Nigerian business owners have been called upon to embrace digital marketing platforms revolutionising markets across the world by digital marketing expert Abasiama Idiaresit, in order to better access their customer base.
The MD of Lagos digital marketing company Wildfusion says many Nigerian businesses are yet to benefit from platforms such as mobile marketing through which they can reach their targeted costumers.
He states that such businesses stand the risk of being left behind due to the fact that the marketing terrain has changed greatly, not just in Nigeria, but across the world.
“The media consumption landscape has changed considerably so if people are yet to make up their minds at this time on whether to join in the revolution of digital marketing or not, then they are losing out,” he said.
While reiterating the need for Nigerian businesses to use mobile platforms to reach out to more people, he mentioned recent reports that showed a huge proportion of Africans access Facebook and Google via their mobile phones.
He commended the efforts of Etisalat Nigeria through the company’s EasyAdz campaign, which he said is driving digital marketing, but decried the behaviour of advertisers in Nigeria. According to him, they run campaigns “without the element of mobile or digital marketing [and] it greatly reduces the potential of the campaign to succeed. Advertisers need to understand their audience, their interests, the number of people on their platform and how they make effective use of the media”.
He noted that the biggest challenge which is militating against the introduction of digital marketing is poor machineries for information dissemination.
“Our primary role now is to educate Nigerians on the advantages of digital marketing as well as the huge potential it holds for the future. People will not use what they do not understand, so it is very important that we continue to educate them, train them, to partner with advertisers and agencies to promote the new platform,” he said.
On the feasibility of digital marketing in Nigeria, he said it has already been tested in the nation and he added that “those who have used the platform have testified that it worked for them”.
