Video content has emerged as a game-changer for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Did you know that video content is projected to make up 82% of all internet traffic by 2024? Additionally, marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than those who don’t.
3 Components of Effective Facebook Ads
Facebook ads have become our daily staple
Facebook ads have undoubtedly made their way to the mainstream. Starting as a platform where we get up to date with our family members’ and friends’ whereabouts, Facebook has morphed into a multi-billion dollar ad platform. A whopping 97.5% of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising (Yaguara). It shows that advertisements are deeply embedded in a Facebook user experience.
Consumers and businesses are lovin’ it
Consumers are getting comfortable with Facebook ads on their feed. A survey revealed that 59% of Facebook users have reached out to a brand on the platform (Sprout Social). This shows that brand activities are becoming an integral part of the Facebook experience. Conversely, 54% of the surveyed marketers in a study say that Facebook ads are “very effective” in generating sales. Only 8% claim they are not effective (Databox).
Now, how do we make an ad effective?
Our experience handling over RM2 million of ad revenue in the past six years has taught us something about creating a Facebook ad that performs. An ad that performs well has the following three traits (we are also giving an example for each of these traits):
First, clear visual communication
On our Facebook feed, we see the visual before anything else. Within a split second (1.7 to 2.5 seconds to be more exact), we decide whether to stop our thumb to check an ad out or simply to scroll past it (Facebook IQ). The ultra-short attention span means that the ad visual has to get the core message through to the viewer and invoke emotional responses within one glance.
Do: Clear-cut message

An effective ad clearly communicates its message. For example, ZUS Coffee’s ad for Cham Latte effectively uses ingredients in the background and clear wording to convey the offering and elicit a response from viewers.
Another example:

Another example is by Employment Hero, a payroll solution software company. An effective ad visual isn’t just about stunning images. In this ad, the combination of an image featuring a happy-looking small business owner and compelling copy made the visual impactful. Together, the image and the text convey a single, powerful message: this product frees up business owners’ time to focus on what truly matters to them.
Next, copywriting that speaks to the reader

Browsing through the Facebook feed can be likened to a walk at an exhibition fair. When you stop by a booth, the promoter explains the product or service. Similarly, when a reader stops scrolling to view an ad, you have the chance to speak to them through copywriting.
There are a few ways to speak to the readers. One is through acknowledging a pain point, portraying a desirable outcome, and offering a solution. For instance, this Employment Hero payroll software ad highlights the pain points of time consumption and presents itself as a solution:

[Pain point]
Still spending hours on payroll? Save time and remove errors by outsourcing payroll with Employment Hero.
[Solution]
With over 30 years of processing payroll, we ensure all compliance needs are met for every pay run, so you can focus on your people, not the payroll admin.
[Call to action]
Learn more about Employment Hero’s managed payroll service today by downloading the free factsheet.
(Image credit: Employment Hero)
Or, let us return to the ZUS Coffee Cham Latte ad example just now. Here’s the copywriting of the ad:

[Appeal to a commonly shared identity]
What’s the best thing about being Malaysian?
The 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙢-𝙥𝙪𝙧 culture! 🇲🇾
Inspired by daily life, our new 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐦 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐭é pays tribute to a beloved Malaysian drink, reimagined for modern tastes.
Using the finest beans and tea, we’ve created drinks that blend the familiar with the new.
[Introduce the product]
Cheers to Malaysian culture! Tea or Coffee? Champur je lah!
🍑 White Peach Oolong Cham Latté
🌸 Jasmine Cham Latté
🍃 Dark Oolong Cham Latté
[Call to action]
The innovation of Malaysian culture is now available at all ZUS Coffee outlets.
(Image credit: ZUS Coffee)
What can be more Malaysian than a Malaysian slang?! This is another way to speak to the readers.
Break free from conventional and formal writing. Using local slang won’t do you good in a university essay. But it is a sure-fire way to strike a connection with your readers. In this copy, ZUS Coffee alluded to the multiracial touch of the Malaysian culture – it’s hard to not agree that we are a Cham-pur bunch! Then, it introduces the ingredients and wraps up with a nudge to visit a ZUS Coffee outlet.
The payroll software ad and the Cham Latte ad do not speak in the same way. But they both speak to the readers.
Last but not least, optimal ad setting

Think of Facebook as a professional waiter, and your ad visual and copywriting as the dish to be served. Facebook’s job is to serve the dish to the right person at the right place and time. To help Facebook do so, pick the right ad objective and define your target audience.
When selecting an ad objective, align it with your goals. For example, for a baby skincare product, you might use:
- Awareness to reach a wider audience.
- Engagement to get people messaging you about the product.
For the target audience setup:
- Gender: Female
- Age: 25 to 50
- Location: Malaysia
- Interest: Parenting
Visual + Copywriting + Ad Setting = Facebook Ad that Sells
Facebook ads are highly targeted, cost-effective, and accessible to a wide audience, making them a great tool to drive brand awareness and boost conversions. By providing Facebook with an ad that has clear visual communication, compelling copywriting, and optimal ad settings, you are well on your way to a successful Facebook ad campaign that translates into business results!
5 Most Effective Digital Marketing Strategies
Since it’s easier and cheaper than traditional marketing, digital marketing has been one of the most successful ways for businesses to market themselves.
But, without a proper digital marketing strategy, you’re just wasting your time and effort.
So what’s a digital marketing strategy and what are some strategies that work?
What’s a digital marketing strategy?
Digital marketing strategy uses online platforms such as paid, earned, and owned media to achieve specific marketing goals related to your business. You should consider the performance of your business based on the goal you have set, so you’re more likely to achieve it.
Most strategy plans will list out which online channels and digital marketing tactics you intend to use, as well as how much money you intend to invest in these channels and tactics.
Importance of digital marketing strategy
There are many reasons why you MUST have a digital marketing strategy, but here are the top 3 reasons:
Provides guidance
Your company lacks a guideline for achieving its goals, objectives, and key results if it does not have digital marketing strategies. You know what you want to do, but you’re not sure how to get there. This leads to a digital marketing campaign that is ineffective.
Optimize your budget
Having sufficient resources is not enough. You should be able to plan what your digital marketing campaign will need in order to succeed. Having a good money management can allow you to do so much more.
Develop a unique value proposition
The digital market is very competitive. To be successful in your digital marketing campaign, you need to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Only an outstanding digital marketing strategy can lead to a good campaign.
Top 5 Effective Digital Marketing Strategies That Work
Build your buyer personas
No matter if it’s online or offline, you need to know who your target audience is so that your whole digital marketing campaign can directly target them. This is when you need a fictional person – A buyer persona.
A buyer persona is a very clear and precise portrayal of a person who represents your target audience. Even though this persona is not real, it’s based on extensive research of your current or desired audience.
It’s important to know that this persona should be built based on real data, as making assumptions about your audience will only lead you in the wrong direction for your marketing strategy.
Make the Buyer’s Journey Smooth
Buyers do not decide to buy right way. They go through a process in which they become aware of, consider, and assess a new product or service before deciding to purchase it. That’s what the buyer journey is all about.
You can observe every step a visitor makes on your website, how much time they spend on each page, and even which sites led them to leave.
Track your website’s activity using tools such as Google Analytics. Bounce rate, session duration, pages per session, and other factors might be included. This tool provides you with all of the information you need to make updates to your website in a timely and effective manner.
Make use of this information to personalize your digital marketing strategy to those potential customers.
Evaluate your existing digital channels and assets.
When analyzing your existing digital marketing platforms and assets to select what to include in your plan, look at the big picture first – this will keep you from feeling overwhelmed or confused.
Gather your assets and put them in a spreadsheet so you have a clear view of your existing owned, earned, and paid media.
Owned Media
Owned media are those platform which your company has complete control. This refers to your brand’s or company’s digital assets, such as your website, social media profiles, blog content. You can post, edit, or even delete the anything on these platforms as you see fit.
Earned Media
Earned media is the exposure you get from word-of-mouth marketing. Whether it’s content you’ve shared on other websites (such as guest posts), PR work you’ve done, or the customer service you’ve provided. The recognition you receive as a result of your efforts is referred to as earned media.
Paid Media
Paid media is any channel that you pay for in order to attract the attention of your target audience. This includes Google Marketing, paid social media posts, and any other medium in which you pay for increased visibility.
Maintain a Social Media Presence
While most business owners understand how important social media is, sometimes they will forget about it when they’re busy. This is not a good practice considering how you’re inactive most of the time.
An out-of-date social media profile is not useful for your customers. It’s fine if you only have time to handle one account. Just choose the platform that is suitable for your business and publish quality content consistently.
One of the ways to increase audience engagement is by posting memes with funny captions. Memes are a smart way to show you’re up to with the current trends and are mindful of your market and clients.
It’s important to provide engaging content for your customers so they begin to consider your business an active and helpful source of information, so that they’ll visit your social media regularly.
Make Use Of Remarketing
Remarketing, also known as retargeting, is a popular method of digital marketing in which advertisers deliver ads to people who have visited their website or a certain web page and have taken or have not performed a specified action. It’s an efficient approach to reach out to those who have previously expressed an interest in your company or brand.
After you’ve established your website and social media accounts, you can utilize targeted internet ads to drive more traffic to your site. Set up a retargeting campaign using Google Ads and Facebook Ads once you’ve identified prospective consumers among these visitors.
Conclusion
If you want your digital marketing journey to be successful, it’s important to plan out your digital marketing strategy to strategically approach your target audience. Without a solid foundation to your plan, your effort will go to waste.
Keep in mind these 5 strategies are only part of the little things yet effective things you can do. There are many more methods out there that can elevate your digital marketing efforts.
6 Things to Avoid Failure In Social Media Marketing
The only time you have experienced social media is when you use it during your personal free time. But it’s a completely different experience when you actually start managing the social media account yourself.
Chances are you might have made many mistakes without realizing it. Let’s go through some of the mistakes even we might have made in the past.
Not defining your target audience
The major mistake every beginner tends to make is to create a post and caption that is targeted at everyone, yes EVERYONE! FYI this isn’t ideal as not everyone on social media will fit your brand.
I mean if you saw a post that helps with the itch of eczema, and you don’t have eczema, most likely you won’t click on it, right?
Defining who your target audience is will let you concentrate your social media marketing efforts on people who are really really interested in your product and services. If not, no matter how much effort you put into your campaign, you won’t see good results.
A very useful way to find out who your target audience is is by finding out who makes or influences the final purchasing decision. Then from there, you can look at their pain points, what they’re trying to achieve, and their budgets.
You might not discover very specific things about your target audience, but it’s enough for you to know how to craft attention-grabbing captions that can make them read your post.
Recycling content
Have you seen similar content keep repeating itself on Facebook and your first reaction is to ignore it and scroll through?
That’s how your followers feel when you keep recycling content from the past.
A lot of businesses will keep reusing the same form of content that they have posted, and maybe just repackage it a bit with a new caption. Then their followers and engagement rate will slowly decrease over time, and they wonder what went wrong.
Well I mean I get it though. Businesses have to focus on their main work, they don’t always have time to think of content marketing strategies to diversify the stuff they post online.
Sometimes, you just need to do some research on your competitors, and also the current trend on each social media. Then you can mix the content and create something that can fit your business. Let’s say you’re selling baby products, you can post about user-generated content, giveaways, company updates, or even some informational content that is useful for mothers.
If you have the budget, you can consider hiring a dedicated social media marketing agency such as Stelix Media that specializes in producing content for your social media. You can focus on your business while the agency handles everything on social media for you.
Becoming inactive
Another no-no of social media marketing is to become inactive.
We all know there are a lot of businesses out there that have to shut down during the pandemic. And usually how I want to check if they’re still in business is through their social media.
As a business, you might get busy at times and will forget to manage your social media. It’s pretty normal after a long day so why would you still want to manage your social media?
But honestly, it’s important to keep posting on social media to show that you are active. No matter if it’s stories, IGTV, Reels, or any other social media functions available. If people see you haven’t posted in months, you risk losing followers and reducing the trust that social media can provide for your business.
You don’t need to spend many hours every day on social media just to show you are active. Just try your best to update your profile when you can on a regular basis.
Focusing on quantity over quality
Opposite to being inactive, some businesses will spam lots and lots of content on their social media account.
We get it, you have lots of things you can’t wait to share with your audience. But by limiting the amount of content being posted, you will take the most quality content to share with your audience.
It is preferable to devote more time to creating fewer but higher-quality posts for your social media. It may seem counter-intuitive at first, but with so many audiences, the important thing is to create something that stands out and provides value.
Think about it. Is it better to have one post with high engagement rather than five posts with low engagement? They will appreciate it more since they’re being benefitted in this scenario. If you keep posting a lot but don’t contain any quality, they will get annoyed quickly and unfollow your account.
Using the exact same post for each platform
If you have been using many social media platforms, you should know that each platform is special on its own. Each of them has a different tone, content, and serves different audiences.
One size fits all doesn’t exactly work here.
If you post a tweet with hashtags and emojis on LinkedIn, you should prepare yourself that the results won’t be as good as it is on Twitter.
Understanding the foundation of each platform is essential before stepping into that social media.
You’ll make a huge difference with the tone you’re using. If you’re on a professional website such as LinkedIn, its users are mainly professional business people that want to connect with other professionals, instead of finding a post about your product.
Not scheduling content
When you schedule your social media content, you’re allocating time to consider what to post and when the best time to post will be.
Compared to just typing out what you think for an Instagram post on the spot, this should be the standard practice for your social media marketing. You will have more time to consider the words you use and how effective they will be in persuading the reader to take a specific action or engage with your brand.
No one wants to see a social media post that is full of grammatical errors and serves no purpose. To generate the most marketing leads and opportunities for your business, your content must be carefully crafted and not rushed.
What social media managers usually do is that they plan contents worth a month ahead and schedule it for the following month so that they don’t have to do it manually.
You should always make sure you schedule your content on specific dates and times. This saves your time since you don’t have to worry about posting it when
you’re busy.
Conclusion
No need to be ashamed if you made all these mistakes, as we’re all still learning and improving. At one point we will all make mistakes on our social media marketing journey without realizing it. But in the end, if we manage to learn from it, we will gain valuable insights to improve our social media campaign.
The 5 Most Common Mistakes Google Ads Beginners Make
There’re many ways to market your business to the public other than social media, such as Google Marketing. But, Google Ads has changed a lot over the years and it’s super easy to make mistakes if you are new to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
In this blog, we will go through the 5 common mistakes Google Ads beginners are doing without realizing.
1. Lack of ad extensions
Ad extensions are a function that displays extra company info on your ad that will motivate users to click it. They’re very important and can improve the performance of your Google Marketing campaign. Even though extensions can generate more leads for PPC campaigns, many companies still don’t use them.
5 types of Google Ads extensions:
Location extensions
It lets you include your company address inside the ad which makes it easier for your target audience to see where you’re located. It’s also useful as they can find your address very fast and enter it into Waze or Google Maps.
Sitelink extensions
You can add more links to your page and drive leads to specific product or service sites based on their interest. As you direct leads straight to your page, it’s a good way to gain conversions.
Call extensions
You can include your company’s phone number inside the ad, which makes it easier for them to contact you and learn more about your company.
Callout extensions
Different from call extension, you can include descriptive information about what makes your company unique. Examples of the terms are “24/7 customer service” and “free shipping”. This will make the target audience click on the ad if they are interested in those terms.
Structured snippets
Structured snippets let you include the product or service information that you want to promote. It’s a good way to showcase your product or service and attract individuals that need your offerings. An example is “Free Wi-Fi” and “Pool”.
2. Poor keyword research
It’s very important to have the right keyword when conducting your Google Marketing campaign. You will not drive the correct leads to your business if you do not choose important keywords.
Short-tail keywords are made up of only one or two words and many businesses make the mistake of targeting this type of keyword with high bidding. They’re general terms like “running shoes” and “denim shorts.”
As they’re very broad, many users will get attracted. There is also a lot of competition for these terms, so the cost-per-click (CPC) is high.
When conducting keyword research, concentrate on long-tail terms. These are keywords of three or more words. Long-tail keywords are preferable for your Google Marketing campaign since they attract the most interested prospects.
Long-tail keywords will attract more interested leads to your page. This will help you in getting excellent leads that will help your business expand.
3. Creating only one ad version
Another Google Marketing beginner mistake is to only create one version of the ad. The first ad you’ve created might not be the best version. The problem is that your initial ad may not produce the best results for your Google Marketing campaign.
It is important to test out several variations of the ad to see which one works best. While you may think that one version of your ad would be the most successful, testing your ad may show that another version is bringing visitors to your page.
When you don’t test your ad, you don’t help your Google Marketing campaign to improve and match the demands of your audience. Because your audience’s preferences always change, it’s important to test your ad on a regular basis to see if there’s a newer and better version that can help you generate more leads and conversions.
4. Using only broad match keywords
There are three keyword match kinds available in Google Ads: broad, phrase, and exact.
Broad match is a sort of keyword match that search engines use to identify which search keywords your ads can match against. It’s named “broad” because it lets your ad match the broadest possible range of keyword searches that are still somewhat connected to your keyword.
The disadvantage of broad match keywords is that they may be activated by anything even vaguely related to the term; So if your product is a wedding dress, and the users type in words such as “flower girl” and “Bridesmaid dresses”, your ad will pop out as well.
5. Neglecting negative keywords
No matter what match types you choose for your keywords, you’re likely to match to queries that aren’t a good fit for your company. You can let Google know that you don’t want your ad to be displayed for certain searches by using negative keywords.
Let’s say you’re selling clothes, and someone typed “Free clothes” on Google. If your clothes are not free, you should include the word “free” as negative keywords so your ad won’t appear when users are looking for free things.
6. Conclusion
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by Google Marketing especially when there are so many functions available. Hopefully, this list could help you to manage your Google Marketing campaign better and achieve better results.
The Complete Guide to Social Media Marketing for Beginners in 2022
Social media marketing is so important that no one, I mean NO ONE can afford to lose out on today. It’s that important! You’re missing out on many opportunities if you’re still not on social media! But what exactly is social media marketing?
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms such as Facebook & Instagram to connect with your audience to promote your brand, improve sales, and drive website traffic. This includes a good social media strategy, such as posting high-quality content, connecting with your followers, and evaluating your results.
Why Social Media Marketing is Important for Your Business?
Increase your brand awareness
There are lots and lots of users on social media, and if you don’t have a presence on any online platforms, you’re losing your chance to let people know about you!
Not only that, but you can also have higher brand awareness by sending traffic from social media to your website. Wanna know how to do that? Easy. Include your website link in your profile, bio, and posts so people can click it.
Enhanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO) rankings
The presence of social media is becoming an important part in ranking. SEO standards are always changing nowadays to guarantee a higher ranking. As a result, optimizing your website is no longer enough.
Foster relationships with your customers
By interacting with your followers on social media, you can establish long-term ties between them and your brand. You can do this through your post, replying to their comments, and offer any help they might need.
You can also ask your followers questions about your products, their problems, or create giveaways to help establish trust and show how much you appreciate their feedback and support.
Learn from your competitors
Where else is better to spy, I mean learn about your competitors other than social media? Learn how they execute their social media strategies, how they advertise their products, or even how they interact with their followers. You can even learn what you shouldn’t do on social media.
Cost-effective
Speaking of cost-effectiveness, this must belong to social media marketing! Almost all social media platforms allow you to create an account for free. But, if you’re planning to execute Facebook and Instagram ads, do expect to pay for your advertisement.
Having a cost-effective solution is important as it allows you to get a higher return on your investment and make space for your other expenses.
How to Start a Successful Social Media Campaign?
Select your platforms:
Choose the platform based on your target demographic and popularity in the country. Only take on the number of platforms you can handle as you can always handle more in the future.
Establish goals and objectives:
Before starting, you should establish simple tasks such as posting once a day for a month, setting up your profiles, or conducting a competitive analysis. Once you’re used to it, you can set bigger goals such as increasing your followers by X percent or publishing X amounts of content every month.
Report and adjust:
Each social media platform has its own set of analytics tools, and you can use them to see which can produce the best results you’re looking for. Improve on what works and discard those that doesn’t work.
What are the Best Platforms for Social Media Marketing?
You might be surprised to hear this but, there’s no one “BEST” platform out there. Every single social media platform is made to cater to specific target audiences, and you have to do your own research to find out which one suits you best.
Each channel has a preferred type of content and frequency of publishing. For example, what works on Twitter may not work on Instagram, there is also a huge difference between LinkedIn and the majority of the other big social networks.
Conclusion and Takeaways
Although starting your social media marketing journey may seem hard, you can avoid feeling overwhelmed by understanding the social media marketing trends and use some of the tools available online to help you. Begin working on your brand’s social media marketing plan to grow your followers, enhance engagement and drive conversions to your website.
8 Web Developer Skills You Must Have in 2022
When we’re talking about web development, we would put our focus on the person who builds it – the web developer. Today, web developers need lots of skills to keep themselves marketable to stay in the competitive market.
Here are the 8 skills you must have as a web developer in 2022.
What is Web Development / Who is a Web Developer?
The process of creating a website is referred to as web development or website development. The process might include producing a single plain-text webpage to designing a large online application or social network. It is done behind the scenes so that when you use it, you can look at how nice the website is, how fast it can load, and what you can do with the website.
To achieve this, you’ll need someone knowledgeable in web development, known as the web developer. A web developer is someone who turns a web design created by a customer or design team into a website. They do it by writing complicated code in a variety of languages and frameworks.
Web Developer Skills
Individuals with experience in web development will stand out from the crowd. Understanding HTML, creative abilities, and analytical skills are all essential web developer talents.
1. HTML & CSS
To step into the web development industry, you MUST be proficient with HTML and CSS.
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the industry standard markup language for creating web pages. You may utilize HTML to construct personalized websites with outstanding features and functions. For beginners, HTML5 is the most recent version and you should start studying it immediately.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) on the other hand is also a must-have in web development. We use it to beautify the website, including the style and design. It is also used to guarantee that your website looks good on a wide range of devices and screen sizes.
2. JavaScript
JavaScript is a text-based programming language that enables the creation of interactive web pages on both the client and server sides. While HTML and CSS offer structure and layout to web pages, JavaScript provides interactive elements that keep people engaged.
When it comes to website design, knowing JavaScript will help you meet greater client expectations. These skills will allow you to create highly interactive websites that focus on the user experience. You can’t afford to miss JavaScript if you want to be a web developer.
3. Backend Tech
The backend developer will focus on how a website works, which is usually behind the scenes. They will write code that focuses on the functionality and logic that drives the website they’re developing, and usually can’t be seen by the users.
In web development, backend programming is classified into two types: object-oriented programming (OOP) and functional programming. Popular OOP languages include Java, .NET, and Python. SQL, F#, and R are three of the most popular functional programming languages.
4. Testing and Debugging
Debugging is the process of locating and correcting bugs, flaws, or other problems in your code. A software engineer spends around 33% of his time troubleshooting.
On a frequent basis, you may need to examine your website for errors. You must be able to debug any errors that are detected. Regular testing ensures that the code is working properly. As a result, becoming a good web developer needs the ability to frequently test and troubleshoot code.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Skills
Many clients prefer web developers that can understand how SEO works. This is because if they do, the website can rank higher in search engines which leads to more visitors to the site. SEO is a very important skill to have in the web development field as clients normally want to have as many visitors to their site as possible.
6. Responsive Web Designing Skills
Nowadays, to be good in web development, you also need to understand how responsive web design works. This is because a web page might be seen on a wide range of devices with different screen sizes, such as smartphones, tablets, and also computers.
If your website is not responsive, it will not operate properly on either desktop or mobile. That’s why you must be able to build websites with responsive design to prevent the loss of visitors to your site.
7. Web Hosting
There are lots of website hosting companies to choose from, so the last thing you need to do after you have decided on the hosting company is the name of your website. When you’ve decided on a name for your website and want it to be the address, you’ll need to register it with a domain provider.
Web hosting allows you to store and access your resources (HTML files, CSS files, JS files, images, and databases) on a server through the Internet.
Once the web development process is done, it has to be live so that anyone on the internet can access it and create traffic.
Conclusion
The Internet is ever-changing and one of the people who are responsible for this is the web developers. Web development has an impact on all aspects of our lives – from this blog to your favorite social network to the apps on your phone.
By learning all the skills above, you can provide a better service to your clients and their users for a better user experience.