As a teenager, I’ve always loved business and I decided I was going to study business administration when admitted into a higher institution of learning, which I later did. I was admitted into Grace polytechnic in 2014 to study my dream course. When I graduated as the best student in my department, I expected companies to employ me to be their administrator but none did. I was on the verge of giving up when ideas popped into my head, you could be your boss, you could just start your own business, you can manage it well, you can do this, you are such a wonderful business administrator and then I started my own business. I made snacks, branded them, and supplied them to shops in the neighborhood. The business grew because more shops started placing orders. I was even more excited when I decided to further my education as I thought I would be relocating to a new environment where the patronage will skyrocket since it’s going to be a student-dominated area. I relocated in January 2020 with a bigger dream as even major supermarkets love my brand and they patronize me. My snacks in jars look beautiful to behold on their shelf. Everything seems to be going well as orders from shops grew steadily too.
The thought of expanding my business crossed my mind. As much as I love reading, I don’t think I have read a newspaper for the past 11 years, the last time I picked a magazine to read was about 5 years ago. If not for traffic, I don’t think I will ever look up to observe a billboard funny enough, these are the mediums for advertising. These are ways businesses create awareness about their product or service to the general public. If I want to advertise my business am I going to use these mediums too? I asked myself, what if there are people like me who have not read a newspaper or magazine in a long while too? How do I make my business known to a large set of people?.
I can’t even spend up to an hour in my living room watching TV but I can spend straight 6 good hours on my phone without getting up to even eat or use the washroom and then I made up my mind to make sure what I do and what I offer appears on everyone’s phone. Yes, I just need to start popping up on people’s phones if I must be known, if my business must be visible and if my snacks must be seen.
Digital skills
Since I know the whole world today has moved its attention to the digital medium. We use the internet for the simplest of things to the most complex ones. So to effectively market my product and service, I decided to take a course on digital marketing because Digital marketing is an act of using a variety of platforms to enhance your business like Google ads, video ads, internet marketing, blogging, Media ads, app install initiatives, Youtube ads, and content marketing on Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and other sites.
I enrolled for the course, digital marketing under Udacity, one of the best edutech institutions in the world. The self-paced classes were great, I made sure I spent 10 hours per week on the course where I learned content creation and marketing, copywriting, How to run Facebook and Instagram Ads, Google display Ads, social media marketing and management, SEO- Search engine optimization, SEM- Search engine marketing, email marketing and more. I carried out real world projects on how to define my marketing objective, state KPIs; Key performance indicators, state my value proposition, define my customer persona, draft my target persona and getting an empathy map in the first project. In the second project, I created a blog post using Pixar’s framework, I used Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to promote my blog. In the third project, I evaluated a Facebook campaign which had three ads, I stated the best performing ad and how I would optimize the campaign. In the fourth project, I conducted on-site, off-site and technical SEO Audit on Udacity’s website. Using Moz keyword explorer tool, I searched for 5 head and tail keywords each with great potential that can be used to create blog post for the website. They are; Digital skills, Digital marketing, Online course, Tech skill, Online Marketing, Social Media ads, Digital marketing course, Digital marketing certification, Digital marketing courses, and social media management. I gave a revised suggestion on a page’s title tag, meta description and 5 alt tags. Using portent content idea generator, I generated three topics using the keywords I researched and write a short blog on them. I generated 3 backlinks to the website and their domain authority which were 99, 98, and 97 respectively. Using SEMRush, I strategized a link-building campaign by identifying 3 websites that would be relevant and high-traffic sites that I would like to gain backlinks from to help drive traffic to Udacity’s page. Using Google index checker, I checked the page index of Udacity’s website, I as well evaluated the page speed for mobile and desktop. I checked the mobile-friendliness too. I rounded up the project by giving recommendations on how to make sure the website rank first on google SERP. They are; optimizing images, making website mobile friendly and writing a blog post that contains keywords with the highest potential. In the fifth project, evaluated the Google ads campaign, I evaluated at the ad group level, at the ad level, and the keyword level. I provided recommendations on how best to carry out the campaign next time. In the sixth project, I evaluated 3 display campaigns, I calculated their ROI and they were all positive, I gave three suggestions each on how to optimize the campaigns, I stated the campaign which performed best and I gave recommendations on how to do to make the campaigns perform even better. In the seventh project, I created content plan for sending 3 emails, and drafted out a calendar and plan, using MailChimp, I drafted the email and sent them. I calculated the open rate, CTR, and conversion rate.
Digital marketing Certification
I started the class in February and ended it in June 2022 when I got certified. it was awesome as the weekly connect sessions were held every Saturday from 6 pm till 8 pm where I had the privilege of speaking with a session lead, Okechukwu Onu, a very good teacher who is ready to pour out himself, he was of huge support, I must admit and we had a weekly career session held on zoom as well every Thursday by 9 pm to 11 pm, this was headed by another digital marketing expert, Yomi Samson, a great guy who was helpful and his sessions with us were impactful. Another beautiful aspect of a digital marketing course is that You can start a career immediately if you’re Equipped with a digital marketing master’s course from a reputed institute like Udacity. you don’t have to wait for potential employers and job opportunities to start your career in the field. Since you are now proficient in skills that require the expertise of digital marketing you can very well start your website or even your agency. I have not stopped learning, I am currently enrolled in Digigirls, an organization that has decided to give women a voice in the tech world. It’s a scholarship I received from the UK government in Nigeria, the class started with the basics of computer, knowledge on cybersecurity, a class taught by sisi nerd herself, Confidence Staveley, communication and relational skills before we were given the option of choosing a course of our choice amongst these options, graphic design, data analysis, social media management and digital marketing. Trust me to choose digital marketing! I am currently studying the same digital marketing course with Digigirls.
It’s a good day to be proud of the progress I have made!. My decision to start a career in tech, days when it seems overwhelming, but I showed up; The dedication to keep going despite the challenges, are all worth celebrating. I am endlessly creating myself. Yes! I am absolutely proud of the journey. Today and everyday is a good day to be kind to myself and celebrate my journey. I always tell yourself: Onomoalen Benita Iyere, I am proud of your journey and I celebrate you. I know I am worth celebrating so I cheer myself on as I move closer to reaching my goal.
Business and I 