Small business owners once lost are learning how to get found online.

By Roberto Martinez | DIGITAL COACHES, WORKSHOPS

The Watts Branch Library workshop conducted early in June represented the changing face of Los Angeles. Within the library’s small breakout room we found a space that was hard pressed to seat 40 people. We also found a room full of African-American and Latino entrepreneurs striving and aspiring to create a better future through their ingenuity, entrepreneurial spirit, and dogged determination. It is within this backgroup that we ran our third Digital Marketing 101 workshop in partnership with Los Angeles Business Source Center — MCS.

The Workshop

The two-hour workshop focused on developing customer personas, defining value propositions, outlining S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals, and using what we learned to create a digital marketing plan. The second half focused on how to get found online with a free listing via Google my Business. Yes, some of the material I present in these workshops can be dense, which often results in a cacophony of feedback and a peppering of questions that leaves the room in chuckles, and me questioning, who really is leading the workshop?

"So the website is like my storefront? And the tools you taught us are like newspapers, and billboards, to get us customers?"

Yes, Mariel, you got it!


Bridging the Digital Divide

At the end of the workshop, everyone exchanges pleasantries and asks about future workshops so they can tell their friends about it. As I begin to pack up, Mariel comes up and thanks me. As she walks out of the room she looks back, she smiles at me and comments, "We aren't afraid of hard work. We just need someone to point us the right direction."

Watch a video on how Googlers (Google employees) built the Digital Coaches pilot program:

To find an upcoming workshops with Robert in LA please visit Google Digital Coaches Program - Los Angeles

Roberto Martinez is the founder and CEO of Braven Agency and is the Google Digital Coach for L.A.

Photo: Google Digital Coaches Program

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