Nearly all businesses (98%) agree that a well-defined digital marketing plan can significantly impact your bottom line. However, in Singapore, 1 in 5 companies do not have a digital marketing strategy, a contrast to other Asian markets surveyed, where more than 96% of businesses have a strategy in place.
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Across the region, a majority of brands are tracking some metrics when it comes to understanding how their digital marketing investment is performing. When it comes to tracking impact on sales and revenue, and on the opposite end of the scale, impact on brand awareness, India and the Philippines lead the way, with more than 70% of companies tracking these top and bottom funnel metrics. 6% of companies in Singapore report that they are not tracking any metrics to assess the impact of their digital marketing activity, this being double the regional average of 3%.
In Asia, measuring ROI is still a challenge. "Any marcom specialist will know that demonstrating results that go towards the sales pipeline has never been more important – and more demanded – by key stakeholders," said Louise Veitch, head of Southeast Asia, Aspectus.
If you want to bridge the gap between execution and results, analysing the customer journey and identifying gaps is an important first step.
The marketing team for the Centre for Professional and Continuing Education at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, one of the world’s top universities, (PaCE@NTU) were searching for a CRM solution to refine their lead nurturing processes and optimise how they were measuring marketing’s impact.
The MarTech landscape has evolved drastically with more than 10,000 marketing-specific tools available. As a marketer, it can feel challenging to navigate the options.
While 86% of businesses in Asia are confident in leveraging marketing technology tools, the majority seem to leverage 1-2 tools at most, despite having anywhere between one to twenty software tools in their arsenal.
“In Asia, one reason that we see lower adoption rates of martech tools is where leaders may not be aware of how & what the tools can help them to improve their goals: be it to improve efficiency, increase ROI, aligning their sales and marketing teams better, or even to create more personalised customer experiences.” Carol Fong, Asia Sales Director of HubSpot, observes.
“Marketing leaders, and leaders across go-to-market teams, also need to think through the ease of usage and adoption, for their organisation and team. They can have the best tech stack, but if no one uses it, that’s as good as having no tech stack,” adds Carol.
While recognising the value of digital marketing tools, some Singaporean SMBs face challenges in implementing them within their workforce.
“Like many other businesses, convincing long-time employees who may be resistant to change around the necessity for digitalisation has been an issue. To ensure that our team members come on this journey, we were clear in our vision of the future, and shared with them that they were a part of our future,” Ivan Cai, CEO of Chuan Kok, offers.
In Singapore, businesses approach marketing budgets with a strategic mindset, seeking efficient and impactful interventions at scale. Pooja K Dhanothia, Director, Head of Asia - Marketing Solutions at LinkedIn, highlights that "this strategic outlook is born from operating in a fiercely competitive market, where the emphasis lies on maximising ROI and showcasing tangible value to stakeholders. Given the context of high operational costs, Singaporean companies prioritise investments in technology and analytics to fine-tune their marketing strategies instead of substantially expanding budgets."
"Moreover, the demand for clear, data-driven justifications for marketing spend further reinforces this prudent approach. By leveraging technology and analytics, businesses in Singapore can demonstrate the effectiveness of their marketing efforts, driving confidence and fostering innovation in the pursuit of sustainable growth," adds Pooja.
The data speaks for itself - social media marketing is king across Asia. 72% of businesses considering social media to be important in a digital marketing strategy, and a further 39% considering it to be the most important channel.
While there is a clear focus on social media as the dominant channel across the region, there is also an opportunity to unlock value from other organic channels.
Channels presenting an opportunity for greater testing and utilisation in the region include email and influencer marketing - less than half of businesses in Asia see these channels as important.
Is email still a valuable channel?
Less than 40% of Asian businesses identify email an important digital channel and, when used correctly, email remains a powerful channel to:
With the rise of AI, marketers can leverage the efficiencies AI brings to A/B testing in a meaningful, and scalable way. Lucy Alexander, Senior Manager, Rep-Led Demand Email Team at HubSpot, shares that her team "is seeing promising early results from testing deeper personalisation using AI to nurture leads. Some of our early tests show 2-3x increase in conversion rates. Using AI, we are able to understand a lead's industry, job role, potential challenges, and goals and craft highly personalised messages and offer recommendations that speak directly to this person's needs. Best of all, we are able to do this at scale."
Owned social media is huge in Asia, but what about creators?
Another channel that brands may not be leveraging to its full potential (yet) is influencer marketing or creators. Although social media tools are being used widely, most of companies are using social platforms to track engagement with their own brands, for organic content, or to run social ads.
In Asia, influencers and creators are huge. The value of the influencer marketing industry shot up from $638 million in 2019 to around $13.8 billion between 2019 and 2021. And it’s predicted to grow four times larger to $2.59 billion by next year.
Consumers view influencers as more trustworthy and relatable than other kinds of endorsements - and today's buyer looks to individuals they feel they know and trust to influence what they spend money on. When partnered with creators in the right way, brands can leverage this powerful channel to achieve a more credible and trusted opinion.
While there may be a lack of mega and macro educational creators in the B2B space, there is still value in tapping on micro-influencers. Brandon Huang, Principal Marketing Manager and YouTube Creator Program Lead at HubSpot, shares, “Oftentimes, the best creators I’ve worked with are the ones that I found early before they gained popularity. You develop a great relationship with them because you believed in them early on and if you offer a positive working experience, they’ll be loyal to you and give you their best work and effort. They know that your success is their success. This also means providing fair compensation and even tapping them into additional opportunities if they arise.”
Additionally, solutions like LinkedIn's Thought Leadership Ads allow for brands to leverage happy customers and advocates to build equity. In the B2B space, B2B influencers deliver more significant impact when compared to traditional brand-only marketing approaches, with a huge opportunity for brands to improve lead generation metrics and realise more after-sales value.