I was sitting in the boardroom of a respectable business recently when the boss said, ‘Trust, I want you to make sense of these digital things you’ll screaming about! Where is the money?’
At that point, the room was silent and everyone zoomed on me! You know that time when sweat is triggered from everywhere especially the palms. I was excited they were asking about this.
While is it not disputable that the digital age is here and we all need to embrace it, just like anything new, digital marketing basics are not well understood. It is important to remember the ‘why’ of some things.
When it comes to digital marketing – since we said marketing – the goal is one – making money. There are many exciting numbers you will meet in digital marketing, just remember that none of them replace the business goal, that is making money.
To do well in digital marketing it is important to understand the basic framework of any digital marketing campaign or activity.
Digital marketing framework
Ideally, if your digital marketing efforts don’t include some or all these elements, there is room for improvement.
- Traffic generation
- Lead generation
- Lead nurturing
- Conversions
- Measuring
Let me explain each of these briefly.
Traffic generation
In traditional marketing, any channel that reaches many people is good for marketing. Billboards on busy expensive roads costs more than those on rural deserted roads. What are they using to determine the costs? Traffic!
If you are doing digital marketing in any form, the first thing to solve for is traffic. Many people are disappointed with their digital marketing efforts because they just created the platform (Facebook Page or Website etc.) but did nothing to get many people to see it.
All digital marketing efforts must include traffic generation strategies to make the campaign successful.
Lead generation
I remember chatting with the founder of one the most visited blogs in the country. He was excited about the number of people who were coming to read their stories daily – big numbers. With a sad look, he said “But we are failing to make money off this thing”. That is exactly what happens when businesses are started with a flawed revenue generation plan.
For the usual business where services or products are sold, it is very important to have a lead generation plan. Of the many people who are visiting your website, how do you plan to convert them to customers? The commonest answer is – they will call us if interested. That is flawed.
When people come to your digital channel (website, Facebook Page etc.), they could be in any of the four stages of buying – discovering the need, choosing between options, taking the action or looking for support services. Lead generation is making sure that you capture people before they take action (buying) – these are tomorrow.
Invitation to training.
Doing digital marketing effectively is not a matter of budgets but skillset. As Afrodigital Skills Training, we are inviting you to our Basic Digital Marketing Training, which is happening in three cities in Zimbabwe (Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare – hoping to add more soon).
Harare – 10 February 2017
Bulawayo – 17 February 2017
Mutare -03 March 2017
This three-hour training aims to give everyone attending a solid base in digital marketing. The trainer you will meet there is an experienced digital marketer who has applied the things they will be training you on.
Among many things, you will also learn how to put your business on Google via Google My Business and how to become visible for your career using LinkedIn.
Our aim as Afrodigital Skills Training is to over deliver. The last time we surveyed our training attendees, they said that the training was worth $300 or more. You do not want to miss this!
You can get more details on the training on this website.
22 comments
Interesting take
Thank you!
An article on digital marketing skills, and then juices it up with mention of a 300 bucks or more training course on the subject. Now that’s what I call “Lead generation”.
Hi James! Did you check out the price of the training?
Hahaha, looks like its free as in beer. I am not seeing any prices on their site. But this time around though, its “Traffic Generation”.
The price is $10 for now but will be $25 soon.
I must admit I didn’t spend too much time on the site looking for prices. And maybe that’s something the training can highlight. Price is such a key variable that it should be right there instantly, like what one sees on ecommerce sites. Product and price next to each other. Obscuring prices raises doubts in the mind of visitors.
Great feedback! Thank JamesM – we will look into that and make adjustments.
Hhmmm really loved the Traffic generation part. Got me thinking.
I am happy you loved it!
I wish i could attend the Harare one, please keep me posted for the next date. This is a massive opportunity to grow businesses in this generation.
Hey Misheck, you can get the next date for the Harare training on our Facebook Event – https://www.facebook.com/events/173899090011004/
great article looking forward to you guys in bulawayo
Thank you – we are excited about that event too!
Great stuff.
Thank you Mem
Thanks for the article. very practical indeed in the ‘digital days’ we now living in. Indeed marketing’s goal is to make money but that should be done through satisfaction of customer needs and wants. The reason why some companies end up failing to make business online is because of the products which they are selling- do customers really need them and at such a price as well?
Traffic generation is key, one need to appreciate that most of the customers still believe in the offline channels as well, hence the need for a multi-channel approach, that’s why we have Radio, Print and TV ads then trying to drive traffic to online channels by saying ‘for more information visit our website, Facebook page, Twitter, etc.
From an online perspective traffic can be driven through display adverts like those we see on this http://www.techzim.co.zw and also by proper search engine optimisation as well.
Thank you for the article and see you at your Harare training.
Wow! Felex – that’s like an extension of the article! Integrated marketing is critical in this day especially in Zimbabwe. The common experience i have with ‘for more information visit our website’ thing is this -> the website has no information about the promotion. Disappointing in most cases.
See you Saturday!
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This article is well presented and is sure to show those who may be confused about digital marketing that it is a very important aspect of business today. Thank you.
Thank you Taylor.
Great Article. It gives some good insights and lends perspective.