Nigeria Info (95.1 FM) played host to me on their morning crossfire show were i shared insights on digital marketing, the background of Nativedge and how businesses can use the power of the internet to boost their lead acquisition and make more more for their business.
Chinonso my assistant has done a wonderful job transcribing the interview into text here but if you would like to listen to the Audio please click the link below. Otherwise continue reading and dont forget to leave a comment in the comments box below if you have any questions.
Swat: It’s a pleasure knowing that you’re out there listening to the Number one news, talk and sports station 95.1 Nigeria Info. Thank you for listening. If you’re listening from your cars, your homes, your offices, well you are with the right station this morning and its all about digital marketing this morning as we have been joined by Daniel (he said I should not call him Mr.) Obaike.
Can you give us some background about your company Nativedge and what digital marketing is all about?
Daniel Obaike: Nativedge is a digital marketing firm resident here in Abuja and we try to help business win on the internet by offering services that could attract customers to their websites and make them more money.
We are able to achieve this through nine (9) services which we offer we have social media marketing, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC), online reputation management, web design and digital marketing strategies.
Swat: OK, why did you launch Nativedge?
Daniel Obaike: Very interesting question there Swat, we all know how much internet penetration has gone in Nigeria, and the last statistics released by NCC as at June of 2015 says that we have 83 million people connected to the internet from Nigeria.
Swat: Are you sure that has not increased, I think it’s over a hundred
Daniel Obaike: yea
Swat: That’s the latest I’m giving you the latest now
Daniel Obaike: That’s as of June last year
Swat: Ok that was as at June 2015
Daniel Obaike: Coming to think of it, if you have 83 million people connected to the internet you have stories in develop countries of people using the internet to make money. Of course we all have the music phenomenon PSY with his Gangnam style video.
This was a YouTube hit he got all of his success from YouTube that is the power of digital marketing and you know in Nigeria people are kind of sceptical about digital marketing you know you have all of them get rich schemes on the internet you know unfortunately we are known for the wrong reasons on the internet you hear all the stories of them yahoo boys and all of that
Swat: Yea
Daniel Obaike: But that’s the low side of the internet, you have big companies going on social media and all that, the big question is how you can as a small business, how can you as a business in Nigeria take advantage of the internet to make money.
And that’s what we do we want to be able to educate and enlighten people to use the power of the internet to make money for their business.
Swat: I like the word power of the internet because get to hear of people breaking the internet with maybe their pictures or something so how much more businesses but then that’s leading me to my next question why is digital marketing important for businesses?
Daniel Obaike: Digital marketing is important obviously for business like I said earlier because you have a good population of Nigerians going on the internet, the internet obviously has changed the way we think.
It has changed the way we live our lives if you want to buy something the first thing you probably do will be to google it, people are in an argument in a friendly gathering and you know the best way to resolve that argument will be to google it.
Therefore the internet has obviously changed the way we think you know and its moved beyond just social gatherings or social conversation its moved to business, businesses are on the internet the consumers are on the internet and the internet is defining their buying pattern and the best way to tap into that community of internet users remember 83million is quite a huge community and taping into that crowd is powerful.
Swat: Ok so tell me how can a business make money on the internet and then the role that digital marketing plays?
Daniel Obaike: Fantastic, a business can make money on the internet first of all by having people visit their website and that’s one of the reasons why we at nativedge like to tell business that it’s one thing to have a websites it’s another thing to have people visit it.
Right Swat I’m sure that if you want to have a brand website for yourself the reason why you want to put up the website is either you want to achieve brand visibility for Swat the brand or you want to protect yourself as a subject matter expert or you want to find some revenue stream for your brand right.
so now you see if you have a website and you are able to get people to visit that website next thing is to create trust, how do you get the community of people visiting your website to trust you once you achieve that the next you do is that you need to have a product or service trust with trust people will buy your service or product.
I’m sure we are very much aware that Jumia and Konga have actually broken that jinks and that’s a revolution for us.
Swat: Ok it seems content marketing and social media marketing seems to be the primary areas which you target so can you share some of your favorite tips and strategies used to promote content and all of that.
Daniel Obaike: At Nativedge we offer quite a number of tips and all of our tips could be found on our website blog nativedge.com/blog
Swat: Say that again
Daniel Obaike: Nativedge.com/blog
Swat: OK
Crazy Legs: That sounds spiritual
Swat: So if we want to get all of that they could just visit that website.
Ok moving on now you have advocated quite often that businesses need to have a blog why is that important?
Daniel Obaike: The first time that I had actually mentioned that to a prospect and I had said look sir you need to have a blog for your website and he is like a blog what is a blog all about, what can a blog do for me, is it something that is trending is it a nice to have and am like no.
you see because the way the internet have changed the way we think and our behavioural pattern people on the internet especially social media Swat am sure u don’t want to be marketed to when you go to social media you want to check up pictures of your friends, you want to upload pictures you want to find out what is happening in somebody’s life and all of that.
Now the big question is how do you market or pitch someone on the internet and the best way is to take up contents and share the experience of your product or your brand or service by a way of content and that is blogging, you know people respond very well to experience we are all stuck on Coca-Cola because of the experience they give us in their marketing strategies am sure you got stuck on the share a coke with someone
Swat: Yea. Ok so but what is the difference between you what you do for example what Linda the likes of Linda Ikeji and Liz Petit all lots of bloggers do what is the difference?
Daniel Obaike: Yea you see we are digital marketing experts Linda Ikeji and the likes Loy Ekezie and all of them are bloggers.
Now the difference between what we (Nativedge) do and what they do is this; we proffer and implement strategies that can get people to visit a website and get people to increase their lead acquisition and tpossibly conversion of people who visit the website into actual paying customers for a business.
Now particularly the most successful blogger in Nigeria Linda Ikeji as you mentioned, what she does is that she takes up news and I don’t like to say gossip but a lot of people say gossip.
Crazy Legs: Why, why don’t you like to say gossip?
Daniel Obaike: Well because I’m sure I may not agree with gossip there
Crazy Legs: It’s what?
Swat: Call it any name you want to but gossip is gossip.
Daniel Obaike: So that’s the major difference between Nativedge and what they do
Swat: Alright so between traditional marketing and digital marketing which is more effective some people like to stick to the old way we are conservatives we don’t know anything about the internet which one is more effective and why would you say it.
Daniel Obaike: that’s a very technical question the truth is that traditional marketing always has its place nothing can take that form us because you are not always going to be on the internet.
At a point in time you are going to leave your computer, you are going to take a drive, you are going to take a stroll you are going to go out so you are going to be exposed to traditional marketing outdoor marketing it’s always going to have its place but digital marketing is an evolution.
You have a huge community in front of you and you are just faced with implementing the right strategies to reach them.
For example let mi share an experience I had with a client, she spent 70,000 Naria doing ten thousand flyers and got people to share those flyers round for her for the business the flyers obviously went round ten thousand flyers finished but the thing is there was no way to track the impact of those flyers on the business with digital marketing.
There is a video we are currently promoting in five days it’s gotten over fifty thousand views, now we are getting feedback from comment on social media we know what people like and we know what people don’t like and we see the impact now that’s the difference they are actionable and trackable metrics that you can use to check the impact of your marketing strategy.
Swat: Ok… actionable and trackable
Daniel Obaike: Yea
Swat: Ok nice one. Before we let you go can you tell us the biggest thing happening in digital marketing?
Daniel Obaike: Wow the biggest thing happening in digital marketing would be the raise of mobile.
Swat:The raise of mobile
Daniel Obaike: Yeah the rise of mobile and precise targeting on social media.
Now the rise of mobile there was a research done by E- consultancy it says that from the ages of 18-45 years old right an average of 95 percent of them do not go an hour without touching their phones.
Now we have seen Google and Facebook trying to put a phone in everybody’s hands lately that is key to marketing and you know with precise targeting on social media that means you can actually target your Ad and your Ads to reach the people that you want them to reach and that is huge return on investment for you.
Swat: Ok so lastly any advice for business owners for this year 2016.
Daniel Obaike: 2016, for small businesses in Nigeria and the big businesses, digital marketing is something that should be taken serious, let’s not wait to play catch up.
The big businesses are doing it and they are doing it for a reason and they are succeeding and doing it you know and you shouldn’t wait to play catch up.
Swat: Ok and You cannot afford to play catch up especially as it has to do with your businesses. Well, that was Daniel giving us answers to some of these questions as it regards digital marketing and he is of Nativedge.
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