Black Entrepreneur Summit

Black Entrepreneur Summit
Attended on: 4/7/17
I attended the Black Entrepreneur Summit which had solo speakers and panels speak on topics that focused on building a brand, how to market it and the benefit of blacked-owned businesses in the community.
Panel 1: How to Build an Irresistible Brand
Moderator: Kendra Webb-Scott, Ideazio, Inc.
Panelists: Kendall Gusippe, Big Review TV
Tammy Williams, Imena Collective
Nicole Williams, Nicole Williams Collective
Mia Hall, Speaker, Writer, and Career Strategist
During this panel, topics discussed included:
Using yourself as the face of your brand:
Tammy Williams said, “You have to be mindful that when you use yourself, you’ll attract people that gravitate/are attracted to you and what you look like.”
Nicole Williams said, “If you’re authentic with yourself, it works.”
Mia Hall said, “Create content that the brands you want to connect with are producing.”
How to Make a Name for Yourself:
Mia Hall said “Look for the needs of people...what can you offer, and then analyze results. Make sure your value is up to par, and most importantly, know your brand.”
Crucial steps to building a brand:
Nicole Williams: “Start building with the tools that you already have such as Linkedin, Facebook and Instagram. Then, use other tools for content like a blog or newsletter. Develop yourself as an expert in these tools to promote yourself in the best way that fits your brand.
Tammy Williams: It’s not about the money. Remember why got into this.” She ended with: “Make sure you ask yourself if your business is the solution to a problem.”

Breakout Session- Email Marketing
During this session, Kendra Webb-Scott broke down some essential email marketing strategies and practices, showing how it can exponentially grow a business.
According to Kendra, emails should be at the forefront of a marketer’s mind, considering it has 3x the conversion rate as social media. Marketers should always keep in mind the funnel associated with email marketing, and find new strategies based on the knowledge on the audience to get them to the bottom of the funnel aka converting.

Tips shared on how to grow an email subscription list included methods that involved in-your-face call to actions, like adding a button or pop-up message on your website or using a text-to-join feature. Kendra also mentioned that it is imperative to give people a reason to join—a reason of value of sorts, including: education, VIP status, insider news, updates, and discounts.
Of course, creating great content was part of the discussion for email marketing. Kendra suggested to incorporate content that has to do with the questions people ask about your business all the time, in order to provide something of substance. Kendra also touched on increasing engagement with emails by sending them at the right time and pulling data from analytics sites that could provide information into how your audience interacts with emails, so that you can tailor your emails and timing to them.

PANEL 2: How to Grow a Six Figure Business and Beyond Strategic Partnerships
Moderator: Nicole McGarell, Sunny Day Marketing
During this panel, Nicole McGarrell of Sunny Day Marketing lead the discussion on how to grow a six-figure business with professionals.
Here are some of their tips:
·       Strategic partnerships are vital to a company’s growth.
·       Get good at managing your time—review you week and plan for the next week to stay ahead.
·       Diversify your revenue streams
·       Utilize speaking engagements to market your company to large corporations.
·       Set goals
·       Test your market to see if there even is a market for your business.
·       Stay ahead of your consumer.
·       Make a consumer plan for follow-ups and leads.

Panel 3: The Power of the #BuyBlack Movement
Moderator: Petia Bradshaw, The Stylista Group
Panelists: Velvet Latimore, Vedazzling Accessories Boutique
Wilbur Pack, Sorta Kinda Enterprises, LLC
Monique Marshall, Black to Business
Mandy Bowman, Official Black Wall Street
This panel discussion involved the panelists giving advice on how to incorporate the black community into businesses and why it is so important for the community to have black-owned businesses in the first place. Speakers touched on the fact that by creating more black-owned businesses, it will ultimately create a money flow within the community—allowing us to support each other. It was discussed that people are trained to purchase certain brands and we need to re-educate ourselves and our people about the options that we have, so that we can support each other and create successful businesses from that support.



Panel 4: Top 5 Must-Haves for Your Marketing Campaign
Speaker Nicole McGarell, Sunny Day Marketing



During this panel, Nicole McGarell spoke about a marketing engagement cycle, seen below.
She also discussed the five must-haves for a great marketing campaign which were:
  1. Goals and objectives- “be specific,” said Nicole. She elaborated with the fact that goals increase brand awareness whereas objectives increase numbers (i.e.: increase sales by 10% in Q1).
  2. Research- “You must know and understand your target market, industry, competitors, and brand attributes.” She suggested always doing a SWOT analysis for a full picture.
  3. Have a marketing strategy- specify target, position brand to stand out with a unique selling proposition, create messaging, determine promo tactics, content, set measurement metrics, and create a timeline.
  4. List a) marketing tactics and b) marketing content
  5. Set a budget
Overall, the Black Entrepreneur Summit helped me to mentally apply some of the marketing strategies and practices to small businesses. It also allowed me to open my mind to the different options of brands that are out there in the market, and to always question why I am purchasing a particular brand— to question whether there is a brand out there that offers something similar, that I can purchase from to help them grow and give them a platform.
Three takeaways:
1.     Marketing strategies need to be altered based on a company’s consumer and audience.
2.     Giving small businesses a platform can be the first ripple effect in helping a community flourish.
3.     Partnering with other brands that are more established is a strategic way to help grow a business.

Popular posts from this blog

2020 Adobe MAX Conference | Shadiq Williams

Brand Film Awards and Workshop 2020 | Starley J Sandez

AdWeek 2018, 1 Year Later | William Howard