Mobile Marketing in Nigeria: A New Strategy for Businesses

ABDigital · June 18, 2024

Mobile Marketing in Nigeria: A New Strategy for Businesses

By ABDigital Digital Currency, Digital Marketing Mobile Marketing in Nigeria 2 Comments

This post highlights the importance of mobile marketing in Nigeria and how mobile internet penetrations is creating new opportunities for businesses. As a business owner or company, having a solid mobile marketing strategy in Nigeria ensures your brand stays top-of-mind and effectively reaches your audience wherever they are.

Nigeria has 36.75 million social media users in January 2024, which is equivalent to 16.2% of the total population. Also, a total of 205.4 million active mobile phone connections where recorded in early 2024. With this figure, it means that 90.7% of the total population of Nigeria are phone users.

According to Satista, the number of smartphone users in Nigeria was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by 52.1 million users (+108.75 percent). As of 2022, Nigeria had nearly 84 million internet users. What can your business do with this mobile dominated market? As Charles Murito, the Google Kenya country manager put it: “rising Internet usage in Africa is primarily due to better infrastructure, cheaper devices, and lower data costs”.

Between 2014 and 2017, reports available to Google showed that Internet usage in Kenya grew from 48% to 53%. Over the same period, mobile internet usage in Nigeria grew from 62% to 65%; and in South Africa, usage increased from 48% in 2014 to 65% in 2017. According to Murito: “This growth has been matched by a surge in internet searches for different products and popular things. What was unique in Africa is; this growth has been based on the mobile device, with the continent using of mobiles more than anywhere else ”.

It is obvious, the number of mobile phone users in Nigeria is continuously increasing, and so a business needs to device new ways of reaching its target audience through this direct communication channel. The Nigerian telecommunication industry is the biggest mobile market in Africa. In a report according to African mobile marketing company, Twinpine; it describes Nigeria officially the most “mobilized” country in the world – with 76% of all internet traffic in Nigeria coming through mobile devices.

Why You Need Mobile Marketing Strategy for Your Business

With more than half of web traffic coming from mobile devices, mobile marketing is no longer optional for businesses; it is one of the key part of every business’s marketing strategy. As a digital marking company in Lagos Nigeria, our mobile marketing services ensure your brand stays connected with customers on the go, delivering personalized, timely, and effective messages directly to their smartphones.

Using effective mobile marketing strategy offers numerous benefits that can significantly enhance your brand’s reach and engagement. Here are some key advantages:

#1. Reach a Wider Audience:

With the majority of people using smartphones, mobile marketing helps you connect with a large audience that is constantly on the go.

#2. Higher Engagement:

Mobile devices enable real-time interaction, leading to higher engagement rates for SMS campaigns, push notifications, and in-app messages compared to traditional marketing channels.

#3. Personalized Targeting:

It offers a wide range of opportunities for interacting with users or potential customers on a more personal level. Mobile marketing allows for precise audience targeting based on factors like location, behavior, and preferences, resulting in more relevant and personalized messages.

#4. Improved Conversion Rates:

Engaging users on their mobile devices increases the likelihood of immediate responses, leading to higher conversion rates for actions like purchases, sign-ups, or app downloads.

#5. Cost-Effective:

Mobile campaigns, especially SMS and push notifications, and paid mobile advertising tend to be more affordable than other marketing channels, offering high returns on investment.

#6. Enhanced Customer Experience:

A mobile-first approach ensures your website, ads, and content are optimized for small screens, improving user experience and satisfaction.

7. Real-Time Interaction:

Mobile marketing lets you connect with customers at the right moment, offering time-sensitive promotions or location-based offers to drive immediate action.

What to Look Out For: Mobile Consumers’ Searches

Amidst this rising Internet use, brands are no longer just competing with one another but with experiences user. Consumers are now more curious, and often spend more time searching and researching to validate an assumption or support their initial research. Consumers are more demanding, they want it now, they want it close to home, and they want to have that experience in a more efficient manner.

Among the top five countries that did Google searches online through their mobiles, Nigeria was placed second in the fourth quarter of 2017, and Kenya and South Africa were also in the top five. With data mining tools today, digital marketers can now address a much more specific audience according to age, gender, location, interests and mobile browsing data; as well as other factors that give the possibility to reach a specific target segment, within a specific audience profile. Mobile marketing lets you reach your customers and prospects anytime, anywhere.

“It is really critical to anticipate what customers want. People want you as a brand owner to tell them what they need. It’s the notion that Steve Jobs spoke about. Consumers don’t know what they want. You have to create it for them and tell them why it is amazing,”

— Charles Murito

Ready to Leverage the Power of Mobile Marketing?

Effective mobile marketing and advertising means understanding your mobile audience, and designing contents or products with mobile platforms and mobile users in mind. With the mobile network penetration rate in Nigeria and increasing growth of Smartphone and mobile tablets users in Nigeria: – who are

paying for products and services with their phones
sending money to friends using mobile banking apps,
downloading videos and other music entertainments,
playing games, and listening to songs,
searching for nearby restaurants or service stations

Mobile marketing campaigns more likely to pay-off. if you hire the right digital marketing agency in Nigeria who can design effective mobile marketing strategies and manage your mobile advertising in addition to SMS or Email marketing.

A total of 89% of businesses indicated that one of factors that are going to differentiate them from their competitors is anticipating the needs of their customers. This is one of the reasons why we are heavily investing in data science, and turning data into insights.

If you’re just starting up, your target customers are still going to become more informed about those products. The ability to have a strong online presence, and an informative engaging presence using well designed websites and content marketing strategy are what is really going to make a difference between wins or loses.

Your business need to show up, wise up, and speed up. What mobile marketing strategy are you using? Tell us about your project here. Although, various factors will determine the best marketing strategy approach for your business. Yokebay in this article described the type of marketing that works in Nigeria.

Digital Marketing Strategies for Your Business

Develop Mobile Friendly Websites
Use Social Media Advertising
Effective Email Marketing
Mobile Search Engine Optimization
SMS Marketing and MMS Advertising
Location-Based Mobile Marketing (geolocation)
Mobile Advertising on Google, Facebook, Instagram and popular Mobile Apps

Mobile SMS Marketing Vs. PCM Mobile Advertising

Meanwhile, the telecom markers took advantage of mobile advertising extension known as ‘Please Call Me’ to reach millions of Nigerian subscribers without having to find their mobile numbers or purchase data on these huge networks. Because many Nigerians have their phones with them all the time as their unique primary means of communication, Nigerians received about 74 million message impressions daily.

PCM Mobile Advertising model can achieve a range of things such as delivering a brand or promotional SMS messages, click to call, click to mobile website or click to SMS short code (e.g. 45545). Using a short code allow marketers the functionality to compile databases, generate sales leads and create revenue for their businesses.

This form of mobile marketing is cost effective, which made it an extremely worthwhile marketing option in Nigeria before year 20016. During this period also, Bulk SMS Software marketing tools and mobile marketing software solutions evolved across Nigerian mobile markets. Several large Nigerian companies ware found using this highly effective method of mobile marketing.

In the first week of May 20016, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) mandated telecommunications operators in Nigeria to enforce the ‘Do Not Disturb’ code across their networks with the 30th of June as a deadline for implementation. This nationwide directive was to cracks down on all mobile network operators in respect of telemarketing, unsolicited text messages, and calls.

These operators were also asked to dedicate a short code for use by subscribers to opt-in to the ‘Do Not Disturb (DND)’ database on their networks. Thus, this regulation has apparently become a drawback on future of mobile marketing in Nigeria, especially in Mobile SMS Marketing.

Related: Top 20 Most Visited Nigerian Websites in 2017

Mobile Marketing and Telecom Operators in Nigeria

Economic circumstances may hamper growth for the short term, but the Nigerian mobile market is the most exciting mobile industry in Africa. With greater sophistication and adoption of mobile services, mobile marketing in Nigeria in the long term will see continued growth.

As a business owner, investor or company who is seeking to exceed your competitors in your niche, get new customers, and make profits for your business. It is important that you create the opportunity and ensure your business survival in today’s economy; using digital media and platforms that can advertise or market your businesses, products and services.

Nigeria has about 84 million mobile subscribers out of a population 233,691,789 and a mobile penetration rate estimated at 61.53%. this rapid growth in the number of subscribers led to problems with network congestion and quality of service (QoS). The Nigerian telecom regulator, formally known as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has long mandated increased investments in base stations and fiber optic transmission infrastructure, to support the ever increasing demand for bandwidth.

The industry regulator also between 2013 and early 2016 applied a price floor on voice and data tariffs in a bid to prevent the major operators from squeezing other competitors. Therefore, while data costs in certain African countries were higher than others, overall, data is getting cheaper.