You have probably come across a post tagged ‘sponsored’ advertising products or services while scrolling through Facebook posts.
Over the last few years, digital marketing has increasingly become the preferred outreach option for most companies.
You have probably come across a post tagged ‘sponsored’ advertising products or services while scrolling through Facebook posts. Most likely you found the content relatable and clicked on the page to find out more information.
Welcome to digital marketing on social media. Over the last few years, such kind of marketing has increasingly become the preferred outreach option for most companies looking to communicate directly with their target customers. A few years ago Steve Muchiri saw this wave coming and is today enjoying the dividends after setting up a firm to facilitate this client-customer interaction.
Mr Muchiri had always been interested in computers and technology. The seemingly endless possibilities technology availed amazed him. All he ever wanted was to be in the digital. And so as he grew up, he decided he’d take up a computer science course in pursuit of his passion. But he couldn’t because he attained a B+ in KCSE. Not to be deterred, he took up the next best option that could easily see him transition to his dream course.
“I couldn’t directly get to do computer science. That is why I did a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and then later Computer Science,” says Mr Muchiri.
During his studies in college, he would sometimes intern for different companies to gain experience. It was while he was interning for an engineering firm in 2015 during his third year of schooling that he saw how the company was not utilising social media to promote its products and services.
The company’s sales team would constantly report how they performed within the week with no proper way of tracking their reach or conversions.
He approached the directors with a proposal for a social media campaign as a test on one of the products. This campaign alone, he says, resulted in 60 percent revenue growth within three months.
“It is at this point that I saw the huge gap could easily fill in the market by offering the same services to other businesses,” he adds.
At the time very few companies were putting their money on social media and there were no schools that were talking about social media so he decided to teach himself about digital marketing and social media.
“Through self-learning on various online platforms, I got into the field of digital marketing,” says the 27-year-old.
During his first campaign, he says that the company he was interning for and everyone in the team saw the power of social media and how companies were not utilising that to market their products.
“I proposed to consult for them and we did a test with another product which also performed very well. Within a few months I was able to bring them aboard as the first clients for Charleson Group,” he adds referring to the company he set up.
Job opportunities
After landing his first client in 2016, Mr Muchiri quit college to concentrate on building his digital company. Six years later, Mr Muchiri has managed to grow Charleson Group into a digital marketing firm that currently consults for over 30 companies across Kenya.
Besides social media marketing, the firm also offers content marketing, web and app development, and Search Engine Optimisation services.
“I have had the privilege of working with over100 local and international brands including Trans Business Machines, Stedmak Hotels, 7-Eleven among others,” he says.
His goal is to build a digital agency that works with Fortune 500 companies, have Charleson Group listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange and create job opportunities for more than 100 young people in the next five years.
