By Paul Emeka Chimodo
Digital skills are any skills that give you the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet. The internet has affected all aspects our lives and entrepreneurship has not been spared.
So how can digital skills lead to successful entrepreneurship?
Communication
Communication is arguably the most important skill you must master if you want to become a successful entrepreneur. You’ll have to explain your idea repeatedly.
Whether it’s to pitch to an investor, a potential co-founder or your customer, being able to communicate on a personal and professional level undoubtedly will save you a lot of time and stress. Digital skills can help you in this regard. Much of the communication we do these days is done online and as an entrepreneur, you need to be able to professionally communicate via such channels like email and skype. Without digital skills, you may fail to pitch to a potential investor halfway around the world because you failed to set up your computer to have a Skype call.
Branding
Every business has a face. Think of brands like Apple and Facebook, and Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg spring to mind. These companies are not only world-famous and influential, but they also had a strong brand influenced by the founders. Everyone has a brand, and everyone is a brand. The way you talk, the way you respond to emails, the way you introduce yourself, the way you write is your brand. Without digital skills, you may limit your brand and reduce your chances of being successful as an entrepreneur.
Marketing
Marketing is one of the most important aspects of business growth. You can build the best product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, it’s worthless. As an entrepreneur, you will need to reach out to your potential customers on platforms where they spend their time. An ever-increasing number of people are spending their time on social media and digital skills will allow you to market effectively to them and increase your chances of success.
– Help you identify your target audience
You can perform cheap market research online and identify your target market. This will allow you to develop marketing efforts directed to these people. You can also study market trends (through tools like Google trends) and see what customers are searching for so that you can serve their needs. With the proper digital skills, you can even market to people on the other side of the world and expand your market.
– Help you drive traffic (visitors) to your website and physical location
Digital skills will allow you to analyse traffic and see where you visitors are coming from and their behaviour on your website. You will also be able to knoanalyticsw the times when you get the most traffic, the types of devices your visitors are using (desktop, mobile or tablet) and their locations. With this information, you can see gaps and address them. The data will also allow you to plan ahead and respond faster to changes. For example, if you see that your customers are preferring product A over product B you can then step up your marketing efforts on product B and increase the revenue. Without digital skills, your decision making will be crippled and this will reduce your likelihood of success as an entrepreneur.
– Help you undertake cost effective advertising eg through Google AdWords
Entrepreneurs can compete with big business cheaply if they have good knowledge of digital skills. Online advertising like Cost-Per-Click (CPC) models are very cheap and effective as compared to traditional advertising like newspaper placements. Designed well, digital adverts can have a very high return on investment and can make it possible for cash strapped entrepreneurs to fight with big companies in their niche. You can even post promotional videos on YouTube for free and gain a lot of mileage. Without digital skills, it will be hard for you to leverage such online forms of marketing and you will be at a great disadvantage
–Interact and form relationships with your customers
Digital skills allow you to have conversations with your customers on social media and on your website. Social media is especially important since this is where people are spending the bulk of their time online. Connecting with your customers on social media has the effect of building a warm relationships with the customers. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of repeat business and word of mouth recommendations, which is very powerful.
Networking
Your network is your net worth and digital skills can allow you to build wholesome and symbiotic relationships. You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with so to increase your chances of success you want to surround yourself with other entrepreneurs, visionaries, executors and champions. You can join online forums and groups on social networks where like-minded people interact. You can also reach out to mentors in other countries. By doing all this, through digital skills, you will be increasing your chances of success as an entrepreneur.
