Developing Your Digital Marketing Strategy For Your Retail Business

  Nigeria’s Retail Economy and the Potential The retail economy in Nigeria is a fast growing one and it provides huge opportunities for retailers in the country. Today, wholesale and retail sales are the third largest contributors to Nigeria’s GDP, according to McKinsey. The wholesale and retail market contributes 16 percent to the total of Nigeria’s GDP. By 2020, the percentage of Nigerian households with more than $5,000 annual incomes will increase to 27% from its current 20% according to the report. This is the ideal target customer base of formal retail firms. How, can you as a retailer tap into this growing market for your business profit? The internet provides a tremendous opportunity to reach most of your ideal customers. In fact, Nigeria is the 8th largest country in the world and largest in Africa in terms of internet users. Online shopping also accounts for 15% of internet activities in the country, including shopping research. Let’s take a look at how you can reach the teeming population of consumers by developing your digital marketing strategy. Developing Your Strategy A strategy is more or less a roadmap that helps you move from where you are currently, to where you want to be. In developing any form of strategy, digital or otherwise, there are 3 key questions you need to answer. They are: 1. What are the concrete and measureable goals you want to achieve? 2. In what field or niche will you operate to achieve your goals? 3. What capabilities or skills are required to help you achieve your goals? 1. Setting Goals   The primary goal of many retail businesses is to increase sales. Playing in the digital marketing field, there are several ways that will ultimately help you achieve that goal. For example, an eCommerce store will set a goal to increase traffic to its store as its tactic for achieving increase in sales. A Brick and Mortar store on the other hand, will prefer to increase foot traffic to its store locations by creating more brand awareness online. A sound digital marketing strategy will help both businesses achieve their goals. 2. Choosing Your Platforms   After setting your goals, you need to identify the fields that will suit your business best in the digital landscape. There are several platforms you could choose to reach customers. However, each platform comes with its own market, and understanding each platform will help you understand whether or not it is worth your investment. Let’s take a look at some common platforms you could employ as a retailer. Website: Whether consumers can purchase your products directly on your website or not, having a website is a must for retail businesses at this time. Here’s why – according to Google, 97% of consumers research products online before they purchase offline. 76% of retailers connect with their customers through the web. This includes a website. You could use your website as a catalogue to showcase your products and direct customers to your physical locations, or they could purchase directly from your website if you run an ecommerce platform. Mobile: By 2017, it is reported that top retailers expect 6.5 percent of sales to come through mobile. In Nigeria alone, there are 55.9 million internet users and 60.69% of that population are accounted for by mobile subscribers. There is obviously a great opportunity for retailers to reach consumers through mobile marketing channels, including BBM, WatsApp, SMS Marketing and Email Marketing. Social Media: 75% of retailers have a social media presence according to Marketing Charts. Visual social platforms tend to work best for retailers, as visual content provides more engagement for users. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are worth taking a look at for your retail business.   3. Developing Your Capabilities, Customer Journey and Call to Action: The final step to your strategy is deciding how your customers will get your product from your digital marketing efforts. Your customer journey is basically the steps your customers will take from the first interaction with your brand online to the final transaction where the customer gets your product. A common customer journey will look like this: In your strategy, you have to decide if you have the capabilities to run through the customer journey. Do you have the resources to run online ads?Do you have a social media manager? Will you constantly update your online channels with available stock? Do you have the capabilities to deliver your products? These are some of the questions you need to ask when developing your digital marketing strategy for your retail business. Want to learn more about marketing your product using technology? Register to attend the E-Business Fair today. Go to www.connectnigeria.com/bizfair