Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Ads That Fail: The Nigerian Business Targeting Problem

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Ads That Fail: The Nigerian Business Targeting Problem · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at how to
• 0:03
  get the best out of your social media advertising.
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  And that is because somebody just hit me up recently with
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  some advertising campaign and I realised that this person is
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  just wasting their orgasm money because really, there was no
• 0:19
  need for me to see that advertisement now.
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  Yeah, I'm regarding today's episode out and about.
• 0:25
  It's a Sunday. Kids are having caveatism
• 0:27
  classes and then there's some construction going on, you know,
• 0:31
  close by. So expect to hear some drilling
• 0:33
  and all that. Now, this podcast is not to tell
• 0:35
  you about my private life, but I'm here to solve business
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  problems. And today we're going to be
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  talking about advertising. And so if you have been
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  wondering, you know, you have a marketing team, you have a
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  marketing crew. Are they wasting your money?
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  Is this advertisement effective? Are you going to get customers
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  from this kind of thing? How do I grow the business?
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  If these are the kinds of challenges that you wake up and
• 0:57
  every day these things are on your mind, as in money on my
• 1:00
  mind every day, then this podcast is your jam.
• 1:04
  So subscribe Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your
• 1:08
  choice. And if you'd love to connect
• 1:11
  with me, I'm the host. My name is Tavishma IED.
• 1:13
  You can call send me a text message or WhatsApp message on
• 1:16
  08064662140. So like I said now advertising.
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  How do you get the best out of your advertising?
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  Now to be honest, this is also a semi rant because this in a
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  troop me well, well as in like it really pains me because of
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  course when people bring me into a business, you know, to
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  troubleshoot for them or to consult for them or to train for
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  them. We're trying to get the money
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  up. So it's not unusual.
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  Now by the time they hire me, they already had somebody to be
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  doing marketing as well. And marketing boys, let me be
• 1:56
  honest with you anyway, let me not be disrespectful.
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  Let me just say marketing boys in Niger, you guys still leave a
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  lot to be desired. You guys when it comes to
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  creative collateral, you know, the, the design, the color, the
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  font, the everything. The campaign is sweet, but the
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  execution leaves a lot to be desired.
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  I mean, even now that people are using artificial AI tools to
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  create video, you know, video advertising and stuff like that.
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  I mean, they create such wonderful things, but then the
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  execution of the campaign leaves a lot to be desired anyway, so
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  let's just get straight into it. So basically, OK, let's just go
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  straight to the chase. If you're advertising online,
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  whether advertising offline or online, targeting is the main
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  thing. I repeat, targeting is the main
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  thing. Let me say one more time,
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  targeting is the main thing for you to maximise.
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  You're spend the money that you're spending to maximize the
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  results that you get. Targeting has to be on point.
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  For those of you who've been listening for a while, you
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  remember the guy been in the one who runs a, a gadget shop, you
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  know, computers, mobile phones, you know, stuff like that.
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  When he came down to billboards, we had to sit down and have that
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  conversation, OK? This is our target audience,
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  blah, blah, blah, stuff like that.
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  What people that paid you the most?
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  OK, these are G Wagon boys and no problem, a couple of them on
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  campus. It only made sense that OK, at
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  this intersection that is close to the university, the one that
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  is away from all those other billboards, let us put one there
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  so that student community will see.
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  Now, there's no guarantee that, excuse me, that because we have
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  put it there, we're going to get some business from it.
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  But The thing is, you know, advertising is part art and it's
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  part science. So this is part of the artistry
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  that is involved. This is where we think our
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  target audiences, this is where we think they'll be driving
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  back. So let's put 1 billboard there.
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  Now take that same mentality. So excuse me now take that same
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  mentality and apply that thing online.
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  Where do you think the target audience is going to be?
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  Where do you think the eyeballs are going to be?
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  You know, took that advertisement there so that the
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  eyeballs can see. Because if the people who are
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  supposed to see it are not seeing it, and then the people
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  who are not supposed to see it are seeing it truly, truly, I
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  say on to thee, thou art wasting your money.
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  OK, Well, in this case, your gas money.
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  And I think that's the thing that pays me the most about all
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  these marketing boys. You go into a company, you do
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  your, you know, all of you talk real fancy because you'll have a
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  master's degrees and everything and then you collect people's
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  money, big, big money. Like one guy I'm working with
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  right now, 500,000, that's what they collected just to run the
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  campaign. We now start seeing some of the
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  results. By the time I pick up the phone
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  and call some of those leads, I'm like, hi, this is rubbish,
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  absolute rubbish. That's why 500K don't go like
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  that. Anyway.
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  So basically the thing that causes run today was I was just
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  chilling on LinkedIn. Mind my business, you know,
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  checking my, you know, my engagement because you know, I
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  put up posts, you know, people interact, people leave comments,
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  you know, things like that. So just do my thing.
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  Next thing now in my inbox, I receive one of those sponsored
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  advertisements, you know, stuff like that from inter switch.
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  Now I'm not going to read the whole thing because you know,
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  those of you who listen for a while, you already know Now when
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  I do my takedowns message was too long.
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  You had to scroll on my own phone.
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  I'd scroll like 5 or 6 times to finish the whole thing.
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  But shot, because I'm a student of the game, I said let me just
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  see what's out there. Let me see what techniques
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  people are using, you know, things like that.
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  So I went ahead and looked at the whole thing.
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  We're very, very, I say on to the marketing people, all these
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  long copy that people are using your advertisement.
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  What do you think is reading this thing because you think
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  people don't have what they're doing with that time.
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  They will sit down and be scrolling and scrolling and
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  scrolling. Wasted money.
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  Those guys just wasted inter switches money.
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  And then he's paying me because inter switch.
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  That's a good client. Those are the people that will
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  be paying correct money. You know, don't be charged
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  pricing you, you know, for 400-5555 hundred, you're
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  collecting millions. So The thing is painting me,
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  that's money that should have went out my pocket if I need
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  some connections into these kinds of organizations.
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  So he was long as hell, very long and all thrust of the
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  advert was we're talking about how you can digitize your oil
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  and gas business for growth. I repeat, some of you, you'll be
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  wondering, did I hear him correctly?
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  Yes, you heard me correctly. The advert was digitize your oil
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  and gas business for growth. Now those of you who have been
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  listening to this podcast, even if you've only listened for two
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  episodes, do I sound like somebody who is in the oil and
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  gas business? Do I, should I be seeing that
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  kind of advertisement? Should I?
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  If I'm seeing that advertisement, obviously the
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  other people who are not in the oil and gas business, who that
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  advert is being shown to as well.
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  The marketer will now tell Inter Switch that we did a brilliant
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  campaign. They will say that that ad was
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  seen by over 800 million Nigerians.
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  Then they'll clap for them. They'll say good, that the thing
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  the campaign had good reach which can reach when people who
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  should not be seeing it are seeing it.
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  If I do not own an oil and gas business and this thing is
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  talking about inter switch solutions for people in the oil
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  and gas space, does it sound like I am going to take action
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  on something that I do not need and I am not interested in now?
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  This is the problem. Marketing people listen very
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  well. This is the problem.
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  I studied oil and gas, yes, that was my second degree, oil and
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  gas law. So because of that, on my
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  profile, I'm sure oil and gas is written there because my
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  university will be there and my degree will be there and my
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  graduation will be there. So the problem is the people who
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  came up with this advertising campaign, what they did was when
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  they were putting the targeting criteria, they just said anybody
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  that has done anything in oil and gas before this person
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  should see the advert. No marketing boys and girls.
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  Listen, what is the most important thing?
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  Is it that anybody who has anything to do with oil and gas
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  should see this advert or should it be anybody who has a career
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  or a business in oil and gas should see this advert?
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  I repeat, marketing boys and girls in the targeting that
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  people are doing for these kinds of campaigns, you're working on
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  this kind of thing, is it OK? The person has something related
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  to do with oil and gas, no matter how small, therefore, the
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  person should see this advert or should it be somebody who has
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  had a career or a business in oil and gas?
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  Now, the problem I have with marketing boys and girls,
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  especially in Nigeria is they worry too much about reach.
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  Marketing people in Nigeria have a reach mentality.
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  They want plenty of people to see the adverts, plenty and
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  plenty and plenty. And then they have these their
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  funny metrics. The more people see it, the more
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  the impressions. Then they can say that oh the
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  cost of the impression was cheap and they will tell your guy that
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  they ran an efficient campaign because 800 million people saw
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  it at the cost of so so and so per impression.
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  The cost is low. Therefore it was a sweet
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  campaign. Sweet campaign.
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  How marketing, boys and girls. This is not about reach.
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  It is not about how low the cost of the impression was.
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  It is about whether the right audience sees it.
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  Even if the impression costs higher, even if it costs more,
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  because if the right audience sees it, then we might get some
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  money. At the end of the day, Inter
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  Switch is not paying for impressions.
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  What they're paying for is they're hoping that somebody
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  would take on this thing and buy their solutions for the oil and
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  gas industry. Marketing boys and girls, your
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  clients are not paying for impressions.
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  They are paying for business results.
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  They are paying for sales. So please stop this reach
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  mentality or so, so, so impressions and the impression
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  was cheap. Who cares if the impression was
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  cheap when by the time you pick up the phone, you can't do
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  anything with these contacts. This one of my clients like
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  that. OK, I really told you guys now
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  500K, 500K, by the time you start calling, it's supposed to
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  be targeting Nigerians in diaspora.
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  By the time you start calling the people, sorry, Nigerians in
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  diaspora who want to buy land and want to buy land or rent
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  property in Lagos, by the time you start calling the people,
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  people in Kano, people in Maiduguri, people in will carry
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  people in like and then all of them based in Nigeria.
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  Like, is that the point? Cheap impressions, OK was seen
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  by 1,000,000 people and so a million people that we cannot
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  get a single customer from. And so when you are advertising,
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  it is all about targeting, targeting you marketing people.
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  Stop being so afraid. You want the targeting to be as
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  broad as possible because you want reach.
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  It is not about reach, it's about the quality, smarter
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  quality. What is the whole point?
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  If a million people see it and then you know you don't get a
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  single naira of business out of this thing.
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  But then if half 100,000 people see it and then, I don't know,
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  maybe you get 10 millionaires worth of business.
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  I mean, which one is better? Marketing people, please, I beg
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  targeting, targeting, targeting. Narrow, narrow, narrow.
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  The more focused the better. That's the reason why people
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  call this thing ideal customer profile or target audience or
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  something. Target audience, you know, it
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  means it's, it's like archery. We're trying to shoot gun, we're
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  trying to shoot an arrow. We're trying to hit the zero in
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  the board. We're not trying to scatter
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  bullets everywhere. Nigerian marketing boys and
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  girls, people like giving us a bad name.
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  That's the reason why those of us who are in the marketing, who
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  are in the revenue communications business, that's
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  the reason why people are skeptical of doing business with
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  us because they have dealt with too many of you and you will
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  have have given them a nasty experience.
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  Someone who dropped 500K and won't see results then do now
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  think that all of us are charlatans.
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  But of course, you marketing people was your own.
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  You've already collected your money and you've gone.
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  You now leave some of us to come and clean up this mess.
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  So for this kind of campaign now, it should not have been
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  anybody that has anything to do with oil and gas.
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  It should have been maybe people that have a career in oil and
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  gas. People have a business in oil
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  and gas. Not only that, it is Interstate
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  we're talking about it's a fintech company, you know, very
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  complicated solutions. So people like me who are one
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  man show we should not be seeing this advert.
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  They also should have put there a certain revenue size for the
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  business. They also should have put there
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  a certain size of the business, you know like employee count
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  because one man show does not engage inter switch.
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  These are the kinds of things that should have gone into that
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  campaign. This is the level of
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  granularity, the level of targeting that should have gone
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  into that campaign. Then apart from the targeting
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  and apart from the length of the copy, there was also an issue
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  with the call to action. Now the call to action just
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  means the the thing that you want people to do at the end of
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  reading your message, at the end of digesting your advertising
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  campaign, what do you want them to do next?
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  It is part of a good marketing campaign, advertising campaign,
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  direct response copy campaign, whatever campaign you're doing
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  sha anything that is sales related.
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  It's a good idea that the end of it you put a call to action.
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  What do you want the people to do next?
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  Excuse me, because that is how you move people along the buying
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  process eventually until they make a deposit and then they
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  become your customer. So there should always be a call
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  to action. Now the call to action that they
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  put there at the end of nothing was book a demo Now, please
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  marketing brothers and sisters, is that realistic?
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  You people are selling a product.
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  This is inter switch. This is for big boys and big
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  girls, you know, people where they earn 1,000,000 millions,
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  not naira millions dollars as in big, big, big, big money.
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  This is a very expensive solution.
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  You really think somebody will see your advert one time and
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  just click and then go for a demo?
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  How? It's not realistic.
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  This is a complex sale scenario. Book a demo that's like you're
• 15:45
  running into a babe on the first day and then you tell her you're
• 15:47
  going to be my wife, you know? Yeah, in in Hollywood, it works.
• 15:51
  It's romantic. But in real life, the first time
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  you see a girl, you tell her you're going to be my wife.
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  You don't think she'll run away. You take it easy.
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  How about the realistic when you say the call to action should be
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  the, how do I put it? The smallest or most reasonable
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  next step, the easiest next step that somebody should take.
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  So in this case, how about click here to learn more.
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  That's an easier call to action. How many people do you think
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  will see this thing as a book a demo and then they will click on
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  book a demo. How about click here to learn
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  more? How about if you would like to
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  see how Inter Switch can help you, you'd like to see how inter
• 16:30
  Switch can help you, you know, improve this, improve this,
• 16:32
  improve that, click here and easier and call to action.
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  It's a complex sale scenario. Nobody's going to make a
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  decision on the spot. Very few people are just going
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  to click through and then go and see a demo.
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  So anyway, sorry I got carried away.
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  Instead of making this an objective, dispassionate podcast
• 16:58
  episode, I ended up turning this thing into a rant.
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  But basically I think we I passed across what I was trying
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  to pass across. So marketing boys and girls,
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  please, this thing is not about reach and it's not about
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  impressions. It's not about 1,000,000
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  impressions if we don't get customers from it.
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  When people give US money, they are Rex, they are expecting
• 17:18
  results, they're expecting clients at the end of the day.
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  So marketing people, please understand that and then don't
• 17:23
  make my own job difficult. Those of us who have to call up
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  the customers don't make my own job difficult.
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  Please make the targeting as narrow as possible so that by
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  the time people like me pick up the phone and call, the
• 17:37
  conversation will be sweet. Now, of course, we know that
• 17:41
  it's not going to be everybody that sees the advert.
• 17:45
  That is, you know, nothing can be perfect.
• 17:48
  Nothing can be perfect. But let's go back to this 500K
• 17:54
  people. Now they're on the
• 17:56
  advertisement. They got a couple of contacts.
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  I looked at the sample size. It was not much.
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  I say, you know what, before I hand it over to the guys in
• 18:03
  house team, let me sample this thing myself.
• 18:06
  Let me just taste it. Let me see the quality of these
• 18:08
  leads. Let me call these people.
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  Then we'll now come up with a game plan.
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  I called them out of the sample size, 0 percent, 0%, not even 10
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  percent. Nobody was the ideal target
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  audience. Nobody.
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  Every single person I called based in Nigeria.
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  Every single person I called based in Nigeria.
• 18:31
  Meanwhile, we are targeting people who are supposed to be
• 18:34
  diaspora, people who live in Canada, people who live in
• 18:37
  America, people who live in where?
• 18:39
  Again, I can't remember then of the sample size, I think only
• 18:47
  like 20% remotely remembered clicking on the ad or were
• 18:53
  interested in real estate, about 20%.
• 18:57
  The remaining 80% nothing. And then for some of the people
• 19:04
  who are some language barriers there, you can understand what I
• 19:07
  mean. I don't want to, you know, I
• 19:09
  don't the sound tribalistic. So let me just leave it like
• 19:11
  that. Let's just say it was language
• 19:13
  barrier. Let me just leave it.
• 19:19
  So I told your guy, gave your guy my report.
• 19:22
  Look, this is how we need to change the advertisement.
• 19:25
  We need to tighten this up. We need to tighten this up.
• 19:27
  And I told them that look, I will use money to pre qualify,
• 19:30
  put it there in the advertisement that the cost of
• 19:31
  your solution is between this and this and put the amount in
• 19:34
  dollar so that some people will see it and be afraid and won't
• 19:37
  click on it. Those are some of my
• 19:40
  recommendations, Borgia, to get the best out of your marketing
• 19:46
  spend, make sure it is targeted. The more narrow you can make it,
• 19:51
  the better. Then stop worrying about reach
• 19:56
  it. Reach is not the main thing.
• 19:59
  If we're not reaching out to the right people, then the fact
• 20:01
  that, you know, 1 billion people saw it like OK and so.
• 20:08
  Then our call to action should be realistic.
• 20:13
  Book a demo, man. That's too much.
• 20:19
  Make it a small step that seems reasonable that somebody could,
• 20:22
  that somebody can take without fear.
• 20:28
  Anyway, so that's it. Yeah, that's it.
• 20:32
  Any forgive me for a rant, but it's one of those things that
• 20:35
  just really, really, really pay me because this year alone, I
• 20:40
  think this year alone is like maybe four or five.
• 20:43
  Yeah, let me say 5, five of these air hops that I have faced
• 20:50
  personally. And anyway, please, marketers,
• 20:55
  you should get your house in gear.
• 20:56
  You are giving us a bad name. People are giving us a very,
• 20:59
  very bad name. I beg you people, organize
• 21:02
  yourselves, maybe we'll go for town hall meeting, marketing
• 21:06
  association, you know of Lagos, you know, whatever, you probably
• 21:10
  go for association meeting. We should talk to yourselves, a
• 21:12
  big talk to yourselves. Anyway, let me stop there.
• 21:18
  So that's it and that's all for today.
• 21:20
  If you'd love to connect, call, send me a text message or a
• 21:24
  WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Thanks for your time and
• 21:30
  attention. I'll catch you at the next
• 21:31
  episode. And you know what, let me
• 21:33
  apologize. I'm not trying to make marketers
• 21:36
  sound as if they're all a holes and you know they don't, they
• 21:39
  don't know their work. But anyway, see you guys next
• 21:46
  episode.