10 Free and Paid Website to Promote Your Business in Nigeria

Advertising your business on billboards, Radio stations, TV and Road show advertisement is usually not enough to market your local business in the Nigerian business sector. Reason been is, these form of advertising is are a traditional form of advertisement, which means it targets people only based on:

• The time at which it's been advertised (time & date)

• The area which it was advertised even if it's locally

• The duration of advertisement

Unlike promoting your business online, there is more benefits and advantages to marketing your business online compared to the aforementioned points (traditional marketing). The next step is to create a business plan to get your business name out there, but before we dive into the details let's take a quick look on the benefit of marketing your business online in Nigeria.

Benefits of Promoting Online

According to PingUp, 93% of online experiences begins with a search query through search engines, this means lots of people are browsing with their mobile phones, tablets and desktops, searching for products and services of their need. People find it more easy to search for your product and service online compared to any advert you would place TV, Radio & Billboard. The benefits of promoting online are:

• Your Business/Brand has the ability to target its right audience

• Your business can be advertised both locally and Globally

• Your business can market itself even while you are asleep (24/7)

• People can access your business online, no matter when it was published

For you to benefit from online promotion, you'd need to practice online advertisement which means advertising through websites, blogs and social media platforms.

So the question is, what are some places to promote your business and market your brand?

I have created a list of both free and paid websites, where you can actually promote your business with your marketing strategy. Note: These online platforms actually help drive traffic to your business (both to your store and on your website) and are effective ways to promote your online brand and also grow you business

Related Topic: Advertising ideas for small business

Proven ways to market for potential customers through these various online presence:

Free Advertising Sites

• Google My Business

Google My Business is the top business directory in the world that businesses can use to promote their products and services locally. Google My Business is a Free advertising platform that's effective at driving traffic to your store offline i.e. business location. How it works is, people google search your product/services and then the name of your business, phone number and website (if any) shows up on Google search map, where they can easily contact you.

• YelloYello

YelloYello is another great business directory where you can submit your business for free and you get access to customers both locally and internationally. The YelloYello is to help local business presents themselves and it's actually free.

• Facebook Page

We all know Facebook and how it operates, so Facebook is a free platform to advertise your business/brand. Just create a Facebook Page to get started. its a great form of social media marketing where you can easily target your market

Est monthly users: 22 million users in Nigeria

• Twitter

Twitter is a free platform that allows you market your business /brand, join marketing conversation and catching up on Tweets from people that matter most to your business. It's a very effective social media marketing channel to market your business online in Nigeria.

Although Twitter also has a "Paid form of Advertisement" just like Facebook. So you pay to reach more of your target audience.

Est monthly users: 18 million users in Nigeria

• LinkedIn

Depending on the type of business and brand you are running, LinkedIn is a free platform to market your business. But this applies only to specific niche of business as it's a professional business platform. So if you're an e-commerce owner, LinkedIn isn't the right platform for you and your business.

LinkedIn also offers Paid Advertisement.

• Vconnect

Vconnect is a business directory website in Nigeria, where business owners can promote their products/services locally for free. Vconnect also offers paid advertisement and it's targeted only to people in Nigeria. So if you are looking at reaching thousands of your customers in Nigeria monthly Vconnect is the right place to do so.

Est monthly users: 13 million users in Nigeria

• Nairaland Forum

This is the biggest forum website in Nigeria, with huge amounts of traffic been generated to the website on a monthly bases. The gist is, it's free. You can actually promote your business/brand on the forum. There are other forums available, but try to join forums that would actually drive traffic to your local business.

Est monthly users: 9 million users in Nigeria

• OLX

OLX is one of the biggest online marketing platform in Nigeria and other part of the world, where you can sell your products and services. The most interesting part is it is Free. All you have to do is Register your product. OLX has a high percentage of people in Nigeria visiting their site, who are actually going to buy your products/services. Their platform is meant for any form of business in Nigeria and other parts of the world. Start to market your business today

Est monthly users: 25 million users in Nigeria

• JUMIA

Jumia is a classified website in Nigeria, marketplace and an online commerce store. They host over 5 million products, 1000+ Brands. And it's free to list your product. Register to get started.

Est monthly users: 19 million users in Nigeria

• KONGA

KONGA is yet another e-commerce store in Nigeria, that allows business owner to sell their products on their website for free. They have a huge amount of consumers readily searching for products to buy, so it's a nice place to advertise your business. Become a seller today.

Est monthly users: 15 million users in Nigeria

• JiJi

Also a free classified online marketplace in Nigeria that provides thousands of sellers the avenue to sell their goods and services. Jiji has over 200,000 sellers and 10 million visitors per month.

Est monthly users: 10 million users in Nigeria

Paid Advertising Website

Most of the listed paid advertising websites listed below are blog sites, due to their high traffic, it's of advantage for business to advertise their products/services on the site.

• Linda Ikeji's Blog

Linda Ikeji is a popular blogger in Nigeria. Her blog are always updated with recent posts and they drives massive traffic (est 7 million+ visitors monthly). It also a great place to market your products/services and your website.

Est monthly users: 7 million users in Nigeria

• Pulse ng

Pulse.ng is a Nigeria broadcasting website/blog which also generates a huge amount of traffic. It's also a great place for your online advertisement.

Est monthly users: 3 million users in Nigeria

• BellaNaija

Depending on your target market, BellaNaija is also a great way you would want to advertise as a business owner. BellaNaija is a Nigerian online magazine and blog website.

Est monthly users: 4 million users in Nigeria

Conclusion

Leverage the benefits of promoting your business on websites in Nigeria that would drive quality traffic to your local business. If possible ask an agency to submit your business on relevant website that can help grow your business online in Nigeria.