Welcome to my first week of the GrowthXSplendid internship! Well, it’s not the first week, but this is a recap of how my first week went. First of all, allow me to gush about how I am incredibly excited to be a part of this program and to learn from some of the top professionals in the industry.

For those of you newly acquainted with the name #growthxsplendid, it is an internship that is focused on building the right community with intending and expert growth marketers. Its goal is to provide free training to young women in Africa who are interested in growth and digital marketing but have little or no knowledge, as well as connect them to paying jobs where they can put their newly acquired knowledge and skills to use.

The internship began with an introduction call anchored by the founder, Splendid Uchechukwu. During the call, Splendid gave an overview of the program and what we could expect to learn over the next several weeks. She also shared some of her personal experiences and successes in the fields of digital marketing and growth marketing, which was incredibly inspiring.

The first class of the program was led by Adaugo Ezeala, who is a mentor for the program. Adaugo is a seasoned digital marketer with years of experience in the industry who works as a Performance Marketing Manager & a Growth Lead. She started with this quote: “ Every expert was once a beginner” and went ahead to cover the fundamentals of digital marketing, branding, and communication. The class was very informative and provided a great foundation for the rest of the program.

Adaugo began by discussing the various elements of a successful digital marketing strategy. She explained using social media, SEO, and paid advertising to reach and engage customers. She also shared some of the latest trends and best practices in the industry.

We built our case study around Lara Cleaning Services, which I will reference a lot in the course of this internship. One of the things that I found most valuable about the class was the emphasis on knowing your goal(s), as knowing them will always help you re-strategize if the need arises.

First 4 things to do

1. Know your goals
2. Define your target audience
3. Decide the marketing channel(s)
4. Define your performance metrics

Then she spoke about the various marketing channels and how to use them.

Here are some marketing channels we talked about

1. SMM (Social Media Marketing): this refers to the use of social media platforms by businesses to interact with their target market and discover new ones. It could be done organically or paid for.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): it is an organic method of boosting the visibility of your product or service when it is being searched for online.
3. SEM (Search Engine Marketing): This is a paid version of SEO in which you pay for your product or service’s ranking and visibility.
4. Content Marketing: tools used are; blogs, online marketing, infographics podcast webinars YouTubing
5. Email Marketing: The recipients of the emails must be interested individuals, not just anyone. Emails used for marketing must have a subject, sender, banner, email body, and CTA.
6. Affiliate Marketing: This involves promoting other people’s products in exchange for a fee.
7. PPC Channels: Google, Bing, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook
8. Influencer Marketing: It is the use of influencers to market your products.

The class also covered the basics of communication in digital marketing, including how to effectively craft and deliver messaging to different target audiences.

Roles Under Digital marketing:

Email marketer

SEO Specialist

Social media manager

Content marketing manager

PPC ads specialist

DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY

This is a detailed plan on how you can utilize the different marketing channels, resources, people, time, and money. Create content suitable for the right channels, do use the same thing across the board

Next, we learned about the importance of branding and how it can impact a business’s success. She emphasized that “a brand is not what you say it is, it’s what they say it is,” and “they” refers to your customers. She gave another quote: “A brand is a voice, and the product is the souvenir.”

Brand communication strategy

1. Understand your audience’s journey: what does your customer do in a typical day?: Identify what your customer wants, their journey, and the time they are online or come into contact with your brand. Who are they, what do they want, and where are they going? Also, your tagline should highlight your benefit
2. Understand your position: Identify what differentiates your brand from others.
3. Gain clarity in your value: focus on one value.
4. Select your brand communication channels: Select the channels through which you will communicate with your target market, and then communicate your brand message in accordance with those decisions.
5. Develop your core message: Explain to your audience what they need to know about your brand so that it can influence how they perceive it and help you build the image you want for it.

ELEMENT OF A BRAND STRATEGY DOC

• Brand purpose
• Brand vision
• Brand values
• Target audience
• Market analysis
• Marketing goals
• Brand personality
• brand voice

Overall, the first week of the GrowthXSplendid internship was an incredible learning experience. I am excited to continue learning from Adaugo and the other mentors in the program. I am also looking forward to applying what I have learned to real-world projects and making a meaningful impact on the digital marketing landscape.

Thank you for reading about my first week of the GrowthXSplendid internship. If you are interested in learning more about digital marketing and growth marketing, I recommend checking out the program. It is an amazing opportunity to learn from some of the best in the industry and take your skills to the next level.