Making the Business Case for Digital Marketing in Asia

Andreas Krasser gives these three simple tips for convincing Asia’s C-suites of digital’s true value.

Investment and confidence in digital within the Asia Pacific region is on the rise. Yet marketers find it difficult to actually make a business case for it. This was my key takeaway from reading the latest APAC Digital Directions report published by the CMO Council and Adobe.

To quote more details of the report, some 93 percent of marketers in the region believe that digital can drive competitive advantages for their brands, while only 21 percent believe that digital can increase transactional volumes, revenues and margins.

Now, looking at these numbers, I’m getting a bit worried about the future of digital. Because no matter what, the C-level executives who are the ones making the final call on investments and budget allocations will always be looking for an impact on their businesses’ bottom line.

I believe it’s time for marketers and agencies alike to reframe the conversation and finally make a business case for digital.

After all, Asia Pacific is not only home to the world’s most socially active country (Singapore) and the world leader in average Internet connection speed (South Korea), it’s also showing tremendous room for digital growth, especially considering the continuous rise in mobile connectivity.

Based on my experience working in South Korea and Hong Kong, along with the little exposure I have had to China, here are three basic hacks which might help to convince your C-suite of digital’s true value.

1. (Re)-Introduce the Consumer to Your C-Suite

If you’ve lived in cities like Hong Kong or Seoul, I’d argue that you don’t need research papers or official statistics to get a sense for how integral digital has become to people’s lives.

Nevertheless, I’ve encountered quite a few organizations throughout Asia that still insist on primarily enforcing traditional advertising strategies, treating digital merely as an afterthought.

If you work for a company that fits this description, (re)-introducing your consumers to your management team might prove helpful.

Two ‘introduction’ methods I found extremely valuable so far are personas and consumer journey maps.

Personas: I’m not talking about consumer profiles typically provided by research companies. I’m talking about representations of consumer segments that ideally combine quantitative and qualitative data, social insights, and digital behavior patterns to draw holistic pictures of your target audiences.

Try to get management involved in the creation of your personas – a workshop can do wonders in getting people to think differently and look at things from a consumer’s perspective.

Consumer Journey Mapping: This is all about understanding how the personas you’ve created (i.e. your consumers) interact with your business directly and indirectly. Whether you use an internal sales funnel framework or create a new one from scratch, it is crucial to comprehend how and why consumers transition from one stage (e.g. awareness) to another (e.g. consideration).

Again, do this exercise in form of a workshop involving key stakeholders and decision makers and make sure to illustrate that digital plays a significant role throughout the entire consumer journey, from awareness all the way to purchase.

2. Measure and Report What Matters

Over the last few years, many marketing experts and social media evangelists have argued against the value of vanity metrics such as Facebook likes, Twitter followers, views and site visits. I don’t necessarily share this pessimistic point of view – I still believe that vanity metrics can have value, depending on your marketing objectives.

What I do agree with is that the industry is not doing a good enough job measuring and reporting digital’s actual (and potential) business impact.

The rule of thumb, I would say, is to focus on metrics that indicate actions such as conversion rates, leads generated, return visits and churn rates.

The most powerful metrics, of course, are those that show a direct revenue impact. Depending on a brand’s digital presence and channel mix however, it might not always be possible to measure very specific transactional behavior.

In such cases, it can come in handy to assign monetary values to other online actions and showcase their potential revenue impact. If reported in such terms, even the most cryptic campaign metrics could become a little more tangible to C-level executives.

The next step would then be to look beyond short-term gains and argue for the long-term benefits of digital solutions. But that’s a whole different story.

3. Break Digital Marketing Out of the Marketing Department

The third hack is admittedly, not so simple. It might be in theory, but in practice it has often proved to be tough.

If we really want to make C-suites look at digital marketing as business solutions, then we have to not only reframe the conversation, but also add more participants. Break down silos and spend more time talking to other departments about your digital ideas, and how these initiatives could make a difference to their challenges.

If you get other departments behind your cause, executives will clearly see that digital marketing can do so much more than just marketing.

What methods have worked for you so far in making a business case for digital? Let me know in your comments.

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Whitepapers

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Whitepaper | Mobile US Mobile Streaming Behavior

5y

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...

View resource
Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

Whitepaper | Analyzing Customer Data Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

5y

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics f...

Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...

View resource
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

Whitepaper | Digital Marketing Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

2y

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...

View resource
Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

Report | Digital Transformation Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

4w

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Exp...

Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...

View resource