[Media Interview] The essence of digital marketing lies in understanding user needs.

” Many owners of traditional small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) believe that putting direct mail or products online is digital marketing, but this thinking is completely wrong. ” Chen Zhenhao, CEO of Jike Data Marketing, clearly pointed out that many SME owners have misconceptions about “digital marketing” today.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, it has disrupted the annual exhibition schedules of SMEs. In the past, they could find potential customers and distributors by participating in exhibitions, but now that’s completely impossible. These SME owners who came to him for help all said they were “very anxious and hoped to use digital marketing to find overseas customers and solve the problem as soon as possible.” However, their next words were often, “I’ll give you money, you help me find customers and orders,” thus handing over the heavy responsibility of finding customers to Chen Zhenhao, which left him feeling baffled.

Inbound Marketing is one of the top three SEO marketing companies in Taiwan, serving over two hundred businesses of varying sizes, including many listed companies. Chen Zhenhao observed that in today’s business environment, technological advancements have accelerated global competition, new products are rapidly emerging, and customer demands are higher. He said, ” Business owners must first understand that digital marketing is not a matter of money, but rather a matter of adjusting their mindset. “

From production to community building, online marketing is not the same as digital marketing.

He pointed out that in the past, the mindset was production-oriented; as long as the product had a good price-performance ratio, orders would come in, and companies only needed to focus on order volume. But now, customers are buying a service ecosystem; they not only want good products but also a good user experience. Just like Apple, which not only produces smartphones but also develops an app ecosystem, hardware is just a basic requirement; software and a user-centric experience are the key points in the digital age.

In terms of after-sales service, in the past, purchasing was a one-time transaction. Now, after purchasing, companies must build a user base, which has evolved into the concept of user communities. Your users can exchange usage experiences with each other, and even each interest can form a group. These groups may be the objects that companies must manage

However, even though many traditional manufacturing companies attempt digital transformation, most are still wavering between digital optimization and digital transformation, failing to realize the importance of digitalization. Besides the driving force of business owners, a digital mindset within the team is also crucial for successful digital transformation. Chen Zhenhao discovered three common misconceptions or practices among traditional manufacturing companies regarding digital transformation.

■ Misconception 1 : Not understanding the true needs and characteristics of customers

“Many clients have expressed interest in digital marketing. My first step is to ask them to give a company presentation. The purpose is to see if the company has advantages that attract overseas customers, since this is also part of the company’s products. However, most companies only present product catalogs instead of explaining the pain points of their clients.”

Undeniably, OEM manufacturing is a strength of Taiwan’s manufacturing industry. However, in the past, most manufacturers focused on taking orders and rarely proactively observed market demand, failing to understand what the market truly wanted. “Business owners must clearly describe the appearance, type, and needs of their customers in order to determine how to conduct marketing. But they can’t tell me how to build customer channels; they only emphasize wanting to sell better. When business owners cannot accurately describe who their customers are, they can’t clearly know what solutions to provide to these customers.”

This explains why business owners believe that “as long as they pay someone to do it, all problems can be solved.” When they are unsure about the positioning of their own product, they “dump” this task on external parties, entrusting them to solve the problem for them.

If business owners don’t describe what problems their products solve by addressing customer pain points, customers will naturally lose interest. “Instead of thinking from the user’s perspective about why they need these products, what’s the point of sending out product information like flyers? Many business owners still think like they’re sending flyers; the only difference is that it’s moved from physical stores to the internet,” Chen Zhenhao bluntly stated. He added that if business owners don’t realize this, no matter how much advertising they do, it won’t be very effective.

“The company pays a fee, and we successfully help them reach customers. However, the customers see the product and feel that it doesn’t meet their needs, or that the company’s brand image cannot win their trust, so they turn away. Is this a problem with digital marketing, or a problem with the company itself?” This is why he emphasizes that before conducting digital marketing, it is necessary to start by improving the fundamentals.

■ Misconception 2 : Business personnel’s professional image is not obvious

Before utilizing digital marketing for international business development, Chen Zhenhao suggests returning to the management of a salesperson’s professional image. A salesperson’s image refers to being a voice in their field; at least three out of ten salespeople should possess this quality. Then, these three salespeople should be used to develop and manage business opportunities, and finally, the company’s digital brand should be established.

“Otherwise, we might provide brand exposure for the company, but if the business features aren’t appealing, the client will quickly turn away. After all, B2B orders are built on connections between people,” Chen Zhenhao pointed out. “Meeting in person creates rapport, and when it’s impossible to meet with clients face-to-face immediately, the professional image of the salesperson becomes even more important.”

■ Misconception 3 : Using a scattershot approach; different marketing tools require different outsourcing companies.

Many traditional business owners told Chen Zhenhao that they spent a lot of money hiring external marketing companies to handle digital advertising but without any results. Upon investigation, they found that the problem was that the companies hired different companies to handle SEO (Search Engine Optimization), advertising, and social media management. There was no connection between the marketing efforts, and they could not create a complete user experience for customers, so naturally they did not see any results.

Chen Zhenhao repeatedly emphasized that user-centric service is the essence of digital marketing. “I believe SEO is not search engine optimization, but optimization of the customer’s search experience. When a company provides content or experience that better matches the customer’s needs and provides the experience they want to read, the company’s ranking on the website will naturally improve, because this is the content that most consumers want to see.”

He further explained that the core concept of content digitization is that if a company wants to transform its business model, it must first understand what digital is. Otherwise, many business owners expect “how much revenue they will generate after doing online marketing.” However, in reality, their service process and the essence of the entire product do not conform to the core spirit of the digital age. How can they possibly achieve great results after doing online marketing? “After all, you haven’t changed the essence at all,” Chen Zhenhao said.

He frankly admitted that traditional companies’ product brochures and websites are mostly very basic, and Chen Zhenhao usually suggests starting with website updates. Before the pandemic, only 10-20% of companies were willing to update their websites, since they could still obtain a stable customer base through exhibitions; after the pandemic, due to the difficulty in developing customers, 50% of companies are now “finally” willing to re-examine the entire process, while the other 50% of companies are still stuck in the mentality of “I give you money, you help me find orders,” and are unwilling to carry out further upgrades to brand optimization.

Four steps to digital marketing: taking stock of your organization’s core competencies

The business environment is changing too rapidly, and companies’ needs for human resources are also changing rapidly. Digital skills have become a recruitment trend. Analysis of the most newly added digital skills jobs across six major industries in the past two years reveals that the essential talents needed to meet market demands should possess skills in programming, digital marketing, big data analytics, and AI.

However, does having these skills equate to understanding digital marketing? The answer is not necessarily.

Chen Zhenhao believes that the key to breaking out of the current predicament for enterprises lies in a change of mindset. The core focus is that enterprises must start from the pain points of users and then find extendable value within the organization.

“Imagine a company with 500 people. It’s impossible to suddenly transform that group of people into a group that understands digital technology. Therefore, the best way for SMEs to transform is to find a core value that can be extended and digitized from their core values, without having to drastically reform the current system.”

A company’s revenue sources must include several aspects. If “OEM” revenue is the primary core, how can the company discover the secondary or tertiary core? It’s impossible to only do OEM forever, because competitors can always replace your role in other ways.

• ■Step 1 : Market Insight. Identify current user pain points from data, design products to address these pain points, and use these as marketing appeals.
• ■Step 2 : User Acquisition. Consider how to acquire these users? What channels can be used to reach them? Where exactly are these guys who don’t know how to dress? What channels can be used to find them? Perhaps they are hiding among the nerdy guys in the Hsinchu Science Park or in the gaming community; businesses can try to find opportunities from there.
• ■Step 3 : User Data Collection. After finding user data, analyze and save this valuable information to understand what type of customer they are and what their real needs are.
• ■Step 4 : User monetization. Turn potential business opportunities into a viable business.

Among these four steps, Chen Zhenhao suggests that the concept to consider is: in the past, the focus was on producing products first, but now the focus is on finding market demand points and using data or digital tools to determine the existence of those demand points.

For example, a clothing manufacturer discovered that many netizens searched online for questions like “how men can match clothes” and “how men can dress well.” Therefore, they decided to enter the “clothing service” market, with the appeal being, “When you come to my store, I’m not selling clothes, but helping you find the most suitable outfits.” In fact, the company is still selling clothes, but for customers, what they are buying is the current dressing experience.

A lack of fashion sense is a major pain point for many men, and uncovering business opportunities from user needs is the primary key to digital marketing. Businesses must observe the behavior of online users, and once a trend is identified in the market, digital tools can be used to help verify the accuracy of their observations.

However, he emphasized that just because users have a need doesn’t mean there’s a market for it. The first step in digital transformation is to confirm whether user needs truly exist, then develop different applications based on the company’s core competencies, and consider how to transform them into products or services that the market can accept. If the cost of developing a product to meet this need is too high, it means the business is not viable. “Tools can only help analyze whether there is a trend, but they don’t mean the business is viable.”

Only those advantages that allow them to differentiate themselves from competitors are worth digitizing.

Chen Zhenhao pointed out that even though inbound marketing is considered a highly digitalized enterprise, it still took them three years to build digital processes and systems for human resource management. For traditional enterprises, digital transformation is an absolute massive undertaking. He believes the three stages of enterprise digitalization are: First, digitizing paper documents or content; Second, digitizing or automating operational and service processes; Third, transforming the business model.

Zeng Huanlong, general manager of Hailujiahe, a company that produces and sells metalworking oils, led the company to grow fivefold in four years after taking over, with the key being its strong push for digital transformation. He constantly reflected on the company’s position in the market and how to differentiate itself from its competitors, and decided to shift from professional production to service, allowing customers to experience things better and faster.

Therefore, the system calculates the average customer purchasing cycle and then proactively pushes orders via Line@. After a customer places an order on Line, it takes only 5 seconds from order placement to confirmation by Hailu Jiahe. The system’s highly accurate forecasting function, with up to 95% accuracy, significantly reduces the company’s inventory and greatly improves customer satisfaction.

Zeng Huanlong led the company through digital transformation, including optimizing work processes, establishing a digital transformation team, and creating a unique talent recruitment and development system. He believes that the key to digital transformation in the manufacturing industry is not just updating systems and equipment, but also cultivating digital talent while simultaneously upgrading overall workflows and organizational culture. Providing a platform for young people to showcase their abilities was crucial to his successful implementation of Hai Lu Jiahe’s digital transformation.

He suggested that before digitizing, companies must be very clear about their current positioning and how they differentiate themselves from competitors. From digitization to digitization optimization, and then to digitization transformation, companies must choose to focus on areas that allow them to significantly differentiate themselves from competitors for digitization to have value.

Using data to guide the entire community marketing strategy and understanding user needs.

With rapid generational shifts and different generations using different platforms, businesses must adapt to all consumer behaviors. Given that different generations have their own ways of receiving information, how can businesses effectively engage with their users? Chen Zhenhao believes that using data-driven thinking through the following four steps is a viable approach to understanding users.

■Step 1 : Targeting + Data Analysis. Through big data analysis of the market, competitors, and audience profiles, combined with optimization and testing of the advertising mix, find the most precise target audience. This is the most basic and crucial step; otherwise, you may find yourself in the predicament of having many posts but no interaction.

■Step 2 : Exposure. Content marketing establishes the basic framework of a community, provides content that interests the target audience, and builds bridges to engage in dialogue with the audience.

■Step 3 : Browsing. Visitors browse social media and website content to obtain information about the brand’s services.

■Step 4 : Potential Customers. Visitors begin to consider whether they have any needs; those who meet those needs become potential customers.

Communities are great places to connect with an audience, but maintaining engagement is not easy. Focusing on increasing the number of followers is not important; the key is to focus on interaction with users. Businesses must emphasize user research.

“Many companies think that building a brand is difficult, but I believe that in the B2B field, the audience is just that one group of people. You just need to continuously build your impression, image and brand among that group of people, and that will be enough.”

Chen Zhenhao gave an example, saying that a job seeker once received an email from a key executive of a company, and then sent advertisements to this group of people, including his personal webpage and other information. This made the key people think, “This job seeker is famous to some extent. I feel like I see his information everywhere.” They were impressed by this person and naturally increased their chances of being hired.

Similarly, businesses can use this approach to enhance their professional image in their own field and advertise to clients in that field. “When they are looking for a certain industry or sector, they will think of you because they know you can help them solve their problems,” Chen Zhenhao said with a smile.

The concepts of consumer mass-market brands and B2B brand architecture differ. The former believes that “as long as the right people see you, you have the opportunity to become a brand in that industry.” However, the prerequisite for successful digital marketing is that a company’s brand optimization must start with presentations, videos, management of sales personnel’s personal image, and business development models. Only by completely transforming its mindset can a company increase its chances of digital transformation.

This article was originally published in Trade Magazine, Issue #356   . ◎ Written by Ye Weizhen