I began a FREE
technology empowerment training program for youths this year February
with specific focus on teaching ebusiness/digital marketing certificate class.
By March this same year 2015, I synergized with other members of the Lagos YALINetworkFace2Face in
building the Team7Project! – a Nigerian non-profit social enterprise working to encourage Nigerian Young
Professionals (Graduates/Under-graduates) to use information and communication
technology (ICT) to empower themselves socially and economically. We
(Team7Project) have trained over a thousand youths in about 6 basic implemented
project held across Nigeria.
I’m really enjoying it – the student are always
enthusiastic and operating all at different levels of eBusiness expertise and
experience. Creating material priodically for a 2day and at least four hour
class daily for every project is not really easy (nor be beans), but I love it
so far! It’s an exercise in visual, rigorous, accountable, consistent long
form periodic content creation.
At the same time, I’ve also been working with some
fabulous organisation and individuals as a marketing consultant, helping them
develop their marketing plans, define their business goals, and then execute
against those goals.
AND I’ve also been trying to keep up with the
fast paced and ever changing worlds of the internet and most especially as
it relates to eBusiness & Digital Marketing. Oh, and then there’s the new
eBook I’m working on for 2016 release.
I got to thinking about a week ago about spending
some more time to work more on the book ‘Mastering
Digital Marketing’, how to distill down the things I see as vital for practioners –
and any small business owner – to attend to as part of their Digital
Marketing Strategies for the coming year.
So here is what I would tell you to do in 2016 with
your online marketing if you were my client:
- Understand your primary digital marketing
business goals. Don’t jump into digital marketing just because you feel you
“need to be on online.” Are your goals and objectives to Increase
Targeted Traffic, Increase Sales, Become a Resource / Authority, Increase
Your Online Visibility, Establish Your Company in Local Search, Establish Your
Brand/Business in Social Media, Branding, Competitive Review and Analysis,
Online Reputation Management? Your goals will help determine both what digital
marketing channels to focus on, and what kinds of activities to engage in. Set
some reasonable, concrete, realistic, numerical digital marketing goals for
6 months and for a year from now – goals with numbers and a timeline.
It’s easy to get lost, sidetracked and overwhelmed in digital marketing. If
you’re not aiming at something, you won’t know if you’ve succeeded.
§ Know who your target market
is. What
are the basic demographics (age, sex, location, individual profile and their interest)
if you don’t have an audience base, research the demographics of brands and businesses
you consider your competition.
§ While you’re at it, check out
your competition’s online presence and best practices and copy them. The
best people steal the best ideas and make them their own – even in digital
marketing. What channels does your competition explore on online advertising
and marketing? What kinds of content do they create regularly and share? How do
they attract and engage visitors?
§ Don’t try to be everywhere.
If you have not yet begun using digital marketing consistently to advance your goals
(or even if you have), pick 1-2 digital marketing channels (start with a
website – you can choose email marketing and social media – e.g facebook, twitter,
youtube, Instagram, Google+) to focus your efforts on, depending on your kind of
business and where and how your target market hangs out. I spend time looking
at what channel, based on what industry and business my clients are, to advice
or implement for them.
§ Make sure your web link &
social media page links are integrated into all your offline marketing
activities. For example, have a business card with your Website (create a mobile
friendly version), Facebook page URL or your Twitter or Instagram handle. add “Like [bandname] on Twitter for news, updates
and special offers” to your show banner, and make sure all your social
media links are at the bottom of every newsletter you send out. Announce that
you are online and on social media at every marketing opportunity.
§ Always bring people back to
your website when you share contents online on blogs & social media. Don’t share tweets on
Facebook or Facebook posts on Twitter – share a blog entry you wrote, or a
product review summary on your website on Twitter and on Facebook. If
you don’t have a website, get one. WordPress and a whole number of
them – it’s far too cheap and easy to create a good-looking business or
corporate website these days. Ensure it is mobile responsive, include social
media buttons on the Home Page and make sure all blog posts, products, and
review pages have share buttons so friends & followers can spread the word
around. People look at a website in an “F” pattern, so make sure your
social media follow buttons are top right, topline, or top left on the
Home Page. Don’t make them tiny and put them all the way at the bottom
(“below the fold”), where visitors have to scroll down to find them. Just make
sure those are social media channels that you plan to be active on. Don’t
put them there just for the sake of putting them there!
§ Make sure your digital
marketing content is mobile-ready and your website is mobile-enabled. People access internet
more via mobile in an increasing percentage. It doesn’t do you any good if you
create great content, distribute it via social media, blog, and link back to
your website – but no one can access it from their smartphone or it looks crappy. Not being mobile also affect your search engine ranking (SEO), and
Google now has an online tool to help you determine if your site ismobile-friendly.
- Content marketing (posting
useful, entertaining or informative information in the form of blogs,
photos, podcasts, videos, newsletters, etc.) is the heart of good digital
marketing in the 21st century for any business. Content marketing is the best way to reach out to
target audience who might not be familiar with your brand, products or
services. First, figure out what content you LIKE to create,
and have the skills and equipment to create regularly. Like, regularly. On
an actual schedule. I call this a content marketing schedule or calendar. A
combination of two or more of the following - Article, News, Video, Game, Infographic,
Web site, Micro Site, Digital Magazine, Blog & micro-blog, App Forum,
Contest, Photo Albums, Music Albums, Comment, eNewsletters, Whitepapers,
eBooks, Webinars, Case Studies, Virtual events, Demos, Digital Profiles,
Surveys. All these are considered ‘Online Contents’ If you like taking
pictures, get them up on Facebook and Instagram. If you like witty quips
or inspirational quotes, try Twitter or Facebook. If your products or
service banners are super awesomely beautiful and creative, feature those
regularly on your social media channels. The bottom line is, if
you enjoy creating something, you will keep doing it, and digital
marketing requires consistency and persistence. Costumers respond best to
content that is created on a regular schedule, and in a manner they come
to expect and appreciate. Make sure you give your followers a way to
comment on your content or respond to you, too.
§ Be visual. Video and images are
one of the big growth areas for marketing, especially micro-videos and video
blogging. Create visual content regularly. Native video is growing on Facebook,
and tweets that have images are more likely to be shared. Make sure your blog
posts all have multiple images included.
§ Don’t go it alone. Join some specific
Facebook groups and Twitter chats. They’re great places to share and receive
information and support with others, and network for ideas, business contacts,
and even collaboration
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