‘Digital marketing is the future of business promotion’

Sola Mathew is an Amazon bestselling author, a digital marketing consultant and an international speaker. He is the founder of GoGlobal Solutions, the leading digital agency and provider of the first CoWorking space in Ekiti. He speaks to FAITH ADEOYE on the advantages of digital marketing, among other issues.

Tell us what you do.

I help individuals, brands and businesses gain visibility online which ultimately leads to more sales and profit using digital platforms. I also consult and train organisations on how to leverage digital skills for their growth and development.

Why are you into digital marketing?

There are a thousand and one reasons I have interest in marketing digitally or digital marketing. I’m always happy seeing businesses grow using tools like Digital marketing.  The fact that I can run a marketing campaign using my laptop or smartphone anywhere in the world intrigues me too. For example, I was working for a client in Nigeria during my last visit to The Gambia. All I needed was my laptop and internet access to get my job done for the client. Besides, unlike traditional marketing that is hard to target and measure, digital marketing is easy to target and measure. These and many more are reasons I have interest in marketing digitally.

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How do you take charge of planning and managing campaign that promotes brands?

Okay. This starts with knowing what is the goal of the brand. Is it to create awareness, drive traffic to their website, acquire leads or close more sales? Knowing the campaign goal of the brand is the first thing to do. The goal must be realistic and measurable. The goal would determine the digital channel we would deploy in achieving the goal. It could be via Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or email marketing. Afterwards, we develop a clear cut Digital marketing strategy that would help us achieve the brand’s goal.  One interesting thing about Digital marketing is that we can stop a campaign that is not performing well at any time and relaunch with the one that is performing better.

How do you identify trends?

You can identify trends by following influencers in your industry. Aside from that, you can use digital tools like Google trends, Google alerts, Buzzsumo, etc. Attending events and networking are ways to identify trends too.

How profitable is digital marketing?

Do you know that the use of Digital marketing strategies increases revenue growth by 2.8 per cent and return on investment (ROI) by almost 300 per cent? This is because 72 per cent of customers are connecting with businesses through digital marketing channels. So, Digital marketing is highly profitable. By hiring a digital marketing specialist to handle your campaign, you can increase your profit.

How can one learn digital marketing?

You can start with the Google’s free course on the fundamentals of digital marketing and/or enrol in a Digital marketing school. For example, GoGlobal Solutions has partnered with Ekiti State University to provide a six-month professional diploma in digital marketing certification course in which you will learn all about Digital marketing. With such training, you can secure job, start your own business or get promoted at your workplace.

Do you think social media aid advertising for your campaigns? What improvements do you think would develop digital marketing generally?

Sure. Social media aids advertising. Almost everyone is now on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the like. Aside that fact that you can get to see real-time results, you can target and retarget those who interact with your advert. You can target people based on their location, interest, sex, etc. On what will develop digital marketing generally, I think more of personalisation will help. This is already implemented in digital marketing channels like Email, ChatBots, etc. I look forward to seeing more of this development across all platforms. For example, I’m seriously looking forward to a time when WhatsApp broadcast can carry the name you use to save a person’s contact number.