2021 Digital Marketing trend for BtoB companies in Taiwan

Hi, I’m Leo Sato, the CEO of a digital marketing company in Taiwan called applemint.

In 2020, we were hit hard by the coronavirus, but there were also some positive things that happened. One of them is that we received more inquiries from BtoB companies about digital marketing in Taiwan than in 2019.

The number of inquiries from BtoB companies, which we had never received until 2020, suddenly increased in 2020. I think the reason behind this was the restraint on business due to the coronavirus. Many BtoB companies previously depended heavily on face-to-face sales but now they have to stay home and still make sales.

Because we started working closely with BtoB companies on digital marketing, I think we are head of the game when it comes to BtoB digital marketing in Taiwan.

So, what kind of digital marketing should BtoB companies do in Taiwan? In this blog, I would like to talk about digital marketing that BtoB companies should do in Taiwan, using specific examples. 

If you are a BtoB company considering digital marketing in Taiwan, this is a must read.

Understand your potential customers and their touch point

First of all, whether you are a BtoB or a BtoC company, you need to think about your target audience and your point of contact. At applemint, when we explain digital marketing to our customers, we divide our target audience into two categories

1. People who want your product/service NOW
2. People who don’t want your product/service now, but may want it later

To make it easier to understand, let me use an analogy with our service. Our service is a BtoB service: digital marketing. There are always companies that want digital marketing services at this very moment otherwise we would not exist nor do our competitors would exist. (#1 target)

Second, there are companies who don’t want digital marketing services at this moment, but might want them if we tell them about the need for digital marketing in the right place at the right time. (#2 target)

The point of contact is different for #1 and #2 targets. Also, if you make a contact at the wrong point, you actually give a bad impression. For example, what if someone comes up to you on the street and tries to hand you an advertisement? You usually feel uncomfortable.

Now let’s imagine, how would companies in Taiwan who want digital marketing service act?, They usually Google. I’ll explain.

BtoB companies’ targets flock to Google

First of all, from my experience, people who need the services of BtoB companies are almost always attracted to Google. In other words, if you have a presence on Google, you have a good chance of reaching the target audience that needs your services.

Let’s say I’m a BtoB chemical company that sells preservatives to food companies. Food companies are my potential clients. How would a food company that wants a preservative act if they need one? I can think of only three ways.

• Ask someone they know (if they know of a company that sells preservatives, ask them to introduce you)
• Use Google to search for companies that sell preservatives
• Others (such as going to the Chamber of Commerce)

And in this era of the Internet, most people do a Google search. Not Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, but Google. Why? It’s because Google is a searchable medium.

People who need preservatives may be on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, but I don’t think they will log into those social networking services to look for one when they need it.

In other words, the first thing that BtoB companies need to do in digital marketing is to take measures against Google. Specifically speaking, search ads and SEO.

Search ads for BtoB companies in Taiwan

My recommendation is to first set up search ads when the name of your product or product category is searched in Google, you have a presence.

For example, if I am a company that sells BtoB accounting systems, I would start with ads targeting keywords such as “accounting systems” and “accounting software.

In addition, many BtoB companies are still hesitant about digital marketing and DX, and I have the impression that there are still fewer companies that are placing digital ads compared to BtoC companies. I believe that it is not too late to start placing ads on Google Ads.

SEO for BTOB companies

SEO is the process of getting your website to the top of the search results for a particular keyword, without paying for advertising.

For example, if I am a company that sells BtoB accounting systems, I would like my website to rank high when people search for the keyword “accounting systems”.

SEO is not something that can be done overnight. You need to write contents consistently. The purpose of doing SEO is dependence from digital advertising. By doing digital advertising and SEO in parallel, you can create a system that will bring visitors to your website steadily without relying on advertising costs.

BtoB Company’s Taiwan Digital Advertising Budget

Now let’s get to the exciting point. Let me talk about how much advertising budget is needed in Taiwan for BtoB companies. I would suggest spending about 3,000 – 5,000 USD per month.

A BtoB software company that we are helping is spending about 6,000USD per month on Google ads alone. On the other hand, BtoB manufacturing company, which sells measuring instruments, spends about 1,500USD per month on Google search ads (This company is tight on digital advertising fee)

We also found out that a very famous Japanese BtoB machinery manufacturer in Taiwan spends about 6,000 USD per month on Google search ads in Taiwan. 

To sum up, my rough impression is that BtoB companies usually spend 5,000 – 7,000USD (NT$150,000-200,000) on  Google ads. For software companies, the budget is a little higher at 6,000 -7,000USD and for manufacturers, I get the impression that the market is around 3,500USD.

Of course, the number of leads you want to get varies from company to company, so it’s hard to say, but I hope this helps.

Reaching out to targets who may be interested in the BtoB service in the future.

So far, I’ve explained how BtoB companies should acquire potential customers who need your service now.

Finally, I would like to explain what to do with potential clients who do not need your BtoB service now but may want it in the future. 

I would suggest social media marketing especially Youtube.

Let’s use our services as an example. People who don’t need our digital marketing services won’t search for “digital marketing service” on Google, as a matter of course.

So what to do? We need to be discovered. How?

You share your interesting stories about your industry. I’ve been trying various social media and so far, I’ve found out that Youtube has the most potential to be discovered if you are providing BtoB service.

I recently met a person who works for a BtoB company and asked me whether it’s a good idea to start social media ads or not. If the person has a presence on Google, I would say, but if not, I would say let’s start from Google.

Taiwan BtoB Enterprise Digital Marketing Summary

If you are a BtoB company doing digital marketing in Taiwan, you want to make sure you have a good Presence on Google because people who need BtoB services usually search.

To have a presence on Google, there are 2 ways: 1. Google search ads 2.SEO. 

The amount of budget people spend on Google search ads is roughly between 3,500 – 700,000USD.

If you think you are doing enough to acquire potential customers on Google, you can move on to SNS advertising/marketing.

By the way, the cost performance of the first six months tends to be a bit higher if you are new to Taiwanese market. We’ve never seen a company do so well from the beginning.

What did you think?

If you’re interested in learning more about Google Ads and SEO in Taiwan, please contact us.

We have already provided digital marketing services to a BtoB manufacturer and a BtoB software company in Taiwan. (mostly to Japanese companies)

Japanese companies are well-known for their quality. We have been able to meet many Japanese companies’ quality standards for the past 4 years. Some of our clients are public companies in Japan. 

Why do some public companies decide to work with a small company like applemint? Because we excel in digital marketing services.

Do let us know if you are interested in working with us!