At #LDS2022, experts examined the effective use of technology in scaling businesses
"Scaling businesses leveraging digital technology," was the theme of the 6th edition of Lagos Digital Summit (LDS) that was held last Friday (November 25, 2022) at the Zone Tech Park, Gbagada Lagos.
The summit featured was focused on how businesses can use digital technology to increase sales or revenue in a fast-evolving digital world. "Build a product that people want. Find the digital tool that will help your business grow faster. Make it easy to find your product and figure out how to make yourself compelling in your space," Tomiwa Aladekomo, the CEO of Big Cabal Media, said during the keynote address.
Aladekomo further emphasised the importance of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs). According to him, SMEs are the lifeblood of the economy, scale faster, employ numerous youths, provide a training ground for professionals and solve important local problems.
The annual summit which is organised by Mustardels Media and Expoze Nigeria featured a keynote address, a fireside chat and two panel discussions.
The importance of brand identity on businesses
The first panel discussion was titled Brand Identity - Importance & Effect on Businesses, and it was moderated by Samuel Sokale Head of Product Marketing & Strategy, FanXtars Digital.
The panellists were Nkem Onwudiwe Founder, Her Network; Tunde Onakoya Convener, Chess in Slums; Sheriff Lanre Akinpelu Deputy Director, of Strategy & Planning at SPV Communication Solutions; Onyedikachim Nwankwo Head of Product Marketing, Flutterwave.
According to Sheriff, businesses should embrace marketing philosophy to empower their brands to have an impact on their businesses. He also said that businesses should focus on satisfying the customer and the future of the environments in which their businesses exist.
To help businesses find the key nuances in brand planning that will drive business impact, Nkem Onwudiwe, founder of Her Network, quipped that founders should figure out the rational attributes of their brand, the emotional rewards their brand evokes in their customers, and what are the values of the customers you are targeting.
Onyedikachi advised financial service providers who want to use their brand platform to sustain users’ interest in their products in an inflationary economy to identify what they are selling outside their physical products (reliability, status or speed) and double down on marketing it.
Effective use of digital technology in scaling businesses
The second-panel session titled “Effective use of Digital Technology in Scaling Businesses” was moderated by Adejuwon Saheed, the Managing Partner at RightClick.
The panellists were Adebayo Jacobs-Amoo Founder, MyLibri Books; Dotun Oloyede Managing Director, Rolad Properties; Jemima Adegoke Head Marketing and Communications, Fincra; and Seun Adeola Growth Operations Lead, Shara Nigeria.
During the session, Jemima advised businesses on how to communicate with their target audience. She stressed the importance of specificity in terms of what they say, to whom they say it, and how they say it.
"Do not conform to what everybody is doing. There are more ways to communicate with clients beyond traditional social media platforms like push notifications, SMS, etc. A growth marketer is responsible for the profitability and sustenance of a business," Seun Adeola added.
Digital tools to track business growth: According to Seun Adeola. he does not impose new digital tools down his teammate's throats. He revealed that his approach is more subtle. He shows the results and answers the tools provide to elicit interest. When people ask him how he is so informed, then he introduces the tool and teaches them how it works.
For his management team, Seun adopts the use of graphs, pie charts, and other data visualisation tools to show how much the organisation is losing because they are not taking certain actions.
Jemima mentioned two free tools (Hotjar and Hubspot) that will help optimise the user experience and provide useful analytics.
Hotjar uses interactive heatmaps of their clicks and actions, recordings of their sessions, and gathering of their words from survey and feedback polls to help you build a strong, data-backed understanding of what exactly people are using your site for, and how they are using it.
Related Article: 8 Free Content Marketing Tools (that are actually free and useful)
An online tool retailers can use to monitor how and where people are mentioning their brand on web pages, articles, research papers, and blogs is Google alerts. The cloud-based notification platform help businesses receive emails about content changes and new posts at designated times. Another tool is brand24, although it is not free.