EFFECTIVENESS OF DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES IN ENHANCING BRAND AWARENESS AND CUSTOMERS’ ENGAGEMENT FOR E-COMMERCE BUSINESSES IN ONDO CITY, NIGERIA
Keywords:
Brand Awareness, Customers’ Engagement, Digital Marketing, E-Commerce, Businesses, StrategiesAbstract
This study investigated the effectiveness of digital marketing strategies in enhancing brand awareness and customers’ engagement for e-commerce businesses in Ondo City, Nigeria. Four (4) research questions guided the study. The research employed a descriptive survey research design. The instrument was validated by two experts. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The population consists 3032 registered businesses in Ondo West Local Government Area (Source: Ministry of Commerce, 2025). The sample size was 110 e-commerce business owners and customers selected through convenience sampling technique. Data were randomly selected from ten (10) e-commerce business owners and one hundred (100) customers. The data collected were analyzed using Mean and Standard Deviation. The findings revealed that e-commerce businesses in Ondo City actively utilize various digital marketing strategies such as search engine optimization (SEO), paid advertisements, affiliate marketing, email marketing, and social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn) to increase visibility, enhance customer engagement, and strengthen brand awareness. Digital marketing was found to play a crucial role in building customer relationships, encouraging referrals, and fostering brand loyalty. However, challenges such as the high cost of digital ads, limited financial resources of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), frequent changes in SEO and social media algorithms, difficulty in analyzing large customer data, and rising customer expectations were identified as significant barriers to effective implementation. The authors recommended, among others, that there should be regular training for business owners on emerging digital marketing trends, and there should be collaboration among e-commerce businesses to share best practices and resources.
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