Connect with us

E-Business

Mastering the Skills of Effective e-Marketing In Nigeria

Published

on

Kindly share this post

The reason most businesses in Nigeria have not really established their online presence is because of their opinion and the way the internet is being seen. Like I have always said in my previous articles, every business should use the infrastructure of the internet in one way or the other if they want to survive this age. It gives your business a boost, integrity, wider reach, global recognition and patronage resulting in additional profit.
The internet will be maximized for business purposes here in Nigeria, when it is viewed as a marketing medium which has the advantage of instant interactivity and response. It should also be seen as a marketing communication tool which can reach a large number of targeted prospects faster than the traditional methods of marketing and it is cost effective too.
Bearing this in mind, the basic marketing principles for businesses should also be applied here but this time it is done differently.
Here are basic e-marketing strategies which when mastered will impact greatly on the way businesses are being done today. They also serve as a guide to help (individuals, small businesses, entrepreneurs, organizations etc.) avoid the pitfalls while taking their businesses online. They are simply:
a. How to choose the right concept for your online business
b. How to build your customer base.
Choosing the Right Concept for your Business
when establishing your web presence, the concept of your business should be well planned. This is where it all starts; good planning will determine how successful your online business will be.
Choosing the right concept for your online business involves, finding a profitable niche and building your online shop or office (your website) to suit the niche you want to play in.
A niche market according to Wikipedia (an online dictionary)is a focused, targetable portion of a market. It is a narrowly defined group of potential customers. Your online business should be one that addresses a particular need.
A.P. Giannini, the founder of Bank of America (BoA), one of the most influential bankers of the twentieth century said “serving the needs of others is the only legitimate business today.
Your success online is guaranteed when you focus on a particular small group and satisfy them. You should specialize on a core service or product for you to become an expert.
A good and profitable niche can be one in which you are already an expert in, where there is good competition resulting in demand, one you have special interest in or passion for.
After choosing the right niche for your online business, another challenge you have, is to pick the right concept for your website. Your website is your online store or office. This is very important because if you pick the wrong concept for your website you will get the wrong result no matter the market you are playing in. It also becomes more interesting when you know that there are billions of websites on the internet so you can’t afford to miss it here. Don’t just have a website, get the concept right.
The concept of your website must either be a sales website or a portal website. A sales website is one which is totally designed to sell your products or services online like amazon.com. While a portal website is one which is basically built with the mind of first providing good content, service and specific information for your prospects for free, thereby attracting more people (traffic) to it like Yahoo.
The portal website makes the bulk of its revenue from advertising and back-end products. Which ever one your business falls into, you should understand the techniques involved. Your website must also be designed in a simple way so that your prospects find it easy to navigate through in a short while.
The next thing to consider is to choose the right domain name for your business. Your domain name is simply the name of your business on the internet that is the name of your website. It is your web address which your customers will use to locate your business on the internet. It also has to be registered online ones you have selected a name.
Simple tips to follow when choosing a name for your website.
1. The name of your website must reflect the type of business you do.
2. Short and sharp names are usually very easy to remember and they also allow your prospects to spell it easily and correctly.
3. It must be unique, to reduce competition in that niche.
4. If you want to use your name, make sure you are such a popular person and that it is a personal site.
Building your Customer Base
After finding a profitable niche and building a website around your product or service, your next task is to start building a list of prospects who will become potential customers. This process is known as List building. To be successful in online business, you just have to build a database of your customers, it is always said in internet marketing that the money is in the list.
In building your customer base, the unique and specific benefits which differentiate your business from others should be emphasized and boldly spelt out. It is what will attract prospects to your website.
Like every successful business has what they are known for as their unique selling proposition (USP), here you can also regard it as the Ultimate advantage of doing business with you, Sensational offers you give your prospects and Powerful promise which you always deliver. Your USP must solve the customers’ immediate problem while you build a lasting relationship with them.
All am trying to establish here is that your marketing campaign or the focal point of your business should be on making the customer feel right, you should be customer-centric not product-centric or profit-centric, this is where most businesses in Nigeria miss It.
So in building your list, your first goal with any visitor to your website is to make them see what is in it for them within few seconds and get them on your email list. They should be made to subscribe to your email list by willingly ‘opting in’ thereby allowing you to contact them subsequently through their emails. This is known as e-mail marketing.
Web based applications such as the auto responders and the list serves now automate your email campaign and give you all the data about your prospect and the follow up details. This simple and automated act of making your prospects willingly subscribe to your email marketing messages is very important because statistics have shown that over 70% of internet users check their emails and don’t have time to browse sites.
 Ones you have succeeded in getting them on your list the first time, you can have the time to build up their confidence with benefit-driven sales copy and your USP that compels them to buy your product or service always. You can also seek expert advice where necessary.
Do these simple things well you would have mastered the skills of effective e-marketing 101!

 


Kindly share this post

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Comments

E-Business

StarNews, Global Black Economic Forum Launch Business Competition In Partnership with MTN & USAID

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Africa’s leading video streaming platform, StarNews Mobile and the Global Black Economic Forum (GBEF), have announced a call for applications for the launch of their Business Competition in Lagos, Nigeria.

Held in partnership with MTN and United Nations Agency for International Development (USAID), the initiative will empower Nigeria’s most promising businesses that are classified as Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with invaluable investment and partnership opportunities from the USA.

Held over 10 weeks between April 8th to June 14th, hosted exclusively on the StarNews Biz Channel on the StarNews platform, this competition offers a platform for emerging entrepreneurs to showcase their ventures and gain national visibility.

With subscribers voting for their favourite candidates, the top 20 contestants will seize the spotlight and make their mark on the business landscape.

The StarNews Business Competition in partnership with GBEF delivers a unique opportunity for thriving Nigerian SMEs to access mentoring, funding, partnerships and socio-economic development tools through the Global Black Economic Forum.

With the prospect of securing cash prizes through StarNews worth up to NGN5,000,000, getting access to StarNews’s network of investors and the opportunity to gain national visibility by having their business on the StarNews web platform.

The top three winners will also receive coaching from GBEF’s Academy for Advancing Excellence and become part of GBEF’s ecosystem of global leaders committed to social and economic justice across the Black Diaspora.

Previous speakers at GBEF convenings from the entertainment sector include Wyclef Jean (Haitian Musician & Activist), Debra Lee (Former CEO of Black Entertainment Television – BET) and Ceci Kurzman (Founder of Nexus Management Group). Applications will close on April 5th 2024.

Speaking on the competition’s launch, Guy Kamgaing, Founder and CEO at StarNews Mobile, says “The StarNews Business Competition is a passion project close to our hearts at StarNews Mobile.

It’s about discovering the most promising business entrepreneurs and creators in Nigeria, opening up global opportunities for them and providing them with the resources and tools to achieve their goals.

By partnering with MTN, USAID and GBEF, we want to be a platform of empowerment for these SMEs by helping them give back to the communities that are supporting them.”

According to the US Embassy and Consulate for Nigeria, over 80% of Nigerian startups are incorporated in the United States and more than 60% of venture capital funding in Nigerian startups accounted for by the US.

In 2023 alone, Nigerian startups raised a total of $398mn however, this signalled a 66% funding decline compared to 2022 due to the global economic downturn, reinforcing the massive need for a fresh injection of capital and business support for Nigeria’s emerging SMEs.

Alphonso David, President and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum notes that, “Our partnership with StarNews Mobile is a critical resource as we continue to build the collective strength of entrepreneurship across the Diaspora.

“Building a sustainable ecosystem of Black entrepreneurs in the United States and across the African continent is essential to create a future that makes economic opportunity and economic freedom a reality for all.”

A sister company to ESSENCE, GBEF advances its work by convening global summits and conferences, bringing together world leaders, business leaders, entrepreneurs, celebrities and civic leaders to address the most challenging problems facing our communities.

GBEF’s Academy for Advancing Excellence facilitates workforce and leadership development strategy, addressing the talent pipeline & employee lifecycle, providing leadership development & coaching, and conducting institutional assessments & research.

GBEF also develops and implements economic and social justice policy recommendations with partners ranging from civil and human rights organisations to government entities and corporations that advocate for economic opportunity, social justice, and health equity through thought leadership, advocacy and litigation.

Launched in 2017, StarNews Mobile empowers African content creators with the unique opportunity to monetize their work through a subscription model, boasting over 4 million subscribers and a thriving community of more than 120 content creators.

With a strong presence across six countries including Cameroon, Nigeria, Côte D’Ivoire, Congo, Benin and Ghana, the platform has also established key partnerships with major telecom operators such as MTN and Orange.

To-date, StarNews Mobile has secured over $8mn in funding with its most recent raise – a $3mn pre-Series A funding round in October 2023 – led by Janngo Capital with participation from French football players Aurélien Tchouaméni, Jules Koundé and Mike Maignan.

 


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

E-Business

Companies Invest More than $100,000 Yearly to Upskill their Cybersecurity Teams – Study Reveals

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Over 70% of businesses pay more than USD $100,000 for additional training annually to keep skills of their cybersecurity employees up to date, a recent global Kaspersky study has revealed.

However, the surveyed companies also highlighted that there was a lack of relevant courses covering new challenging spheres in the educational market and stated that training does not always bring them the expected result.

In its recent study ‘The portrait of the modern Information Security professional’, Kaspersky examined the topic of the global cybersecurity staff shortage, analysing the exact reasons businesses lack cybersecurity experts, and identifying the ways they evaluate and upskill their cybersecurity workforce¹.

According to the research, companies are investing significant amounts in upskilling their cybersecurity teams: 43% of organisations globally say they usually spend between $100,000 and $200,000 per year on information security courses, while 31% even invest over $200,000 for training programs. The remaining 26% state they usually pay less than $100,000 for educational initiatives².

However, cybersecurity practitioners also note that the educational market is struggling to keep up with the rapidly changing industry and fail to deliver the necessary training programs on time.

Survey results for the Middle East, Turkiye, Africa (META) region shows that the scarcity of courses covering new challenging spheres (48%) was the main problem for those searching for cybersecurity training.

50% of respondents from the META region also stated that trainees tend to forget what they learned because they had no opportunity to apply newly acquired knowledge, therefore the courses were useless to them.

The need for special training pre-requisites such as coding and advanced mathematics, which were not specified at the pre-registration stage were also problematic for 37% of practitioners from the META region.

“With a constantly evolving threat landscape, businesses should continually improve the skills of their cybersecurity personnel in order to be well prepared for sophisticated cyberattacks.

“Developing high-profile specialists within the company and building internal expertise can be an effective strategy for organisations that aim to retain existing employees and allow them to grow professionally, instead of constantly hunting for new candidates and checking their professional backgrounds and practical skills.

“For organisations served by Managed Service Providers it is also important to maintain a pretty high level of expertise internally and use the same language when discussing the scope of services and Service Level Agreement with them,” comments Veniamin Levtsov, VP, Center of Corporate Business Expertise at Kaspersky.


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

E-Business

Heirs Insurance Launches User-friendly Website for Stakeholders

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Heirs Insurance Group, Nigeria’s fastest growing insurance group, has launched a new website that delivers the most user-friendly insurance experience in the industry.

Heirs Insurance Launches User-friendly Website for Stakeholders

In addition to its features that aid simple navigation, the website also personalizes the insurance experience taking customers through a short journey that enables them to make decisions quickly on the best insurance plan to support their personal and business success, or access competent insurance advisors to speak with.

According to Ifesinachi Okpagu, chief marketing officer, Heirs Insurance Group, the website, www.heirs insurance group.com, embodies the ethos of the brand: the delivery of simple, quick, and accessible insurance service that delights customers and brings the uninsured much closer to taking up insurance plans.

She said: “Today’s customers want simplicity and this new website delivers on that request, ensuring that people find the right insurance solutionsfor their needs in a few minutes. We are empowering customers to take control of their lives, their businesses, assets, and their most cherished people.” Heirs Insurance Group has been at the forefront of pioneering a new era of insurance solutions since its launch with the roll-out of various initiatives including a seamless mobile app, USSD; Prince, its intuitive chatbot; InConnect, its partnership portal Digital Experience Centre; and more. With the launch of this website, Heirs Insurance Group solidifies its position as the leading digital insurance company in Nigeria, democratising access to insurance for all.


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

Trending