Recently Hubspot released a report on the state of Inbound Marketing in Asia and the results are impressive. We took a look at their report and dissected it to provide you with an overview of the most important things we took away from the Inbound Marketing Asian Report of 2015.
What We Found Out
- More Asian companies use inbound marketing than any other marketing strategy
- The main struggle in Asian companies is hiring the right people to market and produce content for them
- Building leads and creating the biggest pool of customers possible are the main goals for Asian businesses
- Companies that build a great marketing strategy undeniably perform the best, but also bring in the greatest ROI and are granted higher budgets.
The Nitty Gritty
The Challenges
According to Hubspot the main struggle Asian businesses face is that they want that return on investment. From competition over which employee to hire to where the costs should go within a business, whether the business is big or small the concern remains the same. This can be down to a number of reasons such as the vast range of different languages to cater for, including working to brand the business on an international level, the number of different rules and regulations placed by each country, the hidden costs involved and cultural differences. Therefore, the key to many businesses is to ensure that their business brings the best ROI so that they can grow and prosper in the Asian market.
The Trends
Nearly 70% of businesses have a clear focus on building their presence using organic methods of search engine optimisation. Asia is home to nearly 50% of the world’s internet users as of 2013 with that number said to be much bigger as of today, so it’s no wonder almost 3/4 of businesses want to optimise their business websites. So, producing content that’s relevant, promotes the business and relates to the business and above all is organic is a top priority for Asian businesses. This way, businesses aim to bring in customers through a number of different means and ensure their website reaches the top spot on search engine results the white hat way.
The Surprises (or are they?)
- Turns out those that use traditional marketing don’t exactly see the benefit in it. Companies in a range of different fields around Asia, both inbound and outbound, found that using traditional paid adverts are a waste of time and an overrated use of advertising.
- Inbound marketing is more preferable than outbound according to those in the higher ranks of the company. In fact this can be seen as a huge benefit for Asian companies who’re able to control their ROI more effectively.
- Having an SLA (service-level agreement) between the marketing and sales teams in a business is more likely to produce a lower ROI than businesses without. It also appears job safety is a big issue in the sales department, as nearly 70% of businesses have a stagnant system or an unstable job security if you’re a salesperson.
The Takeaways
- The best marketers rarely use outbound marketing and rely on it, using their own methods in order to save money and put it towards other important aspects of the business.
- As cultures and economies differ from the West, Asia’s market dictates what businesses should do next with their income and what to prioritise.
- Successful marketers analyse their results to ensure they know what they need to improve on and where the next marketing phase should head to next; as a result of using analytics marketers earn a greater ROI than those that don’t.
- Inbound marketing is king. Creating high quality content, producing leads, converting them into customers and personalising the product you’re trying to sell (kind of like using white hat SEO methods!) is the guaranteed surefire way to improving your customer list and boosting your ROI if you’re an Asian business.
A great analysis from Hubspot about the latest trends in Asian businesses in terms of marketing and sales, which also bodes well for the SEO world as well!
The full report can be found here.