How BizHack Lead Instructor Karlene Scarlett Helps Local Businesses Thrive With Digital Marketing
Do you want to elevate your marketing game?
Unlock the secrets of digital marketing success through our program,” The Digital Marketer’s Edge”, taught by Karlene Scarlett. With more than 10 years of experience in marketing and social media strategies, Karlene can provide real-world examples and advice that can boost your small business’ digital marketing in only seven weeks. You’ll learn how to build your origin story and create ads that generate increase sales and analyze performance so you can constantly improve your campaigns.
What You’ll Get:
- 35 Hours of Live Classes
- 9 Hours of One-on-one coaching
- Session recordings, assignments, and downloadable learning aids
- Assistance in launching between one and three live ad campaigns during the course
- Training on the latest version of Meta Business Suite and creative tools like Canva
Don’t miss out on learning how to become a marketing master! To find out more about the course Karlene is teaching, schedule a call today.
To learn more about “The Digital Marketer’s Edge”, visit our website
Behind the Screen: Who is Karlene Scarlett?
Leadership and volunteerism have always been present in Karlene’s life, whether it was serving as captain of her high school’s dance team or being involved in the National Honor Society. As a post-college graduate, she joined Emerge Broward, an organization of young professionals in Broward County who promote leadership and personal development through networking, community involvement, and educational opportunities. Throughout her 5 years with Emege Broward she was passionate about their volunteer committee (Engage), which she co-chaired from 2017 – 2018, and motivated groups of volunteers by coordinating community service projects, such as beach clean-ups and donation drives for local non-profit organizations like Feeding South Florida.
Karlene’s efforts inspired more volunteers to join and also marked a significant milestone in her lifelong legacy of helping others and uplifting the community. Now, she continues the work by helping businesses with their marketing and teaching small business owners and entrepreneurs how to market more successfully, which in turn allows their families and employees to thrive.
The Drive to Give Back
Karlene has witnessed how her belief in always giving back intertwines perfectly with her role as a digital marketing instructor. Many students arrive desperate because they are not sure how to improve their businesses or how to grow. Sometimes “The Digital Marketer’s Edge” may even be their last resort to salvage their business. They may come with marketing that is a mess, broken websites, or even multiple social media accounts that are not functioning correctly.
Digital Marketing Beginnings
After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications from the University of Central Florida, Karlene worked with many companies doing Social Media Marketing — her client roster includes Publix Super Markets, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and MSC Cruises just to name a few. But she wanted to share all the knowledge she had acquired in the industry with others. So in October 2018, she founded Social Blessings LLC, a strategic social media marketing and consulting agency that works to help brands make a positive impact in their communities.
After establishing Social Blessings, Karlene wanted to start helping businesses in her community quickly and sought out new opportunities to help local business owners with their digital marketing. She was soon introduced to the owner of Bright Drop Yoga, a yoga practice that was new at that time. Karlene began meeting with the owner every week, sometimes even twice a week at a local coffee shop, to go through the steps and techniques on how to create social media posts that were engaging for her audience. On one occasion Karlene attended her client’s yoga class and the owner introduced her as the social media coach. “I always said, she dubbed me as a social coach. I didn’t even know that was a thing,” said Karlene.
The owner became her first client and is still a client today. “That was my first preview into being a marketing coach, which then kind of sparked my interest to continue on that path to becoming a digital marketing instructor,” she added.
But Karlene’s vision did not stop there. Two years after starting her business, she began teaching at the University of Miami Online as an adjunct digital marketing professor.
Ten months ago, she joined BizHack’s team as a marketing coach for “The Digital Marketer’s Edge”, which teaches ad development and lead generation on Facebook and other social media platforms, and has been a lead instructor for the past five months. As someone who loves social media advertising, she uses the platforms every day – specifically Facebook Ads, and instead of teaching students with screenshots and PowerPoint slides, she often prefers to go directly in-platform and show them how to build campaigns in real time. Karlene explained that social media platforms update constantly and screenshots can easily become outdated, even if they are only a month old
The Art of Teaching
As someone who believes strongly in hands-on purpose-driven learning, Karlene believes what makes her a successful instructor is that she takes time to listen and communicate effectively with her students, the marketing coaches, and the leadership team. She explains that it is important to listen to what people are not explicitly communicating. Karlene added that she has many sticky notes on her desk to remind her to follow up with students within the hour if she sees that they may be struggling to grasp the concepts or if they need help with anything. Through her teaching, she employs the values of honesty, transparency, and open communication with her students, and many follow her on LinkedIn.
As with everything, challenges also arise as an instructor. But she has learned to manage by placing a high value on the feedback she gets and understands that sometimes people get frustrated. “What I always like to say is ‘read or listen to what’s behind all the noise.’” says Karlene. She explained that students get frustrated because a link might not work, a lesson in the course might not be unlocked or they may not be able to submit their lab assignments. “It’s important to take everything in your stride and be solution-oriented in everything you do,” she commented.
Nonetheless, she enjoys being able to see the students absorb the material and learn how to navigate Ads on Facebook, Linkedin, and other campaign platforms. Karlene also delights in knowing that each student gets dedicated one-on-one time with their coach and is able to discuss lessons from the course in depth. The slogan she uses with her agency is “making the world a better place one campaign at a time.” She added that purpose-driven marketing is the act of working with businesses or campaigns that make the world a better place and have a positive impact on their community through the digital marketing space.
It's a Fast-paced Industry, Do not Fail to Plan
CNBC reported last year that out of the 30.2 million small businesses in the United States, 20 percent fail in the first year, 30 percent in the second, 50 percent by the fifth year, and 70 percent by the 10th year.
That is why Karlene urges small business owners to take the “Digital Marketer’s Edge” course to develop new skills and learn about resources that can ease the workload. She realizes that small business owners try to be everything for their business — including the CEO, CFO, COO, and the head of social media, which is not easy. Karlene mentioned that she thinks it is awesome when we have students who have different skill levels enrolled in one class because they all learn something new, regardless of whether they have previously used social media platforms or not.
Karlene strongly believes that it’s important to have a digital marketing skill set to be successful because that is “how our world is operating these days.” Marketing has evolved greatly in the past few decades. She tells her students that people used to put flyers on car windscreens in Walmart car parks to get customers, but now the easiest way is through digital marketing. “You want to be where your customers are and see what their interests are as well, and be able to hone in on that,” Karlene said.
We asked her what she thought the biggest challenge in the digital marketing industry is. She explained: “Knowing who to believe and who not to. One thing that I find my [prospective] clients often saying is ‘Well, how do I know you’re gonna bring me this value? I already tried a marketer, they promised me the world and didn’t deliver anything.’” Karlene emphasizes how in the industry there is a need to prove your worth as a seasoned professional and that is why she encourages her students and clients to share testimonials.
By teaching at BizHack Academy, she has found that students sometimes struggle with finding the right resources — including emails to sign up for, podcasts to follow, or how to set up Google Alerts to stay informed of the latest news and digital marketing trends. “They understand how quickly this industry moves. For example, Twitter is upside down and they got that way pretty much overnight,” Karlene said. She added that those outside the industry hear about such news items and may not think much of them, but as a professor and businesswoman, she immediately thinks to warn her students and clients to be cautious of using Twitter given the current social media landscape. Constant changes in the industry and emerging trends encourage her to put on a “student hat” so that she can teach her students the latest and most useful information. When something happens, like Twitter’s takeover, she’ll proactively discuss a course of action such as perhaps focusing on another ad platform.
Equip Your Small Business with the Latest Marketing Strategies
When asked what students who are on the fence about registering for the course should consider, Karlene said, “If you think you have successfully managed a Facebook Ad campaign before or maybe did it once or twice or have never done it all, this is the course for you. I tell my students ‘Forget everything you know, I’m going to show you the right way… that actually sees results.’”
Website: https://socialblessingsllc.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socialblessingsllc/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/social-blessings-llc/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/socialblessingsllc
Do not miss out on the opportunity to take your digital marketing skills to the next level with our Digital Marketer’s Edge program. To learn more about “The Digital Marketer’s Edge” visit our website.
