NEWS
How To Start An Internet Marketing Business In Nigeria
N250, 000 a week sounds like a decent income to live on, right? What if I told you that by starting an Internet marketing business in Nigeria you could easily earn more than that in just a week?
This surely makes Internet marketing one of the very lucrative businesses in Nigeria.
This is the power of Internet marketing. In fact, there are people making a lot more than N250,000 through Internet marketing alone. You may be wondering what is Internet marketing and how can anyone make such a large amount of money out of it?
Have you ever noticed those little ads above your Google Search Results; have you ever wondered how they got there? That is something that companies accomplish using Internet marketing. Internet marketing is using ads and marketing to drive sales in the largest marketplace in the world, which is the Internet itself.
By definition, Internet marketing refers to marketing and advertising that uses the Internet and email to generate leads from these sources and direct sales via ecommerce. Some of the components of Internet marketing include targeted email-newsletters, banner advertisements and PPC advertising amongst others.
When done right, Internet marketing online can enable companies and individuals to get the maximum return on investment.
With more and more people using the Internet every day, the customer base of every company and business is only going to get bigger.
How to start an Internet marketing business in Nigeria
So how can I get started with Internet marketing?
Right now you might be wondering how to become an Internet marketer. If you are convinced about the potential earnings that Internet marketing holds for you, then you may be already planning to start your own Internet marketing business in Nigeria.
Before you get started there are a few things that you might want to consider, including:
- Nothing is going to happen overnight, especially in Internet marketing: Once you start working, results can take some time to appear. With new websites and businesses coming up every minute, the online marketplace is highly competitive, with companies spending millions to rank highly in Google’s search engine results.
- Despite point #1, you can still be a successful Internet marketer: The 1st point may have slightly scared you, however, you need to see the positive behind it too. All the emerging competition needs Internet marketers, and that is where you come in to offer your services.
- Like most digitally based practices, you need to continuously learn and evolve to stay on top. Google and other search engines are always changing their algorithms to improve their search patterns, which means you will need to stay updated on what Google is doing. Their latest ad policies, changes to algorithms, search results and so on are the things you will need to know about to become an internet marketer.
- Do not give up: You may not start making thousands on the first day, believe me, it can take a while to build your reputation and experience. You must stay focused and work diligently if you want to achieve your aim of making over N250, 000 a month.
As you begin you journey of starting your own internet marketing business in Nigeria, keeping the above points in mind will help you understand what is required during your challenging adventure to become a successful Internet marketer.
When done right, the rewards are surely worth the journey! Read on to know how you can get started with Internet marketing, and make the most of what it has to offer.
Decide who is your target market, and understand what they need
The first thing that you need to do as an Internet Marketer is to understand the kind of market you want to work in. The six parts of knowing your market include:
- Understand the problem that you are trying to solve.
- Have an image of your prospective customer in mind. Try to gather as much relevant information about them as you can.
- Figure out what they will gain from your offer, and who will have most to lose by not taking it?
- Think about your target market, and segment it. Are you aiming to work with a particular class of people, gender, age or geographical area?
- Think about your product and company. Do you have an advantage with a certain class of people, or in some specific location?
- What makes you a unique solution to the problem, and what is the competition trying to do?
Study and analyze your target market. This will make it easier for you to tailor your products or services, and direct them specifically at your target audience as you know where they meet online.
Depending on the type of Internet user you are trying to market to, you may find that they use a specific social media website (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram etc.) more than any other type of site on the web. If this is the case, you will want to promote your company’s products and services on that site in order to reach your target audience. Having a targeted and specific approach will reduce the amount of money and effort you spend promoting your business. It will also reduce the amount of hours wasted pursuing an audience that is not right for what you are offering.
If you are not able to answer these questions, then chances are either are your target market is incorrect or you have the wrong product/service.
Find a need and fill it
Your approach towards Internet marketing should be to first find a need or a problem in your target market, and then devise asolution to resolve that problem. What most marketers do wrong is first devise the solution and then look for a market to apply it in.
The problem with this approach is that the solution thus devised is not particular to the target market, so you don’t have a specific purpose. You must have a PURPOSE!
With the kind of competition that there is in every segment, being as close to perfect as possible is the key to successful marketing.
Focus on a Specific Type of Internet Marketing and Master it
A common mistake that Internet marketers make at the start is trying to mix different approaches. Mixing Google AdWords with Social Media Marketing is not the right thing to do as you will master none, and become average a both.
There are a wide range of Internet marketing methods out there and the temptation is to try and master as many as possible. But my advice is to approach one at a time so that you can become recognised as an expert in a specific niche. Trust me, this is more valuable to you and your customers as you will be seen as a thought leader in a specific niche or industry.
By becoming an expert in one aspect of Internet marketing you can command higher payment for your time. This will ensure that your business is profitable when using that method to sell your products or services. This specialist knowledge will become your unique selling point.
For example, learning the ins and outs of search engine optimisation before tackling affiliate marketing, network marketing and social media marketing will enable you to generate revenue from that one type of Internet marketing. Once you business is profitable, you will be able to invest in offering other types of online marketing, or higher experts in those areas to work for you.
Monitor your progress
Regardless of your marketing strategy, you need to ensure that performance measurement is an integral part of it. Without an effective and accurate measurement plan, you will not be able to accurately track what is or isn’t performing, scale and duplicate your efforts as required.
Put in place relevant and fixed key performance indicators and goals such as organic traffic, social media traffic (and conversion rates), cost per lead and lead-to-customer ratio.
Track the bad habits that are causing you to lose money and stopping you from achieving your goals. Through this approach you can identify the core activities that will contribute to your short, medium and long-term success.
Through regular performance monitoring you will have a clear understanding of what you need to change and what you need to keep the same about your marketing strategies.
Provide an Honest and Trustworthy Service
The quickest way to lose clients is to be dishonest to them. If you want loyal customers that will stick with you through good and bad times, then there has to be 100% trust. The only way to achieve this level of trust is to be totally transparent. The more transparent that you are, the more you will be trusted by your customers.
Be willing to share what you learn, give customers unrestricted access to their campaign data, actively request feedback, and tell your clients the truth even good or bad.
Request Customer feedback
The most effective way to understand how and where you can improve your business is to request feedback from your customers.
Customer feedback helps you identify any customers that are not satisfied with the service or product that you are providing.
From personal experience I’ve been able to retain customers that were close to ending our business relationship. But, upon asking for feedback, I was able to detect that they were not happy with my service. This allowed me to approach them and ask the right corrections that settled their concerns and enabled me to modify my offering to that customer.
I used the feedback as an opportunity to clear up the misunderstanding. If I hadn’t asked for feedback, I might not have ever heard from them again and.
These great pieces of insight will enable you to get started with your Internet marketing business in Nigeria, whilst also ensuring that you evolve as you go along and become a successful Internet marketer in no time.
