In April we were happy to celebrate 4 years since launching Neat Interactive. After 4 years of providing digital marketing services from our offices in Bangkok and Shanghai, we have learned a thing or two (hundred). When we first opened for business in 2012, few businesses were considering digital marketing on LINE app, WeChat app, using Facebook Ads, retargeting / remarketing, mobile ads, Sina Weibo, and Instagram.
My how times have changed. Back in 2012 when we were traveling throughout the country of Thailand pitching to potential clients, social media marketing on Facebook was an experiment. Upper level management and marketing departments were beginning to wake up to the need for social media marketing in their overall marketing arsenal. Many times we were meeting with owners who saw that change was necessary while their subordinates resisted change. While other times it was subordinates initiating change while upper level management was slow to react. It was a great learning opportunity to be in the same room as numerous professionals discussing the future of marketing and how their businesses were going to react. We learned as much from our clients as they learned from us.
Fast forward to 2016, and now everyone is a digital marketing expert. We do not say this in a pejorative manner, rather we acknowledge the reality of the times. A recent visit to Kinokuniya showed nearly a hundred titles on the subject of online marketing. Read any tech blog or read Social Media Examiner, and you regularly receive tips on how best to approach and execute online marketing. There is great information out there that will definitely assist those who take the time to stay up to date on digital marketing trends and best practices. However, there are also lots of useless and outdated recommendations that either do not apply to businesses with low budgets or do not apply to all industries, especially in B-2-B.
Neat Interactive has worked with over 50 clients (both B2C and B2B) in all areas of digital marketing, including but not limited to social media marketing, Chinese social media marketing, search engine marketing, retargeting, online reputation management, search engine optimization, e-mail marketing, and mobile marketing. Thus we are going to begin to share what we have learned over the years from working with our valued clients and the ever-changing technologies that are essential to our business.
Our first insight may be the most important: Clearly define an objective. In our next post we will get into the importance of this and how this will set the stage for success or failure online.
