Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Starting a digital marketing company in Nigeria is no child’s play. And that’s true for starting any business in the country.
A digital marketing company is a B2B business usually charged with helping other businesses sell online. Hence, it takes some trust level to get brands and businesses to hand the management of their online marketing to you.
In other words, the problem is not just starting; it also includes getting the first and subsequent customers.
In this piece, we will try to hold your hand through the entire process of beginning a digital marketing company in Nigeria and how to get people to patronise you. It only takes the following 6 steps:
Contents
Table of contents
1. Acquire the skill
This goes without saying, right? Usually, if you are considering starting a digital marketing company in Nigeria, it is assumed you know about digital marketing already. You don’t? Then read on.
You need to start your journey towards starting a digital marketing company in Nigeria by first learning the skill’s nitty-gritty. Know the different areas of digital marketing, learn the lingo and be familiar with the tools.
This is especially important because most businesses wouldn’t trust their online marketing in an individual or organisation’s hands without proof of knowledge acquisition.
If you are entirely new to digital marketing or you know little and want to improve your digital marketing skills further, here is a free digital marketing course by Google to check out. Of course, don’t stop here – go on to make more courses after this.
2. Find your area of specialisation
Since you are just starting, it’s always tempting to appeal to everybody and do everything. Understandable, as everyone wants to make money. And, the belief is, the more people you can appeal to, the more money you can make.
Well, digital marketing doesn’t work that way. In fact, most businesses don’t work that way. It’s always best to have a specific area of specialisation and a well-defined target audience.
Answering the following questions will help you appropriately define your digital marketing business:
- What is your niche? Which section of the society or business world do you want to work with, and why? Do you prefer small independent businesses or Fortune 500 companies? Fashion or food brands? Knowing this will help you know how to select where you go looking for gigs and contracts.
- Which type of people do you want to find your business style appealing? Are you here for the wizards, geeks, the whizz-kids, the hardcore professionals or the newcomers? This will help you find the right people to associate with and how you’ll begin to build an attractive brand.
- What differentiates you from others? There are so many agencies out there, so what makes you unique? What are your values, and what new approaches are you bringing to the game?
Analysing who you are and your unique offerings – whether that makes you an advertising agency, digital content agency or otherwise – is an essential step in building a profitable brand. Also, don’t forget to avoid things that don’t fit your goals or focus, and you are on your to running a successful digital marketing company in Nigeria.
Also Read: How to Build Staff Loyalty when you’re just starting
3. Gain experience
After the acquisition of skill and choosing an area of specialisation, you should find ways of practising. Either is a freelancer or through an internship programme with an existing digital marketing company. Freelancing immediately after training is always a good idea. However, businesses are often reluctant to trust newbies with their business growth.
Notwithstanding, it will not be wise of you to go straight to establishing a digital marketing business just after training. You need more than skill know-how to run a successful business, and the best way to discover other things to learn about running a digital marketing business is by experiencing them first hand.
You can go as far as setting an exit plan and goals you would like to attain before leaving where you are getting this experience. With this, you will have a clear understanding of the things you have to achieve before leaving to establish your own digital marketing company. It will also help you assess your actual result, compare them with your set goals, and make adjustments when needed.
4. Start and get your digital marketing business online
We are going to dwell a lot on this one.
Your business uses the internet, so you should have a website and general online presence to bring in clients and generate income. And you can do this without breaking the bank.
The first place to start is building a website. By the way, you can begin on social media if you don’t think you are ready to have a website yet. However, to build credibility, it’s always advisable to set out with a website.
Your website is vital to your digital marketing company’s success because of your other digital marketing elements, direct visitors and potential customers to your website. Hence, your website is your online head office and deserves all the typical head office’s attention.
Also Read: What is Your Job as a Startup Founder?
A website that would convert prospects have such elements as; having a great user experience, using best SEO practices and tools and capitalising on the wealth of data available through different analytic tools.
By the way, if you don’t have web development skills and previous experience building websites, it’s advisable you outsource your website design to a professional in the field. While it’s possible to build websites even if you don’t know how to write a line of code, you would still need a professional touch to create a standard digital marketing company website.
Aside from creating and launching your digital marketing company website, here are the other things you should do to set up your online presence are:
Get a professional email address
Creating a professional email is quite critical. You shouldn’t be using your regular email address for your business. “support@experts.ng” is an example of a professional mail.
Depending on your agreement, this is one of the added services to expect from whosoever is helping with your website design.
Set up an eye-catching portfolio
You can talk about what you can do, and no one would pay attention, but the moment you start talking about what you have done, you would get everyone interested. Hence, it’s crucial to have an impressive portfolio.
If people see that you’ve worked with brands they are familiar with, they’re more likely to patronise you. Because if those brands trusted you enough to work with you, they would see no reason not to do likewise.
But you don’t have a portfolio yet, right? Not a problem. You can start building your portfolio by doing some free work for people (an opportunity to also make some good relationships).
A portfolio is now a minimum requirement for a digital marketing company to possess. So, it’s essential you get one.
A good portfolio consists of the following:
- Has headlines with shorts snippets
- More in-depth, result case studies
- Testimonials from satisfied clients
Setup Profiles Across Social Media Platforms
You can create relevant profiles across all social media platform (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others).
5. Network and partnership
Some of the biggest clients and opportunities will often come from chance meetings. Attend conferences in your industry, connect with everybody within your niche on social media, and always lookout for opportunities. You have no clue where your next big deal is coming from.
Also Read: How to Identify the Right Influencer Marketer for your Brand
Similarly, look for partnership opportunities. Partnership is usually a great way to reach new audiences. Learn a thing or two from social media content creators – have you ever wondered why they collaborate most times? It’s for both partners to reach new audiences. And you would notice their followership usually grows after such collaborations.
So, go ahead and do likewise. Think of digital marketers whose services can complement yours and collaborate with them. It’s usually a win-win for both parties.
6. Convert your leads to satisfied clients
Of course, you now have leads coming from different platforms such as referrals, social media, SEO and the rest. All of these are good, but they are just prospects until they convert and pay for your service. This is the most important of the entire process.
Converting leads to customers depends on some factors such as the landing page, email marketing, content marketing, loading speed, etc. And all of these are services are part of the services you would provide to your clients so they shouldn’t be a problem.
In Conclusion
So, here is how you can start up a profitable digital marketing company in Nigeria.
Another point worthy of note is to ensure you register your business with CAC. Here is how to register your digital marketing company with CAC.
