When I studied for my Marketing degree in 2003, ‘digital’ wasn’t a thing but as we increasingly moved our lives online and traditional marketing channels were being replaced by technology that could track my first casual browse all the way through to actually buying something, I realised that it was time to get up to speed with the new tools available and I studied for a professional digital marketing qualification.

I quickly became aware of the incredible array of channels to reach people and that many of these were free to use and had huge potential to cut down on marketing costs, save trees and automate more of our communications. We moved from digital marketing as a bolt-on, to marketing in a digital world. We live in a digital world and startups have a myriad of ways to engage with their customers and keep them coming back.

The majority of students and recent graduates will, in the majority, be digital natives; familiar with the different platforms and with an understanding of how they themselves are being marketed to. When you don’t pay to use a platform, it’s because you are the product. Developers build platforms and happily let you use them for free…to a point. Your time is payment and they can help businesses to reach more people like you by sharing your likes, interests and measuring your engagement with brands. I started with Facebook when I first wanted to build a community of like-minded people and share all that we could offer in helping startups to grow.

Think how many more ways that businesses are engaging with their customers now. I know TikTok is out there but I haven’t found my voice there yet and during lockdown earlier this year, I saw so many people using it as a way to connect and bring some laughs to the #Stayathome message that we were . Brands are using it too. As we prepare for another lockdown, I’ve noticed adverts appearing regularly on Channel 4, encouraging consumers to leave a Google Review for local, independent businesses. Amazon has just reported a staggering increase in profits so our high streets and indie businesses really need our support and positive online reviews can really help.

LJMU has partnered with Google Digital Garage to provide free live webinar digital skills training to individuals and business. We have a session coming up on Monday 16th November (3-4pm) and our community can jointhis live webinar to learn how to develop, implement and track a digital marketing strategy. This kicks off a week of events that we are running as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020

Written by: Dominique Aspey, Ecosystem Manager, Centre for Entrepreneurship (part of Careers, Employability and Enterprise)