One way of gaining competitive advantage as propounded by Michael Porter is providing comparable buyer value more efficiently than competitors (low cost). Hence it is important to reach your customers faster and more efficiently but also at a cost that will enable you gain competitive advantage. Unless you are a large multi-national your budget won’t really be that big, hence it is really important to focus on how to market your business in low-cost ways.

How to market your business on a budget in Nigeria

1. Start a social media engagement for your business if aren’t already doing that
Create a business page up on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Twitter. Put some efforts into designing your pages, don’t just strive for a bland page; a page is only as good as the design and of the contents. So make sure your business profile includes a good description, keywords and a link to your website. Also include social media buttons on your website if you have one. This is one very potent way to market your business on a budget in Nigeria
With as little as $5 you can start to publicize your page Facebook to hundreds of people

2. Research your competition marketing efforts
Study what your competitions are doing; research the effectiveness of their campaigns. What can you learn? You would be better placed to spot holes and weaknesses in their marketing campaigns and then improving on those in your own campaigns. This way you are making sure that you are not going head to head with them in areas where they are stronger but rather hitting them on their weak points. Also, if you spend time analysing the competitive field to look for areas of weakness or gaps in the marketplace, you can discover opportunities where your business will have the best chance to grow

3. You Can’t Be Everything to Everyone (Streamline your marketing efforts); target your niche for all your marketing efforts. Pareto 80/20 rule may come in handy here. Which 20% of your customers contribute 80% of your sales? Concentrate on these 20%.

4. Attend industry and local networking events
Check out and sign up for business events on Eventbrite. Make sure that your business card stand out from the pack when you get to these events.

5. Make your existing customers your marketers. Offer them freebies, free service, tickets to movies etc. for referring new customers. Word-of-mouth is a potent way of marketing your business on a budget in Nigeria.


http://lightednation.com/2016/04/market-business-budget-nigeria/