When to develop digital marketing strategy

The importance of marketing to any business cannot be over emphasised. To succeed in a market, companies are spending billions of dollars every year on marketing. Since the invention of the internet and more recently the social media, marketing, as we know it, has dramatically changed and more and more companies are understanding that to succeed in this cutthroat environment, they do need to invest more in digital market.

As Africa experiences explosive internet penetration (Africa contributes at least 15 per cent of worldwide Internet user populations with Nigeria contributing more than 28 per cent of this population), more disruptions in the tech based companies and more youths are embracing entrepreneurship in the continent analysts predicted that digital marketing, especially in Nigeria, is ripe for mind-blowing growth.

A 2013 post on Financial Intelligence reported that an expected faster growth in Nigeria’s digital marketing due to the huge marketing potential ingrained in digital media as a part of the overall marketing mix, coupled with the increasing use of the Internet by Nigerians. There was no time frame on this prediction, however.

But on the eve of 2014, trend watchers predicted that budget of digital marketing will increase by eight per cent this year, just as Google was rumoured to have said that Nigeria’s digital market will reach $1 billion in 2015.

From affordability to easier accessibility and much more importantly, number of consumers, factors that make digital marketing more and more attractive have permanently ensured that digital marketing is here to stay.

Towards the end of 2014, Wall Street Journal reported that Procter & Gamble, the world’s biggest advertiser is investing heavily on online marketing, reporting that the company will, before the end of this year, spend 35 per cent of total marketing budget online.

What, therefore, is responsible for this shift, so much that an iconic advertiser like Procter & Gamble, a company that pioneered some of the traditional practices used by companies the world over, to be shifting its marketing dollars online?

A few reasons come to mind. Results! With digital marketing, it is easier for the campaigner to track results than it is for traditional marketing. In the words of Maria Velasco, Social Media Coordinator at FindEmployment, the wide range of analytics and data allows digital marketers to be “able to analyse our own marketing campaigns and find out how the campaign performed and how it can be improved.  Of course you can get this data for traditional marketing campaigns but a digital campaign will allow you to measure the success in real time, giving you the advantage of planning more effectively and making changes almost instantly.”

Leveraging on the affordability of digital marketing, especially for small business owner, comes affordability. Taye Oluyomi for instance, realises that the same contents on the newspaper advertisement, radio and TV are cheaper more expensive than those posted on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, for instance. Not only that, campaigns on the social media campaigns infinitely reach more audience in any part of the world, unlike the traditional media.

To succeed, business wise, in today’s world, having a very digital footprint within the internet is absolutely important, Kemi Ajao, Digital Marketing expert in Lagos explained. According to a post on Forbes, “without a digital marketing strategy in place, new client acquisitions, brand visibility, and impactful revenue generating opportunities will likely be damaged.”

Therefore, Forbes highlighted “five most important digital marketing elements to consider” as mobile considerations, organic search, social media marketing, content marketing and lead nurturing. “All of these elements combined make up a cohesive digital marketing strategy. How you define these elements have a direct correlation on a successful campaign,” Forbes said.