GAINING INSIGHT INTO DIGITAL MARKETING

THE digital world is expanding and if we don’t keep up with times, we will get left behind.

The same principle can be applied to businesses. To this end, ClickAcademy Asia Sdn Bhd organised a talk at Menara Star in Petaling Jaya, about growing one’s business with digital marketing.

The forum, from 9am to 5pm, drew 78 participants from companies in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Malacca and Kuching.

Participants from various disciplines and business fields were given the insight by ClickAcademy founder and principal trainer Ang Eu Gene.

Ang has years of experience in the field as a Google regional trainer, business coach and a lecturer, and currently conducts training for this particular topic.

Calling the talk a “personal upgrade class”, he said participants learned how to understand consumers and learned the broad spectrum of digital marketing.

“They are updated on the latest Internet and digital marketing trends, ways to grow their business using digital marketing strategies, how to negotiate and manage resources, and learned techniques to increase sales and profitability,” he said.

The talk was a lively one with participants asking questions and laughing at jokes cracked by the animated Ang.

During the talk, participants were constantly reminded to not resort to “hard sell” but give consumers a value and to sell emotions instead, as they need to “build awareness and deepen relationships.”

He shared that every company today had to learn to be creative, from copywriting to running advertisements.

He hopes that after his talk, businesses will approach the digital marketing space with eyes open and see what has changed in terms of the consumer landscape.

He pointed out that digital marketing had grown over the years, beginning in 1994 with web banners to now having a selection of platforms.

“In 2016, the platforms that are available for reaching out to customers had grown tremendously.”

He said with this, businesses have a choice of multiple touch points. However before picking a tool, he added, businesses must go back to basics and understand more about their consumers.”

Ang said businesses would have four major concerns.

“The first, is how to get the budget, then where to find people who understand this approach, how to select vendors they can trust and the channels they should choose with their limited budget and time.”

He said those who attended the talk were from three categories – business to consumers, business to business, and government as well as non-profit organisations.

Cindy Ku from a multilevel company in Bayan Lepas, Penang, took an early flight to attend the talk.

She said it was something new to her and found the tip on utilising search engines for comprehensive research on consumers particularly useful.

Vicneswary Veeran and Lilia Remona Abdul Karim from an engineering solutions provider company in Kuala Lumpur, used every break during the talk to go over what they’ve learned and to pick out things they could apply in their work.