Digital marketing is beneficial to almost every organisation in Singapore. After all, the internet is used by nearly 60 million Singaporeans, or 58 percent of the country’s total population. According to a 2017 analysis co-authored by worldwide businesses Hootsuite and We Are Social, this is the case.
In addition, the survey found that when Singaporian go online, they take their time. They check their social media accounts, browse websites, and engage in other online activity for around nine hours every day on average. Singapore offers a large untapped market of consumers with an active online community that businesses of all kinds should start focusing on right now.
However, we have discovered that some industries benefit more from digital marketing than others. These industries have a sizable online market, making them well-positioned to compete in the digital marketing arena. Here are a few examples:
1. E-Commerce
Currently, e-commerce in Singapore has the lowest retail sales share among Southeast Asian e-commerce marketplaces. However, due to the country’s growing middle class, young population, and, of course, a large number of online users, it has a lot of promise.
In fact, according to Google-Tesmark Holding’s joint research, e-commerce in Singapore will reach US$9.7 billion in 2025, accounting for 11.05 percent of all SEA e-commerce sales.
Lazada, Zalora, Shopee, and BeautyMNL are some of the most well-known names in Philippine e-commerce. Because of the nature of their business, many companies rely on search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to establish their online presence. Simply doing a Google search for any product you can think of will reveal that these companies do, in fact, dominate the search results pages today.
Is It Too Late For You To Jump On The E-Commerce Train?
It is not too late to sell your things online if you operate a store in a local mall or a startup selling a specialised product. Your e-commerce site or Google ad can compete with today’s online shopping giants in Singapore with the correct digital marketing methods.
Remember that the digital sphere equalises the playing field for both large and small businesses. Plus, the e-commerce business is now vast — there’s still time to obtain a share of the predicted sales of US$9.7 billion in 2025.
2. The Real Estate Industry
More and more Singaporian homebuyers are turning to the internet, particularly social media, to find a good deal or to gather information for their home search. This highlights the need of developers, sellers, and brokers grooming their web presence in order to increase sales. These details come from a Group research published on Business World Online in 2017.
Megaworld, one of the country’s largest real estate companies, understands how to keep up with the changing habits of Singaporian homebuyers. It has started to move away from traditional advertising methods and toward digital ones. The company currently markets itself actively on social media and through blog outreach pieces.
Ayala Land, on the other hand, has emphasized content-rich marketing and client targeting in its digital initiatives. If you take a look at the company’s website and social media pages, you’ll see that their content is not only well-written, but also targeted at a certain market.
Lamudi Singapore, a leading online listing, has also benefited from the rise of digital marketing. It conducts a robust PPC strategy that consistently places its website on the first page of Google whenever a user searches for a property in Singapore.
What Does This Imply For Your Real Estate Company?
Online real estate marketing is just getting started in Singapore. As previously said, the country’s real estate behemoths have just recently begun to embrace digital marketing. This means that you can still receive a first-mover advantage if you start marketing or advertising your real estate business on the internet today, regardless of its size. You’ll be able to develop your internet presence, enhance your brand recognition, and tap into a vast market before your competitors jump on the digital marketing bandwagon.
3. Restaurants and Food
Singaporians love to eat, whether at home, at restaurants, or even on the streets. Singaporians, on the other hand, frequently seek recommendations from friends or family before trying a new food or restaurant. As the Internet became more widely used in the Singapore, Singaporian “foodies” turned to websites, social media pages, lifestyle features, and customer reviews to identify the best restaurants in town. This shift in customer behaviour has made it possible for Singaporian food entrepreneurs to efficiently present their brand to a larger market.
Digital marketing, like any other business, has become a fantastic equaliser for both large and small eateries around the country. Take, for example, the growth of the food park trend. Most of the eateries in food parks are startups owned by young, tech-savvy entrepreneurs, rather than established industry brands or chains. To generate buzz in the internet world, these restaurants rely on creative food concepts, active social media presence, and online restaurant listings (such as Google My Business, Yelp, and Zomato, where customers may evaluate restaurants). That buzz has grown into a craze that is still sweeping the dining world in 2018.
Will Your Restaurant Attract The Same Level Of Online Attention?
Many restaurants overlook the importance of expanding their digital marketing beyond social media. Yes, there are small, unique restaurants that have successfully used social media to not just inform customers about their business, but also to engage with them. However, social media profiles and sponsored ads for restaurants across the country — both big-name brands and local businesses — are already awash on Facebook and Instagram. While aggressive, strong social media marketing can provide you a competitive advantage, other digital marketing tactics, such as local SEO or search engine optimization, are also beneficial.
Local SEO essentially concentrates on assisting your restaurant in ranking higher in local search results. For example, if you own a Korean barbecue restaurant in Quezon City, local SEO strategies would help you appear on the first page of Google search results anytime someone searches for “best samgyupsal in Quezon City” or “Korean bbq grill in qc.” This allows you to contact clients who are not just nearby but also eager to try your products.
If you work with a digital marketing business that specialises in both local SEO and social media marketing, you’ll get better results than if you just promote your restaurant on Facebook or Instagram.
Hotels and resorts are number four on the list.
The country’s tourism business is constantly expanding. Perhaps the rise of the Internet and smartphones should be credited to the industry. After all, planning a trip has never been easier, from finding the most beautiful places in Singapore to buying a ticket, a tour package, and a hotel. Now that the tourist industry’s buying process has shifted, it’s critical for industry players like hotels and resorts to transfer their marketing efforts to digital media as well.
Many hotels and resorts across the country have started to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in digital marketing. A simple search for a hotel in Cebu, Davao, or anywhere else in the country will reveal this. Even if you conduct your search on Facebook, you’ll be greeted with a list of hotel profiles — both old and new — that are brimming with attractive and intriguing photographs. The tourism industry is more than ready to invest heavily in digital marketing.
However, does this imply that the digital channel has become too competitive for hotels and resorts?
No. Not in the least. At least in Singapore, online marketing for hotels and resorts is still in its infancy. You will still have a first-mover advantage if you start digital marketing today. Furthermore, individuals who understand how to negotiate the digital arena’s intricate corners will never find it overly competitive or saturated.
Most hotels and resorts in Singapore currently only focus their digital marketing efforts on local SEO, social media marketing, and PPC ads, based on our observations. Ad remarketing, specialty content marketing, link building, and online reputation management are just a few of the strategies that can help you win in the digital game.
All of this may become overly complex, but as long as you have top-notch digital marketing pros on your team, your hotel will be OK.
If your company is in one of these four categories, you should start your digital marketing strategy right now. You not only have a ready market online, but you also have competitors that are reaping the rewards of being the first to market with digital marketing. Don’t get left behind; join the game right now.
Learn more about digital marketing in Singapore by attending our Digital Marketing Masterclass.