MBendi : Websites and Advertising

MBendi can assist your company in reaching the large international business audience that uses the MBendi website and receives our various E-mail publications. We do this by creating a web-page advert for you, which is promoted on the MBendi web pages and in E-mail messages most likely to be used by your target audience by way of banners, logos, text and, most effective of all, advertorial. You can visit our Case Studies page to see examples of how our clients are using advertorial.

If your company already has a free company profile on the MBendi website and you would like the profile to have your corporate branding, more extensive information on your nature of business, a full list of directors and contact details for each of your company’s locations around the world, then the cost is US$ 1000 per year.

Where you simply wish to advertise a conference or exhibition or business opportunity, then the cost is US$ 1500 per event or business opportunity. If you wish to advertise an employment vacancy on our Employment Space, then the cost is US$ 25 per vacancy advertised.

However, where you want to promote your company to potential customers, suppliers, investors or business partners, then we would do this by:

• Creating a website for your company (if you already have a website, then we would use pages and graphics from your website to reduce costs)
• Registering the website on search engines and industry portals
• Working with you to prepare advertorial on business topics of interest to the target audience; these are included as part of your website
• Creating links to your web pages, particularly the advertorial, from pages on the MBendi website most likely to be used by target audience (Note: we do NOT link to websites not located on the MBendi server)
• Using MBendi software for your news releases, conferences, exhibitions, employment vacancies and tenders so that they are seen on your website, on the MBendi website and in MBendi’s E-mail products
• Using MBendi software to build a database of potential stakeholders
• Promoting your company in our E-mail newsletters and publications as appropriate
• Providing tools for you to analyse traffic to their websites

Currently some 60 companies from around the world promote their companies on the MBendi website in this fashion. Benchmarks show these MBendi clients can achieve up to eight times the traffic of a traditional website through this approach. One of our clients, who has used several Internet advertising services reported that “the MBendi approach is the only one that has brought us real business”!

The cost of setting up your website, including up to 10 links from MBendi country and industry profile web pages, a mention in our monthly newsletter to the 16,000 registered users of our website, and managing your website for one year starts at US$ 2500. There are additional charges if you require more links from the MBendi website or interactive facilities on your website.

The MBendi website is Africa’s leading business website and one of the world’s leading mining, energy and international trade websites. During 2001 we expect it to be used by more than three million visitors, many of them business people researching business opportunities and seeking business partners and service providers. More than 50% of visitors come from North America, followed by Europe (18%), Africa (14%) and Asia Pacific (10%).

If your company is interested in reaching this audience then please send us your details.

So that you can get a better idea of the audience you can reach using MBendi’s services, here are just some examples, gleaned from MBendi statistics files and anecdotal evidence, of executives who have used MBendi’s Internet services for decision making purposes:

Mining Company – entering African Country:

A major North American mining company, having taken over a smaller company with a highly prospective project in Africa, used the MBendi website to investigate how to conduct business in the African country where the project was located and E-mailed one of our clients asking how the client could provide assistance to the proposed new mining operation.

Chemical Company – takeover of African company:

A large international chemical company used the MBendi website in order to gain information on a listed African chemical company, the sectors in which it operated and its competitors’ activities. Not long after using the MBendi website, it acquired the African company.

Drilling Company – African business plan:

The newly appointed head of the African arm of an American offshore drilling company prepared his business plan from the MBendi website. He was able to identify countries in which to operate; target potential clients; understand the regimes; and select professional service providers in each country.

Senior executives – identifying opportunities:

Three senior executives in mining, oil and telecommunications companies respectively, who subscribe to MBendi’s E-mail News, have reported finding the news quickly keeps them in touch with what is going on in the industry around the world each day, while the ability to click on an item for more information is very useful for topside investigations of potential opportunities triggered by the news, with the MBendi website providing background reference material and details of specialist advisors for investigating opportunities further.

Merchant Banks / Law firms – feasibility studies:

Each year MBendi is invited to present papers at major business conferences. Senior executives from merchant banks and law firms in Europe and the USA who attend these meetings and introduce themselves to MBendi speakers report using the MBendi website as a key reference source in preparing feasibility studies for projects, privatisations and African investments.

If your company is interested in reaching this kind of audience then please send us your details

Here are some other related pages and services you can use on the MBendi website: