Many business owners like you, and even big government corporations, have realized that digital marketing increases sales. This is why they are engaging in digital marketing services to create brand awareness to help their business grow. The traditional methods of doing business are not sufficient anymore. The way we interact is constantly evolving. First, it was the print media, then we had the radio, television, and internet. With just an email you could communicate with a business partner or client in a few seconds. But today, we now use instant messaging. One could get the message the moment you send it. Thanks to social media.
We recently discussed this with one of our clients. He had requested our digital marketing agency to manage his social media business pages. He contacted us to run ads to generate leads for his business. As we usually do for all our clients, we asked him why he took that decision. What convinced him to believe that investing in online marketing was a profitable venture?
One of his partners in Lagos had informed him that the secret to his business growth is digital marketing. This man uses the internet and social media for promoting and selling his products. He reported that 70% of his sales are online and he believes it will increase.
Have you wondered how this is possible in Nigeria? We know that Nigerians, just like most underdeveloped countries in Africa, have trust issues. They are skeptical about buying things online. But this business report from a major importer in Lagos, Nigeria revolutionized the thinking of my client, and am sure you are wondering how to increase sales through digital marketing for your own business.
With the recent pandemic of 2020, there has been a rapid paradigm shift in how people view online Business in Nigeria. If you want to remain relevant in business and increase sales, your business must be online-driven and maintained by digital marketing.
What is an Online Business?
I want to share the top six reasons why digital marketing increases sales and why your business should be online. However, let me first define what an online business is. Online business refers to the various business activities that happen on the Internet. Now let’s break it down. For the regular store, a client has to walk down to a particular physical location and make a purchase. But for an online business, a client has to go to what we call an eCommerce store on the internet and pay for a product or service. The goods or services will be delivered based upon agreed conditions. Online businesses are usually run together with the use of social media. Social media is used to drive traffic of internet users to a business website where the online store is located.
6 Reasons Your Business Needs to be Online
Here are some of the reasons why you need to make the visibility of your business improved by placing its content in the digital space:
1. Your customers are online
Reach your clients where they are. You need to be seen. Your business visibility improves the level of traffic you get which in turn leads to sales. Today, almost everything is done online. A significant population of the world is online and you need to be there to meet them.
According to Dave Chaffey, a top social media strategist (Dec 6, 2021), 57.6% of the world’s population uses social media. The average daily usage is 2 hours and 27 minutes (October 2021). According to Digital Nigeria, in 2020, Nigeria had 99.05 million internet users. This figure is projected to grow to 131.7 million internet users in 2023. Interpenetration amounted to 46.6 percent of the population in 2020 and is set to reach 65.2 percent in 2025.
Nigeria is one of the most populous countries worldwide. You will agree with me that this is a very large market area to explore and if you choose to fish at the wrong spot, you will never catch a single fish. Likewise, if you want to have customers to patronize your goods and services, you need to place your store where the customers are easily accessible–online.
2. Wider Audience Reach and Greater Visibility:
For context, as of December 2019, the total worldwide population was 7.8 billion. The internet had 4.54 billion users. There were 3.725 billion active social media users. On average, people have 7.6 social media accounts. The average daily time spent on social is 142 minutes a day. 91% of retail brands use two or more social media channels. 81% of all small and medium businesses use some kind of social platform. Social media users grew by 328 million between October 2018 and October 2019. Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp handle 60 billion messages a day. When asked, 81% of teenagers felt social media has a positive effect on their lives. Given the above statistics, it is very evident that your business can have a wider reach and greater visibility by having an online presence.
3. Digital Marketing Increases Sales
Companies selling on social media get 119% better Returns on Investments when compared to traditional sales tactics (Source: Social Media Today). Generally, while using the traditional marketing method, what you are required to do is to place a store in a physical strategic location. You beautify it to attract customers, and then run ads through the print media or mainstream media like radio or television. Experienced marketing executives know that running ads using print media still works, if not they would not continue to invest in it.
However, when you use social media and the internet for business, the social media platforms offer you a 360-degree view of the customer. This allows you to personalize your offers to clients through data generated by algorithms based on the websites they visit. What do I mean by that? Based on customer behavior on the internet, the algorithms can tell if a client would need, a wristwatch or a car for example. What internet users search for is an indication of their buying intent to some degree. This information allows you to target that customer. This is because you know from available data that there is a greater chance that he will buy when an offer is made. Because of this personalized method of marketing, the success rate for returns on investment is exceptionally high. As a result of the digital marketing tools available, we can see that digital marketing increases sales. It is also worth noting that some factors might impede sales even when done online but we shall discuss this in a future blog post.
4. Greater Confidence in your Business
Before a website or social media business page is approved for use on the internet, it has to undergo verification. For Google to verify your business and place it on the map, you need to stay in your store and mark your physical location on Google Maps. So, putting up your business online, in a way improves the credibility of your business. In addition, influencers on social media help to build brand trust. Almost half of the customers depend on influencer recommendations on social media. So, if you want to improve your credibility before your clients you need to place your business in the digital space.
5. Your Competitors are Already There
As mentioned earlier, 91% of retail brands use two or more social media channels and 81% of all small and medium businesses use some kind of social platform. If most businesses, including your competitors, are already there using social media or digital marketing to market their products and services, then it tells you that you also need to be there to get your share of the market. Refusing to go online would allow your competitors to scoop all the customers in the available online market. This has a great potential of kicking you out of business.
6. Relatively Lower Advertising Cost
Running an advert on television or even in the newspapers is relatively expensive. An ad on television may not necessarily reach your desired target audience. However, with social media advertisements like Google ads, you can target your ideal customer with almost 1an 00% success rate. You can do this at a relatively lower advertising cost. A one-month campaign on social media for brand awareness may cost you $150 whereas you could use the same amount and it would not even be sufficient to pay for a quarter page of a Newspaper ad that would be read for just one day.
Conclusion
For you to take your business to the next level you must be online. In order to explore the wide opportunities for growth and expansion, you need to place your business online. You need to use digital marketing to boost your sales. This can be done by creating social media pages, building a business website, or an eCommerce store. You can even put the physical address of your store on a Google map too. What if you do not have the time to do this? Where can you get one of the best digital marketing agencies in Nigeria? NAITECH Digital, a digital marketing agency in Abuja, Nigeria can be the solution to all your digital marketing needs. The agency offers a wide variety of services that can help you establish your business online so you can start making money. Check out their services here: https://www.naitech.ng/services/
In my future blog post, I am going to share how you can determine the best digital marketing agencies near you. I can’t wait to see you achieve your goals.
Good luck!
