Marketing will become more important for businesses in Nigeria in 2025 due to reduced purchasing power from a harsh economy and increasing competition driven by the widespread adoption of digital channels. Additionally, the reduced barrier to entry, thanks to AI, is reshaping the landscape.
As a result, businesses must creatively integrate digital strategies into their overall marketing mix and optimise their efforts to see substantial results. Unlike previous years, when the company with the largest budget dominated online, today the most creative, tactical, and disciplined companies win in the digital space.
In this post, we’ll outline 6 digital marketing tips for businesses in Nigeria:
Prioritise Local SEO: Local SEO is crucial, especially for local “service-based” and physical businesses. If your business serves a specific community, increasing visibility within that area can yield an impressive return on investment.
With the rising cost of transportation in Nigeria today, consumers are wary of taking long trips if there’s an alternative closer to their residence.
This gives savvy business owners who invest in local SEO the opportunity to target and attract new customer groups. Local SEO also provides medium-sized businesses serving a community a competitive edge over larger national and multinational corporations.
Double Down on Mobile Optimization: Nigeria’s internet usage is predominantly mobile-driven, with most customers accessing websites via their phones.
Therefore, you must ensure your website is optimized for mobile, using responsive designs that load quickly, even over slow internet connections.
Ignoring mobile optimization in 2025 will greatly reduce your overall conversion rate. Test your website on budget Android phones, not just high-end iPhones.
Run Targeted Social Media Ads: Social media is key to a successful digital marketing strategy in Nigeria today. A report by Kestrel Digital highlights that there are approximately 38.6 million active social media users in Nigeria, a number growing rapidly year-over-year, with Nigerians spending about 3 hours and 25 minutes on social media daily.
Therefore, social media is heavily utilized in Nigeria. However, relying solely on organic reach is not ideal, as these platforms now favor a pay-to-play model. Businesses should set aside a budget specifically for social media promotions.
But throwing money at social media doesn’t guarantee ad effectiveness—messaging, targeting, and creative elements must be cohesive. Businesses can consider contacting a social media marketing company in Nigeria for guidance.
Partner with Micro-Influencers: The rise of short-form video content on platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube has led to a surge in content creators and influencers. While major influencers might be pricey, there’s a plethora of smaller influencers with sizable niche audiences willing to collaborate within your budget.
Micro-influencers should be included in the overall marketing mix for businesses in Nigeria, particularly B2C companies. They offer the benefit of an engaged audience, and your content often remains on their platform for an extended period.
When seeking micro-influencers, don’t focus only on cost—pay attention to their niche and audience engagement. A micro-influencer with 10,000 engaged followers usually delivers better ROI than one with 50,000 non-engaged followers.
Focus on Short-Form Video Content: Video is now a leading choice for content consumption among Nigerian audiences, particularly short-form, horizontal “TikTok-style” videos.
It’s a smart move to include this content type in your creation plan. A good approach is repurposing content: convert YouTube long-form videos, text into blog posts, audio into podcasts, and trim long videos into multiple short-form clips.
Track Metrics and Refine Campaigns: As mentioned in the introduction, discipline is core to winning online today. Data shows what works and what doesn’t. While intuition is important for marketing in Nigeria, data is equally critical for validating successes and quickly cutting losses.
Analytics should be correctly set up to capture as much data as possible, avoiding common mistakes like double-counting. Free tools like Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity can assist with tracking.
These are our top 6 tips for digital marketing for businesses in Nigeria today. Incorporating these strategies will increase the effectiveness and performance of digital marketing campaigns, particularly those targeting the Nigerian audience.
It’s also a good idea to engage the services of a professional digital marketing agency in Nigeria to plan and execute these efforts for optimal results.
Conversely, here are the top 5 digital marketing mistakes businesses should avoid in Nigeria:
- Failing to secure their online payment systems, leaving customers vulnerable to fraud and eroding trust in a market where security is a top concern.
- Overloading their digital ads with excessive text, making them hard to read and reducing engagement in a fast-scrolling online environment.
- Ignoring the potential of email marketing, missing out on a cost-effective way to nurture leads and build long-term customer relationships.
- Copying their competitors’ strategies without adding unique value, causing them to blend into the noise instead of standing out in a crowded digital space.
- Neglecting to update their website and social media content regularly, leading to outdated information that turns off potential customers looking for current offers.
Conclusion:
In this post, we outlined 6 digital marketing tips for businesses in Nigeria. Share your thoughts on them—are you already implementing these as a business in Nigeria? What have been the results?
