Please does anyone know the most cost effective ways to market goods and services in Nigeria? I know there are various traditional options, print, radio, tv, web but how do you choose what's best for you business and are there more creative ways to do this?

Hi Knzguru,
I understand your feeling most likely as a start-up.
The best way to market in my opinion is first by word of mouth and then advertising using a media that addresses your specific market.
Mundane as it seems, word of mouth remains the most effective way marketing your product for the ffg reasons.
1. You commit your integrity to the product or service. Sometimes buying behaviour is highly influenced more by who is selling. Put this in mind when selling too.
2. You get to know customers fears and what they like first hand. This gives you the opportunity to know your Unique Selling Point from the customer's perspective. Most often the USP from the seller's perspective differs from that of the buyer and word of mouth gives you the opportunity to close the ranks.
Knzguru, you must realise that nothing is bought, they are only sold.
This have been my marketing philosophy and the results have been tremendous.

STREET TRADING. Just check Gala. Only sold on the streets

What you are sell and how you are selling to is the key to knowing how you want to sell it.

Just for example sake:
1. Gala - sold on the streets is targeted and people "on the road" [/i]and[b] [i]"who need some snack" [/b]but "have no time to visit an eating place"
advert in the papers wont make that audience buy gala as much has the guy screaming at your car window. you get!

In the same way a Bank product sold on the street wont be a good idea -'because aside being unprofessional, where do you want to start explain'g the financial jargons from?

The Cost effectiveness of the medium you eventually choose would largely depend on the audience and the peculiarities.

If you look at it from that angle and you won't be far from right!

hope you get what i mean

I think what you sell and your Publicity Plan will determine what method would be effective. I don't think it is reasonable to choose an advert method that will take N100,000 on product that fetch only N20,000. I don't expect anyone selling a Coving to advertise in Nursery and Primary Schools. it will be absurd. So if you can dislose what you sell we can help you with cost effective strategy that may help.

how the hell do i market my cd thts what i wanna know!!! i ve got a thousnad copies to sell and ive barely sold 400

as earlier said we need to know what u want to market as there are some products that giving out free samples can be a good start for marketing

What is the content of your CD. Is it Empty CDs or Educational or what?

simmy:

how the hell do i market my cd thts what i want to know!!! i ve got a thousnad copies to sell and ive barely sold 400

Get a book on Marketing and read up on how best to go about selling your CDs. You can put an Ad on the TV. For instance, if you are trying to sell Educational CDs, you can have your ADs aired during educational shows on TV or even on the Radio. If your CDs are for businesses, you can always send flyers in the mail to companies that you suspect would be potential customers. When marketing you have to do what suits your business and you have to be creative.

well, if your cd is original and not pirated then i have a solution for you. you can pu them up for auction at our market place as low as 10 for advert rate and you will be surprised the rate at which you will sell even more than what u expected. visit tokunbo.com.ng for details or contact me on 08023321825
cheers

@Kznguru,

cost-effective way to market ur goods and services dat i have used,tested and rewardin in recent time is to produce large quantity of handbill/flyer showin ur goods and services.

Havin got dat,
1)u now go to as many Mosques as u can on Friday and other fridays after Jumat service and distribute the handbills/flyers to d jumat service attendees

2)On sunday u go to as many Churches as u can after service, as people are going out u just start giving them ur Flyers/Handbills.

3)Go from one Bus-stop to others and cheerfully give out ur Flyers to people there as well.

4)Go to Seminar places,Wedding parties,Silverbird Cinemas and other cinemas, campuses,,market places,Shop-rite,Games,other big shopping complex around and other places u can think of dat always pull crowd as well and distribute ur Handbills/Flyers to numerous people u will meet there.

U can engage additional two or more people to assist u .

No how no how,out of 100% people u wil give d Flyers to, more than 70% might need ur Goods and services,it is what i did sometimes ago and it really worked for me and it is extremely cheap compare to other form of marketing & advertisement

Hope dis help a little

Afroil

Thanks for your contribution and the assistance you want to render, but i just want to point it out that what actually described as cost effective is not really cost effective, putting into consideration that you will pay those that will do distribution, the cost of printing the handbill is also there, transportation to move from one location to the other should be considered.

im sure you cant do this all by yourself, u will need to hire people to do it for you and at the end of the day there are cost to it.

What i have proffered to me is still less effective compared to what u are suggessting, pls dont be offended, i have exeperienced this and thats why i recommend, try it and see that it wont cost you as compared to pasting posters, or distributing handbills here and there. this can be done at the comfort of your home or a cafe and list your product to the site. I just hope u can get the picture of what i am saying, visit www.tokunbo.com.ng for further details

same way you sold 400 but with more smiles and respect. we dont even know if they are blanks, movies, music, educational etc.
Nairaland is a good market place and a start. _{It might be a good idea to involve the admin.}

It depends on the product. Different products require different marketing techniques.

All the best.

Cheers!

i agree that nairaland would be a good place to advertise but does nairaland allow that.

i thot they only advertise for foreign organisations. so u know anyone that has advertised on nairaland.

how much was it to advertise and how did they go about it.

hey lexywhite
i ll visit ur site
i ll also give u a call
thanks!
@seun wherever he is these days
nairaland has a lot of marketing potentials, how do i get in touch with u dude, in order to talk business

hey tokunbo .com isnt a bad site at all, funny i had never haeard of it

Slimmy

Well, you have heard about it now and i will appreciate if you spread the news and patronise the best online market place, just give it a trial and see how your goods will be delivered to your door step or see how your product will be given a boost for quick sales

Still expecting your call

cheers

Hi different viewers, i have observed the web is the cheapest and easiest way to market products.  For a small amount of naira you can have a banner on www.allinnigeria.com.  Get in touch and place your ads for millions of internet surfers  to see. Mail info@allinnigeria.com for more info. Gudluck

how to market your CD--- firstly you should know your target market which is music lovers lovers youth especially in marketing the product concept should be considered greatly especially in direct service it is said (if you build a nice mouse trap pple wil beat a part to your house) if your product is ok you need only a little promo to burst into the market your promo should be on djs, schools you need people to help you promote your cd with thire mouth if you are not satisfied mail me on ebescolala@yahoo.com i will help you i promise BSC marketing

i saw a recent post where someone questioned online marketing

Is Internet Marketing A Myth?
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-89259.0.html\

what do you think about online marketing and how do you best go about this? Apparently ads on nairaland are all google adsense (whatever that means)

Yeah internet marketing is gr8 only if it encourages pple to ACT on the info.internet affords pple the opportunity to act immediately witout delay wether it is buying or selling.However i think dat direct marketing combined with proer targetted marketing thru networking is broad based and spreads across most products. Some products however do not need this. But just as someone posted "It depends on ur marketing policy for that product"

but are nigerians really internet savvy? what percentage of our population do u think has constant access to the internet? an i'm sure getting a fully functional website would cost a lot

Market your stuff for FREE on 2Deal4Real! Check out the link in my profile for an example!

Obodo5 - Can i Buy Some items from them and pay by e-gold?

Nope, a fully functional website need not cost a fortune.U can design one for as little as N30,000 and above depending on the site requirements.Many nigerians are now internet savvy o,nigerians are logging on in their thousands nowadays what wit internet regd for many services suchas JAMB,WAEC and online job applications.what is not prevalent is the USAGE of internet for commercial services.that is being sorted out too.If u want more info(website design),u may get in touch with me: sojiayoade@yahoo.com. Kindly type subject as "WEBSITE DESIGN"

niceuzor:

Obodo5 - Can i Buy Some items from them and pay by e-gold?

On 2deal4real people can showcase their goods, business and more for FREE. If you are interested in buying something from a member, you contact this person either by email or phone. I know that 2deal4real is stimulating face-to-face trading. So 2Deal4Real is not like ebay, more like gumtree.com
But if you agree with a seller to pay with egold, that is your decision. 2Deal4Real has nothing to do with it. It is like a newspaper where you advertise what you have. Both for companies and individuals.

Check out their FAQ to learn more about it.

The introduction of bulk SMS is a development that would be of benefit to most businesess and would be very useful in keeping in touch with existing customers. however, when it is used to reach out to prospective clients, it is most effective only when a properly selected database is employed.

Is it possible to get a target-specific database from telecoms companies or how else can one accomplish the task of aquiring a database of their target audience?

Prommote on nairaland.com and other forums, buy bulk sms from faithsms.com - send it your self od with a small ccash, we can send you ad to our sms growing list.