Secrets to Success: On How to Leverage the Internet to Increase Revenue, Visibility by Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor

Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, Google Country Manager in Nigeria.

We can agree that the internet is a powerful tool for every business across diverse humanity of endeavors.

Juliet Ehimuan prolific head of Google’s operations in Africa’s largest Internet community - Nigeria. A woman is leading the pack and she is obviously doing well - recently joined Fidelity SME Forum to share a few of her key lessons for maximizing your business on driving initiatives around Internet access to make the internet more available and affordable to the Nigerian user, facilitating local content development, and building capacity on how to leverage on the Internet for your business.

She recommends re-thinking your approach and strategy based on these three pillars: "Access, Relevance and Sustainability."

Understand you must be online

According to Juliet,

"It's a digital world and Information age, every #SME needs to be online and get digital presence."

By that, she's referring to business owners to take the bold step of embracing the scope of the Internet for its endless opportunities. Let people get access to you! 

For business owners, Juliet's advice is simple: As a small business owner, take the first step, get on social media, get online. It's inevitable, every business needs internet presence.

By basing your business visibility - you can use the tool "Google my Business" to ensure that people can find your business online. To get your business found on Google Search and Maps, click on http://www.google.com.ng/business

Produce relevant content for your audience 

It’s simple, your content must be awesome!

Ensure that your website is relevant and that the information in there gives people insights into your business. Do you post for the sake of posting or do you try to add value and share your message?

Once your content begins to pay off and your follower count increases, it can be tempting to bask in your success and start straying from the path that got you there.

If you own a cosmetics business and became popular via makeup application videos on YouTube, stick to that.

As a YouTube channel owner, ensure to have compelling content, drive traffic to your channel and you can make money from it.

Ensure you sustain your brand

You can get so much information from the Internet to grow your business from simple digital tools available online. So, here are some of the best digital marketing tools you can try for your business.

• Slideshare

Powered by LinkedIn, Slideshare allows you to upload all of your PowerPoint presentations online for all to see, and this is one tool that has gained some serious traction in recent years as a fantastic way of sharing informative and how-to content as part of an overall content marketing strategy.
Even better? Slideshare's premium features are now free, so it's well worth giving it a go to see the kind of content you can create and share with the world.

• Hootsuite

One of the best platforms out there to combine all your social media marketing efforts in the just place, Hootsuite helps you effectively manage your accounts, schedule messages for future publishing, and get the data you need to improve and succeed - plus a lot more besides!
This tool has a very basic free plan for individuals, with paid plans starting from just £6.99 per month. I'd recommend signing up with the free plan to give you an idea of how much time you could save.

• BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is such a powerful tool for researching which content and topics are getting the most attention in your industry. I personally use it a lot for research purposes, as reading the comments in popular blog posts for your industry can help you find and pinpoint really useful insights into your buyer personas - so important for getting your marketing right.

The only thing I'd say about BuzzSumo is that it's a bit on the pricey side (from $99 per month - that's around £70), although you can try it for free to see if it's going to be worth it for your business.

Be security conscious

Juliet was also insistent that business owners should be security conscious. "There are many things you can do to protect yourself online. First of all, passwords!"

You don't have to be an expert to protect yourself and your business online. In many cases, your password is your entry point.

Be conscious of what you put out on the Internet, links you click on and sites you download from. By taking these precautions, it simply prevents and saves you and your business from future threats. Protecting yourself isn't hard, but it does require a little effort. 

Juliet further affirms that, "to ensure a sustainable ecosystem, Google is involved in building capacity in Nigeria by training developers, students and businesses on how they can build great Apps, promote their businesses online, and enhance the quality of learning through access to global libraries of information on the Internet." 

For more tips on how to protect yourself and your family online.
Visit http://google.com/goodtoknow

For SMB support with advertising on Google Adwords, 
go to http://www.google.com/adwords or call (+234-1-2778440)

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