your competitors doing to create a memorable brand image?
This is not about copying your competitors’ visual marketing tactics.
Competitive research and monitoring is not so much about doing what your competitors do. You can never surpass your competition by copying them.
What you really want here is to learn from their followers and customers.
What do their followers respond best to? What do they seem to ignore?
Social listening is one obvious way to follow your competition and their audience. Buzzsumo is one powerful social listening tool that also comes with great competitive research tools, like Facebook Analyzer allowing you to easily identify most effective visuals on your competitor’s page:
Page monitoring platform Visual Ping offers you a powerful competitive intelligence tool set allowing you to monitor your competitors’ social media profiles. You can get alerted when they publish a new update or a new update on a particular topic. Or you can use Visual Ping to monitor hashtags on Instagram to get daily visual marketing inspiration:
Conclusion
Visual marketing is a powerful way to generate traffic but it is even more powerful in creating a strong brand. So when setting up your visual marketing strategy, keep in mind that you need to focus on building your brand recognition through creating association-driven images that reflect your brand’s visual identity.
Consistency is key when it comes to creating a strong marketing strategy, but so is creativity. Keep experimenting with new and emerging visual marketing technology to keep your images fresh and attention-grabbing.
In 2008 there were only 5 million people on Twitter and 50 million people on Facebook, but today there are nearly 4.6 billion social media users.
Why it matters
Social media made a promise to the world. That promise was access to a worldwide audience of billions. An audience that could change your life and grow your business without having to pay for attention.
How do I know?
Because that’s what was delivered to me.
In just a few years I grew a following of over half a million on Twitter with some growth hacking tactics that launched my online business. It allowed me to leave my corporate career behind and find freedom and independence from the 9-5.
In the span of a year or two of starting my online business my website traffic passed 5 million views per year and my followers and subscribers grew to over 1 million.
Two ways to get attention and traffic
I have also discovered that there are two ways to get attention online.
Pay for it (social media advertising)
Earn it (grow your followers that crowdsource your traffic for free)
The reality of having over half the planet on social media means that with some clever tactics and patience you can grow an online business that doesn’t need millions in investment from a venture capitalist.
If you are time poor and have the resources to pay for it then it is fast (but expensive) to get people to buy your product and services.
If you are savvy and don’t have a big budget then earning free traffic by growing your followers with a smart strategy is a great option.
Social media is one of the best ways to get that traffic and eyeballs for free. But you still need to earn it. What are some of the best ways to “growth hack” and drive eyeballs to your product, side hustle or online store without paying for it?
Here are some books that provide some great tips and insights on getting free attention on social media. These books include strategies for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok that you could steal.
1: The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google
Scott Galloway is a professor at New York University and writes with a sense of humor that is both insightful, entertaining and informative. This book is an overview of the big digital 4 platforms that have changed the world.
This book is worth reading just to get context and an overview of a large digital world that we often only see in small snippets
2. How to Get 10,000 Fans and Turn Them Into Your Next Cash-Paying Customers
Kim Phillips personally showed me how to grow a massive audience on Facebook and turn that audience into cash-paying customers.
In this book you’ll find the social proof you need, and build an audience that’s ready to buy, converting leads to sales through a system that runs on auto-pilot.
3: One Million Followers: How I Built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days
According to the overview of Brendan Kane’s book on Amazon “Over 60 billion online messages are sent on digital platforms every day, and only a select few succeed in the mad scramble for customer attention.
This means that the question for anyone who wants to gain mass exposure for their transformative content is no longer if they should use social media but how to best take advantage of the numerous different platforms.
How can you make a significant impact in the digital world and stand out among all the noise?
Digital strategist and “growth hacker” Brendan Kane has the answer and will show you how (in this book) in 30 days or less. A wizard of the social media sphere, Kane has built online platforms for A-listers including Taylor Swift and Rihanna.
I have read it from cover to cover and it provides tips and tactics that you can apply to your social media marketing strategy.
4: YouTube Secrets: The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Following and Making Money as a Video Influencer
YouTube is the second biggest search engine after Google. And guess who owns YouTube?
Video continues to be the media of choice and if you can nail how to use it for getting online attention then you are well on the way to getting free traffic for your start up or side hustle.
The seven-ingredient recipe to building a successful YouTube channel
How to leverage and manage social media in your YouTube strategy to expedite your growth
The latest YouTube updates you need to know in order to skyrocket your videos
Foolproof video ideas to get you started on the right path to becoming a YouTuber
The tactics that Sean and Benji have used to create six-figure channels and go full-time with YouTube
5: Instagram Power: Build Your Brand and Reach More Customers with Visual Influence
Instagram can’t be ignored as a marketing channel as according to Semrush, it is one of the world’s top 10 most-visited websites globally, with 2.9 billion total visits per month. That’s a lot of eyeballs.
Leverage Instagram to build and strengthen your business or personal brand
Design an effective marketing plan for the platform
Sell directly on Instagram with Shopable posts
6: The Definitive Guide to TikTok Advertising: How to Access 1 Billion People in 10 Minutes!
TikTok is hard to ignore. It is addictive and compelling and needs to be considered in your social media marketing strategy. Here are some numbers to think about.
In September 2021, TikTok announced it had reached one billion active users worldwide, with 142.2 million users in North America. Not only is it a milestone that few other social networks have reached, but the platform also achieved it in just 4.9 years. Facebook took 8.7 years to reach that milestone. (Source: Shopify)
In this book, Perry Marshall and Denis Yu reveal “How to save 80% of your time and money by zeroing in on the right 20% of your TikTok Advertising efforts—then 10X, even 100X your success for as little as $10 a day in ad spend”.
Wrapping it up
Tapping onto the power of the sharing economy is something that you need to weave into your marketing. If you can get attention for free by growing your social media followers and learning how to create addictive and shareable content then you have crowdsourced your marketing.