MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Companies’ digital transformation began years before 2020, but there’s no arguing that the pandemic accelerated the growth of online economies and made it extremely competitive. It transformed the way B2B and B2C companies operated as people’s behaviors changed from brick and mortar to online.
“From research, review, all the way to purchase, the Philippine audience quickly transitioned to digital. Digital marketing services became widely used by businesses to adapt to the changes caused by the pandemic and adoption to digital channels grew from websites, Facebook pages, YouTube channels and even TikTok,” Truelogic Client Services Director Ibarra Villaseran shared.
In the latest Digital 2022 reports compiled by Truelogic in this annual Philippine Digital Marketing Economy Review, there are now more than half of the country’s population, or at least 76.01 million that are Internet users. It increased by 2.1 million users between 2021 and 2022 –that’s an internet penetration rate of 68% of the total population.
Filipinos aged 16-64 years old spent an average of 10 hours and 27 minutes each day. This number is lower compared to the Digital 2021 report, which shows that internet users in the Philippines spent an average of 10 hours and 56 minutes. The top reasons for using the Internet in the country are for finding information (83.7%), staying in touch with friends and family (81.9%), and researching how to do things (78.5%).
To help marketers and digital leaders navigate this new landscape, Villaseran shares some of the big developments coming down for this year.
- Privacy and security
When it comes to digital marketing, it’s very important to gain customer’s trust and privacy. Security is, without a doubt, the strongest asset that will bring you good results for your business. New privacy regulations like Apple’s privacy protection and pending removal of cookies have reduced the data available for use in artificial intelligence. For Google, it announced the end of cookies which are used to track Internet users. - Emotion-evoking campaigns
Around 59% of Filipinos like funny, heartwarming, and inspiring ads, according to video ad tech company Unruly. This shows how the consumer’s path to purchase is driven by emotions. Having a good product is no longer enough to have customers, it is also important to make the company’s values known. - Shorter video contents
Attention span on social media is short, that’s why it’s important to rise above the noise and catch attention quickly. Customers are now looking for easy-to-digest content because they are always in a rush. Try to upload videos that shouldn’t go over 60 seconds in length. This is most evident in the rising popularity of TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. - Social Media Marketing
Social media remains an important and influential way of reaching potential clients for many businesses in the Philippines. Around 39% of Filipinos check social media before they do anything online and spend an average of 4 hours and 6 minutes using social media each day. This shows that a significant portion of active social media users can come across your business at a certain time daily, giving you more opportunities to promote your brand. - Influencer marketing will be bigger than ever in B2B
Influencer marketing is popular nowadays because of content creators’ ability to attract people and impact their followers’ purchase decisions. According to AnyMind Group’s “Influencer marketing in the Philippines-Market overview 2022,” they saw a 19.66% increase in total volume of social media influencers in the Philippines. Most of these personalities have enormous audiences and loyal followers. It increases conversion rates outside of a business’ physical location and website.
“With the latest digital marketing trends, it can help your brand adapt to the ever-changing world of business. It is currently experiencing crucial changes that can make or break the activities of marketers on a large scale,” Ibarra underscored.
“It’s definitely worth exploring some of these trends such as SEO and social media marketing to boost your brand visibility and increase your sales revenue in the long run. Lastly, given the more pervasive role digital marketing now plays in everyone’s lives, it’s more important to always be on the lookout for the latest in the industry,” he added.
If you want to learn more about digital marketing, you can listen and subscribe on Trulogic’s Spotify, Google, and Apple accounts. Webinar episodes are free to watch on Truelogic Inc. YouTube Channel.
