- Tolu Adebayo
People failed for different reasons, one of them is lack of preparation, another reason is lack of adequate effort or knowledge.
Failure is not a good thing because it’s not inevitable in marketing. Making money online requires some little understanding of marketing.
The purpose of marketing is to showcase you or your products to those that need it.
Nothing just happen, if you see anyone making money online, they must have made enough preparation.
I do not rule out the fact that the digital platform is full of innovation and this call for a lot of innovation on the path of whosoever want to make money online in Nigeria.
It is also true that some digital tools are not accessible to Nigerian as some other state. While we cannot focus on what we do not have, let us discuss how we maximize what we have, for the next seven days, we will be discuss why marketing failure and i will underline things that leads to marketing failure to you.
Your ability to understand these things make it difficult for your business to fail in marketing. If you are embarking on any journey, the joy of getting there is in the understanding of destination.
As an organisation you need to know where you are going. Each department within your organisation need to understand a set of goals that takes the organisation to the set destination.
This is what we called marketing strategy. Remember, strategy is a lot of planning, plotting, executing and re-examine. Marketing strategy allows you to measure your growth either daily or weekly.
What is your content creation goals like? To write great articles per day or to speak to the press daily? To go live during events or during the weekend?
There is no room for vacuum if you have a marketing strategy. Are you planning to use paid ads and what are you planning to use paid ad for? Have you examine anyone doing that and what is thier success rate?
Can I interest you with top marketing strategy that can save you from marketing failure?
Little advice is that you need more than one strategy. You need a strategy for every opportunity.
Growing a business in Nigeria isn’t easy. First, you need a viable idea.
From there, you need to discover a profitable niche, define a target demographic and have something of value to sell them.
By way of defining, marketing strategy is a set of actions you consider professional for you to take in making sales, building brand and keep relationship with the brand.
How do you get your message to the right audience and do it effectively is what we called marketing strategy.
How do you boost visibility and increase sales while sustaining a profit with a converting offer is what we called marketing strategy. It’s not cast as stones. You need a unique strategy for your peculiarities although very similar sometimes.
The truth is that what got you to this point in business is likely not going to get you to the next level.
If you’re feeling stuck, join the fray, ask a professional, make some more enquiry after reading this for implementation. Most entrepreneurs are so busy working “in” their businesses that they fail to work “on” their businesses.
As a result of dealing with the day-to-day operations of a company that includes customer hand-holding, supply-chain demands and more, we often neglect to wield the right marketing strategies that will help fuel our business’s growth.
1). Use social media heavily
In the digital age, you can’t ignore social media because it is the new normal. Some businesses have been built solely on the backs of social media.
It can be intimidating at first. Sure. But as you build momentum, you’ll find posting on social media to get easier over time.
Of course, you could also hire a social media manager if you have money but if you don’t, just be yourself. Be authentic.
Post your audience thoughts. Post your products preceding a good engagement with audiences.
Post only things that you find relevant and useful that would help your audience either learn more about you and your business, or about the industry that you’re in. DM marketing is still working, manner and approach is the willpower.
2). Create audio and video tutorials.
One of the most effective ways to get the word out on your business is to create video tutorials.
Teach people something useful related to your products and services. Walk them through it,it is called utility content. Make them smile because they got rhe answer through you.
Hold their hands and build relationships. The better you are at this, and the more value you provide, the quicker you can boost your visibility, and ultimately, your sales.
Be on the first, second and third largest search engine, Google, YouTube and Podcast respectively. If there is nothing to teach, i think there is something to respond to or clarify.
3). Start blogging now.
Your strategy really need to be built around content creation. Sure, you could start a blog.
Blogging has really transform recently. It is not about having a web space again, it’s about engaging people on the digital platform.
Now, you can blog, using Twitter or Facebook, YouTube or Instagram.
Blogging is no longer about writing a log of details that you feel to share. It’s about connect with people through audio, video, graphics and chats.
If you don’t have a blog for your business, then you need to start one immediately.
You don’t need to start from scratch, start with your Facebook fan page, keep building it.
But this isn’t just about posting your ideas on your own blog. You should start authority blogging.
Use platforms like Medium to post content. Answer questions on Quora and Reddit. Or get out there onto LinkedIn’s publishing platform.
These are all authority domains that anyone can post on, which have massive audiences, giving you instant and immediate reach right now.
When you do blog, ensure that you blog effectively. Don’t post thin content. Think about adding value.
Worried about revealing all your business secrets? Don’t be. Give away the farm.
Give people so much value that you instantly become an authority in their eyes. This is one of the most powerful strategies you can use to market any business.
4). SEO Matters!
The live of your engagement online is search. This is an era of search, the period of asking a co-worker is fast gone.
People ask Google a lot now.
This is an area of marketing that I’m incredibly passionate about. Yes, SEO can be frightening if did not know it all about being searchable.
But it can also be powerful. And when you learn to leverage it and you learn SEO the right way, the sky truly is the limit.
When you master Search Engine Optimisation, it become easier for your unique content to be found.
This alone can double your sales periodically. Create evergreen contents (contents that will always be useful)
5). Leverage influencers.
They are not common people like you, they are delightful people who has influence on the delightful people that you are looking for business.
If you want to get the word out there and boost your visibility on social media without taking years to build the audience, influencer is the short code.
But the key is to find the right influencer.
You don’t have to go with influencers with millions of followers. You could opt for micro-influencers with tens of thousands or even a hundred thousand followers.
The trick? Find the right influencer in your niche so that you’re targeting the right audience. It’s about getting the right people. If you can do that properly, then you can likely reach a sizable audience.
6). Build a great lead magnet.
So much effectiveness in marketing really does boil down to creating a great lead magnet. I’ve found that the right lead magnet presented to the right audience can have explosive results.
The best way to do this is if you can identify the right pain points and present a solution in your lead magnet, then you’re well on your way.
What problem are consumers facing in your niche? What made you get into business in the first place? Ask yourself these questions before building out your lead magnet.
The better you identify the problem or pain points at the outset, the better you’ll be at actually addressing that with a solution in your lead magnet.
That could either be an ebook, a cheat sheet, a checklist, a video and others. The better it is, the more effective you’ll be at reaching your audience.
7). Use Facebook ads with re-targeting.
One of the most powerful methods you can use to market just about anything these days are Facebook ads.
With Facebook, you can reach a very specific audience and you can do it very easily. You can target by interest, age, relationships status, geographic location, and so much much more.
You have to focus on conversions and re-targeting through pixels. If you don’t know how to install the Facebook Pixel on your site, then you absolutely must learn how to do this right now. Even if you’re not running Facebook ads, you can build your audience with a pixel.
Pixels track everyone who comes to your site, and you can build custom audiences around them.
8). Use LinkedIn the right way.
Do you have a video on your LinkedIn profile? Did you know that you can easily add one? Why not take the time to introduce yourself and your business.
Link that to your profile description. This is an easy way to passively market your business, and when it’s done right, it can lead to shocking results.
If you have lots of connections on LinkedIn and you’re not really posting on there, start immediately.
You can reach a large audience, especially when your posts go viral. This is a great place to convey the entrepreneurial journey.
Talk about your challenges and tell stories. The more effective your stories, the larger your potential reach when you go viral.
9). Create an affiliate program.
Most people don’t understand the power of affiliate marketing. Affiliates can provide massive fuel for growth.
But approaching the right partners isn’t always that easy. You have to have good conversion if you want the bigger affiliate to take you seriously.
I’ve found that navigating the affiliate minefield can be tricky. It takes persistence and it takes true grit to make it through.
Most of us get discouraged after a few setbacks, but you can’t allow emotions to get in the way when it comes to affiliate. Build an affiliate program and start reaching out to potential affiliate who can assist you.
10). Use WhatsApp Messenger
There is a lot you can get from chat app like WhatsApp in Nigeria. While so many are still tie to Facebook Messenger, another alternative to Facebook Messenger is WhatsApp.
You can use it to initiate relationship as well as sustain relationship. You can use WhatsApp to track between order and delivery.
There is more you can do with WhatsApp from WhatsApp group to WhatsApp broadcast messages, you can get your message out there, conveniently.
This app is more in use than Gmail. It is a very addictive and responsive. Take responsibility for what you share and who you relate with on these loose end apps.
Finally, what are the best marketing strategies to use?
There is no obvious and clear answer to that question that covers all situations.
But there are things that can be done today, right now, even on a shoestring budget, to reach more customers without breaking the bank.
However, it all boils down to time. If you lack the money, you sure better have the time to put in the sweat equity.
If you have any question, kindly contact Tolu Adebayo on twitter @MegaTolu.
Remember, the people you are looking for are aslo looking for you, what are you doing?
