There are many Singapore businesses that fail to generate the profits that they initially assumed they would. And in some cases, the products and services that they offer are better quality than that of their more successful competitors’. What many of these companies are missing is the right promotion.
No matter what industry you’re in, there is a form of advertising that will work perfectly for you. The key is to outline which ones best suit your goals. Let’s take a look at both online and offline advertising. We’ll discuss what they are and the pros and cons of each.
Online Promotion
Search engine optimization (SEO)
If you would like to organically increase your visibility in the search engines, then you should use SEO or search engine optimisation. This is a digital marketing strategy that uses both creative and technical elements to improve your rankings, drive more traffic to your website, and increase consumer awareness in search engines like Google. SEO requires you to use certain keywords on your page and link to other relevant sites. It also requires you to structure your site in a way that the search engine can understand. But most important, search engine optimisation is about creating the ultimate user experience for your visitors.
Pros: Fits a small budget.
What attracts many Singapore business owners to SEO is that it can be very cost-effective. It targets the individuals who are actively seeking out your subject matter. And when your traffic is well-targeted, you do not have to spend as much on your advertising.
Cons: Takes time to see results.
While SEO is cost efficient, it does have its downsides. For instance, unlike advertising, the results aren’t instant. Business owners can wait months maybe even over a year to experience its true effects.
Search engine marketing (SEM)
If you have allocated a certain portion of your budget for advertising, then you should use search engine marketing. Search engine marketing, or SEM, is the strategy of using paid advertisements on the search engine results in order to market your products or services. You can bid on relevant keywords that search engine users may enter while searching for what they need. This ensures that your ads are given priority on platforms like Google and Bing and are shown alongside results for these particular search queries.
These ads, often referred to as pay-per-click ads or PPC, come in various formats. Some are small and text-based ads. Others, such as PLAs, or product listing ads are much more visual and are able to catch the users attention at a glance.
Pros: Quick results.
Singapore businesses use SEM because they’re able to get their ads in front of customers who are motivated and ready to buy. No other form of advertising is able to get these results and in such a short amount of time. So this is a great option for startups.
Cons: Can be costly.
While SEM can lead to quick conversions, it’s not cheap. Getting your ads to show at the top of sites like Google can cost in the thousands. Depending on your particular goals, it may even cost in the hundreds of thousands.
Content marketing
If you are interested in educating your potential customers about your industry or your products and services, then there is no better way to do it than with content marketing. This is a strategy in which you use content to capture and engage your audience. It often includes the use of videos, ebooks, webinars, infographics and more. The goal is to answer the questions that your audience has. It’s to make sure that you offer enough value so that it changes their lives for the better in some way.
Pros: Become an authority.
Singapore businesses use content marketing because it helps to build credibility for their brand. The more valuable your content is and the more you are able to educate and help people, the more you will be viewed as a credible resource. This helps you to attract a large audience and leads to your building a following that is trusting and loyal. And when you nurture these types of relationships you can experience a significant growth in profits.
Cons: It can be a challenge to come up with fresh content.
This isn’t to say that content marketing is easy. In fact, there are a lot of business owners who often struggle to come up with content that will appeal to their audience. In order to succeed at content marketing, the information you provide needs to be fresh and interesting and this content is not always easy to come by.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social media marketing, also known as SMM, is a form of internet marketing that involves creating and then sharing your content on all of your social media networks. This often requires business owners to post image, text, and video updates and drive the engagement of their audience. The ultimate goal is to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. This particular form of advertising can be either paid or organic.
Pros: Expands your audience.
What Singapore businesses love about social media marketing is the fact that it can be a huge catalyst in expanding their audience. People tend to spend a lot of their time on social media platforms. This is especially the case when it comes to Singapore consumers. According to the Straits Times, the average Singapore consumer spends over 12 hours each day on their gadgets and a large amount of this time is spent on social media.
This means that there is a large audience that is waiting to be tapped into. The key is to spread the word about your business. The more followers you get, the more people talk about your company.
Cons: Time-consuming
Social media is an extremely powerful advertising tool. However, it can be very time-consuming. In order to be successful at social media marketing, not only does the content that you post needs to be fresh and engaging, but it should also be posted frequently. The key to engaging your audience making sure that you post every day and this can be a drain on your time if you don’t have a well-planned schedule and sufficient staffing.
Email marketing
Would you like to market your brand to and stand in touch with the people are most interested in what you have to offer? If so, you should consider email marketing. Email marketing is an advertising strategy which involves sending messages to people who sign up for your newsletter. These messages include advertisements, educational content, or updates about your business.
The goal of email marketing is to build brand awareness, trust, and loyalty. It ensures that your customers, both old and potential will never forget about your brand. And when done well, it can lead to an increase in profits.
Pros: It’s measurable.
Email marketing is a staple of most Singapore business owners because it offers measurability. Many email marketing platforms allow you to track things such as how many people actually open the email, what time the email was open, and how many conversions the email resulted in. And this is information that you can use to tweak your strategy and improve on this form of advertising.
Cons: May get buried in other emails.
Email marketing is extremely effective, but it’s not perfect. While you will be communicating with people who have expressed a genuine interest in your business, they may not always receive your messages. In some cases, your email may be buried within their other messages and overlooked, depending on how full their inbox is or how many emails they normally receive.
Offline Promotion
Newspaper
As technology advances, more and more people are turning to the internet to consume media. However, despite popular belief, newspapers are still relevant today. And it’s still one of the first places Singapore businesses think to publish their ads.
Pros: Trusted form of media.
What’s so great about this form of advertising is that people tend to trust newspapers. In fact, the better the reputation of the newspaper, the more likely they are to associate your business with its most positive qualities. This is especially the case for people who have subscribed to the paper and are loyal readers. Your value proposition will be taken more seriously in newspapers.
Cons: Difficult to target audience.
Newspaper advertising can be a challenge due to targeting issues. Sure, if you are interested in earning business from a certain geographic location, then it can be helpful. However, if you are interested in a certain demographics, then you may hit or miss. According to research, most newspapers cater to a demographic of individuals who are 40+ years. This means that if the demographics of your target audience is comprised mostly of millennials then you’re out of luck.
Flyers
Are you interested in circulating weekly sales ads or announcements about your company? Well, one of the best ways to do it is with the use of a flyer. This is the form of paper advertisement that is intended for wide distribution. They may be posted or handed out in public venues or delivered through the mail.
Pros: Low cost.
One of the best things about flyers is how economical they are. You could easily print thousands of these advertisements for under $100. And this is great for startups who are closely monitoring their budget.
Cons: Distribution is labour intensive.
While flyers can be low in cost, they can definitely make up for it in labour. How you decide to distribute your flyers will depend on your company’s goals. In some cases, you may mail them and this will involve stuffing envelopes and researching the residences of your target audience. In other cases, you may advertise on foot and choose to hand them out in public places.
Magazine Ads
Just as is the case with newspaper advertising, magazines are traditional but they are still very relevant today. However, in this case, Singapore advertisers tend to choose publications that are specific to their industry. After choosing the perfect publication, they then seek out to place an ad in a section of the magazine.
Pros: Great for targeting audience.
Singapore business owners may choose to advertise in a magazine because of the targeting opportunities. As mentioned earlier, the goal is to find a publication that is relative to your industry. This means that if you offer weight loss vitamins, you would search for a health magazine. If you sell car accessories, then you would choose an automotive magazine. The best part about this is that the audience that you advertise to will have some interest in your products or services. And this could lead to more sales.
Cons: Can be expensive.
Magazine advertising can be great for your business, but it can also be quite costly. This is especially the case if you are working with a nationally or internationally recognised publication. Also, the placement of your ad may drive up the cost. Would you like a front page spot or would you like to be buried on the last page? There are several things that can affect the pricing.
Billboards
Would you like your brand’s advertisement to be seen by thousands of people each day? Well, you should consider placing a billboard advertisement. These are outdoor advertising structures that are positioned on the side of the road or along highways. The goal is to increase brand awareness. These ads are typically seen by pedestrians or motorists, depending on their location.
Pros: Reach a larger audience.
What many Singapore businesses like about billboard advertising is that it gives them the ability to tap into a larger audience. Billboards are typically placed in high traffic areas. While not every individual who sees the ad will connect with it, you increase your chances of attracting more people to your brand due to the sheer number of people who view it. And even if people aren’t initially in need of your services, the more they see the ad the more likely they are to remember your brand’s name and the products and services you offer later on when they do need them.
Cons: There may be ad blindness.
What a lot of businesses don’t consider when placing these types of ads is the concept of ad blindness. You see, billboards are a common roadside fixture. So it’s easy for people to ignore them altogether. This is especially the case if your billboard is up for quite some time. Eventually people can become immune to your messaging. And in this regard, your ads become passive rather than active because your audience is completely tuned out. The best way to handle this is to change your campaigns regular so that they remain fresh.
Telemarketing
Perhaps you would like to speak directly to your potential customers. In this case, you would use telemarketing. Telemarketing is a direct marketing strategy in which you solicit your prospective customers to purchase your services or products. This is done over the phone or web conferencing.
Pros: Quick feedback.
What most Singapore business owners like about telemarketing is that they get quick feedback. With many advertising strategies, getting your results is a waiting game. You won’t know exactly how your customer feels about your offer until they start to make a purchase or until you notice that no sales are coming in. This isn’t the case with telemarketing. You can speak directly to your customers and they will let you know whether or not they are interested in what you have to offer.
Cons: Company may be associated with spam.
One of the downsides to telemarketing is that it can come across as spam. This is especially the case if you are using cold-calling and the person has not shown any previous interest in your company. In these cases, this tends to leave a bad impression of your brand in many of your potential customer’s minds. And it may do more harm than good. So this form of advertising requires a careful and strategic approach.
Bus Ads
Would you like to use a form of advertising that catches people’s attention? Well, bus ads may be a great option for you. In bus advertising, buses act as a medium for your ad. You may promote your brand or push a certain message for your campaign.
Pros: It’s mobile.
Unlike billboards, buses are mobile. This means that your brand and messaging travels. It reaches several different areas and is great if you hope to target specific geographic locations.
Cons: Quick view.
While buses are a great way to get attention for your ad, it’s important to consider how quickly people must view it. Depending on how fast the bus is going and where people are positioned, they may only get a passing glimpse of your ad.
3 Ways To Promote Your Singapore Business On Social Media
Are you a Singapore business owner who is searching for new ways to showcase your business on social media? Well, there are a lot of businesses that manage to keep their social posts focused exclusively on their brand without coming across as spammy or self-centered. In this article, we will discuss a few ways that you can promote your brand on social media without turning your target audience off. And the best thing is, they are pretty simple to implement into your digital and social media marketing plan.
1. Approach to Micro-Influencers Who Have Similar Brand Aesthetics
There are a lot of Singapore businesses that rely on completely branded content. With every bit of information or entertainment they offer, you can find an ad lying just beneath the surface. The problem is, the audience is aware of this. And it definitely comes across as self-serving.
The best way to avoid appearing self-serving is to have someone else do the promotion for you. More specifically, have an influencer create your branded content. In most cases, people assume that this will requires building relationships, adding values, and then reaching out to the person for shares. However, things work a bit different when it comes to branded content.
In the case of branded content, it works much like product placement. Instead of building a relationship with the biggest influencer, try getting your services or products in the hands of someone that your audience actually trust. You can then get the person to create some content around what you have given them. Finally, you can integrate their content into your social media platform.
What’s great about this particular approach is that it’s simple and straightforward. Simply search for creators who have more than 50,000 followers or influencers who have more than half a million and you can scale this approach as your business grows.
2. Let People Laugh at You
If you are interested in both creating and hosting branded content, then there is a crucial ingredient that is common in all successful campaigns: humour. This is not just because everyone loves to laugh. According to research, there is a connection between emotions and sharing. The more of powerful of emotion that you are able to elicit from your audience, the more likely they are to share your content with others.
This is especially the case when it comes to humour and laughter. When you deliberately share something funny with your audience, it lets them know that while you may be an authoritative brand who has a certain specialty, you don’t take yourself so seriously. Perhaps you should share a bizarre photo with a funny caption. The best thing about using branded content that is funny is that it makes your content seem less branded.
3. Include Brand Advocates’ Social Content
Sure, you could always get the attention of an influencer in your industry and have them share your latest product with their audience of thousands. But what can be as equally as effective is the words of consumers who have actually tried the products for themselves and want to share their experience with others. In other words, there is nothing quite as powerful as user-generated content, or UGC.
That’s why it’s so surprising to see that only recently have Singapore brands started to systematically integrate this type of content into their marketing strategies. They are now realising that user-generated content is like a conversion goal, especially when generated on social media platforms.
The only problem is that many businesses sit back and wait for the testimonials to come in when they should actually be actively going after them. For instance, there are some Singapore brands that tap into users’ basic impulses in order to create engagement. Instead of waiting for users to generate content, they solicit and regularly share the content that is created by their customers. Some even take this process a step further and add the images that customers take and place them on their product pages as well.
The best thing about using content that is generated by users is that it’s pretty easy to get, Most of these campaigns start out with the business asking that users use a specific hashtag. However, you need to keep in mind that there are several steps that must be taken in order to craft the right kind of content for your social media platform.
Ask at every phase
It’s easy to assume that you should only ask for user-generated content on social media. And that’s because this is where people spend a great deal of time and are already posting and sharing. However, you need to consider soliciting the customer at other phrases of your interactions as well. For instance, you can always invite the customer to share their experience when you are sending them a transaction email that confirms their order.
Make it easy
You’ll find that there are a lot of customers enjoy sharing their positive experience. That’s because not only does it show that they are happy with their product, but also that they have great decision-making skills. But in many cases, if you don’t make it easy for them to share with others, they will bypass this opportunity altogether. So make sure that you make it easy to submit their content. In most case, you should simply request that they use a dedicated hashtag.
Use tools
Sure, you could manually collect all of your user-generated content. However, this can take a significant amount of time. Luckily, there are tools that can help to automate the process. Try tools like Engage Hubs or Yotpo. They can help you to collect photos, reviews, ratings, and even customer stories.
Summary
Branded content has long been a part of the online world, especially since social media has arrived on the scene. However, many Singapore businesses are still struggling with the challenges of dealing with audiences who don’t respond to it.
Whether you are working with a social media agency or on your own, it’s important that you devise a strategy that helps you get the most out of this type of content. According to research, only a mere 5 percent of all branded content account for 90 percent of total engagement. This may seem like a depressing ratio, but it proves that you can make a significant difference in your business if you craft the perfect strategy.
Luckily, it’s easy to figure out what type of content your audience loves. In general, they want to be educated and entertained. With this bit of knowledge and the tips above, you will be able to make a significant amount of progress on social media.
How Explainer Videos Can Help Promote My Business In Singapore
Many people believe that explainer videos are the best provider of choice when it comes to the best internet marketing. Singapore is one of the top countries that has dramatically welcomed online business marketing developments. Recent research statistics in Singapore revealed that about fifty-five per cent of the population accessing the internet use their devices to search or purchase products. This proves the need to get into an explainer video advertising to try and sell your business brand to the demographic market. This article will look at how explainer videos can help promote your business in Singapore.
More and more Singapore marketers are using explainer videos as an online digital marketing tool in promoting their business or companies. This is because videos are more entertaining as compared to reading explanations or articles hence they have a much more significant impact in attracting massive traffic on your website. Explainer videos are one of the options every business should try out when trying to grow its online customer base. By engaging in an explainer videos marketing technic, the companies in Singapore will be able to improve and maximise their online and market potential.
The growth of your website traffic. According to research, it reveals that about seventy per cent of internet traffic is in the video. Explainer videos are one of the best so to generate traffic for your business. Uploading a startup explainer video in your business website will by far and wide become viral and attract traffic in your site. However, the explainer video should be great and unique to get a large viewing in a short period. You will be sure to convert the viewers to business customers. Some example of videos that have gone viral from top brands includes Apple iOS 5 by Apple with over two million views and Old spice with over 42 million views.
Google ranking is an essential contest in improving your business and growing its customer base. Overloading your website with images and information places at a low-ranking position in google search engines. Adding explainer videos to your site landing pages increases your online business development. More so, it gives your business website a fifty per cent more chance to appearing on the search engine search engines. More than eighty per cent of the online users are likely to watch a video while only a small per cent will read through the information content.
Do you want to increase the conversion rates of online visitors to clients? Explainer videos are the way to go. Explainer videos are especially perfect for online businesses that need to do a product or service demonstration to the massive online market. The videos demonstrate how the product or service can solve a particular problem making the audience to understand why they need to make a purchase. This attracts more online visitors to become your clients. It has been proved that more than eighty per cent of people are more likely to buy a product after watching an explainer video. Explainer videos can also be used to analyse the popularity of the product by the number of visitor’s views.
Another way in which explainer video marketing can promote your business in Singapore is by their ease of uploading and sharing. These videos can be easily uploaded and shared in other social media platforms including YouTube, Instagram and Facebook which have immense popularity in Singapore. You should place your videos on YouTube for your business to reach a full crowd. By this, you will be able to create more customers for your business at a lower cost.
Every business owner wants to create a unique brand personality that does not match any of the similar business strains in Singapore. Explainer videos are the perfect platform to develop the brand personality that will help you influence market prospects. The videos contain animations, character or stories that work together to enhance the image and brand personality of your business. The videos give you a chance to explain your worth and value as a brand. You can show video testimonials, visual statistics and big brands you have worked with in an attempt to lure online users to your business.
Explainer videos are proving to be the best available medium for most businesses. You only need to spend a few days and a little cash to make a good explainer video. More so, they are editable and adaptable. Once you have created your business explainer video, you can easily switch things around by editing. For instance, you can add a few seconds in your explainer video to promote a newly launched product or business feature. Additionally, you can use it to try different narratives and music.
The one thing that a business requires to develop into the bigger brand is credibility and trust from its clients. How will an explainer video help you introduce trust and credibility? When starting up your business, you have new ideas, thoughts and concepts. Why should people believe these concepts? Explainer videos build your credibility in people by helping them to learn more and trust you. They can understand you better and your passion in solving their problems. The videos will also give the people an idea of how you operate, your objectives and dedication to your customers. By this, more people will be willing to become business partners.
Why do I need an explainer video for my business? Why have explainer videos become so popular? These are some of the questions that you are asking yourself. Firstly, explainer videos give much clarity to the online users about your business. Videos provide a more precise view as the brains transmit more than ninety per cent visual information. You are trying to touch the emotional part of the clients and explainer videos will effectively do it.
Singapore has plenty of opportunities in making your company known. All that is left is taking the first step and establish explainer videos in your site today to remain competitive in the online business campaign in Singapore.
Conclusion
Whether you are interested in online marketing or offline, there are several options to choose from. Just make sure that the form of advertising you choose fits your business objectives. Ideally, you should try to use various forms of promotion to ensure that you have the farthest reach.
