The African Think Tank
I’ve had the privilege of partnering with impactful organizations like The African Think Tank – an extraordinary nonprofit initiative dedicated to empowering Africans and friends of Africa in the United States. Our mission is about fostering a global African community rooted in trust, unity, and collaboration. Together, we’ve cultivated an interconnected network of professionals, entrepreneurs, investors, and visionaries, proving that when Africans unite, incredible things happen.
Problem, Goals
Faced with a vibrant opportunity to unite and empower the African diaspora, The African Think Tank encountered a pivotal challenge: how to elevate attendance at our monthly mixers, gatherings designed to spark collaboration, personal and cultural growth, professional advancement, and entrepreneurial success. We started with 35 attendees and eventually grew to five cities with approximately 30-80 attendees per event.
Goals:
- Enhance the visibility of The African Think Tank and its events.
- Engage with a broader audience of professionals, entrepreneurs, investors, and visionaries interested in supporting the African diaspora.
- Cultivate a sense of belonging and excitement around the monthly mixers, highlighting their role in driving positive change and sustainable development.
Solutions & Tactics
- Paid Advertisements
- Email Marketing Campaigns
- Converting Landing Pages
- Engaging Content
- Digital Event Management
- Digital Media Creation
Notable Works Snapshots
Top Performing Email Campaigns
Facing a vibrant opportunity to unite and empower the African diaspora, The African Think Tank encountered a pivotal challenge: how to elevate attendance at our monthly mixers, gatherings designed to spark collaboration, personal & cultural growth, professional advancement, and entrepreneurial success.
In our digital marketing strategy, we implemented an abandoned cart email for the recent African Networking and Growth Mindset Mixer, leveraging personalized outreach to re-engage potential attendees. With a compelling message emphasizing the celebration of diversity and the opportunity for impactful connections, this email aimed to reignite interest and drive registration completion. By strategically using abandoned cart emails, we not only recovered potential lost attendees but also reinforced our brand’s commitment to fostering belonging and transformation within the African diaspora community.
Achieving an impressive click rate of 5.7% and outstanding open rates of 62.5% and 8.3%, this campaign played a vital role in our comprehensive communications strategy, fostering long-term relationships and strengthening community engagement. By expressing gratitude, promoting upcoming events, and highlighting our expansion plans, we nurtured connections and reinforced our brand presence within the African diaspora, laying the groundwork for continued growth and impact.
This event was pivotal to our email nurturing strategy, fostering relationships and supporting community growth. By providing a platform for members to hear/share stories and connect, we strengthened engagement and belonging. Encouraging attendees to invite others expanded our reach, enriching the community experience. In essence, it played a key role in nurturing relationships, strengthening bonds, and driving engagement.
My goal was to drive engagement through our exclusive focus groups, achieving a click rate of 5.7% and an open rate of 48.3%. Covering diverse topics like entrepreneurship, real estate, technology, parenting, investing in Africa, and healthcare, our expert-led discussions provided actionable insights tailored to our audience’s needs. Through targeted email marketing, we fostered meaningful connections and delivered impactful solutions for success.
Ads/PPC: Strategy. Content. Audience
Strategy
With only one mixer created by The African Think Tank, many of our strategy consisted of setting up the digital campaigns from scratch. We needed to establish our online presence, create a brand, drive traffic via content, and clearly define who we are targeting – those with the highest chance of coming to the event.
Audience
Our primary target audience was Africans and friends of Africa living in the diaspora. However, we needed to refine our audience for advertisements. Therefore, we identified the following groups that would be interested in attending our networking/community event:
- Potential small business owners who want to promote themselves
- African families/parents looking for a community
- Individuals who are interested in African culture, such as dance, arts, and fashion
- Africans who have recently relocated to the city (ex-pats)
Content
We started to highlight our mixers with media that were empowering for Africans, emphasizing the need to gather, grow, share ideas, and unite. Local influencers in different spaces like entertainment, real estate, healthcare, information technology, and small businesses were used to promote the event as well. .
Overall Results
On the digital marketing side, we well over exceeded typical metrics, eventually maxing out the event registrations on Eventbrite – almost tripling the registrations since the first mixer. After solidifying the ads, we focused on nurturing our attendees via emails.
Other Digital Marketing Tactics
When we expanded from Dallas to Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte, and DMV, it was important for us to keep the messaging/branding consistent across all cities, and think of other ways to build an email list that wasn't focused on one city, but relatable to all cities. This led to specific, catered campaigns for different cities.
Email Marketing
We eventually started to charge our events to compensate some costs for the venue space as well as did a stronger call for donators, sponsors, and vendors. Additional web/social campaigns were created to further fund the nonprofit.
Landing Pages/Website/Event Management
We integrated multiple tracking links via Facebook Pixels and Google Analytics to various ticketing vendors (Eventbrite, Zeffy, Etc) in order to track user interactions on website/checkout page. Statistics were used to gauge conversion results.
Analytics & Marketing Statistics
Key Take Away / Lessons I've Learned
How Event Marketing Encompasses more than just Digital
Effective event marketing, especially for regular events like those by The African Think Tank, involves comprehensive planning and execution before, during, and after each event to enhance its promotion. Pre-event, it’s crucial to engage attendees with reminders and communicate essential details, ensuring they’re prepared and excited. During the event, capturing high-quality content and facilitating a smooth check-in process are key to enriching the attendee experience and gathering valuable data for follow-ups. Post-event, leveraging this content and feedback to maintain the conversation and interest becomes vital in strengthening community ties and encouraging future participation. These steps not only improve marketing strategies but also deepen the connection between the audience and The African Think Tank’s mission, laying the groundwork for sustained interest and loyalty.
The importance of brand loyalty and repeat customers
Event marketing, particularly for recurring monthly events like those hosted by The African Think Tank involves nurturing relationships with past attendees through personalized communication and content, thereby fostering brand loyalty and ensuring a continuous connection to the cause.Ultimately, the success and conversion rates of these events hinge on the deep, emotional resonance the audience feels with the mission and vision of The African Think Tank. By aligning every aspect of event marketing with the organization’s core values and objectives, we not only promote attendance but cultivate a dedicated community eager to support and participate in our cause.
Using data to drive digital campaigns
In our digital campaigns, leveraging data was pivotal in understanding and optimizing performance. With ad click-through rates soaring between 9%-10% and achieving a remarkably low cost per result of just .10 cents, it was evident that our ads were not just performing well; they were exceeding industry norms. This success prompted us to concentrate on the next phase: converting clicks into concrete outcomes through carefully designed landing pages. By analyzing user interactions on these pages, we identified effective strategies to capture visitor emails, a crucial step in nurturing leads. This approach not only maximized the potential of our high-performing ads but also laid a strong foundation for building lasting relationships with our audience.
Lessons about Building an Email List From Scratch: Nurturing Vs New to the brand
Building an email list from scratch demands a nuanced approach, particularly in distinguishing between those new to the brand and individuals already within the nurturing phase. For newcomers to The African Think Tank, offering incentives, such as exclusive content or early access to event tickets, can be a compelling strategy to encourage email sign-ups, driving initial conversions. In contrast, nurturing tactics for existing contacts focus on deepening engagement through personalized communication that highlights the benefits of attending mixers, reinforcing brand values, and showcasing community success stories. This differentiation in messaging ensures that each segment receives relevant and enticing content, optimizing open rates and conversion actions. Implementing these tailored strategies is crucial in efficiently expanding our email list while fostering a vibrant, engaged community around The African Think Tank’s mission.
