South Africa’s Digital Womxnist – Owethu Makhathini
Owethu is beyond a force to be reckoned with. This incredible Google Certified genius is taking over the digital sphere by holding workshops and talks across the country through her consultancy, Makhathini Media – which provides innovative ways to show young women how they can advance their careers using digital marketing. Owethu created her platform to upskill young business-minded women and show others how you can liberate women through social media. Let’s take a look at Owethu’s journey on how she is making a difference in empowering women while making her mark in the digital industry. Tell us more about Makhathini Media? Makhathini Media is a creative consultancy that specializes in offering tailored digital marketing and ICT training. We tailor the content depending on the needs of the client, not just for young people but for large corporates and government parastatals. We have a long way to go in terms of digital literacy. I want to ultimately be in a position to fund creative projects, upskill people in digital skills, facilitate networking events and help big brands and businesses create compelling, perception-shifting work. What projects do you have up your sleeve? I have 2 very special projects coming up and I couldn’t be more excited! One ties into the focus of the business which is the training aspect while the other ties into the secondary goal of the business which is creating a community underpinned by the restorative power of sisterhood. We hope to create networks of women who inspire, uplift and collaborate with each other. 2018 is going to an exciting year for Makhathini Media! The media industry has predominantly been male-dominated. How do you navigate this reality as a woman and leader in the digital industry? If we are being honest, most industries are male-dominated. Patriarchy is maintained and is a tool of capitalism, that much is inescapable. I am fortunate that in the digital marketing space, one has the power to create a platform that can exist to challenge mainstream ideas. Business is ruthless and as a young, black woman there are additional challenges we face to get into the room and be taken seriously, never mind having a seat at the table. As a businesswoman, you have to be able to stand in your truth and create an ecosystem of women that look like you to collaborate and make money with. There definitely is strength in numbers. [bctt tweet=”Young women are the most receptive to skills training- @owethumack ” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] How has the process and reception of educating the youth on the digital sphere been? Young women are the most receptive to skills training. They are often the ones that already have small-scale businesses running from home who just need a boost of knowledge. I have had mostly young women come up to me after my sessions to share their stories or to thank me for showing them that someone as young as them has found a niche and is making a business around it. The project I am initiating in 2018 will attend to the needs of the young women who have attended one of my sessions. There is a need that must be met and I feel that I am the perfect position to facilitate it. It is very humbling, inspiring and truthfully, it is what keeps me going when I feel overwhelmed. Can digital marketing play a role in liberating women, especially in South Africa? Firstly, the internet is a borderless place, we are able to share ideas across the world in a matter of moments. This means that even if you feel isolated in your geographical area, you can find a community of like-minded individuals by simply searching for those people online. Secondly, the information shared online can make people aware of the organizations that exist to help women out of situations where they feel helpless. Thirdly, digital marketing is a business opportunity. If a woman is being financially abused, she is able to run a small business through WhatsApp or social media, therefore getting practical help. [bctt tweet=”The internet is a borderless place & digital marketing is a business opportunity” – @owethumack username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] As a mentor to other women, who do you go to for inspiration and why? My great-grandmother, grandmothers, and my mother. Outside of my family, I look up to the Knowles sisters, Oprah Winfrey, Nunu Ntshingila, Zodwa Khumalo, Khanyi Dhlomo and Bonang Matheba. I grew up in a matriarchal family with women who were equally strong and soft. They provided a firm foundation that I have built my version of womanhood on. The women in my family are not too different from women around the world. We are resilient because we must be. We are people who can get things done without disregarding our empathy. What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into your line of work? I would say take yourself on as a project. Critically assess where you fall short, unpack the ways you dishonor yourself and show yourself grace. As women, we are socialized to constantly give and made to feel selfish when we finally erect boundaries. Make sure you have boundaries and a standard for your life, don’t ever compromise yourself for the comfort of another because you aren’t giving from a place of love but from a place of obligation which leads down a path of resentment. If you’d like to share your story with She Leads Africa, let us know more about you and your story here.
Joyce Muthoni: Starting entrepreneurship at a young age has given me time to make mistakes
[bctt tweet=”The name Viral Gorrrila came from a need to have our audience be curious about what we do ” via=”no”] She calls herself a spirited individual and she has accomplished a lot in a short span of time. Joyce Muthoni is the founder of Viral Gorrrila and has worked in her first business for 6 years. She started her first business Proteque Consulting while still on campus, just before she graduated. After six years of running it, Joyce started a balloon business, retailing helium balloons. In under two years, her balloon business is now getting into retail stores and expanding into other regions in Kenya, after successfully setting up the Nairobi and Mombasa offices. The balloon business led to the founding of Viral Gorrrila, a digital marketing agency. It was because of digital marketing activities that her balloon business grew its client base. Joyce quickly saw an opportunity to venture into an untapped industry and help companies gain more market share through digital activities. Tell us why you choose the name Viral Gorrrila for your business. Viral Gorrrila is a digital marketing company that deals with a number of things including website design, Google analytics, Google ads, social media marketing and advertising, and content development. I believe that content is king and conversion is queen. the coining of the name Viral Gorrrila came from a need to have our audience be intrigued, attracted and curious about what we do. The essence of our work is to ensure that as many people as possible get to learn about our clients’ brands and services. The ‘viral’ bit is coined from this while ‘gorrrila’ came from the word guerilla in guerilla marketing. The goal of the company is to develop creative, captivating and memorable content for our clients and this is what guerilla marketing is about. Our creative content seeks to fulfill this and create advocates out of the audience. The Viral Gorrrila term in its self-symbolizes disruption, doing things differently, changing the way digital marketing has been done in our country and helping our clients and other brands see the value of change. The “rrr” in Gorrrila reflects this. Why do you say you’re a new kind of digital marketing agency? What makes you different? There are a lot of agencies in the country, some with a wealth of experience and others starting out and learning the ropes as they go along. We have a strong team that is conversant with Google advertising and social media advertising. We also have a deep focus on creative content development and we have ventured into animated productions in 2D and 3D for our clients and are pursuing a digital channel that will air only animated content made in Kenya. This will, later on, open up to airing content from the rest of Africa. What exciting projects are you working on lately that you can share with us? My work and keen interest in the animation field has led me to work with a local gaming and animation company that is making great strides in the market. I was approached by the Director of ISHAKA LLC, Mr. Sagwa Chabeda, to assist in the project concept and fundraising. We are currently working on a gaming, animation and manga franchise that is set to take the African, European and American markets by storm. It is a bold statement to make but it is a viable endeavor. We have attracted interest from some international production and distribution companies who are looking for new content to market to the world. The ball is in our court and we want to tell our African stories and help the world understand who we are, our cultures, traditions, and heritage. We want to give our viewers an authentic display of the different countries in Africa, one story at a time. [bctt tweet=”My keen interest in animation has led me to work with ISHAKA a local gaming & animation company” via=”no”] You started your business while in school, what was your experience being a student entrepreneur? I started my business in my final year of campus. I had some work experience previously in my father’s company and it was here that I made the decision not to pursue employment after my education. Understanding my personality and passion, I knew what my dreams were and I didn’t want to wait to pursue them. The great thing about starting my business while I was still on campus was that I got business referrals from my fellow classmates who were older and already running their own businesses. I also received advice from them on business planning and execution. On the other hand, I was inexperienced in many things and my lack of experience cost me a lot of money and brought a lot of tears. I had no HR, finance or management skills. My background was in marketing. I had to quickly learn the ropes and continue to keep an open mind, learning attitude, build tough skin and pursue continuous development. Starting entrepreneurship at a young age has given me time to make mistakes, understand my strengths and grow into the business woman I am today. I am now very clear on what I can and cannot do and this has helped me to avoid taking up projects that I know I will not be able to adequately serve. Starting early has also been beneficial in giving me time to grow my network and I can confidently say I am a very resourceful person. I have come to appreciate the pains and pleasures of entrepreneurship and I have a big heart for those who want to venture into business. I appreciated the assistance I got when I was on campus as I started out and I would not hesitate to help anyone seeking advice as an entrepreneur. You have to tell us about your balloon business, how did the idea to run this come up? How exactly did you use digital marketing to grow it?
6 digital marketing myths you need to stop believing
[bctt tweet=”Conduct your research and prepare a digital strategy that works for your business” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Digital marketing used to be a thing of luxury but now it’s a complete necessity in order for brands to stand out. There are some myths surrounding digital marketing that could be holding back most entrepreneurs from maximizing output and engagement online. Some of the myths were once true but need to be revisited once again and some were just not true, to begin with. Here are a few: Myth #1: “My business must be on every social platform” Social media has become a very important tool for many businesses but that doesn’t mean you should be on every platform. For instance companies with technical service offering would succeed best on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook rather than Pinterest and Instagram while fashion related business would do well on Instagram and Pinterest. It can be time wasting to update all social media accounts with fresh, relevant and regular content so it’s better to focus on 2-3 platforms that will give you results than keep track of many platforms which won’t provide results and your target audience isn’t necessarily there. Use this guide to find out which social media platform is best for your business. Myth #2: ”It’s all about followers” There are a lot of goals and metrics that you can establish when creating your digital strategy like page views, followers, likes, comments. They are great but such can be misleading. Go a little bit deeper than that, look at the time spent on your website, abandoned cart (if you have an e-commerce site) and more importantly conversion rates. How many of those who view, comment or like on your social media become paying customers? [bctt tweet=”Goals and metrics are great but such can be misleading” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Myth #3: “Boring industries can’t benefit from digital marketing” Rest be assured that whatever industry your business is in, your targeted customers are bound to be online somewhere. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your product or service isn’t too exciting or glamorous for you to profit from social media. It’s a matter of finding the right people to offer your product or services. “You’re only boring to those who aren’t in your target market.” – Harry Gardiner Additionally, stay ahead of the curve if your competition isn’t online yet. It is better to capitalize on their mistake and gain the first mover advantage to capture a new segment of customers. Myth #4: “Online negative comments are bad for my business” Of course, it is emotionally hard to see bad comments on something you have worked so hard to build but use this to your advantage. While some resort to hiding comments, blocking users etc. responding well and timely to legitimate concerns will do you a world of good in creating a virtuous reputation for your company. Motherland Mogul tip: There is no point in responding to insults and baseless comments. If you follow the tip on responding above, you will create brand loyalists (“your tribe”) who will defend your brand to the so called “keyboard warriors” who just want to destroy you. Besides, recently Instagram just like Facebook has rolled out a new feature which blocks offensive language. This feature is currently only available in English but more languages will be added later on. [bctt tweet=”Whatever industry your business is in, your targeted customers are bound to be online” via=”no”] Myth #5: “It’s all about tech” Do not make a mistake of thinking traditional marketing is now a thing of a past. Yes, technology is key in digital marketing but it will be wise to merge it with your existing traditional marketing practices like TV and radio commercials, newspaper, networking etc. into one so that you have a lasting impact and become more apparent. The Internet is unpredictable and with the influx of many updates per seconds, minutes or hour, you are better off maintaining a balance between the old marketing approach and digital marketing. Motherland Mogul tip: If you run a digital marketing campaign only you run a risk of being swallowed up by the Internet. Myth #6: “Why blog when I have a social media?” You probably should be writing content because chances are your target audience may be searching for it online when they are looking for tips, how to guides, product recommendations etc. The importance of having a blog cannot be understated as when on social media, you are on someone else’s turf and on their terms. With a blog, you’re on your territory and you make the rules. You can write as much as you want about anything. People come to check you out and here is where you build your position as an expert. There are a lot of myths out there but these ones are the ones I meet the most and are quite misleading. Don’t let any of them hold you back from fully benefiting from the digital world. Conduct your research and prepare a digital strategy that works for your business. Are you familiar with any other digital marketing myths that may have been left out on this list?
Facebook Live with Ink Eze: How I grew AsoEbiBella to one million followers(June 21)
Whatever it is you do, or services you provide, you need social media and digital marketing to grow and boost your business. If you’re thinking you can only reach young people on social media, you’re wrong. Even our yummy mummies and daddies are online ready to patronize you and your product. This is 2017, there’s no time for dulling. Its about time you master the tools and strategies of online marketing, to enable you reach your target audience. As part of our Boost Your Business digital marketing training series, we are bringing you a Facebook Live session on Wednesday June 21st with Ink Eze. Ink is the founder and brains behind the famous African fashion online community, AsoEbiBella.com . She’ll be sharing with us some of the tools she’s used to grow the AsoEbiBella platform, and get over 1 million followers on Instagram. [bctt tweet=”Ask Ink any questions about how to grow your audience with social media. Facebook Live( June 20)” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Register below to get the exclusive link to join this session Some of the topics we’ll cover Best practices to generate brand awareness and reach your target audience How you can leverage Facebook, Instagram and other social and digital platforms to market your business. Key digital marketing lessons Ink has learned since founding AsoEbiBella Must-know social media and digital marketing techniques and tools to drive traffic and generate revenue Facebook Live Details: Date: Wednesday June 21st 2017 Time: 2pm Lagos// 3pm Johannesburg// 4pm Nairobi Where: facebook.com/sheleadsafrica/ Watch here: https://www.facebook.com/sheleadsafrica/videos/1900264340196877/ About Ink Ink Eze is the Founder of AsoEbiBella.com, a platform for sharing African traditional styles. She became BellaNaija Weddings editor in 2013, and Assistant Editor of BellaNaija, heading the lifestyle section – style, beauty and living until January 2017. In her early years, she was head girl of her secondary school. Ink attended the prestigious United World College of the Adriatic, then studied modern culture and media at the Ivy League Brown University. Under her leadership, BN Weddings gained international prominence and became Africa’s foremost wedding media brand with millions of followers across several platforms and coverage on BuzzFeed, BBC & more. She’s conceived of BBN Wonderland, Nigeria’s top bridal event since 2015 with Baileys Nigeria. Now she spends her time on AsoEbiBella and sharing her insights with the world. For more Ink, join her on @Ink.Eze | @AsoEbiBella
Boost your business with Morin Oluwole: How to market your business on Instagram (May 23)
Now that Instagram has over 300 million daily active users, true Motherland Moguls are leveraging on this huge market to boost their businesses. Social media is the new marketplace for anything, and Instagram is taking the lead, become the most popular platform. So why are you not selling on Instagram? As part of our Boost Your Business digital marketing training series, we are bringing you a Facebook Live session on Tuesday May 23rd with Morin Oluwole. Morin will be showing us how luxury brands sell their products on Facebook and Instagram and how you can do the same for your products. Morin is now Head of luxury at Facebook, and was formerly Chief of Staff to the VP, Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook where she developed business strategies for global brand partners. Register below to get the exclusive link to join this session Some of the topics we’ll cover How you can leverage Facebook and Instagram to get clients Key digital marketing lessons learned while working with global luxury brands Best practices of selling fashion on Instagram and Facebook Social and digital strategies to market online Facebook Live Details: Date: Tuesday May 23rd 2017 Time: 3pm Lagos// 4pm Paris// 5pm Nairobi Where: facebook.com/sheleadsafrica/ Watch video here: https://www.facebook.com/sheleadsafrica/videos/1887518318138146/ About Morin Morin Oluwole is an expert in positioning brands on social media. With more than 10 years of experience at Facebook, she knows what works and how to best maximize it. Morin holds a BA and MA from Stanford University in Human Biology and Sociology and an MA in Management from Columbia University. She was a Bill Gates Millennium Scholar and received the Dean’s award for academic excellence – both for 5 consecutive years. Morin who has lived on three continents and currently resides in Paris, has been featured in the New York Times, Black Enterprise, Movelifestyle.com, and Alder Social Media Report. She speaks four languages (English, Yoruba, Spanish, and French).
Discover six ways to use Snapchat for business
[bctt tweet=”Ready to start using Snapchat for your business? These six tips will help you” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Have you thought of adding Snapchat to your marketing mix? Well if you haven’t, you should. A breakdown of Snapchat’s numbers will show you why: over 100 million daily active users, 400 million snaps per day, and over 1 billion views of stories each day. And there’s more. For the personal user, Snapchat lets you easily talk with friends, view Live Stories from around the world, and explore news with the Discover feature. It also presents huge possibilities for your business. One of the key ways for brands to connect viscerally with their customers is to share brand stories. Shared value has been known to create brand loyalty and with Snapchat being real-time, it provides a ready platform to showcase the values and cultures of your company in a personal and visual way. Find out six ways you can use Snapchat for your business in the infographic below (text follows after). 1. Cover live events You can use Snapchat for product launches or one-of-kind events like the 5,000th customer to shop in your store etc 2. Offer contests or promotions You can offer promo codes or discounts to the fans who watch your entire Snapchat story, or ask them to take a snap while holding your product. 3. Behind the scenes You could show off your company and make sure to have fun with it. Capture birthday parties, Friday afternoons or company outings. The idea is to show how your brand differentiates itself with company culture. 4. Partner with influencers Just like with Twitter and Instagram, social media influencers on Snapchat can help spread brand awareness and reach. Allow these influencers “take over” your brand’s Snap for maybe a day to help with the promotion of an upcoming event, product launch etc. These influencers will help introduce & bring their own followers to your page. 5. Publish transparency series Like we mentioned earlier, shared values help build brand loyalty. One of the best ways to do so is present a backstage company access to your customers. You’d be surprised how many people are interested in your internal processes. Cisco has done a neat job of sharing the daily goings-on in the firm with their “A day in the life of an Account Manager” series. If you are wondering what Cisco – a networking and telecommunications company is doing Snapchat – you are not alone. Telecommunications isn’t the most interesting subject to talk about, but Cisco managed to flip the script. They focused on their culture and exposed a human side of their brand. 6. Host AMA sessions Ask Me Anything sessions can be anything you want them to be. They can be about your goofy company culture or a professional conversation about trends in your industry. It could be “We just bought a N1 million camera for our production team, ask us anything” or something a little more serious like “We got 2 billion organic impressions on a campaign last week, ask us anything.” or something random, “We can tint my eyebrows with Coffee, ask us anything.” Find relevant topics you can start with your audience that will pull them in and engage them.
The Art of loyalty: How to build brand love and engagement with content marketing
[bctt tweet=”Few people are loyal to brands, here’s how to get people to love yours with content marketing” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] What brand of seasoning cube was in your home growing up? Right now, if you took a random survey, odds are your respondents will tell you they saw only one brand of seasoning cube. When I surveyed my colleagues -mostly 90s kids- the results match up. Most remember seeing only just the Maggi seasoning cubes or the Knorr seasoning cubes. It used to be that people were faithful to brands because they have a history with their products and services. They bought only one brand of cars; one brand of toiletries or picked groceries from only one store. Lots of factors are responsible for this loyalty; top on the list being limited choices. But that’s beyond the scope of this article. The point simply is that people are buying differently than they did in the 90s or as early as the turn of the millennium. These days, few people are loyal to brands. According to Accenture, only 28% of customers are loyal to brands. When one considers that it costs up to 25x more to acquire new customers than it does to keep one, this trend provides a unique challenge for business owners. For small businesses, the way to level the playing field with tough deep-pocket competition is to build brand loyalty. Customers will return to you come rain or shine when your brand inspires loyalty. How do you solve this problem as a small business? Enter content marketing. Engaging positively and consistently with customers along their different purchase journeys will nurture brand loyalty. This is most true for millennials; 62% of whom feel that online content drives their loyalty to a brand. Triggering loyalty might just be the core of content marketing. What is content marketing? “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action,” – Content Marketing Institute. If you received an e-mail update from your spin class instructor this morning, you’ve been exposed to a form of content marketing. If you’ve read a guide on “how to make Bantu Knots when your hair is only two inches long” – that’s content marketing. Combined with a top-class customer service, content marketing will create a community of rabid fans around your brand. [bctt tweet=”Customers will return to you come rain or shine when your brand inspires loyalty” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] How do you begin? The first step is to outline your typical customer journey. There are many frameworks that explain the process from consumers’ awareness of your brand to transactional engagement with it. My favourite is Google’s “See, Think, Do, Care” framework. Understating this funnel helps you shape your message for the right customer in the right context. If you had a business selling lactation cookies, your communication at the “See” stage is to “all pregnant women.” At the “Think” stage, your communication is to “pregnant women or new mothers who are unable to lactate naturally.” At the “Do” stage, your communication is to “New mothers who want to buy lactation cookies right now”. Finally, at the “Care” stage, your communication is to “new mothers who bought and are taking lactation cookies from me.” At the last stage of the process, the goal is primarily to build loyalty. But nevermind this, elements that build loyalty should be baked into content at every stage. Shared value To consistently infuse brand loyalty triggers in your content is to develop and share content that is useful and conveys shared value. Shared value is about focusing more on people and their beliefs and less on your product. The focus on the product is why many contents from brands are ignored. According to a Corporate executive Board (CeB) study published in 2012, most consumers say that they were loyal “not to companies, but to beliefs.” From the text on your landing page to the call-to-actions on your ebook, your beliefs (and that of your audience) should shine through. [bctt tweet=”Content that engenders loyalty is more than a blog post, find out more here” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] The types of content that engender loyalty Content that engenders loyalty is more than a blog post. Although those play a big role, loyalty-driven content marketing is driven by a deeper understanding of your customer motivations, their engagement behaviors, and your company goals. Some of the short examples I will proceed to share may not fit snugly with your brand, but you can deploy them based on your specific needs. 1. Culture blogs Culture blogs reveal the safe internal conversations of a company. For our example with our lactation cookie company, a culture blog could be “Why we keep our cookie cutter in the top drawer” or “What our new teammates taught us about cookie counting.” Or consider this super-honest culture blog from Buffer; “What We Got Wrong About Self-Management: Embracing Natural Hierarchy at Work.” The core idea of culture blogs is to put the culture, beliefs and thought processes of your company on full display. Culture blogs (like all other content types) can be deployed at every level of the customer journey but are suited for the “See” and “Think” stages. 2. Newsletters Newsletters are one of the most profitable pillars of content marketing. Emails have been known to provide an overall higher conversion rate when compared to other content channels. They can often provide functional purposes along every level of the consumer journey. You can use them to share product updates or nurture your leads. How ever you use them, ensure that you are helpful. 3. Product marketing kits What series of content will help your consumer live better, do their jobs better or increase their preferred variable of customer success? Combine them into one big digital folder (or ebook) and share with your audience. These kits are more instructional than sales-y. They have high production value
Top-level website changes that will turbocharge your business SEO
[bctt tweet=”Every business needs an SEO strategy, why not share with changing how your website looks” via=”no”] Every business that will grow beyond the street corner needs an SEO strategy; a way for it to get found online. Why? Because online is where 67% of Nigerian buyers start their purchase journey [PDF]. So, your SEO and profitability are not only equally important, they also go hand in hand. What is SEO again? Why do you need it? If you can’t answer these questions, eead Uche Offokoja’s SEO primer; “Is your business ready for SEO?” to get a quick refresher. __ It’s impossible to cover the nuances of SEO in a 1000-word article. If we are being honest, 10,000 words, and we’d only be halfway there. What you’ll read in this article are fundamental aspects of your website you can improve to start ranking on Google, getting seen by your consumers and making more sales. Start with a website audit The first step to creating an SEO strategy is your website audit. Doing this lets you know the specific elements of your website to improve. A professional SEO service will provide a more in-depth outlook for your website complete with SEO competitive analysis, wireframe recommendations plus a search audit. But a great way to do this on a shoestring budget is to use the SEMRush tool. It’s a free tool that will give you an interactive snapshot of your current SEO efforts; your top organic keywords and their positions, what other sites are competing for your position, backlinks and more. A basic audit of one of my favourite websites; Copyblogger.com, returned this: (All traffic to copyblogger is organic and the leading keyword is “how to write an article.” The data points are interactive and you can dig further down to extract more insights). These insights are useful for your content strategy (more on this later) and possible website upgrades to improve usability. Optimize your site for mobile As an extension of your website audit, examine how you are doing on mobile. Google ranks mobile-optimized websites higher in SERPs (search engine results pages). But more important is the implication of this on your visitors. More than 55% of all searches now come from mobile, and if your consumers can’t use your site on mobile, they won’t stick around. To get a good sense of how your website does on mobile, use Varvy. (Copyblogger.com is optimized for mobile, although the site latency on mobile needs to be optimized.) The relationship between brands and customers is not an equal one. Customers have the leverage and you have to be there for them as they navigate their social and transactional realities. To do that is to be available on their mobile phones where they spend a third of their waking lives. I’ll leave Tom Fisbourne of Marketoon to drive the point home; “A well-loved brand that isn’t optimized for mobile may not be well-loved for long.” Speak to your developer about responsive website design to improve your mobile-optimization. Tweet: When last did you do a website audit? Never? Find out why you need one here Develop a content strategy The number of visitors to your page and how long they stay (their dwell time) also affect your ranking. Useful content with high production values is one of the most effective ways to attract and keep traffic on your website. A content strategy doesn’t mean you start a podcast, a webinar and an email autoresponder series at the same time. Start with blogging… Companies with blogs have 97% more inbound links (Source) B2B marketers using blogs generate 67% more leads (Source) Small business with blogs generate 126% more leads (Source) Start your content strategy with keyword research. This helps you figure out real questions and ideas that matter to your consumers. The Google Keyword Planner or the SEMRush tool will come in handy here. Some general ideas for your content strategy: – Develop content for humans and make your content helpful. – Your content strategy should include your content matrix, content calendar and an operational calendar. – Annotate your content with header tags, add outbound links, make your content readable (avoid walls of text), use alt texts for your images, and compress image sizes to reduce latency. – Finally, distribute your content. Suss out a robust distribution strategy that will ensure your content reaches your desired audience. You could, for instance, start sending weekly email to your list or create a social sharing strategy. Are you using popups? Pop-ups: online forms that keep you away from your heart’s desires. Only a few people are a fan. That’s why Google is cracking down on websites that have pop-ups. Such websites rank lower in search engine results pages. Speak with your developer to remove any pop-ups on your website and explore alternative lead-generation elements, including stationary banner ads, stationary sidebar ads, behavior-driven pop-ups or notification style ads. The idea is not to get rid of lead-generation, but to present decent usability. Improve your site architecture Finally, how easy is it to navigate your website? When visitors can’t find what they want on your website, they often leave right away; leading to high bounce rate, leading to low ranking on Google. As a general rule; your website should not take more than four clicks to get to the deepest level. LIke this: The fact is; site architecture is not only great for usability, it makes it easier for search engine bots to crawl and index your website. While SEO is not the goal in itself (sales and profitability are), you’ll often need SEO to get you there. The ideas here will get you right on your way. — This article was written by Gbenga Onalaja. Gbenga is a Content Strategist at Wild Fusion, Wild Fusion is Africa’s leading Digital Marketing Agency.
Webinar with Wild Fusion: How to grow your business with digital marketing (Apr.11)
Are you wondering why your business is not getting the online attention it deserves? Or why Facebook and Instagram is not really working for you? Hold up! Lets educate you a bit more on digital marketing! It has been proven by many successful businesses, that digital marketing is the way forward to boost and expand your business online. But what you need to know now is how to keep up its evolving and ever changing strategies. Join us on Tuesday April 11th for a webinar with 2 professionals from Wild Fusion – Africa’s leading digital marketing agency, who have been in the digital marketing game for awhile. Agatha Emina – (General Manager) and Prashant Kirpalani – (Social Media Manager) of Wild Fusion, as they share with us fresh and unknown strategies of digital marketing every business owner must know of. During this webinar, you’ll get direct answers from these professionals on any digital marketing related question you ask, so, you don’t want to miss it! Register below to get the exclusive link to the webinar. Topics that we’ll cover: Digital marketing for African start-ups The top 4 mistakes you need to stop making on your business social media page Strategies you can use to gain more customers without breaking your budget Webinar details: Date: Tuesday April. 11th, 2017 Time: 2pm Lagos // 3pm Johannesburg // 4pm Nairobi Help us spread the word: [bctt tweet=”Sign up for this webinar with @Wildfusion to increase your business social media reach (Apr.11)” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Watch this webinar: About our experts: Agatha Emina, is an online enthusiast with over 7 years working experience in the digital industry from the client side and the agency side. She has worked as a Digital Strategist and Project Manager in the financial, e-business, online advertising and traditional advertising industries. With her strong understanding of digital marketing and project management skills, Agatha has executed award winning digital campaigns across various sectors including FMCG brands, Telecom, Finance and more. Some of her latest works includes taking Close Up and Knorr Nigeria online and enabling these brands succeed while increasing Returns on Marketing Spend. Prashant Kirpalani, is a social media enthusiast who is certified in Google Analytics, Social Media and Digital Marketing. His work experience cuts across social media strategy, Google Analytics, Facebook and pay per click advertising, blogging, website management and forum management. He has a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering from the Maharashtra Institute of Technology where he created a social media network targeting students who wished to study abroad for his final year project.
Is my business ready for SEO?
[bctt tweet=”Without SEO, your business is basically invisible. You need to be visible!” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of refining your website using both on and off-page optimization techniques so that it will be indexed and ranked by search engines, naturally. – Digital Marketing Institute If you have had a hard time understanding SEO (Search Engine Optimization), let’s start with a visual exercise. Picture this -you have a wonderful store with all the best offerings, only…your store is invisible. Not just that; millions of your potential consumers pass by daily looking for just what you offer. Crazy right? Yes, that’s exactly what your business is without SEO. You need to be visible! Take results from a Wild Fusion Digital Center 2016 channel effectiveness study, for instance; 63% of Nigerian consumers use search engines to research and buy products. This puts Search right at the center of the purchase funnel. You need to ensure your business shows up when people search for the services you offer. How SEO Works Ever wondered how search results show up? Let’s talk spiders! Google has an inventory or index where it stores keywords and information regarding the websites they originate from. This index is populated by search engine spiders who crawl the web. When they get to your site, they populate the index with keywords from your site. As people search online they are actually querying the index. What Google then does is to present the most relevant results of the search from its inventory. So basically, if Google doesn’t have you in their index, there’s no way you are showing up in the search results. This is why you need to optimize your website for search engines. Ranking on the search engine … Page 1, Page 2..Page 10 Ranking is website positioning in SERP (Search Engine Results Pages). Your ultimate goal would be to rank on page 1 and even better, be the first result. Like the saying goes ‘the best place to hide a dead body is on page 2 of Google search engine’. As crazy as that sounds, the reality is that search engine visibility is a clear indicator of good marketing, it also lends credibility to your brand. [bctt tweet=”Search engine visibility is a clear indicator of good marketing & lends credibility to your brand” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] SEO is a continuous effort. Every day, businesses similar to yours are competing for the same keywords, trying to convince Google that they are more relevant. Google considers a number of factors when ranking websites, but today we will highlight two. Content Relevance You want to ensure that your content is relevant. Start your content strategy with keyword research. This helps you figure out real questions and ideas that matter to your consumers. The Google Keyword Planner will come in handy here. Also, your content should be readable, you should avoid duplicating content at any cost. Mobile Responsiveness Nothing is more frustrating than getting to a site via your mobile phone and finding it’s so difficult to navigate. Think user experience when designing your site! – This article was written by Uche Offokaja. Uche is the Client Solutions Manager Wild Fusion, Africa’s leading Digital Marketing Agency.