Social media marketing has become an effective way to promote products and services on a small budget with high impact, thanks to a rapidly growing number of social media users in Nepal.
The digital marketing business has been expanding at a healthy rate as many people are using digital devices to buy things instead of visiting shops.
The growth in the number of social media users in the country is also one of the key factors pushing the digital marketing business to new heights, according to digital advertising entrepreneurs.
Digital marketing is the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the internet. It also includes mobile phones, display advertising and other digital media. Entrepreneurs said that big brands that used to spend Rs500,000 on digital marketing annually a few years ago have increased their annual spending to more than Rs3 million.
“The benefit of social media is that we get more data and insights about our consumers and their habits,” said Ujaya Shakya, managing director of Outreach Nepal. “This helps us to connect to the targeted group and enables us to create content specific to their liking,” he said.
According to the Advertising Association of Nepal, the share of digital advertising out of the overall advertising market comprising print, TV, radio and other media has swelled to 10 percent from 5 percent two years ago.
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Viber are among the popular social media sites in Nepal. Internet World Stats, an international website on internet usage data, shows that there were 8.7 million Facebook users in Nepal as of December 2017.
Domestic social media marketing agencies claim that there are 9.8 million active Facebook and Instagram users in the country. A report of Statcounter, a web traffic analysis tool, shows that 93.55 percent of them are Facebook users and 4.01 percent are YouTube users.
With affordable and easy internet access, and more and more people buying smartphones, the new age digital media has gained momentum. According to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority’s Management Information System (MIS), 2.25 million new users were connected to the internet last year. That translates into more than 250 new users every hour. As of October 2017, a total of 16.67 million Nepalis had been connected to the internet. The staggering growth means that nearly 63 percent of Nepal’s population is now connected to the internet.
Observing the digital marketing scenario, YouTube and Instagram have been growing as effective platforms for social media marketing, said Bishes Karki, manager of Social Aves. The reach of Instagram is also growing gradually, he said.
“Nowadays, big brands have started allocating budgets for digital marketing,” he said. Mostly mobile phone, automobile, clothing, shoes and cosmetic brands have been using digital media to reach audiences, said social media marketers.
The country has also conducted new experiments in digital marketing. For example, Uptrendly, an influencer marketing company, has been reaching large audiences on social media through influential and popular figures like celebrities, high profile people and personalities.
“The concept of influencer marketing can play a key role to drive brand awareness, build perception and increase purchase intent and trend with the next generation of consumers through creative content they trust,” said Sushant Biyali, brand manager at Uptrendly. Social media marketing has now become a commercial platform, said Rikena Rajbhandari of Social Aves.
Morang Auto Works (MAW) has been using Facebook to conduct social media marketing for brands like Yamaha, Skoda, JCB and Jeep. It has started using Instagram, YouTube and Twitter as its key marketing platforms.
Social media marketing is more effective than traditional media marketing, said Ramesh Danekhu, assistant manager, corporate communications and marketing at MAW Enterprises. “Traditional media is very expensive and least impactful. The platform is less expensive and hits the target group directly. The use of social media has also helped us to achieve sales growth,” he said.