How to Sell Anything to Nigerians | by Obaniyi Jason Olamide | Mar, 2023

“Business has only two functions — marketing and innovation.” ~ Milan Kundera

Contents

More content than contextMarketing a product customers do not needLack of understanding of consumers

Success in marketing is an attribute of how well a brand understands the market target, especially where to find them and how to get to them. Therefore, to successfully sell anything to Nigerians, you must understand them and how the product features in their day-to-day life.

According to a publication on business insight, some of the market strategies that are relevant and admissible in the Nigerian marketing space include the following, although they are not in the order of success rate;

• Branding
• Affiliate marketing
• Content Marketing
• Social media marketing
• Defining target market
• Building partnerships
• Listening to customers
• Result measurements
• Influencer marketing
• Search engine optimization
• Email marketing

To market successfully to Nigerians, you need to answer the following questions, depending on the target market;

In Statistica’s 2021 publication on leading social media platforms, over 95 percent of Nigerians with access to the internet are on WhatsApp messaging apps, and over 70 percent have a social media account on Facebook. Knowing where to find your customers (actual or potential) is an essential aspect of contributing to successful marketing.

If the age distribution of the marketing target of a business or brand ranges between 17 and 40 years of age, the best places to look would be schools, markets, recreational centers, and sports centers.

A ‘good understanding’ of where the target market is will usher innovation and creative ways to reach them. If the target market spends more time online, whether on social media or not (Nigerians spend at least 4 hours online), then search-engine-optimized content marketing (videos, articles, infographics, and so on) and influencer marketing is most advantageous and effective.

Influencer marketing is a growing marketing strategy and industry worth 14 Billion dollars. This marketing industry began to break and simplify the topic of ‘how to market successfully to Nigerians post-covid and has aided brands to record high marketing success and improve market size.

Another way to reach the target market above is by running social media ads on the platforms that support such features. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter support ads running and provide analytics on how well the ads are doing.

Billboards and posting of bills in strategic locations in different parts of the country is another effective way of marketing to Nigerians. Businesses can also paste marketing bills on popular means of transport, for example, ‘Keke’ and ‘Marco Polos.’

Several marketing mistakes trail the marketing efforts of some brands when presenting their products to the Nigerian audience. These errors are mostly when content and influencer marketing are adopted for successful campaigns and reach.

More content than context

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, using a multidimensional poverty index survey, there are over 133 million poor Nigerians, more than 50% of the population. Any brand marketing to the population needs to focus on how beneficial the product is to the poor: its affordability and availability.

At other times, influencers using comedy skits and short videos to market a brand or product give their followers lesser ‘exposure time’ to the brand, product, or service they are promoting.

Marketing a product customers do not need

Directing marketing content for a car to areas where flooding occurred in Nigeria this year is a marketing error that will not generate yields. It is important to keep products relevant to the needs and problems of the target population or market.

Lack of understanding of consumers

Nigerians are conditional or situational when making purchases. One can also term Nigerians as analytical because they buy products based on customs, morals, and beliefs. Marketing a G-string on TV to Nigerians is a marketing error because it contests the norms and morals of millions of countryfolks.

P.S: All images were sourced on google.