Dominate Your Backyard: Why Local Marketing Drives Results

Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'm out and about in a car park, so expect to hear some noise in the background, you know, people driving by, people justing and all that kind of stuff. Now today on the podcast, I want us to explore this idea that business is local. Now. Let me repeat, business is local now because of. Oh, sorry. OK. Yeah, I decided let me set the timer today so that I don't spend 45 minutes going on and on and on.

Let me be mindful of you guys time. All right, where was I? So business is local now. So because of advancements with the Internet and then with modern communication and then globalization, you know, people think that the whole world is your market based, basically. So everybody just assumes, who is my market? What am I selling to? Oh, I'm selling to everybody because I can create an Instagram handle, I can create a website, and so it means I can reach everybody.

But it's not the case if you're an international company like Apple or Samsung, you know, based in America, Europe, you make your gadgets in Asia and then you sell them in Africa. Yeah, in a sense the whole world is your market. But that's because you have size and that's because you have skill. But is everybody in that? It's not the same context for everybody. And the answer is no. So for most of you who are SMEs, you know, small and medium scale enterprises, you know, you're a nano business, micro business,

self-employed person, side hustle person, you know, you understand. Now for most of us, a lot of us have forgotten that business is primarily local. So you hear people talking about SEO and they are trying to optimize the sites for keywords and things like that, but then they're forgetting to optimize local. So you're in Abeokuta, your business in Abeokuta, you run a laundry service, you're doing SEO, you're making sure that all the keyword is there.

Laundry in, I don't know, all the keywords be laundry, laundry, clean clothes, ironing, I don't know whatever the keywords are supposed to be. But you forget to include Abukuta in your SEO. You know, you're just leaving it out there and then you're now wondering that this SEO doesn't work. I mean, how will it work? You've forgotten that business is primarily local. So you're doing your SEO, you're leaving the thing open.

So of course people from Kano come and be looking at your website, but how is that going to help you, somebody in Kano looking at your website When you're based in Abukuta, Business is primarily local. So you're doing your SEO thing. Make sure your SEO game is also local. So then when people in Abiyokuta go to Google, your website is something that shows up and they can profit from that market. So when I say business is local,

or when some people say business is local, what does that mean? It means that for most people and for most businesses, your ideal customers are physically not far from you. So back to the Abiyokuta thing. Most people doing business in Abiokuta, your ideal clients are close to where you are. Even if it's not Abiokuta town, you know, maybe 30 minutes to the left, 30 minutes to the right, you know somehow Shah, that is where your ideal customers are.

Physically they are not far from you. Eventually we don't want to be big like Apple, like Samsung or OK, like in the business space for instance, or like maybe like Bolton Consultant, Boston Consulting Group. Yeah, want to be big like Boston Consulting Group. So they have Nigerian government is doing something. You know, you ask for Mackenzie or you ask for Deloitte or you ask for Boston Consulting Group to come and write a report.

Report. So yeah, one day we want to be that big so that me man, you know, as I'm here, I'm chilling, you know, I built a very huge consulting agency so that maybe people in Malaysia that are doing something to be like, this is guy in Nigeria be like say that guy, get brain, let's call the guy. So yes, we all want to get to that level. But in the beginning, business is primarily local. Your ideal customers are physically not far from you,

even though you can access the whole wide world. So if you're waiting photographer based in Abuja, your market is Abuja, maybe Niger, maybe Nassau, maybe all those areas that you can, you know, 45 minutes, one hour, you can drive and enter, you know, So I mean, that's, that's your target market. That's what you're going to say for service based professionals because of the Internet and because you can do remote work, that means you can target anywhere now.

So that means you can be based in Abuja and they have your clients in Ghana or have clients in Ireland or in Malaysia or in Australia. And yes, theoretically speaking, yes, that is the case. I can be here in Abuja and have clients in other places because one client that I'm currently working with right now, OK, well, we haven't started the Watcher, but looking forward to starting the work. They have a gadget, the the sole digital, digital tech enable devices, you know, things like that.

And they are based in Benin. So yes, I've been in Abuja doing work for people in Benin, doing work for people in Lagos, receiving inquiries from Ibadan. So yes, there's that possibility. Yes, it can happen. But even in this case, there will be benefits if you target local and grow local before you start expanding or before you go international. Now why are we discussing this day? It's because a couple of days ago, like 2 weeks actually woke up in the morning getting ready for school and then wifey says biscuits has finished.

I'm like how can biscuit finish? I say that's finished. And then I checked. I said Oh yeah that's true, Biscuit has finished. I forgot to go and buy a biscuit. Not for me and wifey of course. You know what, for the kids, you know, you pack lunch for them and stuff like that. Mine's all the time. When I told my son, he asked me what did you guys used to have for lunch when you were my age and I said nothing. He said what?

I said nothing. We didn't have lunch. We wake up in the morning, we eat breakfast and then we walk to school. My school was, we say one primary school and was about 5 kilometers away from the house. So not 5 kilometers but more like 2.5, but shot walk to the school. Walk back was a 5 kilometer walk. So me and my siblings, the seven of us, we all used to walk to school. So it was like that. You wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, you know, boy yam and palm oil or something.

You stay in your uniform too late, you show up in school, palm oil stains, just one of those things your teacher will now give you, you know, now punishing and all that. So that's that's how it used to be. Wake up in the morning, we eat breakfast, we walk to school, then you walk back home and then you eat lunch and then that's it. And then you eat dinner almost always. Like what? You guys didn't have lunch in school?

I was like, no, there was no lunch in school. And, you know, my son thought, you know, my parents were being, what's the word, wicked or horrific or something that's like, look, it was just a different time shot. That's how we grew up and that's how everybody grew up. You just wake up, you eat breakfast, you know, and then you go to school and then you come back and then you eat lunch and then the day continues anyway.

What was I So biscuit has finished now. So nothing to pack for the children to, you know, for that first, that first, that first break. Oh, by the way, that's also nothing that really, really impresses me. I mean, now they give children 2 breaks. That's ridiculous. I mean, during our time, we have one break and the break was I think like 45 minutes or one hour. No, that was enough. So I don't understand this one. They have your first break,

which is, I don't know, 30 minutes. And then there's another second break and something like, I beg too many breaks. That's my own opinion, Sharp, for those of you who are school administrators, I really think you're giving these kids too many breaks, although you're doing something good because children are no longer afraid of school. So that's that's good because I remember in our own days, man, exam times will also catch exam fever.

But you know, when it's time for exams, my children just, you know, they wake up and they just go and write the exams and they come back and I'm impressed. So you people in education, you're doing something well, Children are no longer afraid of exams. Where was I now? I had biscuits. Yeah. So biscuit has finished now, so no biscuit for school snacks. So also I don't also remember that. OK. Yeah, our laundry washing powder has finished.

Toilet paper has also finished. So I just went to the local shopping Mart outside Barcelona hotel. So I know Barcelona Bacca Liga here, Bacca Liga hotel in Apple. It's Yeah. So I went there now and I went to go and buy the stuff. And then I got to the checkout counter and it was time for payment. And then I saw a flyer and I was like, how was this flyer doing here? And that's because it was for like a hair salon, barbing, nail massage and all these, you know,

every, every shop a beauty shop. But The thing is, the beauty shop is in Warring Park. The place that I was is in a pool. Now, depending on traffic, wearing park can be anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes away from a pool and the Garricky area. So I was wondering, would this person come and place the flyer somewhere here? Because let's face it, it's it's not as if, I mean, there are other hair and beauty and nail and you know, and massage and everything in this area.

So you're standing off new. Why would somebody just leave Apple and go all the way to wearing power just to patronize your business? I don't think it makes sense. So should you be placing your banner in Apple if your business is based in wearing power? So like we said, the top of the eye depends, some products require physical pickup, require you to be there in body. So realistically speaking, very few people are going to go out of their way to travel 30 or 45

minutes to try out your new shop. So my own opinion would have been much more effective for this guy or this babe to distribute their Flyers in Warrimpa. I think that is much more effective outreach because remember business is local. So when you target your flyer distribution in Warimpa and then you get plenty of buzz, plenty of traction in Warimpa and you start popping off, that is what will now create the buzz that will now start pulling people from other parts of Abuja.

Now organic buzz only after you capture Warimpa first. Now a very big example, Oh, OK, 10 minutes. OK, let me try and wrap this up now. A very big example is all these amount of joints that we have in Warimpa, like I don't like Amala but my wife likes it. I think Amala is disgusting. For me, I think the hierarchy is this. Pound jam is the ultimate. After pound jam is fufu. After fufu there is EBA and the EBA has to be yellow, not white.

Then after that is the white EBA. Then after that we can now start entering the Amalas. Sorry, the millets, you know, So the red Millet, the grey Millet. And then for me, Amala is at the bottom of the scale. But anyway, that's just me. So my video guy Shagun, he loves Amala, My wife loves Amala, my mom, she loves Amala. So you know, I'm surrounded by Amala lovers. I don't know why. So there's some Amala joints now in Guarempa, like one of them is called the Ojo Alegba.

And then there's a couple of other places, you know, Amala, hot Amala, this, Amala that, you know, there are plenty in Guarempa. But The thing is because those Amala joints have generated buzz in Guarempa. That is the reason why my guy shrugging in Garki can say oh I heard of this new I wanna sport and boys let's go and eat. It is because they have captured Guerin Power 1st and generated buzz. Then people in other districts in Abuja will now go there and say more come shop.

So now that you're starting your Amana thing in Guerin Power and then you now come and start dropping Flyers in Apple and other districts in Abuja and that's not how it works. Business is local, you start the Amala thing in Warren Power, you capture Warren Power, you put Warren Power on lockdown, eventually you gain a reputation and then boys are flying in from other parts of Abuja just to come and eat world famous Amala.

So that is the dynamic. Business is local and the dynamic is the same for service based professionals because think about it, we started off saying, you know, some walls, not too blue, want to be big like McKinsey and Co, like Deloitte, like Anderson, like Boston Consulting Group. You know, some of us want to blow, want to be big like that and we'll get there in Jesus name. But The thing is because I have access to the Internet doesn't mean that from day one I should start targeting Ghana and South Africa.

Then from there now I'll expand to you know, Asia and then international market. No business is local. My aim should be to capture Abuja first there any time you hear sales training, coaching, business development, you say there's this boy in Abuja be I say that guy get bring this is his podcast call this guy. So the goal is to lock down Abuja first from there our neighborhood to encroach small enter Lagos and then from there Nigeria at large before I start exporting myself internationally over time.

But business is local, you see. I start from my dormant and then begin to expand. Not that from the beginning I say I'm going to target Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Asia, Latin America, Western Europe and then America. Remember how I said for Samsung and Apple? They have economies, They have size and economies of scale. So of course, if you have size and economies of scale, then you can do whatever it is you want to do.

But most of us are not starting from that vantage point. So business is local. So summaries start local. If you have your Flyers, drop your Flyers local. You have other kind of marketing collateral, drop it local, drop it in your neighborhood, drop it in environs and then begin to be growing from there. And that's one of the reasons why this podcast is for Nigerian business people. It is when I blew up in the Niger business community that Ghanaians will say, OK, OK, OK,

OK, alright. Be like I said our boy and no problem myself. Let me try it, let me sample it. And then when Nigerians and Ghanaians are rocking my stuff, then S Africans will be like, OK, all right, Black said. This boy has come of age. Let me see then when I'm rocking the African continent is then I can start beginning to flex and stretch small, small, small, small. I mean, if I build this whole, if I do this whole agency game,

right? Well, you see, that's how it works. Business is local, start from my DuMont and then start moving out and out and out. There's no point in starting a real estate business in Victoria Island. And then you now go and drop your flyer in the bottle. That's an extreme case and I doubt anybody would do it. But the rationale is the same. If you're going to be selling houses in Victoria Island, why go and drop real estate?

So why go and drop your flyer in Ibadan on the off chance that maybe there's an Ibadan native who is interested in Lagos real estate and who has a house in Victoria Island? Yeah, that's possible. But man, that's quite a stretch. So just remember that business primarily for most of us is local. It doesn't mean that we will remain local champion. It just means we start with physical proximity and then start to be going outside small and small and small.

And that's how the game is played. So international aspirations, yes, very good. National aspirations, yes, very good. But we start local, we dominate local and then we go out from there. If you'd love to connect with me for a strategy session, the business audit, or you want me to answer a couple of questions, no more to reach me on. That's my WhatsApp number as well is 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, then you can connect with me on LinkedIn.

The name to look for is Tavishima Aede. I also have a YouTube channel, it's the same name. Thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys in the next episode.