Buying behavior has changed dramatically since the advent of the internet. More and more consumers are starting (and finishing) their customer journey on the internet, thus showing the importance and effectiveness of Digital Marketing. Even you as a business owner cannot deny your usage of the internet as a customer of other products. The way consumers make their purchasing decisions today makes Digital Marketing mandatory for any entrepreneur looking to set themselves apart from their competition. No matter the size or industry of your business, the knowledge on how digital marketing can promote your business will determine if you'll grow, and at what rate. But before taking the plunge into being present on the internet or web, you as an entrepreneur must understand how digital marketing can promote your business in order to use the right tools and tactics to reach and interest your audience. Digital Marketing can promote your business if there is a well-structured pla

Yesterday, I was reading through a post on Facebook on the poor customer service in an industry in Nigeria - how most customer representatives interact with their customers. This made me write on this piece. Most of us don't know that customer service is one of the most effective ways of knowing what customers want and retaining customers. A report was shown that 63% of customers prefer small businesses to large corporations because there is a face attached to the small business. They feel they won't get lost in bureaucracy. And that small businesses can be held more accountable for their actions. Related : 75 Customer Service Facts and Statistics In enacting customer service in your business, you need to understand its importance to your business, you need to know what customers would expect of your customer service, and what you can do to provide the best customer service. The importance of great customer service to businesses 1. It helps in attracting and retaining customer

Instagram  has over 100 million active users, and these users have different interests. It is possible that your target audience belongs to 1% or even less of these users, but are you reaching them? Do they know about your services? Hashtags are one of the many elements of  Instagram  that is required for creating business or self-awareness and enhancing engagements. A hashtag is a combination of the "#" symbol with words, phrases, numbers, slangs, abbreviations, emojis, or a mixture of them. On any social media like Instagram, hashtags are usually clickable and used to conduct searches. People search for personal interests on Instagram to get entertained or get information. You might be thinking, not everyone knows how to search with hashtags, but that doesn't matter. What matters is making sure that when the few enlightened ones search, you are right there in the list of results. Here are a few tips on how to do that: 1. Find hashtags specific to your industry

A digital marketing plan is a map that guides you to achieve the objectives and goals of your brand. It is necessary for every organization that is involved in marketing. It is so important, it's not enough to just have a plan, that plan has to be effective. It has to bring results as early as it is implemented. For a digital marketing plan to be effective, it has to consider all necessary aspects of the brand/business, and it have to be realistic and practical. Something that you can look at on a wall and follow the steps without having to spend another hour or more trying to decipher the meaning of that step. Now, let's discuss how to create an effective digital marketing plan 1. Research : This is probably the most recurring word in any form of marketing. Whatever it is you're selling, you will sell better with proper research. Your research must answer the following questions: What am I selling? What is that one thing I'm promising my customers (USP)? Do I nee

Avatar... That's the word for it. I'm not talking about element-bending character here. Avatar means a buyer persona. Yes, your target audience, your ideal customers. What they look like, what they like, problems they're facing, things they desire, and so on. A fictional character that you create, give a name, attach a personality, and sometimes even a face. This enables you to remember that you're dealing with humans like yourself that have interests and desires. It is possible that you'll need more than one persona since your business could be targeting various kinds of people. How does this concern you ?  Your buyers/customers/clients are the reason you have a business. If you don't know what your customers want, you need to find out now. Having a buyer persona assists you in creating content that'll target and benefit your target audience. Luckily for you, I've got a list of things to help you create that persona. Follow me until the end... 1. Ask :

Choosing the right keywords might seem like such a herculean task. You're like, "Where do I start from? I have no idea what to do. I just want to own a website and make more money." Truth is, it has never been as easy as that. The feeling of owning a website can be appealing, but at a point, you have to agree it's not enough. You start wanting more. Needing more. Visitors, customers/clients, sign-ups, conversions, you just want more. I'll be straight with you. Nothing is constant. Whatever methods work for you this year might need a little tweak or a complete turnaround for you to get the same, or better results next year. So, it is paramount to try new strategies, make improvements on existing ones, and monitor performances to know what works and what doesn't. Here are a few ways to assist your decision making regarding keywords for your niche : 1. Ask Google : I know how that sounds, but I actually mean it literally. Most, if not all, of your potential custo

Planning is the key to success in life. Forget any other saying that contradicts this. Having plans keep you organized, saves time, gives you a sense of control, makes you feel confident, gives you a sense of direction, reminds you of your goals and objectives, prepares you for problems, etc. I could go on and on about the advantages of planning because that's how numerous they are.  Marketing strategy is a plan, a long-term plan of a business whose goal is to make sales and profit by understanding the needs of customers and delivering those needs to them. This is not a dictionary definition but I'm sure you get the gist. You have a strategy already? Good. Is it effective though? Read till the end to find out what you aren't but should be doing. 1. Offer value, solve a problem : Why did you start that company? What do you hope to achieve? What do your customers need? Once you have answers to these questions, your marketing strategy will do its job with little adjustments fr

Online presence = Brand awareness.  Amidst COVID-19 lockdown and physical restrictions, the world has gone online with no sector left behind. Education, health management, agriculture, businesses, and of course, technology itself. Nigeria, our slowly developing country, has also followed this trend of being and living online. Being online indeed has numerous benefits for individuals and businesses. It is also true that most Nigerians are deep in the traditional business methods that they don't utilize the internet to its full potential. The few ones that do understand how to use the internet are either too young or inexperienced to think about business, or too one-track minded to actually explore. It makes you wonder, as a business owner that can only satisfy your countrymen within a specific mile radius.  You might have been asking yourself these questions: How do I get my business out there? Do people even know I exist? Or am I just a random drop of water in the Pacific? Should I

Meeting a client's expectations can be quite challenging. A client's satisfaction is a necessary tool in the growth of any business, you get to retain your clients as well as get new clients through referral or word-of-mouth. While the inability to meet a client's expectations can hit rock your business. Here are a few tips on managing your client's expectations: 1. A warm welcome ' Hi, you are in the right place', 'Hello, we are here to serve you', ' Here are the services we provide'. Such a warm and precise welcome message keeps your intending clients or existing clients relaxed, assured, and an urge to proceed if they find the services they are in need of on your page.  2. Communication Engaging your clients in a conversation helps you to know their needs and more importantly to develop a strong business relationship. Do not assume you know your client, ask questions, and paraphrase to get a clear picture of what your client need. 3. Punctuali

Many businesses have begun to understand the importance of having an online presence, and are trying to keep up with the ever-changing technologies and platforms in an attempt to grow sales and increase revenue. Marketing automation involves managing marketing processes and campaigns in autopilot mode, and its effectiveness cannot be overemphasized. It provides services ranging from scheduling emails to managing complex campaigns and analyzing data from previous tasks. So, how do you know when it's time to implement marketing automation? 1. Not scoring or generating leads as expected Leads are potential buyers of your products and/or services. Visitors become leads and leads become paying customers. If your current marketing strategy is only bringing visitors and stopping there, it might be time to change it. Marketing automation allows you to identify and design strategies that give visitors, leads, and customers personalized journeys as they move through the sales funnel. This wi

How do you know what platforms will work best for your business? There are a few aspects you can determine upfront to help you make some guesses as to which platforms will work best. However, it’s best to test your ads on a variety of platforms to see which one delivers the best results. Here’s a basic guide to help you decide the best social media advertising platforms for your business: Advertise on Facebook if: You want to appeal to one of the biggest social media audiences You want to advertise a specific product or service You want to boost brand awareness You want to chat directly with customers via messaging You want to increase clicks to your website You want to target based on interests and online behavior Advertise on Instagram if: You want to advertise a variety of products in one ad You already advertise on Facebook You want to chat directly with customers via messaging You want to appeal to new target audiences You want to retarget Advertise on Snapchat if: You want to mak

Social Media is a tool that helps in so many ways - one of the ways is advertising to drive customers.  The question is how can you advertise your products on social media. In this article, we have broken down the steps it takes to create the best social media advertising strategy. Step one: Choose your platforms We’ve outlined above a few reasons why you should choose each platform. Keep in mind that you’ll be most successful with social media marketing if you use more than one platform for your advertising strategy. The more audiences you can get your ad in front of, the better. Start your social media advertising strategy by nailing down what platforms you want to advertise. Step two: Create an audience persona It’s time to get creative. The second step is to create an audience persona for your ideal customer. This persona will help you determine exactly what qualities you want to target and will help you decide which social media advertising platforms work for you. For example, if

Lead generation is an important aspect of content marketing. Without lead generation, you’re basically just publishing and promoting content, hoping that people are going to buy or sign up for your products! While this sometimes happens in real life, that is, some people will buy things on the spot, the truth is the majority won’t. You need to have a lead capture system in place, so you can continue reminding your target audience that your brand exists. You can get in touch with them later on to share your news and updates, and to persuade them to move down your content marketing funnel. So, here are the top techniques you can apply to help you generate leads quickly: 1. Offer lead magnets Lead magnets are one of the best ways to get people to sign up for your mailing list. You’ll often hear this mentioned in the online marketing community, “The money is in the list.” Many successful marketers stand by this saying. So, if you want people to subscribe to your list, you’re going to learn

As you know, the only way to make money in business is to have customers buy from you. Of course, not everyone who encounters your business is going to buy from you.  If you know what you're doing, maybe 1 out of every 5 people who see your ad on social media decides to move forward and buy. If you don't know what you're doing, maybe it's only 1 out of 20 – and that can cost you a lot of time and money. In this article, a few tips are shared on how to get more customers saying YES and fewer saying NO. Read carefully. 1. Stay in touch Customers want to feel like they're being looked after and always have a point of contact. If they perceive you as aloof and difficult to reach, they're not going to buy. But if you're in touch with them every day, via social media, phone and email, they will know you better and like you better and trust you enough to buy. 2. Sell to existing customers When a customer has already bought something from you before, you already hav

Emailing, online direct mail or electronic mailing is a method of direct marketing that uses email as a means of mass business communication to send messages to an audience. Emailing and above all, succeeding is not an exercise to be taken lightly. If the operation may seem simple (send an email), it actually requires mastering some marketing techniques and thinking beforehand about the relevance of its emailing strategy. In this article, strategies for creating successful emailing has been laid down. Read through the article carefully. 1. Define a goal This is the step that will define the rest of your emailing strategy. Start by precisely defining the objective that you have to fulfill. Why do you want to email? The objectives can be varied: Inform via a newsletter Introduce a new product Make an important announcement Launch a promotional offer Qualify a database Prospect Etc… The creation and configuration of your campaign will depend on the objective you set yourself initially. It