Going into any business at the beginning presents a nervous thought, meeting new people for the first time and experiencing a new workplace culture. However, my first day as an intern at Oberoi Business Hub couldn’t have been more settling, the friendly atmosphere from all the staff helped me get straight to work to implement my ideas for a Digital Marketing Strategy reviewed by Managing Director and founder, Kavita Oberoi OBE.
There were three of us in the team, with the beginning of the week based around planning and setting out a strategic plan to ensure the most effective methods were used throughout the upcoming week and at the right times. For the first time I personally used Google analytics as well as those systems on our social media platforms to view which times gave us the most digital engagement with our audiences. By analysing this, we could learn more about our audience’s behaviour and capitalise on it.
During the week we also attended a talk at the Derby Enterprise Centre, hosted by FSB East Midlands, we got to both learn about opportunities in the local area as well as my first exposure to a business networking event.
The week reinforced the decision to build on the important nature of having an integrated digital marketing campaign. As we try to build an online presence with existing and potential customers to convey information regarding our brand, we assessed the effectiveness of engaging with those on different platforms.
Throughout the week we needed to ensure what we posted was appealing to our customers and future clients to promote a positive customer engagement response. Hence conveying the most emotive posts to establish this connection online was key.
A blog post relating to myself and the team focusing on Digital Marketing was shared on platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn. With engagement rates of 3.6% and 5.2% respectively, this represents a total of 60 people fully interacting with our posts, a large increase compared to the approx. 8 persons that did so with the most recent posts prior to this week. This, in conjunction with greater impression numbers (number of times it was seen by viewers), creates a healthy basis from which to build a more interactive online audience.
By helping to link the public sharing of the post to the website, it seeks to create not just a greater public perception of the company but also seeks to increase traffic to the website where users can view the services generating further interest and potential business revenue.
When posting content, we learnt that it is highly beneficial if it contains rhetorical devices set to engage the audience, hence receiving more interaction which can be shared on other profiles. This works similarly to word of mouth in that it passes around people’s feeds, thus social media acts as a more cost-effective method than traditional advertising in regard to a cost control initiative.
In addition, learning about the huge customer reach in which being active online can bring became clear at the start with the interest from a client based in Russia. Allowing your platforms to be active 24/7 results in easier access for potential clients which is further aided by tags through and tagging in others, which meant just one of our posts was seen by another 1500 accounts.
I experienced the benefits of connecting digitally first hand as a number of potential client leads developed over the course of the week as a direct result of the activity, which will hopefully develop into future business for Oberoi Business Hub.
This internship has widened my knowledge and experience about the importance of digital marketing and how its influence is still underestimated in the business environment. Having learnt the key trust and credibility it brings to a business whilst incorporating long-lasting relationships, it should not be overlooked. At a potentially lesser expense than that of traditional marketing methods it makes it viable to any size or type of business.