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June 28, 2021 - No Comments!

How Lama Landed her Dream Digital Marketing Job With No Experience

Lama has a degree in marketing, but she didn't feel ready for the real world. She knew the theories but lacked practical experience. This made her a bit sceptical about her knowledge when it comes to marketing, which stopped her from getting the jobs she wanted. Here’s her story:

The world’s changing and everything’s going online, so she wanted to see if our course would help her prepare for the upcoming revolution in business.

It did.

After learning the fundamentals of using Facebook ads for marketing, she spent $15 on ads and got $90 in return in three days. That’s a six-fold return on investment!

Who: Lama

Joined: 25th May

Problem To Solve:

Lama knew everything about marketing in theory, but lacked some practical tips and tricks. Even with her university degree, she may have missed some valuable lessons about how we approach marketing today.

How She Overcame it:

We shared some applicable advice with Lama. She learned useful tricks to help her improve her marketing skills. And the most important of all was that she found out how to target her audience appropriately.

What she didn’t know was that she could be just a click away from learning everything she needed about Facebook users. Data mining is very helpful when you’re looking to identify your target customer, as it lets you do your research easily. It’s because Facebook stores details about its users, which can guide you in your marketing.

Did it work? Yes! Lama had lots of success in targeting people with Facebook ads.

Her client owned a start-up so they targeted the people who had interest in her competitors. It was a larger audience and out of that, they narrowed the data down to a specific age group for their ad.

Three days later, the Facebook ad had delivered two purchases.

Lama’s client was very happy, as you can imagine.

It goes to show how vital targeting is. But it’s really all about testing.

You specify the audience and test more interests and ages to find the most likely buyers.

Best part is, she used everything that she had learnt at the Bootcamp in her first job interview (which she got during the bootcamp!). She showed the managers what she knows and what she has done. A few days later, she landed the job!

 

Speak soon,

Howard

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways we can help you become a Digital Marketer:

  1. Follow us on Instagram (@growthvelocityacademy) for daily marketing tips, updates and announcements.
  2. Create the perfect Growth Hacking Strategy by grabbing a free copy of our Marketing Plan Template here
  3. Book in for a Complimentary 1:1 Business Mentor Session here with one of our Marketing Strategists.

June 23, 2021 - No Comments!

Want to Succeed Faster? Master These 3 Things….

I’ve talked about the accelerators behind the Attract and Convert skills in my previous blogs.

Now, that leaves us with one more skill to cover – Accelerate.

This one’s all about creating stability in your business so that it doesn’t go off the tracks when you start to grow.

1. The first accelerator for it is Make Data-Driven Decisions.

When you’re moving at speed, you can’t make decisions based on hunches. And you can’t go in a certain direction just because the boss thinks it might be a good idea.

You need to know that you’re making the right choice.

And to do that, you’ve got to know how to use analytics platforms and understand what the data they provide means.

If you don’t, you’re bringing guesswork into the equation. And if you guess wrong, the train will come off the tracks.

2. The second accelerator for the Accelerate skill is your Growth Engine.

This is about having a model or a strategy that you can rely on. You know that if you spend a certain amount of money on this strategy you’ll generate a return on your investment. And when you have a Growth Engine, you have rock-solid certainty in your marketing efforts.

3. And finally, we have Installing Viral Loops.

Viral marketing is one of the most powerful tools you have as a marketer. If you can get people to share your content with their friends, you increase exposure. More exposure means you attract more people to your business. And if you’ve mastered the Convert skill, that exposure means that you make more sales.

Having a viral loop means you can increase your referral rate. It also means that you can put content out into the world feeling confident that plenty of people will see it.

Ultimately, the Accelerate skill helps you to build certainty into your growth.

It takes away the guesswork, gives you a reliable strategy to work with, and enables you to reach more people with your message.

Master this skill as it ensures you stay on track even if you grow at a rapid pace.

Speak soon,

Howard ‘Accelerator’ Kingston

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways we can help you become a Digital Marketer:

  1. Follow us on Instagram (@growthvelocityacademy) for daily marketing tips, updates and announcements.
  2. Create the perfect Growth Hacking Strategy by grabbing a free copy of our Marketing Plan Template here
  3. Book in for a Complimentary 1:1 Business Mentor Session here with one of our Marketing Strategists.

June 16, 2021 - No Comments!

What Is Native Advertising?

Sometimes, it feels like new technologies pop up out of nowhere.

When some clever piece of tech comes along, you have to rush to adapt. If you don’t, there are plenty of other marketers out there who will.

But here’s the thing…

No new technology, or idea, comes out of nowhere.

Every single time, there’s always a trend towards that idea before it really takes off. And if you can catch onto the trend before it hits the mainstream, you’re able to get a head start on everybody else.

That’s what a world-class marketer does.

Right now, there’s one trend that I think all marketers need to know about…

Native advertising.

What is that?

Let me explain what it isn’t first.

Imagine that you’re watching a TV show. You enjoy the show for about 15 minutes and then you have to sit through a few minutes of adverts before you can carry on.

You didn’t sit down to watch the ads.

They’re just a thing you have to sit through before the show comes back on.

That’s what we call “interruptive advertising”. It’s marketing that gets in the way of what you want to experience.

We see this on the internet, too.

Whenever a webpage serves a pop-up ad, it’s interrupting what you’re doing. It’s breaking your train of thought to try to get you to pay attention to some new product or service.

Native advertising is the exact opposite of that.

It’s advertising that’s built into the content that you’re consuming.

For example, let’s say you’re reading an article about autonomous cars. You make it through the whole thing without interruption. And at the end, you see a little bio at the bottom that says the electric car company Tesla wrote the article.

That’s not an ad.

At most, it’s a bio or attribution.

But that little footnote, which is part of the piece, puts Tesla in your mind. And that means you’re more likely to look them up if you’re in the market for an autonomous car.

Native advertising is a new trend that will change the way that we talk to customers.

If you can start building your skills in it now, you will benefit from it in the future.

Speak soon,

Howard ‘Going Native’ Kingston

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways we can help you become a Digital Marketer:

  1. Follow us on Instagram (@growthvelocityacademy) for daily marketing tips, updates and announcements.
  2. Create the perfect Growth Hacking Strategy by grabbing a free copy of our Marketing Plan Template here
  3. Book in for a Complimentary 1:1 Business Mentor Session here with one of our Marketing Strategists.

June 9, 2021 - No Comments!

Landing Opportunities in a Pandemic?

The world is changing.

That may seem like an obvious thing to say given what’s happening right now.

But to be clear, the world was changing before all of this happened. It’s just that the pandemic feels like somebody put their foot on the gas.

Things went crazy really fast. And I know that it’s possible that the change was so quick that some people still haven’t gotten their heads around it.

They’ve felt the impact.

Perhaps they’ve lost their jobs…

Or they’ve seen the number of clients coming through their business dry up…

Whatever the case may be, they’re struggling a little.

Maybe you’re one of them. And maybe, you know that it’s time for you to change along with the world.

That’s the keyword I want to focus on in this blog – change.

Despite all of the craziness that’s going on, there are people out there who’ve managed to thrive. They’ve pivoted to the point where they’ve turned the challenges they face into something amazing.

What does that show us?

Opportunity is still out there!

I’ve had students come up to me with a common complaint:

“Nobody in my local town’s hiring. Everybody’s shut down.”

But the simple fact is that this isn’t true.

Yes, businesses in your local area may have shuttered their doors. And if you stay local, you may well find yourself struggling to find work.

However, that simply means that it’s time for you to expand your scope.

As marketers, we’re now getting used to the concept of working remotely. We’re figuring out what it takes to deliver great things, even though we’re not working in offices.

Remember, you’re a remote marketer now.

And that means you have more opportunities than ever before!

If you head to LinkedIn and search for “remote marketers”, you’ll see what I mean. The demand skyrocketed as people come to grips with what’s happening in the world.

Everybody who runs a business still needs people who can help them to market and sell online.

So, perhaps the opportunity isn’t in your local town anymore.

But it’s still out there.

Only now…it’s global!

And that means there are more opportunities than you thought possible.

But only if you know how to market yourself or your business globally.

Speak soon,

Howard ‘Opportunity Finder’ Kingston

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways we can help you become a Digital Marketer:

  1. Follow us on Instagram (@growthvelocityacademy) for daily marketing tips, updates and announcements.
  2. Create the perfect Growth Hacking Strategy by grabbing a free copy of our Marketing Plan Template here
  3. Book in for a Complimentary 1:1 Business Mentor Session here with one of our Marketing Strategists.

June 1, 2021 - No Comments!

5 Handy Tools for Bloggers and Digital Marketers

Here are five handy tools with a ‘digital marketing’ slant. Add these to your arsenal and become an absolute marketing whirlwind when it comes to proofing, formatting and optimizing for mobile.

They’re written primarily for Chrome and Mac users, but they’ll work on a PC too. For 5 handy visual marketing tools, to help with colours, fonts and file sizes, head to part 1 of this blog over at The STANCE Method.

 

1. Capitalise My Title

Capitalise my title is a website. Different countries, publications and websites have different rules pertaining to the capitalization of titles. There’s even nuance between what you might consider as the two options: Sentence case and Title Case.

If you have decided on an option where multiple letters in your title will be capitalized, but get tripped up on words like, the, an, on, a, the, my, your and so on, paste your title into Capitalise My Title, select a publication style and use that as your centralised, de facto method for checking capitalisation without slacking everyone on your team for grammar checks. 

2. HTML Cleaner

HTML Cleaner is a website. You can paste in a word or Google doc and receive a formatted and cleaned version in HTML. This is useful for blogging, where your editor might not be that user-friendly when it comes to styling H1s and H2s.. 

Most blog editors allow you to switch between a WYSIWYG editor and an HTML editor. So here’s how it goes:

  1. Paste your original doc into HTML Cleaner
  2. Click the ‘Clean HTML’ button
  3. Get your formatted HTML with all your H1s and H2s
  4. Paste that into your blog editor, and ‘hey presto', you have a perfectly formatted blog.

3. Inspect Element

Staying on a code theme, you can use ‘inspect element’ to understand the code from which a website is created. Now, I’m no developer, but I do sometimes like to fiddle with some code to explore how a change of headline might look.

In Chrome, head to the website you’re looking to adapt. Left click on the headline, select ‘inspect’ and see the code get pulled up. Find the headline, double click and see the portion of the code highlighted. Enter the text you’d like to see, hit return and you have a live demo of your change.

Don’t worry, this makes no lasting change to your site!

4. Mobile view 

Staying on the web browser theme, when you’re looking to test how a new design or code change looks on mobile vs. desktop, you can quickly do this in Chrome.

To achieve a screen that looks like the image above, press:

Option + Command + J (on a Mac). 

From there, you can fiddle with the dropdown menu to select the phone you’d like to see your site on.

If I were bug checking the mobile view of a site, I’d still load it up on my phone, but for a quick layout or copy check, this mobile view is FAB.

 

5. Read Aloud: A Text to Speech Voice Reader

Available here in the Chrome store. I use this tool for proofreading. Start by downloading the Chrome ‘Read Aloud’ plug in—you’ll see it appear in the top right corner of your browser.

When you’re done with your chrome-based text (Google Doc, Mailchimp email, Hubspot landing page), simply click on the little megaphone and listen to the robotised version of your copy.

I personally opt for one self-proofread, followed by one Read Aloud proofread. I always catch a few mistakes the second time through.

About the author

Simon Dean is a brand consultant and storytelling expert. This is part two of a two blog series. You can find part 1—5 handy tools for digital marketers and branding experts—over at STANCE, Simon’s brand storytelling agency.

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways we can help you become a Digital Marketer:

  1. Follow us on Instagram (@growthvelocityacademy) for daily marketing tips, updates and announcements.
  2. Create the perfect Growth Hacking Strategy by grabbing a free copy of our Marketing Plan Template here
  3. Book in for a Complimentary 1:1 Business Mentor Session here with one of our Marketing Strategists.

May 31, 2021 - No Comments!

How Raya Stepped Into the Online Marketing World

Before Raya joined Growth Velocity Academy, she was not familiar with digital marketing at all. Sure she has a Master’s Degree in Marketing from 20 years ago, but things changed just a little bit in those 20 years 😉 Facebook hadn’t even launched then!

As you imagine, that left her with some modern knowledge gaps, and this resulted in her family business not growing as fast as she wanted it to.

She thought that Google and Facebook ads were far too complicated for her. And she knew that she had to find a way to figure it out but she couldn’t understand how it all worked.

As Raya looked for a solution, she stumbled upon Growth Velocity Academy.

Who: Raya

Date Joined: August 2020

Problem to Solve:

Raya felt like there’s no way she could figure out what makes a successful marketing campaign. Working a full-time job, she couldn’t commit a lot of her time to learning.

For this reason, she kept believing that online marketing was too complex for her.

Raya wished that she could pick up the sort of skill that would allow her to work from anywhere in the world. She just didn’t even know where to start.

How She Overcame It:

Raya joined the GVA bootcamp after seeing an ad online. She thought to herself:

‘If they’re this good at marketing, they can surely help me learn.’

And that’s exactly what happened!

Little by little, Raya started to figure out Google and Facebook ads. To be honest, she struggled at first but it didn’t take her long to catch up.

She loved the fact that she could watch the training for the entire year. This fit into her work schedule, allowing her to learn at her own pace.

Raya thought that she’d never be able to execute effective online campaigns on her own. But no longer, seeing as she’s now equipped with all the knowledge needed. She’s actively applying everything she learned and looking forward to the results.

With the right knowledge, you, too, can launch highly profitable campaigns.

Speak soon,

Howard ‘Campaign Executor’ Kingston

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways we can help you become a Digital Marketer:

  1. Follow us on Instagram (@growthvelocityacademy) for daily marketing tips, updates and announcements.
  2. Create the perfect Growth Hacking Strategy by grabbing a free copy of our Marketing Plan Template here
  3. Book in for a Complimentary 1:1 Business Mentor Session here with one of our Marketing Strategists.

Published by: Howard Kingston in Uncategorized
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May 26, 2021 - No Comments!

The 3 Ways to Convert Interested Customers

In my last blog, we looked at the three accelerators that lie behind the core marketing skill of Attract.

However, there’s no point in attracting customers if you can’t get them to buy or sign up for your thing. And that brings us to the second core skill – Convert.

Just like with the Attract skill, three accelerators sit behind the Convert skill.

1. The first is Conversion Confidence.

This is exactly what it says on the tin…

How confident are you that somebody will convert after hitting your website?

You can put a percentage number on this based on your own feelings. But the best way to figure this out is to look at your conversion numbers.

How many people buy or sign up compared to the number of people who land on your website?

If it’s a low number, that suggests you need to change how you’re making your offer.

2. That brings me to the second accelerator – Scientific Sales.

Do you have an intentional process for taking somebody from prospect to customer? In other words, how do you help somebody that you attract understand the value of your product so they’re ready to make a purchase?

For an e-commerce company, your website needs to do this job. And for a SaaS provider, you may have a demo that highlights the benefits of your product.

The key is that you’re not relying on the prospect to find their way to buying from you. Instead, you have a set process for them to follow that leads them to a purchase.

3. And our final accelerator is Repeatable Retention.

It’s one thing getting people to come to your website or to buy your product once. And it’s another to have them coming back again and again because they love what you have to offer.

Your goal is to maintain a high retention rate. After all, it’s always less costly to sell to existing customers than it is to find new ones.

So, how do you rate your ‘Convert’ skills? Grade yourself like a Traffic Light: Green means you’ve got it all working. Amber means you could use a little help and Red means you’re struggling.

If you have any Ambers or Reds, you know what you need to work on next when it comes to converting customers.

Speak soon,

Howard ‘Customer Converter’ Kingston

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways we can help you become a Digital Marketer:

  1. Follow us on Instagram (@growthvelocityacademy) for daily marketing tips, updates and announcements.
  2. Create the perfect Growth Hacking Strategy by grabbing a free copy of our Marketing Plan Template here
  3. Book in for a Complimentary 1:1 Business Mentor Session here with one of our Marketing Strategists.

May 24, 2021 - No Comments!

How Nesreen Made $1,500 by Spending $20

After 20 years of working in corporate sales, Nesreen decided to start her own business. But she managed to get completely lost.

Four years ago, she started her startup, a ‘barter network’. And she worked with many agencies that all promised to help her business grow. Unfortunately, she failed to see any meaningful results most of the time. None of the agencies took the time to truly understand her brand.

Eventually, Nesreen took matters into her own hands. She decided to learn how digital marketing works so that the business could finally take off.

Who: Nesreen

Date Joined: August 2020

Problem to Solve:

Nesreen worked with five different marketing agencies in the hope that they’d help her succeed. She wanted to develop a strong brand, increase awareness, and maximise conversions.

Sadly, none of this happened with the help of those agencies, at least not to the extent that Nesreen had in mind.

She ended up having to educate the agencies on how they should market her. Without fail, she got disappointing results each time.

Nesreen heard people talk about things like Google Analytics and Facebook Pixels without knowing how it all worked. She’d had enough and decided to change this.

How She Overcame It:

To learn how digital marketing works, Nesreen joined the GVA bootcamp. After all her frustrations in marketing her business, she finally learned what it took.

In very little time, Nesreen managed to land three new clients, with each of them paying $500. The crazy part is that she only spent $20 on advertising!

Imagine the success that she’s going to have when she starts investing more. Armed with all the relevant knowledge, Nesreen is now on the way to bigger and better things.

And you can do the same. By gathering the knowledge you need to grow in the right direction, you can dominate online marketing and make your success skyrocket.

Speak soon,

Howard ‘Conversion Machine’ Kingston

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways we can help you become a Digital Marketer:

  1. Follow us on Instagram (@growthvelocityacademy) for daily marketing tips, updates and announcements.
  2. Create the perfect Growth Hacking Strategy by grabbing a free copy of our Marketing Plan Template here
  3. Book in for a Complimentary 1:1 Business Mentor Session here with one of our Marketing Strategists.

Published by: Howard Kingston in Uncategorized
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May 19, 2021 - No Comments!

The 3 Secrets to Attracting Customers

In my last blog, I introduced the three core skills that a world-class marketer must master:

  1. Attract
  2. Convert
  3. Accelerate

Each of these core skills has three key accelerators. These are the three things that you’ve got to do to master the skill.

Now, let’s dig deeper into the Attract skill.

1. The first thing you need to do for this is to Build Authority.

To create a powerful brand, you need to get people to know, like, and trust you.

Why?

People, particularly on the internet, will not buy from you if they don’t trust you. If they don’t believe what you’re putting out there, they’re not going to part with their cash and say yes to your offer.

2. The second accelerator is Unleash Organic.

This is all about your organic marketing. In other words, it’s the unpaid marketing that you use to attract customers.

Content marketing falls into this category, as does search engine optimisation.

These are things that you can do without spending a penny. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t come with a cost.

If you’re not spending money, you need to spend time.

And that’s something you always need to understand, whether you’re a marketer or you’re speaking to a business partner. There’s no such thing as “free” marketing. If it doesn’t cost any money, that means it’s going to cost some time.

You have to prepare to spend that time to build up this accelerator.

Of course, the reverse of this is also true. If you’re not spending time, you’re probably spending money.

  1. That brings me to the third accelerator – Paid Precision.

This is all about utilising paid marketing efficiently and it all comes down to generating a return on ad spend.

If you can do that, you can go into any business with the confidence that you can create ad campaigns for them. Whether that business is your own or somebody else’s, you can make a profit with ads.

Build Authority, Unleash Organic, and Paid Precision.

If you get those three things right, you’ll attract more customers than you ever thought possible!

Speak soon,

Howard ‘Customer Attractor’ Kingston

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways we can help you become a Digital Marketer:

  1. Follow us on Instagram (@growthvelocityacademy) for daily marketing tips, updates and announcements.
  2. Create the perfect Growth Hacking Strategy by grabbing a free copy of our Marketing Plan Template here
  3. Book in for a Complimentary 1:1 Business Mentor Session here with one of our Marketing Strategists.

May 17, 2021 - No Comments!

How Babar Kept Thriving During the Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic landed a hefty punch on business owners. And Babar wasn’t an exception. He owns a business consultancy as well as a side project that he recently started. Understanding the impact of the pandemic, he wanted to protect his ventures.

Babar also knew that there would be new opportunities to explore. However, he didn’t know how to take advantage of them. The main reason for this is that his digital marketing skills were a bit rusty.

With the entire world moving online, Babar knew that he had to find a way to succeed in the digital space.

Who: Babar

Date Joined: August 2020

Problem to Solve:

Babar knew about digital marketing’s plethora of opportunities. The issue is, he couldn’t figure out the right growth tactics for exploring those opportunities.

And for business owners, time IS money. He knew he needed to get ahead of the game….fast.

Knowing this, Babar decided that he needed a refresher course on the latest and greatest practices. It’s how he would be able to weather the COVID storm and continue to grow his business.

How He Overcame It:

After completing the bootcamp, Babar filled all the gaps in his digital marketing knowledge.

He was able to step up his game right away!

It’s because he developed a brand and built a site for his side project. He started doing Facebook and Google ads. On top of that, Babar started running retargeting campaigns, which he found especially effective.

Babar said that the best part of all is that he can now target the right people and get them to join his program. Going forward, his success will only pick up as a result.

You can expect the same if you focus on building a strong online brand. With so many people spending more time than ever online, this is crucial to success. So position yourself well online, and you can expect your business to thrive.

Speak soon,

Howard ‘Brand Builder’ Kingston

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways we can help you become a Digital Marketer:

  1. Follow us on Instagram (@growthvelocityacademy) for daily marketing tips, updates and announcements.
  2. Create the perfect Growth Hacking Strategy by grabbing a free copy of our Marketing Plan Template here
  3. Book in for a Complimentary 1:1 Business Mentor Session here with one of our Marketing Strategists.

Published by: Howard Kingston in Uncategorized
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