Terragon started out as a VAS/mobile company and at the same time played in the agency space off the back of brands needing to connect with consumers in Africa and mobile being one of the most utilised forms of connectivity. We built an end-to-end agency from ground up, and specialised in delivering mobile marketing solutions to SMBs and large enterprises.

 

As the mobile device has evolved and internet adoption in Africa continues to grow, over 80% of internet connections are generated from mobile devices. It shows the real importance of mobile in the entire narrative around connectivity and interactions on the continent. When brands are looking to connect with consumers, the mobile device is still the most ubiquitous channel to do that. On the one hand, there is the need to help brands navigate the journey of how to increasingly engage with customers to drive business value.

 

Marketing technology continues to evolve and the world is constantly yearning for consumer privacy and data protection. We are now in an era where all the things that formed the basis for online advertising, from 3rd party cookies to anonymous and non anonymous targeting and retargeting are under threat.

 

So the most important question now is ‘how do we ensure that businesses in Africa are not left behind in a post cookie world?” How do we ensure that all the technologies that are in place to improve marketing, especially online continue to work even as the world moves from privacy intrusive solutions? 

 

Terragon understands this need and as we always say, no one knows Africans like we do, simply because of our experience working with the telcos whom if we go by the identification of consumers based on a unique ID like the phone number or the MSISDN, it places the telco at the heart of data supply that will be used to power consumer connections and interactions over the coming years. 

 

Once we looked at ourselves, we came to realise that we have vast experience in deploying mobile marketing solutions, great relationships with telcos across the continent and have a fair understanding of brands’ needs in terms of driving marketing programs because of our agency experience. So, we have went ahead to build what we would call Africa’s first true Customer Data Platform that takes a look at the consumer from a first party data perspective, provides robust enrichment to ensure that we are given advertisers a true and robust picture of African consumers, to allow brands to connect with them better and give them more personalised experiences. 

 

So we started this out by building an Enterprise level CDP, which we have deployed across different key verticals today, including FMCGs, financial service providers like banks and some Fintechs and we have been operating this at an enterprise level. 

 

However, we quickly learned that marketing technology adoption on the continent is not as fast as you would experience in developed markets simply because of costs or the organization’s stage of digital maturity, amongst other reasons. Now, we must also recognize that Africa is heavily powered by SMBs. It’s not so different from the rest of the  world, but we see a lot of that happening here such that less than 10% of organizations are large enterprises. The rest of them are small businesses, and they drive the majority of business contribution to the GDP. 

 

We want to be sure we are ready for scale and that is what has informed the need to develop a CDP solution that will not just be for enterprises but something that small businesses can utilise. 

 

So we went ahead and built Terragon Prime; an end-to-end marketing platform that allows for data aggregation, enrichment and activation through multi-channelled solutions to ensure that both small medium and large businesses are able to have access to hundreds of millions of profiles of Africans that we have within our repository, Thanks to our relationship with telcos and other data supply partners, business of all sizes can access consumers for marketing purposes across multiple channels, either for acquisition or retention purposes. 

 

If you already have your own customer data, upload it unto your Terragon Prime cloud CDP and enrich your customer profiles, create robust and unified IDs of their customer, create audience segments and drive multi-channel activation for customer retention, upsell and cross sell. You can also expand your audiences through our look-alike modelling tools powered by proprietary AI and ML engines to increase your reach and acquire new customers that are very similar to their high value existing customers. 

 

We built Prime to solve an African problem, which is the need to reach African consumers at scale  and provide the most personalised experience possible. 

 

Welcome to Data Driven Marketing for everyone. If you’d like to take an early spin, please CLICK HERE to join the waiting list and you will be given early access to Terragon Prime (Beta), launching this October. 

 

Thank you.

The ultimate goal for every digital marketer is “conversion” i.e. moving leads, prospects or potential customers down the marketing funnel, turning them into brand loyalists and advocates. Conversions happen when a site visitor or consumer carries out a desired “action”, as defined by the marketer or advertiser; In other words, simply getting someone to respond to a call-to-action. It differs from simple Brand awareness which is typically in the form of a simple digital advertising display i.e. “impressions”.

As much as Brands see benefits from awareness campaigns i.e. “impressions”, “conversions marketing” offers a lot more value than “awareness marketing”. It enables tracking, attribution and measurement which is a critical element of today’s digital marketing and advertising. Also referred to as “performance marketing”, “conversions marketing” is essentially the return on investment of a Brand’s ad spend. It offers marketers a number of benefits including measurement of actual campaign performance for necessary improvement, the viability of Ad spend for necessary optimisation, total conversion costs necessary for future planning, the most ( and least) effective customer engagement channels, the relevance of ads and channels based on consumer interaction, etc.

Google Ads defines a conversion as,“An action that is counted when somebody interacts with an ad (e.g. when they click a text ad or view a video ad), and then they take an action you have defined as valuable to your business, such as making an online purchase or a phone call to your business from their mobile phone”

Conversions Marketing takes “awareness” a step further beyond “impressions” thereby allowing marketers to make the most out of their existing budget to engage consumers for lead generation, acquisition, retention or product cross selling and upselling.

According to a recent Gartner report, marketers are facing reduced budget allocation due to the Covid-19 disruption. With reduced marketing budgets, getting the most mileage out of every allocated dollar is key, therefore conversions marketing is even more important as it enables measurement for spend optimisation and higher returns. 

This strategy could mean different “actions” depending on the advertiser’s verticals and aim of the campaign. For instance, an FMCG company may simply want to send visitors to a page to sign up for a product  newsletter or watch a product awareness video; a Bank may require completion of an account opening form, an SMB may want conclusion of a transaction while an Agency may want to increase app download for their Client (Brand). All of these instances point to a consumer going a step further than a view or a click on an advert.

A typical marketing funnel shows the customer journey from Awareness (where a lead or prospect is made aware of a brand or product) to Advocacy (where the prospect has become a loyal customer and starts to advocate for the brand). Taking the prospect from awareness, to consideration, purchase and then advocacy is only possible through “conversions” and “intelligent reach” which is the use of data to prequalify and target potential customers.

At a recent roundtable session organised by Terragon, which was held in June 2021 on Data-Driven Marketing, a number of Industry practitioners gave their expert opinion on  “conversions marketing” and the importance of Data in executing a high performing marketing strategy. 

According to Luisa Mazinter, MMA SA Chair Emeritus & Chief Marketing Officer at Cubesquare  Advisory,

“Every marketer experiences a similar problem where you have to justify every single cent you spend, to the board or financial director or the CFO. Data is your friend and the more you gather, the more powerful you become and this can help justify your investment.”

Francis Obiajulu, the Digital and Data-Driven Marketing Manager at Nigeria Breweries (A Heineken Company) talked about the various important KPIs which must be factored in measuring campaign performance; 

“In Marketing, we see more than just numbers. Talking about setting KPIs or benchmarks  like brand health, top of mind awareness and other variables considered when referring to  the outcome of our different strategies or campaigns. Ultimately, this has to lead to sales.  With more data, you can detect how your “non-tangible” KPIs affect the tangible KPIs in  terms of numbers.”

Emphasising on the need to leverage data in marketing strategies for either “conversion” or “awareness”, General Manager of Programmatic, Search and Social, OMG MENA, Roli Okoro added:

Roli Okoro noted: In this part of the world (MENA), we have gone beyond impressions and clicks…. It’s more down to know if my ad is viewable, did the user engage with that ad, how much time was spent on my site and a product detail page, partnerships they had with e-commerce companies, and so on.

On first party data being a critical element of an effective digital advertising strategy for high returns on investment, Ms. Okoro added:

“It’s important to ensure you are eliminating waste by delivering an ad with the right message to the right user, at the right time and on the right device. As a brand, if you want  to ensure that that media spend goes a long way or hits your KPIs, you need to look at the  existing datasets you have, and how you are working with your First Party Data to  understand your offline and online audiences.”

Damilola Abodunrin, Business Director/Head, iProspect Nigeria, also added:  Data is important but it’s important to know what data you are collecting because data by  itself is pretty broad. Data is multifaceted and when you have a clear understanding of the  kind of data you need your objectives are better streamlined and you can work towards the  answer in more efficient terms. … If your product is not meeting the needs of people, your  data will tell you right off the bat.

The Terragon Data-Driven Marketing roundtable series is held every other month and is focused on promoting and advocating for Brands and Agencies to leverage the power of Data and Insights for more effective digital marketing strategies and campaigns. The next session is scheduled for August 2021.

Terragon is Africa’s leading data aggregation, enrichment, consumer insights and activation platform, which helps Brands gain a deeper understanding of African consumers in order to create and deliver better experiences that drive meaningful relationships.

More information can be found on www.terragongroup.com. 

The concept of Data-Driven Marketing, which involves the use of relevant customer and event/conversions data for planning and executing marketing campaigns,  has been touted as the future of Marketing, rightly so because it has proven to yield the most successful and cost-effective marketing campaign results, offering Advertisers better ROI and lower cost of customer acquisitions through its “customer-focused” approach. According to Invesp, businesses that employ data-driven personalized engagements deliver five to eight times the ROI on marketing spend, which is most likely why eMarketer in 2018, reported an increase in budget for data-driven marketing by over 40% of brands.
In recent times, the addressable market for Digital marketing in Africa has exponentially grown as consumers have adopted the use of various mobile and digital channels and touchpoints to carry out basic functions – interactions, entertainment, payment, purchase, education etc. These customers are therefore demanding more personalized experiences, and so it’s no surprise that almost 66% of marketers are personalizing their communications based on consumer data, according to Engagebay.

Digitization which is responsible for this shift in consumer behaviour presents an immense opportunity for Brands (Advertisers)  to reach and engage consumers in a more direct and personal way. With a better understanding of consumers, their interest and preferences, Brands can respond in ways that endear themselves to the consumers, build trust and loyalty thereby encouraging retention and preventing churn. 

Competitive advantage in business today can be attributed to how much insight Brands can generate from their customer first-party Data, and how it can be put to productive use in a privacy-compliant manner. As a Mckinsey Report on the Age of Analytics puts it, “data is now a critical corporate asset.”  

The advantages of data-driven marketing are limitless – better consumer experience, campaign optimisation, segmentation, personalisation, increased ROI, and lots more. A Forbes report on Data-Driven Marketing shows that companies who deploy data-driven marketing are six times more likely to remain profitable year-over-year. 

In order to unlock these benefits, Terragon – Africa’s leading Data and Enterprise Software Platform has developed the “Data-Driven Marketing Roundtable Series”; with the aim of complementing the efforts of Marketers (Advertisers and Agencies)  by exposing them to “data and insights-driven” solutions and technology tools with which they can not only “intelligently reach” their customers, but go a step further with calls to action – thereby enabling measurable outcomes for their marketing campaigns. 

Speaking after the June edition of the  Roundtable Series which was focused on “Beyond Clicks”, Terragon’s VP, Marketing Osarugue Awani noted that the Roundtable series would enhance the growth and adoption of data-driven marketing among marketers (Brands and Agencies) across the continent. She stated “we are proud to lead the charge on Data-Driven Marketing in Africa, in partnership with the regional arm of the Mobile Marketers Association (MMA). We had a very impressive turnout at the June edition and that is a testament to African Marketers’ need for the knowledge we are sharing on this platform. To make the sessions even more impactful we’ve invited renowned thought leaders and industry experts from various verticals and other mature markets to share their experiences, opinions and real case studies – so that attendees leave each session with deep, practical knowledge on the subject matter.”

Terragon is the leading data aggregation and enrichment, consumer insights and activation platform that helps Brands gain a deeper understanding of African consumers in order to create and deliver better experiences that drive meaningful relationships. Terragon is also the only partner for the Facebook Conversions API in Africa and the first African Company to be verified by the CDP Institute. 

Africa’s leading data and marketing technology company, Terragon, has been listed as a verified CDP company by the CDP Institute, having met the institute’s precise criteria for being added to its Directory as a RealCDPTM

This was made known recently in an announcement by the CDP Institute after a rigorous audit and demo assessment of Terragon’s technology, processes, and user interface.   At the end of the process, the Institute announced that Terragon meets the criteria for being listed as a RealCDP. These include; the ability to ingest data from all sources, to retain all details of ingested data, to store the ingested data as long as required, to assemble unified customer profiles, to share the profiles with external systems, and to react in real-time to events and profile requests.

With this announcement, Terragon is now listed in the directory of the CDP Institute and is also the first African-founded, and only African  CDP company to appear in the directory.

The Customer Data Platform Institute is a vendor-neutral organization dedicated to helping marketers manage customer data. It educates marketers about the issues, methods, and technology used to manage customer data, with a special focus on Customer Data Platforms. 

David Raab, the founder of the CDP Institute had this to say about Terragon being the only African CDP company listed by his Institute “Every market has unique requirements.  We are pleased to welcome Terragon as a firm that will be able to meet many African companies’ needs for unified customer data.”

Speaking on the new development, the CEO of Terragon, Elo Umeh acknowledged the verification, noting that it authenticates the great work done by Terragon over the years. 

“We’ve positioned ourselves as the “go-to” Partner for global Technology players seeking entry into the African market in order to effectively reach African consumers. This recognition further highlights the strides we take in entrenching. We are very excited about this recognition. Being listed alongside leading global CDP providers is no small feat. It validates the work we do at Terragon. The team is elated and motivated to lead the charge in the African Data and Marketing Technology space”

On what differentiates the Terragon CDP from others, Mr Umeh added “Beyond our CDP meeting the standards of this renowned Institute, Our CDP comes equipped with access to over 350 million profiles of African Customers; which gives our Clients a huge leap in their data-driven marketing efforts.

“Recently, Facebook also recognised our work. Currently, we are the only African-founded CDP company for the Facebook Conversions API in Africa. Over the years, we have enabled intelligent connections between Africa’s leading brands and their customers. Our clientele is spread across top FSI, FMCG, E-commerce and Telco brands. The results always show that we meet and exceed the client’s objectives.” He added.

Terragon is a leading data and marketing technology company in Africa that uses data and analytics to help brands connect at scale to their customers. Terragon is also the only African-founded CDP company to be listed as a partner for the Facebook Conversions API in Africa. 

One of the many challenges faced by organisations today is which software or technology tool to invest in or deploy; with which to achieve superior data and insights-driven Business Intelligence needed to gain competitive advantage? McKinsey reports that the year 2020 saw significant increases in the volume, quality, speed, and variety of data across organizations. And as the scale of data grows, thanks to accelerated digital growth and maturity globally, so does the need for proper storage, processing and utilisation. The Customer Data Platform (CDP) is one of such powerful tools Businesses must consider in their data-driven business strategy.

Businesses can ideally select a preferred CDP Vendor, based on certain unique features required such as the Terragon CDP which comes uniquely equipped with over 108 million encrypted profiles of Nigerian customers; however, not getting cross-functional buy-in from various departments or key stakeholders within the Organisation prevents the full realisation of the immense benefits a CDP offers towards achieving  KPIs and Business objectives. 

Should it be merely an executive decision made by the CEO for Enterprise-wide implementation or usage or a Customer Success/Relations tool for Customer engagement to encourage loyalty, or a software/technology tool owned by the IT unit for enterprise-wide customer data syncing, processing and business support, or the Marketing department to enable personalised customer engagements? The right answer is – the CDP should be utilised by all of these parties as it helps the organisation achieve both short term and long term goals. So, irrespective of which department initiates or drives the adoption of the CDP, other departments’ and stakeholders’  understanding of the substantial value which could be unlocked and how it contributes to them achieving their KPIs, fast tracks the organisation’s digital maturity.

From the CEO’s perspective, the value the CDP offers must ultimately tie to the Business’s overall objectives ie growth through revenue increase and or cost-cutting; such as the Terragon CDP which guarantees a lower cost of customer acquisition as a short term benefit and long term increase of customer value, when fully deployed effectively.

The Marketing Team is first and foremost concerned with understanding the customer. What compels people to engage, and why do they keep coming back (or not)? In today’s data-driven world where CMOs make decisions based on customer insights, the CDP plays a central role in their strategic vision. Data-driven marketing enables them to gain high returns on Ad Spend and lower Cost of Customer Conversion; which makes them both relevant and important to both the CFO and the CEO. The fact that the CDP allows for carrying out measurable customer engagements and importantly, the ability to attribute sales directly to data-driven marketing is invaluable.

Since the use of data and insights is obviously critical to a Business strategic objective, the IT/CTO must realise they are major stakeholders and in some cases custodians of the platform. The CDP must meet certain criteria such as offering the highest level of Data privacy, always-on availability, scalability, redundancy and data recovery should there be an unexpected disaster as this ties to their performance indicators. Also, the CDP’s interaction with other data platforms for data aggregation and ingestion is critical for seamless activation and usage.     

For the Sales Team, the CDP can guarantee customer acquisition through a number of online (web) and offline (mobile) channels. The Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning feature aids in based product recommendations for proper upselling &  cross-selling as well as look-alike modelling which also enables accurate targeting of prospective customers. . The 

To help Organisations achieve superior Business Intelligence, the Terragon CDP checks all the boxes for the various departments and stakeholder expectations by providing deep insights and understanding of the consumers, their behaviours and interests. It also offers continuous ingestion of data through the post-campaign feedback loop, coupled with the unification feature where data cleaning is carried out and enrichment through multiple 3rd party data sources.

Summarily, the place of the CDP in today’s data-driven marketing cannot be overemphasized; and in a perfect world, all stakeholders actually realise the advantage and potential of adopting a CDP enterprise-wide; and jointly canvass for investment in one. However, having just one department or stakeholder as a product evangelist or advocate within the Organization is a good enough starting point, until the enterprise reaches full data usage maturity.

Terragon is Africa’s leading Data and Marketing Technology Company. The Terragon CDP aggregates data from a variety of touchpoints and creates a single customer view of each customer, giving deep consumer insights and predictive recommendations through Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. It also enables data enrichment from various supply sources and an omnichannel activation feature for online (web) and offline (mobile) reach. Terragon is the only CDP company listed by Facebook as partners for the Conversions API solution in Africa.