Here’s a short story ..
Two prisoners looked out of the Window of a Prison after a stormy night. One saw mud on the ground; the other saw stars in the Sky…
Depending on where you are looking or what you are looking for you can get over a thousand people right now who want to buy your product. Outrageous and downright lie you may say but it’s true. I can stake my almost two decades of experience as a digital marketer on this. Offline in the ordinary markets of the world you may never be able to gather over 1000 people easily or cheaply but when it
comes to the internet. Yes! And Yes. Its possible and cheap, and I don’t mean over 1000s Oyibo people, I mean over 1000 real, full bloodied Nigerians (africans) like you.
-
- gemstones
-
- maize for sale
Data, (AND no longer content) is king. As long as you have real names, birthdays, photos, etc of people, you have power. See examples in what Google and Facebook are doing, gathering your data (your likes, frequent searches, posts, etc). This is where the internet comes in. As long as you are willing to pay, you can freely get the data of people interested in your products or services via online platforms like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok and so many more. Some business people will prefer not to pay and stick to free marketing methods, you won’t yield much results.
People are constantly online liking, sharing, posting and commenting on what they love, hate, need or want and these big internet companies are taking records of it and selling it to marketers/business people, one way or the other. (As per the dangers this can portend, we’ll talk about it later in another article) but for now let’s talk about how we can use these to our good advantage.
You might have to do series of tests to discover which online platforms will work for you best and which marketing method or strategy to use ’cause there’s a lot.
I will give examples with real businesses..
If you sell professional services, food, skincare, health related or sex enhancement products then maybe try Instagram Ads. You will get thousands of leads or customers.
If you sell cars, phones, washing machines or other electronics or heavy duty equipment, Facebook ads, Facebook marketplace and Facebook groups will do well. Also try classified ads marketplaces like jiji or ecommerce sites like Konga and Jumia. By the way, you can checkout my Konga store here
For business or career minded products or services, say employment placing, jobs, CV editing services, Website design services, personal development, etc, then Linked-in is a great place to start. Try Linked-in ads they are not cheap. infact it can cost as high as $50 per lead or customer you get but it works fantastically well as these leads convert. I can personally guarantee. So I will rather you use it for high ticket items that you sell.
As per Twitter, Twitter ads don’t really work well from my experience. If you want to get customers/clients from twitter, use influencer marketing, hashtags marketing or giveaways (must be done via an influencer too).
For Tiktok and snapchat, my experience doesn’t go that far
but from feedbacks from colleagues you can use if your products are targeted more at millennials. Create a page or profile and when you get enough people or followers you can begin requesting for gifts or token or making direct sales of your products to them.
You can also try other premuim websites or platforms like lindaikeji, nairaland or instablog or other lesser known brands in this categories. Get ready to be answering lots of phone calls and chats when you do.
Whatever marketing template you use, ensure your follow-up is top notch, cause this is where many marketers or business people, get it wrong. Someone who showed interest but doesn’t buy today can still buy tomorrow or next month. As long as you follow up with more exciting news, new info and or discounts, you will get sales. Don’t expect a 100% conversion but if 50 out of a 1000 people buy, then simply double up to get 2000 into your marketing funnel.
So what are you going to do with this information?
Amadeo Gianni, whose Family were peasant Italian Immigrants but who later rose to found the Almighty Bank of America once said “the best time to move forward in business is when the other guy isn’t doing much”. Oswald Sanders further adds “eyes that look are many but eyes that see are few.”
Read between the lines Brother! Sister! What do you see in this info?… Are you still looking or seeing?…
If you need further help, get a copy of my best selling digital marketing book; How To Sell on The Internet., its an all-in-one guide that will help you. Full with case studies, step by step set up exercises and plenty resources to download.
