You have signed on the dotted line and officially handed your digital marketing to people who genuinely enjoy discussing keywords over coffee. So, what happens now?
According to research, 87% of South African shoppers who had changed their online shopping habits expected those habits to continue. This is great news! Your customers are already online, looking for answers and deciding where to spend their money. The not-so-great news is that you have to engage them before someone else does. Luckily, that’s what we do best. But before we can help your business meet them there, we need to understand exactly what makes it worth choosing.
This is where the digital marketing onboarding process comes in. It gives us the background, access and direction we need to build marketing around your actual business, rather than a shiny collection of assumptions.
What happens during the digital marketing onboarding process?
The digital marketing onboarding process is our official getting-to-know-you phase, although we promise not to ask where you see yourself in five years.
We use this time to understand what your business does and who you want to reach. We will also discuss what you want your marketing to achieve and what you’ve already tried.
Depending on the services you need, the process may include a discovery meeting and a review of your current digital presence. We will also work through practical details such as account access and how approvals will be handled.
By the end of onboarding, everyone should know what we are working towards and how we plan to get there. Your marketing can then begin with a clear purpose, rather than the digital equivalent of throwing spaghetti at the wall and checking Google Analytics to see what stuck.
Why do we ask so many questions?
We know you want us to get cracking, but effective marketing takes a bit more than your logo and a link to your website.
We need to understand why customers choose your business and what turns an “mmm interesting” into ka-ching. We may ask which services are profitable, where your leads come from and which types of work you would happily see more of. We will probably ask you a heck of a lot more than that too.
Some of our questions may send you into a thoughtful silence – we get it, you weren’t prepared. That is completely normal. We know you spend your days running your businesses, so you don’t always have time to step back and examine what makes customers choose them.
We take time to get through the investigation process because the answers help us find the details that matter. Perhaps you offer a level of personal service your website barely mentions, or your most valuable service is tucked away in a forgotten corner of the menu. Onboarding helps us bring those opportunities into the light.
What should you prepare for digital marketing onboarding?
Don’t worry. You don’t need to arrive with a presentation deck, a laser pointer and a 45-minute speech about your brand journey. In fact, please don’t do that.
Just share any existing brand guidelines or background information about your services that will give us useful context. Previous campaign reports can also show us what has been tried and how it performed.
Honesty is particularly helpful here – no judgement, we swear. Tell us if your last Google Ads campaign devoured your budget without producing a single decent lead. Tell us if your Facebook page has been surviving on birthday posts and festive season graphics. We’re not here to pull apart the past, we simply need to know where we are starting so that we can work towards the future.
We will also ask about your sales process and what happens after someone contacts you. Digital marketing can generate an enquiry, but the rest of the journey matters too. If leads regularly wait a week for a reply, we may have found part of the problem before spending a cent on advertising.
Which accounts will we need access to?
The accounts we need will depend on the work we are doing for you. These could include your website and Google Business Profile, along with any existing advertising or social media accounts.
This stage can occasionally turn into a small digital treasure hunt because your website login may belong to someone called Gavin who left the business in 2018, while your Google Ads account appears to have vanished into another dimension.
We will help you work through any access issues and connect the right accounts before the campaign begins. Where possible, you can add us as an authorised user instead of sharing personal passwords, while ownership of every digital asset stays firmly with your business.
What do we look for during a digital marketing audit?
A digital marketing audit helps us see what is working and where something may be quietly sabotaging your results.
Your website may look great on a laptop but require the patience of a saint to use on a phone. Your ads could be attracting plenty of clicks from people who have no intention of buying anything. You may even rank well for search terms that bring traffic without delivering useful enquiries.
We look beneath the polished surface to understand how your digital channels are performing. The review may cover your website and search visibility, while existing campaign data can show us where money is being spent without enough return.
The audit also helps us spot useful opportunities. Sometimes a few focused improvements can remove the friction that has been making it difficult for customers to contact you.
How do we decide what your digital marketing should achieve?
A request for “more marketing” gives us enthusiasm, but we still need a destination.
During onboarding, we turn broad ambitions into goals that can guide the work. Your business may need qualified enquiries for a particular service, or you may want to reach customers in a specific area. An online store could need help turning existing visitors into paying customers.
Once the goal is clear, we can recommend the channels that make sense – and believe us, there are a lot to choose from. Google Ads can help you appear when someone is actively searching, while SEO strengthens your visibility over time. Social media can help people become familiar with your business, but 200 likes from people who will never buy from you will not keep the lights on.
Your budget shapes the plan too. We focus on where your available spend can make a practical difference instead of handing you a shopping list of services and a mild financial crisis.
How long does the digital marketing onboarding process take?
The onboarding timeline depends on what we are doing and how much untangling is required behind the scenes.
A focused campaign can usually get moving fairly quickly, while a broader project involving your website and lots of digital channels needs more preparation before launch.
Sending us the requested information and account access will help keep everything moving. A campaign can only travel so far while the Google login is still hiding in Gavin’s inbox.
Taking the time to get this stage right gives the work a solid foundation. We can build around your customers and commercial priorities from the start, with a clear understanding of what success looks like. It gives us the information we need to be agile and get the job done without interrupting you every 5 minutes.
Frequently Asked (and Actually Helpful) Questions
What is a digital marketing onboarding process?
A digital marketing onboarding process is the initial stage of working with Jubez Digital. We use it to understand your business goals and customers before planning or launching your marketing.
What should I prepare for my onboarding meeting?
Bring any brand guidelines and information about your services. Previous marketing reports are also helpful, along with access details for the digital platforms we’ll manage.
How long does digital marketing onboarding take?
The timeline depends on the services involved and how quickly the required information is available. A focused campaign may be ready fairly quickly, while a larger project will need additional preparation.
Why does Jubez need access to my existing accounts?
Existing accounts give us valuable information about past activity and current performance. They also allow us to work with digital assets that remain under your business’s ownership.
What happens after digital marketing onboarding?
Once onboarding is complete, we put the agreed plan to work. You will know what we are doing first and which items need your approval. We will also agree on how we keep you updated, because marketing reports should provide answers rather than create fresh mysteries.
Your feedback remains really important as the work progresses. We can see which campaigns are generating enquiries, while you can tell us if those enquiries are turning into the right kind of business. That shared information helps us refine the work and make informed decisions as the campaign develops.
If you are ready for digital marketing with clear thinking, creative ideas and no smoke machines hiding behind the reporting dashboard, get in touch with Jubez Digital. Let’s get to know your business and build marketing that brings the right people to your door.
Where we got the numbers:
Learn more about consumer behaviour shifts in South African retail.
