Thanks to the internet, everyone is expected to be able to keep a step ahead of the curve and make use of the latest marketing techniques.

But it’s not always easy to ensure that you’re getting the absolute maximum out of your online marketing strategies. That’s why we’re going to give you a quick rundown of a few great strategies that can bring about maximum change with minimum difficulty.

1. Don’t push your promotions for longer than is necessary

It’s easy to lose track of what you’ve got going on at any one time. However, if you don’t get round to taking your promotions down, people are going to start to lose faith in your approach.

By definition, promotions should only last for a limited time, otherwise, they won’t function as effective marketing.

Keep an eye on how they progress, make the most of them, but make sure that you wrap them up once they’ve run their course.

2. It’s essential that you have a level of clarity in your promotions, and that they get across in a concise manner exactly what the customer can expect

Vague promotions or overly complicated ones aren’t going to do anything for your business.

On the other hand, a straightforward one that makes it absolutely apparent what the customer stands to benefit can make a massive difference in the amount of revenue you create.

Also read: Shoot for the moon: Identifying your target audience and developing a superb marketing plan

3. Don’t go into a promotion without a good idea of what you expect from it

If you’re unsure of your own expectations, you’ll have no way of measuring the degree of success you enjoy from them.

On the other hand, if you set clear goals beforehand, you’ll know exactly how much you gained from a promotion.

4. Make sure that you keep an eye on tomorrow when preparing today’s promotions

If you have a fair idea of what stock and services you want to push, you’ll have a much better chance of putting together a comprehensive campaign strategy, where each one builds on the last.

You will also be able to achieve smaller goals and set them up as a firm foundation for bigger ones as your business develops.

5. Find out what works for your business

You’re going to need some kind of definite system on hand to make sense of whether or not a promotion is a success. Maybe you want to bring in more customers or get rid of some unnecessary stock while it’s still a viable purchase.

Whatever your reason for running a promotion, you’re going to need to determine what aspect of your business it is supposed to be boosting. That way you can accurately measure the success, and determine whether or not it’s worth running again.

6. Try and shop around when you look at putting a promotion together

While it’s great to have an ongoing relationship with advertisers or marketing companies, if they aren’t bringing in the returns there’s no reason to stick with them.

If you can make your money go as far as possible, the returns from the promotion are going to be even better. Just because you’ve been sticking with one tactic for a long time, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t diversify and find out the other options.

7. Keep a clear boundary between your promotions and other campaigns or messages that your client base receives

If you treat every correspondence as a promotional message and write in a similar style, you’ll confuse your customers as to what is actually on offer.

Keep other messages written in the right style, and save any promotional ideas for an appropriate time to enjoy the biggest possible response.

Also read: Augmented Reality is creating an enormous opportunity for retail businesses, and here are 5 ways online and offline platforms can benefit

8. Diversify, and you’ll be able to learn from trial and error

If you try out a wide range of different approaches to your marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to work out which systems work the best.

There are tons of different marketing campaign options available, and some will work far better than others depending on what you’re aiming for.

9. Be careful with who you trust

While there are certain ways that piggyback marketing and combining forces with other businesses can work well, it often turns out to be an uneven deal.

Don’t go in on any combined marketing campaigns with other businesses unless you’re certain you’ll benefit. They could simply be looking for an easy way to steal your revenue.

These are a few of the best ways you can market your retail business. The key is to try different methods, and find out what works best for your own company. From there, you should have no problem reaping benefits.

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Image Credit:  Keagan Henman

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RoomMe, Indonesia-based co-living startup that helps manage and market the properties for homeowners on its platform for co-living lifestyle and flexible stay duration, announces that it has secured Series A funding from BAce Capital, an early-stage venture capital, backed by Ant Financial, as reported by DealStreetAsia.

BAce confirmed Vertex’s participation in the round, along with that of the existing backer KK Fund.

In May, RoomMe had received Series A funding from Singapore’s Vertex Ventures.

RoomMe was established in 2017 with the mission of helping tenants finding co-living spaces in flexible stay durations in-home boarding industry.

RoomMe helps space owners to market the properties on its platform in return for a cut of the rental income. Its services are currently largely focused on Jakarta.

Also Read: Smart retail startup Blue Mobile raises Series C funding from Ant Financial

BAce said the decision behind the investment is based on its prediction that Indonesia’s co-living industry is well-positioned for development, given its economic growth and rapid urbanisation.

RoomMe competes with YukStay, an urban apartment rental marketplace, which reportedly has raised a US$1-million funding round from Singapore’s Insignia Ventures just recently. RoomMe also competes with Indian hotel chain major OYO, which last week launched a new co-living business line in Indonesia.

The investment in RoomMe marks BAce’s first known funding in Indonesia. The firm is led by veterans from Alibaba and Ant Financial, with Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal on its advisory board

In April, BAce announced that it plans to raise to US$150 million for its first early-stage India and Southeast Asia fund, targeting Series A to B opportunities with ticket sizes ranging from US$500,000 to US$15 million, with Indonesia and India set to be its biggest target markets.
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Photo by Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu on Unsplash

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Crimson Education raises US$20M Series C funding to fuel expansion [Press Release]

Crimson Education, a global edtech startup that offers personalised courses to help students get a spot in coveted universities worldwide, announces that it has raised a total of US$20 million in Series C funding, led by US$10 million investment from Hong Kong-based CTF (Chow Tai Fook) Education Group. Participating in the round is Korean-based Solborn Investment, chipping in US$5 million.

Crimson has also secured an additional US$5 million from strategic investors, including New Zealand’s K1W1, closing up the total investment at US$20 million.

The company noted that the new round of funding will fuel the company’s online, full-suite personalised education offerings and expand the company’s presence in other countries. Crimson’s total funding to date sits at US$57 million

Hong Kong’s space booking platform BOOQED secures US$1.68M in seed funding [Press Release]
Hong Kong-based start-up BOOQED has raised US$1.68 million in seed funding from investors including Colliers, Techstars, and Lazard Korea to drive its product roll-out, marketing, and hiring.

BOOQED, a Techstars alumni company, is a digital marketplace that allows individuals and corporates to access and book a flexible meeting, work, and event spaces.

Also Read: 5 ways coworking can give your business a much-needed boost

With Hong Kong filled with over 1,600 real estate listings and more added everyday, making BOOQED a suitable platform for clients to reserve and pay for on-demand business space whether for meetings, hot-desking, training, offices, or events to help landlords and space operators with an easy and trusted method to let out empty or underutilised space.

The BOOQED platform was started in late 2016 and is already launched in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shenzhen.

Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital India invests US$35M into AI-based customer lifecycle platform CleverTap [Press Release]

CleverTap, the AI-powered customer lifecycle, and user retention platform, announced that it has completed its Series C investment round at US$35 million led by existing investors Tiger Global Management and Sequoia India.

The investment will allow further acceleration ss mobile marketing app and to support CleverTap’s intention to use the funds to build out its new US-based engineering hub, add enhanced predictive capabilities to its market-leading platform, and fuel an aggressive global go-to-market expansion strategy.

Also Read: Vietnam’s Foody snags Series C funding from Tiger Global; goes to Indonesia

This new funding increases CleverTap’s outside investment to US$61 million since the beginning of 2019 doubling its valuation to more than double to US$385 million from US$150 million.

CleverTap’s customer lifecycle and user retention platform leverage machine learning to offer a robust engagement suite that enables brands to convert, engage, retain, and grow their mobile user base.

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Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

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Indonesian healthtech startup Alodokter has closed a US$33 million Series C funding round led by Sequis Life which included the participation of Philips, Heritas Capital, Hera Capital, and Dayli Partners, among the few.

Existing investors such as Softbank Ventures Asia and Golden Gate Ventures also participated in the funding round.

“The Indonesian healthcare system has undergone significant changes in the past 10 years; it is also more open to digital innovation compared to systems in the more developed countries. Indonesia has become the leading nation in digital healthcare system adoption. This is one of the factors that has helped Alodokter to grow rapidly since its launch,” Alodokter CEO Nathanael Faibis explained.

Alodokter claimed to have secured 20 million monthly active users and has worked with 20,000 doctors and 1,000 hospitals and clinics. Some of its leading services include doctors appointment and chats, healthcare information, and health insurance management.

Also Read: Lazada taught me that no objective is too big: Alodokter Founder Nathanael Faibis

The fresh funding will be used to expand the company’s network with hospitals and to develop an insurance service. In 2018, Alodokter has introduced its first health insurance product Proteksi Alodokter that enables users to subscribe, pay, and process claims through Alodokter’s app.

The startup plans to build what it calls a “21st-century insurance product” that goes beyond giving financial product; it should also guide patients in their medical journey by giving the right medical solutions.

Meanwhile, for Sequis Life CEO Tatang Wijaya, Alodokter is an ideal investment due to its massive user base and strong vision and mission. This enables the startup to reach out to greater market segment in Indonesia.

“In addition to its massive user base, we are also impressed by the startup’s strong and clear vision in providing medical accuracy in every service needed by the patient. We see this as the DNA of Alodokter. Alodokter will become a foundation in Indonesian healthcare services and we are proud to become part of their journey. Together we are closer in achieving our goal in building new technology and methods as well as reaching out to untapped markets in Indonesia,” Wijaya said.

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The article Alodokter Dapatkan Pendanaan Seri C Sebesar 468 Miliar was written in Bahasa Indonesia by Prayogo Ryza for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

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When bicycle-sharing caught the frenzy in China around 2017, Kelvin Ng and Justin Seow sensed a similar opportunity in their home country Singapore. So, in 2017, the pair launched an e-scooter-sharing business Popscoot.

“Together, we sought to revolutionise first and last mobility while firmly aware of the obstacles in our way. Our years of experience in brand-building helped us create a platform that was gaining an enthusiastic following. However, in the end, restrictive legislation along with its associated cost almost did us in,” says Kelvin.

According to Seow, Popscoot was founded based on a trail to test out the market and gather feedback for travelling patterns and various other requirements.

“From the very beginning, we wanted to learn more and collect more information from riders and commuters. We singled out gaming and rewards as the most sought-after interest in our commuters. Moreover, it also aligned with our interests in creating a gamification add-on not just for Popscoot but also on other mobility platforms,” Seow adds. “This paved the way for the birth of FOUND,” adds Seow.

What is FOUND

FOUND, a morph of Popscoot, positions itself as a provider of mobility-related solutions for commuters as well as brands. FOUND is essentially an app that gamifies your daily commute and rewards you for it. On the flip side, it unlocks the opportunity for brands to engage and interact with commuters.

“In a nutshell, commuters pick tasks or quests to complete along their journey. Available tasks are triggered based on commuters’ proximity to certain locations. Upon completion, users can claim their rewards in the form of coupons, offers, FOUND coins,” explains Kelvin, who developed the product, along with Seow and Wee Kong.

“For brands, it is an opportunity to develop task storylines and content that match commuters’ ‘I-want-to-know and I-want-to-buy’ moments along their journey,” says Kelvin.

“Think Pokemon GO + rewards + mobile ad campaigns. This is what we are,” Kelvin adds.

Once rolled out, FOUND can be integrated with various mobility players such as Neuron Mobility, Bird, Lime, SMRT, etc.

A massive opportunity

According to Kelvin, traditional out-of-home (OOH) advertising provides poor interaction and return on investment (ROI) despite its reach to the extremely-high throughput of shoppers and commuters daily. Besides, it is relatively expensive and out of reach of smaller brands and businesses.

“This is where FOUND fits in. This app provides an avenue for brands to interact with commuters in an affordable and engaging way,” claims Kelvin. “We see opportunities in partnering with brands, retail and tourism to develop content that is relevant to commuters along their trips.”

In Singapore, digital ads marketing spend is projected to reach US$500 million in 2022. FOUND is targetting this market.

Partnership with Enterprise SG

FOUND is all set to showcase at Intelligent Transport System World Congress (ITSWC) which will be held in Singapore from October 21-25. The event is organised by Enterprise SG (ESG).

“Our association with ESG started when we were still developing PopScoot. We sought their help with marketing opportunities for Popscoot,” continues Kelvin.

“This was when they introduced us to EZ-Link, which identified synergy in the FOUND platform we were developing. Together with Viatick, our Bluetooth-solutions strategic partner, we applied for a grant from ESG,” Kelvin shares.

FOUND, still in the beta stages, will intially be launched in Singapore, and then will expand to other parts of Asia in partnership with EZ-Link.

Founders’ background

Both Kelvin and Justin are hardened entrepreneurs, albeit in the more traditional vein. Both their fathers founded and led their own companies, perhaps that was where they derived their entrepreneurial streak.

“We ourselves founded Creative Agencies, helping to position, design and activate brands for SMEs and global market leaders for over a decade. Justin cut his teeth in a global branding agency before embarking on a stint at his family business in Suzhou, managing a team of over 100. I am a Certified Management Consultant, who graduated from NUS Business School, successfully launched a retail concept at a public listed company, before going back to Design School. This is where I met Justin and joined him at the branding agency. The rest, as they say, is history,” Kelvin says.

Their business partner Keong has eight years of experience in Singapore and Vietnam and has previously founded and managed Interactive Media Maven.

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