When it comes to marketing techniques in Uganda, most companies generally advertise their products through billboards, newspapers, radio, television, online ads, and social media. In addition, although most Ugandans speak English, ad campaigns often use local languages (Luganda, Swahili) as well, while firms also promote themselves at music concerts and sports events. 

Learn more about the best way to advertise your product or service in Uganda:

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Billboards

How do I get my ad on the billboard?

There are quite a few outdoor advertising companies in Uganda which can design and set up a billboard in the streets of Uganda for you, with the most prominent being:

Vacker Advertising: Located in Kampala, this is one of the most popular outdoor and indoor advertising companies in Uganda, offering a wide variety of products (including photo above). You can check out their portfolio on their website: http://vacker.co.ug/campaigns-at-work/ where you can also find their email address and telephone number in order to contact them.
Alliance Media: An Africa-wide leader in billboard and airport advertising, Alliance Media has 25 thousand advertising sites in the continent and is also located in Kampala. To contact them via their online form or telephone and also check out their work in Uganda and other African countries, please visit their website: https://www.alliancemedia.com/uganda/
In addition, you can find a list of smaller outdoor Ugandan advertising companies as well as their telephone numbers in the following website: https://www.aboutuganda.com/media/signage-billboards

The price for each billboard will depend on the product, its location and the advertising company you’ll decide to use, however here is an overview published by the Kampala Capital City Authority, going over the outdoor advertising fees for the city: https://www.kcca.go.ug/outdoor-advertising-rates

Finally, in case you are looking for some extra inspiration to create a more concrete idea of what you want before contacting them, do take some time to read the following article about creating a great billboard advertisement in easy 7 steps: https://theempire.com/create-billboard-advertisements-in-7-steps/

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Television

Apart from the two state owned television channels run by the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), there are now dozens of additional private television channels, serving around 34% of Uganda’s adult population. Unfortunately though, they are mostly based in Uganda’s cities. Some of the most popular private television channels include Bornfree Technologies Network, East Africa TV, EATV, Lighthouse Television, NBS, NTV Uganda, Pulse TV, Record, Top TV and WBS.

Leading television stations include:

Uganda Broadcasting Corporation: UBC
NBS Television: NBS TV Uganda
NTV: NTV Uganda
MultiChoice Uganda Limited: MultiChoice Uganda

How do I get my ad on television?

There are 2 ways in which you can get your ad on television in Uganda:

Contact the tv station directly: to do that, just follow the links above and you’ll be guided into the websites of the tv stations, where you’ll be able to contact them and arrange it.
Get an intermediary to do it for you: intermediaries already have connections with tv stations and they can also help you form your advertising strategy based on your target audience and objectives with them. As an example, and to learn more about one of them, Empire, please follow the following link: https://theempire.com/tv-advertising/uganda/

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Radio

In Uganda, this marketing method reaches very high numbers of people because a significant percentage of Ugandans have access to radios (87% of the Ugandan adult population / 3.4 million homes). Apart from the 10 national radio stations, there are over an additional two hundred private ones, while, contrary to TV stations, there is a significant amount of radio stations serving local rural areas as well. Some of the most prominent private radio stations include Capital FM, Dembe FM, KFM, Radio One, Radio Simba, Sanyu FM, CBS, City FM and Super.

Leading radio stations include:

Capital Radio: Capital Radio
KFM: KFM
Radio One: Radio One
Radio Sanyu: Radio Sanyu
Simba Radio: Radio Simba

How do I get my ad on the radio?

There are again 2 ways in which you can get your ad on the radio in Uganda:

Contact the radio station directly: to do that, just follow the links above and you’ll be guided into the websites of the radio stations, where you’ll be able to contact them and arrange it. For example, Radio Sanyu’s advertise with us page is the following: https://sanyufm.com/#szgetntch
Get an intermediary to do it for you: intermediaries already have connections with radio stations and they can also help you form your advertising strategy based on your target audience and objectives with them. As an example, and to learn more about one of them, Empire, please follow the following link: https://theempire.com/radio-advertising/uganda/

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Newspaper

This is one of the traditional marketing methods most firms in Uganda use to promote themselves. The state-owned Vision Group publishes The New Vision – the highest-circulation newspaper in the country – as well as Bukedde, which has the highest reach among English and Luganda speakers. Additionally, there are now 20-30 private newspapers, including The Daily Monitor – Uganda’s second-biggest newspaper – plus The Independent, The Monitor, The Observer, The Razor and Red Pepper.

Leading Newspapers and Business Journal Advertisers include:

The East African: The East African
The Daily Monitor: Daily Monitor
The New Vision: The New Vision
The CEO Magazine: CEO East Africa
The Eye Magazine: The Eye Magazine
East African Business Week: Business Week

How do I get my ad in a newspaper?

There are again 2 ways in which you can get your ad on a local newspaper in Uganda:

Contact the newspaper directly: to do that, just follow the links above and you’ll be guided into the websites of the newspapers, where you’ll be able to contact them and arrange it. For example, Daily Monitor’s advertise with us page is the following: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/advertise-with-us-2183434
Get an intermediary to do it for you: intermediaries already have connections with newspapers and they can also help you form your advertising strategy based on your target audience and objectives with them. As an example, and to learn more about one of them, Empire, please follow the following link: https://theempire.com/print-advertising/uganda/

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Online Marketing

12 million Ugandans – nearly a third of the population – are regular users of the internet. Below are a few ways in which your company can increase its online presence and access this considerable pool of potential customers:

Have a website

A regularly updated and easy to understand business website is a prerequisite for establishing an online presence for your business. Make sure to offer both English as well as the local language for greater reach.

How to create a website?

1. Choose a website building platform.

Instead of creating a website from scratch using HTML, PHP, and other coding languages, it is now possible to use a CMS (or website building platform), which is a user-friendly platform for buildingwebsites and managing your own online content. The most popular free site building platforms in 2021 are:

2. Choose a domain name and host

In order to get a new website online, you are going to need a domain name (eg. a web address like yoursitename.com) and website hosting (a service that connects your site to the internet).

At an initial stage and if you are on a low budget, you can do this for free, in free hosting platforms like WordPress.com or Wix.com, with the “cost” of having ads displayed in your website, a domain name ending in the company’s domain name ((for example, yourbusiness.my-free-website.com) and possible down times. In order to become more professional however, when time and budget allows it, there are also many other “almost-free” options, with the most popular being Bluehost.com which will cost you around $3-5 per month and make your website look much more professional, as well as offer you some extra benefits like company email accounts. A detailed overview of free as well as “almost-free” options can be found below: https://www.wpbeginner.com/showcase/best-free-website-hosting-compared/

Lastly when it comes to choosing your domain name, make sure that your domainname matches your company name (eg. YourCompanyName.com) and opt for a brandable, memorable and catchy choice.

3. Set up, design and tweak your website

This part depends on the website building platform you’ll use, but the most important steps are:

Install the website building platform of your choice
Choose a free (or premium) theme for your site
Add your content (pages and posts)
Make sure your website has a well-organized structure (increasingly important as content keeps added)
Choose additional customization options like colors, typography etc
Add a blog (optional)
Add an online store (optional)
Configure a secure socket layer - SSL (free or with a hosting platform)
Launch your website

Lastly, a detailed guide through the entire process can be found below: https://websitesetup.org/

How do I translate my homepage in Swahili? (Ask Heike/Maike)

As mentioned above, offering a multilingual website is imperative in order to reach as many people as possible. When it comes to translating your English or German website, there are 2 main ways that can be used: human translation and machine translation. The undoubtable benefit of the former one is the understanding of context, however, considering the cost and effort required to find a professional translator, the use of the latter becomes a valuable tool in the translation process as well. Different website localization options used for translation as well as the most important translating plugins and tools that can be used to translate the website contents of content management systems, like WordPress, browsers, like Chrome, and handheld devices, like iPhones, can be found in the following website: https://www.smartcat.com/blog/how-to-translate-your-website-content-to-reach-the-global-marketplace/

Maintain a blog

With the integration of a blog into the site to publish your achievements or customer stories you will be able to better connect to your potential customers, but also to attract new ones.

How to write a good blog

Writing a blog that will get people’s attention and make them interested in your company and your product or service can be a difficult task. This is why we have gather 5 instructional articles as well as examples of good blogs for you to get inspiration from:

Feedback

In order to learn what people think of your blog, you can message locals via social media, ask for feedback and get their attention. This will be a great way to get feedback and advertise your blog at the same time. Potentially you can also consider offering people an intensive for giving you feedback, such as the opportunity to have their names entered in a competition which they might win a small gift from.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

This helps your website to appear in search engines for specific keywords that potential customers use to look for what they need. As mentioned in the articles above, always consider the use of strategic keywords in your website content and blog. For more details about SEO, see the guides below: (projects’ best practice)

Online advertising

The most common way to advertise online is by pay per click, which most search engines like Google or social media like Instagram offer. Pay-per-click (PPC), is a model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Essentially, it’s a way of buying visits to your site, rather than attempting to “earn” those visits organically. Search engine and social media advertising are two of the most popular forms of PPC. They allow advertisers to bid for ad placement in a search engine's sponsored links when someone searches on a keyword that is related to their business offering or in the feed of a social media page. Every time your ad is clicked, sending a visitor to your website, you have to pay the search engine or the social media platform a small fee. However, when PPC is working correctly, the fee is trivial, because the visit is worth more than what you pay for it. Additionally, if a visitor sees an ad but doesn’t click it, the advertiser is made aware of the impression but doesn’t have to pay as no click took place.

How does PPC work on Instagram? How much does this cost?

Instagram is an easy and flexible choice for online advertising. You can turn any post into an ad as well as set your budget and choose your target audience, while the platform also offers various other services such as tools to build multi-platform campaigns or track your ad performance. For more info please visit: https://business.instagram.com/advertising

For information about the costs of an Instagram ad, please see below: https://karolakarlson.com/instagram-ads-cost-and-bidding/

How does PPC work on Google? How much does this cost?

Google Ads is the single most popular PPC advertising system in the world. The Ads platform enables businesses to create ads that appear on Google’s search engine and other Google properties. It operates on a pay-per-click model, in which users bid on keywords and pay for each click on their advertisements. Every time a search is initiated, Google digs into the pool of Ads advertisers and chooses a set of winners to appear in the valuable ad space on its search results page. The “winners” are chosen based on a combination of factors, including the quality and relevance of their keywords and ad campaigns, as well as the size of their keyword bids. To learn more, please visit: https://www.wordstream.com/ppc

For information about the costs of a Google Ad, please see below: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/05/21/how-much-does-adwords-cost

Social media marketing

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram offer great marketing opportunities to businesses in order to advertise their product. However, they are still a minority pursuit in Uganda, as only 18% of internet users have accounts on Facebook, the most popular social platform.

Email marketing

This involves building an email list of people to whom you send your marketing emails on a regular basis. For more information on how to do effective email marketing, as well as examples of good email marketing, please see below:

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Other

Phone marketing

As 74% of adult Ugandans have a personal mobile phone (21.6 million mobile subscriptions), SMS marketing is another great way to reach your targeted clients. Nevertheless, it is important to note that from the number above, only 16% own a smart phone.

Events and tradeshows

Participating in tradeshows is an excellent way of getting your business in front of your potential customers. More specifically, the Uganda Manufacturers Association organizes an annual trade show which you can find more details about here: https://www.uma.or.ug/trade-fairs, while the Uganda National Farmers Federation also organizes an annual agricultural trade show that is typically held in July (see http://unffe.org.ug/27th2019/). Unfortunately, for now, both trade shows have been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sponsorships

Another way to promote your business is through sponsoring an event. It does not have to be a big one, anything that takes place in your targeted location will be more than enough.

Word of mouth marketing

This is a natural and very effective marketing technique most businesses in Uganda use. As Uganda is a close-knit society, people trust the people around them more than complete strangers. Clients can also speak for your business and help you get referrals through their word of mouth.

Business cards

Most people with businesses in Uganda use this marketing method to reach their potential customers. It is low-cost and effective.