4 Signs Your Business Is Actually Growing (And It’s Beyond Revenue)

Posted on October 28, 2025December 2, 2025 by Lola Egboh

Key Takeaways

Real progress often shows up quietly through efficiency, quality, or customer behaviour shifts.
Tracking these subtle signals helps teams stay motivated, even when it seems like revenue is lagging.
Celebrating small but meaningful wins builds the confidence needed to scale growth.

If you ask most business leaders how they measure growth, you’re very likely to hear the same two answers on repeat: revenue and customer numbers. In fairness, that’s not far-fetched, because those two metrics are important. They tell you whether the business is commercially sound and whether your market still cares about what you’re offering.

However, there’s actually a whole layer of growth that hides beneath the two more obvious numbers. And when businesses don’t recognise these quieter indicators, they miss out on valuable insight to help them scale even faster, and, equally important, they miss out on motivation.

Non-Revenue Signs of Business Growth

Sometimes a business is making genuine progress, but because it’s not showing up yet in revenue or volume, everyone assumes “nothing is happening.” Let’s talk about signs of growth that may not get splashy dashboards or loud applause, but still deserve attention.

1. Better Customer Quality

Not every customer contributes the same value. If your recent customers are more engaged, more active, or buying higher-value products, that can be a key sign of growth. This can show up in different ways, such as higher retention, more frequent usage, lower complaints from new customers etc. All of which signal that your acquisition strategy is becoming sharper and your product is resonating with your ideal customers.

2. More Efficient Internal Processes

Growth isn’t only about selling more, but also wasting less. In most of the global companies I’ve worked at, early signs of growth often appeared as faster internal turnaround times, fewer back-and-forths between teams, clearer handovers, and even reduced leakage in the customer journey. These might look like small operational improvements, but trust me, they compound. Efficiency creates both capacity and savings, which are two critical elements that fuel sustainable growth long before revenue peaks.

3. Improved Team Alignment

Alignment is often the bridge between strategy and execution. When your teams begin to speak the same language about goals, priorities, and what success actually looks like, then you know that you’re growing.

Some of the things you’ll notice include fewer contradictory campaigns, less “who owns what?” confusion, and better-quality conversations around what truly moves the needle. Once you have this in place, you can be sure the growth results are likely to follow really quickly.

4. More Constructive Customer Feedback

When customer feedback evolves from vague complaints (“It’s not working”) to specific actionable commentary (“This feature would help me do X”), it means customers see value and expect more from you. And while it can be hard to swallow, tougher feedback can be a sign of trust. It shows the customers believe that you’re able to improve, and they care enough to give you feedback, because they plan to stay.

Why Do These Indicators Matter?

Growth is rarely linear. It tends to show up as progress that is felt, even before it can be measured. Recognising these non-revenue signs gives you clarity, which helps to stay patient. It also gives you the confidence to stay committed to the growth strategy you are implementing, rather than rush off in a different direction because of a week with bad results.

And celebrating these wins motivates your team to continue doing the work that eventually drives the big numbers everyone wants to see.

In Summary

Revenue and customer numbers are important, but they’re lagging indicators. If you want a more honest view of how your business is evolving, start paying attention to the subtle shifts in quality, alignment, efficiency and feedback. They’re often the earliest clues that you’re building something resilient.

I work with leadership teams to sharpen strategy, strengthen operations, and create marketing engines that deliver real value.

If your business needs support in identifying the right growth indicators or building the systems to actually improve them, feel free to connect with me and let’s explore ways to work together.

Increase Your Customer Value, Not Your Marketing Budget Cuts

Posted on October 7, 2025December 2, 2025 by Lola Egboh

Key Takeaways

Increasing marketing budgets isn’t always the answer; increasing customer value is.
Focus on retention, engagement, and shared value to deepen relationships with existing customers.
Sustainable growth comes from aligning teams, simplifying customer experiences, and measuring what truly matters.

Over the past nine months, I’ve been supporting a financial services client on an ambitious mission to exponentially scale digital customer acquisition. I’m not talking some modest 20% or even 2x growth, but some really exponential growth! That level of ambition is exciting, but it also highlights a truth many growth teams face, which is that the budget rarely matches the aspiration.

Every Progress Counts

In this case, progress came, but not very easily, as there were numerous blockers along the entire onboarding journey. Within the first few months of tackling those issues, we successfully cut cost per acquisition by over 50% by sharpening segmentation and targeting, improving messaging, and deploying an overall more effective channel mix. We also plugged multiple leaks in the onboarding process and built a full-funnel visibility framework that now allows the team to track performance from impression to conversion.

This is the approach I always encourage, and what sits at the heart of my “more value marketing” value proposition – you may not have all the marketing and growth resources you would like, but how can you make what you do have work better and go farther?

The Customer Value Conversation

Back to the story. Even though we had seen strong signs of progress and results, the discomfort around scaling growth spend to achieve more results remained. Even though it was clear that these results were now being driven at a significantly lower cost.

It became clear very quickly, however, that the issue wasn’t the inefficiency (or reduction thereof), but that their digital customers had historically been low value. For years, growth had been defined by volume and the number of new customers acquired, rather than the value those customers generated.

This is actually quite a common challenge. When acquisition is the main metric of success, businesses often end up attracting the wrong type of customers. These customers tend to be the ones who may convert quickly but contribute little over time.

Making The Shift: Quality Over Quantity

Because I had seen this happen quite a bit over the course of my career and consulting work, one of the things I made clear from the outset was that this engagement had to be about more than just acquiring new customers. It had to extend to increasing customer value and retention. Because ultimately, the price you can afford to pay for growth depends on the value you can extract from each customer relationship.

If your business faces similar tensions where you want to achieve high growth targets, but have to contend with lean budgets and rising acquisition costs, the solution isn’t to cut your growth marketing spend. It’s to increase customer value. Here’s how to do just that.

7 Practical Ways To Increase Customer Value

1. Know Your Real Customers

Not everyone who clicks your ad or fills a form is a valuable customer. Look at your existing base and ask, who brings the most revenue? Who stays the longest? Build your future acquisition strategy around these insights. It’s key to segment your customers not just by demographics but by value, and use metrics like lifetime value (LTV) and retention rate, not just sign-up volume.

2. Make the First Experience Simple

Onboarding is typically where customer intent meets friction. Even a few unnecessary steps can drop conversion and damage brand trust. Review your onboarding flow end-to-end, remove barriers, automate repetitive steps, and personalize early interactions. The first impression must feel seamless and not transactional, and this applies whether your business is digital or offline.

3. Don’t Just Acquire Customers, Engage Them

Acquisition may be what fills the funnel, but retention is what fuels the business. It’s been demonstrated that investing in loyal customers is a smart business move, as such customers tend to be consistently more profitable than newly acquired ones. It’s, therefore, important to design your operations and business model for sustained customer engagement. Offer post-purchase support, rewards, and meaningful content. The goal is to make your customers stay because they see value, which makes it tougher for the competition to win them.

4. Lead With Value, Not Discounts

Discount-heavy acquisition strategies tend to attract low-commitment customers who are just in for what they can immediately get. Rather, shift the conversation from “cheap” to “valuable” by offering insights, convenience, or exclusivity that aligns with customer aspirations. Customers who connect emotionally with your value proposition are far more durable than those chasing the next promo.

5. Measure What Actually Makes A Difference

Many teams are drowning in dashboards, but there’s barely any insight coming from them. Metrics like clicks and impressions might create comfort, but you need a whole lot more to get clarity. Prioritize metrics that highlight performance and results, such as lifetime value, churn rate, retention cost, and customer satisfaction. Then close the loop by feeding these insights back into acquisition and product decisions.

6. Get Everyone On The Same Page

One of the biggest threats to your business is a team that works in silos. When product, marketing, and operations run separate playbooks, growth becomes way harder to achieve. To fix this, introduce shared objectives, such as OKRs, that connect departmental goals to customer value outcomes. In order to achieve business success, growth must feel like a coordinated effort, and not a competition for resources.

7. Listen to Your Customers

Data tells you what happened, but customer feedback tells you why. This makes it vital to make feedback loops an integral part of your growth process. Use surveys, reviews, and social insights to understand emerging needs. Acting on this intelligence not only improves satisfaction but also increases share of wallet.

Conclusion

If your acquisition feels expensive, your customer value is likely too low. The worst part is that increasing budgets without improving value won’t make it better; it only accelerates inefficiency. The goal should be to create meaningful relationships with customers, as sustainable growth happens when each customer relationship becomes more meaningful, more profitable, and more enduring.

Before you cut your marketing spend or chase the next campaign trend, step back and ask – How much value are we actually creating per customer?

If your organization is looking to increase customer value or optimize acquisition efficiency, I’d be happy to help. Reach out, and let’s explore how we can collaborate to build a growth system that truly impacts the bottom line.

Building a Strong Marketing Tech Stack: How to Choose the Right Tools

Posted on September 10, 2025September 16, 2025 by Lola Egboh

Key Takeaways

Start with business goals, not tool features.
Audit your current stack before adding anything new.
Negotiate and test before you commit.

Earlier this year, I started working with a financial services client looking to significantly scale their digital acquisition. They rather proudly shared their marketing setup. They had tools for email marketing, tools for CRM, tools for social scheduling, tools for analytics…you name it, they had it. On paper, it looked impressive. But when I dug deeper as part of my project kick-off audit, I noticed there seemed to be quite a bit of overlap on many fronts. They were paying for multiple tools that did similar things, while still struggling with gaps in customer insights.

This issue isn’t unique to just this company, though. I’ve seen it again and again. Businesses get caught up in “stack envy”, where tools are added to the martech stack not because they work together with what already exists or solve actual problems, but because they sound good in a pitch deck. If you find yourself toeing this line, here’s how to avoid falling into the

How to Choose the Right Marketing Technology Tools

1. Start with Your Goals, Not the Tool

Your goals should dictate the marketing tools you get, not the other way around. Buying tools because they’re trendy is like buying gym equipment before deciding if you actually want to do cardio or strength training. Before you even look at software demos, ask:

What are we really trying to achieve?
Do we want to acquire more leads, improve conversion, retain customers, or all of the above?

2. Map What You Already Have

Here’s where most businesses miss it. They don’t properly analyse their current tools to identify whether there is a real need. To avoid this mistake, a few things can help:

List every tool your team uses.
Write down what function it serves.
Check for overlaps (e.g., two CRMs being used by different departments).
Identify gaps (e.g., no tool for customer feedback or social listening).

This exercise can lead to quite a few surprises. Sometimes, the tool you need is already there, you just aren’t using it to full capacity.

3. Ask the Right Questions Before You Buy

When evaluating new marketing tools, don’t just focus on features. Ask these crucial questions to avoid shiny-object syndrome:

Will this work well with what we already use (integration)?
Will it still serve us when we double in size (scalability)?
Will my team actually use it, or will it collect dust (adoption)?
How responsive is the vendor when things go wrong (support)?

4. Test Before You Commit

Most vendors offer trials or pilot programs. In fact, if it’s not offered by default, ask for it. Give the tool to the people who’ll actually use it daily, not just management. If it slows them down or breaks the existing systems, then it’s not the right fit. No matter how great the sales pitch sounded, never commit to a tool that breaks more than it fixes.

5. Negotiation Is Part of the Process

Too many companies forget this, yet software pricing should not be accepted at face value. In fact, vendors expect negotiation, especially when you’re buying multiple seats or longer contracts. You’d be surprised how often vendors agree when you simply ask. Some negotiation areas include:

Discounts for annual billing.
Flexibility to scale up or down.
Added support or onboarding services.

6. Think Long-Term

Your marketing tech stack isn’t just for today, it’s for the business you’re evolving into. Choose tools that can grow with you, so you’re not constantly ripping and replacing.

Conclusion

The right marketing tech stack doesn’t come from having the “most tools.” It comes from having the right mix of tools that actually work together to meet your goals. In many cases, these tools don’t come cheap, so it’s crucial to drive efficiency by ensuring there are no overlaps that end up wasting money or opportunities. Ultimately, the tech stack should serve your marketing strategy and not the other way around.

Need a reminder for when you need to add a tool to your marketing technology stack? Be sure to save the handy checklist below.

Starting With GEO: A Practical Checklist

Posted on August 30, 2025February 22, 2026 by Lola Egboh

Key Takeaways

GEO is all about helping ChatGPT (and other AI tools) actually find and recommend your business.
Businesses win when they keep content clear, locally relevant, and trustworthy.
This isn’t a one-off task—check in regularly, update your info, and watch how people are finding you.

Globally, most digital and product marketing teams already “do SEO.” But search is shifting. People now ask AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini) direct questions and get answers with links to sources, without ever seeing the classic “10 blue links.” What that means is that if your content isn’t considered trustworthy or easy to use by these models, you won’t show up at all. What is this shift? What does it mean for businesses? How can marketing teams adapt their strategies?

AI Search: Real Shift or Guesswork?

It’s normal to wonder if all the buzz around AI search means a real shift or if it’s all just guesswork. Research has a formal term for this shift, thought, and that is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). This shows that content can be optimized specifically to increase visibility inside AI-generated answers (not just on Google). In fact, some early studies found GEO tactics can meaningfully improve a brand’s visibility in generative answers.

Meanwhile, AI search usage is growing, and it’s evident in how even the platforms themselves are evolving. ChatGPT added a full web search experience (with linked sources), Perplexity highlights citations by design, and Google now publishes guidance for how sites get considered inside its AI features. What this all means is that your content must be answer-ready, source-worthy, and technically clean.

How to Get Generative Engine Optimization Right

1) Be “answer-ready” (not just keyword-rich)

Write clear, self-contained answers to the questions customers actually ask about pricing, availability in specific locations, delivery timelines, how to get support etc
Add a brief summary or FAQ block on key pages, as AIs love compact Q&A structures that are easy to quote.
Keep pages fresh with updated dates, stats, and policies. Generative engines synthesize concise explanations, which means that clarity and freshness are strong trust signals. If you have stale information, it is likely to be ignored by answer engines.

2) Build authority that the AI can verify

Publish original insights such as industry benchmarks, pricing realities, and regulatory nuances versus generic listicles.
Earn citations and get referenced by industry bodies, respected publishers, and credible local partners.
Maintain consistent facts across your site and profiles, as AI surfaces sources it deems reliable, with consistent facts that are corroborated across the board.

3) Structure your content so models can parse it

SEO principles around content structure remain useful. Use clean headings (H1–H3), bullet points, tables for specs, and schema markup (Organization, Product, FAQ).
Keep the page experience fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to scan, especially for users with low-bandwidth internet. This is because Google’s AI features still lean on classical technical best practices around pages.

4) Cover the “who/what/where/how much”

Be clear about your operations and coverage areas (e.g., “same-day delivery; 48–72 hours upcountry or 1 week for overseas orders”).
Note payment options your target actually uses (transfers, cards, wallets etc), and support channels (WhatsApp, phone, email).
Flag local constraints honestly so answers remain credible.

5) Create topic hubs that are “source-worthy”

Build a topic hub for your niche (or instance, a bank could have “SME lending in Nigeria: rates, requirements, timelines”).
Link out to credible references (CBN circulars, NCC rules, NITDA guidelines). Being a good “web citizen” helps AIs place you in the knowledge graph.
Keep author bios with real names, roles, and (if applicable) LinkedIn, as these are all signals of expertise. AEO/GEO practitioners emphasize the depth of your topics, outbound citations, and clear authorship to earn inclusion.

6) Make it easy for engines to cite you

Place concise, quotable snippets near the top of pages (“TL;DR” or a 3-line summary).
Use canonical URLs and avoid splitting the same topic across many thin pages.
Host supporting assets (charts, PDFs) on crawlable pages with captions and short context.

7) Track AI referrals like you track Google

Add UTMs to shared links; watch for referrals labeled as ChatGPT/Perplexity in analytics (they’re showing up more often).
Compare “answered” topics vs. “ignored” ones; double-down where you get cited.
Keep a simple GEO log of question, page cited, tweaks made, next review date. Marketers are reporting measurable AI-driven referrals; treat them as a real acquisition channel.)

8) Don’t “set and forget” (audits matter)

Re-audit quarterly to refresh facts, update FAQs, replace dead links, and remove outdated claims.
Watch for model behavior shifts and security concerns (e.g., prompt-injection risks that can distort answers). AI search evolves quickly; both platform guidance and investigations show you need ongoing diligence, not one-off fixes.

9) Repurpose content with GEO in mind

Turn webinars into short Q&A posts (one question per page can work well).
Convert case studies into problem, approach and result summaries with concrete context.
Clip podcasts into quote-ready snippets with timestamps and transcripts on page.

10) Stay current with platform moves

ChatGPT’s search continues to evolve; it now surfaces answers with linked sources more like a traditional engine, so monitor how your pages appear.
Perplexity emphasizes source transparency; ensure your pages load fast, are legible, and contain the exact answer a user expects to see.
Keep an eye on Google’s AI features docs for technical signals that still influence inclusion.

Conclusion: Does GEO Equal Gaming ChatGPT?

GEO isn’t about gaming ChatGPT. It’s about earning the right to be included in AI search results by being the clearest, most useful, most trustworthy source on the question someone is asking, whether they’re in London, Singapore, or in Dubai searching for a Nigerian vendor. By treating AI answer engines like real distribution channels, you increase the chances that your brand will be cited in the answers people actually read.

Want to make your content AI-search-ready and start seeing measurable results? I can help. Reach out, and let’s get started on the journey to optimizing your visibility together.

‘Set It and Forget It’ Might Be the Worst Thing for Your Marketing

Posted on August 22, 2025September 16, 2025 by Lola Egboh

Key Takeaways

Automation is helpful, but not bulletproof. Even the best systems need regular human oversight.
Audits help you catch what’s broken, outdated, or no longer working.
The best marketing isn’t ‘set it and forget it’, rather it’s ‘set it, monitor it, improve it.’

It’s the 21st century, and I think we marketers can be honest enough with ourselves to admit that automation has spoiled us a little.

There are all sorts of fancy tech tools at our disposal, from scheduling platforms to automated email sequences and AI-powered content creation platforms. It’s tempting to believe our marketing efforts can run like a slow cooker where you just throw everything in, press start, and come back when it’s “done.”

But the truth? “Set it and forget it” can be a trap. A very convenient one, but potentially equally dangerous. And if you’re not careful, it can quietly undo all the good work you’ve been doing.

A Marketing Lesson From the Trading World

A while ago, I did some contract content strategy work for Nurp, an algorithmic trading company based in Miami with super smart folks, using brilliant tech to help clients automate their forex trading. But what stood out was that they never stopped reminding clients to check in on their accounts.

Their software handled a ton of the heavy lifting, but they knew that even the best algorithms couldn’t predict everything. Market volatility, unexpected events, or even client-side settings gone wrong could throw things off. In that world, failing to monitor your account could mean real money lost, even when automation was doing its job.

Now swap “trading account” with your marketing funnel, content strategy, email campaign, or ad spend. The same principle applies.

Why Marketing Audits Matter

Marketing audits sound boring until you realise they’re often what saves your business from slowly bleeding out behind the scenes.

Here’s why they’re worth doing:

Things break silently.

Maybe your website’s lead form stopped working. Or your Facebook Pixel isn’t tracking properly anymore. You won’t know unless you look.

People change.

Your audience might be responding differently now than they were 3 months ago. Maybe your messaging feels stale. Maybe your offer isn’t resonating anymore. An audit helps you catch that before results dip.

Tech evolves.

The platforms you use are constantly updating. Something that worked perfectly last quarter might now require a new integration, setting, or approach.

You grow.

As your business scales, strategies that used to work might not cut it anymore. Audits help you assess what still fits, and what’s now holding you back.

In Summary: Set It and Keep Checking

It’s not that you shouldn’t use automation. That would not be sensible, considering how much of a difference automation can make.

But you should also schedule regular check-ins, which could be monthly, quarterly, whatever works for your business. Walk through the customer journey. Run test campaigns. Audit your content. Review your analytics. Talk to your audience. Make sure the engine is still humming.

Because great marketing isn’t just about setting up systems. It’s about making sure they’re still doing what they’re supposed to do, especially when you’re not watching.

My “More Value Marketing” Path: What, Why, and How

Posted on August 6, 2025October 16, 2025 by Lola Egboh

Key Takeaways

Growth isn’t always about spending more, but optimizing what you already have for greater efficiency and return.
“More Value Marketing” is about doing smarter work and using the power of strategy, mentorship, and training to transform how teams think and perform.
Leveraging years of leading marketing and growth across industries, my results-driven consulting approach helps businesses scale sustainably.

I recently sent my professional profile to someone who had been referred to me by an acquaintance, and she apparently found it intriguing. She had some quite interesting questions about my “more value marketing” claim, and was curious to know how I arrived at that as my value proposition.

Of course, I was flattered at the attention, given the calibre of person who was asking. But after we were done with the conversation and her questions were answered (for the moment, as she very cheekily put it😆), it occurred to me that this could actually be a fun topic to write about, sharing insights with my community about what “more value marketing” represents, and why I chose this as the cornerstone of my positioning.

In the Beginning: How It Started

Before venturing into independent consulting after my time with Gibraltar-based Xapo Bank as global content manager, I spent a lot of time reflecting on what the next phase of my career should look like. I’d been privileged to work across multiple industries and continents, starting in the fast-paced boutique advertising agency Kore & Co, where I worked on some of Nigeria’s biggest FMCG, telco, and financial brands, including Airtel, Sparwasser, Nigerian-German Chemicals, Chapel Hill Denham etc. From there, I moved to trading firm Deriv, then on to pan-African oil and gas colossus Oando. It was then the turn of the banks, first global Standard Chartered Bank, then leading financial services group First City Monument Bank (FCMB), before eventually heading to Xapo Bank.

Growth Marketing and More: The Building Blocks To My Current Reality

Phewww!!! Even I know that was quite a bit of moving around there, but it was all worth it. Not only did I grow fast, but I also learnt a lot along the way. Each role taught me something new, not just about marketing or business strategy, but about people, systems, and how small decisions can make a really big impact.

Interestingly, as the years went by and I took on more leadership responsibilities, it seemed like I had a knack for driving efficiency, not just in my own results, but even in budgets, teams, and partnerships as I took on managerial roles.

So, when I reached a crossroad in my career and needed to decide on a path forward, this realization sparked a thought that wouldn’t go away: What if I could help more businesses get more value from their marketing? The more I thought about it, the more it just made the most sense. And just like that, More Value Marketing was born.

What “More Value Marketing” Really Means

To me, “more value” isn’t just a phrase that’s all fancy and catchy (even though I get feedback that it is just that 😁). It’s a mindset that never stops asking: How can we make every growth and marketing effort work harder, smarter, and longer?

Considering that today’s world is a budget-tight and noisy one for most brands, throwing more money at marketing problems isn’t always the answer. Getting more value from what you already have is. And that’s what I help businesses do.

I work with growth-focused organizations to improve efficiency and effectiveness across their growth and customer acquisition efforts. In many cases, this means stepping in as a fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or Chief Growth Officer (CGO) to help teams find clarity, optimize processes, and scale impact without overspending.

Beyond Digital Marketing: How I Help Teams Win

Over the years, I’ve found that lasting growth is significantly influenced by three critical factors, and these have become the foundation of my consulting work:

Strategy: Setting a clear, data-informed direction (offline or online) that aligns with both business goals and market realities.
Mentorship: Coaching teams to think critically, make better decisions, and execute with confidence.
Training: Equipping teams with practical, context-specific skills that drive real outcomes and not just theory.

I have consistently seen that when these three areas are combined correctly, teams can do more with the same or even less, cut waste, and drive measurable results.

Conclusion

When I take a look back through the years, it’s clear that every stop along my career path has led to this moment where I have the experience and expertise to help businesses unlock efficiency, scale sustainably, and build marketing systems that actually deliver.

If you’re looking to get more value from your marketing, whether through a sharper strategy, better execution, or stronger team capability, I would love to explore how we can work together to make that happen. Be sure to connect with me today.

How to Run a Digital Marketing Audit That Delivers Results

Posted on May 21, 2025September 2, 2025 by Lola Egboh

Key Takeaways

Digital marketing audits are non-negotiable health checks for your business.
Each area requires specific focus, including SEO, content, social, ads, email, and user experience.
The goal isn’t perfection, but continuous improvement.

Too many businesses learn the hard way that marketing is not something you set up once and forget. To get the best value over time, treat your marketing like your health, where you check in regularly, before small issues quietly build into major problems. It’s quite interesting, therefore, that not all companies give this the attention it deserves. I’d previously written about types of digital marketing audits and tools needed, so this article focuses more on some useful steps to follow.

Why Do Digital Marketing Audits Matter?

Regular digital marketing audits are important for one singular reason – things change. The campaign that was delivering so many leads or new customers three months ago might be wasting money today. That blog post pulling in more than 25% of your organic traffic last year could be buried on page three now. And your social posts? They may not even be reaching a fraction of the audience they did before.

Digital marketing audits are not just about catching mistakes; they’re about spotting opportunities. Done right, an audit tells you:

What’s working and should be doubled down on
What’s underperforming and needs fixing
Where you’re wasting time, effort, or money

The Foundations of a Strong Digital Marketing Audit

Think of an audit like a full-body health check for your business. You would not skip your car’s oil change or routine maintenance because it “ran fine last week.” The same logic applies here, given that the online environment changes constantly. Search algorithms shift. Consumer habits evolve. Platforms roll out updates that rewrite the rules.

A strong digital marketing audit rests on three principles:

No channel works in isolation: Your website, ads, content, and email should all pull in the same direction.
Tools make things easier, not foolproof: Google Analytics, HubSpot, and SEMrush can give you loads of surface insights, but they don’t replace critical thinking.
Consistency beats perfection: A quarterly check-up keeps your marketing machine running better than carrying out one massive clean-up every two years.

Website and SEO Audit

For many businesses, your website is your home base. If it underperforms, every campaign suffers. Here’s what to check:

Site Speed: Slow sites bleed visitors. Use Google PageSpeed Insights to see how you stack up.
Mobile Responsiveness: Over half of searches happen on phones. If your site igives a terrible experience on mobile, you’re losing.
Broken Links & Errors: A 404 page is a red flag (in fact, a red banner!) that screams “we don’t care”
SEO Basics: Meta titles, descriptions, H1 tags, internal linking, schema markup. In fact, that blog post that ranked first in 2021? If you haven’t updated it, chances are it slipped to page three while you weren’t looking.

Content Audit

Content can be a strong salesperson, but only if it’s fresh, relevant, and aligned with your goals. For instance, you may have a post driving thousands of views but delivering zero leads, which by any standards is wasted potential. Sometimes all it takes is adding a relevant CTA or updating outdated numbers.

What to audit:

Traffic: Which pieces pull in visitors, and which ones are ignored?
Engagement: Time on page, bounce rate, scroll depth.
Conversions: Does your content actually lead to sign-ups, demos, or sales?
Accuracy: Outdated stats, old screenshots, broken CTAs.

Social Media Audit

Social moves fast, audiences change, trends come and go really quickly, and so do interests. What worked yesterday won’t always work tomorrow. Remember when Instagram Reels were optional? Now they are must-have. Even channels can be the same.

When it comes tos social, the audit checklist includes:

Engagement Rates: Are likes, comments, and shares trending up or down?
Reach and Growth: Are you actually gaining followers or just talking to the same 500 people?
Brand Consistency: Does your tone and design feel the same across platforms?
Content Mix: Are you stuck posting product plugs when your audience wants behind-the-scenes stories?

Paid Media Audit (PPC and Social Ads)

Many businesses let old campaigns run until the budget dries up, even if the ads aren’t performing anymore. That’s the fastest way to let money slip through the cracks, as even as little as a 10% increase in ROAS through an audit can mean thousands of dollars saved or earned.

Audit checklist:

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): Are your ads profitable?
Targeting: Still reaching the right audience, or has it drifted off target?
Ad Fatigue: Are you showing the same creative so often it annoys people?
Conversion Tracking: Is your pixel or tag working correctly?

Email Marketing Audit

If you’re sending emails designed for last year’s audience, don’t be surprised when this year’s audience ignores them. Email lists are like gardens, and if you leave them alone, weeds (inactive subscribers) take over.

Here’s a handy audit checklist for email:

Open and Click Rates: Still healthy or falling off?
Deliverability: Are your emails even landing in inboxes?
Segmentation: Are you still sending “one-size-fits-all” campaigns in this age where customers expect and even demand personalization?
Automation Flows: Are welcome emails, cart abandonment, and nurture sequences still relevant?

UX and Customer Journey Audit

If your customer has to think too hard to use your website, you have already lost them. Even the best campaigns collapse if your website frustrates users.

To ensure your journey works as it should, here’s the list of things to audit:

Navigation: Can visitors find what they want in three clicks or less?
Forms: Are they too long or confusing?
Checkout: Smooth, or full of friction points that drive cart abandonment?
Conversion Paths: Does every page guide the visitor toward a next step?

Competitor Benchmark Audit

Benchmarking isn’t about copying, but keeping up to date with what others in your space are doing. You’re not just competing with yourself, so it’s key to identify gaps and opportunities.

Here’s what to check:

Content Strategy: What topics are your competitors owning?
Ad Spend Signals: Where are they investing?
Social Engagement: Are they beating you on TikTok or LinkedIn?
SEO Footprint: Who’s ranking above you, and why?

Bringing It All Together

An audit is only useful if it leads to action. Depending on the sale of your operations, platforms and digital marketing, it could be a major task to handle. Here’s how to make it manageable:

Quarterly: Website speed checks, paid ads review, content refresh.
Twice a year: Full SEO audit, email segmentation cleanup.
Annually: Deep competitor benchmark, UX overhaul.

It’s not enough to just audit, findings must be analysed and any needed improvements implemented. It’s always advisable to prioritize high-impact fixes first:

Broken tracking or links should be fixed immediately.
Next, underperforming content with lots of traffic should be updated.
Cosmetic fixes or tweaks should be saved for last.

Conclusion

The correct mindset towards a digital marketing audit is to understand that it is not about nitpicking what’s wrong. It’s about uncovering opportunities you’re leaving on the table. Markets shift, and algorithms evolve. In the midst of all of these, audiences are also constantly evolving. This means that what worked yesterday won’t guarantee results tomorrow, so audits should be approached as being crucial strategy sessions that help your business sharpen its edge in the competitive marketplace.

Know When to Hold On, When to Let Go: Lessons in Digital Growth from Kenny Rogers and a Bank That Wanted Customers

Posted on April 8, 2025April 17, 2025 by Lola Egboh

Key Takeaways

Give your strategy room to breathe, as not every hiccup means the idea is bad.
Look behind the scenes; poor conversions can be about process, not promotion.
Set a review window and decide beforehand how long you’ll wait before tweaking things.

One of my all-time favourite songs is The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. And no, it’s not just because of the old-school charm, it’s that line in the chorus: “You’ve got to know when to hold on, know when to fold up, know when to walk away, know when to run.”

That line has got grit, wisdom, and pops into my head quite a bit when it comes to creating a marketing strategy to drive growth. It’s not just good advice for gamblers. It’s excellent advice for anyone managing digital growth, especially when things aren’t moving as fast as expected.

When the Top of the Funnel Is Lying to You

A while ago, I was brought in to support a well-known Nigerian bank that wanted to scale its digital customer acquisition. They had the budget, the ambition, and a strong appetite for growth. Seemed like all the ingredients for success were ready, so let’s go, go, goooo!

I crafted a strategy that was clear, performance-focused, and designed to meet them where they were: with a strong brand, but a system that needed work.

We launched paid campaigns. Early numbers were encouraging, traffic was up (like, “pinch me, I’m dreaming” kind of up), engagement looked good, and we were attracting exactly the right kind of people. The top of the funnel was humming.

But then…little else.

To say sign-ups were underwhelming is an understatement. Haba! Kilode? What’s going on? Conversions were nowhere near where they should have been. The energy in the room started to shift. And as always happens in moments like this, someone asked: “Do we need to change the strategy?”

The Strategy Wasn’t the Problem

Now, if you’ve ever worked with large institutions, you know that sometimes, the real challenge isn’t always marketing. It’s systems. And, omo, this one had layers.

The customer journey after clicking the ad was… cloudy, to put it politely. Pages took forever to load. Required fields should not have been required (I mean, how exactly is the competition getting away without asking for all that? 🙄). And once users started the process, there was no telling what was going on with the entire journey until completion – it was just this huge, gaping black hole. As if that wasn’t enough, internal processes were cumbersome and slow, silos a-plenty. No one was fully accountable for giving the much-needed visibility into the customer journey.

So while the ads were doing their job, the backend was dropping the ball.

And, of course, the natural instinct especially from teams under pressure is to blame the campaign (and the overpriced growth consultant 🤣). Change the creative. Switch up the targeting. Redo the strategy.

But as Kenny said: you’ve got to know when to hold on.

Managing Panic, Pressure, and People

A major part of what I do as a marketing consultant is managing energy.

I had to walk stakeholders through the journey. Show them how the paid media was performing. Highlight the bottlenecks with data. Speak to team leads to understand internal issues. And in one or two cases… yes, beg certain people to do their jobs. (We’ve all been there.). I wish I could say I was always calm about it, but I snapped a few times, not going to lie.

It wasn’t glamorous, but it was necessary. Because if we’d panicked and changed the campaign based on surface-level metrics, we would’ve missed the real issue, and wasted even more time chasing pipe dreams.

Growth Needs Time (and Backbone)

Sometimes, the hardest part of executing a strategy is not tweaking it too soon. That takes guts, especially when the conversion numbers aren’t singing yet and it looks like the end is farrrrrrrrrrrrrr from sight.

But giving your strategy a definite timeline, backed by clear analytics and data, is how you avoid the trap of knee-jerk reactions. That’s how you differentiate between a bad strategy… and a good strategy buried under operational chaos.

So, What Did We Do?

Instead of changing the campaign, we shifted focus inward. I helped the client:

Map out the full customer journey, showing what was happening when and friction points
Clarify internal responsibilities for every stage of lead handling
Streamline their sign-up process to reduce confusion
Train key internal teams on urgency and accountability

Once the system got some love, conversions started ticking up. Not overnight. Not dramatically. But steadily. The strategy hadn’t changed. We’d just given it space to breathe and removed the blockers.

Don’t Let Panic Kill Good Strategy

So many marketing strategies fail not because they’re wrong, but because they aren’t given enough time to work. Or they’re simply plugged into systems that can’t support them (ko le werk rara!).

Growth takes more than ads and content. It takes alignment, follow-through, and the confidence to say, “Let’s wait this out a bit longer.” Because pulling the plug too soon can cost you results, valuable insights, and long-term traction.

How To Avoid Knee-Jerk Reactions in Growth Strategy

If you’re building or managing a digital acquisition campaign, here are a few tips to help you know when to tweak — and when to wait:

1. Set a Clear Review Timeline

Before launching, agree on when you’ll properly evaluate performance. Not based on daily anxiety or stakeholder pressure, but a planned date with real data.

2. Fix the System, Not Just the Strategy

If the numbers aren’t converting, zoom out. Look at what happens after the click. Is the experience smooth? Are the teams aligned? Is there a leak in the funnel?

3. Don’t Let Loud Voices Distract You

In every room, there’ll be someone who wants instant results. Smile, nod, and go back to your roadmap. Your job is to deliver results, not perform miracles in two days.

Conclusion: Sometimes, You Just Have to Hold

Growth is hard. Especially digital growth in a complex system. But if you’ve done the work, built a thoughtful strategy, and aligned it with business goals, give it time. Be patient. Watch the signals. And troubleshoot smartly.

Because as Kenny Rogers sang (and as any marketer worth their salt knows), there’s a time to hold, a time to fold, and a time to walk away. And sometimes? The smartest move is staying right where you are, and letting a good plan work.

Advertising Will Kill Your Business: 5 Times When You Should NOT Invest in Advertising

Posted on March 22, 2025April 17, 2025 by Lola Egboh

Key Takeaways

Don’t use ads to fix deeper business problems, they won’t.
Know your audience, fix your systems, and track everything.
Ads are an amplifier. Make sure what you’re amplifying is worth it.

Yes, you read that right.

See, I’ve seen plenty in my professional career. From my early days working in advertising, to switching to the client side in oil and gas, financial services, trading and e-commerce sectors, and now as a marketing consultant, I’ve seen too many businesses treat advertising like a magic pill. The truth is, running ads at the wrong time can burn your money faster than sitting in Third Mainland bridge traffic burns fuel.

Here are five moments when you should hit pause on advertising, no matter how tempting it feels to just start spending:

1. When Your Product or Service Isn’t Ready

If your product is full of bugs, inconsistent, or just plain confusing, advertising will only amplify the mess. Ads bring attention. If what you’re offering doesn’t deliver, you’re spending money to lose trust. Fix the product first, after which you can spend to scale awareness.

Ask yourself: “Will someone recommend this after trying it?” If the answer is “no”, drop the advertising idea sharp sharp.

2. When You Don’t Know Who You’re Targeting

The moment I hear “our target is everyone”, I know we are in for a long, wasteful thing. Running ads without a clear audience is like throwing flyers off a rooftop and hoping one lands in the right hands. Without defined buyer personas or at least basic audience insights, your ad budget is basically a donation. Why throw money away?

If you can’t describe your ideal customer in one sentence, pause the ads.

3. When Your Back-End Systems Are a Mess

What happens after someone clicks your ad? Where do they go? What do you say to them? How do you close the sale? If your website is slow, your checkout process is broken, or your customer service is non-existent, it doesn’t matter how great the ad is, you’re leaking leads.

Fix the funnel before you pour in the money, and ensure all the parts of your operations are working as they should.

4. When You’re Not Tracking Anything

This is the one that baffles me the most – how can you possibly want to commit resources (as in, actually spend money!!!) to an activity, where you have no way of measuring the impact?

No tracking = no learning. If you can’t measure what’s working and what’s wasting money, you’re better off just strolling down the street, throwing your money in the air for passersby to catch.

Make sure your analytics, pixels, and conversion goals are working before you hit “publish” on any advertising campaign.

5. When You Just Want “Quick Results”

If you’re running ads out of desperation, pause. Advertising is part of a broader strategy, and not a silver bullet. You need clarity, consistency, and patience.

Ads can accelerate growth, but they can’t fix a business model that’s still figuring itself out.

So, When Should You Advertise?

Once your product is solid, your customer journey is smooth, and you know who you’re speaking to, then go for it. Advertising is a powerful tool, but only in the right hands at the right time and for the right purpose.

The Data Trap: Why a Bad Week Doesn’t Mean a Bad Strategy

Posted on February 25, 2025April 17, 2025 by Lola Egboh

Key Takeaways:

Give your marketing and growth strategies a fair test period before deciding to change them.
Investigate issues thoroughly instead of assuming the worst.
Stay steady but flexible—adjust when necessary, but don’t react out of fear.

Earlier this month, I was implementing some new growth strategies for one of my clients, a fast-rising grocery company in Lagos. One of the things I introduced was using screenshots of their Google reviews in social content. The goal? To drive engagement by showcasing real customer feedback.

Simple as it sounds, it worked—brilliantly. Within days, their posts featuring Google reviews had 82% more reach than their other content. People were engaging, saving, and generally having a super time to the client’s joy. It was clear that seeing positive experiences from real customers made others more likely to trust and interact with the brand.

Then, something strange happened.

Dear Numbers: Why The Drop, Please?

A few days into this strategy, we noticed a worrying trend—the number of Google reviews began to drop. Ahhhhh!

When we started with this approach, the client’s Google business page had close to 70 reviews, but suddenly, that number started shrinking. Not only were they not getting new reviews, but existing ones were disappearing. Like, what’s happening? How? Why?

Cue the doubts and second-guessing.

The immediate assumption? The new strategy was somehow backfiring. Maybe customers who saw their reviews being shared on social media got uncomfortable and deleted them? Maybe showcasing reviews was doing more harm than good?

The knee-jerk reaction was to immediately stop posting Google reviews and revert to the status quo.

But something about that conclusion felt off.

Pause. Think. Troubleshoot.

Instead of pulling the plug, I did what any growth strategist worth their salt should do – I took a step back and jumped into investigator mode.

After some digging, I found out the real culprit: a Google bug..

At the time, Google was experiencing a glitch that affected the visibility of review counts. The reviews were still there, but the numbers displayed to users weren’t updating correctly for some business pages.

That was such a relief!

It was also enlightening about how seemingly bad results might not always mean a bad strategy. I mean, if we had shut down the strategy at the first sign of trouble, we would have missed out on a massive engagement opportunity.

That experience reinforced something crucial—growth strategies need time. If we react too quickly to short-term fluctuations, there is a big risk of abandoning effective strategies over temporary issues.

How to Avoid Knee-Jerk Reactions in Growth Strategy

Whether it’s marketing, business development, or any other area of growth, quick reactions can hurt more than they help. Here’s how to avoid getting swayed by every and anything that happens:

1. Set a Timeframe Before You Tweak Anything

Not every strategy will yield instant results. Decide in advance how long you’ll give it before making adjustments. In most cases, a few days or weeks isn’t enough to judge success or failure.

2. Look for Patterns, Not Single Data Points

One bad day (or even a bad week) doesn’t mean a strategy isn’t working. Before changing course, check if there’s a consistent downward trend. Is it a real issue or just a temporary fluctuation?

3. Investigate Before You Act

When something seems off, stay positive and don’t immediately assume the worst. Dig deeper. Could there be a technical issue? A platform bug? A shift in audience behavior that needs further analysis? Jumping to conclusions can lead to fixing the wrong problem.

4. Trust the Process, but Stay Flexible

There’s a balance between sticking to the plan and adjusting when needed. The key is to be thoughtful about changes, not reactive. Evaluate, analyze, then decide.

5. Communicate with Your Stakeholders

When numbers fluctuate, stakeholders may get nervous. Reassure them with data and insights rather than making decisions based on fear.

Conclusion

Growth strategies are not “set and forget,” but they’re also not “panic and pull the plug.” Success takes time, consistency, and informed decision-making. So, the next time something looks like it’s not working—pause. Take a breath. Look deeper. The answer might not be what you expect.