NIMN builds digital marketing capacity among members

The rapid evolution of digital media has created new opportunities and avenues for advertising and marketing. Fuelled by the proliferation of devices to access digital media, this has led to the exponential growth of digital marketing.

With the start of the internet craze in Nigeria, there has been an astonishing advancement in personal technology and in the last three years we have witnessed an amazing transformation in the use of mobile telephones. Cell phones and smart phones now provide mobile and rapid access to the internet.

According to Wikipedia, 2014, there are over 55 million internet users in Nigeria who at one point or the other access the social media portals, which include Facebook, Twitter, blogs and live video. These resources are as easy to access as phone calls from home have been for decades. Speed, access, and affordability have made mobile communications technology commonplace.

Given the changing nature of business in the contemporary society and the fact that consumers are moving to the digital space, the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN) recently organised a lecture to expose members to opportunities and inevitability of digital marketing in the 21st Century.

The institute assured its members that it had put several machineries in place to ensure that members were well positioned to take the advantage of the digital space for marketing activities.

Entitled ‘Agbakoba Memorial Lecture,’ anchored by Ayeni Ekundayo, an alumnus of the prestigious Harvard Executive Education, reinstated the importance of digital marketing as the defining factor in marketing activities in the post industrial society.

”It is imperative for marketers in Nigeria to embrace digital marketing and utilise its tools to remain relevant to this generation. For centuries, the only mediums available as tools in reaching out to a vast audience were the televisions and the newspapers. The internet is altering human relations in a way too visible to be ignored and marketing is not an exception,” he said.

Reiterating the importance of digital marketing and social media marketing, the president of the Institute, Ganiyu Koledoye, said that “while some remain pessimistic of the potentials of social networks as viable direct marketing channels, I believe that direct marketers who craft intelligent strategies, which will require much more creativity, for the social media will find success.

‘’At the same time, social media offers brand marketers entirely new paradigms for designing immersive and persuasive brand experiences. Although, Nigeria is still new to the game and has a lot to learn, however, it’s only when marketers learn how to capture opportunities available on social media, only then will they realise just how valuable social media can be”.

Commenting further, he stated that “Change is difficult, but as good marketers, we need to be flexible in our thinking to enable us market to an audience in the manner in which they prefer.” This, in essence, means taking time to study the consumer in order to market to them appropriately. …removing you from the picture and focusing on the customer.”

Again, it has  been proven that majority of today’s consumers are more likely to seek for information about a product through online search engines either by going to the company’s website or targeting particular writers of blogs. This trend has made it imperative for marketers to engage in digital marketing and have their presence in major social media sites.

In developed countries, digital marketing has becoming more popular with marketers as it allows them to track their Return on Investment more accurately compared to other traditional marketing channels.

Also statistics has shown that the most relevant medium to reach this generation of consumers is through digital medium.

Finally, the commercialisation of these social media sites has given room for marketers to introduce new products or services to specific target groups and advertise to selected audience. This indeed creates revenue for the bloggers on one hand and on the other hand, a cheaper but effective platform for businesses to market their products.