Hi everyone. Good morning and welcome to today's session on creating your digital marketing strategy. My name is Tony and I'm a lead coach at UpScalable Digital.
We're growing Google delivery partners here in South-Saharan Africa. And I'm so, so excited to be here this morning to present this interesting topic to you, which is all about creating your digital marketing strategy. I'm not here alone today. I have my colleague on the live chat.
His name is Emmanuel. and is going to be interacting with you there on the live chat making sure that your questions are answered and also looking at helping out with some of your contributions so please feel free to keep those questions coming in keep those um contributions coming in let's make this session very very interactive and engaging so my name is tony joining you here from lagos and i would love to know where you're joining from so um you just head over to the live chat let's have like this very quick icebreaker so you go to the live chat right now tell me your name tell us your name where you're joining from you could even go on to tell us yeah i know it's 10 a.m right here and um east africa is going to be 12. so you could go on to tell us what you had for breakfast south africa is going to be 11 a.m so you could still go and tell me what you had for breakfast i'm going to be looking out for that and um hopefully yeah getting getting to know some new breakfast dishes and going on to youtube to look for how i can prepare them myself so Head over to the live chat. Please let's have this quick icebreaker, get to know each other.
Your name, where you're joining from, you could tell us what you had for breakfast and also tell us what you hope to gain from today's session. So that's a quick icebreaker. I think I should start.
So I'm Tony joining from Lagos. I had tea and I had bread. I'm having water right here.
And I'm really excited about the topic we have for today, which is create your digital marketing strategy you sure don't need to have a strategy when you're going online yeah there's a whole lot of buzz about digital marketing going online taking your businesses online um leveraging these online platforms but you sure don't need to have a strategy you need to have a plan you don't just get online and just um sit back and relax yes i'm online everything is going to happen you don't need to have a roadmap you need to have a plan and today we're going to be walking you through that as well as exposing you to some of The digital platforms, digital marketing channels and platforms you have available and sharing best practices on how you can leverage these platforms, make the most of them to of course, grow your business. So this session today is part of a webinar series and this series are part of Google's ongoing mission to ensuring that small retail businesses across Africa have the right tools and the skills to bounce back after COVID. and also drive the continent's economy once again.
So when small business grows, the economy grows of course. When small retail businesses in Africa grow, the economy of Africa will grow. So this is a webinar series and in line with Google's commitment to ensuring that these small retail businesses, your businesses all across Africa, would have the access to the right tools and skills to bounce back from the impact of the pandemic.
And we're going to be having another next week, we're going to be having another the following week. and we'll be sharing details on that as we progress. So retail business, small business, sit back. This is your month.
We're gonna be celebrating you. And I assure you today, you all are in for an amazing time. We're going to be having fun while you're doing this. I am not a fan of boring learning and all.
We could have fun. I mean, where you could go on and share your best meal or yeah, let's just have fun while we go about this and learn. and feel free along the line to drop contributions. I mean, you could have something that is working for you.
There could be this strategy that you've adopted and it's really working for you. Please feel free to go ahead and share. We all win when the economy grows.
When everyone is winning, we all get to win along together. So drop contributions, ask questions. We are right here to help. And my colleague Emmanuel, like I mentioned, is right here on the live chat and is going to be making sure that your questions are answered.
I'm just going to dive right into what we have for today and introduce the agenda to you. So we have three items on the agenda today, starting with an introduction to digital marketing. So we're going to be walking you through some of the benefits you'll get from taking your business online, introducing you to what digital marketing is, and we're moving on to helping you discover the digital marketing channels available. There are lots and lots of channels available.
We're going to be walking you through this, helping you discover some of these channels. And of course, when you know these channels, you sure do need to know the right ones to leverage, right? Which is why we're wrapping it up today with how you can build a digital marketing plan.
And when it comes to... When it comes to building your digital marketing plan, you could highlight some key channels and say, okay, this is my business, this is the ones I should be leveraging on, I should be doing SEO, I should be doing content marketing, I should be focusing on social media. It depends on your business, depends on the kind of product you're selling when it comes to retail.
So just three items right here, starting with that introduction to digital marketing. helping you discover the various channels we have available as well as sharing best practices we're not just going to tell you we have this we have that we are going to be sharing some best practices along the line proven best practices that are proven to work and then we're wrapping it up with building that digital marketing plan so by the end of this session everyone should be well equipped to create their own digital marketing plan you sure don't need to have a plan. Having a plan gives you that roadmap, you know, so you're heading from this point to this point.
Just imagine preparing a meal, you know, you need to get this, you might boil the water, do this for five minutes, wash this and that. I mean, there's a process for that. So the same applies when it comes to going online, you need to have a plan, you don't just come in and hit lock, you hardly hit lock online.
So pretty much interesting stuff to have on the agenda today. And at the end of each of these items, at the end of each of these sections, I am going to... pausing to take questions so feel free to keep those questions coming in on the live chat i see my colleague emmanuel whoop a whole lot is happening there on the live chat emmanuel is doing a great job paul you're welcome ismail kone you're welcome everyone joining from different parts of africa you all are welcome precious i see you are very much welcome joining in from lagos and you hope to get knowledge of digital marketing for your business and also have a career in this area Good, the program is also, the session is also for aspiring digital marketers.
So very much welcome, Precious Paul, and everyone right there. Let's keep this, let's maintain this energy on the live chat. Keep it coming. Keep those questions coming.
Introduce yourselves. Keep those contributions coming. Let's keep this energy going. And yeah, Lynn as well.
So remember, I'm going to be pausing to take questions at the end of each of this session. So for some questions, Emmanuel will be keeping them for me, and I'm going to be checking them out while I take that pause for questions. Let's dive right into this drum rolls. Also, I am going to be having questions for you.
So just so you know, this is not a classroom. Tony here is not the professor. I am not the teacher. I am not. I'm just Tony.
This is Tony here. Emmanuel is there on the chat. We are right here to help today. So this is not like we're going to be marking.
Yes, Paul, you've got this. Ismail, you've got this. Kone, you've got this.
No, we're right here to help. So whenever I ask a question. Just feel free to contribute. Whatever comes to mind, feel free to pop that right in on the live chat. We are not right here to mark good, we are not right here to say, oh, you didn't get this.
No wrong answers today, we just have answers. I think I would choose not to call them answers at this point, I'll call them contributions. So when I pop those questions right in front of you, feel free to contribute.
No wrong contribution, we just have contributions today. So diving in and moving on with the first section, we're diving into introduction to digital marketing. Basically, in this area, we're going to be walking you through some of the benefits your business could get from going online.
And talking about questions, I already have one in front of me for you right now. What opportunities might you get from being online? What are some of the opportunities you might get from being online?
Taking your retail business online, if you're an aspiring digital marketer, and a brand approaches you, I think we have someone who's an aspiring digital marketer right there on the chat. What opportunities do you think businesses might get from being online? And you as a retail business, wherever you are in Africa, what opportunities do you think you might get from being online? Could it be that you get to reach more people when you go online? Is that true?
Could it be that you could make more sales when you go online? I'm just thinking out loud here. You go to the live chat and let me know.
Emmanuel is going to be engaging with you on that. Remember, we do not have wrong answers here. We do not even have answers, we just have contributions. Feel free to pop right in on the live chat there what comes to mind.
We live in a mobile world and currently there are 774 million SIM connections in South-South Africa. 774 million SIM connections in South-South Africa. 91% of South Africans own mobile phones with 80% in Kenya and Nigeria, respectively. 91% in South Africa, 18% in Kenya and Nigeria, respectively. And some 85% of active mobile phone users in Nigeria have shopped online.
So people do not just own mobile phones, they actually go online, use this mobile device of theirs to shop online. Now if you do like, if we could get a quick count here right now. I know most of you are even joining with your mobile device. Most of you are joining right now through the YouTube application right here on your mobile device. I myself presenting this, I have my mobile device handy, just arm's length away.
I could just stretch and pick it up. It's an increasingly mobile world. Looking at this stat, 774 million SIM connections across SSA, 91% of South Africans own mobile phones with 80% in Kenya and Nigeria respectively, and some 65% of active mobile phone users in Nigeria have shopped online.
People do not just own these mobile devices, they are actually shopping online. So this, I mean, what's this telling you about the opportunities you could get from leveraging digital marketing and taking your business online? and doing it the right way of which of the guiding you through how to do that in this um session so here's another interesting start 80 of sales comes from only 20 of the population of most brands 80 of sales comes from only 20 of the population of most brands there's this 80 20 rule and um it's um this rule that says that 80 of your effort would i'm just paraphrasing here would come from 80 percent of your results would come from 20 of your efforts something like that and vice versa so it still goes in line with this and um what's this trying to tell you businesses retail businesses small businesses whether you're a digital marketer aspiring digital marketer you need to know this that your business must find the ideal target audience to stay relevant and drive sales you do not need to come and maybe you're a retail business you're selling beats very nice bits and you're like yeah my bits are for everyone everyone can buy my idea you need to define your audience and along the line i'm still going to be talking more on this but just so you know businesses need to define and find their target audience to stay relevant and drive sales looking at this 80 percent of sales comes from only 20 percent of the population of most brands let this tick you need to find that ideal target audience of yours so when it comes to going online um some of the benefits you get from digital marketing and all you get to reach more people globally of course i mean i am you could have that retail business of yours um based in durban south africa and um i think i love this a whole lot because i've been using this a lot in my examples so um you sell bits in durban south africa and maybe there's this ongoing trend maybe there's this um very big artist in east africa who just um wore this um very nice bit some somehow related to yours and suddenly there's this trend for beads in south africa sorry in east africa maybe kenya and people are searching for this the search is increasing people are you check google trend you're seeing more people from east africa searching for this and some of them are finding you maybe you have that google my business profile i'm still going to be talking about this you have that top-notch social media presence people in east africa searching for these beads and you're finding it I mean, imagine not taking that business of yours online or not having that online presence.
How are they going to find you? But whenever you go online, you have that opportunity to reach people globally. People could find you from wherever. Take this session, for instance. I'm having this session right here, and people are joining from all across the world.
That's the power of digital. So taking your business online, doing it the right way, you get to reach more people globally. And we are still going to be sharing some tools that you could actually leverage. ShareBeck's practices on how to achieve this. You also get to learn about your customers.
Knowing your customer is key. It's key. Knowing your customer is key. Learning about your customers, it's key. Sometimes, I don't know if you've ever been in this situation, you might start a business today, let's say you start selling perfumes and you're like hmmm or maybe you start selling shoes and you think okay I think these shoes should be for people in the corporate world should be the ones getting this shoe.
or maybe you're selling some nice sneakers and you think yeah these sneakers i think i'm the gen z's and the millennials will be the ones buying this liquor and suddenly you're now checking out the analytics checking your page following checking um keywords are checking the demographics of people who are finding you and connecting with your business online you are now seeing people within the age range of 50 60 maybe there's this trend for sneakers they have correctly and they are the ones who are actually coming interacting with your business buying from you i mean there's a whole lot to learn about your customers and um social media analytics and some of the analytics tools you have google analytics and a whole lot of them are right there to help you learn about your customers starting that business you might not just know every single thing about your customers and one thing about knowing your customers if you know your ideal customer you know that ideal target audience of yours you know the right messages to use for them you know where to find them you know how to create the right content for them You know how to pivot and adjust so you meet them at their point of need. So it's very important to learn about your customers and you could gain insights with some of this social media analytics. Facebook is there, Instagram, I think it's also very easy on Instagram. You just click on that insight tab and you're finding that rich insights.
XYZ number of people have interacted with this post. People are liking this post from this part of the world. You are reaching more of females and the likes. So these insights are key because they help you do what?
Make informed decisions. Like I mentioned earlier, you're selling sneakers and now you're seeing those within the age of 50, 60 are buying your sneakers. Maybe next time you're advertising, you might want to include them in your targeting.
So your audience, defining your audience, whatever you have defined is not just cast on stone. It's still going to be evolving. So always make sure you're leveraging analytics and always make sure you're open to learning more about your customers. Also, when it comes to going online, you get to build your audience profile.
I mean, talking about content, you get to see how they're interacting with your content, how they're reacting to your messages. Have you been posting images, images, images? Have you been posting just text, text, text, right? You're on social media.
And today you decided to try out maybe this do-it-yourself video. You just decided to show a video where you're unboxing these sneakers that you're about to sell, this shoe, this hair that you're about to sell, this perfume. And people are interacting with it.
They're like, oh, there's even a face behind this brand. goes on to show you that you might want to start creating some of those behind the scenes unboxing videos and the like so going online helps you understand the right the kind of content helps you identify the kind of content your customers your ideal target audience are interacting with and when you know this it's going to help you tweak okay make adjustments now people are interacting more with videos i think it's time to start making videos maybe you do not have a presence on youtube at that point you've been doing this on maybe instagram and now you're seeing videos that are really more appealing to your audience what's that telling you it's time to get onto um youtube and maybe also tick tock yeah tick tock so um interesting one audience you also get to know where you are reaching where are they coming from i mean looking at those insights to see where they are coming from and um maybe right now and i'm having um or you you sell um fashion wares and the likes and maybe it's really really cold in kenya this time you know you are more people from kenya uh interacting with your brand you might want to reach them with different messaging okay it's summer now no it's this now it's winter now you should get this you should get that so you know your audience and where they are reaching you from and it's also going to help you to work your messaging and all to meet them at their point of need conversion you also get to know the actions they are taking of course i mean you have that website of yours and you are saying the customer joining they click on this they click on this and at the end of the day they are just signing up for your newsletter or at the end of the day they are going for that post where there's a coupon where there's a discount so there's a discount on this particular product and that is what customers are going for they keep going for it maybe you need to do more of giving discounts so going online you get so when it comes to building your audience profile you get to see the conversions anything whenever you see conversion in digital marketing it's all about the actions people are taking so it could be i want them to download this sign up for this whatever action you want them to take actions they are taking refer to that as conversion so wherever you see this term conversion it's all about actions people are taking all the actions you want and visitors or customers to take when they visit or interact with your brand traffic sources you also when it comes to building your profile you also get to see where they are coming from are they coming in from facebook are they coming in from instagram a very key tool like google analytics is going to help you a lot with this you see where they are coming from the traffic source could be that they're coming in from this um referral network you have could be that you've partnered with this brand or this website and you're having more people coming in from this this other one is not really bringing in enough traffic what's that telling you okay it's time to start focusing more on the one which is bringing more traffic so When it comes to building your audience and going online, it helps you discover the right content, the right audience, who you're actually reaching, the actions they're taking, talking about conversion, and also the traffic sources, where they are coming from. Also, one other key benefit of going online is that it helps with your communication and providing support. Communication and support is key. Customer service is very, very important.
Take for instance, you have this Very, very nice beads. You have nice shoes. You have nice perfumes.
You have, the product is good. That retail product of yours is good. You have that good presence. I would say you've taken nice images. You have that Google My Business profile.
Everything you're doing, you're ticking all the right boxes. And a customer comes to you on Instagram or wherever, even on Google My Business, leaves a message and they're like, hey, I need more information on this. And next thing you just, maybe you're having a very busy day. You're receiving lots of orders.
and next thing you just blow up please please please i'm very busy i'm going to attend to you please i have 100 customers to attend to please i'll get back to you Is that a good tone? So when it comes to going online, it gives you the opportunity to offer real-time support and communicate with customers. It's all about building communities these days.
See this as your community, your own community. The idea written for you and me. They have lots of other brands to choose from. So whenever you have that person showing interest, that person following your brand, that person asking questions, see it as, okay, this person is trying to become part of my community.
And you need to do more to give them the support they need, communicate with them very well. Effective communication is key. Look at your tone of voice. We're still going to be talking about tone of voice while we're defining, creating the social media, sorry, the digital marketing strategy.
Communication and support is key. So going online, it gives you the opportunity to reach people beyond just having them call that brand of yours. These days, I don't even, I do not pick up the phone and call, hey, I need this. I just go maybe, um. Send a message, maybe Google my business.
I'll just, even you could go on Instagram and chat the brand. And it's happening in real time. Some would even prefer to leave comments.
So this complements your customer service efforts. This complements your customer. We see lots of big brands and they keep coming out telling you you could reach them on this channel. Why are they doing that?
I mean, retail businesses, we need to get along with this. We're not just having these platforms for the purpose of pushing our products. Go see this, see this, see this. I have this new products, new this.
see it as a community and see it as an avenue for you to offer real-time top-notch five-star customer service and support. So communication and support is key and these online platforms would help you a lot on that. So pausing now for the first round of questions, I'm going to be checking to see if there are any questions.
I do not think I have any question at the moment. Emmanuel is doing a very great job right there on the live chats and Keeping it, I mean, it's so engaging right there on the live chat. And if you're just joining us, welcome. Today's session is part of Google's commitment.
This is a webinar series and it's part of Google's ongoing commitment to ensuring that small retail businesses across Africa are equipped with the right tools and the skills to bounce back from the impact of the pandemic and also drive the economy of Africa. So when small businesses grow, the economy of Africa grows. And when it's green... Africa is rising and growing so feel free to engage with us ask questions we are right here to help today Emmanuel doing a great job right here Oluwafisayo I see you you're welcome I think you have a question are you going to touch on google analytics so Oluwafisayo we are not going to be going in deep on google analytics right in this session but on the 23rd we have a session on google ads I believe something we're going to touch base with google analytics right there Just it's a very easy to use tool.
And there's still a course on Google Analytics. You could search for that. There's a course on Skillshare to help you out with that. Very, very great and useful tool. Helps you know the customer journey, helps you know, understand your customers better, the action they are taking, where they're coming in from.
So that's a great tool, Wafisa. And you could want to sign up for other sessions we have coming up on the Twitter. We're having that session on Google Ads.
I would advise everyone to sign up and apply. in the session for next week and the following ones so thank you so much for that question and if you have other questions please feel free to drop them right here on the chat right here to help today so um let's get going we'll still have two more to cover on this and feel free please please please part of learning is um asking questions as part of learning so always um feel free to keep those questions coming in we don't know no wrong answers so when i ask question as well remember no wrong answer we just have contributions so moving on to um the next um topic the next um item today that's um digital marketing channels you have available here's some of we're going to be exposing you to lots of digital marketing channels you have available right now and i'm really excited about this particular section right here because um there are lots of various channels available and first off we are just going to in this particular session we would be introducing you and explaining these key channels and also sharing best practices and after that we'll do now wrap it up with you creating your own your very own digital marketing um strategy so this session is not just for you to come and listen you sure don't need to take action immediately after this so you could go on along with me the way um when we get to that session creating that um strategy you could go on and create your channel your um strategy right now in real time or you could take notes the session is still going to be here and you can still assess it with the same links you're joined with so let's just get going Key digital marketing channels to consider for digital marketing. Some key, yeah we could have more but these are the key channels we have now which you could leverage and consider for digital marketing. We have search engine optimization, SEO, SEO. How many have heard of this?
SEO and some do think it's really difficult. I mean it's and it's so so easy. I will tell you this, do not have that mindset that any of this is difficult.
None of this. Absolutely none of this is difficult. So just a quick background.
I do not even have a background on tech. I never studied anything related to marketing or tech, but getting on and just... replacing this limiting belief that I can't do this. I'm just replacing them with empowering beliefs that yes, I can do this.
You as a business owner, you need to replace those limiting beliefs and choose empowering beliefs. You do not know about, I do not know what searching and optimization is. I can learn, I can find out. So replace those limiting beliefs with empowering beliefs.
You can learn this, you can do them yourself. And when you do this, leverage them for yourself. I mean, it's far, far better for you.
Keyes Digital Marketing Channel. So searching and optimization, optimizing your website so it shows up more often in search results. This is all about optimizing that website of yours. So it shows up more often when people are searching.
The search engine like Google, people do go there search every day. I mean I think from the last time, from my last research, I think I did see that there are over 70,000 searches. in a second right there i found this um from hubspot over 70 000 searches on google every second so before even completing this sentence they are they are over 70 70 70 000 searches so people are going online to search and you sure don't need to meet them at this point because i would say this is a pool marketing platform it's attracting people i mean this will pull for someone to go in and search that person is really interested in this so search is not optimization is all about optimizing your website so it shows up more often when people are searching still going to be explaining and diving into um this we have search engine marketing which is all about you paying for advertising so it's attached i mean on search engines so um search engine optimization it's free but when it comes to search engine marketing because you are not paying when it comes to search engine marketing it doesn't mean you come in on any kind of advert to go i mean there are policies so even before getting on with this you might want to google if you're using a platform like google you might just want to google and find out some of the google advertising policies so you make sure your adverts and messaging are in line with the policies so the advert does not get um disapproved and also i mean advertising is all about relevance and also you sure don't need to do more research on this but i'm going to the learning more on this as we progress.
We have social media marketing. Yeah, very interesting one. I mean, everyone should be familiar with this.
Using social networks again, still be talking on this. We have display marketing. So when you go to network and you have the display network, so display, the name says it all. I mean, you go on websites, that's your scene, right?
Yeah, some of them are those advertisers are leveraging the Google display network. and it's um display marketing is all about online advertising in many different formats across different websites on the internet email marketing is still a very key channel yeah people do say email is outdated email is this no you need to have a list you need to reach your customers through different channels you can reach them maybe this channel is down today you know okay yeah i can't reach them through email so still going to be talking on that and sharing i mean we have lots of best practices to share because marketing is also there which is our infographics videos and the likes of seo searching optimization section the marketing social media marketing display marketing email marketing content marketing these are the key key key channels to consider for digital marketing We are not just going to be leaving it here. We're going to be explaining more on this. So talking about getting started with search engine marketing.
Right here on the slide, this is a very simple example of how the interface looks. So when you go into, you just open your Google app. It could be your Google app.
And you search for, you key in a search query. That's what it's called. So you key in a search query.
And it could be you searching for, like this example right here on the slide. best compact cameras for travel so maybe you have a return i've been in this situation to be honest with you i went on this very nice trip sometime i was taking this thought and everyone was taking pictures my phone camera was bad i couldn't take pictures everyone came down from the top was taking pictures and right there and then i was like I am going to get a camera as soon as this cannot happen again. Imagine how would I, I cannot save memories from this trip and the likes.
Getting back home, I just, I searched for this. So looking at this example, it just reminded me of that. So someone like that, someone like me, myself, who went on this trip and I sure don't need that camera and I'm searching for it. Of course you shouldn't get to show up here on search because for me that intent is there. I am right here to buy.
I went on this trip and I couldn't take pictures. I'm not happy and I'm searching for this. I don't need to buy. So when it came that search query, best compact cameras for travel, You have the shopping ads showing up right here on top.
You could still create this on Google, the Google Advertising Network. After that, you have text ads, so you have that below. And I'm sorry, you're going to see an ad in a very tiny box by the left, and that's just to differentiate and show you that this is an adverts, that's a text advert. And below that, you have the organic stat list things. So, the adverts the paid test and the shopping ads those are adverts happening right there on the google network then you have search engine uh optimization you now have search listings the ones you are not paying to appear right here so the way it is you have that search you have the ads showing up that could be search engine marketing then you have organic so whenever you use to show you that it's free so organic search listings these ones are just any traffic to their websites through our paid and relevant listings so it's it's free i mean there's no ad beside them so the ones where you have ad that's an advert and you have search engine optimization results showing right there so some would always ask um seo sem seo and cm which i use And I keep saying this, why not boots?
Why not boots? Why not? Why not try boots? Why not try boots? You are making sure your website is in best compliance through SEO, but that is right there.
And the thing about this advert is that they are really, really cheap when it comes to shopping and paid text ads. Very cheap and yeah, going on and explaining more on this when it comes to getting started with search engine optimization. You might want to sign up for search console. So, This is a webmaster tool by Google.
And when you submit your, it helps you monitor how you're doing on search. And it's going to be sending you a lot of critical issues. So if there's this page, if you have a website, if there's this page on your website that isn't doing well or something is wrong with this particular page, you're going to be getting alerts on that. And this is happening from Google Search Console.
So if you created your website yourself, you might want to check this out. Emmanuel, please do pop the link right there on the chat so they can sign up for Google Search Console. This is going to help you monitor how you are doing through organic search.
You see the search terms and all people are using to find you, so you sure do want to sign up for Google Search Console. If you have a webmaster handling your website, you might want to tell them, just remind them today, did you sign up for Search Console? If you did not, please do that as soon as possible.
You also do want to help Google find your content. So it's a two-way street. you help google and google would help you so when it comes to getting started and doing the most for se you want to find your for your site so showing different pages and what you have in there and all showing different um sections right there on your website and what you have in there so it's it helps google um identify and find out what's the robots actually looking for right there so this happens in less than a second so whenever there is a search i mean that you key in that search query. A whole lot happens in less than milliseconds. So the robot is going to crawl on thousands and millions of websites looking for the very, very relevant results.
So there's a whole lot that goes on behind the scenes. And you sure do want to make sure you are helping Google and that one way to find it for a sitemap. You might want to Google this to find more on this or just get on with your...
YouTube is a great resource as well. I mean, there's... there's also do this yourself you could go on to youtube and see how to submit to that promote your site online and offline do not just have a website and yeah you leave it that way sometimes it's still good to get um traffic through your own sources so um it's still going to help google a lot so make sure you're promoting your site online and offline tell people about your website you move around i mean you see stickers some of the e-commerce platforms just since the cousin has this dot com this dots these this does as a distance So you go on and make sure you're also promoting that website of yours and make sure you are sharing new content.
Do not just have a website maybe and you post just once a year and you do not update that website. There's no blog section right there. Having a blog fresh and always make sure you're updating it with fresh content. So make sure you're sharing your content.
And also help Google and users understand your content as well. It's one thing to find your content. It's another thing to understand it.
So maybe it's an Anglophone. You're selling this. in an anglophone country or a francophone country and the reason you are very low to create your content, you might not be able to understand.
Not everyone might understand. You might want to maybe, in a francophone country or anglophone, or that's the audience you're trying to reach, you might want to accurate page titles. Make sure you're using good, creating good titles and snippets. And make sure you are tagging and emphasizing on important text. Also make sure you're tagging your images.
Do not just go and screenshot an image and the title of that image is screenshot and you go in and you dump it on your website. Screenshot another image, the title is screenshot, you're selling bits. People are searching for this kind of bits, this kind of, where's this kind of snake.
Because, and you are taking screenshot, the name of... if someone is doing an image search how do you think they are going to mean there are billions of screenshots behind the name of the image you're posting so very good to make sure you're typing se optimization i'm searching optimization tips here are some best um tips for best practices run keyword research run people are finding you with keywords so make sure you're running keyword research including these keywords i mean you do not just come and say okay These are the keywords I know people would use to find me. When it comes to marketing, you cannot fully understand the consumer or your customers. And preferences are always changing.
Take, for instance, during the lockdown and all, and even the current pandemic we have going on, most people would want to shop online. So people could be searching for online, buy shoes online, buy this online. Putting in that keyword online behind that.
you are now saying okay more people are searching for this online hair online by bone straight hair online and the likes so i mean that's a good insight for you so if you run keyword research to see what's trending the tool like google trend is good for this so you search for um putting that keyword you know and it's going to help you with what's trending as well as using the trend history how it's going up and coming down so google trend is very good to discover new keywords and you can also add these keywords to your article and your content Google Ads is also a good platform where you can leverage for this. On the Google Ads platform, there's this keyword research tool. You just go to tools.
You see that keyword research tool right there. And you just put in your website and the keyword you help you with that. It's very important to research and make sure you're integrating these keywords to your content.
Now, when it comes to integrating, adding these keywords, people are searching for online shoes, buy online shoes. and now in your content you have drafted something like yeah we have the best online shoe this online shoe you are just it's called keyword stuffing so it's not going to work be very natural with this and just yeah do not go in and stop the keyword in every single sentence it's not going to work so be careful with that also when it comes to search engine optimization you want to make sure you are publishing useful high quality content useful high quality content So I'll tell you Google's mission is to organize the world information and make it universally accessible and useful. Organize the world information and make it universally accessible and useful.
and now here's a tip publish useful high quality content don't you think a brand with um that mission are going to be prioritizing on yeah making sure that users are saying contents that are useful and of good quality so you put yourself um you just go in to google and you search for something imagine not finding anything related to what you're searching for are you going to be happy no so definitely google is doing its best to make sure that every result right there showing up on such as very relevant to what the user is searching for so you since you're aware of this you want to make sure you're publishing useful high quality content make your website pages search friendly um there are lots of google webmaster tools for this there's the test my site with google.com tool you want to see how your site is doing how it's appearing on mobile your site's load speed and all all this would go on to influence how your search site is going to be showing up if you have that website and it takes um 30 seconds to load i mean that's i mean it's going to affect your ranking and also publish useful high quality content run keyword research and make sure your web pages are search friendly you could go on and boost your business visibility with google my business now this is one very very interesting so and it helps a lot with your seo so anyone here familiar with google my business have you heard of this is there anyone using it do we have anyone currently leveraging and using google my business anyone here using Google My Business, this is one key tool and it's very, very important and it helps a whole lot with your SEO. So it helps you show up on search, of course, when people are searching for your business or something related to what you're offering. So when you have that Google My Business profile or, Emmanuel, please do help pop the link right there on chat. So if you do not have a Google My Business profile, please, please, please make sure you're creating one immediately after this.
So Emmanuel is going to be helping you with the link right there. chat so when you get on to google my business make sure you're sharing your business updates make sure you're posting upcoming events make sure you're posting deals special coupons of course people do love you i love deals i love coupons i love promotions and all so make sure once in a while you have specials you share coupons and deals make sure you're responding to reviews make sure you are responding to reviews so someone leaves a review for you they bought this from you and oh they like it you could go in and thank them someone has this question for you someone is not satisfied with this still going i mean when it comes to reviews it's always a win-win whether it's a positive or negative review it's still helping you if it's a negative review it's helping you understand what you're not doing well and how you can improve if it's a positive review it's helping you understand what you are doing well what the customers like about your business and you see okay you might need to keep this up so when it comes to reviews there are no it's a win-win situation because i understand some people see negative reviews on their life oh i need to delete this as soon as possible i only want positive reviews on my page no some people are actually looking out to see how you respond to those negative reviews it could be someone saying oh this did not work for me i bought this bid and it didn't last and you could just go in and apologize and tell the person you're going to be sending them another one free of charge so people will see this and they're like hmm so if i buy from this person and uh maybe it doesn't say it's poised even on the first time i'm trying to wear it I could just get another one sent to me right away free of charge. Hmm, I think, yeah, I trust this person.
Let me buy. So something like that. So always good to respond to reviews.
We had, there's this business, a retail business, Elsa Signature. So I met this lady behind this business last year during an event, of course, before the pandemic. Of course, the event was all about Google Ads and Google My Business, how businesses, small businesses can leverage these platforms to grow. So this lady came in and at the end of the day she implemented all the learnings created at Google My Business page started running with us now this happened last year I would say um yeah first quarter of last year before the pandemic and all and um she's into retail sales perfume and the likes so um before the end of the year she would always reach out hmm I'm making sales this is really good more customers coming in I'm getting customers from different parts of the country from different parts people are even contacting me from overseas to buy and I'm like this i mean that's the magic of getting on with google my business so sometime towards the end of last year google did um document a success story on her so if you could please share that on the link as well emmanuel on the charts manuel you could please help share that so this goes to show you that small businesses retail businesses i'll let this i've seen it walk over over over over again businesses are leveraging these platforms and getting a whole lot from it so One thing about this is that you do not just get onto this platform, especially Google My Business and leave it idle.
You want to make sure you are very, very consistent with your posting. Like we highlighted, your posting, maybe specials, deals, always updating your profile with new. Maybe you have something new on your business.
You go in and you adjust your description, upcoming events. Always make sure you're adding pictures, videos, and the likes, getting reviews. there's a review link right there which you could even share with existing customers and they get to give you reviews so this is one key tool i believe every small business corner every retail business owner across sub-sahara africa across africa entirely should get on with we've seen this work keeps working keeps keeps keeps walking so get on with this as soon as possible i have another i have lots of stories to tell on this another friend was still into retail so after the lockdown this friend of mine came over and um he came over to visit me and i was like tuning i was like hmm this way in the pandemic and you are all happy what's happening then he just showed me his phone i went through and saw others and the likes and it was like this has been his best season during lockdown he made the most sales ever because people were now going online to search and all thanks to google my business had this countless times more people saying they've gone on to um they made most sales even during the lockdown thanks to this tool so you could want you should Check out Google My Business, definitely. So there's this other thing, Google My Business, which is the free marketing tool from Google. So this tool helps you create.
Don't need to go in and start taking screenshots to share, maybe on your social channels. Go on marketingkid.google.com, sign up with that account you used in creating your Google My Business page. Search for your Google My Business page, integrate that, connect that together. And information right there from your Google My Business page, you could get them in form of nice stickers.
Designed by Google already, you could just go in and customize them a bit and you could go and share these stickers right there, these images on your social channels, your WhatsApp status and people are like, wow, where did you get this? Yeah, it's from free marketing kits. Get along with marketingkit.google.com, connect that with your Google My Business and you could get free stickers and posters to just share on your social channels. So differentiating search engine optimization from search engine marketing. the basic difference here is that search engine optimization is free you are just making sure your website the content and everything posted like we shared earlier posting relevant content looking at your site load speed and so many other things making sure you are tagging your images you are um so many other things you have to do right there doing all the all that for free you could you could show up on google search results or that search engine results depending on the search engine platform you're using or the person who's searching is using when it comes to search engine marketing it's just paying for search listing you are paying to appear right there when someone is searching so that's the basic difference seo searching optimization it's free search engine marketing you are paying for search listing and when it comes to searching optimization you're optimizing for keywords yeah not keyword stuffing remember not going and making sure you have that keyword In every sentence, you're just optimizing for keywords, and it could take some time.
So I see people go on. You have your retail business. You go on to create that website.
And tomorrow, people will ask this. I want to appear on Google Search Resort tomorrow. So please be aware it could take some time for you to rank on Google's first page.
If you want to rank right away, remember, you could just go in, search engine marketing, advertise, and be on the first page straight up. But remember, your ad has to be in complete. compliance with the policies and all that. So SEO, SEM, that's the basic difference. Free SEO, SEM, you're paying for listed.
So when it comes to getting started with search engine marketing, talking about Google Ads, and one mindset people have is that Google Ads, it's not difficult. It's very, very easy. It's very, very easy to use.
So if you could go on, affirmations are very powerful. Go onto the live chat or just make that affirmation that Google Ads is very, very powerful. very, very easy to use. It's one of the easiest advertising platforms to use. And over time, it keeps getting simplified.
So you want to get started with search engine marketing, leverage Google Ads, you just go on ads.google.com. Emmanuel, you could please pop the link on the chat. Log into your Google Ads account if you have one already.
If you do not have one, you just create a Google Ad account with your Google account, of course. Select the search campaign type. Of course, this is a search campaign. Remember I mentioned earlier, Google Advertising Network, you have search and you have display.
So search is showing up when people are searching. The name says it all. Display showing up on websites. So now you select the search campaign because you're going to see search campaign display right there.
So you select the search campaign and you select your campaign goals. So it could be that you want to make more sales, you want to get more deals, you want to get more calls and the likes. Everything is right there, arranged in the right sequence. Step one, step two, step three, step four. I had a friend who called me last week.
Hey, I'm trying to create this Google Ads, Tony. I heard it's difficult. And I told her, you just get on, step by step.
And at the end of the day, she created the ad and called me after like an hour. This is so easy. My ad that is live. And I could feel the excitement even from the call. So these things are really easy.
And everything is laid out right there. And parts, this, this, this, this, this. Very easy to understand. So after you've selected your campaign goal, you pick the right keywords and make sure you are aligning keywords with your business goal.
so make sure the keywords you are picking are aligned with what you are trying to achieve and also you want to manage the match type so when it comes to google advertising they are especially such advert there are various match types you have the broad match you have the phrase match and we have the exact match so match types is just maybe someone searches for this case in a search query Maybe someone searches for, um, Boone Street Hair in Nairobi. Yeah. Boone Street Hair in Nairobi. A retail business, uh, maybe XYZ retail business in Nairobi is now on advertising with the keyword maybe hairs in Nairobi as a broad match. Broad means that, yeah, you could reach people who are searching for something similar to this, related to this.
So whenever someone is searching for something related to the keyword you are bidding on, you are going to show up. That's a broad match. If it's phrase match, the person must be searching with that exact phrase you are bidding on. So maybe you are bidding on a phrase like, um, Bone Street hair in Nairobi.
That phrase must be included in the person's search query. So maybe the person is searching for, I want to buy Bone Street hair in Nairobi. I'm going to show up because that phrase, Bone Street hair in Nairobi, is on that search.
So when it comes to phrase match, the phrase you are bidding on must be on the search query before you show up. Exact match, the name says it all. It must match that exact keyword people are searching for before your ad would show up. So maybe I am now building on an exact match like bone straight hair in Nairobi or perfumes in Nairobi.
If someone doesn't search for perfumes in Nairobi, I'm not going to show up. If they search for buy perfume in Nairobi, I'm not going to show up because they added that keyword buy there. So we're going to be talking more about all this on the 23rd when it comes to Google advertising. but just so you are clear this match types these are things that would help you enhance the performance of your advert because you know okay this i think this i want to shop for this keyword alone so it's left for you and um your kind of um the products you are selling so you would also want to refine with negative keywords this is one beautiful part of google advertising so um you do not want to shop for this keyword maybe set people searching with this some people would add keywords like pictures maybe someone you think someone's searching with the keyword picture of hair is not ready to buy so you add that um word picture as a negative keyword and you're never sure for that google advertising is so so unique and amazing i'll tell you make sure it's reaching the right one to reach so when it comes to i'm still moving along with there's this saying that i'm 70 percent of you the success of your ad campaign would come from your creativity.
So creativity accounts for 70% of the success of your adverts. So you want to make sure you get really creative and you highlight that thing that is unique about your business because you do not have a whole lot of, there are not so much text, you cannot write so much paragraphs right when it comes to Google Ads. It's very short.
So make sure you're focusing on user benefits, focus on your headline, and you could also want to implement ad extensions. So Search engine marketing tips, optimize your keyword list. Always make sure you're refining with negative keywords, boosting your ads. Also, when it comes to keywords, you could be changing your match types.
Maybe you're using broad match now, and you think, OK, you are showing up for keywords you do not want. You might want to try phrase or exact match. You could boost with ads extension.
So ads extension, they are just links that show up behind your ad. It could be links to specific pages on your website. It could also be a call extension.
So people could just click on that. and call you right away so um you could add that while you're creating your ad and there's that call icon showing or different links to your website and also you'd want to connect your analytics account so you get to understand more about what's happening when people find this and what they are actually doing right there on your website so growing your business on social media which is another platform when it comes to digital marketing remember in this section we're exploring different digital marketing channels social media helps you generate more sales of course it goes on to add value to your brand when you have that social media presence just being on social media alone i mean you could be um you could have that retail store right there and maybe i just want to find out more about your business sometimes i do not even need to come to your store and just look at your pages and see okay i think i like this brand i think it's time to buy from them so social media helps you generate more sales add value to your brand and all this would go a long way to improve your marketing and comparing organic and paid social media if anyone can remember i did mention something about organic of course it's showing up right here on the slide organic is free so everyone who has that social media presence you are just reaching people for free you have that organic presence and if you want to get more from this you could try paid advertising so now you're paying for views actions and to reach more people i call youtube the university of youtube because i mean there's a whole lot you get to learn from there so if you want to learn more about um this social media advertising there are lots of videos from creators rightly on youtube to help you step by step guys to see how they are doing it and to be honest with you first time creating all this i did mention that i never had a background in tech youtube has been a major driver to help me learn new skills when it comes to digital marketing so you could leverage this as well go on if you want to try paid at social media ads you go on to youtube and you'll learn more about that Getting started with social media, you'd want to identify your target audience. It's very important. There's something called an audience personal analyst.
We're still going to be hitting more on this on other channels so the earlier you create this the better it's it helps you define and understand the ideal audience when you know your ideal audience okay i'm trying to reach um i'm trying to read jessica she's a single mom living in um tanzania and um she has a nine to five and all this you would know okay jessica might not be available during the day it's okay common while away time on social media might be available during the evening or after work and like so you know the right time to post and also creating that audience personal understanding your audience is very very important so i would advise everyone search for um audience persona such um it could be an image search find different results and go on to create your own audience personal define your target audience by demographics where they are the profession their behavior their interests after that you're going to choose the right social media channels when you know your audience you know where to find them so go on after that after defining your ideal target audience and choose the right channel where you're going to reach them could be facebook could be twitter could be linked in instagram could be youtube you think your audience are people who would like to watch videos on how they get to use this product before they buy you might want to have a youtube channel where you post those videos showing people how to do this um put on that hair and the likes so that's it right there also you want to post engaging content regularly that's one that's one thing that separates those who are winning on social media from those who are still i'm trying as much as possible to get the most of this you have to be consistent with your posting do not post today and say yeah i'm going to leave it till next week or next month or post spontaneously you feel when you're in the right frame of mind that's when you post always make sure you're posting regularly because people are looking out for this some social media best practices on tips always set a goal make sure you understand that audience of yours create that audience persona and consistency is key when it comes to content marketing we have different formats you have the videos you have blogs you have case studies you have guides and you do not just stick to one i would say try this see what's working remember when it comes to understanding your audience you want to try different things to see okay videos are working okay blog posts are working okay key studies are really working maybe it's time for you to document a process Okay, someone bought this bid of mine and went on to have this pitch event and the investors told him they liked this bid and I mean, it's just made for good reports and at the end of the day, got the deal. So yeah, that's it. I mean, credit to your bid. So that could be a case study and the likes.
You could want to do that. Guys are also different. These are the different formats for content. And still when it comes to getting started with content, we are still talking about creating that example, customer and personas. Very important to do this for every channel.
You need to understand the customers, those you are trying to reach, to make sure you are building that personal profiles, creating different profiles for each segment, I would say. Also make sure you are mapping your user journey, identify the steps users are taking from the awareness stage to the purchase stage, you know, different contents you need to use to reach them. to be that people are not aware of this retail product of yours and you need to build my awareness around that so starting off you might want to be creating awareness maybe running awareness campaign educating people on these the benefits of buying this what this does maybe people i mean people are not aware of this and you just come in and you're telling them bye people are having that question what's this about so use your contents to ask some questions so think about the questions and information your customers would require and make sure you're using your content to answer them and also make sure you are using content to facilitate the customer journey and what's the point of having all this content without distributing them i see some entrepreneurs and make videos maybe where they are trying on their products and someone shy to post this there's no shame when it comes to being online i mean no one would root for your business as much as you do always make sure you're distributing this content and always make sure you have a call to action behind that some content marketing tips for success use content to facilitate the sales process like we mentioned earlier Use storytelling if you could tell good stories.
I mean, brands today are all about stories, building right stories. I was having a conversation with someone earlier today and building a brand, a retail brand, and it's really doing well. And it's just mentioning that goes on to tell stories and likes. So storytelling is very good.
And it helps when it comes to engaging with your audience. So you could want to master the art of storytelling and leverage that for your content marketing. distribute this content of course do not create content you could use ads distribute this content do not create content and leave them you have a good content that is doing well people are interacting with this you might want to advertise that distribute and maximize the reach measure if it can't be measured it can be improved so make sure you're measuring performance and optimizing along the line final channel here which you're looking at so this is email marketing so people say email marketing is gone nope it's still very much in vogue and it's one channel i would advise everyone to leverage so when it comes to emails you want to make sure you're creating personalized content you could use this to collect feedback and you could use this to engage with an already engaged um connected and already engaged audience and getting started with email marketing you could leverage platforms like um mailchimp so mailchimp is very easy to use when it when you want to select a platform and this again i'm saying this again for myself the first time i tried mailchimp to be honest with you i went on to youtube saw a video one hour the other one was 30 minutes i said okay i've i watched the video for one hour then i watched the next one for 30 minutes and boom i started using mailchimp One would look at me and say, yeah, MailChimp, I'm an expert.
Nope. Thanks to YouTube. So you might want to leverage YouTube to learn more about these email marketing platforms. Always make sure you're building relevant contacts list.
People who have been buying for you for five years should not be in the same list with people you are trying to win over or people who just started buying from you yesterday. You could be reaching them with different messaging. So make sure you're building relevance and segmenting this list. Do not just have one master list and you're sending them the same thing every single time.
Also, make sure you create some relevant and useful content. Treat these subscribers of yours or those who sign up to your list like they are VIPs, of course. Make sure you're personalizing these emails. Platforms like MailChimp would help you personalize them. You're sending an email.
You're like, hello, Tony. Hello, James. Hello, Jessica.
Hello, Franklin. So make sure you're personalizing these emails and keeping it very, very useful. some pro email marketing tips for success segment and group the list like i mentioned people buying for you for five ten years you might want to maybe send them a coupon code for 50 or tell them that there's this um new product you have if they buy and um they buy before tomorrow now you're even leveraging fear of missing out the buyer before 10th of june they are getting 50 off you send them an email of course this email should not be reaching those who just started buying from you yesterday so it depends on you and the kind of products you have and your business so segment the list keep your email very simple the average attention span is less than eight seconds people do not have time to read very long they do not have time to read very long email headers and the likes so make sure you keep it simple measure the open rate and the click rate and see what's working what's not working and make sure you're optimizing that so a whole lot of channels have just gone over and um We have one more section to go.
That's where we'll guide you on how to build that digital marketing strategy of yours. A whole lot is happening on the live chat. A whole lot is happening right there on the live chat. I think I have some questions, right? I'm just going to be looking at one or two then proceed to wrap this up.
We are finishing, we should be finishing in the next 10 to 11 minutes. So, Seritex is asking verification of Google My Business. via the code or email do encounter challenges how do i solve this problem so you're having a challenge i'm verifying your business very text um seritex so um thank you for the question emmanuel if you could please help there's a google my business verification partner here in africa um opera.com slash ofb i believe you um once you go on that um link you would find them fill the form and um they'll reach out to you on how to verify your business so that solves the problem of verification.
So really sorry about that. Emmanuel, please pop the link right on the chat, opera.com slash QFB. So Ceratex and anyone else who's having issues with Google My Business verification and the code, you just go and write there, fill the form, and they're going to reach out to you and help you, guide you on how to have this business of yours verified. I have Ahame Fulemak who's asking, how do you get the SEO done?
yeah so mark we just share some seo best practices seo is all about making sure your website is in compliance with some of the best practices and what google actually does want to you at your idea on the search engine results so it could be going on with tagging your images tagging important text leveraging keywords making sure you do keyword research know what people are searching for and leveraging some of these keywords adding them right there to your content and always making sure you are not doing keyword stuffing. So some of these tips could help you out with SEO, making sure you have, if you have a website, making sure you have that blog page right there on your website where you are always making sure the website is very, very active with new content. So I believe that would help.
And there are so many more SEO tips you could do a Google search and it's going to help you. But remember, remember, remember, like I mentioned right when we were in that section, you have to make sure the content you're posting is relevant and helpful. Relevant and helpful. So that's it right there and I'm going to be coming back to some of these questions. Let me just wrap up with the final part of this where we are going to walk you through creating that digital marketing strategy of yours and just start digital marketing plans.
So after that, going to be coming back to some of the questions. Keep those questions coming in and thank you so much, Emmanuel. Kudos to you, doing a great job.
Emmanuel always has this slogan that he keeps posting on social media or this tagline of his. Keeps saying it's possible, yeah? And I love that a whole lot. I did tell him that this morning.
It's always possible to learn, apply all this and achieve that success. It's always possible. So Emmanuel, kudos to you and to everyone else who is here. Kudos.
Let's wrap this up. And at the end of it, remember, you should create your own digital marketing plan. So yeah, six steps when it comes to building a digital marketing plan.
Step one, you need to identify your business goals and objective. Now, this is where you might want to take notes, but here the presentation is still going to be here on YouTube. You can still assess it with the link you used and join in.
So step one, when it comes to creating a digital marketing plan, identify your business goals and objective. Step two, your budget and resources. Identify or map out that budget of yours and the resources you have available.
Step three. Identify your audience. Step four, decide what channels you are going to be leveraging on. Step five is all about planning your activity, and step six is all about setting smart key performance indicators. These are the six steps when it comes to building your digital marketing plan.
We are not just leaving it here. We've got you covered. We are going to be expanding on all of this. Let's dive right in. We're not just going to touch the surface and leave it.
We are going in depth on this right now. So when it comes to creating your digital marketing plan, you want to identify your business goals and objectives. And this is unique. Maybe you sell perfume, you sell shoes, you sell hairs, you have that retail business of yours, and you're selling this product.
It's always good to sit down, reflect and identify the goals you want to achieve. So this is Monday right here. Monday is a hairdresser. And I'll just say Monday maybe sells hairs.
Monday's goals are to reach more people, more customers through her door, past and returning new customers, and make more people in an area where this business of hers does exist. Define your goal this way. Define your goal. You're not copying Monday's goal. Every business is unique.
No two businesses are the same. So sit down, reflect, and define that goal and objective of yours. Your business goal should align with online objectives. So there are various online objectives available.
Business goal is broad. Your marketing might not just be centered just only online. Some people still leverage word-of-mouth marketing and so many other marketing mediums, but today we're talking about digital marketing and online marketing. So please do make sure your business goals align with online objectives.
So the business goal, like making more people aware you exist, the online objective should be to increase online return awareness. Of course, your business goal, that's the broad business goal. You could leverage different channels for this maybe even. traditional medium but when it comes to online objective the ideal online objective should be to increase online rich awareness if it's to sell more products you'd want to have more people going into your website and buying of course if it's to get found by more people you could want to increase your social media page followings and likes so always make sure your business goal aligns with your online objective i'll say this is like a chain and there's still another link to this chain so remember your business goals should align with your online objectives and these are the various examples of online objectives you have increase website um traffic increase online sales increase your page following and also increase online rich awareness remember business goal i'll say it's like a chain business goal should fuse in with the ideal online objective there's another link i'm going to be getting into that on this particular chain step two budget and resources when you get to this point is very good to be very honest Monday is saying she doesn't have a website as it's too much of an investment. She wants to showcase this product of hers, this hair.
She's selling hair care products. She has this hair salon and the like. So, I'm selling a whole lot of hair care products, selling hairs and the like. So, she doesn't have money to the funds or the resources to get a website.
So, be very honest at this point. Step three, identify your audience. So, Monday I sat down.
She's like, okay, I think I should, my ideal audience, I'm targeting mostly females in my local area. Okay. My most valuable customers are females above 30 years old.
They normally have children, work part-time, and most of them use Facebook. There's something I said about understanding your audience earlier on in this session. When you define your audience, you know the right channels to reach them. Look at the last sentence in Monday's audience definition right here. Most of them use...
There you have it! So, step 4, aligning, choosing the right marketing channel. Remember I mentioned there is a chain?
Your business goal should align with your online objective and that online objective should align with the right marketing channels. Each of these marketing channels are ideal for different goals and purposes. Know this and know peace, I would say this. So, people often miss out on this. this is where you miss out on this and now you might be looking for help.
I'm trying, this is not working. Always make sure what you're trying to achieve, your business goal aligning with that online objective is also aligning with the ideal marketing channel. So it could be that you want to increase online reach and awareness. You'll leverage channels like display marketing, social media, content marketing. If you're all about increasing website sales, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing.
remember when people are searching on google and they're finding you whether you are good with um you are trying searching in marketing you're using seo these are people with the intent that this is a full marketing it's attracting them so someone's searching for remember that search buy compact camera and your retail business you are selling compact cameras my perfume just got finished and i'm trying to buy perfumes i need perfumes maybe i'm a perfume lover and i go on google and search for buy perfumes dm me i sure don't need this these channels drive lots of sales so you could still be leveraging social media for this but it's very important to understand what most of these channels are ideal for so if it's all about improving traffic to your website you have search engine marketing you have seo you have email marketing these are key marketing channels to leverage if that's your online objective if building customer loyalty is your online objective make sure you're leveraging social are we have you been hearing of the word community community community social media now is all about building communities communities and Your community is not all about going right there and telling them bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. It's all about offering help first, assistance like we did mention earlier, good customer support and all. All this will go on to enhance customer loyalty. So if that's your online objective, you could leverage channels like email marketing, interacting with an already engaged audience, content marketing, helping people out with maybe if someone is searching for how to use this and they're finding you.
I mean, it's creating awareness and they are getting to like that brand of yours. So. there you have it on your business goal should align with your online objectives or the right online objective and the right online objective should align with the key marketing channels ideal for it so choose a channel based on your target audience and goals it's still right here we have inbound marketing which is a marketing strategy that attracts customers by creating valuable content a lot to them it's attracting them you have you have contents right there which is why i keep emphasizing on having that blog on um your website, making sure you're creating nice articles, stuff that are relevant. People are going to search and they're going to find you. The intent is there.
It's attracting them. Inbound marketing. Outbound, it's just you pushing out messages and all.
Outbound channels, you refer to that social media and the likes. Inbound channel, Google Ads, push platforms are very, very effective. All depending on what you're trying to achieve. Very good.
Step 5, you plan the whole activities together. So, Mondi is bringing everything together. Remember, she said, my online objectives are to reach more people in my local area and get more returning customers.
I do not have a website as it's too much of an investment right now. So, how do I use digital? So, for Mondi, she could go on to create that Google My Business presence and go on to have that free website right there.
Set up a Facebook page. Remember, she mentioned that I customize our Facebook. create that facebook page collect reviews in case you do not know google my business you could get a free website right there so that's one key reason you should sign up to that platform as possible back to monday she mentioned that our audience are more on facebook so should want to set up that facebook page and also leverage facebook advertising to reach people within our local area so always make sure you're measuring and you're setting smart key performance indicators so when it comes to measuring you want to measure smart your make sure you're setting objectives that are specific measurable attainable relevant and time bound so an example could be monday setting the objective to increase online sales by 20 within three months specific it's measurable 20 is attainable of course this is very much attainable it's relevant to our business and what she is trying to achieve and it's time bound so time bound by three months so there you have it if you do not measure if it cannot be measured it can be improved so when you measure okay this isn't working I need to do it this other way. so pulling all of them together you have the digital marketing plan right in front of you the business goals the audience the channel activities online objectives and smart objectives so this is what everyone should have after this session you should go and create it do not procrastinate create something like this as soon as possible and you could still go on to add more maybe when it comes to social media posting times and different um you could go on to thread this and um but just make sure this these key points are all in them so here's an example of a perfect digital life plan and everyone should go step one your business set your business goals and objective your budget and resources that's step two move on to define that audience and when you define the audience you know your business goals and objective it's going to help you understand what channels to leverage that's leading you to step four you plan all the activities together and then you measure smart whoops so there we have it we are two minutes past time and i'm just going to be looking out to see if i have more questions right here and um just take one or two and i must have more sessions coming up on um the 16th and another session coming up on the 23rd next session on the 16th is all about using data and insights to help your business go so we'll be sharing tips on how you can leverage data insights there's a whole lot of those about data insights Understanding the customer journey, understanding your customers, understanding these insights on what to do with them, how to leverage them for your business growth. 16th is for that.
23rd, we are coming on to discuss and help you through how you can connect with customers, connect customers to your business online. So talking more about Google Ads on the 23rd. Remember, all these webinar series are part of Google's ongoing mission. and ongoing commitment to ensuring that small retail businesses across Africa have the right tools and skills to bounce back from the impact of the pandemic and also drive the continent's economy once again. This is Retail Month and we're celebrating all you retailers who are doing an amazing job and make sure you do leverage everything, you do implement everything you've learned today to grow your business.
Just going to be checking to see if I have more questions and if I cannot take all questions, please. um and the next session would have more time to go through your questions so um i have osbet here osbet is asking what do i need to do to make sure visitors get a notification to leave a review when they visit my location hmm osbet is asking what he needs to do to make sure visitors get a notification to leave a review when they visit your location currently osbet um google is really helping out on this so if you have um If your business is already listed on Google My Business and on Google Maps, I get this notification a whole lot. The system handles this automatically. So visiting here, I could get a notification. Do you know this?
Do you know XYZ store? Do you know this? And if maybe it's a store I've visited, I could go on to leave a review. So now it's being handled automatically by the system.
But you could, if you have already existing customers, You could go on Ausbet to go onto your Google My Business dashboard, get the Google My Business, your review link. You could turn that into a barcode. So here's a tip.
You could go on to turn that link into a barcode and maybe have it displayed right there on your shop, on your store. So people can just scan that barcode and leave your review for your Google My Business immediately. So that's a tip. Go on, copy the link to get the link on, the review link on your Google My Business page. you could go in and create a barcode for that link you could say there are tools to help you with this online you could search for it put in that link create a barcode for that and maybe have a poster right there on your store um scan this code to please reveal if you for us when you ask for reviews people would give you reviews so for now you could try to get reviews in that way they scan it and every other business could leverage this as well that's if you have a store and um if you do not you could just send the review link or the um barcode so people can scan and still live reviews are very very important in businesses people look at this a whole lot before making buying decisions so retailers you want to make sure you have those key reviews right there remember like i mentioned positive negative reviews doesn't matter if it's negative look at what you're not doing well and um work towards um um getting better at it apologize if the customer is if it's a disgruntled customer see how you can please the customer and um I mean, it's always a win-win situation.
So I hope that answers your question, Osbett. And Emmanuel has been doing a great job right there on the chat. So thank you so much, everyone, for being here today.
Some questions here, I couldn't get onto them. Please, next session on what is the next week as a system, please feel free to come on with those questions. I'll be glad to have them.
There are some next steps for you. Of course, I mentioned this is a session where you attend and take action immediately. So what are your next steps? Head on to the learning portal by Google where you have.
Over 40 free courses. Over 40 free courses. It's learndigital.google.com slash digital skills slash courses. You have various courses right there to help you upskill.
Whether you're trying to learn this, you're trying to learn that, there are lots of courses right there to help you upskill, grow and grow your business. So get onto the portal. And did I mention that these courses are free?
Of course they are free. So all the courses you find here are free. And there's a fundamental of digital marketing course right there. You take the full course, you take the exam and you get certified by Google and IAB.
So imagine that you're having that certification and also having the skill and the expertise to get on with this. So it's going to in turn help you achieve what you're trying to achieve for your business. So next step also, make sure you implement. Knowledge isn't power until it's applied.
That's a quote from one of my favorite authors, Dale Carnegie. Knowledge isn't power until it's applied. So no point coming here to learn.
You've invested time. We've been here for an hour and two minutes now, seven minutes past time. So you've invested a whole lot of time on this.
And it's going to be futile if you do not implement. So knowledge isn't power until it's applied. Please go on. Add power to this newfound knowledge of yours.
Apply it. Apply it to your business. get on to have that top-notch online presence and um i wish you the best and success of course so knowledge is in power until it's applied please go on and add power to this new form knowledge by applying them so follow us on social media facebook twitter instagram you might have popped on the link right there on chat so follow us depending on the channel you could follow us on facebook twitter if you can't follow on twitter please do if you can follow on instagram facebook the links are right there on the chat and um I mean, time flies when we're learning and having fun as well.
Because for me, I've been having fun with all this. You all have been engaging right here on the chat and taking out some time to come and learn. It shows that you are really passionate about what you do and you are investing the most valuable assets, which is time to learn how you can grow your business. So this is Retail Month.
Google is celebrating you. And we have sessions coming up next week and in the following week. Please feel free to register, come along, learn, and always implement. from me thank you and um do enjoy the rest of your day so thank you so much for sticking out and um yeah thank you manuel as well and thank you everyone enjoy the rest of your day and i'm catching next week so bye guys