Nigerian business owners and entrepreneurs now embrace digital media as a means of promoting and increasing brand value. It is only right for these companies and industries to grab a hold of this opportunity and give their brand more awareness than ever before. To succeed with this, companies and industries are now looking to hire qualified digital marketing professionals that have the necessary skills and experience.
Digital marketing professionals are responsible for executing marketing campaigns on digital channels such as email, website, mobile, and social media to build awareness, provide information to prospects, and drive lead conversion. It goes without saying that digital marketing professionals are expected to be results driven, analytical and dynamic. There is no one size-fits-all method to becoming an expert in the digital marketing sphere. However, to become an expert will definitely require your time and lot of effort.
Here are some points to necessary to become an effective digital marketing professional in Nigeria;
1. Equip Yourself with the Right Data and Digital Tools
If you are indeed ready to become a digital marketer, you should bear in mind that you need to gather enough data to get it right so you won’t be frustrated on the long run. For a worthy career in IT like digital marketing, you need to learn and be updated. Information is key and getting it wrong can affect your output and the outcome in terms of conversion. A good digital marketing professional should be accustomed with content marketing, search engine optimization, paid advertising, social media marketing, web analytics, mobile marketing, email marketing, re-targeting and marketing automation.
Some recommendations on websites to get latest digital marketing information are –
Moz, Search Engine Land, Social Media Examiner, Smart insights, Hubspot, Marketing land, Content marketing Institute and digital marketing institute.
2. Network and Connect with Professionals
There are more experienced people in the industry that you can learn from, no one is an island of knowledge. You will need to connect with digital marketer in your city, read about some online and follow up their blog and career growth. Seek advice from them to grow your brand. You may need to attend seminars, conferences and trainings that center on digital marketing. Ensure you nurture a good relationship with like-minded professional that you meet online and offline, this may improve your brand and give you recommendations.
3. Follow Different Strategies to Scale Growth
Probably the most common question that a novice asks is: “What is the best way to grow my brand?” This is an impossible question to answer because there are many different strategies for growth, all of which come with their own benefits and drawbacks. That’s why it’s often necessary to consider multiple growth strategies at once.
I can say that PPC and SEO are both key marketing strategies for brands looking to grow. From a good perspective, the benefit of SEO is that it’s more cost effective over the long-term, though it can also take a lot longer to make any headway.
Running campaigns on Google Ads and other PPC sites allows brands to grow their customer base while their organic rankings are still rising, which is essential for newer brands. Once you’ve built your SEO rankings, they pay dividends for years. If you’re on a more limited budget, you may not be able to invest a tremendous amount of money into your PPC campaigns at first. Fortunately, there are other ways you can generate traffic while waiting for your organic search rankings to improve. Dean, for example, has gained a lot of visibility and loyal readers by e-mailing other thought leaders in his niche.
Key Takeaway: Ultimately, you shouldn’t limit yourself to one growth strategy. While you don’t want to try so many things that you can’t fully invest in any one tactic, you need to be aware of the benefits and limits of every tactic, as well as how you can leverage them to boost your name recognition.
4. Carve a Niche
Whilst getting knowledge and experience is essential for a digital marketing professional, having a solid brand is rather essential too. Your brand is what speaks for you. With your personal brand you can build a strong image and project how you want to be perceived in the marketplace.
You can start by creating content that identifies with Digital marketing; choose to take it on from an angle most comfortable with you. You can create blog posts and social media content on topics that will best resonate with your audience. You will also need social media accounts that represent your brand. These are a few of what employers will look out for before engaging you for work or otherwise.
5. Certification is Very Important
Trust me, a certification gives you a better edge in the digital market today. If you’re up for becoming an effective digital marketing professional completing a digital marketing course will benefit you regardless of your skills and experience. A good qualification helps you to stay ahead of the curve. You will learn to maximize your marketing efforts, get professional training and tutoring and measure results effectively make sure get you pursue a certification from a credible agency or institution. With this in check, you’re well on your way to implementing effective digital marketing campaigns.