Most business owners get digital marketing wrong, especially when it comes to selling their products and services online.

So this is a practical guide to the digital marketing basics I wish every business owner understood: social media, content, paid ads, your website, AI tools and the systems behind it all.

None of this is theory. It is what I have learned building my own brand, running ads for my courses and building websites for clients.

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Most businesses post only to sell

Most businesses today are on social media. But look at what they post.

Nearly everything is about making a sale. You wake up every morning to sell. Your goal is to sell, not to be remembered.

So the business sells, sells, sells, until one day it is not selling anymore, and it has to close.

Social media can do far more than that. Used properly, it builds a brand people remember.

What each social media platform is for

Before you post anything, understand why each platform exists and what it does best.

• TikTok is for discoverability. If you want to be discovered fast, TikTok is a very good engine for that.
• Instagram is for aesthetics. Polished, visual, lifestyle content does well there.
• Facebook is for community. It also lets you post almost every format: carousels, photos, videos and reels.
• YouTube is for long form content. It is very good for business owners who want to explain, demonstrate and build trust in depth.

What YouTube can do for a business

One brand I follow is Nothing, the company that makes smartphones and accessories. Check out their YouTube channel. They have built a big following there.

What I find interesting is how that YouTube content then flows into their other platforms. One long video becomes many shorter pieces. That is something more business owners should copy.

Be the creator for your own business

Here is something I believe strongly. As the owner, you should be creating content for your own business.

You could hire a content creator to do it for you. But very few creators get it as right as the owner does. You understand your product better. You understand your market better. You probably understand your customers better too.

Even if you brought me in to talk about your business, I would not do it as much justice as you would. I would be there because I am being paid. You are there because it is yours.

Why business owners are building personal brands

I know many business owners prefer to stay behind the scenes.

But look at the top business owners in Kenya and around the world today. More and more of them realise that a personal brand matters.

Think about it like this. Spend 2 years building a personal brand online. Grow to 500,000 followers with good viewership. Over those 2 years, you have built 2 things: visibility and trust.

At that point you can sell almost anything your audience needs, because they will tell you what they want. If you have been talking about money and personal development, your audience starts asking, “Can you teach us how to manage our money?” They are telling you what to sell them.

Why most real estate videos do not work

Real estate is a good example of what not to do.

I have worked with a client in real estate, and when I looked around, I noticed almost everybody uses the same script.

“Welcome guys. Look at this apartment. It has this, and this, and this.”

An average buyer does not watch that. It solves no problem. It is just a sales video.

Now imagine videos like these instead:

• Why buy property in Westlands right now
• 3 things to check before you buy an apartment in Kilimani
• The problems buyers face, and how to avoid them

That is educational content. It helps the buyer, and it makes you the person they trust when they are ready.

The types of content you can create

There are different types of content, and each has a purpose:

• Educational content teaches your customer something.
• Empowering content helps them do something themselves.
• Entertaining content makes them enjoy watching you.
• Inspiring content gives them a reason to act.

What you want to cut down is pure sales content.

80 percent value, 20 percent sales

Aim for 80 percent of your content to give value. The other 20 percent can be direct sales: here is the product, here is the price, buy now.

So out of every 10 posts, 2 can sell. The other 8 should help.

The reason you are on social media is to build trust and visibility. Sales come from that.

How I grew on TikTok, and the mistake I made

Let me tell you my own story.

I started posting on TikTok in 2022, and around May that year I became consistent. I was posting a lot about web design, and at one point I felt it was not bringing me enough clients.

Viral comedy videos and no clients

I have a bit of a comedy spirit in me. So I thought, why not make funny videos?

I started making parodies, like how guys who drive Mazda Demios behave. Those videos went viral. Sometimes I woke up to 100,000 views in 24 hours.

By December, in about 7 months, I had around 95,000 followers on TikTok.

And I was broke. I had no clients from it, because people now thought I was a comedian. I was not happy. It gave me no purpose, and it was not bringing in the business I needed.

Switching to educational content

So I asked myself, what can I make that is genuinely useful to people?

I started making educational content. How to become a freelancer. How to start working online. How to get started with digital skills.

The first of those videos, posted on 3 January 2023, got about 1.8 million views. It was a 7 minute video explaining remote work and freelancing.

That is the power of value content. Numbers alone did nothing for me. Useful content built the business.

What content should a business create?

Many business owners ask me, “What kind of content should I even be creating?”

Think of it like this. You do not create content to become famous. You create content to solve a problem your customers have.

If you sell smartphones, your customers have questions. Why does my phone overheat? How do I make my battery last longer? How do I free up storage?

Each of those is a content idea. It will not make you famous. It just gives somebody valuable information, and it makes your shop the one they remember.

Content pillars

When you organise those ideas into a few core themes, you get what we call content pillars.

Each pillar addresses a problem your customers face. That way, you do not just wake up and shoot a random “Welcome to our shop” video. You know what you are talking about this week and why.

An AI tool like Claude is very good at helping you build content pillars. Tell it what you sell and who buys it, and ask it to suggest pillars and post ideas for each one.

Stop reading out product features

Picture an average business owner on the streets of Nairobi. He picks up a phone and records: “This is the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It has this much storage and this camera.”

Most people do not care about the features. And everybody else selling the same phone uses the same script. The viewer is left thinking, “So what?”

How I would sell an iPhone

If I wanted to sell that phone, I would show it doing something useful.

I would install CapCut on it, shoot a video, edit it on the phone and export it. Then at the end I would say: “I edited this whole video on the iPhone 17 Pro. If you want this phone for your content creation, come to my shop.”

I led with value. That kind of video gets far better engagement, because it shows the buyer what the phone can do for them.

Social media is powerful. But without the right content, you are just slowing your own sales.

Paid ads: Meta, Google or TikTok

Organic content is the posts you do not pay for. Once that is working, think about paid advertising.

In Kenya, your main options are:

• Meta ads, which run on Facebook, Instagram and Threads
• Google ads, which run on Google Search, YouTube and Google’s partner sites
• TikTok ads

How I run Meta ads

Personally, I prefer Meta ads.

I create an ad and spend between 2,000 and 5,000 shillings a day, usually aiming for either sales or leads. For example, when I want people to buy a course on Click2Skill, I run a Meta ad pointed at that course.

So my organic content works for me, and my paid ads work for me too.

Run your ads through Meta Ads Manager rather than the “Boost post” button. Ads Manager gives you proper targeting and far better results.

Why your ads need an active page

Organic and paid work together.

When somebody sees your ad on Facebook or Instagram, they often click through to your page before they buy. If they find a dead page, they will not trust you.

If they find an active page that posts consistently, now they have a reason to stay and a reason to buy.

Where to start

I have been testing Google ads for some time. But if you are a business owner just starting out, start with Meta ads. If you are already good with TikTok ads, use them. For most people, Meta is the best place to begin.

Why every business needs a website

Another thing most business owners lack is a website. I have been building websites for some time, and I see business owners underestimate them all the time.

People visit your physical shop and see everything you sell. But what happens when the shop is closed? Or when somebody finds you online at 10pm? Without a website, they have nowhere to go, and you lose the sale.

Why a 1 page website is enough

Many business owners think they need the most expensive, multi page website to make sales. They do not.

A well built 1 page website can bring you more sales than anything else.

Look at the Click2Skill homepage. The homepage alone tells you what you are buying and what to expect. You do not need to visit the About page or the Services page first.

If you sell solar solutions for homes and businesses, say it clearly on one page. Other pages are extras. The first page people land on must give them everything they need.

So when you build a website, make your homepage built to convert. Google does this well. You understand what they do from the first page.

Stop building university websites

I call them university websites. The ones with what feels like 50,000 pages.

Somebody opening your website only wants to know:

• Who are you?
• Can I trust you?
• What do you sell, and how can I buy it?
• How can I contact you?

Answer those questions clearly and you are done. Why make it hard for people?

Unless you are building something complex, like an online store or a learning platform, stick to 1 page.

Build it with Lovable, or hire someone good

If you can use tools like Lovable, go ahead and build it yourself.

If not, hire somebody competent and be clear about what you want. “This is the page I need. It must have the booking information, this and this, and every button must lead to my WhatsApp.”

A website does not need to look extravagant or have a million pages to work.

Consistency beats perfect content

Consistency is one of the most important parts of your content.

Say you post 2 or 3 times a week. Your competitors are posting 10 to 20 pieces of content every single day.

I would rather be the business owner posting imperfect content every single day than the one waiting for perfect content and posting twice a week.

I follow a woman who sells wigs online. Look at the volume of content she and her team put out. That is why people know her.

Stop sounding scripted

Content is not complicated. Content is something a human being enjoys watching.

It is not, “Hello guys, welcome to this video, today I am going to be talking to you about…” People are tired of that. It sounds scripted.

We borrowed that style from TV. “Welcome to the news today.” Then we brought it to business content, and it does not work.

People like raw, direct information. That is why some businesses do well speaking the way their customers speak, even in their local language. Address the problem as it is. “Most people buying a second hand car never check these 3 things.” People watch that.

Make it feel like a corporate campaign, and nobody will watch.

Use AI in your business

Many business owners do not realise how much AI can help with their operations.

Even simple tools like Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini can help you:

• Plan your Meta ads campaigns
• Build your content pillars and content calendar
• Write captions and product descriptions
• Plan your business processes

There are also AI tools for generating images, and for automating repetitive tasks as you grow.

Tools I recommend

Beyond AI, these tools will make your digital marketing easier:

• Metricool for scheduling and posting to all your platforms at once
• Meta Business Suite for managing your Facebook and Instagram together
• CapCut for video editing
• Canva for graphic design. Adobe Express is another option, but Canva is a good place to start.

Structure and systems

Many businesses are disorganised. Nobody knows who does what.

When somebody joins your business, they should know exactly what they are supposed to do. Write down your standard operating procedures, known as SOPs. When this happens, this is how we handle it.

Systems are what let your marketing turn into sales that your business can actually deliver.

Build a brand, not just a shop

Do not focus only on how to make more sales.

Build a name people want to be associated with. Do not build a shop where people simply come, buy and leave. Build a business people remember.

That is where brand building comes in. Of all these digital marketing basics, it is the one that lasts, and it starts with every piece of content you post.

Put these digital marketing basics to work

If you want to learn how to run Meta ads or build a landing page for your business, you can do that on Click2Skill.

I also offer digital marketing consultations, in person in Westlands or online. If you would like help with your business, reach out to me on WhatsApp.

Start your digital skills journey on Click2Skill

— Elvis W.