SME Owners: Social Media Marketing is your secret weapon to success

IIf you are the owner of an SME and think that social media marketing is something good to have only when you have the time and budget to look into it, you will want to read this. Social media is not a disruption to your business, nor is it a threat. It is an amazing opportunity that gives you the sweet chance to succeed amid an increasingly competitive landscape.

Digital marketing is perfect for digital natives, it’s not rocket science!

 It is a digital world out there. The sooner you embrace this fact instead of fight it, the better! A whole generation of young people have grown up never knowing a life without the Internet. They live, work and play online and offline, transiting seamlessly between the two, sometimes even preferring the online medium since they are so comfortable on it.

 It therefore makes perfect sense to prioritise marketing on digital channels, particularly social media. In a reversal of roles, traditional media is no longer the stronghold of marketing efforts – new media, including social media and other digital platforms, has become the platform du jour for all that is fresh, in-trend, and current.

 So to put it simply, social media marketing is now CRUCIAL to whether your business makes or breaks it. And here is why.

1. Forming meaningful relationships 

For many young people, a significant proportion of their interactions are carried out online, especially on social media platforms. There has even been studies which have revealed that they even feel more comfortable conversing on web or mobile applications by exchanging emails or instant messages, instead of speaking over the phone or in-person!

Social media is therefore a great way to reach out to this segment of your audience, which is admittedly a significant group that you ignore at your own peril. Reaching out to them in a way that they are comfortable with is key to speaking their language and gaining their trust. Taking the time for these also helps build your brand and personality, which is imperative today. It has been proven that people make purchase decisions based on trust in the brand and a connection they feel with the brand’s personality. That means no hard-selling or direct sales efforts. Sharing interesting and relevant content is one great first step to take!

2. Efficient with low barriers to entry 

Social media marketing is particularly cost effective as compared to marketing on traditional platforms, because of how anyone with access to an Internet connection can do it – as long as they have the expertise. Of course, there are nuances to strategy and messaging, as with traditional marketing, but dollar for dollar, it is immensely more cost-effective to execute a social media campaign.

 Almost all social media platforms are free to use – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Snapchat are among the most popular at the moment. With a proper strategy planned out, the day-to-day posting can be easily executed with anyone with access to the account, from virtually anywhere. This is great news for SMEs, especially if you often work off-site from remote locations.

3. Wide reach 

Many SMEs struggle with gaining sufficient visibility in a competitive playing field dominated by huge corporations with long histories to back them up. Social media is a brilliant way to get round this, by penetrating the digital audience in an environment that is in itself the home of innovation and fresh ideas. By maintaining a personable social media presence informed by a vibrant social media marketing strategy, you make your business accessible and in your audience’s eye.

If you use social media well, your possibilities for growth are really borderless. You will be able to speak directly with specific audiences and tweak your messaging according to who you are targeting according to gender, age, life-stage, interest.

What is the ‘magic X%’ for a marketing budget’s ROI?

Marketing, as a rule, is not cheap. Now, what seems ‘cheap’ to some businesses could be an entire company’s weight in gold to others. But the fact remains that marketing is something all businesses shell out hard-earned resources for. That said, a business that spends on marketing needs reassurance that what it spends on does exactly what it is meant to. A business spends in order to drive profitability.

But are we talking mere blips or bounding leaps to the top of the profitability graph? Surely the tens of thousands of dollars you spent on your last ad campaign got you results of some kind. But how do you know whether those results are good enough, or better yet, great?

Keeping an eye on ROI

The Return on Investment, or ROI, is a standard way of measuring just how well your marketing campaign was able to generate sales. Simply put, the ROI is how much money you’ve made out of a certain amount of money you’ve spent. ROI’s are usually expressed as “X%” — if X was a big enough number (ideally 100 or higher), then your marketing effort was resoundingly successful.

While arriving at that X% can be simple as “one and one make two”, more often than not, calculating one’s ROI can be overwhelmingly complex. There are so many factors that affect how a customer buys. These factors come in from both the investment and profit stages of a marketing campaign.

On top of how much you spent on a campaign, and how much you made in terms of sales, you have:

• The price of the product or service
• The place where it was offered
• How it was distributed
• What your competition was doing
• You name it.

As these factors vary from business to business, what a good ROI percentage is for some, may be too low for others. In other words, there really isn’t a single, “magic X%” that all businesses can aim for.

And if the number of variables going into the equation didn’t make ROI calculation difficult enough, sales is worthwhile noting. Sales, especially during or right after a campaign’s run, can be a tricky way to measure ROI. This is because marketing efforts that may not seem to generate any leads today, could translate into long-term repeat customers later on.

So why ROI?

Keeping an eye on ROI remains essential precisely because it keeps you on point. It can show you whether the precious resources you’ve allocated to marketing are doing just what they are supposed to. It’s statistical evidence you can use in planning your marketing budget.

When times are tough, you may be tempted to cut back on marketing as an “optional expense”. The ROI will be there to remind you that marketing is a key component of generating sales. This especially holds true for SMEs, where keeping close tabs on the marketing budget is paramount.

In these situations, it’s a good idea to remember the “I” in “ROI” — marketing is an investment. If the money you’ve spent gets you the results (namely, the profit) that you want, it will ultimately be worth it.

The “R” in “ROI”

The “returns” or the profits that are generated by a marketing budget are arguably the lifeblood of any business. When it comes to this lifeblood, availing of expert help from a dedicated marketing agency may prove to be the wisest course. An expert marketing agency not only formulates and drives marketing efforts toward success, but will know how to measure that success.  This success, because of the ROI calculation factors mentioned, is usually specific to an individual business.

Expert marketing agencies have the experience and the expertise crucial to making decisions on how best to maximise a business’ marketing budget, regardless of its size. After all, nobody in their right mind would leave the lifeblood of their business to chance, right? And yet, that is what happens when you spend thousands of dollars on marketing without insightful use of ROI as a guide.

A Guiding Light

The principles of making sure a business’ marketing budget is invested wisely with ROI in mind are what guide an expert marketing agency. As such, it will have frameworks in place to measure those returns. Those frameworks will have been used time and again in evaluating the ROI of marketing campaigns run by businesses in various industries.

Our own frameworks measure the results of our marketing campaigns for several businesses.  These businesses have seen concrete figures on these frameworks demonstrating how well their marketing efforts perform in reaching their goals. One and all, these businesses inevitably recognise the importance of ROI in generating sales from a continually growing customer base.

Get in touch with us today and find out how savvy ROI-guided marketing experts can help your business. Together, we’ll find out what the optimal ROI goals for your business could be, and the best ways to enable your marketing budget to reach them.

ABCs of Digital Marketing for your Business

There is no doubt about it: A significant chunk of our lives have crossed onto the digital realm, and there is no going back to a time when life could be firmly separated down the online and offline divider. A powerful online presence has become almost as important as physical branding efforts and in some instances, companies have actually begun life on digital platforms before crossing over to the “real” world. Digital marketing, therefore, is no longer merely a good-to-have component in your marketing plan – it has become a MUST-HAVE.

Much like traditional marketing, digital marketing is very much concerned with the brand and ultimately how it translates into better sales and profits. What then are the basics of digital marketing amid the seemingly daunting task of carving out a niche for your business in the overwhelmingly borderless World Wide Web? This month, we bring you three very simple and useful tips to help you understand digital marketing. With the complexities of it all though, it would of course be best to get in digital marketing specialists such as our consultants from Ence to work on your strategy with you. Nonetheless, these ABCs of digital marketing should put you in good stead to have a basic understanding of the dynamic world of digital marketing. Ready? Let’s begin.

 

A — for Apt and Accurate Keywords for SEO Optimisation

Theoretically, anyone can be found on the Internet with a search engine. But the million dollar question is: How do you get right on top of the pile? With thousands of search results, being ranked 782 is not going to help your business much. If you are wondering how these sites clawed their way all the way to the coveted first few results returned, you need to know that the secret lies in the keywords. A whole guide could be written on this (in fact, there are already many guides dedicated to this topic; just search it up and you will see!) – but for those of you who just want to know the quick gist behind this wizardry, read right on.

Research the keywords that matter to your brand and business. You need to know how people look for products and use that language in describing your product, service or company. This process of coming up with and implementing the relevant keywords throughout your website is not a static one and needs to be constantly updated. For example, we constantly help one of our clients, W. Atelier, a retailer of luxury furniture items, manage their list of keywords for SEO optimisation, and running a quick search of some of their bestselling products such as TOTO toilets or Fritz Hansen furniture in Singapore gives them the top result returned in Google.

Event Trends in 2016

Welcome to 2016, folks! Planning and executing a successful event now requires much more than getting the logistics and physical set-up down pat. Event management is now more nuanced than ever, and to stay ahead of the curve, event planners really need to go above and beyond the obvious. Knowing these five trends in the dynamic field of event planning and management will certainly get you a long way in jumping ahead of the pack. Thank us later when everyone else is just beginning to hop on-board these while you are already miles ahead in incorporating these into your events. (You are most welcome.)

1. Experiential

The huge swing to the experiential is really gaining momentum, thanks in a large part to the increasing role that tech now has in events. This used to be measured in terms of attendee engagement that may have been over-simplistically gauged from carelessly filled-in feedback forms after the event or by monitoring online responses and comments in the wake of the event. Now, event planners are seeking to engage attendees throughout the entire life-cycle of the event; from start to end and even beyond. These make up the whole experience of the event and attendees now want their events to be fully experiential. You want to encourage the setting up of online communities to converse about the brand (whether it is an actual product or an individual) prior to the event itself. You want organic discussions about the brand at all stages of the event.

No longer is it enough to plan an event. You now provide an experience for attendees which they can experience for themselves on site at the actual event and also help create for others through their conversations and interactions.

Earlier this year, Carlsberg held a marketing event in London, where a large billboard bearing the statement “Probably the best poster in the world” was set up.

The Top 3 Marketing Campaigns in 2015

There has never been a more exciting time for marketers as the present, with even more platforms to shake up campaigns and make them even more creative and effective. With all that is available, multi-level, integrated marketing campaigns are now the norm. We suss out three of the top marketing campaigns that took 2015 by storm and also tell you what you can learn from them for your own business!

1) Dove’s Choose Beautiful Real Beauty ad campaign

The Dove “Real Beauty” campaign needs no introduction –   it has been running for the last 10 years across a wide spectrum of mediums and attracted a whole lot of criticism and plaudits alike. Previous versions of the campaign have received prestigious awards (2006 campaign video “Evolution” won two Cannes Lions Grand Prix Awards in June 2007 at the Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival in France) and the positive media exposure. 2015’s iteration of this campaign, “Choose Beautiful,” was a video shot in five different cities across the globe, where women are faced with the choice of walking through two doors: “Beautiful” or “Average”.  Other than boosted sales, the true success of Dove’s campaign is in its staying power, as can be seen from the rehashed campaign year after year. Even better is that since the campaign has been going on for years, consumers have drawn a strong link between the campaign and Dove. Case in point: how many of you would not almost immediately think of Dove when you see the image below?

EVENTS: Building a Community for your Business

Memorable and effective events don’t just happen. Events offer a unique opportunity to build relationships not just between the organisation and their prospects and customers but among event attendees.

Events as Communities

The fact that people take time off to attend an event, chances are a majority of the attendees have a common need or interest. Events should be more than just a staged advertisement for the brand.   By allowing people to experience and interact with your company, you are creating an opportunity to have personal interaction to build loyalty with existing customers and to connect with prospects. If you change your perspective from an event being a one or two-day project to the building of communities that continues indefinitely, you can incorporate strategies to manage these communities.

Include Media and Partners

Expand the community to include the media and your partners. Don’t forget that the media usually attend industry events.   It is a good way to position you and your company as an expert in the field. Be careful not to position your event as a sales pitch. If you do want to deliver a sales pitch, let your customers do it. A customer testimonial is more credible and newsworthy. Alternatively, you can also reach out to them to schedule 1:1 meetings after the event should they want to know more.

To promote the event to a wider audience beyond your own database, sometimes it is a good idea to include your partners, especially if you are talking to the same target audience. They get exposure at your event in return for promoting it to their customers,.

Events done by ENCE Marketing Group

Include Multiple Touch points

Event planning takes up a lot of time and energy. You want to make sure that you get not only a high registration but the right mix of registrants. Build up the excitement by communicating early and often leading up to the event. Do not forget to include internal staff as part of your communication efforts.   Ensure that everyone has the right messages and you can reinforce the messages through your website, social media, emails, visual aids, collaterals, handouts, giveaways, presentation, and follow ups. A feedback form at the end of the event can be used to identify the need for lead nurturing or to assign a lead to a sales representative.

Include Social Media

There are many channels that you can consider when engaging attendees and interested parties that are not at your event.   Hashtags make it easier for attendees (and planners grow their audiences and to keep up with meeting-related conversations ongoing.   Keep the hashtag short, simple and creative.

Companies that have limited in-house resources to coordinate events can consider outsourcing.   ENCE Marketing Group has Eminence Events (event management) and Affluence PR (public relations) to ensure an integrated approach to make your event a success.  If you are planning a launch event, read our AffluencePR blog for some tips and insights.

How Does Social Media Fit in your Business?

More of us are increasingly connected in the online world. We put newsfeeds into our Facebook, we post pictures we love on Pinterest with hashtags, we connect with our business associates on LinkedIn, and the list goes on. In whatever business you are in, chances are your customers are on one or more social networks.

However, before you even ask ourselves how does social media fit into your business, the starting question should probably be whether you should use social media for your business.

For a small business, social media can take a lot of your time. It is not just about putting sporadic entries in between meetings and check in the next time you want to post something new. You have to think about why you are on social media and how you are connecting with your customers. If you are ready to embrace social media as part of your business strategy, below are three things you might want to think about:

1. Which areas of your business do you want to integrate social media?

The most common area for businesses to integrate social media is marketing. But more businesses are integrating social business beyond the marketing department. According to a recent study, maturing companies are infusing social business into multiple functions across the enterprise:

Branding for Retailers

The retail and F&B scene is brutal. It is crowded and highly competitive. Many entrepreneurs who believed that they have the winning formula, end up losing their investment and are left with shattered dreams.

Closing operations is not limited to the small operators. Guy Savoy’s celebrity restaurant at the Marina Bay Sands closed in February 2014 with less than four years in business. In Jan 2015 Japanese casual wear label Lowrys Farm announced its decision to pull out of Singapore after three years, citing poor sales.

Retailers are faced with rising rental and labour costs and new online entrants are changing the rules of the game. While it is important to keep an eye on operational expenditures and cutting inefficiencies, it is equally if not more important to focus on growth. A focus on short-term profitability and cash flow may hamper future growth and pose risks to the brand.

Retailers can work with landlords to boost overall traffic flow, however, they should also take ownership of investing in their brand. More retailers are acknowledging that marketing and branding are key factors in the success and the sustainability of their business.

ROI Strategy Consultants is now ENCE Marketing Group

Even the most successful brands need a little remodeling now and then. Some go with a simple logo redesign or a new slogan. But others need something a little more drastic: a total brand makeover.

After 8 years of helping SMEs generate returns on their marketing investments, we are proud to announce that ROI Strategy Consultants Pte Ltd has now been rebranded as ENCE Marketing Group Pte Ltd.

ENCE means “Experiencing New Customer Engagements” where we encourage businesses to embark on effective marketing strategies to better engage with their customer to create a memorable experience for our clients and their customers.

We realised that the suffix ‘-ence’ had many positive connotations which we could tap on to further market our services in specialised marketing areas:

• Affluence PR: Premier public relations for Retail and F&B. From Elegance to Indulgence, we incorporate the 5 senses that retail encapsulates into our communication work, to bring a truly immersive and abundant experience to your consumers.
• Eminence Events: Specialists in product, retail and F&B launches. Propel your brand to the next level of consumer loyalty when you integrate a level of eminence into your event – where consumers want to be seen.
• Decadence Design: Indulgent and creative designs for the F&B industry. Understanding of what works at the restaurant level where every day is a make-or-break day. Engage in creative design to uplift your menu and food and create the ambience for success in your outlet with Decadence Design.

ENCE is pronounced as how you would pronounce the suffixes of Afflu-ence, Emin-ence and Decad-ence.

Big changes come with big risks. However, we knew we did not want to lose sight of what’s at the core of our brand which focuses on the Marketing for Returns for our clients.

Events and Facebook management should come hand in hand

February marks the start of Year of the Wooden Ram. With shops continuously blasting common songs related to Chinese New Year and displaying all the irresistible goodies, have you planned any marketing and promotional initiatives this festive season?

Fret not if you have not done so. Event management companies in Singapore will be able to help you plan and execute the perfect strategy. We at ROI suggest that you can look into having both events management and Facebook marketing initiatives to raise your business’s profile and generate more leads to you, especially during such major holiday seasons.

If you do not have a Facebook account or page for your business, it is high time to set it up! Do you know that there are approximately 3.6 million Singaporeans on Facebook monthly, with 3.2 million of them using the mobile Facebook interface? This marketing channel certainly cannot be ignored.

Our take is that events management and Facebook management should come hand in hand when doing marketing, as events provide a physical promotional platform while Facebook provides an online platform for sharing. Either of the platforms can direct traffic to the other, and it is also possible to tie up with other Facebook pages to share about the event. This was a strategy taken by ROI when we did both event and Facebook management for our client Global EduHub for its educational symposium held in January.

Still unsure about how to get started with incorporating both event management and Facebook management as a form of marketing strategy? Our experts at ROI Strategy Consultants — can offer you an effective solution to planning and managing a successful event for your business, as well as suitable execution to convert your target audience into loyal customers. Contact us and get help today!