I was pleased to be at Nigeria Info (95.1 FM) to share insights on digital marketing in Nigeria. Both Swat and Crazy Legs were a lovely bunch. They made the experience a worthy one.
After the interview, i received so many calls from people who tuned to listen in, and i was more than glad that they found the insights which i shared in the interview helpful. So, i thought to myself, come on my readers may not have tuned in to listen to the interview.
So i thought it would be a good idea to share it with you. You can either read the transcribed version below or listen to the audio file by clicking on this link.
Swat: It’s always a pleasure knowing that you’re out there listening to the number 1 news, talk and sports station 95.1 FM 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 it’s all about digital marketing this morning as we have been joined by Daniel, he said I should not call him mister.
So I’ll call him Daniel Obaike, so he will be tell us so much more?
Crazy Legs: Or we should call him Bros. Bros Daniel
…Laughs
Swat: Good Morning Daniel, How you doing?
Daniel Obaike: Fine Thank you Swat
Swat: So ehm, I know you’re from Nativedge eh.. is it Limited?
Daniel Obaike: Yea! Limited
Swat: Nativedge Limited. Now 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,
we have search engine optimization (SEO),
website design and
we have digital marketing strategies.
Swat: Ok alright then, why did you lunch Nativedge?
Daniel Obaike: Very interesting question there swats
We all know how much internet penetration has gone in Nigeria, the last statistics released by NCC as of June of 2015 says that we have 83 million people connected to the internet from Nigeria.
Swats: 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 skeptical 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 you even 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. Taping into that crowed 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, we are very very…
We like to tell business that it’s one thing to have a websites it’s another thing to have people visit it right.
Swats 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 swats 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 so 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: Sounds very spiritual
…Laughs
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 I’m like no.
you see because the internet has changed the way we think, our behavioural pattern people on the internet especially social media; Swat I’m sure you 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 content 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 much to experience.
We are all stuck on Coca-Cola because of the experience they give us in their marketing strategies. I’m 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 the likes of Linda Ikeji, Liz Petit and a lot of bloggers do.
What is the difference?
Daniel Obaike: Yea you see we are digital marketing experts, Linda Ikeji and the likes Alloy Ekezie and all of them are bloggers.
Now the difference between what we do and what they do is this; we proffer and implement strategies that get people to visit a website and get people to increase their lead acquisition and possibly conversion of the people who visit the website into actual paying customers for a business.
Now take for! Particular the most successful blogger in Nigeria, Linda Ikeji as you mentioned, what she does is, 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?
Daniel Obaike:?Laughs
Crazy Legs: Gbegburu!!!
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: Wow! that’s a very technical question.
The truth is that traditional marketing will always have its place. Nothing can take that from us because you’re not always going to be on the internet, at a point in time you’re going to leave your computer, you’re going to take a drive, you’re going to take a stroll, you’re 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 me share an experience I had with a client, she spent NGN70, 000 (Nigerian Naira) 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 comments on social media, we know what people like and we know what people don’t like and we can 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. So, before we let you go can you tell us the biggest thing happening in digital marketing?
Daniel Obaike: Well, the biggest thing happening in digital marketing would be the rise of mobile.
Swat: The rise of mobile
Daniel Obaike: 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 seriously, 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 regard to digital marketing and he is of Nativedge Limited.
Thank you Daniel for coming over.
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