What you'll learn this week
- Map the digital marketing landscape — owned, earned, and paid media — and know what each channel does best.
- Explain the marketing funnel (awareness → consideration → conversion → retention) and place any campaign on it.
- Build buyer personas from real research instead of guesses.
- Write a value proposition and audit three competitors' digital presence.
- Set SMART goals with KPIs that actually matter on a small budget.
- Produce a one-page marketing strategy for a real brand you'll carry through the whole course.
Three kinds of media, one job
Every digital channel you will ever touch falls into one of three buckets:
- Owned media — assets you control: your website, blog, email list, WhatsApp broadcast list. Nobody can take these from you when an algorithm changes.
- Earned media — attention other people give you for free: reviews, shares, press mentions, a customer posting your suya wrap on their story.
- Paid media — attention you rent: Instagram ads, Google ads, influencer placements.
A healthy strategy uses paid to accelerate, earned to validate, and owned to keep what you've built. A Lagos bakery that runs ads to a page nobody owns (say, only a marketplace listing) is renting its whole business.
The funnel: where is your customer right now?
Customers move through four stages, and the message that works at one stage fails at another:
- Awareness — they don't know you exist. Job: get seen. Channels: social content, SEO, ads.
- Consideration — they know you, they're comparing. Job: build trust. Channels: reviews, email nurture, comparison content.
- Conversion — they're ready to buy. Job: remove friction. Channels: landing pages, retargeting ads, WhatsApp checkout.
- Retention — they've bought once. Job: bring them back. Channels: email, loyalty offers, community.
Most small businesses only shout conversion messages ("Buy now! 20% off!") at people still in awareness. That is why their ads feel like noise.
What each channel does best
- SEO — captures people already searching for what you sell. Slow to build, compounds forever.
- Social media — builds awareness and personality. Fast feedback, but rented land.
- Paid ads — buys speed and precision targeting. Costs money the moment you stop.
- Email — converts and retains. Highest ROI channel in most studies, because you own the list.
Try it now
Pick any brand you follow — Nigerian or global. Find one piece of their marketing and answer: is it owned, earned, or paid? Which funnel stage is it aimed at? Write two sentences. Also: start your swipe file today — a folder or note where you save 3 great ads, emails, or posts every week with one line on why each works. You'll use it all course.