In Asia, small and medium businesses (SMBs) account for over 97% of all businesses. Driving revenue is always on the top of SMBs' minds, and the pandemic and post-pandemic period has demonstrated how important technology is to support business resiliency and sustainable growth.
According to latest research from HubSpot, 71% of SMBs in across Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and India intend to increase their digital marketing spend in 2024 to drive continued growth. Almost all businesses (98%) surveyed agreed that a good digital marketing strategy can increase brand revenue and that digital marketing tools can help unlock additional value.
Asia is a region with diverse languages, cultures, and consumer behaviours. This diversity poses a challenge for marketers in creating localised content and messaging that resonates with specific target audiences across different countries. The digital landscape in Asia is also highly competitive, with brands vying for the attention of consumers online. Standing out from the competition and capturing audience interest can be challenging.
Pooja K Dhanothia, Director, Head of Asia - Marketing Solutions at LinkedIn, shares, "Business growth and marketing spend are closely intertwined in Asia, particularly in emerging markets where there is a strong drive to capture market share and establish brand presence. India and Singapore exemplify the diversity of successful approaches in this region. India is achieving success through bold expansion, driven by significant increases in marketing spend. In contrast, Singapore is succeeding through strategic optimisation of existing strategies. Together, they highlight the varied paths to growth and innovation in Asia."
Today, SMBs have an opportunity to enhance their digital marketing strategy by:
A successful story of a business leveraging additional tools to optimise their advertising spend was the Centre for Professional and Continuing Education (PaCE@NTU) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, one of the world's top universities. The marketing team at NTU PaCE were searching for a CRM solution to refine their lead nurturing processes and optimise how they were measuring marketing’s impact. In this video, Prof. Tjin Swee Chuan shares how they achieved a 10x year-on-year growth using the LinkedAds and HubSpot integration.
86% of brands are confident in leveraging digital marketing tools, and the majority of SMBs surveyed are using social media platforms and tools, with CRM tools following closely. According to LinkedIn’s State of B2B Marketing 2023 report, new technology adoption is one of the most important current skills for B2B marketing teams in the APAC region, and could be a key indicator of why brands in Asia are increasing their spend.
There is an opportunity here for brands to maximise their strategy by:
As you’ll read in this report, 2024 calls for marketers to think through awareness, engagement, personalisation, efficiency and growth in new ways.
We’ll dig into research and insights from 1,000+ SMBs across Singapore, India, the Philippines and Hong Kong to learn what Asia SMBs are doing right and where the opportunities to drive growth and higher ROI are.
These insights from across the region, and commentary from marketing leaders, will share how businesses can leverage opportunities to grow and demonstrate the value of marketing in driving growth.
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