In the "Product & Packaging Powerhouse" Megan Young Gamble interviews international digital marketing strategist and beauty tech enthusiast Viola Ekene. Viola shares her journey from radio presenter to founder of Social Butterfly Haven, a digital marketing agency specializing in beauty and wellness brands. They cover the evolution and fundamentals of digital marketing, key platforms (including underutilized ones like Substack), and the importance of leveraging analytics like Google Analytics and SEO to track and grow brand visibility. Viola emphasizes setting a strong foundational strategy, tailoring content to target audiences and platforms, and balancing organic content with paid ads. She also discusses common mistakes brands make (like focusing on aesthetics over substance and neglecting data) and the growing role of AI and technology in marketing. Viola concludes by highlighting her agency’s offerings, her digital marketing school, and giving tips for brands looking to craft effective, data-driven marketing strategies right from the start.

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[Powerhouse Guest Viola’s LINKS]

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/viola-ekene/? originalSubdomain=ng
• Website : https://socialbutterflyhaven.com/

Quotes: 

• If you're running a business and you don't start being intentional about gathering data from day one, then you're going to run blind for a very long period of time.
• Google Analytics is like the central aspect of your digital marketing where you're able to see, okay, the goal that I want to achieve, which of my marketing efforts are pulling in conversion, are pulling in leads, are pulling in traffic
• The metrics that you should be looking at are highly dependent on your goal in a particular season of your business
• When your eyes are so much on your competitor, you don't know when you subconsciously want to do what they are doing.
• Aesthetic feeds are cute. Data-driven strategies are profitable.
• Maximizing marketing ROI depends on one, an understanding of your target audience and your goal at that particular point in time so that you don't waste money.
• Organic content is like setting your house in order. It is the foundation you need for high-converting paid ads.
• You need an entirely different approach for Instagram, a different one for TikTok, because the psychographics are not the same. It’s a different terrain altogether.