Dubai Business Podcast

Lately, many SMBs noticed a drastic drop in the leads and inquiries they would organically get. This was either because of decreased demand or increased competition. This implies going out there and looking for the right customers yourself is becoming a must. If you want to increase your customers, doubling down on your sales process is one of the most effective ways to do it. Today, I am speaking with Josh Yates, sales director of Saphyte - UAE based CRM solution for small and medium businesses. He will take you through the main mistakes SMBs make in the sales process, we’ll discuss how to identify the ideal customer or how to hire a salesperson to your team. This episode includes: - What are the typical mistakes SMBs make in sales - How should the proper sales process look like - Why and how to use CRM - How to choose the right one - How to hire salespeople

What is the biggest difference between a B2B and a B2C eCommerce? Customer acquisition. In B2C, reaching customers happen mostly via media and marketing channels while in B2B the whole approach is more omni-channel and includes direct sales. Small shops and restaurants, and even the big businesses can save a lot of time spent on procurement as well as money when they start buying their supplies online. It helps sellers to remove friction points and make it as convenient for buyers to purchase the products they want. Its a win-win situation here. “Bringing a delightful B2C shopping experience to B2B is our core value,” says Muhammad Chbib – CEO of B2B marketplace Tradeling, our guest for today’s episode. He also speaks about challenges they had to overcome as one of the first B2B eCommerce players and also why he’d be very skeptical about launching just another B2C eCommerce brand. This episode includes: 4:50 – How we reacted to our audience’s change of needs 7:38 – B2B eCommerce vs B2C 13:56 – Augmentation of clients’ business rather than disrupting 21:48 – How to start building a network of sellers for the marketplace 25:49 – Importance of (digital) marketing for B2B 31:39 – How to select a vertical for your eCommerce business 34:09 – What to consider when starting an eCommerce business

Do you know what is the major mistake startups make when it comes to digital marketing? Many don't have a well-sorted plan that will obtain customers and let them expand their business. With an average attention span of humans being 8 seconds on social media (which is shorter than a goldfish), users need multiple touchpoints before they can buy a product or service from you. A good marketing plan will act as a guide to create those touchpoints and scale businesses. Within 15 minutes, Lukas has managed to summarize the importance of a strong marketing plan, what a marketing plan shouldn't be, by means of a client's past experience. Tune in to learn more! This episode includes: 3:15 min - Catch about impressions on FB and IG 5:20 min - Users need multiple touchpoints before making a purchase 6:15 min - What is a Marketing Plan? 9:50 min - What your marketing plan shouldn't be 10:40 min - Two things to keep in mind when working with a digital marketing agency

Influencer marketing today is what radio was 15 years ago, Feras Arafe – Founder of Expin says. We have discussed finding the right influencers, avoiding scams, not getting caught up with numbers, tactics to measure the results, and much more, tune in to learn more! This episode includes: 8:40 min – Role of influencers in a marketing plan 10:40 min – Using discount coupons 15:50 min – Follow up tactic 20:00 min – How to find relevant influencers and avoid fake numbers 25:40 min – How to identify fake numbers 28:38 min – Do not stick to 1 brand ambassadors

What comes to your mind when you think of SEO? Do you consider it a scam? Do you think it is dead? Do you think it cannot work for small businesses in Dubai? With such false ideas and thoughts, many businesses tend to overlook the need for SEO and completely focus on paid advertising only. While that can help you scale quicker, it also costs a lot of money, and in the longer run, relying on a few paid channels is a risky strategy. SEO often seems extremely technical and complicated. But if you keep basic principles in mind, you can't get wrong. "What businesses forget is that Google's main customer is the searcher and Google wants to deliver the relevant results for every search," says our guest in this episode of Dubai Business Podcast. If you start from there, you will never fall for things like stuffing your page with keywords, buying non-sense backlinks, etc. Mazen Aloul is a Founder of WebQuest SEO, whose main goal is to “demystify SEO” in the UAE. Mazen has put together a Business Owner’s Guide to SEO that you can find on his website and in this conversation, we will go through the main things you as business owners should consider when it comes to SEO in 2020. Mazen also shares with us some interesting tools that can up your SEO game. Tune in now! This episode includes: 12:50 min - Red flags: How to identify SEO scam 15:25 min - What can I do myself to improve SEO 22:05 min - How can small business work with content 27:00 min - Google wants to think like a human 28:00 min - Understand this and you will understand SEO