Digital Marketing for Nepal: A Complete Guide

Digital Marketing is a form of marketing that involves digital tools and technologies. It includes marketing through the internet and social media.

In recent years, you must have heard lots of buzz about digital marketing in Nepal. Though this is not something new. Digital marketing has been in the country for quite a long time.

Here, Google Trend data clearly shows that the existence of digital marketing in Nepal was long before 2012.

However, the chart shows the rise of interest in recent times.

You can clearly see how important digital marketing is in recent times.

So, today you will learn all about digital marketing in Nepal. We will learn about

Let’s get started.

What is Digital Marketing?

As mentioned earlier, any form of marketing that involves digital technologies and digital channels is considered as digital marketing.

Here, the core concept of marketing remains the same: to reach out to your potential customers and make people aware of your business.

The only thing that has changed is the medium of marketing. Now the medium has shifted from

• the newspaper to mobile phones
• business brochures, and pamphlets to websites
• house to house marketing to social media

This does not mean that the days of traditional marketing are over.

It’s just time has changed. And, with the rise of the internet and technologies, digital marketing in Nepal has become the most important and effective form of marketing.

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Popular Digital Marketing Services in Nepal

There exist different types of digital marketing services based on the digital medium, technologies, and business types.

Here are some of the digital marketing services popular in Nepal.

1. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social Media Marketing involves the promotion of your business on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, LinkedIn, and so on.

It is by far one of the popular digital marketing services in Nepal.

Due to the increase in the number of social media users in Nepal, social media marketing is by far the most popular and most effective form of digital marketing.

You can reach out to your potential customers through social posts. It can be so beneficial to connect with your customers and build a community.

We can also run paid advertisement on social media.

And, ads on social media are cheaper compare to other platforms.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a technique where you try to rank higher on Google search. Suppose you search: buy land in Nepal on Google.

Here, we can see the number of webpages from different websites. According to the research conducted by Backlinko, about 31.7% of total users click the first organic search result on Google.

This means the first result from 1ropani.com will get 31.7% of the total search. And, that’s a lot of potential customers for your business.

So, the higher you rank, the more customers you get. This is the reason SEO can be so effective for any type of business.

However, many businesses in Nepal haven’t yet realized the long term opportunities of SEO in Nepal.

SEO in itself includes different techniques like on-page, off-page, technical, local, and e-commerce. To learn more about different services, visit SEO Services in Nepal.

3. Pay Per Click (PPC)

In Pay Per Click, you advertise your business on some digital platform. And, depending on the number of users clicking your ad, you have to pay a certain amount.

Google Ad is the most popular form of PPC marketing. Sometimes you might have seen the ads on first few result of the Google search.

Here, you create ads for certain search query. And, based on that your result is shown above the organic ranking.

PPC is quite expensive compare to other form of advertisement.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing can be one of the most effective form of digital marketing if done correctly.

Here, you ask people for their emails and prepare email lit of your potential customers. Then, you send personalize emails to all the people.

Through emails, you can make people aware about your business, new offers, and features.

One important skill you need is the ability to write effective and engaging emails. Otherwise, your emails will never get out of the spam boxes.

However, if you manage to do this, email marketing can generate lots of positive results for your business.

Since writing effective emails and generating email lists require more effort, email marketing is less popular in Nepal.

5. Content Marketing

Content Marketing falls under the category of inbound marketing. Here, you create content for people.

This can be images, blogs, infographics or something that users need. Instead of marketing your business, you provide some value to users.

This helps to attract users to your website or business accounts (YouTube, Facebook). People will come looking for you, instead of you reaching out to people.

Now, you can convert those users into your customers.

You might have seen many big organizations have started their own blogs. It’s because they want to build a proper connection with their users and also attract new people.

Content marketing has been so effective for businesses in long run. And, there is no doubt that it will be the next big thing in Nepal as well.

Find out more about content marketing opportunities in Nepal.

6. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing involves asking television celebrities and social media celebrities promote your business.

You can find influencers in nearly every field. And, lots of people follows them.

Now, if they promote your business among their followers, you can gain quick recognition among a huge mass of people.

With the change of trend, businesses nowadays prefer social media influencers instead of movie celebrities.

This is because they are affordable. And, Social media influencers are people to whom everyone can relate to. And, they have quite a reach among people as well. This makes influencer marketing so effective.

7. Affiliate Marketing

In affiliate marketing, you promote someone’s product. It can be through your blogs, YouTube videos, social media posts, or any other medium. In return, you will get a certain commission.

You might have seen YouTubers telling you there is a link in the description. When you click the link and buy the product, they will get a certain percentage as commission. This is how affiliate marketing works.

It seems similar to influencer marketing. But, there is a major difference.

In influencer marketing, influencers will get paid no matter whether people buy the product or not. Whereas, in affiliate marketing, marketers will only get commissions if people buy the products. And, you don’t need celebrity for affiliate marketing.

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Importance of Digital Marketing in Nepal

The rise of the internet has made people’s lives so easier. Now everything is just one click away. This also means that if you want people to buy your products or services, it should be one click away.

And, if you manage to do that, you will see lots of positive growth in your business. That’s what makes digital marketing so much important in Nepal. Here are some of the major benefits of digital marketing.

1. Accessibility and Global Reach

One of the important benefits of digital marketing is accessibility and global reach. What this means is to reach out to people from another corner of the country, you don’t have to visit there or contact the local newspaper. Digital marketing makes this so easier and efficient. You can now reach out to people in every corner of the country.

Suppose you have a restaurant in Kathmandu. And,  your restaurant has an online presence like Social Media Account, Website, and Local Business Listing. Now it is possible that not only people from Kathmandu but also from Eastern Nepal, Jhapa and Western Nepal, Dhangadi will be aware of your restaurant.

And, if someone from those places visits Kathmandu, there is a high chance that they will visit you. That’s how accessible digital marketing can be.

2. Proper Data about Ad Campaign

In the old days, when you ran an ad about your business in newspapers, you couldn’t have proper data. You wouldn’t know how many people saw your ad, how many people read your ad, and how many customers you gained from the ad.

This has changed now. With digital marketing, you can get more accurate data about your marketing campaigns.

Nowadays, if you run ads on Facebook, you can have proper data about all your ad campaigns. You will know how many people saw your ad, how many clicked your ad, and how many customers you earn through it. And, the data is so accurate as well. This will also help you in your next ad campaigns.

3. Long Term Investment

Digital marketing is a long term investment. When you go for content marketing, the content generated today can still be relevant for a long duration. Similarly, if you rank higher on Google, you will be driving users to your site even if you stop doing SEO for a while.

However, it is not a one-time investment because your competitors will be continuously trying to outrank you. And, if you stop for some time, you will fall behind.

4. Your Customers are Online

As per the report on Data Reportal, there are about 10 million internet users and social media users in Nepal. The number is increasing daily. And, if your business is not online, you are missing out on lots of customers.

Suppose a customer wants to buy a bike in Nepal. The first thing he will do is search on Google. If we look at the data, about 900 people search for the duke 250 price in Nepal.

Now, if you own a bike showroom in Nepal but you don’t have any digital presence. Then, it’s obvious that you are missing out on 900 potential customers.

5. Analyze Your Competitors

With everything going online, you can clearly see how your competitors are doing. You can analyze their ranking, you can see how many people visit their online store when they are running ads, whom they are targeting, and so on

6. Target a Specific Group of People

This is one of the best things about digital marketing. You can choose to market your business to certain people. Like if you have business about Gaming Accessories, then you can choose to target only those people who are interested in gaming. Your ads will be shown to those groups of people.

7. Build Relation with Customers

Besides, digital marketing can help you build a good relationship with your audiences. You can reach out to your audiences regularly. And, identify what your audiences need. This will help you build a trusted brand. The list goes on and on.

8. Build Brand

Building a brand online will be a lot easier. People nowadays spend lots of time on social media and the internet. All you have to do is make those people aware of your business. If you manage to do that, you will be considered an online brand.

And, there is little to no difference between an online brand and offline brand nowadays. This is because people now relate everything in virtual life to real life.

9. Cost-Effective

It’s true that small businesses could not afford lots of money for their marketing. For them, digital marketing can be life-saving. They can simply start by setting up social media accounts or a website. It will give them a chance to compete with big names in the market. And, will definitely save lots of money.

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Digital Marketing Tools

There are a large number of digital marketing tools available in the market. And, depending on the service you provide, you will get lots of tools. The use of tools entirely depends on the requirement of the business and the personal preferences of digital marketers. 

Here are some of the popular digital marketing tools in Nepal.

1. Facebook Ads Manager

Facebook ads manager is an all in one tool for running ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. It is developed by Facebook itself. It has lots of rich functionalities like

• handling Facebook pages
• selecting the target audiences
• creating new ad campaigns
• targeting specific people, and so on.

2. All in one SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush

When it comes to SEO, you need to consider lots of things like

• Keyword Research
• Link Building
• Competitor Analysis
• Content Creation
• Site Audits, and so on.

There are tools specific to all those fields. However, purchasing individual tools for each field will be so expensive. In this case, you can use all in one tool like Ahrefs and SEMrush. They are quite expensive in the context of Nepal. But they are so much helpful if SEO is your major preference.

Besides, there are many free tools that can be so helpful. To find out more about various free SEO tools, visit Ahrefs Free SEO Tools.

3. Google Ads Manager

Google Ads Manager is another all in one tool for handling ads on Google search. It helps to track Ad campaigns, start new Ad campaigns, handle the budget for Ad campaigns, and so on.

And, also provides an inbuilt keyword research tool called Keyword Planner to choose the appropriate keyword for the ads campaign.

4. Google Analytics and Search Console

These are the best tools to track your business website. It can do lots of things like

• check the number of visitors on your site
• find time spent by visitors
• check which page is doing well and which one needs improvement
• find the location of your visitors
• check if there is an error on your website

And, the best thing is they are free of cost and owned by Google itself.

These are not the only tools used in Nepal. As mentioned earlier, based on personal preference and business, people use various tools.

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Digital Marketing Cost in Nepal

The first question everyone has about digital marketing is 

How much does Digital Marketing cost?

This is the most important question every business will ask. However, there is no fixed and exact answer to it. This is because the cost of digital marketing depends on various factors like

• type of businesses you own
• market competitions of your business
• your business goals
• type of digital marketing services you want
• the time duration of the service
• the monthly fee of the agency you choose
• the hourly rate of the freelancer

Generally, the cost of digital marketing agencies ranges from 25,000 to 2,00,000 rupees per month. And, the cost of freelancers ranges from 500 per hour to 2500 per hours.

This is not the exact amount. It is what I have seen so far in the digital marketing industry in Nepal.

And, generally, in SEO and Content Marketing services, the cost will be a little higher than the others. This is because they take quite more extra time and effort than others. And, results from SEO and Content Marketing will sustain for a long duration as well.

Again, this does not include affiliate marketing and influencer marketing. That is a whole different expense that depends on the budget of businesses.

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Digital Marketers in Nepal

Digital Marketers are responsible for handling all digital marketing strategies. The role of digital marketers in Nepal includes

• Handling social media accounts
• Regular Posting on social media accounts
• Planning a new ad campaign
• Running the ad campaign
• Analyzing the completed ad campaign
• Optimizing the website for Google ranking
• Sending email outreach campaign

Also, the role of digital marketers varies depending on the skills they possess. In Nepal, we can find mainly two types of digital marketers.

1. Generic Digital Marketers

Generic digital marketers have basic skills in all types of digital marketing techniques. They are in more demand in Nepal. The overall expenses on digital marketing can be saved by hiring a generic digital marketer. This is one of the reasons why most businesses in Nepal prefer them.

However, sometimes hiring generic digital marketers might not be profitable for your business. In a way, you could benefit from generic digital marketers. Like you will save some money. Suppose, if your business only requires you to do social media marketing, video marketing, and email marketing, you will benefit from the generic marketers. But if the organic ranking is what you need, then it’s best to hire an SEO specialist and Content marketer. 

So it is always good to know what are the requirements of your business and make a hiring decision based on that. 

2. Specialized Digital Marketers

Specialized digital marketers tend to be specialists in one of the fields of digital marketing. They possess in-depth skills. And, hiring them will be more beneficial sometimes.

In the field of SEO and Content Marketing, in-depth knowledge will be definitely beneficial. So, it is good to hire specialized digital marketers if your target is organic traffic and ranking.

Skills required by a digital marketer in Nepal

Now that you know how digital marketers work in Nepal. Let’s see some of the skills required to be a digital marketer in Nepal.

I thought instead of listing all the skills, why not provide the actual data. So I have compiled different digital marketer job listings in Nepal. This will be more beneficial for you.

Here, is another listing.

The list can go on and on. After analyzing more than 20 job listings, I found some of the common skills that digital marketers require.

• Have in-depth knowledge of social media
• Should have skills about Social media ads and Google ads
• Knowledge about SEO
• Ability to develop the marketing strategy
• Should be aware of the current digital market trends

Digital marketers also work with lots of tools. So having a good knowledge of various tools is also essential for digital marketers.

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Traditional Marketing Vs. Digital Marketing

I still remember how people used to visit door to door with different products. And, we used to get excited all the time.

It was because we get to know about new products and company. And, they used to teach about those products. Sometimes they let us use the product as well.

That was my first introduction to marketing. And, it was quite popular back then.

Then, comes the era of television and newspaper. Businesses start putting ads on television and newspaper. These are the most successful forms of traditional marketing.

Many people were into televisions and newspaper. This allow businesses to reach out the larger audiences.

Now comes digital marketing.

The internet, smartphones, televisions, and social media have now penetrated almost every part of the country. And, most of the people are online. So if you want to reach your audiences, you must take your business online.

You can still visit people at home and tell them about your product. But the first thing people will do is search for your product online. If they can’t find it there, it will be a lot more difficult to convince them.

Traditional Marketing is still relevant but people now validate your businesses through digital medium. Hence, digital marketing should be your priority.

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How long does it take to get results from digital marketing?

Well like the cost there is also no exact answer for this. It depends on the type of digital marketing service you are choosing. But one thing I can say is digital marketing is a long-term process.

As for SEO and content marketing, it will take about 6 months to 2 years until you start seeing positive results. And, it also depends on the market size of your business. If your business falls under the category of a huge market, it will definitely take more time. And, opposite to that for small markets, you will see results quicker.

If you want to know about the time duration for SEO to work, visit How long does SEO take to work in Nepal?

And, in case of social media ads, you will see results as soon as the ad campaign completes. But it does not end here. You have to analyze the result of the ad campaign and prepare yourself for the next one. It is well said that Digital Marketing is a journey, not a destination. It does not end when you get the result. Rather it keeps going and going.

Next time you go with a new approach and a new strategy for new audiences. The market is changing so rapidly that if you fail to keep up someone will take over in a matter of time.

So you should not be focusing on time. Time is important but it should not be the deciding factor in digital marketing.

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Who can benefit from digital marketing?

Now that you know what digital marketing is and what are its advantages. So who can benefit from digital marketing? In my opinion, digital marketing can be helpful for every type of business. 

• For startups, digital marketing can be so much more efficient and less expensive.
• The big corporate houses can build good relations with customers.
• Local shop owners can reach out to a large number of people.
• Freelancers can make a portfolio for their exposure.

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Final Words

The time is changing, so to keep up with this changing time you need to be changing as well. You need to adopt new trends. This is the time of the internet and smartphones.

Lots of your potential customers are on the internet and social media. They are looking for products and services there. And, if you want to reach them with your products and services, you need to be there as well.

It’s not like old times where you were the only one in business. There are lots of options and lots of competition. People won’t be visiting you, you need to visit them. And, for this, you need to be in that place where most of the people are: Internet and Social Media.

The way the market is moving, it’s clear that in no time digital presence will be a defining factor to check your business authenticity. So, it’s high time to grab this opportunity and get on board with this rising wave of Digital Marketing in Nepal.