by Wuraola Ademola-Shanu
An Interview With Amba Eyang-Ajaikaiye on Digital Marketing For Fempreneurs.
A lot of businesses set out in the New Year with high goals and projects. Unfortunately, COVID-19 struck and many businesses were caught in the “crossfire” with only a few surviving and pivoting to remain relevant in the game. One thing is for sure though: the pandemic has made many businesses realize the importance of leverage digital/online marketing.
Therefore, I sought out to interviewing a digital marketing coach and expert, Amba Eyang-Ajakaiye, Founder of @idarenotdread to share strategic digital marketing tips for women in our community.
Here’s a little bit about Amba: She is the Founder of IDare.NotDread - a Social Enterprise promoting innovation, creativity and enterprise in Nigeria. What started out of identifying her fears and facing them square in the eye has birthed a company whose primary aim is to build women communities and empower them with creative and innovative skills for business growth.
In this interview, Amba talks about digital marketing and how it affects businesses, how businesses can pivot via digital marketing during and after the pandemic, and why fempreneurs should launch digital products apart from selling their products or services. Read on!
1. Tell us briefly about digital marketing and how it impacts businesses.
Simply, digital marketing is leveraging online technology and platforms to market a business on the internet. In today's world, we cannot underrate the benefits of taking our businesses online. Digital marketing allows us penetrate the corners of the world and virtually take our businesses to places we've never been and influence more people through the power of the internet
2. Seeing as COVID-19 drastically changed the economy and business goals many businesses had set at the beginning of the year, any top three digital marketing tips to help the businesses in our community bounce back?
Seize the opportunity COVID-19 offered, in spite of its ills, and establish a good presence online. Before now, many businesses considered the online option as the secondary, less important choice. Today, COVID-19 opened a lot of eyes to see that taking your business online is just as important as being offline, if not more important.
Keep up with being digitally literate. Invest in knowledge and build digital skills consistently, as technology is fluid and what works today may change or be obsolete tomorrow.
Pick up momentum to get back into the flow and announce your presence in the market! The world is very attentive currently, and average time spent on the internet worldwide has increased. Invest in online advertising and get back in the game.
3. How can female-owned businesses leverage social media to develop and scale their brands?
Entrepreneurship can be lonely. Seeing that social media allows us to represent our brands socially online, female owned businesses can take advantage of this and not have to walk alone.
Join interactions in space, build expertise and recognition in your niche, and build your support system online by joining communities that can provide you the help and support you need to boost your brand and scale online.
4. How do you determine the best social media platforms for your business & gain paying customers?
It's simple! Follow the money. And who has the money? The target market. It's important we know who is in dire need of our solutions or what we offer (the target market), so we can go after them wherever they spend time the most - be it Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc.
5. How can female business owners monetize their brands/skillsets to create digital products out of them?
Like I always tell my community, everyone knows something that is Teachable and Sellable. What matters first is how to find your voice (that skill or knowledge you have), and next, how to package it into a digital product (an eBook, online course, masterclass, etc.), that can be accessed by others in exchange for payment. I have taught lots of women how to achieve this in little time and it has helped them boost their reach and income.
One of such programs I run is the eBook Launch Program, which takes people through a training and accountability journey that enables them to launch their eBooks in just 30 days. Having run the program for over a year and equipped over 300 female entrepreneurs with digital monetization skills, the results have been nothing short of phenomenal.
Now, we are expanding influence beyond eBooks to include online courses, mentorship programs, masterclasses and much more, through our new community, The 10x Digital Tribe. It really does feel great to empower women to create wealth from their knowledge and skills.
6. How do our fempreneurs know how much to spend on digital marketing and how to justify the investment?
The benefits of digital marketing today are that we can measure returns on investment. I am of the opinion that you cannot know for certain how much to invest monthly in your business, especially for digital marketing, until you test. Meaning, you need to assign a substantial monthly budget for digital marketing, roll it, and see how far that amount gets you. Data analytics and insights make it possible to measure conversions, so one can ascertain the value of every dime spent.
And once this is known, it's easier to decide how much more to invest the following month. It's just a game of numbers. If you invest $1,000 in your first month on ads and other forms of marketing, and gain maybe $50,000, you know that if you double your investment by the next month, all things being equal, and your returns will most likely double (plus-minus).
7. Is offline marketing still important? How do we continue to think about offline marketing while focusing on digital online marketing initiatives?
I think offline marketing has its place and may not be disappearing any time soon. As long as people wish to maintain some form of human connection, void of tech tools and online platforms, offline platforms still prove effective. Besides, half the world is online, and the other half isn't. Businesses still have to cater to the other half and this is where offline marketing levels up.
8. Is blogging dead? Why or why not? Where does it fit/what’s its role? Who does it best fit?
Blogging won't die! It may be integrated into newer forms, like video blogging (Vlogging) or micro blogging (on platforms like Twitter), based on human behaviour and what people tend to like, but it's going nowhere.
I like to see it in terms of information demand and supply. If people are everyday going on the biggest search engines today being Google or YouTube, to seek knowledge, then there will always be people providing this knowledge. Either way, everyone is either selling blogged content or buying blogged content. This is why blogging won't die.
9. What are the key marketing analytics to pay attention to when it comes to digital marketing?
I advice you pay attention to these 2 analytics most importantly:
Traffic (Organic or Paid): Because whatever you are selling online needs to be seen by lots of people before it can be bought.
Conversions: Because when people see what you're selling, those who pick interest in your offer need to be able to take a specific action that can be tracked or measured.
All other marketing analytics exist, but i find these 2 to be paramount.
10. Your top 3 digital marketing tips for fempreneurs?
Don't be afraid of making mistakes, just do it! Remember, PERFECTION IS A SCAM.
Someone out there is desperately looking for that knowledge you have. Do this for them - package that knowledge into a digital product and sell it.
Don't walk alone. Join communities and get the support you need to grow.
Wuraola Ademola-Shanu is a copywriter, content strategist & creator who helps professionals, consultants, and business owners align their stories with their ideal clients, refine their sales funnels, and expand their online reputations. That can take the form of a great bio, article, or other marketing material that puts the client’s best foot forward, and connects magnetically with the people whom they can help the most. As a freelance consultant, her creative marketing efforts are focused on small businesses and individuals. Wuraola is also a copyeditor and proofreader. She has edited and proofread novels, short stories, infographics, website copies, web content, and journal articles. This job requires her to bring a fresh eye to a writer's work. Wuraola uses what she learns about a writer's manuscript to assist in transforming the book into a tightly written piece. You can connect with her via email at Omobolanleshanu@gmail.com and on Instagram (TheCopywritingChick).
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