The Malaysia-based courier marketplace will use the funding to focus on customer acquisition and recruitment

EasyParcel, a courier marketplace startup from Malaysia, announced that it has secured RM43.5 million (US$10.6 million) in Series B from Gobi Ventures and AirAsia’s rebranded logistics arm Teleport.

According to a report by Digital News Asia,  Gobi led the round but Teleport put in more investment.

The Series B round was also joined by current investors Axiata Digital Innovation Fund and several angel investors.

The company’s Series B round reportedly had been going on for almost a year before closing. “It was important to work out the best deal possible for all parties and to get the right partner fit,” Leong said.

The company has said that it plans to use the funding to expand into existing markets in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand, and focus on customer acquisition, as well as strengthen its talent pool by bringing in a new data team leader to scale up the team.

Clarence Leong, CEO of EasyParcel said: “The focus now is speed in execution, as we target to double the revenue in the next 12 months.”

As for scaling up, Leong expressed that EasyParcel is looking into tapping at traditional businesses, especially smaller SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), beyond its current e-commerce clients.

Also Read: South Korea’s Carelabs acquires online beauty and wellness concierge startup Eunogo

EasyParcel is a marketplace that connects courier demand with supply, seeking to enhance the operations of its digitally unsavvy courier partners.

EasyParcel was already working with AirAsia Teleport, previously RedCargo Logistics. The plan is for EasyParcel to potentially help fill spare capacity on Teleport planes.
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Image Credit: EasyParcel

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In its statement, the company said its goal is to support business travel and manage travel expenses

Singapore-based startup Travelstop announces that it has raised US$3 million in Pre-Series A funding led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Accel. Participating in the round are Strive (formerly GREE Ventures), and existing investor SeedPlus.

The new round will see Accel’s Prashanth Prakash joining the company’s Board of Directors.

Travelstop’s first funding was 10 months ago, a seed funding round of US$1.2 million led by SeedPlus, joined by travel industry veterans from Expedia and Yahoo!. In the seed round, the company also launched its business and travel and expense management product,

“Our immediate plan is to use the new funds to further invest in technology and to accelerate the adoption of Travelstop across Asia,” said Prashant Kirtane, Co-founder and CEO at Travelstop.

“Travelstop is building a locally relevant solution for the millennial generation of business travelers,” Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel, gave a nod.

The startup also announces a partnership with Traveloka, the Indonesia-based travel technology company. The partnership seeks to deliver a more extensive inventory of flights and hotels to business travelers in Asia.

Also Read: South Korea’s Carelabs acquires online beauty and wellness concierge startup Eunogo

The partnership is expected to roll out in the next few months, along with other core features such as 24×7 travel management and travel insurance.

Recently, the startup was named one of the top travel startups to watch out for in 2019 by
Skift. Fellow Asian companies like Funding Societies and Carousell have adopted Travelstop for their business travel management needs in the region.

Travelstop uses machine learning and AI-powered personalisation to customise experience for companies and their employees and eliminate the need to research and book their travel. Travelstop also offers fully localised features for seven markets in Asia like Book For Others, Travel Policies, Group Bookings, Expense Reporting, and Invoice Billing with employers and travel managers in mind so they can manage their company travel and expenses more effectively.
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Image Credit: Travelstop

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GGWP.ID is a multi-platform e-sports company which was created with a vision to make ‘e-sports for everyone’

IDN Media

IDN Media, a multi-platform media company for “millennials and Gen Z in Indonesia”, has announced the acquisition of GGWP.ID to mark its entry into the fast-growing e-sports industry.

The company — which also operates several other business units including IDN Times, Popbela.com, Popmama.com, Yummy, IDN Creative, IDN Event, and IDN Creator Network — aims to make GGWP.ID the  ‘ESPN’ of e-sports in Indonesia. It also wants to build awareness and exposure of the opportunities that e-sports can bring to society, including to e-sports players, enthusiasts, content creators, and brands.

As per the deal, Founder Ricky Setiawan will continue to be the CEO of GGWP.ID.

Winston Utomo, Founder & CEO of IDN Media, said: “We believe that the e-sports phenomenon has just begun. With GGWP.ID, we envision to create the biggest and most impactful e-sports company in the region for Millennials and Gen Z.”

Also Read: Sources say Tokopedia is involved in a funding round for Sayurbox

GGWP.ID is a multi-platform e-sports company which was created with a vision to make ‘e-sports for everyone’.  It has four main business units — eSports Media (a multi-platform media for e-sports enthusiasts), eSports Tournament Platform (which allows users to create and organise tournaments by themselves instantly), eSports Team (professional e-sports team that competes in popular games), and eSports Creative (a multi-platform digital agency focusing on brand storytelling, content creation, and online activation).

In addition, GGWP.ID also hosts Game Prime, a gaming event in Indonesia, together with BEKRAF, Republik Indonesia/IACE (Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy) and AGI (Asosiasi Game Indonesia), an Indonesian game association.

According to Setiawan said: “As a leading media company for millennials and Gen Z in Indonesia, IDN Media can help us reach more audience and accelerate our vision to make eSports available for everyone.”

Early this year, IDN Media raised a Series C funding round led by EV Growth. EV Growth is a joint venture of East Ventures, Sinar Mas, and Yahoo! Japan.

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The startups have received a seed funding, and stand to get a follow-on funding of up to US$200K when they secure a new round from other investors

Vietnam-based VIISA Accelerator has announced the graduation of three startups graduating from the fifth batch of its 4-month accelerator programme with the Investment Day.

The three startups have received a seed funding from the accelerator and benefited from its partners, such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Payoo, and the MoonLab co-working space.

The promising startups also stand to get a follow-on funding of up to US$200,000 from VIISA when they secure a new round of funding from other investors.

Also Read: Vietnam stars in January as e27 data tracks US$1.5B in deals

Below is a sneak-peek into the five ventures:

VDES

VIDES is a one-stop-shop marketplace that connects event venues and event suppliers to customers using Big Data, Machine Learning, and Virtual Reality. The company claims customers are able to save 80 per cent time and 30 per cent cost in all booking processes and receive the best price guarantee.

SaveMoney

SaveMoney is a full-service insurance provider. It claims to offer a scalable digital insurance platform with an integrated B2C advisory process using Big data, giving the possibility to design, implement and roll-out existing and new insurance services within three months.

Loglag

Loglag provides a truck and container booking platform with Big Data, AI techniques applied. By leveraging mobile connectivity, Loglag connects drivers and fleet owners to cargos and customers in order to make the logistics and transportation industry in Vietnam more accessible.

Also Read: Indonesia’s IDN Media foray into e-sports by acquiring GGWP.ID

Hieu Vo, CFO at VIISA, said: “I am proud of what these amazing founders have overcome and developed throughout the program. In order to make these changes happen, startups in batch 5 have actively harnessed and created large, scalable networks of users and resources that can be accessed on-demand. There are real products, real technologies that generated more than 3,000 transactions within three months.

On the other hand, the network effects these startups built touches more than 500,000 people in Vietnam. With their solution and product, the startups are helping customers in reducing time and transaction costs, increase revenue by enabling externalized innovation.”

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Here’s a high-level view of Taiwan’s blockchain industry

In the first half of 2019, Taiwan’s blockchain industry shook off last year’s steep decline in crypto prices and proceeded to show positive developments. These past few months saw Taiwan’s financial authority, the Financial Supervisory Committee (FSC), release the first draft of security token offering (STO) regulations, while also pledging more resources to further incubate the country’s blockchain capabilities.

Although there weren’t as many new ventures created compared to 2017 and 2018, existing players in Taiwan’s blockchain industry have been resilient. Since we released our first blockchain ecosystem snapshot 6 months ago, only 8 organizations have ceased operations and were taken off the chart.

At the same time, leaders like MaiCoin, BitoEX, and OwlTing have begun diversifying their service offerings and developing new solutions to fast-track user adoption. Meanwhile, the small handful of new additions, including KrytpoGO and Bincentive, are seemingly more attuned to industry pain points, at least compared to their peers.

Proliferation of exchanges

Unsurprisingly, exchanges continue to serve as the most pervasive application serving the blockchain/crypto space. In addition to becoming the first operator in Taiwan to apply for the STO sandbox, MaiCoin Group, which operates MAX exchange, is trying to reshape Taiwan’s capital markets by opening up the country’s first physical storefront to process KYC in person.

Through face-to-face interaction, the group hopes to build up trust and credibility in an industry that’s been ripe with scams, hacks, and privacy breaches.

At the same time, some exchange operators are now leveraging their technical acumen to branch into infrastructure plays. Local exchange BitoEX is now building a blockchain-based system to track and store data relating to any SME’s supply chain finances.

Also Read: Blockchain startup BlockPunk launches tokenised anime film and NFC-enabled art print

Given the immutability of distributed ledger technology, banks can comfortably use the information to facilitate commercial loans or appraise assets without the fear of compromised data. The data can also aid regulators in evaluating companies that want to eventually tokenize their assets and conduct an STO.

These past six months have also seen new exchanges emerge. ACE Exchange, for example, has been attracting its initial crop of users through the allure of initial exchange offerings (IEO), an alternative financing vehicle in which the exchange itself vets, facilitates, and lists a project’s token offering.

Among the many exchanges out there, however, none captured the attention of industry stakeholders more than COBINHOOD. In an almost Netflix drama-like fashion, the homegrown, zero-fee cryptocurrency exchange experienced ongoing internal power struggles and shareholder disputes that eventually led the founder Popo Chen to suspend the local entity and let go all of its staff. COBINHOOD and the affiliated protocol initiative DEXON are now on lockdown while all technical and legal controversies are resolved.

Responding to market demands

Although the number of new projects may have declined compared to previous years, blockchain solutions have certainly become much more tailored to immediate market needs.

For example, since cryptocurrency service providers such as exchanges and wallets have not been subject to strict supervision, the blockchain industry generally lacks infrastructure related to regulatory compliance. KryptoGO is a newly established regtech startup that developed a solution to help banks and regulatory agencies analyze on-chain data to help automate risk control.

Bincentive, on the other hand, fully believes in the future of cryptocurrencies and aims to help traditional investors get a piece of the action. By combining AI, social trading, and smart contracts, the startup has developed a Smart Mirror Trading Platform that essentially allows clients to not only follow, but mirror the trades of vetted crypto traders, who then earn a share of the profits.

Through this platform, Bincentive hopes to bridge digital currencies with traditional financial assets, helping the former to eventually become a recognized alternative investment class in and of itself.

Additionally, OwlTing—an early mover in Taiwan’s startup landscape—officially launched OwlTing Blockchain Services (OBS), a collective offering of blockchain solutions incorporating 6 years of experimentation spanning multiple industries including food traceability, hotel management, travel, and anti-counterfeiting. Last year, the company raised US$10 million from Japanese venture capital firm SBI.

Regulations get more defined

This map was produced by AppWorks in conjunction with local blockchain media Blocktempo. Apart from conducting primary research, we used information from our own respective networks, communities, and investment partners, and pored through local and international news. The map will be updated every half year to adequately capture the sheer pace at which the industry is evolving.

This past June, the FSC released a draft of what may be the “world’s first” set of STO regulations. Under the new provisions, startups can be approved for STOs as early as October this year, but are still held to a relatively short leash.

Those fundraising via security tokens are capped at NT$30 million (~US$1 million). Furthermore, only accredited investors are allowed to invest, with a limit of NT$300,000 (~US$10,000) in any single project. Any startup looking to raise in excess of the set threshold must apply to the regulatory sandbox, just as MaiCoin has.

As applications of cryptocurrencies have started to expand beyond just trading, Taiwanese decision makers will also look to broaden the scope of KYC/AML regulations in the second half of 2019. Moving forward, any projects working in the realm of digital payments and remittances will likely have to apply for a special license in order to operate.

Despite all the cautionary measures, the government has taken several forthright steps to incorporate blockchain into Taiwan’s future. At the opening of the Asia Blockchain Summit in July, Minister of the National Development Council (NDC) Chen Mei-ling announced the agency’s plans to form a blockchain alliance with representatives from industry, academia, and relevant government bodies. The initiative hopes to accelerate the development of Taiwan’s blockchain industry, including everything from strengthening R&D to cultivating talent to fostering global partnerships.

Also Read: 5 Asia-based startups that are making blockchain part of everyday life

The National Development Fund—Taiwan’s sovereign wealth fund—has also reportedly begun investing in blockchain ventures, XREX (an AppWorks portfolio) being the most recent case.

At the same time, other public departments in Taiwan are also beginning to experiment with distributed ledger technology. For example, the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau hopes to leverage the immutable nature of the blockchains to optimize the administrative process of issuing national IDs.

Forward-looking optimism

Overall, excitement is resurging within Taiwan’s blockchain industry. Crypto prices are well on their road to recovery, with Bitcoin having now almost topped US$13,000.

The second annual Asia Blockchain Summit in Taipei attracted over 4,000 attendees from around the world and 100 speakers, including Binance’s CZ, TRON’s Justin Sun, and Bitmex’s Arthur Hayes. And two of the largest companies in the world—Facebook and JPMorgan Chase—launched their own blockchain projects, Libra and JPMCoin, surely a positive endorsement by anyone’s standards.

For AppWorks Accelerator, we’ve now facilitated two batches of startups exclusively focusing on blockchain / AI, collectively amounting to 65 startups, 29 of which were working on blockchain/crypto/dapp related projects.

Also Read: Here’s how blockchain can transform the compute resource economy

Entertainment, whether it’s gaming or gambling, seems to have represented the majority of projects that blockchain founders tend to work on, truly speaking to what exactly early adopters are willing to pay for at this stage of the industry—not so unlike the early days of the internet.

Moreover, while Ethereum has traditionally occupied the limelight, we see more and more public chains such as EOS or TRON becoming popular, each offering their own unique value proposition—a trend we expect to continue moving forward.

Disclosure: AppWorks is a fully independent venture capital fund/startup accelerator and is not currently affiliated with any of the companies or organizations mentioned in the article, with the slight exception of BitoEX, which previously went through our equity-free accelerator, and XREX, which we’ve invested in.

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Glints aims to make traditional recruiting more effective by automating certain processes such as candidate sourcing, matching and follow-ups

Glints, a tech-enabled recruitment and career development platform in Southeast Asia, has secured US$6.8 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round led by Monk’s Hill Ventures.

Other investors include Hong Kong-based MindWorks Ventures and existing investors Fresco Capital and Wavemaker Partners, the Singapore-based startup said in a statement.

The money will be used to expand into Vietnam and Hong Kong, in addition to growing its product and engineering teams.

Launched in 2015, Glints combines the skills of experienced recruiters and technology by automating certain recruitment processes, such as candidate sourcing, matching and follow-ups. Recruiters will be able to match strong graduates with one of Glints’s employers for a good job opportunity.

The firm says it takes an end-to-end approach for potential candidates that goes beyond just sourcing profiles to actually developing candidate supply through training programs such as Glints Academy. The Academy is a coding bootcamp that trains young talent in Indonesia to become developers.

Also Read: Sources say Tokopedia is involved in a funding round for Sayurbox

The company’s clients include Go-Jek, FWD Insurance and UOB Bank. Glints claims its clients on an average make successful hires in 28 days compared to industry standards of 40-50 days, and with a lower cost.

Oswald Yeo, CEO and Co-founder of Glints, said: “We believe we have found the right growth model to solve the challenge of finding the best talent that is targeted, cost and time efficient for both clients and candidates. Employers have a tough time finding the right candidates on job portals and waste much time filtering through irrelevant applications. Traditional headhunters, while more effective, are too expensive for many employers, especially when they are hiring for junior to mid-level positions, which is especially common in Southeast Asia given its young workforce.”

Peng T. Ong, Managing Partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures, commented: “Employers are struggling to fill their vacancies with a shortage of skilled talent worldwide, and it is no exception in Southeast Asia. Glints has thought through the entire journey of someone who is looking for work or talent and has developed an end-to-end tech solution that meets the needs of both candidates and companies in Asia. The traction and strong growth we’ve seen is very exciting, which is why we decided to partner with Glints and lead the investment of their Series B round.”

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In addition to Bitcoin and Unicorn India Ventures, we also have updates from Beowulf and Moneythor

Bitcoin drops more than 10 per cent as cryptocurrency scrutiny continues – Reuters

Bitcoin slumped more than 10 per cent over the weekend as fears of cryptocurrency crackdown grew, Reuters reported.

Bitcoin fell 11.1 per cent from Friday to US$9,855 early on Monday. This figure is its lowest since July 2.

The drop is related to mounting scrutiny against Facebook’s upcoming Libra coin, which has been raising concerns from politicians and financial regulators across the world.

The concerns against the cryptocurrency range from consumer protection and privacy to potential systemic risks, given Facebook’s global reach.

Unicorn India Ventures launches second equity fund – Press Release

Mumbai-based venture capital fund Unicorn India Ventures announced the launch of its second equity fund for early stage startups.

The fund size is INR400 crore (US$58 million) and the first close is expected at INR150 crore (US$21 million) by the end-of-year.

It will look to invest in Pre-Series A and Series A funding rounds in sectors such as B2B, SaaS, fintech, healthtech, robotics, gaming, and digital content.

Also Read: eToro aims to make buying Bitcoin as easy as buying an Apple share

Mars Blockchain, Consentium invest in Beowulf – Deal Street Asia

Singapore-developed chat app Consentium and price-stable digital currency Mars Blockchain announced a seven-digit US Dollar investment into Beowulf, a decentralised cloud network for telecommunications, Deal Street Asia reported.

Beowulf is a platform that enables businesses to provide communication features without the typical barriers associated with call centres.

The company recently announced the launch of QUICKOM, a customisable and private QR code-based call service.

Moneythor opens office in Japan – Press Release

Digital banking solutions provider Moneythor today announced the opening of its newest office in Tokyo, Japan.

The Japanese subsidiary has been opened in response to rising needs in the country for digital banking
solutions.

“The Japanese market is going through a major stage of disruption and its renewed focus on digital banking makes it a very exciting market for us. By expanding our global footprint into Japan, we are confident that we can support financial institutions as they move towards digital banking by providing a simple and cost-effective banking channel that will drive online customer engagement,” said Moneythor CEO & Co-Founder Olivier Berthier in a press statement.

The company is headquartered in Singapore and has offices in Paris and London.

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Image Credit: Gratisography

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Lapasar allows companies to purchase supplies for their businesses via a system that acts very much like a ‘add-to-cart and checkout’ service used in B2C marketplaces

Lapasar Co-founder and CEO Thinesh Kumar

Kuala Lumpur-based Tenderin, the startup behind online B2B procurement platform Lapasar.com, today announced it has secured a new round of investment totalling US$500,000, led by Singapore-based VC firm SeedPlus, wth participation from early-stage investor NEXEA.

Lapasar will use the capital to support product development to further automate ordering and request for quotation (RFQ) processes as well as to support business development activities.

Lapasar was founded in 2016 by Thinesh Kumar (CEO), along with Lakshman Das (COO) and Dannis Raj (Chief Process Officer). The platform allows companies to purchase supplies for their businesses via a system that acts very much like a ‘add-to-cart and checkout’ service used in B2C marketplaces. According to the founders, Lapasar helps corporates save time and cost, and makes it easy for them to buy in bulk.

Lapasar’s corporate clients include Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB), Telekom Malaysia, and Tenaga Nasional Berhad.

“Corporations used to spend days before they could place an order for a product but with Lapasar, that task can now be accomplished within a few minutes– making efficiency an essential part of their corporate culture,” said CEO Kumar.

Also Read: I don’t think true-blue text-based digital media companies exist anymore: theAsianparent Founder Roshni Mahtani

“In the past twelve months, Lapasar has been experiencing an impressive transaction growth of over 20 times. Currently, our platform has already a database of over 10,000 suppliers of products and services from all over Malaysia,” he added.

In early 2018, Lapasar raised a pre-seed round of funding from NEXEA. The startup, which currently employs close to 30 people, also received a grant from Cradle in that year.

SeedPlus is a Jungle Ventures-backed VC firm looking to invest in and partner with founders building globally disruptive start-ups across Asia. Some of its investments include Moglix, Homage, CardUp, Evie.ai and CoveIOT.

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What do Google search, social media and email have in common? Besides being communication platforms, they are tools of digital marketing

We are now entering a new era where things are moving online and millennials depends on them for both work and leisure. We spend 27 hours on online media a week and more than 50% of us stay updated on brands through social media. The internet does wonders, and audiences of all ages are hooked. So, the question is, how do we build attention that subsequently translate to dollars?

We interviewed 4 digital marketing experts on the topic of digital marketing. These wizards will show you the different tried and tested methods to start getting traction for your business through digital platforms. From low cost advertising to startups tips, read on and you will be amazed what these hacks can do for you.

1. Bin Teo, Director of Bin Teo Consulting

He’s spent the last five years helping small business owners grow their clientele through digital marketing. More importantly, he helps them cut through the noise by assisting them to clarify which activities would be pivotal in moving the needle forward.

What advice do you have for a startup with a small digital marketing budget to grow quickly?

1. Stop trying to boil the entire ocean.

Unless you have an unlimited marketing budget (startups usually don’t), focus on dialing in on your ideal audience. Make sure you are clear about the pain you’re solving and how you are different from other solutions in the market.

One of my clients runs a commercial legal practice. Initially, their marketing materials were loaded with industry jargons such as liquidation and insolvency. While those were standard industry terms, it did not resonate with their target audience — startups. Therefore I assisted them in re-positioning them as “legal insurance” for startups in case things go wrong. This shift differentiated them from “run of the mill” legal firms where the generic claim was they had superior customer service. The change in messaging on their website design also proved useful in acquiring new qualified customers.

2. Continually test various acquisition channels to see determine which are the most profitable ones.

From there we tested various acquisition channels relevant to startups. For instance, buying advertising space and guest posting on startup news sites. Also using Facebook advertising to target users who followed startup-related pages. Regarding determining the most profitable channels, most companies focus on vanity metric such as the number of ‘clicks,’ ‘Facebook likes’ or ‘Twitter followers.’

Instead, you need to focus on the Cost Per Acquisition (CPA, how much it cost to acquire a customer on average) and the Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV, the total value of a customer on average). If CLTV > CPA, you are generally on the right track.

For one of my previous clients, we used email marketing as a new medium to help them sell more presentation courses and services. It was a no-brainer because of the low cost of using an email software versus the potential revenue they could get in a single sale.

Also read: 10 mistakes digital entrepreneurs commonly make

How do you envision the digital landscape in Singapore changing?

I envision that video marketing is going to be more popular since visitors’ attention spans are decreasing. Facebook ads would start to get more expensive due to market maturity, with more marketers jumping on the bandwagon. Along with findings from the Content Marketing Institute, I predict there will be more focus dedicated to content marketing, conversion rate optimisation, email segmentation and AI-driven chatbots in the coming years. Basically, automation is something that will inevitably hit the digital marketing scene and make it way easier for newbies to get into the space.

 2. Ian Tay, Founder of Your Idea Crew

Ian runs Your Idea Crew with a team of subject matter experts. They are a full-service web and app development agency that provides a range of services ranging from development, to digital marketing and cyber security.

His clients are small business owners trying to understand how their business are able to leverage on technologies to reap benefits from going digital. His team takes on the consultative role and strategise plans for their clients to execute, from the creation of digital assets to protection in terms of security, to marketing of the digital assets.

He is one of the few digital marketing experts that has success in both consumer (grew a consumer startup from 0 to 10k paying customers.) and B2B space (hit 6 figure revenues within first 3 months.)

What advice do you have for a startup with a small digital marketing budget to grow quickly?

Having a small marketing budget is great as it forces the team to be creative and find proven methods to scale their business. However, before even scaling their business, we need to know who are the target customers and the real buying customers for the startup. It is often in this marketing phase where they find the difference in ideal and real customers are. I would advise that they use this a small budget to first test their ad copies to find test groups of customers to know who and what kind of customers they exactly want and need. With that done they can do a proper profiling of their customers and know where to advertise to get them or their look-alike audience.

For example, if you managed to find out that most of your customers are mothers with children below 2 years old, you would want to place your ads on Youtube Kids channel where they will frequent during meal times.

How do you envision the digital landscape in Singapore changing?

With platforms maturing and changing their algorithms frequently, every company will need a dedicated CMO whose role is to understand how to convert users from digital marketing and get the strategies executed. Companies are just getting around that Digital Marketing is the lifeblood of companies, just like Sales. Therefore, the perception is changing from a “Cost Centre” to a “Revenue Centre”. “Cost Centre” is a term that is used to describe if the departments of a company, like HR or Admin, incur costs but indirectly contribute to revenue. “Revenue Centre” means that the departments that help generates the company’s revenue directly, like Sales or Ecommerce for example.

3. Joel Leong, Founder-Consultant at Sidekick Marketing

Joel is founder at Sidekick Marketing where they help brands raise massive amounts of cash in crowdfunding projects through consulting and strategy. They’ve helped clients raise more than $1.5Million in crowdfunding proceeds and provides digital marketing consulting as well. Joel is also CEO at Grouphunt – a marketplace where people can organise their own mass orders.

What advice do you have for a startup with a small digital marketing budget to grow quickly?

Being digital is about communicating your core values and making communication available to your prospects or customers. Businesses can go a step further by lubricating that communication, in other words, making it clear, easy, and personable for their customers to contact them.

We find that most newer businesses trying to get into digital don’t have a good handle on their value propositions. In essence, they assume that the nature of the service is enough to attract new customers. Something as simple as separating benefits from features can set you apart from your competitors.

For example, if you’re selling marketing services, you’ll want to flesh out the inherent benefits of the service. If you’re writing for small businesses, driving more qualified traffic and conversions will be a benefit you want to showcase. It is not always talked about, but effective copywriting can accelerate your business by convincing your audiences online at-scale.

How do you envision the digital landscape in Singapore changing?

I think adopting digital is a natural evolution in the way of doing business. As more and more businesses get digitised, ironically it levels the playing field and it goes back to basic business fundamentals. Are you providing a unique solution to an addressable market, and are you communicating that clearly and taking the right steps to reach the right people?

Take Carousell that basically digitised how people purchase goods from others locally. These communities used to exist on digital forums like Hardwarezone Forums where users would deal with each other with second-hand goods.

At Grouphunt, we’ve also tapped on that progression by allowing people to conduct mass orders at scale rather than posting on forums in a manual fashion.

Think about your current model of selling and adding value – is there a way to digitise it and scale your marketing in a similar fashion?

4. Joseph Ho, Founder of E-Alchemists

Joseph Ho runs a digital marketing agency E-Alchemists based in Singapore. In 2006, he encountered his first experience in digital marketing and eventually specialising in search engine optimisation.

What is ‘digital marketing’ to you?

To me, digital marketing is a data-driven marketing. You market your product/services on the internet and then collect the data from the campaign. Based on the data collected, you improve your next campaign.

For example when you start your paid traffic advertising like Facebook ads. You first create 5 to 10 different ad sets targeting different interest or etc. After you run for 2 to 3 days based on the data collected, delete those ad sets that are not performing and keep those that are performing well.

Repeat this process until you are satisfied with the result and save the winning ad sets and use it for your next campaign.

Also read: AI is set to kill digital marketing, thus marketers need to evolve

If you could recommend one digital marketing hack for a new business to grow fast – what would it be?

You can actually start your local SEO campaign while you are still building your website.

Here is the hack:

• Register your business address with google my business (google.com/business)
• Verify it and then use Google my business website function
• Input the basic information and then start by filling up all the information required on google my business. Add photo, posts and select the correct business category
• Then start building citations to your website

By doing these few steps, you will have a chance to rank up in the top 3 map listing packs without having your website fully ready.

Anything else to add?

As paid advertising is getting more expensive. Businesses should think of considering building digital traffic assets (aka. reusable traffic) such as Facebook groups, followers on social media and email lists. By building these assets, it allows businesses to recycle the same audience for different platforms.

Well there you go, here are the tips and tricks from the digital marketing experts. We hope that it provided some insights on how you can boost your traction on the internet with the help of these pieces of advice. Let us know in the comments below if you have found it useful!

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This article was first published on e27 on February 28, 2018.

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Before you pick up that phone, take a look at these inbound marketing tips

My father was a great businessman, entrepreneur, successful CEO and avid reader. I’ve been fortunate enough to inherit his books, and I came across this older one recently: Cold Calling Techniques (That Really Work!)

Have you ever cold-called or do you now? Cold calling can be exhausting and frustrating.

“I wanted to introduce you to my product and see if you had some time to sit down for 15-20 minutes to go through some information.”

Ninety-nine per cent of the time, the prospect is thinking, “Wow, what a waste of time that would be.” Their response: “I think I’m all set for now, thank you for the call though.”

Yikes!

Finding the light

When I started my career, I utilised only outbound sales methods:

• Cold calling or emailing lists from paid lead services
• Cold emailing
• Trade show appearances
• Walking into someone’s office and knocking on their door to introduce myself

I realised there had to be an easier way to reach my audience. My goal was to “get in front” of the people who needed a product that would solve their problem. Once people knew we existed, they’d find value in the product. I just needed help getting the sales process started! That’s when I started supplementing my sales efforts through inbound marketing.

Following up with inbound marketing leads

In 2011, I convinced my boss at the time to switch to HubSpot (disclosure: our company is a certified partner), adopt an inbound marketing methodology and transform how we relate to prospects and clients. That shift was monumental for the business and for myself as a sales representative. The difference between calling inbound lead versus cold calling an outbound lead was night and day.

Using our marketing software tools, I could see the person I was calling had viewed 17 pages on our site and was interested in specific topics. Conversations were easy. Prospects were interested in learning more. The shift in our marketing and selling strategy was so gratifying, I wanted to help other clients do the same thing.

This is how our growth agency was born and our mission was set: to help other companies increase their website visitors and sales-ready leads.

Also Read: How do you grow your startup? Take some advice from 4 experts in digital marketing

From inbound marketing to inbound sales

Inbound sales mean aligning your sales efforts with the way prospects want to buy. People don’t like being sold to. Prospects want to be shown how a product or service will accomplish their goal(s) or solve their pain point(s).

Pipeline generation and inbound sales tips

In my journey to become an inbound sales expert, I participated in the Hubspot Pipeline Generation Bootcamp program with Dan Tyre. Below are my top 10 inbound sales takeaways from the programme:

1. Warm calling is crucial. Switching to inbound does not mean you can retire your phone. After you start generating website leads, you need to call each one (multiple times, intermixed with short, helpful emails). You may have to reach out seven to eight times before connecting with the prospect.
2. Do your pre-call research. Many sales representatives haven’t considered insight for the prospect that will actually help. Review the company website and comb through their social media platforms. Find the prospect on LinkedIn to locate some points to help you build rapport.
3. Don’t rush the sales process. The goal of this “connect call” is to establish rapport and see if it makes sense to schedule a follow up exploratory call where you’ll discover their goals, challenges, and timelines.
4. Use pauses to your advantage. Let the inbound lead/prospect do the talking. Once you say your name and what company you’re from, shut your mouth and get comfortable with pauses. It’s easy to visualise but difficult to execute. Pausing is your new secret sauce. Embrace the awkward pause — it puts the prospect in the driver’s seat, which is where they should be.
5. Practice before picking up the phone. Find a buddy to hold you accountable. Bonus: If you’re like me, you’re competitive and can be motivated by hearing what others are accomplishing.
6. Embrace the art of the voicemail. Most people are terrible at leaving voicemails. Learn how to leave quality messages. This article is packed with helpful suggestions, especially number three.
7. Use video voicemails for an effective, less mundane approach. Try the free Soapbox tool by Wistia (disclosure: our company is a certified partner). You can easily produce personalised video voicemails to include in your email.
8. Listen. The best salespeople aren’t loudmouths that can work a room. The best salespeople are good active listeners.
9. Between calls, send emails. Your emails should offer relevant, personalised information. The following guides are packed with helpful information you can use in your sales outreach.
10. Vision boards are underrated. Why are you doing what you do every day? What’s your personal motivation? A vision board can be a collection of family photos, things you love and hobbies with bullet points of what inspires you. Keep this on your desk in plain view.

Also Read: A guide to marketing apps effectively through affiliate marketing

Inbound sales representatives sleep better at night

When someone says they’re “in sales,” we immediately start thinking of ways to get these people to stop calling or emailing us nonstop. This is all thanks to traditional outbound sales representatives who call and email us nonstop while bringing no value to the table.

Flipping this mindset on its head, inbound sales can be thought of as a way of aligning our sales outreach to how the prospect prefers to buy something. This is a more powerful, sustainable position. Hopefully you found these takeaways to be helpful with your own sales outreach efforts. Start practicing these tips and let me know how it goes!

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A version of this post originally appeared here.

Stephen Beach is co-founder and CEO of Craft Impact – a growth agency helping B2B companies generate more quality leads from their websites.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organisation comprising the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship programme that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Image Credit: Alexander Andrews on Unsplash

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