Dancehall artiste Grace Hamilton popularly known as ‘Spice’ returned to the Flow Business’s Inknowvation stage, to shed some light on gems that small business owners can utilize to grow their business.

The entrepreneur who has been in `business since 16 years old, has operated her own businesses throughout the years. These include her Spice House restaurant, Spicey Salon, Spicy Couture and her most recent venture, Graci Noir.

Through Covid, the serial businesswoman realized the success that social media created for many online
stores, therefore she decided to take advantage of her platforms to create an additional source of income and to build traffic to her website.

She shared a few gems with the viewers who tuned in to the Flow Business Virtual Inknowvation Conference on Friday, Jun 16, 2023.

UTILIZING DIGITAL MARKETING TO GROW BUSINESS

The conference had viewers tuning in from various Caribbean countries to learn from digital experts how to create big impacts with their small businesses.

“People like learning new things. Businesses must utilize digital marketing strategies to teach potential customers about your brand and what it has to offer. Engage bloggers, podcaster an influencers to help increase your brand’s presence” explained Hamilton.

She went on to further state that it is important to know your target audience because this allows for greater awareness on how to effectively gain sales through social media.

“The first rule of marketing is to focus on your audience. Knowing your target audience will help to identify what social media platform is best to to promote your goods/services. You can have the most aesthetically appealing online store with easy navigation, the highest quality products, backed by top-notch customer service, but none of this matters if you aren’t engaging with the right audience for your brand” Hamilton continued.

The entertainer also touched on the various applications that are in the digital space, waiting to be put to good use.

She revealed that as a small business owner, she no longer has to hire 20 person to operate successfully, because with the touch of a button, apps like Canva, Hootsuite and Planoly can get the job done in minutes.

Hamilton went on further to state that “with all these apps to help your business, it is evident that social media is a powerful tool, and it can be used to help your small business reach a broader audience and achieve all your business goals.”

Dashboard analytics was another topic discussed by the businesswoman.

She stressed the importance of paying keen attention to the content your audience is engaging with, as these analytics shows their general location, gender and age range, so that businesses can be aware of the persona that is gravitating to its product.

TIPS ON HOW TO MARKET A BUSINESS

Other tips she shared was using paid, organic and earned advertising to market the business. In addition to this, Hamilton mentioned that the hiring of influencers can have both positive and negative impacts on the business.

“Using influencer marketing can get your product infront of a huge number of potential customers, thus increasing your brand awareness. The trick to hiring influencers is to provide them with specific codes for customers to use, so their ROI (return on investments) can be tracked. This permits you to see how many people use those specific codes to support your business, because not all influencers have the ability to pull people to ur [your] business” she expounded.

Simple tips like using hashtags, creating eye catching content and email marketing are subtle, but effective ways to steer potential customers to your business. She explains that this as a result of individual’s love for physically appealing things.

The Entrepreneur and Entertainer concluded her presentation by encouraging small business owners to partner with other brands in an effort to cross promote their products. She urged them to participate in online events and discussions where they can share information about their businesses, and to embrace failure, because losses are lessons that can be learned from.

Lastly, she prompted them to believe in their business, and to use social media to leverage their
entities.