In a world where attention is currency, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to attract the eyes and ears of your target market. However, having a good understanding of your small business and target audience will help you choose the right digital marketing strategies to channel your marketing efforts on in Nigeria. This is particularly so because not every digital marketing channel should be considered by a business owner.
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This post covers some of the most effective ways to grow your small business in an increasingly competitive marketplace. With millions of businesses out there all vying for the same eyeballs, it’s never been more important to advertise online, and the following best digital marketing strategies for small businesses in Nigeria are the most effective ways to promote your products and grow your business.
Search engine optimization
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the process of getting traffic from the free, organic, editorial or natural search results on search engines. So, generally all the activities done on your website to ensure you get and enjoy natural traffic from search engines is called SEO.
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For a more effective SEO, you need to include keywords or phrases that reflect your business’ services or product offerings. By so doing, your business will appear whenever a potential customer searches for your product or service on search engines.
No doubt, users trust search engines and having a presence in the top positions for the keywords the user is searching, increases the web site’s trust. Search engines serve millions of users per day looking for answers to their questions or for solutions to their problems. If you have a web site, blog or online store, SEO can help your business grow and meet the business objectives.
Thus, when your contents are in line with topics your target audience is interested in, your business connects with the right prospects, who are likely to be interested in your brand’s service or product offerings.
Undoubtedly, it is a very effective digital marketing strategy that should be utilized by small business owners who are willing to take their businesses to greater heights both in and outside Nigeria.
Google my business (GMB)
If you are a business owner, there are several benefits of using your ‘Google My Business’ profile to enhance your online visibility. GMB is a free business listing on one of the biggest search engines on the internet, putting your business in front of many potential customers.
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Google my business page plays a vital role to rank any website. You may not even realize that Google my business (GMB) is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google.
Your GMB listing gives potential clients easy access to your hours of operation, phone number, website and directions with a click of a button—all at no cost to you. Your free GMB page also gives customers an inside look at your business by giving insight into your busiest hours as well as review ratings.
With so many potential buyers actively using search engines, websites, apps and social media to decide on the best product or service, you have to be visible and provide the best experience to help them choose your brand.
As internet marketing is becoming more and more necessary for a company, not understanding the best way to drive your business forward can really hurt your chances of success especially in Nigeria.
Content marketing
Content marketing is simply creating and sharing non-promotional content. Content in the form of blog posts, guest posts, videos, and podcasts are all fantastic ways to promote small and medium scale businesses.
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Content marketing is one of the most important digital marketing techniques because no digital marketing channel can stand alone or thrive without content.
Content marketing doesn’t apply to only written content like blog posts, website pages, and e-books. It also consists of videos, social media posts, and webinars.
However, website blogging is one of the most popular content marketing strategies. Regularly updated blogs provide organic visibility and drive inbound traffic to your site. Your blog can house any number of different content formats: written copy, infographics, white-papers, case studies, and more. Videos are also a huge component of content with many opportunities to engage and even educate your customers.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing allows you to reach and engage the audience by providing them with good quality content and engaging posts. It is a one of once best digital marketing strategies to increase engagement and traffic to your small business in Nigeria.
There are various social media platforms available such as; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn etc for small businesses to use in optimizing their business growth.
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Luckily, you don’t have to be an expert on all social media platforms. You’re only required to figure out the platform(s) where your audience seems to be more active and utilize it for your business advantage. This is so because social media networks allow you to reach and engage prospects where they are most active.
Simply spend time on these platform(s) , provide timely responses to the inquiries of your audience, converse and engage with them regularly, and ensure your page looks attractive and organized.
There is also a live streaming feature on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter which helps you to engage your prospects in real-time thus providing you with amazing results. For instance, one study found that Facebook users comment 10 times more on Live videos than on regular posts.
Email marketing
Email marketing is simply the process of sending emails about your business to email contacts you have built over time. You can simply set up an opt-in email list on your website that allows your customers to sign up to receive emails from your small business.
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Email marketing is an effective digital marketing strategy and it is growing to be amongst the most important digital marketing channels for small businesses to reach their target audience in Nigeria and beyond.
It is recommended that messages you send via email marketing should not always be promotional, rather you should utilize this channel to engage your audience with unique as well as value-filled content. More so, a good email marketing strategy entails that you offer specialized content to every customer.
To be noted that email marketing is not so effective in bringing new clients. It is, however, very effective in turning leads to sales and increase retention or brand loyalty. If this is your goal, ensure your emails are value-filled as you adopt this digital marketing strategy for your small business in Nigeria.
Affiliate marketing
A small business can drive huge sales through affiliate marketing as an effective digital marketing strategy if they advertise with affiliate marketing sites that know their onion. One can track the sales made using affiliate links, check out how to track affiliate links in Nigeria.
Affiliate marketing is one of the many kinds of performance-based marketing, where a business owner pays one or more affiliates for every customer that patronized the business through the affiliate’s marketing activities. This has been made easier and more effective on the realization that one can do affiliate marketing without a website or blog.
An affiliate is no other but someone who promotes or markets a product in an attractive way that make buyers interested in the product. The business owner pays the affiliate marketer commission(s) for marketing a product or deal.
Thus, unlike referral marketing, affiliate marketing drives sales through financial motivations, whereas referral marketing drives sales via trust and personal relationships. However, both forms of marketing drive sales to the business owner through third parties.
That’s it! you’re to choose the right digital marketing strategy that suits your business needs, explore it and increase profit for your small business in Nigeria.
Just like you don’t have to chase every marketing strategy, you don’t need to have a social campaign for every platform. Concentrate on the one or two that will best reach your target audience. Make sure the content you’re sharing will do well on that platform.
Thus, the indispensable need for this article on the best digital marketing strategies to adopt for optimal performance of your small businesses in Nigeria.
