DaBina Donley

My role at Techna Digital Marketing is currently the Vice President where one of my most important responsibilities is ensuring the health of the company is the best that it could be. This includes understanding my team, my clients, and how we can continue to grow.

Techna Digital Marketing (Techna) solves some of the most challenging and frustrating digital marketing problems business owners experience. We provide fully custom websites and offer search engine marketing services that encourage growth. "Techna" is Greek for the word "strategy" which is the root for everything we do.

Techna is specialized in digital marketing which includes website design, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and other strategies that help businesses appear, and be successful, in front of the consumer market.

Thank you for the opportunity to enter the contest. Being the winner of the TITAN Business Awards, and being a Gold Winner at that, has allowed my team and me to recognize ourselves as not just a digital marketing company that designs websites, but as a digital marketing company that produces quality, award-winning websites. To be a Gold Winner out of 800 applicants is something that we are very, very proud of.

Winning this international award will help promote our organization by giving us additional avenues to showcase our success in what we do. Since trust and quality are some of the traits that consumers look for in a business, this will aid in the ability to prove ourselves to our current and future clients.

One of the challenges when developing our winning entry was that the design was made from scratch. The client had no current website and we began the design process with just a concept and a design brief. We started with creating a logo and then went there to build the brand.

The ideation process before we begin a project is to first listen to the client and observe areas in have potential. Using the thoughts, concerns, and observations of the client gives us what we need to begin with a strategy. The strategy considers where they currently are, where they want to go, and where they can be in the long run. After this, we move into what steps are needed to execute and continue the success of the strategy.

The definition of a successful team, organization, or business is that there is communication and effort. From the ideation process to delivery, the communication that happens between a team and the efforts that are performed determine the success of an organization or business.

Our loyal clients and the skills of our team have played into our success in the digital marketing industry. Our success is measured according to our clients' success because a part of their business growth is a reflection of their digital marketing, provided by our team.

Our country, the United States, like most of the countries in the world, was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This has either helped businesses or hurt them. Most consumers were now in the online environment for their needs and wants. This has provided more opportunities for businesses to either expand or take up digital marketing. Because of the pandemic, the digital marketing, and advertising industry has moved forward due to the necessity and demand for reaching the new consumer market habits.

If there was a hindrance, it would be the fact that the pandemic either helped or hurt businesses. We noticed that business owners fell into one of three categories. They were either doing well because of the pandemic that they did not need further digital marketing, were not doing well that they could not afford digital marketing, or did not know that they needed or could use digital marketing. Getting new clients was a challenge for a long time, but we have since then implemented a referral program and have been focusing on how we can implement our own digital marketing.

Some of the current trends in the industry are how content is conveyed to the consumer. The trend of personalized messaging and storytelling is something that I do agree should be a trend and one that most every business should begin implementing. With the rise of video marketing such as Tik Tok and YouTube, storytelling is practically the only way to utilize those platforms. This gives businesses a chance to show who they really are and what they are about. With Gen Z being the newest and biggest generation and highest spenders in the current economy, personalized messaging and storytelling are how they will connect with businesses.

For someone who is searching to improve their business prospects and organizational success, I would recommend following and implementing as many trends as possible. Reading articles published on the trends in 2022 and what to expect for the future of their industry will give insight that one may not have considered. Being left in the dark or stuck in the past could leave business owners with a stagnant organization or a decrease in their business prospects.

For the digital marketing and advertising industry, I see it expanding its RAM and Memory to make room for all of the video content that will be produced. With the advancement and varietal use of technology, I think that we will be able to use virtual and augmented reality to take marketing and reaching the customer to a new level.

For the longest time, the person that inspired me in my life was myself. I have worked really hard, at one point, I was holding six jobs and going to school at the same time. No one told me to do it. No one I knew was working six jobs. I would say I inspired myself because of the passion I have for building experiences and working with people. Though, I should give a shout-out to my uncle who always told me that I am a go-getter and I do what I set my mind to. However, recently, in the past couple of years, the person who has given me encouragement to grow is the CEO of Techna himself, Doug Williams. He offered me my first internship and now, for the first time in 12 years, I have one job that lets me blend everything I like into it, and has allowed me to find more strengths and interests. He has also encouraged me to write a book, and take on being the new business owner of Techna. I am grateful for him and the opportunities he has given me.

My key to success is to make your own choices and take your own actions. There is nothing wrong with collecting the thoughts and opinions of who you want, in fact, I do that almost all the time. But after I do, I take all of the responses and combine them to make the best action for myself, and to make the choice that follows my own beliefs and heart. It is good to get other opinions because everyone has a different view and thinks differently. This gives you a 360 view of what you are looking to answer.