A digital marketing agency for DAFZA that starts with what your customers search
Companies in the free zone by Dubai International Airport mostly sell to other businesses, and those buyers search before they ring, so Apex begins with the searches and builds the site, the posts and the campaigns around the ones worth winning.
DAFZA, short for Dubai Airport Freezone, is the free zone the Dubai government set up in 1996 next to Dubai International Airport. Its operator, DAFZ, describes direct access to the airport and runs a business centre, a retail centre and a government services centre for the companies inside. Since the start of 2022 the zone has belonged to the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority, the body that also oversees Dubai Silicon Oasis and Dubai CommerCity. The Metro reaches it as well: the Green Line station on Al Nahda Street, between the Al Nahda and Al Qusais stops, has stood there since 9 September 2011. People who work here mostly sell to other firms, so a customer is often a procurement manager or an owner comparing suppliers on a phone. They look for a product, a licence or a carrier, and they ring the first company that looks sure of itself. Every part of our work, from the Webflow pages to the Meta campaigns, starts from that one search.
What businesses here need
Traders come first. The zone's trade licences cover import, export, re export, distribution and storage, and its activity list names electronics, perfumery, jewellery, textiles, food and beverages, transport and travel. Buyers of such goods ask first for a price list, a minimum order and a delivery area, so the winning pages answer those 3 and show a WhatsApp number.
Light industry and aviation form a second group. A licence for light manufacturing, packaging and assembly sits beside a sector list that includes aircraft, and the zone promotes its direct airport access. A company that assembles or packs is chosen for what it can do and how much of it, so its pages state capability first and the story afterwards.
Service firms are the third group, and the zone's list includes advertising, architecture, legal work, finance and education. They are chosen on trust, so the people, the credentials and an easy way to message matter more than a catalogue. Some sellers ship goods from the zone, and DAFZ says its trade licence includes an ecommerce option.
The licence menu runs to trade, service, industrial and general trading, with a freelance Talent Pass beside them, and each one implies a different kind of buyer. Licence type steers the audience. A 2017 announcement from DAFZ says its companies can obtain a dual licence to operate across Dubai but must win the free zone's approval first, so one company may sell to the whole city while another stays closer to home. We ask which you hold before choosing districts. The method runs in the neighbours as well. Marketing for Al Qusais firms and Al Nahda, the next stop come first. Al Twar on the same street and Al Garhoud follow.
Our services here
Web design
Think of one Webflow build, maintained by us, where every job you offer has a landing page in every area you trade into; the SEO is included, and plans begin from AED 1,500 a month + VAT. Our DAFZA web design page takes a courier from a lone Services page to a page for every route.
SEO
Search counts first, then one page per winnable phrase, a monthly lift and a Google profile built for the map results beside the airport. DAFZA SEO follows a freight forwarder through its first searches.
Social media
Photographs and short films made on your own premises, each post finishing in a WhatsApp chat, with a calendar agreed in conversation and a fee quoted after it. Social media for DAFZA businesses is shaped around a perfume trader.
Paid ads
Google campaigns for buyers who are searching and Meta campaigns for those who are not yet, every one opening its own page, with the ad money paid by you to the platforms. Google and Meta ads in DAFZA plans them for an electronics trader.
Nearby districts
See every district we coverFrequently asked questions
How does a DAFZA business get in touch?
Message us on WhatsApp describing the goods or services a DAFZA business offers and the people who buy them, and expect counted searches for the zone and its neighbours, a recommended tier and, if wanted, a 20 minute call. Anyone who prefers a keyboard can use the contact form. Apex publishes no office, address or phone line, which is why WhatsApp is first, and nothing is signed until the district list has your approval.
What does a digital marketing agency do for a DAFZA business?
It gets the business found by the people who need it. For a trader, forwarder or service firm in DAFZA that comes to 4 jobs. The website carries a landing page for each job in each area. Whichever way the buyer arrives, the ranking work lifts the pages and the Google profile. Social posts end in a WhatsApp chat. Paid campaigns buy the searches that the pages have not won yet. One team does all 4, so the wording matches everywhere and a single report counts the results.
Does this suit every business in DAFZA?
No, and we say so at the first conversation. It suits companies whose buyers search or message, such as traders, couriers, forwarders, assemblers, consultancies and sellers who ship from the zone, across any of its 4 licence types. A company living off a few fixed contracts that never needs to be found will get less out of this. Arabic and ecommerce builds are Custom jobs, scoped on a call. If one good page would serve a DAFZA company better than the full plan, we will say that too.
How do I know which districts my DAFZA business should target?
Ask where the buyers of your DAFZA business are, then add the places you want to reach. A dual licence can widen that map, and a company without one may keep to the zone and its neighbours, so the licence you hold is our first question. After that every service is counted against every district, and the monthly searches come back to you as a sheet. 3 sizes are on offer, covering 10, 20 or 30 districts, and the district list is yours to approve before a word is written.
A DAFZA trader, forwarder or consultancy that waits for buyers to knock loses them to whichever firm wrote a page for the search. We write for the service, the district and the licence, lift those pages month by month, shoot the posts where the stock sits and aim campaigns at the right page. Browse the full list of Dubai districts to see where the method is running next.
Name your DAFZA products or services and the districts your buyers sit in over WhatsApp, and the first counted searches come back with a suggested starting order.
Find the plan that fits your business
Tell us what you sell and where you want work from. We look up how many people search for it each month in those districts, then send you the numbers and the plan that covers them.
What happens next
We reply on WhatsApp within the working day.
You get the search numbers for your services in your districts, and the plan that fits them.
Nothing to pay up front, whichever plan you choose.
