Do you own your Marketing Channel?



The other day, I was going through my Instagram feed and then I saw this image:



That made me laugh so hard it brought tears to my eyes. I know you’re not an Instagram model or a slay mama (or are you? ) Oh if you are…I’m sorry but I didn’t say that to hurt your feelings.
Ok back to why we’re here. I speak to a lot of young Nigerian business owners and when I ask what’s their marketing channel they say: “my marketing channel is Instagram, Jumia or Konga” oh that’s good but imagine if these platforms decide to pack their bags and disappear from the internet one day and Poof! Will your business disappear too or you’ll go out to look for the next new platform?

In a few years, several classified websites like Efritin, ADY & Mobofree have closed shop and disappeared from Nigeria and these are websites that were owned by international companies with plenty of Dollars to spend. So what happened? That’s a story for another day.

Just recently, Zinox technologies (the owners of Yudala) bought Konga. What if the new owners of Konga are unable to manage and sustain the e-commerce giant? (I’m not saying this will happen). In fact, I want Konga to succeed as it will help to mature our tech/e-commerce ecosystem in Nigeria.

So what do you do to ensure your business does not die with any platform?
As a business owner, while it is advisable to leverage the huge community and traffic around popular platforms for immediate sales, you need to think long term and begin to build your own marketing properties.

Such properties include your own website and a database of your customers that is independent of these popular platforms.Your database must include information about your customers that will help your business serve them better. The data could include their name, gender, email addresses, phone number and location. That way, even if Jumia disappears or Facebook bans your ad account or Instagram blocks you, you have a database from which you can continue from and you won’t be starting afresh all over again.

In summary, what we’re saying is : Own your own media. Have your own website and while you use popular channels in the immediate, you must immediately begin to build your marketing assets to protect your business in the future.

Delurge Consulting is a Digital Marketing & Talent Management Company in Lagos, Nigeria we can help you build your website and your own media properties to protect your business in the future.
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