I strongly believe the time has come for Nigerian businesses, event organizers, and institutions to go advanced in their digital marketing campaigns. Marketing has been existing before the advent of the internet and the concept of marketing hasn’t changed, marketing is all about satisfying consumers profitably. In Nigeria, it is high time digital marketing/advertising moves away from this brainwash PPC, PPM, PPA, etc. I call it brainwashing because all these are just payment metrics and tiny aspects of internet digital marketing, which deals on payment only, unfortunately, giant companies in PPC and PPM promote them as if that is marketing, some even give people certificates for it and tell them that is what they need to succeed. You don’t blame these companies, their marketers know what they’re doing, this is why you need to know what you’re doing too, otherwise, hire a digital marketing agency that is run by marketers who know what they’re doing also, such as AdHang.

In digital marketing, the payment method is just one, out of over 100 things to look into for successful digital marketing campaigns in Nigeria and any part of the world.  This is where advanced digital marketing comes in. It’s important to tell you upfront, non of the things I’m going to mention is more or less important than the other, it all depends on who or what the digital marketing is trying to promote or market, objectives and goals to achieve; whether is for business, event marketing, online public relation, public figures campaign or institution such as school, church or government. For example, business to business approach will be different from the business to consumer approach, also corporate advertising approach (which aims are to build image and enhance the prestige of organization) will be different from consumer advertising( which aims are to directly stimulate demand for a product and make sales) and so on.

This post today will try to mention few things that go into advanced internet digital marketing that will help your business or institution to successfully achieve its aims. First, we assumed you have done your homework about what you’re bringing to the public, and also fulfill your industry’s or sector’s regulatory requirements if that is needed on your niche. This is important to ensure nothing impedes your efforts in a long run. Now, you’re good to go to let the public or target audiences know about the thing you want to market or promote.

  • What to market/promote can be any of the below
  1. Product (car, house, soap, furniture, drug, television, food item, cloth, computer, etc).
  2. Service (banking, legal, construction, maintenance, transportation, repair, writing, etc).
  3. Person (public figures such as politicians, activists, musicians, lawyers, etc).
  4. Event (rally, concert, crusade, trade show. etc).
  5. Experience (better life, easy process, uniting family together, saving time, etc).
  6. Knowledge (school, book, etc).
  7. Place (country, state, tourism’s location, city, etc).

These are things digital marketing can help you market online in Nigeria and any part of the world. Let’s use the first one for the rest of the article, which is “product” for easy understanding because it is most common.

  • Product

There is what is called a product life cycle, digital marketing can be created to market products at any stage. If you hire an advanced digital marketing agency such as AdHang.  AdHang will like to know few things before digital marketing can be created for good results.  Because different product stages need different digital marketing tools to achieve your goals in the marketplace, depending on your company’s understanding of its product’s stage in the target market, e.g., Nigeria’s market.

In the product life cycle, there is an “introduction stage”, “growth stage”, “maturity stage” and ”decline stage”. Each of these stages has a unique strategic approach in creating its digital marketing or internet advertising of the product. A product can be in the decline stage in the USA, in the Introduction stage in Nigeria, the Growth stage in South Africa, while Maturity state in the UK. What this means is that the country or region you want to sell the product and its stage will determine what/how/who the digital marketing will be developed for.  If the product is targeted at Nigeria (still in the “Introduction stage”) AdHang will create series of strategic digital marketing for the following 7 objectives:

  1. To inform (creating awareness, educating the target audience, and establishing the brand).
  2. To persuade (stimulating demand, increasing of sales and running a comparative advertising ads).
  3. To Remind (reminding an audience about product existence in the market).
  4. To Reinforce (what stands you out in the marketplace, benefits, values, etc).

5. —————————————————————————————————

6. —————————————————————————————————

7. —————————————————————————————————

The 5-7 are more advanced levels. I stopped at the “4” as this is enough to explain this.

  • Situation analysis (Swot analysis is part of this), which will review below things:
  1. Potential customers to know who they are, what is their online behavior and preferences
  2. Competitors to know who they’re, what is their digital marketing strategy, how effective are their strategy compared to yours. Attention will also be given to latent competitors’ i.e those who are not in the same niche as you, but their product can solve the same need. For example coca cola sells soft drink; its latent competitors are products that can quench thirst, such as water, fruit juice etc.
  3. The Market, conduct a PESTLE (political, economic, social, technological, legal and environment factors) analysis.
  4. Core competencies to know what you’re capable of doing that can make buyers seek your product as a superior alternative in the marketplace.
  • Target audience for the product.

Who is your product meant for?  A day to 9 years old, teenagers: 10 to 19 years old, young adult: 20 to 40 years old, middle-age adult: 40 to 65 years old, old folks: 65 and above. Male/female or both, educated folks or not, for a business further production or consumers?

  • Component of digital marketing to employ

In digital marketing, there’re 6 components of digital marketing such as online display, search engine marketing, influencer marketing, mobile marketing, and social media marketing.  Each of these components has strengths and weaknesses, depends on the stage of your product in the marketplace and each component further has elements, for example, elements of online social media are wiki site, social networking site, online forum site, video site, photo sharing site, news aggregator site, file sharing site, etc.

  • Digital marketing tools to use that are best for achieving results

There’re assorted digital marketing tools that can be used in different ways and different times to accelerate your recognition and dominate the scene in the marketplace.

Some of internet digital marketing tools are video, educative article, banner, ebook, newsletter, internet press release, bulk email, sales article, reviews, online interviews, webinar, blog, white paper, QR code, bulk sms, fanpage, website, Infographic, photo/image, application, and the list goes on.

Note: You must have noticed that I didn’t mention costs and platforms. These are basic and very amateur to think about cost and platform first while starting your organization’s digital marketing, if you do (unless you know what you’re doing), I guarantee you 100% you will lose that money. Because the cost of digital marketing is never a problem, there’re folks out there who are ready to take your money, also there’re cheap, even free advertising platforms out there. The difference is effectiveness and really getting ahead in the marketplace not cost and platforms.

Now, why did you need advanced digital marketing in Nigeria?

You need advanced digital marketing in achieving virtually all marketing aims, especially if you want to get ahead in the niche you serve. Below are few reasons for advanced digital marketing:

  • To win away attention from competitors
  • To accelerate your recognition around Nigeria
  • To reach millions of Nigerians faster
  • To professionally present your company or brand to the public
  • To increase market share quicker
  • To acquire mind share in marketplace in Nigeria easier
  • To protect your market against competitors both local and from international ones
  • To remain relevant to the market all around the clock
  • To increase sales of products and services in Nigeria faster
  • To stand out in the Nigerian marketplace in the eyes of the consumers.