Online shopping has become a consumer behavior today. Therefore, online marketing is not an option but business salvation. However, there are still some entrepreneurs who think that it is not necessary because of the frequent customers buying. But if the regular customers are gone Where can entrepreneurs find new customers? Because of the behavior of the new generation of consumers are accustomed to or stuck with online shopping. Because it means survival in the digital age, Khun Benya Jongmeesuk, Associate Planner Director dotMatters, will share with you Digital Trend in 2020. This includes buying online advertisements that will increase the efficiency of reaching potential customers as a guide for beginners to sell online so that they can understand the principles and grow their business further.

Digital Trend 2020

Nowadays, there is no denying that social media is the powerful medium of the digital age. Can reach more target customers in a wider and niche segment than traditional media. Hun Benya from dotMatters said that over the years online media has become a huge influence on doing business. Able to grow, increase sales, generate profit for the business sustainably. With the strength of being able to determine the reach of leads more effectively than traditional media. While the Thai population is currently only 0.3% per year, the Thai population on social media is increasing by 2 million a year. This means that Thais are living online more and more every year, and most importantly, the population of children and the elderly are increasing the use of social media as well. Gender all ages Advertising in the online world is necessary and inevitable.

According to Hootsuite, the top five platforms in Thailand are 1. Facebook 2. YouTube, which means that both Facebook and YouTube are very important social media. Meanwhile, LINE followed in third place, which is the platform that everyone uses to chat to communicate with each other, 4. FB Messenger and 5. Instagram, all five are considered important social platforms that businesses must use. In doing online advertising

Khun Benya further said that when it comes to selling things online through e-Commerce, most people think of selling clothes. Selling things through e-Commerce can be very diverse. According to statistics of Thai people, it is found that 5 products with the most value in e-Commerce are 1. Fashion and beauty products 2. Electronic products and media 3. Tourism 4. Food and personal care products and 5. Furniture and appliance products. And during the COVID period of foreign tourism stagnation but domestic travel packages have grown more. So, you can see that in a crisis there are still opportunities for online sales. And according to statistics of Thai people shopping online in 2019, it is found that the average price is 3,000 baht per year while in 2020 an average of 700 baht or 3,700 baht per year, which shows that Thai people shop online. More for a more expensive price Entrepreneurs are required to do online advertising to reach their target customers.

In addition, the fact that Thai people shop online has increased significantly. Entrepreneurs must not forget that in the online battlefield there are many competitors selling the same things as ours, both inside and outside the country. When there are many competitors, it is not easy to do marketing to find the right customers. Therefore, it must be a method of buying online advertisements. Because the more customers see our products, the greater the chance to sell them. Because of the organic release, customers may only see 10 people, but buying an ad will be able to identify the target audience they want. It gives an opportunity to stimulate the interest of the customer and ultimately make an order with us. In addition, buying online ads can also measure results and see how much more money spent on advertisements will get back in sales.

Why use Digital Media?

As mentioned above, all roads lead to online, so entrepreneurs, whether big or small, must walk the social media route because that means a huge number of customers waiting for them. In addition, the advantages of social media are 1. Easy to do by yourself. 2. Adjust at any time 3. Measurable 4. Save more advertising budget than Offline. Because you can control the cost of how much advertising you should buy from the sales or profits that you have, and 5. Be able to reach your target audience, for example, sell sanitary napkins, if an ad on television, men may not need to see this ad, but Have to pay for male customers who are not targeted to see But when it comes to buying an online ad, we can set it up to be seen only by women, which will save more budgets than both women and men. Or even setting the age range to be more focused on a more specific audience and more cost-effective than traditional media.

Joining 3 platforms to drive online sales

Although there are many online platforms that Thai people use, there are only 3 platforms that entrepreneurs and businesspeople need to be a weapon to reach their target customers. Khun Benya recommends using the following platforms: 1. LINE for Business 2. Google Ads 3. Facebook Ads

1. LINE for Business  or LINE Official Account

LINE for Business or LINE Official Account is LINE official account. For businesses that allow their merchants to build their own shop follower base. Able to communicate with customers and send information about sales and marketing activities or promotions to customers via LINE. LINE, which is better than the conventional LINE, because it can communicate with many customers at once. Plus, there are features that help the store to manage sales more efficiently, such as creating a greeting message. Auto-reply messages, 1-1 chats, broadcasting to all subscribers or targeted broadcasting, etc. Therefore, it is desirable for SME to try it out and it is a must if If you are doing business online

2. Google Ads 

Google Ads from changing consumer behavior Nowadays, when shopping, most people are searching for information. Therefore, when customers search and see the name of the shop or product on the first page, the opportunity to sell the product is greater, where the purchase of Google Ads can buy keywords for customers to search for products. Khun Benya suggested that entrepreneurs need to have their own website for their customers to find it. This is an online presence that creates brand credibility. Customers have confidence in products and services. In addition, a video introduction of a product or company should be posted on YouTube and purchased on YouTube Ads. It will be a technique that can reach customers precisely because YouTube's system segmented by customers according to their interests. According to the channels that customers follow, for example, selling spatula can shoot Ads between related programs on YouTube channels. Additionally, entrepreneurs should advertise their shop through a pin on Google to build their online presence. Because when people search for a shop, the chances of our store appearing on their mobile screen are greater and it is an effective business advertisement for free, and if you are already an SCB customer, it is even easier. Because SCB provides free pinning service to customers via SCB Google MyBusiness service, you can apply and verify your identity through the SCB EASY app.

3.  Facebook Ads

Does Facebook Ads Why buy ads in Facebook Ads? Because they have a large target audience (Target Audience). For example, if you don't know who your target customers are, you can use your location to find customers or target people who are fan pages on Facebook because the group of people following the Page is a group of people interested in our products and services. You may be asked why you need to buy ads for the Fan page because Facebook has restrictions on the right to view posts. So, it is imperative to buy ads. Facebook also has a variety of features, such as targeting ads only to people who are likely to be interested in our products. Able to target audiences by age, interest, area, or lookalike, the target audience that is similar or have the same interests as our existing customer groups, etc. Operators can see that Facebook advertising makes it possible to reach customers on the spot and save on budget. More than buying offline ads.

What is adMATTERS 

Khun Benya said that adMATTERS is an intermediary application that automatically manages Facebook & Instagram ads. SMEs who want to sell online but may not have much time or experience to do it online, help them reach the right customer groups efficiently and within the right budget. In addition, adMATTERS also has a website with a Facebook ad management system that can optimize Facebook ads effectively. Help allocate the budget to be worthwhile Target audience Help to increase sales, generate more income for entrepreneurs. Interested entrepreneurs can visit the adMATTERS website for details.

Operators adapt online to keep pace with changing consumer behavior. It is the only salvation that will lead the business to move forward. But if you continue to do the same thing anymore the business will be swallowed up forever online.

Reference: We Are Social / Hootsuite

Source: Seminar SSME & SHIPPOP Franchise @ SCB Business Center Siam on 30 November 2020 Reference from: We Are Social / Hootsuite