Sheldon Zhai

Create a slide deck, but make it very visual. You can have images for cues, and some words, but never read off your presentation. Your audience can read faster than you can read off the screen. Don't bore everyone to death and make it feel like we're sitting through another freshman 400 person lecture. Figure out what you want to say, your message, use slides/visuals to remind you so you have some guardrails, and then just trust your preparation and experience.

I was always super shy growing up. I addressed this by forcing myself to do a lot of theatre classes growing up and improv. After university, I joined Upright Citizen's Brigade in Los Angeles and did a bunch of improv and other acting classes to work on public speaking. Those classes were only $400 but taught me how to think on my feet, be clear, be a great listener, and be in the moment. Now that doesn't really help you be confident at speaking for digital marketing. You should probably first actually become an expert at digital marketing before you start doing public speaking about it. I get that public speaking is nice to attract customers but don't be a snake oil salesmen -- learn your craft and be amazing, you'll have plenty to say.

Read these books and resources: Content Chemistry - Andy Crestidona DotCom Secrets - Russell Brunson (Amazing amazing starter on direct response marketing / age of digital) April Dunford - Podcasts on Messaging & Postioning Don't Make Me Think - Steven Krug (Absolute best book on web UX) Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords - Perry Marshall Articles / Videos by AJ Wilcox - Best on LinkedIn Advertising Value Based Design (https://draft.nu/value/) by Nick Disabato

Learning objectives should be a high level understanding of each of the following: 1. Generation of Traffic (Paid, Organic, Direct, Referral) 2. Conversion (Reduce friction, make visitors take action) 3. List Building (Build a list you control and own) 4. Follow Up (Marketing Automation, Drip Campaigns) Make sure your team understands each of these components -- enough to be dangerous. Then go and find an agency that specializes in your field or industry. The reason for this is that they can fast-track you into terms of what works and doesn't, but your internal team needs to be educated enough to choose the right vendor and see through the "bs fluff" that lots of agencies provide, and also be able to educate your internal team.

Digital strategy is very broad. It depends on if this question is referring to an in-house digital strategy team, or within an agency setting. I'll answer for an in-house setting. 1. First off, hire someone that has an amazing attitude, is eager to learn, is naturally tech-saavy and has a lot of curiosity. 2. Have them go through courses online including CXL Institute, read Content Chemistry (Andy Crestidona), Listen to April Dunford's content/podcasts on the power of messaging and positioning which drives digital strategy. Digital strategy is driven by strong messaging, positioning and content, and then tactically executed through websites, campaigns, advertising, and other strategies. Well I'm at the 750 character limit...

First of all, get more budget. There's always money, first figure out how to get a reasonable budget so you can actually have a real shot to do something. Take it from another area if you need to. But don't do it at all if you can't allocate enough. That's like saying how do I buy a house with only $5000. Just don't buy a house, buy a nice tent if you really want. Then create great messaging and positioning. Create one asset TOFU, MOFU, BOFU, and then advertise it via LinkedIn Ads if it’s B2B. Capture leads, put in email marketing automation more content and nurture.