Why You Need to Invest in Marketing: Read Our Top 5 Reasons.
“Business has only two functions — marketing and innovation.” Milan Kundera As a business owner or aspiring business owner, there’s a good chance you come in contact with marketing-related content every day. More people, especially entrepreneurs like you, are realizing the importance of marketing and grabbing the bulls by the horn. The reason is that marketing helps businesses in various ways. With in-depth knowledge of marketing, you’d be able to cut costs, determine the trajectory of your products, create strategies that target your customers, etc. Facebook says we only spend 1.7 seconds looking at a magazine ad, 1.5 seconds looking at a poster, and 1 second looking at a digital banner ad. With this short attention span, do you think your product can market itself? I bet not. But with marketing, consumers will tilt in the direction of irrationality. For example, while Aquafina table water and Bigi table water are identical, people would rather spend more on Aquafina than on Bigi. This is because people have come to build associations with these brands. It could be the experiences during the different stages before purchasing the product. It could also be through who they see using the brand. Give people brandless table water and they will tell you it tastes the same. The moment you brand it, their preferences change. Do you know why? Because they have formed opinions from their experience with the brand and what the brand stands for. ALSO SEE: CAN A GOOD PRODUCT MARKET ITSELF As a growing business, marketing has a favorable impact on your company’s bottom line. Deciding not to keep spending money on marketing, could mean sowing the seeds of that business’s demise. The negative impact of this may not be immediate or obvious but it will tell eventually. So the future success of a business is dependent on marketing. Make a commitment to spend on marketing each month whether your business is booming or your phone is silent. So if you need to persuade someone, whether it’s a member of your team, your boss, your business partner, or yourself to start investing in marketing, here are five reasons you may use. Marketing Increases Brand Awareness More people especially those outside your network will get to know about your brand. It’s futile to pump money into a company you do not have plans to promote. Making yourself visible is one approach to making an impact and developing the framing effect if you want to grow big. Invest in marketing to target the “right” audience and get them to know about the values they stand to gain once they come across your product or service. Marketing can facilitate the development of an emotional bond with your audience. Marketing creates culture, status, affiliation, and people like us. Businesses have a lot better chance of their clients (or community) remembering the brand, and mentioning it to others. Consumers develop loyalty to a brand if they can emotionally connect with its product and services. Ever heard of storytelling in marketing? Consumers can choose you above your competition with the help of marketing. The more people get to see and understand a brand’s message, the easier it will be to make better-informed decisions. What makes you unique? Why should they pick you over your competitors? These important messages can be clearly communicated with the use of marketing. Marketing helps in boosting sales. There is no small business that doesn’t want to increase sales. Market your products and services and watch how the sales will rise. Reach a larger audience and automatically increase sales. Marketing is interesting. You get to connect the dots and become more creative. Who wouldn’t want to spend time coming up with concepts that bring in paying clients? When you see a marketing campaign succeed, when your ad campaigns successfully convert into online sales, you get an adrenaline rush. Imagine creating campaigns or coming up with innovative ideas, sharing them with the public, and seeing different positive (even the negative ones spark something at least) reactions from consumers resonating with your brand. The feeling is almost as elating as seeing your name on a Coca-cola bottle during the share a coke campaign. What were the odds of that happening? You can send us a message to help you strengthen your marketing efforts. We would love to be a part of your brand story!
#FifthGems: Meet Oreoluwa Olukorode, A Medical Student & Digital Marketer
1. Thank you for the time to chat with you. You do have a nice name. Do you mind telling us what the meaning is? Thank you for having me. Olukorode? It means that the Lord brings wealth. It’s an uncommon last name & I love it. I just wish people would stop misspelling it as “Olukorede”. You can call me Ore. 2. Interesting, but not to drift off cause, why did you branch out of medicine to go into marketing and how do you shuffle both? Well, I did not particularly branch out as I’m still studying medicine lol. But I’d say my love for public relations influenced my interest in marketing. I had a lot of free time during the first pandemic year and I needed to get busy. Fortunately for me, a company I love was hiring interns so I applied and got in. I work at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and marketing which balances everything out for me. It’s not either this or that but everything, together, all at once. It’s a dream come true for me. 3. Amazing. How did you strategically position yourself as a digital marketer? I need more people to talk about how much working with the right people could be vital to pivoting your career. I’ve only had to interview for one role since I actively started working and that was because my employer was based in the US. It’s been one recommendation or the other for me. Of course, the quality of my work and my attitude towards learning played a huge role but I guess I’m also lucky. 4. In your digital marketing journey so far, what would you say has been the most intriguing lesson learned? Consistency pays. When you do something repeatedly, you automatically get better at it. The same applies to digital marketing for me and as a result, I’ve learned to work smart over the years. There’s this principle that says you actually get 80% of your results from 20% of your work. You can’t necessarily tell where this 80% will come from so you just have to keep putting in good work. 5. Now, what has been the toughest part of your marketing journey? Hmm. It’s hard to think of anything serious right now but I’d say walking away from situations that are no longer paying me. As a creative, it’s important to know when to shut the door, especially for clients who think digital marketing is a piece of cake. I’d also say my growth. Combining digital marketing with studying medicine is not easy. If I were doing this full-time, I definitely would’ve grown at a faster pace. 6. What has been your most successful idea so far in digital marketing? What I consider my most successful idea is in-house, I’m not sure I should be talking about it here, haha. Oh yeah, I started a trend on Instagram with Asake & Fireboy Bandana video. If you didn’t see it, you can check @pharmarun on Instagram. 7. Let’s not make digital marketers sound boring, what do you do for fun? I try to keep up with a number of hobbies. I enjoy watching and participating in sports a lot. I also love traveling and reading books–mostly fiction. My newest passion lately has been creating content, so you’d see me on Instagram posting videos from restaurant hopping or french classes. Oui, je parle francais. 8. No brand/business can do without digital marketing even in the pharmaceutical industry, what are the most effective strategies you advise small businesses to adopt to get started? Hire the right people. As a small business owner, you might want to do everything (logistics, social media management, etc) to save cost but in the grand scheme of things, having like-minded people on your team spurs your growth. Also, it’s important to be flexible during the early stages. The market is constantly changing and you should learn to adapt and change with it till you figure out what works best. 9. What is one thing you need all brands to understand about digital marketing? Results take time. Relaxx. 10. For young adults interested in digital marketing, how can they begin? Speaking from personal experience, the best way to start is by building the required skills using online resources. The internet is an infinite well of information, use it. Learn about each marketing channel, and choose the ones you want to build on because frankly, digital marketing is broad and you can’t possibly do everything. Apply for internships, or even reach out to digital marketers around you and tell them you’d love to assist them. Another thing you can do is reach out to brands and tell them you want to work with them for free. The initial stages might not be financially rewarding but prioritize knowledge and experience first, money will come later. Thanks for having me on the series! ALSO READ: #FifthGems: Meet Feranmi Okafor, A Growth Marketer & Founder of Tech Marketers Hub _______________________________ Connect with Oreoluwa Olukorode on Twitter
The Fifth Alley and Skillup Africa Announce Strategic Partnership
The Fifth Alley and Skillup Africa are happy to announce a partnership to host an exclusive webinar that is aimed at providing knowledge to young professionals that will like to explore their interest in the Tech community but do not have a background in Tech. The partnership combines The Fifth Alley’s experience in corporate career training with Skillup Africa’s mission of supporting young Africans in learning widely accepted skills in the Tech industry and linking them to opportunities. Due to the unprecedented growth in talent within the Tech industry, both organizations will benefit from an ideal collaboration that focuses on equipping young professionals with the necessary skills that are in demand in the Tech industry. Due to the world’s extensive shift to digital technology, Tech skills are highly sought nowadays. To keep up with this trend, every company is attempting to digitize and rebrand its goods and services. The goal of this partnership is to provide support and resources to the academy so it can continue to operate and provide opportunities for people in need. This partnership will also help to raise awareness about the work that these companies are doing and the impact they are having on the lives of those they serve. “We believe that Skillup Africa is filling an important gap in the African ecosystem by providing quality skills training to young African professionals. We are excited to be partnering with them to help amplify the stories of Africa’s rising talents. We want to empower their community to become more self-sufficient and ultimately look beyond not having technical skills to creating opportunities for themselves where necessary” said Bisi Olajide, Head of Marketing and Business Development at The Fifth Alley. In this webinar, participants will: Understand the various Tech roles that non-technical skills can fill. Learn the necessary skills required to assume these roles. Identify the many tactics for presenting their background as a strength in the tech sector. “We are happy to partner with The Fifth Alley on this impact journey of empowering talented young Africans with globally viable skills. As a group of experienced marketing professionals creating digital solutions for businesses, we believe this partnership with The Fifth Alley will greatly enhance the skillset and knowledge base of our community” said Yusuf Balogun, Program Manager at Skillup Africa. About The Fifth Alley: The Fifth Alley is in the business of helping B2B and B2C industries increase their presence and revenue through outstanding marketing initiatives. About Skillup Africa: Skillup Africa is a digital skills empowerment initiative that creates a platform for knowledge sharing between those who know and those who need to know while also connecting those who want to work to those who need them.
5 Tips For Building Stronger Client Relationships.
Building a strong relationship with your clients goes beyond good marketing. Without a solid client base to support your efforts, you’ll find it hard to make money and keep growing – and that can be devastating for any small business owner who’s trying to start off on the right foot. When you have a loyal group of customers, they are much more likely to buy from you again, refer others, or even become advocates. Whether it’s through email newsletters, social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, or speaking engagements at your local church/organization – building a relationship with your client or customer makes all your efforts worthwhile. Building relationships also gives you opportunities to learn how to improve on what you already do best. We have put together 5 easy to understand tips to implement in your day-to-day activities. These tips can help you build stronger and more meaningful business relationships with your customers. Be Human “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou Learn to keep things simple. Create emotional connections through storytelling. There are various benefits of storytelling for your small business. The storytelling can be in the short form via Linkedin or Twitter and even as a blog, or it could be in visual form as on Instagram or TikTok. This is not about B2C (Business to Consumer) or B2B (Business to Business). It’s more about H2H (Human to Human). You are selling to individuals and these humans decide on whether to buy from you or not. Communicating relevant information and utilizing personalized messages will help your customers better understand what your products and offerings are instead of the technical terms used by many companies. Get to know your customers, listen to them, and understand their pain points. When people feel heard, they will like you and eventually get to trust you. People will do business with people they like and trust. Forge deep connections with your customers. Provide Value- Share Industry Knowledge and your Expertise Have you ever needed information on something you had previously seen somewhere and just automatically know whose page to visit or where to go to find related answers to that thought other than Google? Like how you are thinking of where to get the news with solid facts and brutal questions in Nigeria and ARISE TV automatically crosses your mind? Yes, you should be an excellent source of relevant information. Give people the ability to find information relating to your industry from your content, your page, and your website. Create a knowledge-sharing culture for people to find, share and collaborate with. Provide long-term value for your clients. Share information that will make the client understand what you do and why you do it. ALSO READ: WHY SMES SHOULD FOCUS ON BUILDING COMMUNITIES Comment, Reshare, and Interact. When you consistently respond to comments on your content post, it could be a positive or negative comment, ensure you make the client feel heard. Make them know there’s a human behind the business that understands and is readily available to answer their inquiries. Get your platforms active. Don’t create a social profile where you’ll be inactive. Especially if it’s one where many clients are likely to interact with you and your brand. The idea of creating a social media profile is to make your brand more accessible to your clients. Interact with them, listen to and address their complaints, ask for their suggestions and opinions on new products, etc. Seek Feedback— And Respond Quickly. As a small business owner, you should strive to offer the best possible services to your customers. But just collecting feedback will not help you build a long-lasting relationship unless you actually take that feedback and use it to improve. Ask your clients how better you can serve them and act on it. It shows that you listen to them, respect them and you want them to remember your business for providing the utmost customer satisfaction. Show Up Everday The consistency that comes with showing up every day, providing value, and showing your work is one of the best ways to build a strong relationship with your audience. Showing up every day is the best thing you can do for your business and your platform. 80% of success is just showing up and there are different ways to show up as a small business owner on social media. It shows that you have passion and focus. Use these 5 tips to build strong client relationships for your business. Finding a new client is an important factor for any small business owner. But you also need to focus on managing and maintaining your existing clients if you want your small business to thrive long-term. Whether you just met them or they were your customers years ago, building a lasting, trusting relationship with your client is one of the most important parts of success in business. Do you or your brand need help with managing client relationships? You can send us a message to help foster your online engagement.
#FifthGems: Meet Feranmi Okafor, A Growth Marketer & Founder of Tech Marketers Hub.
1. Would you mind sharing briefly your experience with Marketing? I’ve worked in marketing for three years. During that time I’ve worked at the intersection of growth and communications across a number of products. Now, I currently work within the digital technology space. I’m also the founder of Tech Marketers Hub. 2. It must be fun and challenging being in 2 trending spaces in the economy. Marketing and Tech (As per “women in tech” *laughs*) – What has that been like? Working in tech has been an eye-opener, especially in a no-code role. I have grown a lot and learned a lot. I’ve never really been conscious of the role “women-in-tech” thing. I want to be the best I can be and I think I’m doing a great job so far. 3. What are you most proud of about yourself in your career journey? How resilient I am. I like that I go after what I want unapologetically. I’m very dogged when it comes to my career growth. Some highlights would be working with international tech products and setting up a community for tech marketers. 4. We understand you have a community you’re managing, you want to shed more light on what it’s about & what the goal is? We’re building something really important for marketers within the digital technology space. I decided to create a community for budding and experienced marketers to network, and get access to mentorship, job opportunities, and resources to grow. In less than six months, we’re close to 900 members across 10 time zones. The goal is to grow 10x, to make this the point place for hiring tech marketers and the first resource for that marketer that’s just starting out. We’re fully registered as a Non-Profit, It’s called the Tech Marketers Hub. It’s my passion project and I’m so proud of how we’re growing. 5. Outside of Marketing- I mean when you’re not talking about marketing, influencing marketing, or growth in business, what other things interest you? I write and perform poetry, growing up that’s what people knew me for. At 16, I had my own show called “Moonlight Tales”. I also love to travel, I love driving, reading African literature, and listening to music. I like doing things that spark joy, I laugh a lot. 6. What tips will you give small businesses/startups/entrepreneurs to implement for growth in their business? Storytelling is so important for your products. People already know the “how” but the why is so much more important. Users want to see themselves in your product. Customer experience is everyone’s job. Always try a multi-channel approach to marketing as an early-stage company. ALSO READ: #FifthGems: Meet Ibukun Joyce, Marketing Coordinator at Burger King Nigeria Connect with Feranmi Okafor on Twitter
Why SMES Should Focus on Building Communities
By Victoria Oladipo The way to foster relationships and encourage conversations about your brand is by building a community. The importance of building communities is to bring all your followers to one place and also make it possible for your audience to chat with like-minded people. People who are part of your brand community are emotionally invested; they will buy from you, consume your content, tell their friends and family about you, and so on. The Harvard Business Review explains that many brands forget that the consumers they serve are humans and that instead of focusing on loyalty, brands should focus on providing value that will meet their community’s needs. For many small businesses, communities have already been built through their social media accounts, but a strong community brings the consumers together in a place to foster more relationships for more opportunities for discussion, value, and engagement. One major thing to note is that building a community is customer-centric and great businesses are always humanized. Forbes explained that the world is now becoming digital and people are looking for communities to belong to. That means, in this age, great businesses will only survive in strong communities and will only be successful if they serve what their customers want. The great importance of this is that it brings enough awareness to such a business. Small businesses should focus on building communities for the following reasons: It builds brand awareness. Encourages customers to share their love for your brand. It brings authenticity to your brand. It provides a difference between your brand and competitors. It provides strong relationships with your customers and encourages repeat sales. Building strong communities requires effective strategy methods that will make such communities survive. One of which is by starting with the current customers you have. Make efforts to keep them engaged and solidify the relationship you already have with them. This could include having an exclusive email list where they get the best offers or exclusive information about your brand. That way, you keep them engaged while still working on bringing new people into the community. Finally, small businesses should work on leveraging their social media channels and building strong online engagements that would keep their communities together. You can send us a message to help foster your online engagement.
Can A Good Product Market Itself?
By Victoria Oladipo For many brands, marketing is not essential because they believe that they have good products and that those products will market themselves. A good product and great marketing give a better brand positioning than a good product without marketing. One of the greatest myths is that good products will sell and market themselves but if that is your brand’s strategy, you are setting yourself up for failure. Good products won’t get the interaction and conversions you want to track. What will give that to you is marketing. For example, YouTube has over 122 million active users daily and still uses influencer marketing and television commercials to push its product and improve the experience. That is a great product that knows that it doesn’t sell itself. ALSO READ: 5 THINGS TO AVOID IN SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT Before answers can be provided to this question, what should a good product be defined as? One thing we should all know is that every great product has the power to solve our issues and a unique method of contributing to our daily lives through its functions. No one has ever paid for a product that would not give them the kind of service that they needed from the product. Again, it is important to note that your product is not the only product that provides the same service or that solves the same problem that your product intends to solve. What distinguishes your product from the other products in the market? How you show that difference is through marketing and it’s how you get your value proposition. Also, who determines if a product is good if it has not been tested in the market? A quality product is determined by its users, and it is done through marketing. While a product might seem great from production, it is impossible to conclude that it will sell itself if it is not marketed. There is a need for demand to be created, and this demand is created by effective marketing strategies that would put the product in the face of the audience. Finally, marketing is present in every product and is an intrinsic element of it. Even if the job of marketing isn’t always evident, every product is designed for a certain group of customers whose demands must be considered. This is marketing’s most important function. You can send us a message to provide quality digital marketing services for your business.
5 Things To Avoid in Social Media Marketing
By Victoria Oladipo With social media marketing, it is always exciting to put out your products or services. As much as this excitement occurs, it is also important to note that not everything is suitable for your brand. You would need to sieve what you want from what you don’t have to do with social media marketing. Social media needs to be an integral part of a small business marketing plan. However, unlike many other marketing initiatives, tracking social return on investment can be a bit tricky, and common mistakes on social media can negatively impact results. Here are some mistakes you should avoid as a brand on social media: 1. Do not misuse Social Media Do not use social media anyhow. Avoid doing things that do not speak about your brand. What you should use your social media to do is to connect with your existing customers and get potential customers. The Manifest reported that 74% of consumers follow many businesses on social media and 96% of them interact with the brands they follow. It is important to know that on social media, your brand needs to be known for the service it is delivering before anything else. 2. Lack of Personality Your social media, while it is a brand, must have a personality. Many customers want to feel like they are interacting with a brand that can understand what they need and how they want it delivered. It is important that you approach customers on a personal level. ALSO READ: 5 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR CONTENT 3. Jumping on Every Trend Trends are important but not all trends will work for your brand. There is always going to be a trend on social media. What you just have to do is to see which one would help your brand’s growth and get it to work for you. Do not hop on every trend. 4. Avoiding Feedback This is what many brands do. Ignoring feedback, whether good or bad, is not a great position for your brand. Irrespective of what is being said, your social media page must be able to answer questions about your brand, you should be able to provide solutions to customers questions. 5. Followers Growth over Engagement Followers are important but what is the essence of having a large followers count without the necessary engagement. It’s important to aim for quality over quantity. To attract followers, brands are especially to push out content that would maximize engagement. By posting the right content at the right time, there’s surely going to be an increase in followers and would generate engagement. Conclusively, if you are just starting out on social media management for your brand, it is possible that you make these mistakes, but the more you understand these mistakes the less likely you are going to repeat them. Send us a message to help you with your social media marketing needs.
5 Branding Tips Your SME Needs
By Victoria Oladipo 5 Branding Tips Your SME needs When it comes to branding, what many people believe is that it should be left to only big brands. What they do not know is that branding is what makes brands go from small to being the big names they now bear. At the end of the day, you need your small business to gain visibility and to grow beyond what you expect, so how is this going to happen? By branding. Orbelo explains branding as the process of combining elements such as logos, designs, mission statements, and consistent themes throughout marketing communications to create a strong positive awareness of the company, its products or services in the minds of its customers. For small businesses, getting your branding right will help you gain trust from your customers and also help you differentiate your brand from other brands even if the same products are being sold. ALSO READ: 5 THINGS TO AVOID IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Let’s look at five branding tips your SME needs Define your brand identity: By defining your brand identity, you are able to tell a target group who and what you represent. Your brand identity should answer questions like what the core vision of your business is, what describes your business, and what value does your business bring? Building a Community; SMEs have opportunities to build a community on their social media platforms, business blogs, emails list that give their customers interesting offers and “gist” about their products. Focus on Building Great Products or Service: Do not forget that the reason you have your customers is because of your products. Improve and innovate and watch your customers do the brand talking for you Show Consistency: The secret to building a great brand is by showing up consistently. Consistency leads to familiarity and familiarity leads to trust. Customers will only stick with brands they trust and are very familiar with. Deliver Value: Value is not defined by reducing the amount a product is worth. Instead, it can be defined by excellence, product leadership or even great customer service. Ensure that your brand is doing amazing in delivering values. It gives a higher competitive advantage in the market. Branding is just as important as the product itself. Work on your branding and see how your SME grows. Send us a message to get value for your social media and marketing branding.
5 Ways to Improve Your Content
By Victoria Oladipo Content is basically anything produced with the aim of informing, educating, instructing or entertaining an audience. Unless otherwise stated, content is not restricted to ‘texts’ only. It could also be in form of audios, videos, pictures, etc. As long as it educates, informs or entertains. Before we delve into the ways by which content can be improved, we need to put into consideration a very important factor – the audience. These are the ones for which the content is created. If a business or brand cannot successfully figure out what their audience is, there is no point in creating content, let alone trying to improve it, because it will amount to waste of time, energy, resources and even finances. Content creation is not always a walk in the park, but it becomes less daunting a task when there is a defined target audience, and they are properly understood. In this digital age where recent studies have shown that the average human attention span is 8 seconds, with businesses springing up everyday, it is imperative for brands and businesses to stand out from the competition, and one great way to do this is by creating quality content. And in doing so, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The tips below will give you insights into upping your content game. Use clear, irresistible headlines This can never be over emphasized. Let the value in your content be seen from your headline. Killer headlines will draw your audience in and make them curious to know what it is you have to offer them. Simplicity is key It is understandable that you may want to include in your content, words that are often used in your niche/industry, that may necessarily come off as a technical jargon to the average reader, but for an audience that can be easily distracted, your seemingly valuable content would become boring and get dumped for the next catchy item. Ditch the jargon, write in simple words. Let your content be easily understood by your audience. And in a situation where it is very important to use an unfamiliar term, don’t hesitate to give its meaning. ALSO READ: Facebook Reels: How SMEs Can Maximize Video Content For Their Businesses Structure your content Having clearly defined your target audience, and gotten their attention with a catchy headline, you want to be sure that your content is the real deal and not another piece used to pass time. Structure your content in a way that helps them understand what you’re getting to pass across without any difficulty. One good way to achieve this, is to determine beforehand what the goal of the content is, then create to fulfil that objective. Use clear CTA CTA means call-to-action. When you want your readers to take an action, e.g subscribe to a newsletter, like a post, buy a course, etc. You want to be clear on the instructions. You can’t make your audience act unless you give them an opportunity to. Your CTA is the push to get your audience to take your desired action. Don’t leave it to chance. Research This is very important. Do your best to research to stay abreast of what’s working and what’s not. Gather important data about trends, stay abreast of what is going on in your industry. You get to learn new things that will help you communicate better to your audience. In conclusion, creating good content is of utmost priority to any brand/business owner. However, it doesn’t happen at once. Consistency is a catalyst to creating good pieces of content. As you figure out what works for your target audience, set clear goals on the content you want to create, you want to ensure that you keep churning out content, and as you keep at it, it gets better. You can send us a message to provide quality content services for you.
