An expert has advised owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to tap into e-channels to expand their businesses, saying digital marketing provided a cheaper means of reaching out to target customers.
Wale Onibudo, a representative of VConnect.com, Nigeria’s largest local search engine and information service provider, revealed this while speaking at a one-day conference organised for owners of SMEs in Lagos.
He noted that in the past many companies printed fliers in large amounts and distributed them to as many people as possible, but it is now possible to reach more people with just the soft copy of the flier.
He said: “The soft copy of the same flier that ought to be printed in thousands could be embedded in email marketing, reaching as many people as you want. “
He added that with Vconnect, SMEs now have a platform where they can gain online presence and gain more visibility.
He said: “You (SMEs owners) can give your business online visibility. You can actually spend less and reach out to more people. Billboards are expensive, that’s just the truth of the matter. But you can start small and end big.
“For Nike for instance, people don’t have to see the alphabets before they know it’s the brand. Once they see the mark logo, they know it is Nike. In Nigeria also, many companies have built their brands and had gotten maximum visibility.
“Your online presence can actually fetch you a lot of money. Your video can go viral and you can at the end of the day know that you are plowing that money back to your business. You can also be using targeted SMS, video marketing and so on.
