When talking about digital marketing for SMEs (small-medium enterprises), our first instinct is to get on social media, create a page and promote it. With a sufficient budget, a business can invest in paid ads, website development, email marketing, online campaigns etc. However, small businesses who have limited budgets can only rely on free resources. This blog will dive into two Facebook Business features that allow SMEs to build a conversion-driven sales process for free.
WHATSAPP BUSINESS CATALOG
With Whatsapp Business Catalog, businesses can now move on from spamming customers with product information in the chat. Instead, it can be organised in a systematic and time-saving manner. Here’s how.
To access the business catalog feature on Whatsapp, you will need a Whatsapp Business account. Simply install the Whatsapp Business app on your device and register your business phone number. You will be asked to enter your business name, category and description, then you are all set!
Whatsapp Business Catalog is designed to be straightforward to use. Go to “catalog” in settings and start listing your products by adding images, name, price and description. Every image uploaded to the catalog will be reviewed before the product goes live.
Instead of spamming long messages, businesses can now send catalogues to customers to view product descriptions and images. On the other hand, customers may also view them by clicking on the “catalog” icon from the upper right corner of the chat. From there, they can add products to cart or send messages to businesses with the product link attached for enquiry.
Besides, potential customers from Facebook and Instagram can also send you messages or view catalog on Whatsapp in just one click when you add the “Whatsapp” button on your Facebook Business Page or Facebook advertisement.
If your WhatsApp Business account is linked to Facebook Shop as a sales channel, your catalog will be replaced by Facebook Shop by default. However, this won’t delete your WhatsApp catalog as it is temporarily hidden only. To revert back to the Whatsapp catalog, switch off Whatsapp as a sales channel for your Facebook Shop.
Next, we will look further into Facebook Shop as the second feature every SME must use in order to increase sales.
FACEBOOK SHOP
Facebook Shop can be easily activated from the “shop” tab on the Facebook Business Page. Then, Facebook will direct you to the Commerce Manager for store setup and product listing.
Don’t have the “shop” tab? You can activate it in page settings under “templates and tab”. Alternatively, go to Commerce Manager to get started right away.
Facebook Shop works just like any e-commerce platform where we can add product variants, shipping info, brand, condition etc. However, it does not require subscriptions. A business that already owns an e-commerce store can integrate it with Facebook Shop and sync products across two platforms. Check out Facebook Shop partner platforms here.
There are three ways customers can place their order on your Facebook Shop:
Checkout on another website: Customers will browse products on Facebook Shop and they will be directed to your website for checkout and payment.
Checkout with Facebook or Instagram: Customers make payments directly from Facebook or Instagram. This option is currently available only in the US.
Checkout with messaging: Customers will be directed to Messenger or Whatsapp during checkout. This method allows businesses to set up their own method to process payments and fulfil orders. (Note: Whatsapp Business Account is required to fulfil orders on Whatsapp)
Convenience always plays a critical role for both shoppers and sellers; Facebook Shop provides great convenience where product media and information are unified across your Facebook and Instagram accounts. Businesses can tag products on the image and video posted on both platforms, so customers can click and redirect to the product page instantly. Unlike the old method - commenting or messaging to check on the product which is time-consuming.
The latest update also enables businesses that sell on livestream to feature their product directly from Facebook Shop during the livestream. With this, customers can make purchases via Facebook Shop instead of having to order manually through comments or messages.
Last but not least, it is recommended to use the “collection” feature to highlight certain products in your shop or organise them by category, which makes browsing easier for customers. Collections created can also be advertised on Facebook ads. This is useful to promote seasonal, theme-based and limited-time offer products.
Has your business utilised these two features and is ready to kickstart advertising on Facebook or Google to generate more revenue than before? You may be eligible to get partially sponsored for it!
Receive a 50% matching grant or a maximum of RM 5,000 from the government under SME Business Digitalisation Grant upon signing up for Gapture Malaysia’s digital marketing package. Limited to the first 100,000 participants only. Hurry up, sign up now!
To enquire about the affordable digital marketing packages of Gapture Malaysia, feel free to contact us. See full list of our services here.
Many Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) suffered during the COVID-19 lockdown and some individuals had started their small business from home. We all know bringing our business online is the only way to survive through the lockdown. Plus, the digital purchasing trend is likely to continue in the post-COVID-19 era.
“I have spread it on Whatsapp and created a Facebook Page to promote my business?” - You did it right, but do you know you can actually DO MORE by using Google?
Here are two features on Google that can widen your customer base and increase sales.
GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
Google My Business (GMB) is free to register and you will be required to fill up your business details such as business category, address, operating hours and phone number.
In Malaysia, 98.2% of internet users choose Google as their primary search engine. After setting up, your business information will be listed on Google search results or map when a user searches for your business or related keywords. This means free exposure to millions of potential customers every day on Google.
GMB provides an insights dashboard reporting the number of views on your business profile, how your business was discovered on Google (via search, Google Map etc) and keywords users input to discover your business. This helps you to understand your potential customers better and identify important keywords for SEO or Google advertising campaigns.
With Google My Business (GMB), customers can leave reviews for your business and you can reply to the feedback. A business that has good reviews or is responsive towards feedback gains higher brand trust compared to others.
GMB is equipped with call-to-action (CTA) buttons such as messages, get directions on Google Map, call the store, visit business websites etc. You can also publish posts via GMB just like social media. With this, businesses can build up good customer relationships by connecting and engaging with customers on Google with just one click.
If you already have an established business website, GMB can direct more visitors to your website and increase engagement which eventually improves the page ranking of your website on the search engines result page (SERP).
But if you do not own a business website, that is totally okay! Because GMB comes with the website builder. This feature will render a customized website for your business based on the information provided on GMB profile. You can edit the website later on with no coding experience needed.
Google My Business (GMB) is the first place customers look up for updated information about your business. Hence, it is no longer optional but crucial for businesses to build online presence.
GOOGLE SITES
If you are a starter and looking for a simple website to showcase information or product, Google Sites will be your go-to tool.
Google Sites is a free webpage creation tool that can be accessed directly from Google Drive. It is stored in Google Drive and can be shared with team members for editing. There are templates and themes ready for different purposes such as help centre, personal portfolio, event, small-medium enterprise (SME) and non-governmental organisation (NGO).
Google Sites is free to use and easy to access even on a personal Gmail account. Google Sites is integrated with Google’s products where you can insert sheets, slides, forms directly from Google Drive, video from Youtube and location from Google Map.
While Google Sites is free and beginner-friendly, it does have its major downside on marketing and sales features. Unlike e-commerce website builders such as Shopify and Easy Store, customers cannot purchase directly and track orders from Google Sites. If a business uses Facebook or Instagram ads, Facebook Pixel cannot be installed on Google Sites for tracking and remarketing. Thus, it is not suitable for business in the long run.
Another disadvantage of Google Sites is limited design features. For instance, you cannot add or edit CSS and any interactive visuals to the website. On top of the limited number of templates and themes, users have less flexibility in editing the templates. An interactive and aesthetically pleasing website is important for brand image and better user experience which eventually impacts the overall customer purchasing journey with the brand.
For long-term marketing strategy, it is recommended to use proper website builders such as Squarespace, Wix or WordPress for business websites as they come with functionality that caters for SMEs at affordable prices.
If you are a registered SME in Malaysia, you are eligible to claim SME Digitalisation Grant up to RM5,000 upon signing up for digital marketing packages which include website development with Gapture Malaysia. Visit here for more information on SME Digitalisation Grant.
Limited slots available for grant applications, so take this chance to upgrade your business website today. Reach out to our Gapture Malaysia team for grant application and build your website now!
As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the globe and with the implication of the movement control order (MCO), most businesses are forced to change their workflow process and transform digitally. Businesses that have an older employee-base or are ‘traditional’ face a bigger issue in hand, as there is the problem of whether their employees are able to cope with the major transformation they have to go through including the various technologies that need to be implemented. Whereas, for a more traditional business, implications for transforming digitally becomes harder as they have no prior knowledge regarding it.
However, businesses still have to remain competitive despite the MCO. Therefore, various businesses have engaged in various technologies and applications in order to smoothen the workflow at work. Starting from Skype to Zoom, WhatsApp to Slack, Google Drives to iCloud, and many more. Despite the MCO, it is important for employers to know that their employees are still working from home, below are some ways of how a company can maintain their productivity and efficiency without necessarily needing visibility on their employees.
Elevate the level of communication
Prior to the MCO, most people spend their days in close proximity to their bosses, thus allowing effortless and easy communication. But now that it is mandatory for companies to work-from-home, communication breakdown is more than likely to happen especially when your workplace has no prior experience in remote working. Therefore, to reduce the communication breakdown it is important for bosses to be available for a 30 minute call to kick off the day and wrap up the day. It may seem small, but by doing such, it gives these ‘remote workers’ a sense of realization that they are told to do work rather than enjoying themselves at home.
Treat it as if you are in the office
Creating an office-like environment at home is vital to increase productivity levels. Sure, working on a bed is way more comfortable than working on a desk, but which would actually allow you to do ‘actual’ work, definitely the later. Therefore, instead of laying in bed with a laptop, try something more practical, such as working on a desk with an upright chair, like you would at your normal office desk. To put it simple, the lesser the interruptions the more productive.
Do Not Feel Isolated
As the Coronavirus is now pushing everyone to an extreme level of self-isolation and social distancing, employees and employers are faced with a major lack of communication barrier. Parents are majorly affected, as they have children to take care of whilst working-from-home. Prolonged isolation could also potentially impact the morale and productivity of these demographics, hence unconventional parties and fun sessions could be done amongst companies such as a virtual pizza party, or a happy hour where employees and employers take a break from work and just joke amongst one another.
Keep Everyone’s Morale Up
Working from home affects a company’s cash-flow due to the lack of income. With that being said, ensuring your employees that their position is safe and the company is still healthy is important to keep morale high. At this tough period of time, a manager should be a ‘cheerleader’ to their employees, in the sense that they motivate and not demotivate, give positive feedback instead of negative ones.
Source:
Work From in Home in a Pandemic, https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200312-coronavirus-covid-19-update-work-from-home-in-a-pandemic
Working from home? 4 tips for staying productive, https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/organizational-culture/work-from-home-tips/
Hello everyone, my name is Aliya, I am 22 years old. I am an international student from Kazakhstan and currently pursuing my international business major in HELP University.
I joined Gapture for three months, for my summer semester as AdWords Marketing Intern and I can say that it was an amazing experience to go through.
I have learnt how to set up, manage and optimize campaigns in Google AdWords, Facebook and Instagram through Facebook Business manager. Likewise, I also have learnt how to create the ad copies for the advertising campaigns and I could see the flow of approving the advertisements by the client. I also helped the office manager to do weekly admin tasks and I was happy to help them with it.
I also was very lucky to attend two meetings with our clients and to see how the meetings are held in corporate world which I would never have in my university life.
Regarding working environment in Gapture, I am very grateful to my mentors who are mostly from Performance team for their kindness and patience as they always were extremely helpful to me. The other staff from Gapture as well as from SalesCandy are very welcoming and kind.
We also had the weekly admin meetings with our boss to discuss ongoing campaigns and informal LALA meeting where we presented and discussed some of the new features in the world of media and technology.
All in all, I can tell that experience and knowledge I gained in Gapture I will always treasure and will definitely use in my future working career. Thank you!
Hi, my name is Ann. I am 21 years old. I am an advertising student from UTAR and this year is my final years. I am glad that I just completed my 3 months internship at Gapture as an Adwords marketing intern.
As an adwords marketing intern, I work with performance team mainly. I have learn how to set up Google Adwords campaign, Facebook ads, Instagram ads and You tube ads as well. After all, I learn how to manage the campaign, optimize the campaign based on Gapture best practice. I was able to help with the Adwords copywriting too. I learn how to write Chinese ad copy and English ad copy as well. From there, I learn how to write good ad copy based on client needs.
Apart from marketing skills, I can say that after this 3 months intern, I had also explore the other department within Gapture. They are very supportive and ready to help you whenever you have doubt on your work. I also help with the admin task once in a week. I am glad that I able to reduce their work load and gain extra knowledge at the same time. The most precious things I have learnt is the opportunity to attend clients meeting with Gapture's CEO, digital consultants and the performance team.
Besides that, we also have our monthly LALA, which is once a month. This monthly LALA is like a bonding occasion whereby everyone enjoy meal with the Gapture's CEO and other department staffs. We will discuss about our ongoing project, and Gapture's CEO will share his extra knowledge to all Gapturions during this monthly activities.
I have gain a lot of experience regarding to digital marketing which I may not able to learn from my college, and I really had a good time here. Lastly, a message to future interns, I would highly recommend Gapture if you are looking for an internship in digital marketing industries.
Hi there, My name is Muhammad Hazman from Petaling Jaya. I’m currently a student of Nilai University completing my dual award degree in Marketing. In completing my course I have joined Gapture Malaysia for an internship program as an Adwords Marketing Intern. I had a great time throughout the 4 months of my internship period here, so let me share with you my experience.
My experience as an intern here in Gapture was very educational and fun. I would say it is not an average internship program where you just clock in and clock out for attendance. I was mainly working within the Performance Team where I learned to use Google AdWords, Facebook Business Manager, Youtube Ads and LinkedIn Campaign Manager. I had the opportunity to be involved with the ad campaigns in all of the platforms from the beginning to the end which includes learning how to set-up ad campaigns, copywriting for ads, optimising ads performance and meeting up with clients once a campaign meets its ending date. I find it very educational because learning it by myself would have taken me ages to understand how things work. This is one of the milestones of the internship program in Gapture. Besides that, I was also exposed to other departments in Gapture and how they work together to complete a client's request. There was also weekly admin tasks that I had to do during my internship period.
Another milestone throughout my internship period here was the activities and meetings that goes on, one of them was the weekly Performance Team meeting and another is the monthly Lala Meeting which was very eventful. The monthly meetings are educational and fun as Gapturions will have a chance to learn something new or be exposed to new business ideas. Besides that, Internship in Gapture can sometimes be challenging yet fun as it builds your character, especially when you have to make hard decisions in completing a task. Everyone in Gapture have been very friendly and one of the take backs from my experience here have to be the core values of the company. One of the core value that deems essential to me was integrity where by living up to the word in every aspect of life, be it your daily routine or work, integrity will always help you achieve your goal. Lastly, it’s obvious everything is turning digital these days so join Gapture for your internship program and learn new things that you will never get in a college education. Thank you!
