Podcast Summary
From aspiring doctor to successful SEO expert: Follow your passions and build relationships for career success. Dropping out of a traditional career path can lead to unexpected opportunities.
Sometimes, following a traditional career path may not align with your true passions and interests. Tasha Entwe's journey from aspiring doctor to successful SEO expert in the marketing industry is a testament to this. She shares how her desire for business, marketing, and fashion led her to make a bold decision to drop out of her biomedical science degree and pursue opportunities in retail and marketing instead. Her determination and persistence paid off as she continued to network and build relationships within the industry, eventually leading her to become an expert in SEO and working with luxury and premium brands. This conversation highlights the importance of staying true to your passions and the power of networking and building relationships in achieving career success.
Discovering a New Passion: Be open to new experiences and opportunities, even if they don't align with initial plans. Hard work and dedication can lead to unexpected discoveries and new career paths.
Sometimes, what we initially think we want may not be the best fit for us. The speaker in this discussion shares her experience of working in fashion retail, but realizing her true passion was in marketing within the fashion industry. She discovered this opportunity through a chance conversation with the head of marketing and took an internship at the head office during fashion week. Through her experience, she learned about trend forecasting and marketing strategies, which led her to pursue a degree in business and management with a focus on digital marketing. Her determination and focus during her studies paid off, and she discovered a whole new world of opportunities within the digital marketing field. This story highlights the importance of being open to new experiences and opportunities, even if they don't align with our initial plans or expectations. It also emphasizes the value of hard work and dedication in achieving our goals.
Unexpected opportunities from determination and persistence: Determination and persistence can lead to unexpected career opportunities. Adversity can push us into new directions and lead to unexpected success.
Determination and persistence can lead to unexpected opportunities. The speaker shares her experience of pursuing a career in both fashion design and SEO. She started a contemporary African fashion line called Chennai and used digital PR tactics to gain media coverage. However, maintaining the brand became challenging, leading her to pursue a career in SEO out of frustration. She landed her first job in SEO at an agency known for working with fashion and luxury brands. This unexpected turn led her to a successful career in the industry. The story illustrates how adversity can push us into new directions and lead to unexpected success.
Leveraging Underrepresentation to Become an Expert: Identifying and owning a specific expertise can help underrepresented individuals stand out and contribute valuable insights in their professional roles, despite facing challenges due to bias and underrepresentation.
Identifying and owning a specific expertise can help individuals stand out in their professional roles, even if they face challenges due to underrepresentation in their teams. The speaker in this conversation noticed a gap in her team's knowledge when it came to keyword research in the fashion industry. As the only woman and one of two Black people in her SEO team, she realized that she could leverage her understanding of fashion and design to become an expert in this area. By doing so, she was able to provide valuable insights to clients like Ralph Lauren, leading to changes in their release strategies. However, she didn't always feel rewarded for her contributions, likely due to the biases and challenges she faced as a woman and a person of color in a male-dominated team. Instead of waiting for opportunities to come to her, she took matters into her own hands by teaching herself new skills, reverse engineering reports, and strategically moving teams to advance her career. This story highlights the importance of self-advocacy, resilience, and expertise in overcoming professional challenges.
Taking Initiative Leads to Growth: Expressing ideas and taking initiative can lead to personal growth, recognition, and new opportunities.
Expressing your ideas and initiative, even if it means stepping out of your comfort zone or current team, can lead to personal growth and recognition. The speaker shared her experience of advocating for her desired learning and role in a meeting, which led to a new opportunity with Lego and a positive interaction with a former colleague. She emphasized the importance of taking initiative and not waiting for permission, which is a value she promotes in her community. The speaker also mentioned her passion for SEO and how she saw an opportunity to apply her skills to the Lego account, despite it being a departure from her previous fashion and travel niches. This bold move led to a new challenge and a significant pay rise.
Expanding keyword research beyond the product: Effective marketing and SEO strategies require understanding audience interests beyond the product. Lego's success comes from investing in audience research and collaborating with platforms like Google to gain insights, creating content that resonates, and increasing engagement and sales.
Understanding the audience and their interests beyond the basics of a product is crucial for effective marketing and SEO strategies, especially for well-established brands like Lego. Instead of focusing solely on the product or keywords, it's essential to consider how the brand can meet the audience's needs and be present in their daily lives. Lego's success lies in its ability to invest in audience research and collaborate with platforms like Google to gain insights into their diverse audience segments, including kids, parents, and adult fans. By expanding the keyword research beyond the product, Lego was able to identify external interests and create content that resonated with their audience, leading to increased engagement and sales. This approach not only supports the user journey but also demonstrates the importance of thinking creatively and outside the box in marketing and SEO strategies.
Balancing SEO and brand building for success: Brands need to invest in both SEO and marketing strategies like UGC, influencer marketing, and content creation to build affinity and increase visibility. A successful branding strategy balances these efforts for optimal results.
In today's fast-paced world, it's not enough for brands to just focus on traditional SEO strategies to attract new customers. Instead, they need to invest in building brand affinity and capturing people's attention in the moment and beyond. Brands can achieve this by using a combination of SEO and marketing strategies like UGC, influencer marketing, and content creation. This approach not only helps increase visibility for generic terms but also encourages people to search for the brand specifically. For instance, a luxury brand like Gucci may have higher search volumes when its name is paired with a product category like sunglasses, indicating that people aspire to own Gucci sunglasses and are building affinity with the brand through entry-level products. Overall, a successful branding strategy requires a balance between SEO and brand building efforts.
Leveraging product placement through user-generated content for effective marketing: Brands can create content that shows how their product fits into consumers' routines and lifestyles, using UGC for subtle and effective marketing. Focusing on lifestyle aspect inspires desire and explores other offerings.
Understanding the role of a product as part of a consumer's lifestyle can be a powerful marketing strategy. Brands can create content that shows how their product fits into consumers' routines and lifestyles, encouraging consumers to make a purchase. This modern-day product placement through user-generated content (UGC) is more subtle and effective than traditional advertising methods. By focusing on the lifestyle aspect, brands can create a desire for their products and inspire consumers to explore other offerings from the same brand. This approach, often referred to as multi-platform SEO, can be particularly effective for reaching younger generations who are more likely to discover and engage with content across various platforms.
Multipatform SEO strategies extend beyond traditional search engines: Brands need to adapt SEO tactics for various platforms like YouTube, social media, ecommerce sites, and more to reach audience effectively and stay competitive.
SEO strategies are not limited to traditional website search engines like Google. Multipatform SEO involves applying SEO tactics across various platforms including video search (YouTube, Vimeo), social media, ecommerce sites (Amazon, eBay, Walmart), and more. People's search behavior has evolved, with many starting their search on platforms like TikTok or Amazon before making a purchase. Understanding where these platforms fit in the user journey is crucial. For instance, Amazon is often used for price comparison and making purchases, while YouTube is used for research and discovery. Brands need to adapt their SEO strategies to cater to these changing behaviors and reach their audience effectively on different platforms. For example, Lego sells on Amazon while maintaining its online presence to cater to both types of customers. The user journey can start on TikTok for discovery, move to YouTube for research, and end on Amazon for purchase. Embracing multipatform SEO can help businesses stay competitive and reach their audience effectively at different stages of the user journey.
Recognizing generational differences in travel marketing: Younger generations are inspired by visual platforms like TikTok and Instagram, while older generations rely on traditional methods like TripAdvisor and Google. Tailor marketing strategies accordingly to reach and engage target audiences effectively.
Understanding user journeys and generational preferences is crucial for effective digital marketing, particularly in the travel industry. Younger generations may be inspired to travel through platforms like TikTok and Instagram, while older generations rely more on traditional methods like TripAdvisor and Google. It's essential to recognize these differences and tailor marketing strategies accordingly. For instance, a luxury travel company might find success by targeting younger audiences on visual platforms and older audiences on review sites. Additionally, while platforms like Booking.com may dominate generic travel-related keyword searches, more affluent travelers may use multiple platforms to compare prices and book separately. Travel companies often make more money from selling holidays than flights, and an older demographic tends to book holidays in a traditional, all-inclusive way. By recognizing these trends and adapting strategies accordingly, marketers can effectively reach and engage their target audiences.
Effective SEO strategy involves understanding user journey and utilizing multiple platforms for keyword research: Stay informed, passionate, and self-driven in SEO to succeed by understanding user journey, utilizing multiple platforms for keyword research, and staying updated with the latest SEO news and trends.
Understanding the user journey and utilizing various platforms for keyword research are crucial aspects of effective SEO strategy. The speaker emphasizes the importance of pushing users down the sales funnel by creating and sharing content across multiple platforms to verify information and provide better recommendations. He also advises staying updated with the latest SEO news and trends, being self-driven in learning, and asking for forgiveness rather than permission to succeed in the SEO field. SEO is a rapidly changing field, and staying informed and passionate about it will set you apart.
Take Charge of Your Own Initiatives: Individuals should set their own timelines, ask for forgiveness instead of permission, and prioritize their goals to increase productivity and success.
Individuals should take charge of their own initiatives and not rely on others to make things happen. Even if your manager or colleagues are busy, you need to set your own timelines and ask for forgiveness rather than permission. This proactive approach can lead to greater success and productivity. Remember, no one else will prioritize your goals as highly as you do. Keep pushing forward and don't wait for permission to take action. This was a key theme in today's episode of the Girls With Marketing podcast. We hope you found it inspiring and informative. Don't forget to leave a review and rating of the podcast, and share it with someone who might benefit from the advice. Until next week, stay updated with Girls in Marketing on social media and our website. Keep striving for progress and never stop learning.
