How to Use Facebook to Get More Paying Customers in Nigeria (6 Ways)

As a business owner in Nigeria, you know that getting new customers is very important for your business to grow and succeed.

But with lots of competition and limited resources, it can be hard to stand out and reach the customers you want. If you’re feeling stuck and struggling to find new customers, don’t worry – you’re not alone.

Many Nigerian business owners face the same challenge. However, there’s a powerful tool you can use to turn things around called Facebook. With over 49 million active users in Nigeria, Facebook gives you an amazing opportunity to connect with potential customers, show off your products or services, and get more sales.

Also, the lifeline of any business is getting and retaining customers. Whether you are selling a product or service, using Facebook is a no-brainer.

In this article, you will learn how to use Facebook to get more customers, for your business and how to position your brand for more deals.

How Business Acquire Their Customers in the Past

A few years back Nigerians used fliers and referrals to get more customers. Other media businesses in Nigeria include TV adverts, radio adverts, and billboards. These are traditional methods of advertising. They truly worked in the past and they still do. While they do work, they are quite expensive and you can’t measure them easily.

Well, the story has changed. Businesses in Nigeria can now target their exact prospective customers, grow their revenue, and directly measure their results. A large percentage of Nigerians are now online. Most of them are on Facebook.

This is why you need to learn how you can use Facebook to get more customers in Nigeria.

What Businesses are missing

Here are a few statistics to think of:

• Worldwide, there are over 1.55 billion monthly active Facebook users (MAUs) which is a 14 percent increase year over year
• 5 billion likes generated daily as of May 2013 which is a 67 percent increase from August 2012
• There are 1.39 billion mobile active users (MAU) (Source: Facebook as of 9/30/15) an increase of 23 percent year-over-year.
• On average, the Like and Share Buttons are viewed across almost 10 million websites daily.
• In Europe, over 307 million people are on Facebook.
• Age 25 to 34, at 29.7% of users, is the most common age demographic.
• Five new profiles are created every second.
• Facebook users are 80% female and 73% male.
• Highest traffic occurs mid-week between 1 to 3 pm. (Also consider that Facebook has a global audience, so you may want to plan around the time zone of your key market.)
• On Thursdays and Fridays, engagement is 18% higher.
• 50% of 18-24 year-olds go on Facebook when they wake up.
• 42% of marketers report that Facebook is critical to their business.
• 16 Million Local business pages have been created as of May 2013 which is a 100 percent increase from 8 million in June 2012

Go here to read more.

How to Use Facebook to Get Customers For Your Business 

Promote your Posts

So, you write amazing content for your Facebook. You engage people organically with your post. But, you have to understand that not all your fans or friends would see your post.

Facebook controls and filters what everyone sees in their News Feed. What if you discover that a particular post was very engaging? Note that no matter how engaging and valuable your post is, a lot of people would still not see it.

Here is the most recent viral post by the top 50 brands on Facebook. Note that they have a huge fan base. They promoted the page to have that following and yet still sponsored the post. I have discovered that most viral content online is promoted.

Set aside a budget to promote your most engaging post. Not only can it increase interaction, it can also result in an increase in traffic to your site.

This is how to use Facebook to get more customers in Nigeria- Promote your engaging post.

Post multiple photos

Generally speaking, I’ve discovered that photos reach and engage more people than plain text.

Jon Loomer shows you how to implement the simple trick of using multiple photo posts to reach more people.

‘The rumour goes that if you create a post with multiple images in it, you will reach far more users than if you do a typical image share. Note that this isn’t sharing a photo album, but doing a standard text share while adding images.

The key is for the images to look presentable when uploaded together. If you post two or three images, all will be presented side-by-side within the News Feed, on your Timeline, and within the permalink’.

Go here to learn how to do the trick

You can check here and here to see how you can even further boost your multiple photo post

Photo Tagging

I have used this feature to reach more people for a particular offer. Facebook might not allow all your friends or fans to see your posts.

But, the tagging feature allows you to reach much more people. If there is a call to action such as please share, then your post further reaches more people. This is one great way to use Facebook to get more customers in Nigeria.

The tagging feature allows you to reach much more people. If there is a call to action such as please share, then your post further reaches more people. This is one great way to use Facebook to get more customers.

When you tag someone, the person receives a notification that he or she has been tagged. Just imagine that the post is engaging, relates, and connects emotionally with those people.

Boom! There you have it. You just reached more people without paying a dime.

See the video below to see how to tag people.

Let me emphasize this. Tag people very intelligently. When you tag people, it has to be relevant to them in some certain ways. Don’t just tag for tagging sake. Doing this might make people unfriend or unfollow you.

Get creative with your call to action

Gone are the days you bothering people to like your post. Facebook has a way of burying such posts with its algorithm.

The latest Facebook algorithm update buries “like-bait” posts, which is any post that directly asks users to “like”, “share” or “comment” on it – formerly standard calls to action for Facebook business page updates.

Now, you have to get a bit more creative with your calls to action.

Based on this and this, it is obvious that Facebook wants you to spend money on their call to action. But there are creative ways to give a call to action without paying Facebook. But, truth be told, you’ll reach more people paying Facebook.

If you are promoting, here is how to get the most out of your call to action button.

Listen:

Yes, you heard me right! There are two types of listening I’m referring to.

• Studying what your competitors are doing:

A lot of business owners in Nigeria don’t spend enough time studying how their competitors do things online.

This is because it could be time-consuming and you probably have other important things to do. Using tools like Hootsuite can help monitor and measure certain topics within your niche and save you time on social media.

Here are some ways to save time analyzing your competitors.

You can use Graph Search to find lots of people or competitors in your niche. When you do this, you get to see what they are doing better than you and even surpass it.

You can even find out what makes artists are loved by people within a certain age range.

You can do that by typing:

Make-up artists in [Location-Lagos] liked by people above 24 years old and below 30 years old.

Wow! Isn’t that amazing?

Study their past campaigns and offers.

• Listening to your followers or audience:

Join a group and create your group. Groups are more intimate than pages at least from my own experience. You get to study people’s persona and psychology as it relates to your brand. Tell the person handling your Facebook to look for groups related to your niche and join.

Here is how to create a Facebook group

Also, study the comments of your post and ask questions. Ask questions. That’s how to create engaging posts with feedback.

Facebook Offers

Again, this is another amazing way to use Facebook to get more customers in Nigeria. I found out that most businesses in Nigeria don’t use this feature in their Ads.

A Facebook Offer is a special post that lets users claim an offer online and then redeem the special at your business.

Most offers are not redeemed digitally. This means you’ll have to design the offer in such that would encourage people to redeem their offer physically.

Try hosting a giveaway or contest, where those who visit your makeup studio have a chance to win free coupon for a make-up session. Only those who visit the studio are eligible to win!

Follow these steps in creating your offer:

First, go to your Ads Create tool.

Once you’re on that page, click “Get people to claim your offer”, select your Facebook page & click the “+” button to create a new offer.

A pop-up should appear similar to the example above. Fill in the title & description text with your promotional copy, then preview the offer on the left.

Next, click “More Options”.

Local Awareness Ads

You can also use Local Awareness Ads to promote campaigns on Facebook.

Local Awareness Ads are one of Facebook’s newest ad offerings for small businesses. If your business is highly physical (that is, you have to be contacted physically to deliver your service), then, this can be an innovative way to use Facebook to get more customers in Nigeria.

Use this to show people who live near your business & those who recently visited a place nearby.

There are probably people looking for a classic barber as they pass through Victoria Island.

This kind of Ads usually has a call-to-action button labelled “Get Directions” (see the screenshot below). This is a simple, intuitive way to show customers in your area exactly where your business is located.

Here is how to Create Local Awareness Ads

Creating a Local Awareness Ad is easy.

Start by selecting “Local Awareness” as your ad objective. Then select your page — as Jasper’s Market did in the example above.

Next, enter your business address (if you haven’t already done so) on your Facebook page.

The map above should zoom into your business location & show you the option for choosing how far you want your ad to reach.

How to Create an Effective Facebook Marketing Strategy

This is how to get more customers:

1. Clearly define your target customers:

For example, our target customers are high-end businesses looking for ways to grow their revenues using the online medium.

So, I discovered that most businesses are now seeing the value of going digital to grow their earnings. Ours is to give them services that would help them save energy, time, and cost based on our expertise, years of knowledge, reputation, and recommendations.

2. Location

Usually, the first place you’ll think of if you want to start selling electronics in Lagos is the computer village in Ikeja. This positions you for huge targeted traffic. Here, people are looking for your product.

Facebook is a great location. As we go on, you see how to use it to get more customers in Nigeria.

3. Identify businesses in the same market segments

I discovered that Health Plus is usually beside sweet sensation. Most private hospitals have a private pharmacy close to them. Most shoe stores are close to where Shirt boutiques.

4. Clearly define your irresistible offer

What differentiates you from others? What would you give them to win them as customers?

5. Present the offer successfully

Your dressing matters. Emotions matter. What will you say and how would you say it? People have to like and trust you to do business with you.

6. Get their contact details or give them your card

Most customers would not do business with you the first time they are meeting you. Find a way to get their details or give them your card.

I think getting details is a better approach. Some businesses collect phone numbers to keep sending bulk SMS to prospective customers to build trust.

7. Customer service:

Make sure you keep serving your customers. It’s very easy to get a new customer via referral so, make sure you keep your word and promise.

Note that the customer is always right and the customer is king. As you do this, make sure you are learning more about your customers.

So, what now?

If you are not yet active on Facebook for the sake of business, you are missing out. Now is the time to take advantage of these Facebook tricks to get new customers into your business.

At DMSI, we offer comprehensive digital marketing courses designed to help you learn digital marketing strategies, and how to effectively use Facebook to attract more customers.

Our training provides hands-on guidance from experienced instructors, ensuring you learn proven techniques that can drive real results. With access to a supportive community and personalized coaching, you’ll be equipped to implement what you learn right away.

More Resources

Mistakes to avoid when using Facebook for your business

Facebook Engagement Strategies for Nigerian Businesses

10 Ways to Generate Qualified Leads Using Facebook