A digital marketing strategy is a high-level, long-term framework that defines why and how a business will use digital channels to achieve overarching marketing and business goals. A strategy is different from a digital marketing plan, which is a tactical “how to implement the strategy” roadmap that specifies what actions will be taken, when, where, and how.
Having a well-defined strategy is important for Nigerian brands, as it ensures that their efforts are focused, resources are utilized effectively, and they stand out online in Nigeria. This guide provides actionable steps for brands in Nigeria that want to create a digital marketing strategy.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Digital Marketing Strategy
This action-oriented guide outlines the steps to create a digital marketing strategy for your brand in Nigeria, with examples to further explain complex points and terms.
1. Define Your Vision and Set S.M.A.R.T Goals
The first step to creating a digital marketing strategy is to create a clear and distinct vision. Answer the question, “What results do we want digital marketing to drive for the business in the next 5 years?” For example, you could State: “To be the leading retailer of eco-friendly products in Nigeria by 2030.”
Don’t be vague or opaque when outlining the vision, and ensure the ‘digital marketing’ vision seamlessly aligns with the overall brand vision.
Set Your S.M.A.R.T Goals
After clearly defining your brand’s vision for digital marketing, the next step is to set S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals. Each goal should be:
- Specific: Clearly define the specific outcome, Such as increasing online sales of the “X” purifier in western Nigeria.
- Measurable: Attach a quantifiable metric to the goal, e.g., “by 25%.”
- Achievable: Is this goal attainable? The answer should be a precise ‘Yes’ or ‘No,’ not ‘Maybe.’
- Relevant: Does this goal align with the overall business objectives?
- Time-bound: When do you project this goal will be met?
Putting it all together, a S.M.A.R.T. goal for a consulting business in Nigeria would read:
“Increase online sales of the ‘X’ purifier in western Nigeria by 25% within 6 months, aligning with the business objective of expanding market share in the region.”
2. Conduct Market & Audience Research
Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. It involves understanding who they are and what they need. – Wikipedia
Market research is fundamental and should be thoroughly done to increase the probability of meeting your marketing goals.
When executing market/audience research, go beyond fundamental or intuitive ideas about your audience. Get real data on their:
- Demographics: Age, location (specific Nigerian states/cities), income.
- Psychographics: Values, interests, lifestyle preferences.
- Digital Behavior: Which social platforms do they use? What are their online shopping habits? What content do they consume?
- Pain Points & Goals: What problems do they face that your product solves?
- Buying Journey: How do they discover, research, and purchase?
For this audience research, you can utilize tools like social media insights, Google Trends, Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, and SparkToro.
After completing this exercise, you should have a deep comprehension of your market and audience, from which you’ll create very detailed buyer personas. For example:
- Wale, 25 years old, lives in Asaba, Delta. Earns ₦350k/mo. Follow tech influencers and shops on online platforms (e.g., Temu, Jumia). He values product usability and prefers products with high-quality reviews and the assurance of fast delivery before making a purchase.
3. Analyse Competitors
“Online” competitor research is next after audience and market research. The online aspect is highlighted because competitors offline are not necessarily the same competitors online. We recommend identifying:
- 5-10 Direct Competitors: These are local and international companies/individuals that offer similar products and services to the same audience.
- 3-5 Indirect Competitors: These are local and international companies or brands offering different products but targeting the same audience.
Having identified your direct and indirect competitors, the next step is to research each competitor to get detailed information on their offers, UX design, post types, engagement tactics, keywords, content strategy, etc.
The aim of the entire competitor research process is to identify your competitors’ digital marketing strengths, weaknesses, wins, pitfalls, and key tactics. After this process, you should have a document summarizing each competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities you could take advantage of (e.g., Kaffy Scents is running ads on Instagram but ignoring WhatsApp, which some of our target audience uses).
4. Audit Your Current Digital Presence
Your brand likely already has a digital presence, except in situations where it is just starting. After completing the competitor research, auditing your brand’s existing digital presence is next.
The table below lists basic audit actions you should implement:
| Channel | What to Look Out For | Tools to Use |
| Website | How fast is the loading speed? Is it optimized for mobile use? Is it user-friendly? | Google PageSpeed Insights & Google Analytics |
| SEO | What specific keywords are you ranking for? Are they relevant, especially for the Nigerian audience? Any tech issues? | Google Search Console |
| Social Media | Are your bios optimized? Is your branding consistent? | This requires you to do it manually or use available insights from the platform. |
| Content | What sorts of content do you already post? Which posts performed well and which did not? What’s missing? How can you do better? | Google Analytics |
After completing your brand’s digital marketing presence audit, you should have a clear understanding of your brand’s current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and areas for improvement. We recommend creating an audit document where you record these findings. This document will serve as a baseline to measure the effects of future digital marketing activities against.
5. Develop Your Core Messaging & UVP
At this stage, you already have a clear understanding of your target audience and market, your competitors, and the opportunities available to your brand. The next step is developing your brand message, i.e., defining what you want to say and how you want to say it.
Developing your core message starts with identifying your Unique Value Proposition (UVP). What customer pain points are you solving? What solutions are you providing? What makes your brand different from the existing competitors already in the niche? Clearly and unambiguously State the following:
- The problem your brand is solving.
- How are you solving it differently?
- What makes you different and the best option for your target audience?
For example, a consultancy firm in Nigeria’s core messaging could read:
(Placeholder for your core messaging example)
It’s essential to develop messages that resonate with the Nigerian audience, using the tone and language that your audience understands. For example, a premium brand shouldn’t use colloquial language, and vice versa. Where possible, incorporate popular Nigerian slang or words to better connect with your audience.
6. Select & Prioritize Digital Channels
With digital marketing, quality and consistency are more important than quantity. Based on your buyer persona, identify the platforms your audience already uses and focus on those. Also, consider your budget and team expertise when selecting a platform. For example, TikTok and Instagram are visually driven and would require a content team of creators and video editors, unlike LinkedIn, which is more text-driven.
After identifying the key channels, classify them into Primary, Secondary, and in some cases, Tertiary platforms. This classification should be based on cost-effectiveness, relevance to the target audience, team expertise, and available budget. We recommend using this framework:
- Tier 1 (Primary Focus): 2-3 channels for 60-70% of resources (e.g., Instagram, WhatsApp, SEO).
- Tier 2 (Secondary Focus): 2-3 channels for 20-30% of resources (e.g., Email Marketing, Google Ads).
- Tier 3 (Experimental): 1-2 channels for 10% of resources (e.g., TikTok, LinkedIn for B2B).
After this section, you should have a prioritized list of digital marketing channels you’ll utilize.
7. Outline Your Content & Campaign Strategy
Creating the content and campaign strategy is where you actually map out broad content creation and campaign themes.
When creating a content strategy, don’t focus squarely on promotion. While promotion is essential, overdoing it could lead to fatigue and become counterproductive. We recommend utilizing the 80/20 rule, where 80% of your content is educational, engaging, or entertaining and adds value to your audience, while 20% is promotional.
(Placeholder for your content/campaign strategy table)
After this exercise, you should have a detailed content and campaign strategy.
8. Define Your Measurement & Optimization Process
You can’t improve or optimize what you can’t measure; hence, setting up measurement and optimization before the campaign even starts is very important. Most measurement tools can’t extract data retrospectively, so these systems must be set up to collect data prior to any campaign launch. Follow these steps:
- Define 3-5 KPIs you’ll track for each S.M.A.R.T. goal. For example, the KPIs for “Increase organic traffic by 25%” could be Organic Sessions, Bounce Rate, and Conversion Rate.
- Install & confirm that the necessary tracking tags (GA4, Meta Pixel, MS Clarity, etc.) are firing and collecting data correctly. Avoid common errors like firing multiple times or double-counting conversions.
- Plan review, optimization, and iteration cadences. Digital marketing moves fast; therefore, it’s important to pre-plan these sessions to review what’s working and what’s not, make adjustments, and catch errors early.
After this section, you should have a clear plan for tracking KPIs, setting up analytics, and a cadence for review, optimization, and iteration.
9. Allocate Budget & Resources
Over $1.1 trillion was spent on ads in 2024, highlighting the fact that digital marketing needs a budget to be successful. Budget and resource allocation are an important element of your digital marketing strategy, not an add-on.
Detail your spending commensurate with your S.M.A.R.T. goals and campaign plan. Allocate your budget to your selected primary, secondary, and tertiary channels. Also, allocate budgets to add-ons like software subscription costs, agency fees, ARCON fees, ad spend taxes, etc.
Also, assign responsibilities to specific team members. Even when utilizing digital marketing agencies in Nigeria, assign team members for oversight functions.
After this section, you should have a detailed budget and a clear outline of team roles and responsibilities.
10. Implement, Monitor & Adapt
Finally, after the planning, create a launch plan. Consider a phased approach, starting with primary channels before extending to secondary and tertiary channels. We also recommend a phased paid ads campaign launch to actually get real data from your audience if you’re just starting a new campaign.
Digital marketing campaigns are not “set and forget.” You should create a checklist for daily, weekly, and monthly monitoring. This could include Paid Ads Monitoring (Daily), Social and SEO monitoring (Weekly), and Overall Campaign Effectiveness monitoring (Monthly).
Conclusion
In this article, we have outlined how to create a digital marketing strategy for your brand in Nigeria. This process includes setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, conducting market and audience research, analyzing competitors, auditing your existing digital presence, developing core messaging, outlining a content plan, setting up a measurement and optimization process, allocating resources, and creating launch plans.
At Krestel Digital, we are a team of professionals focused on helping brands in Nigeria succeed in digital marketing. Contact us today for the best tips and tricks to help you get started.
