Digital Marketing: The New Way of Doing Business

In 30 years the internet has risen to become unarguably the world’s number one obsession and many businesses in developed nations are cashing-in on the frenzy to market and expand their businesses. In Nigeria, the bug is catching on with 11 million users having access to the internet. Joseph Ekeng and Blessing Nwobodo take a look at how the internet can be useful to Nigerian businesses.

It is a pretty difficult terrain in Nigeria for businesses. People who desire to start small and grow their ventures face an uphill task. The problem of roads, power, trained manpower, inconsistent government policies, multiple taxation and many more are among the challenges confronting businesses. Theses problems are not limited to the small businesses, the multinationals and big indigenous corporations also have them to contend with
Finance, the livewire of business has become very scarce, no thanks to the global economic meltdown. But while many businesses in Nigeria continue to grapple with the problems of infrastructure and cash, Olufunke Alabi, after some initial setbacks, seems to have found a way through. Alabi, CEO of Mercy Link Mother and Superstore, specialists in importing baby and maternity wears, is a testimony of the wonders of digital marketing. Yet, she started-off on a frustrating note, probing every nook and cranny of Lagos in the bid to market her products to reluctant buyers.
In over a year of intense marketing her efforts paid off very little, but all these changed as soon as she embraced online marketing. “We had about 5500 pieces of clothing items and for like a year we were trying to sell. There is no area I have not been to in this Lagos – Abule Egba, Sango and a lot of other places. Sometimes, my car will get bad because of bumpy roads, yet, people will tell you stories. To the glory of God when I met them (Wildfusion, a digital marketing company) in like a month we sold over 4000 clothing items. We have less than 100 left,” Alabi happily enthuses.
Alabi’s business has been helped by Google search engine which makes it possible for her to reach her target market directly without spending a fortune. So, every time the code word pregnancy is searched on Google, Mercy Link Mother and Superstores appears as one of the sponsored links. And when you click on it, her internet website immediately opens. This model of marketing is still an abstract concept for most business owners in Nigeria. Most businesses are still holding tight to the traditional marketing channels, wondering if digitalization really works.
In America and other civilized countries, digital marketing has become a huge business culture with millions of people logging on to the internet to transact various forms of businesses on a daily basis.
A few weeks back Facebook, a social media and one of the most visited internet websites, crossed the 400million subscriber mark. Social networking sites have become a huge obsession all over the world. Other social media like Twitter, Hi5, Myspace and Google Answers also have huge followership. Many foreign companies are already utilizing these opportunities to enhance their relationships with their customers and grow their trade. Some of the companies that have made remarkable successes of this are Coke, Starbucks, Nike and several others.
In Nigeria, the internet marketing buzz is also creeping in. Despite the country’s poor infrastructural status and slow internet access, there is a surge in the number of Nigerian internet users. “We have about 11 million Nigerians online and this is a modest estimate. Nigeria is the second largest online audience in Africa after Egypt according to internetworldstats.com research,” Abasiama Idaresit a senior consultant with Wildfusion, the company managing Mercy Link’s account on Google says. Google is one of the most popular websites in the world, so is Yahoo.com, Facebook and Yahoo.

Nigeria’s Expanding Digital Market
The fast growing interest in the internet is already causing some of the top web companies to look in the way of Nigeria. Idaresit believes the possibilities of digital marketing could increase significantly in a short while as soon as more Nigerians get online and the state of infrastructure in Nigeria improves. Recently Wildfusion announced a deal which allows it to exclusively represent Facebook in Nigeria. Wildfusion, which also represents Google, MTV, MSN, BBC and BBC mobile, told M2 that the launch of Facebook Nigeria is scheduled for April 2010, alongside BBC and MSN.
“As soon as Globacom finishes laying its cable, internet access will become cheaper. By that time we’ll have 30-40 percent of our population online then you will be talking about a very huge market. But for now the market is still growing. By next year am sure Nigeria will be the biggest audience in Africa and that is a great opportunity for digital marketing,” Idaresit says.
In 2007, Yahoo also made a bold entrance into the Nigerian market picking Seedmedia, led by Dominic Essien, as its Nigerian representative. Nigeria is regarded as one of the biggest Yahoo user communities in Africa with an estimated online presence of over five million users monthly.
Perhaps, the greatest advantage of new media is not the large volume of user communities, but the ability to directly reach target markets and measure the success level of marketing campaigns. This is achieved by a Google analytics solution that gives rich insights into customers’ website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Leo Omoregie, one of three Google analytic experts in Nigeria says, “This initiative makes it possible to write better-targeted ads, strengthen marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.”
Besides it is even cheaper because customers only pay-per-click. “It is cheaper than advertising in the newspapers because here you get to the direct target. When you advertise in newspapers, you are not sure who will read it,” she maintains. Besides, Google’s analytical tool even allows for more exciting possibilities like geo-targeting which allows advertisers target people based on their geographic location, for example, male Nigerian or female Nigerian age group, according to Omorgie.
Idaresit is also a Google qualified professional. As Google analytics, Omoregie and Idaresit are licenced by Google to derive codes which allows for study of online traffic, making it possible to focus campaigns in the direction of traffic. Omoregie explains that “If you have a target market – like some products are highly targeted – what we do is to install the codes and that helps to trace where traffic is coming from.”
Despite its prospects, the popularity of new media is low. But with the problem of cash cost and the rising cost of using traditional advertising, many companies are already looking for cheaper ways to get across to the market. Femi Adeniran, Head Corporate Affairs of Guaranty Trust Bank, confirms this saying that the global economic meltdown has created a squeeze on the marketing budget of the bank, forcing them to consider new media as part of their marketing efforts for the year.
Wildfusion is already reaching out to small scale businesses, encouraging them to use internet marketing for the expansion of their ventures. “A tool like Google Adwords is an amazing platform to drive sales and increase awareness. With a small budget, an SME can get more targeted visibility than any other medium can offer.
“We have spoken and worked with a lot of SMEs and the results has been very impressive. We actually have a unit of Google qualified professionals whose primary focus are the SMEs. We intend to reach more small businesses with our products and services,” the company discloses.
Judging from Alade’s experience, digital marketing could be a more realistic way to do business in Nigeria, especially for businesses who cannot afford the high cost of advertising in traditional media.