We recently launched and ran our FIRST Digital Marketing Workshop and we have learnt so much from it.
Although the workshop was designed to give fellow small business owners & traditional marketing professionals our most valuable tips and tricks, we were like sponges when listening to their unique stories, insight and questions!
Here are some key things we learnt from the Digital Upgrade Workshop!
Content Planning & Instagram Hacks
We were impressed by so many business owners coming into the workshop prepared and experienced with using Social Media as a marketing tool.
The most common roadblocks our attendees expressed were
- Running out of ideas and running low on creativity
- Burnt out – content planning is a big time-commitment and uses up a lot of their brain power
Their favourite takeaways were:
- The detailed list of our favourite softwares, platforms, tools, and phone apps we use to create content
- How to create beautiful yet effective Instagram & Facebook stories
- How to effectively source and recycle user generated content (such as sharing customer Instagram stories)
Some interesting and challenging topics were:
- How to use Pinterest to create leads (success stories on getting traffic and leads with only pinterest!)
- How to create content and show credibility when there are client confidentiality and privacy agreements
- LinkedIn is increasingly becoming harder to cut through and find value from
Social Ads Essentials
A big chunk of this workshop was around the importance of building Target Audiences. We had a few raised eyebrows and gasps when we revealed how much time we personally spend when building Facebook Ad Audiences!
We all nodded when we expressed that Facebook Ads is a complicated beast with so many ‘hidden’ features. So it was highly valuable for our attendees that we simplified the Ads language and walked through the process step-by-step.
Some of the really good questions asked were:
- Why would you need more than one Ad Set?
- Why should I run multiple Ads per Ad Set?
- Why should I target people beyond interests and topics related to my business?
- What is a good budget?
- How long should I run my ads?
- How do I manage the ad after it’s published? How do I measure the success?
It was also fun debunking some myths around Facebook Ads and confirming some!
SEO & Website Foundations
Here’s one thing everyone agreed to:
- “I thought my web developer covered everything but this wasn’t the case!”
Hiring a web developer & designer is typically quite costly and with that comes a misconception that they ‘take care of everything’. But our attendees expressed that they did not know what ‘everything’ was until they got involved in the development process!
There was a huge discrepancy between the expectations of a web developer vs. how much business owners need to be involved in the process.
Not to mention how much work there is to be done AFTER the website has been launched.
Here’s What you missed…
With insights like this, how could we NOT run another workshop? As much as our goal was to teach and help small business owners, we also walked away with far more insight and knowledge. We’re so excited for the new year to come and also to watch our attendees grow!
