Working as a Digital Marketing Expert in Nepal: Nepali Market

Being a digital marketing expert work in Nepal is fun yet challenging, no matter whichever business you are. But when you’re working in a unique market like Nepal, there are extra layers of complexity to handle. As someone in Nepal’s digital marketing expert career for over 5 years now, I’ve got insights to share with aspiring digital strategies.

Understanding the Nepali Digital Marketing Growth

The Mobile-First Reality

One of the first things you need to wrap on your head around as a digital marketer expert in Nepal is the emerging control of mobile devices. With over 60% of web traffic coming from mobile, it’s safe to say that Nepal is a mobile-first nation, now.

This mobile-centric behavior has been ingrained in Nepali culture from a young age. I remember going on a trek in the Mustang a year back, and even in the most remote villages, kids as young as 8 or 9 were glued to their parents’ smartphones, watching videos or playing games, people are using mobile catching scenery videos to upload on social media.

What does this mean for digital marketers?

It means every aspect of your strategy – website, social media marketing – must be optimized for mobile. Forget fancy desktop experiences; if your campaigns aren’t mobile-friendly, you’re missing most of your audience.

The Social Media Craze

Another key aspect of the Nepali digital landscape is the overwhelming popularity of social media platforms. Facebook, in particular, has a massive user base in Nepal, with over 9 million active users (that’s nearly a third of the country’s population!).

But it’s not just Facebook and Instagram ; platforms like YouTube, Linkedin, TikTok, and Pinterest are also gaining significant traction, especially among the younger demographic. In fact, I’ve seen some brands in Nepal successfully leverage TikTok influencers to promote their products or services, tapping into the platform’s massive user base and engaging content formats. Although, TikTok is recently banned in Nepal.

As a digital marketer, what should your social strategy involve?

You need a strong social strategy accounting for Nepali user preferences and behaviors. Creating engaging video, collaborating with influencers, running targeted social ads – these are all important.

Understanding Multiple Culture and Languages

The Language Mystery

Nepal is incredibly diverse culturally, with over 125 ethnic groups and 123 spoken languages! While Nepali is the official language, English is widely used too, especially in cities and by younger generations.

What does this mean for your marketing efforts?

You likely need multi-lingual content and campaigns to ensure maximum reach. If targeting nationwide, having Nepali and English is crucial. For specific regions/groups, adding local languages may be needed too.

I learned this the hard way launching a rural social campaign just in English – content was laughable & unsatisfied until we translated to Nepali and local speech. Then I somehow manage to learn to write pure nepali language for my clients because most of my client prefer the copy in nepali and their local langugae. Such a valuable lesson on linguistic diversity’s importance.

Cultural Sensitivity and Variation

Beyond language, you must be aware of cultural variation and sensitivities across Nepal’s multicultural landscape. Symbols, colors, messaging may have different connotations for various ethnic/religious groups.

One time I worked on a clothing campaign that accidentally used a color combo with religious significance for an ethnic group. While unintentional, it led to social media fallout.

How can you avoid cultural missteps?

Thoroughly understand Nepal’s cultural landscape through research, local expert consultations, focus groups, and immersing yourself in local culture as much as possible.

Building Trust and Credibility

The Power of Influencers and Word-of-Mouth

In Nepal, personal connections and word-of-mouth carry immense weight. Leveraging influencers and building audience trust is key.

Influencer marketing allows you to tap into the trust influencers have with followers – social personalities, experts, community leaders etc. One successful campaign involved a beauty collab with a popular singer/actress influencer – her endorsement carried huge credibility and drove major engagement and sales.

But it’s not just influencers, what else builds trust?

Creating valuable educational content, being transparent, actively engaging your audience across channels. Building genuine trust and credibility with your target market is equally crucial.

Local Partnerships and Community

Another effective trust builder is local partnerships and community involvement. Collaborating with respected local businesses/organizations/communities lets you tap into existing networks and connections.

I worked with a telco that partnered with an education/youth NGO on a digital literacy drive. This promoted the company’s offerings while supporting the NGO’s mission – a mutually beneficial way to build brand goodwill and trust.

Getting involved in events, cultural festivals, social causes – these localized efforts position your brand as socially responsible and more trusted in Nepal.

Staying Agile and Adapting

Embracing Emerging Technologies

The digital world constantly evolves, so you must stay ahead of the curve – especially in rapidly-adopting markets like Nepal.

A few years ago, video-sharing apps like TikTok and Reels were huge. Early-adopter brands incorporating these new formats into strategies saw major success engaging younger audiences.

As AR, VR, AI advance, they’ll massively impact digital marketing in Nepal. Being an early tech adopter through experimentation can give you a competitive edge in Nepal’s landscape.

Why is being an early tech adopter so beneficial?

It helps you stay relevant and ahead of competitors as the landscape keeps shifting. The brands putting new ai tools/platforms into action first tend to see the biggest gains.

Data-Driven Decision Making

In digital marketing, data and result rule first. Monitoring analytics to make data-driven decisions is important for achieving success for digital marketing expert in Nepal.

This means tracking metrics like traffic, engagement, impressions, conversions, results, ROI across campaigns, then optimizing what’s working and fixing what’s not based on insights.

What kind of tools are helpful for this?

Google Analytics, social media analytic platforms – there are multiple of tools to help analyze data. I remember when we started using heat mapping to see where users got stuck on client sites – total game-changer for improving UX and conversions.

Continuous Learning and Adaptation

Perhaps the most vital feature is a willingness to constantly learn and adapt. What works now may be obsolete tomorrow in this fast-paced landscape.

Attending events, taking courses, joining online communities – these are great ways to stay up-to-date on trends, best practices, new technologies. You have to be a continuous learning student. Use Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, Google learning for regular updates.

Why is adaptation so important?

Consumer behaviors, technologies, algorithms – everything is continuously evolving. The digital marketing expert work in Nepal who quickly adapt their strategies to these shifts are the ones who keep achieving results over time.

Conclusion

There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for “crushing it” as a digital marketing expert work in Nepal. But if you immerse yourself in the local digital environment, build trust with audiences, leverage data strategically, and commit to perpetual learning – you’re setting yourself up for success. It’s a fun, dynamic, always-evolving career path!

Let me know if you have any other questions.

About Author

Ruby is an IT Engineer | Blogger | Digital marketer who offers Copywriting, ghostwriting, and blogging services to provide digital marketing content that gains social media attention and increases search engine visibility.

Ruby Saud View all post from the Author