We are in the era of a digital revolution, it’s everywhere. There is no business you can’t infuse digital marketing in. Every business as of now needs digital marketing to up their game and sales. Take Instagram for example, there are lots of advertisements from businesses that I didn’t even know existed or rather thrived in Nigeria until I saw them and the huge conversion they get every week.

There is an Instagram page that sells bunnies (rabbits) as a pet to people and trusts me, every week that profile makes sales, and the more people buy the more confident people that were not sure of buying end up buying from them. I mean every week, there is a post of how a client is happy with their pet.

So if you think your business is too local to be put online, then think again.

In this article, we are going to focus on poultry farming and how we can utilize digital marketing with poultry farming. So if you are in the business of poultry farming or you are considering it, this article will be useful to you. Let’s begin.

What Is Poultry Farming?

Poultry farming is simply the method of raising varied birds like chicken, turkey, quails, ducks, geese, pigeons, guinea fowl, etc, either for their eggs or meat. This has been a common practice in Nigeria for such a long time that it has become an indispensable part of the agricultural system.

To the surprise of many misconceived ideas, Poultry farming is actually considered one of the most profitable agricultural business ideas in Nigeria today. It does not entail huge capital to start with as you can even start from the comfort of your house as long as you have adequate space to take the number of birds that you desire.

Poultry Farming In Nigeria

The request for livestock products, including poultry, is escalating in Nigeria and across Africa as a result of population growth and amplified urbanization. Poultry farming is one of the fastest-growing segments within the agricultural industry in Nigeria. According to ThisDay Newspaper, Nigeria’s poultry industry is worth over N1.2tn as of 2017 and that was before the inflation. As of the writing of this article, an egg cost 50 naira and in some places 70 naira, due to inflation and recession going on in the country at the date of this writing but you get my point.

From a market size outlook, Nigeria’s egg production is the largest in Africa followed by South Africa. Chicken importation was banned by Nigeria in 2003, which stimulated the growth in domestic poultry production. The poultry sector is enormously disjointed with most of the chicken raised in ‘backyards’ or on poultry farms with less than 1,000 birds.

Amongst all varieties of poultry farming (chickens, turkeys, geese, and ducks), the most common one is chicken as farmers get a great number of ROI from chickens regularly either from their egg or for food. The high consumption of the end product; chicken and egg are always in constant demand in the market and even at various homes in Nigeria today which is why poultry farming is very lucrative as it seems to be a potent source of animal protein outside fish, pork, and beef.

The Cost of Starting A Poultry Farming Business

Many new businesses necessitate a large capital when starting out, which most people don’t have. Also, a typical startup business can also take time to produce a return on your investment. Luckily this is not the case for a small-scale poultry business as it entails a relatively low start-up cost and quick returns.

You can start with as little as N50,000 (which mostly covers the cost of buying day-old chicks and feeding them) and get a 100% return on your capital investment in six months. And since chicks take only 21 days to hatch, you can start generating an income just three weeks after starting. No other business can provide such a rapid turnaround.

5 Steps To Starting A Successful Poultry Farm Business In Nigeria

Are you thinking of starting your own poultry farm? If yes, then you should enter the business well prepared by considering all of its aspects. Right from setting up some basic equipment to raising the birds and marketing your business, you have to take every step wisely to ensure success.

There are diverse types of poultry farming such as quail rearing, chicken rearing, turkey, duck rearing, geese, emu pigeons, etc. However, the ideologies and practices are the same. Below are the five basic steps you must follow to start out a profitable poultry farming business in Nigeria.

Step 1 – Pick The Kind Of Poultry Bird To Rear

Before you jumpstart your poultry farming business, it is vital to have a clear picture of what kind of poultry breeds to farm (more importantly, poultry breeds that lay a lot of eggs). In Nigeria today, apart from locally grown chickens, there are two major kinds that are commonly reared among poultry farmers.

Broilers: These are only raised for meat. They can grow from a hatch weight of 40g to about 1.5 to 2kg within 6 weeks.

Layers: These are mostly hens that are used for egg production and then later killed for meat. They are raised from a day old and they start laying eggs from 18-19 weeks and continue until they reach 72-78 weeks of age.

Cockerels: They share the same fate with broilers. They are raised solely for meat production and have special market demand for them, but their growth is very slow, compared to the broilers that grow very fast. They are mostly preferred because they can survive in many environments.

Step 2 – Pick A Appropriate Farm Site

Where your poultry farm is located is extremely important for your business. To start poultry, you need a farm site. The size of the poultry farmland should be determined by the number of birds you plan to rear.

If you don’t have the resources to acquire farmland, still no problem. If you have enough land in your backyard, you can go ahead and use it. It’s always better to start small. You can start with what you have but try and make it a priority to get a better farm as soon as you have enough money to get it.

A good poultry farm site should be far away from the pandemonium and hustle-bustle of the city. It should be a calm and pollution-free environment. The farm must possess adequate, clean, and fresh drinking water sources nearby. Also, it must be free of any type of poultry enemies and predators like snakes, cats, and dogs.

Step 3 – Provide A Very Good Housing And Shelter

When it involves poultry farming, housing is the next significant factor after getting a farm site. Proper poultry housing can be the difference between a successful poultry farm and a failed poultry farm. Good poultry housing is essential for the protection and survival of your commercial poultry birds.

The Housing system you select will totally depend on the type of poultry breeds and farming method. Housing design varies in accordance with the various sorts of poultry raising methods.

The housing to be built should be spacious enough to allow free movement and running of the birds. Shelters must be raised to prevent the risk of flooding. Also, the shelter must be ventilated and protected from sunlight.

Step 4 – Provide Feeding And Medication Of The Poultry Birds

For a successful commercial poultry production, good quality and highly nourishing food is a must. Quality and neat feeds keep the birds healthy always and very productive. The feed must be kept clean and dry always, as contaminated feed can infect your poultry.

Your birds shouldn’t lack water. Lack of adequate water supply can hinder their growth. Good medication and vaccination can thwart many poultry diseases. As a poultry farmer, it is required of you to have a veterinary doctor that can come to run checkup on your birds when the need arises or before it even arrives.

There are various routine medications and vaccinations that can help towards the healthiness of your birds to keep them safe from viruses and bacterial infections, peradventure they catch an infectious disease.

Step 5 – Market Your Poultry Birds

The desire of every poultry farmer is to make good sales after every harvest or else what’s the point of joining. So you have to pay attention to the marketing and sales aspect of your business. Do not be trapped in the operational aspect of your business so much that you overlook and ignore the sales aspect.

So know how to market your farm by either taking your business online to gain new customers, selling to restaurants and hotels, employing marketers to help and if possible providing home delivery services.

So How Do You Use Digital Marketing With Poultry Farming?

Like I said earlier, every business you can think of is online and if you want to really maximize your profit, then consider taking your business online. Here are some digital marketing strategies that you can employ:

Social Media Marketing

Social media is one of the effective ways you can target and gain a new audience for your poultry farm. All you have to do is set up a profile and post up pictures and videos of your farm, you will be surprised at the number of people that will message you, especially if you stay around their vicinity.

Some people prefer live chickens to already butchered ones but most of them don’t know any farm that rears one including me writing this post and I’ve heard live chickens are better, bigger, and cheaper than butchered ones sold in stores. So with social media, you can advertise this option to people that want it.

Social media offers you the ability to pinpoint your target audience, providing you with a powerful tool to bolster your marketing efforts.

Knowing your audience is very vital, for example, your audience could be mainly women and to be more precise, aging mothers of 40-65 and wives of maybe 29 and above. These demographic are usually more active on Facebook than any other social media, so looking at this made-up audience, you could consider putting more effort on Facebook than any other social media.

Content Marketing

You can actually blog about your farm, providing useful information to your audience, involving relatable and valuable content across your various platform, and increase your chance of generating organic traffic.

Through your blogging, you can also attract investors to your farm and yes you can get investors for your farm that will provide the funds for you. They provide the funds you need to expand your farm which is good because the more products you have the more you can supply to a more demanding market.

You can blog about the advantage of owning a poultry farm and make people see you and your business as an established persona in the niche of poultry farming.

Display Advertising

Display advertising is a bit like the normal traditional print ads you see in magazines and newspapers the only difference is that it’s online. One thing about digital advertising that I love is how it targets your actual audience, in other words, people who see you are mostly people who will interact with you and might patronize you, compared to magazines that are not specific.

As such it has become much more sophisticated now with programmatic advertising, where ads are booked, examined, and enhanced automatically using algorithms, and then retargeting to your potential audience. For example,  nowadays, when you look for something, let’s say you want to buy a phone, the moment you search for it, for the next one month, every site you go will have an advert for a phone just because you searched for one and why did you search for one in the first place because you wanted to get a new one.

So you see how it works, by using display advertising, people who search for what you do( poultry farm, chicken supplier, etc)will get a chance to see your product being advertised to them and seeing as they need it, there is a higher chance of them taking the step forward to contact you.

For display ads, you need to contemplate both being creative, impactful, and memorable.  You choose an appropriate context that fits your message and is a match for your audience. If you identify your market well, you can approach some publishers about advertising on their site directly; or you can also use a third-party solution like Google Display Network or Facebook Audience Network.

In conclusion, poultry farming in Nigeria has created and still creating a profitable business opportunity for entrepreneurs. Most people prefer to produce day-old chicks and sell them to growers, as this option is easier and less risky. The choice, however, is up to you. But with digital marketing, you can really grow your poultry farm and maximize your earnings.

If you want to learn how to utilize digital marketing with poultry farming then we at odigital academy are always here for you. We will teach you all the strategies and the marketing ways of taking your poultry business to the next level. A course with us and your poultry farming or even any agricultural business will not be the same again.

So give us a call and let’s transform your poultry farm visibility to the next level!

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