1100 women entrepreneurs gain digital marketing skills

More than 1100 women entrepreneurs have gained valuable digital marketing skills in 2019, thanks to a partnership between #SheOwnsIt and Facebook.

Rachel Lewis, founder of business community SheOwnsIt.co.nz is on a mission to boost the number of Kiwi women business owners. A recent study by Aston University in the UK found that New Zealand is a top five country for women entrepreneurs, yet this still equates to just one-in-three business owners, a ratio Rachel feels can increase through improving digital skills.

A partnership between SheOwnsIt and Facebook in 2019 supercharged a free digital marketing training programme which brought over 1100 women together in nine locations nationwide to learn the latest in online marketing.

Alongside professional trainers covering the foundations of online marketing, navigating paid and organic growth strategies, and a creative tutorial on Instagram Stories, entrepreneurs told their own stories of growing businesses online.

Business owners offered tips on identifying and building a customer base, anywhere in the world, for services like business coaching as well as products including jewellery and personal journals.

Travelling from Whangarei to Dunedin to host workshops, Rachel found a common theme is that small business owners want to embrace the digital space and see it as a big opportunity, and that mindset and self belief plays a big part in enabling people to take action and be visible as the face of their business.

“The diversity of the businesses represented at the events proves there are many niches waiting to be filled. Often the women behind the ideas already have customers and just need the confidence and skills to take it up a level,” says Rachel.

“Seeing over 1100 women join our events in 2019 shows the appetite for learning digital business skills is huge. I’m sure the format of our programme helped too, combining physical events around the country with a really vibrant and engaged online community where participants can share and reinforce what they’ve learnt on an ongoing basis.”

Facebook says 43 percent of Pages on Facebook are women-owned pages, and that 38 million people are now connected to a New Zealand small business on Facebook.