Oluwabukola Shobowale, a seasoned Marketing Strategist with 15 years experience in leading brands to optimal service delivery and equity has given comprehensive insights into how digital marketing has evolved from a guessing game into a strategic pursuit rooted in understanding the desires and habits of target audience.
She gave these insights whilst delivering a lecture, titled “Digital Marketing execution” during a Webinar organised by the University of Lagos Mass Communication Alumni Association (UMCAA) on Saturday, September 30, 2023.
According to her, before embarking on any digital marketing endeavour, it is crucial to gain a clear understanding of one’s business mission and positioning.
One might wonder, amidst the voices in the digital realm, why should people pay attention to branding? What sets one apart from the competition? Oluwabukola said that the answer lies in brand’s positioning statement, which may be an internal document but plays a pivotal role in driving digital marketing strategy. It aligns teams, guides hiring decisions, informs product development, and communicates the unique value and worth of the brand to the world.
She opined that different strategies can be employed, each with its own merits and considerations. In brand positioning, the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of the brand should be evaluated from time to time as the market evolves. This helps to build one’s brand and also helps to stay relevant in the market space.
The facilitator accentuated that selecting the right brand positioning strategy depends on various factors, including market dynamics, consumer preferences, and the brand’s uniqueness. Regardless of the chosen strategy, consistency is key across all touch points to ensure a coherent and compelling brand message.
Similarly, she said, the brand is the painkiller (solution) to someone’s pain (problem), and to effectively engage with target audience, there is the need to identify where audience spend their time online. This involves finding relevant Facebook Groups, YouTube channels, and other websites or fora.
She noted that the website serves as an online home base, offering control over one’s story, personality, and content. She also captures various tools, such as Wix, WordPress, Canva, and GoDaddy, that can help build an effective website.
Oluwabukola reiterated that when creating a website, adopting a conversion funnel mindset, starting with clear goals to guide the design and content choices is key.
Email marketing remains a potent tool in digital marketing. Implementing email sequences, including confirmation, user onboarding, and cart abandonment recovery emails, can help nurture leads and drive conversions. Personalisation, timing, A/B testing of subject lines, and evergreen content are crucial elements of effective email campaigns.
While she stressed the importance of understanding and applying the Attention, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA) framework in copywriting, she also underscored the
significance of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as another critical component of digital marketing.
Meta descriptions, page titles, headers, sub-headlines with relevant keywords, and anchor text linking to other relevant articles should be optimised for better search engine rankings. Mobile optimisation is paramount in today’s mobile-centric world, and tools like Yoast SEO can assist with WordPress sites, she emphasised.
The AI tools like Chat GPT, according to her, can aid in content creation, SEO keyword research, creating buyer personas, article writing, and more, providing accurate prompts.
She aded that by following these guidelines and staying atuned to the ever-evolving digital landscape, maintaining personal branding through regular review and re-strategising, businesses can thrive in the digital age.
According to her, success on personal/business branding does not happen overnight. It takes time and efforts. Besides, digital skills will aid one’s efforts at personal branding and digital marketing. It requires intentionality, consistency, consciousness and authenticity.
The Dean of UMCAA Masterclass, Dr Kehinde Oyesomi said that UMCAA Masterclass session holds every second and last Saturday of the month in order to enrich and expand the knowledge base of members and the generality of the society in both academic, industrial spheres, and outside the communication spectrum.
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