HubSpota customer platform for growing businesses, and LinkedInthe world's largest professional network and leading advertising partner for brands, today announced the results of a survey conducted by Milieu Insight, which explored how businesses in Asia, including Singapore, perceive digital marketing. The survey also explored how businesses are leveraging digital marketing and how they can revitalize and improve their strategies to drive business growth.
The survey found that eight in ten (84%) Singapore respondents said their company uses digital marketing to promote their products and services. Of those businesses that have digital marketing initiatives, seven in ten (78%) currently have a digital marketing strategy in place. Of those respondents whose companies do not have a digital marketing strategy, more than half (57%) said their company plans to implement a digital marketing strategy in the future.
A lack of ability to track results can prevent you from realizing the full potential of your digital marketing
Despite the prevalence of digital marketing among businesses in Singapore, only 17% of overall Singapore respondents strongly agreed that there is a link between a good digital marketing strategy and increased revenue – significantly lower than the regional average of 41% and other countries surveyed.
A potential contributing factor could be the lack of adoption of certain tools such as customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, which play a key role in tracking and measuring the results of marketing campaigns. This data helps brands understand how their marketing efforts are impacting business goals and allows them to better evaluate return on investment. Only 41% of Singapore businesses engaging in digital marketing use CRM tools, the lowest percentage of all countries surveyed.
In addition to low adoption of tools to measure success, nearly a quarter (24%) of Singaporean businesses with digital marketing efforts are not confident that their teams can use digital marketing tools effectively. Nearly half (49%) feel their digital marketing strategy is not contributing to organizational goals for 2023. These figures are the highest of any country included in the survey, suggesting that skills and knowledge gaps among Singaporean marketers may be preventing them from realizing the full potential of digital marketing.
Matt Tindale, Head of APAC, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Highlighting the important role of learning and development (L&D) in Singapore's digital economy, he said, “In Singapore, the rapid pace of technological advancements creates opportunities for marketers to upskill. Upskilling and reskilling not only helps professionals adapt to change, but also enables them to leverage new technologies to improve productivity and outcomes.”
When asked about the measurements they use to assess the impact of their digital marketing efforts, more than half (52%) of Singaporean respondents cited brand awareness as their primary metric, which differs from regional sentiment where the majority see sales or revenue as a key indicator of success.
“Survey results show that while the majority of local businesses are focused on increasing brand awareness, the real challenge is translating that awareness into growth. Singapore is poised to undergo a digital marketing transformation, with 60% of businesses surveyed indicating they are integrating AI into their digital marketing strategies. To be successful, you need to use effective measurement frameworks and tools that support the data-driven decisions that are essential to maximise ROI. One example of this is LinkedIn's revenue attribution report, which combines CRM data with information from marketing touchpoints across the customer journey. This allows marketers to better demonstrate the impact of LinkedIn campaigns on key metrics such as pipeline generated, deal cycles and revenue, ultimately helping them make better business decisions,” added Tindale.
This trend towards digital marketing is expected to continue in 2024. Of Singapore businesses that are engaged in digital marketing, over a third (35%) are spending more than S$10,000 on related activities each month. Most businesses (28%) currently allocate between 21% and 40% of their monthly marketing budget to digital marketing, with similar investment levels recorded across all countries surveyed. The survey results showed that over a third of Singapore businesses plan to maintain their current level of digital marketing investment in 2024 rather than increasing it – the highest percentage among all countries surveyed.
Social media, content and search engine marketing are established as the primary channels for digital marketing in Singapore
Among Singapore businesses with a digital marketing strategy, the majority (62%) identify social media as their primary digital marketing channel, followed by content marketing (50%) and search engine marketing (49%). Nearly half of these respondents (42%) also rank social media as one of the top three important channels for their digital marketing efforts. These results are consistent with other HubSpot survey findings. study The survey found that social media was named the preferred platform for shopping and brand discovery among consumers globally, with the majority of brands surveyed attesting to the effectiveness of social media marketing for their business. In Singapore, nine in ten social media marketers predict that local consumers will increasingly choose to use social commerce and social search by 2024.
Social media's emergence as a leading digital marketing channel is also reflected in budget allocations and tools. Among Singapore businesses with digital marketing initiatives, social media marketing receives the majority of their marketing budget (23%). Additionally, social media management platforms are the most popular tool, used by over half of respondents (51%). This coincides with the growing adoption of social media in Singapore, where a survey by We Are Social and Meltwater estimates that 85% of the Singapore population are social media users. Digital 2024 Global Overview ReportIt ranked first in social media usage in Southeast Asia.
“Social selling and commerce are becoming increasingly popular in Singapore, providing a highly effective platform for brands to reach, target, and engage with their audience on a personal level. Despite the growing popularity of social media platforms, brands must avoid becoming overly reliant on a single channel. Today, more than half of the world's customers leverage three to five different channels throughout their buying journey. Success will increasingly depend on brands' ability to establish a presence on the channels their customers and prospects use, and leverage CRM platforms to accurately measure the impact of their marketing efforts. This is essential to proactively engage with your audience and provide a frictionless experience regardless of the channel,” said Kat Warboys, Senior Marketing Director, APAC, HubSpot.
Besides social media management platforms, other popular tools among Singapore businesses engaged in digital marketing include CRM platforms (41%) and email marketing solutions (37%). An effective approach to digital marketing should also include implementing these tools alongside a strong marketing strategy to optimize results. This will enable brands to more effectively engage with customers across the various channels they currently use. A CRM platform allows brands to consolidate customer data from different channels and sources, creating a single source of truth to accurately measure the impact and effectiveness of marketing efforts and deliver a better customer experience.
“As digital channels explode in popularity, the key to success is to ensure customer data is not scattered across multiple platforms. A potential solution could be the use of conversion APIs, which enable brands to accurately track and measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts on social media platforms. As a server-side tracking option, conversion APIs can still provide observable data that was previously limited by privacy controls. As third-party cookies are being phased out, marketers need to take this into consideration. Having a CRM solution that can seamlessly integrate with such tools will enable marketers to make the most of the information collected across the customer journey. This free flow of information will give marketers the insights they need to drive more targeted campaigns, automatically follow up on leads generated from social media, and clearly track the ROI of all advertising campaigns,” says Warboys.
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