Entrepreneurship secrets with an expert in the Middle East

Technical expert Joanna Talal: The use of e-mail achieves valuable returns for companies with conditions
Entrepreneurs January 2, 2023 Entrepreneurs Comments on technical expert Joanna Talal: The use of e-mail achieves valuable returns for companies with closed conditions

Joanna Talal is a technical expert and digital marketer with an interest in growth hacking in SaaS companies, email marketing, web development, automation, and cybersecurity. She is currently the growth manager for the Carever app, and before that she was the growth marketing manager for the “Basket” e-commerce platform. In addition to being the technical director of “The Builders”; So we had this interview with her about her practical journey.

How did you start your professional journey?

I started my professional path at the age of 8, by learning front-end development, and since that time I have been continuing self-education almost daily, in many marketing and technical fields.

I believe that knowledge is power, and the more you learn and know, the wider the world around you, and the more good opportunities to apply this knowledge.

What drew you to the world of marketing?

It started with a personal interest in developing my IT project; As I did not know how to increase my prices in web development, which did not exceed 500 riyals for the project. I was then in my last year of high school; Where I started my first digital marketing course.

It never occurred to me that it might become my professional field, but I discovered my passion for this field day after day, especially since it combines several fields that I am interested in; Such as psychology, innovation, business development, and technology.

My background in IT and web development gives me an added advantage; Most digital marketers are in constant need of a technical person. to help them if technical problems arise, and this causes a delay in the project, and sometimes there may not be a technical person to help; Thus, these problems that may negatively affect the facility are ignored.

And because I found a field that combined most of my interests at once, I continued with it.

Digital Marketing Specialist
What are the most important things that you have benefited from and developed as Director of Growth Marketing at the “Sela” platform?
I started working on the “Basket” platform; As the company’s first digital marketing specialist; Which made me build the basics of digital marketing, whether for paid campaigns, mail marketing, or creating customer tracking systems and marketing campaigns.

One of the projects that I am most proud of completing is the activation of the use of email marketing campaigns; This achieved valuable returns for the company, at a cost of almost zero riyals, and enhanced our communication with customers.

Today, it is impossible for two weeks to go by without a new email from my basket.

After 10 months of joining Salla, I became the Director of Growth Marketing; This made me more empowered to set digital marketing goals and prioritize work for them.

My journey on the “Sela” platform was enriching and enjoyable. It added a lot of knowledge and experience to me.

What is the importance of digital marketing for an entrepreneur?

It is very important, and it is not hidden from an entrepreneur familiar with t犀利士
he field; Because no matter how complete and unique your product is, how will the audience know it?

Marketing is a voice for your product, which helps you spread your ideas and solutions, and achieve the change you want to bring about in society. Any existing project that does not prioritize digital marketing will inevitably perish.

The secret of digital marketing success
What is the secret of digital marketing success from your point of view?

Proper measurement and tracking are the secret to digital marketing success. There are many projects that start marketing campaigns with high budgets, and their returns are almost negligible, why? Because if you ask someone, what are your goals in creating this campaign? How do you track and measure achievement? The majority cannot answer.

Developing the idea and designs of the campaign, launching it, choosing the marketing channels, and setting the budget are all work without value and a real return for the project, if goals for that are not set and tracked; Without proper measurement and tracking, how do you know the success of your campaign or its failure? And if you fail, how can you study the reasons for that failure; To learn from them, and improve them in the next campaigns.

You can’t do that without measuring, tracking, and setting goals ahead of time for every campaign you create, no matter how small or large.

What are the most important projects that can succeed electronically?

I do not believe that there are projects that can succeed electronically, and others that cannot succeed. The issue is simply that the whole world is turning day by day into a purely digital world, and the reason for the success of e-commerce is due to the Corona pandemic, which has dramatically accelerated the change in consumer behavior in online purchases.

Thus, there is always an opportunity for new digital projects to enter this world, as well as “traditional” projects that can transform digitally and achieve impressive success, provided that planning and several experiments are carried out. until you achieve success.

Time Management
What are the main obstacles you faced? How did you overcome it?

Time remains the biggest obstacle. I am an undergraduate student, full time employee, and working on my side projects; All at the same time.

I dealt with this by constantly learning about time management, priorities, and increasing productivity. We are not born organized; Therefore, discipline is an acquired skill. By reading and learning about time management, it becomes better.

Marketing plan
How can e-mail be exploited for the success of the marketing plan?

Email marketing is a large field, and it has many methods, but people’s lack of awareness of it – especially in our Arab world – makes them think that it is just sending “advertisements” via email.

There are two basic types of e-mail messages, under which the rest of the types fall, namely:

Cold mail: what you send to people who don’t know you or your business.
Warm Mail: What you send to your existing customers who know you.

Influencer Marketing
Is influencer marketing still a guaranteed success?

There is no guaranteed marketing method, as each project has different methods that can be successful, and other methods will not succeed with the project, no matter what you do, and no matter how much money you spend.

It’s nice to try different methods; To see the difference that can be made by using it, including influencer marketing, but do not forget that influencer marketing may bring you many purchases during the advertising period, and then this effect will fade away; It is linked to the time period of the advertisement, nothing more.

search engines
Can the project reach the largest segment of individuals without an expensive campaign?

Yes, using low-cost marketing methods, it is not digital marketing that is paid advertising, but rather the field is much larger than that. You have SEO, content marketing, email marketing, affiliate programs, community building, customer referral, and more.

If you are looking for a way to reach a large number, in a short period of time, and for a limited cost, I recommend reading Growth Hacking; They are innovative marketing methods that help you reach a large segment of customers in a short period of time, and at a limited cost.

How do you see the development of marketing mechanisms in recent years?

Traditional marketing is starting to fade away, many companies and projects today all their marketing efforts are digital marketing only, and they have not tried traditional marketing once.

Numerous digital tools have emerged to help with this, and I expect many more to emerge in the coming years. From tools that help you analyze your marketing campaigns, to tools that help you with search engine optimization and finding the best keywords, and many more.

What is your advice to entrepreneurs for the success of their marketing campaigns?

Do not ignore the initial steps in creating campaigns. Set clear goals, and ways to track and measure the extent to which you achieve the goal. Without that, you will be like someone who builds a house without a building plan, and without designing the final look.

In the beginning, you will need to do many marketing experiments, before reaching noticeable success; Do not despair from the first campaign, and always be learning and exploring. To find out the reasons for the failure and success of your campaigns, and what you can improve in the coming times.

Start with the lowest costs, and try to distribute them over several campaigns. Do not put months of effort into one campaign so as not to benefit from its results. Rather, diversify campaigns to increase the chances of success of one of them.

Finally, do not forget that there are marketing campaigns that you can create, and not only marketing is paid advertising, but most of all, it is measuring and tracking your campaigns, and writing conclusions after each campaign; to remain in your marketing archive; Thus improving and increasing the chances of success of your future campaigns.