Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ) successfully concluded its latest B2B community event, ‘Navigating Digital Landscape’ aimed at equipping SMEs and startups with an understanding of the basic principles of online marketing. The event drew an audience of close to 100 entrepreneurs operating across varied sectors.
The session offered an informative and interactive platform for attendees to discuss balancing inbound and outbound marketing initiatives and how to prevent marketing budget wastage. Experts from different areas of the digital spectrum, including branding, website, and digital transformation, imparted valuable insights and tips for saving time, effort, and money when planning digital campaigns and maximising market awareness for new businesses.
RAKEZ Group CEO Ramy Jallad said, “For new entrepreneurs who are just venturing out, the task of getting noticed, identifying target clients, and establishing successful access to them, may come with a matrix of challenges. These could span from budgetary concerns to the scarcity of databases and other valuable resources like content producers, designers and marketing wizards. Our role as a nurturing hub for SMEs is to bridge that gap, enabling them to effectively tap into the right tools and navigate the digital world successfully. The objective of our latest session was to provide our community members with a better understanding of the digital landscape through open conversations with seasoned experts.”
The attendees also discussed when to start focusing on digital, what the next big digital trend could be, what makes a good digital campaign, and the biggest mistakes businesses make with their digital strategy. The specialists addressed questions related to the optimum time for a business to start optimising its digital presence and resources to bolster its online standing.
Some entrepreneurs regularly attend the RAKEZ community events to learn from experts and implement key takeaways into their businesses. Founder and Managing Director of Adventurous Camel Tamar Smulowicz, said “We have been to several of these events since the past year and found them to be really helpful for our new business. As a company targeting markets outside the UAE, we are struggling with reaching audiences, reeling them in and converting them into buyers. I am happy the panel highlighted the importance of having a strong foundation based on content and the integration of artificial intelligence. Now I’ll start focusing on all social media platforms equally and not wait to launch our website until it’s 100% perfect as long as it’s SEO-friendly.”
Similarly, CEO of Craftspot Designs Shijin Abdul Latheef also shared his concerns and plan of action, “As a B2B company and we are finding it tough to generate business-appropriate content strategy for social media platforms. The panel covered useful areas such as UX, digital marketing and AI, but my main learning from this session is to adopt a customer-first approach before delivering the products, services, content, etc.”
Meanwhile, Director of Human Resources at Valsense Tina Chaaba, shared that she found potential connections at the event to give a facelift to her company website. “Talking from a recruitment perspective, it is highly important to have a website that truly showcases your company’s values and all that it stands for to attract good talent. The discussion with experts has made me more open to embracing the latest technologies such as AI to strengthen our output.”
The community events reaffirm RAKEZ’s unwavering commitment to nurturing a robust and supportive ecosystem for companies, armed with the essential tools and know-how to thrive in a rapidly changing business landscape. The economic zone will continue hosting an array of similar enriching events, boosting the development of a thriving and well-informed business community headed into an exciting digital future.