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How Much Capital Do You Need as a Startup in Singapore

When starting a business in Singapore, one of the first things you need to decide is how much initial capital you want to invest in your business. The minimum requirement is set by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and will depend entirely on the type of business you wish to register as. For example, businesses registered in which owners are personally liable for debts incurred require no specific amount of capital while private limited companies have a requirement of $1 SGD. However, the minimum requirement is only a starting point. Thinking beyond this starting point when deciding how much capital need helps you build a solid foundation before you’ve even started operations. In this article we cover points to consider when determining your initial investment and methods for raising that capital.

How to Decide Your Initial Capital Investment

  • The size and scope of your business: The amount of capital that you need will depend on the size and scope of your business. If you are planning to start a small business that operates on a modest scale, you may not need a large amount of capital. Larger business or ones that require significant ongoing investment need a larger amount of capital to support growth.
  • Your business model and revenue streams: If your business relies on a single revenue stream, you will want a larger amount of capital to cover your costs and expenses. Having multiple revenue streams may allow you to sustain your business with a smaller amount of capital.
  • Your goals and objectives: If you are planning to grow your business rapidly and expand into new markets, a larger amount of capital can help you to support that growth. A more cautious approach that plans on slower growth might let you get by with a smaller amount of capital.
  • Your personal financial situation: If you have access to personal savings or other personal financial resources, you can use these to support your business. Alternatively, if you plan to rely on external sources for funding, such as loans or investments, you may need to raise a larger amount of capital to secure this financing.

Raising Capital for Your business

There are several ways to raise capital for your business, including:

  • Personal savings: One of the most common ways to raise capital is to use personal savings or other personal resources to finance it personally. This can be a good option if you have solid financial footing and are comfortable using your personal resources to fund your business.
  • External Investors: Another option is to seek investment from external sources, such as venture capitalists, angel investors, or crowdfunding platforms. This can be a good option if you are looking to raise a large amount of capital quickly, but it may also come with strings attached, such as giving up equity in your business.
  • Loans: You can also raise capital through loans (e.g., bank loans), government grants, or other financing programs. This can be a good option if you are looking to raise a moderate amount of capital, but it may also come with interest and repayment obligations.
  • Revenue-Based Financing: At Jenfi, we offer revenue-based financing. This new type of financing offer means that you get flexible loans where the repayment terms scale up or down depending on your earnings. If you're interested in learning more, feel free to check our requirements and apply today!

The amount of capital that you should have when starting a business in Singapore depends on a variety of factors, these include:

  • your business structure, size, and scope
  • your business model and revenue streams
  • your goals and objectives
  • your personal financial situation

By considering these factors and exploring different options for raising capital, you can determine the amount of that is right for your initial investment.

Nicky Minh

CTO and co-founder

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How to Pick North-Star Metrics For Your Business

One of the key factors that separates successful businesses from those that struggle is the ability to stay focused on long-term goals. Below, we discuss north star metrics that can help you to remain on track as you build your business toward these long-term goals in mind. North star metrics are key performance indicators (KPIs) that serve as guiding lights for your business. More specifically they are high-level goals closely aligned with your business's mission and vision that keep you and your team focused on what is most important.

Five Steps to Determining Your North Star Metrics

1. Identify your business's mission and vision:

Your mission defines the fundamental purpose of your business. It should be based on the value that your business provides to customers, employees, and other stakeholders. Your vision is a long-term goal based on the value your business provides beyond immediate goods and services. For example, your vision can be based on what benefits you want your business to bring to the industry or to the community in which it operates. It should be aspirational and inspirational. Together your mission and vision will form the foundation for your business's north star metrics.

2. Define your north star metrics:

Your next step is to decide on what metrics will serve as the best indicators that your business is moving in the right direction. These indicators will be your north star metrics, high-level goals closely aligned with both your business’s mission and its vision. North star metrics are not as broad as the goals set by your mission and vision, but smaller, measurable goals that represent an aspect of those larger goals. Setting north star metrics can help you more clearly define what you want your business to achieve. Some examples of north star metrics include revenue growth, market share, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and social impact.

3. Make your north star metrics measurable:

To be effective, your north star metrics should be measurable. This means that you should be able to quantify and track your progress toward the goals you’ve set. If your north star metric is revenue growth, the information you need to measure it is more or less built into company financial statements. However, measuring something like social impact or customer satisfaction might require you to set more creative parameters for your metrics. For example, how you measure customer satisfaction can be through any number of methods or even combinations of methods: e.g., number of repeat customers, customer satisfaction survey results, customer reviews. A metric like social impact would require you to clearly define what sort of social impact you want to make and to what degree. Are you reducing pollution? Will you measure the amount of garbage or recyclable materials you’ve collected? Will you commission water quality tests? You will need to decide what measurements make the most sense for your business.

4. Set targets for your north star metrics:

In addition to being measurable, your north star metrics should also have clear targets. These targets should be ambitious but achievable, providing a roadmap for your business's growth and success. For example, if your north star metric is revenue growth, you might set a target to double your revenue over the next three years. Or if you want to focus on customer satisfaction you may want to work to increase your percentage of repeat customers within that same time frame.

5. Monitor and review your north star metrics:

Finally, it is important to regularly monitor and review your north star metrics to ensure that you are making progress toward achieving your goals. This may involve tracking KPIs, gathering feedback from customers and employees, conducting regular business reviews, or any combination of these methods. By staying focused on your north star metrics and making adjustments as needed, you can ensure that your business stays on track and achieves its long-term goals.

Benefits of North Star Metrics

Once you have determined and implemented your north star metrics as described above, they can provide you with several advantages as you move forward with your business.

Having north star metrics can help you to communicate more effectively with your team, stakeholders, and investors. Having clear, measurable goals helps everyone involved to understand the direction in which your business is heading and the role that they play in achieving its long-term goals. This shared understanding of your vision can give your employees a sense of purpose and accountability, and it can help to build trust and confidence in your business.

Another benefit of having north star metrics is that they can help you to identify and prioritize opportunities and challenges. By tracking your progress, you can easily identify areas where you are successful and areas where you need to improve. These metrics also help you to identify opportunities for growth and innovation, as well as the challenges that may be limiting your success. By focusing on your north star metrics, you can make more informed decisions about how to allocate your resources and where to focus your efforts.

Finally, having north star metrics can help you to remain focused on the big picture. It can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day demands of running a business, but by keeping your north star metrics in mind you can avoid getting sidetracked by less important tasks or low consequence issues. Staying focused on your north star metrics will reinforce the need to prioritize your long-term goals and will support the progress you make towards them, allowing you to build a sustainable and successful business.

The benefits provided by north star metrics make them a powerful tool for guiding your business and maintaining your long-term focus. In summary, the simple steps outlined above will:

  1. Keep you aligned with your business's long-term goals.
  2. Provide you with an effective tool for communicating with your team and stakeholders.
  3. Give you a framework for conceptualizing your business’s current trajectory alongside set goals, helping you to identify what’s important so that you can prioritize opportunities and challenges.

Whether you are just starting out or are already well-established, having clear north star metrics can help you to navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and achieve your long-term goals. And no matter where you are in that process, Jenfi can help you to meet the marketing and growth solutions you need to meet those long-term goals you’re moving towards.

Nicky Minh

CTO and co-founder

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The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Lazada in 2023

Are you looking to tap into Singapore's e-commerce market by selling on Lazada, the largest online shopping and selling destination in the country? Look no further! We'll go over everything you need to know to get started and start making sales on Lazada.

Step 1: Create your Lazada seller account

The first step to selling on Lazada is to sign up as a seller on its platform. You can do this by visiting the Lazada Seller Center. On this page you'll notice the navigation bar provides you with three options: Local Seller, Lazmall Seller, and LazGlobal Seller. It's important to read through the different types of accounts and choose one that matches your business type as closely as possible. If you want to sell using a LazGlobal Seller account, we recommend having an Alipay account set up in advance as Lazada will request an Alipay with a minimum balance of 3000 RBM for margin payment.

Before you sign up, familiarize yourself with Lazada's seller policies and terms of service. These outline the rules and guidelines you need to follow as a seller on their platform, including: the types of products you can sell, how to handle returns and refunds, and how to resolve disputes. By understanding these policies upfront, you can ensure that your account is compliant with Lazada and prevent any complications that would arise from failing to meet Lazada terms and conditions.

Step 2: List your products

Now it's time to start adding your products to the Lazada platform. You will do this using Lazada's Seller Center. Lazada recommends adding a minimum of ten products before you begin making sales through their platform. You'll need to provide detailed information about each product. This includes photos, descriptions, pricing, and shipping information. High-quality photos are especially important, as they will be the first thing potential customers see when they come across your products. Make sure to include as much detail as possible in the product descriptions to help customers make informed decisions. The better information your customers have, the more confident they feel about their purchases. Having informed and confident customers results in increased sales, diminished customer queries (which prolong the sales process), and reduced returns of items purchased due to unclear product descriptions.

When listing your products, it's important to choose the right categories and subcategories to ensure that your products are easy to find. You should also consider what keywords to use in your titles and descriptions to improve your products' visibility when customers search Lazada. The Seller Center will provide you with a content score that can assist you in this process. This score is calculated based on four key areas: mandatory attributes, key product information, photos, and the number of words used in your product description.

Lazada provides a general content score that takes into consideration all products in your inventory. Your general content score can be accessed under the performance section of your Seller Center's homepage. A content score can also be viewed at the individual product level, giving you a more granular understanding of your inventory. This score is found by navigating to the products page, selecting 'manage products', and then finally clicking 'edit details'. According to Lazada's data, improving your content score can help you improve sales! Remember to pay attention to the four key areas Lazada uses to calculate your score when using this tool.

You should also consider offering different variations of your products, such as different sizes or colors, to give customers more options.

In addition to basic product information, you need to provide your inventory levels and lead times. This helps customers know whether the product is in stock and how long it will take for them to receive their order. You will be prompted to provide the address of your warehouse when setting up your Seller Center. Lazada will use this address to help you calculate these logistics as well as shipping cost.

Step 3: Set up payment and shipping options

In order to start making sales, you'll need to set up payment and shipping options for your products. One of Lazada's many strengths is that it offers a variety of payment options, including credit card, bank transfer, and cash on delivery. You'll also need to decide how you'll handle shipping and delivery of your products. Will you offer free shipping, or will you charge a fee? Will you use a third-party logistics provider, or will you handle shipping in-house? It's important to consider these factors when setting up your payment and shipping options so that your customers receive a smooth and seamless shopping experience.

You should also consider offering different shipping options, such as standard and expedited shipping, to give customers more flexibility. It's a good idea to clearly communicate your shipping policies, delivery times, and restrictions to avoid misunderstandings or disappointment.

Step 4: Promote your products

Once your products are listed on Lazada, it's important to promote them to potential customers. You can do this by utilizing Lazada's marketing tools, such as sponsored ads and promotional banners. These tools allow you to target specific demographics and interests and can be an effective way to reach a wider audience. You can also use social media and other online channels to promote your products and drive traffic to your Lazada listings.

In addition to paid advertising, there are many other ways to promote your products on Lazada. One effective strategy is to offer discounts or promotions to incentivize customers to make a purchase. You can also participate in Lazada's sales and event campaigns, such as the annual 11.11 Shopping Festival, to take advantage of increased traffic and sales opportunities.

Free shipping is another option to consider when weighing your options for incentivizing customers. Offering free shipping can increase traffic to your store as this is one of the criteria that customers can use to search Lazada. Another benefit of free shipping is that customers won’t be discouraged by an additional shipping fee calculated at checkout. As a result, once a customer has an item in their cart, they’re more likely to complete the purchase.

Step 5: Monitor and optimize your listings

To maximize your sales on Lazada, it's important to continuously monitor and optimize your listings. This may involve adjusting your prices, updating product descriptions, or adding new products to your catalog. By staying up-to-date and responsive to customer needs, you'll be able to increase your sales and grow your business on the platform. You can also use Lazada's analytics and reporting tools to track your performance and identify areas for improvement.

It's essential to keep an eye on your competition and see what they are offering, as well as monitoring trends in your market. By staying on top of these factors, you can keep your products competitive and attractive to customers. Customer feedback and reviews are another way to find out what changes you can make to improve the customer experience.

Key Points to Remember When Using Lazada:

  • Take the time to set up your seller account and product listings carefully, as this will help you establish trust with potential customers and increase your chances of making sales.
  • Utilize Lazada's marketing tools and utilize other online channels to promote your products and drive traffic to your listings.
  • Monitor and optimize your listings on an ongoing basis to ensure that you are meeting the needs of your customers and maximizing your sales potential.

Selling on Lazada can be a lucrative and rewarding opportunity for businesses of all sizes. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can set up a successful seller account and start making sales on the platform. And with a little bit of effort and the right strategies in place, you can build a successful business on Lazada and tap into the growing e-commerce market in Singapore. Good luck!

Nicky Minh

CTO and co-founder

Measuring The Advertising Effectiveness Of A Marketing Campaign – 8 Vital Metrics For Marketers

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Advertising Metrics

Measuring The Advertising Effectiveness Of A Marketing Campaign - 8 Vital Metrics For Marketers

Advertising Metrics

Measuring the advertising effectiveness of a marketing campaign is the foundation for growth marketers. Using ad metrics reasonably, we can determine how well our performance is and what factors it needs to drive better results.

So, how well do you understand the advertising metrics? Explore 8 critical advertising KPIs in this article with Jenfi Capital.

What Are Advertising Metrics?

Advertising Metrics

Advertising metrics, also known as KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), are standards used to measure and track the performance of digital marketing campaigns.

These indicators are measured with exact values. Through that, the marketing team will determine whether their marketing campaign has brought significant results or not. 

With the explosion of social networks, various marketing methods, and many separate tools, advertising channels, and techniques, determining advertising performance metrics is paramount to defining the victory of marketing campaigns.

The Importance Of Using Advertising Metrics 

Advertising Metrics

It is very easy to lose time and money in digital marketing if you do not know clearly your goals. This happens when you use many advertising tools but do not collect and analyze metrics in each stage.

Deploying a series of advertising activities takes up as much financial as human resources. Understanding and managing advertising indicators will help us measure efficiency and use the money wisely.

Advertising metrics also help businesses determine the progress of running marketing campaigns. Also, they help figure out which campaigns are performing well and which ones need to be reevaluated. Eventually, it ensures your company is spending valuable budgets in the right way. 

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According to The CMO Survey, 72% of marketing chiefs said the "importance of marketing" has grown in their companies over the last year, but only 39% rate their strategies as effective.

Digital Marketing takes place on many platforms: Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Google Analytics or Google Sheet, CRM, etc., and each platform will have different metric standards. If you are doing online marketing campaigns on a few of them, then a good knowledge of ad indicators will help you to maximize your efforts. 

8 Important Advertising Metrics For Any Marketers 

Advertising Metrics

If you want your business' marketing campaigns to be effective, you need to pay close attention to the following 8 KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

ROI - Return On Investment

ROI (Return On Investment) is an indicator that measures the ratio of profits earned to the costs spent on a marketing campaign. In other words, this is the ratio of the profit made to the initial cost of the investment.

ROI is one of the most important KPIs to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. This is strictly the first number that you need to know. This metric helps you measure the sales revenue based on your business's budget.

Almost every effort in marketing campaigns has the final purpose: The craving to increase the profit on the cost spent.

If the positive ROI is high, your marketing campaign is doing well. On the contrary, you need to find the right solution to immediately adjust your marketing campaign.

CPM (Cost Per Mile) – Cost per thousand

CPM (Cost Per Mile) is a metric reflecting the cost per one thousand impressions/ views on an ad. Simply speaking, if the CPM of a particular keyword is $1.00, that means you must pay $1.00 for every 1,000 impressions to show your ads for this keyword.

CPM helps you measure the performance of your campaigns within and across different platforms. For instance, if you want to place an ad banner on website A, but then you discover that website B has more potential, then you can use CPM to make cost comparisons between these media (at both stages: preparing and reviewing stage)

CPL (Cost-per-Lead) – Cost pay for 1 potential customer

CPL (Cost-per-Lead) is a metric that helps measure marketing campaigns' effectiveness based on the leads generated. CPL focuses on the number of potential customers from marketing campaigns. The price per lead depends on the type of strategy you use for each lead generation channel.

Cost Per Lead (CPL) = Total Marketing Spend / Total New Leads 

To achieve the most accurate measurement results, the CPL needs to be combined with other factors affecting the business's profitability. Cost per lead enables you to set the sales goals, calculate potential ROI, and determine advertising budgets.

CR – Conversion Rate

CR can be understood as the conversion rate from visitors to customers. CR is critical because it allows you to lower your customer acquisition costs by getting more value from the visitors and users you already have. 

For example, if you need $1,000 to double your website traffic at the CR of 2.5%, but you only need $500 to improve the CR from 2.5% to 5%, then the second choice makes more sense.

CRR – Customer Retention Rate

CRR is an indispensable advertising measurement indicator to evaluate whether a marketing strategy is successful or not in many ways.

Customer retention measures how successful a company is at acquiring new customers and how successful they are at satisfying existing customers. It also increases ROI, boosts loyalty, and brings in new customers.

If the CRR is higher, your campaign is well enough to satisfy your customers and vice versa.

RR (Run Rate) – Goal achievement rate

RR (Run Rate) is an indicator that reflects the speed of completing the goal of the entire campaign compared to the original overall plan. RR helps marketers identify precisely how much budget they have spent to accomplish a part of a goal. Then, decide to add a method to accelerate or maintain the growth momentum.

CLV – Customer Lifetime Value 

CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) is an indicator that reflects the lifetime value. In other words, this indicator tells you how much profit a customer will bring to you over their lifetime.

CLV analysis helps businesses see which marketing activities are the most useful in bringing in the best customers.

Customers' economic value is not just in 1-time purchases. It lasts as long as they are buying from your company. Knowing CLV, companies can determine which customer groups will bring the most value to the company, which products customers want the most, and then fine-tune the company's effort to retain these high-value customers.

Social Media Reach

Marketing through social networking platforms has solid viral power. If you have creative ideas that drive customer actions, the cost of social marketing is insignificant compared to the potential results.

Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest have very high conversion rates. Using Social Media Reach metrics helps businesses measure how effectively social media contributes to online conversion rates.

In addition to these indicators, you also need to pay attention to others, such as Impression (Display Index), CTR (click-through rate); CPC (Cost per click); CAC (Cost of finding customers), etc.

Important Notices In Measuring Digital Marketing Campaigns

Advertising Metrics

Do not be complacent with "appealing" indicators

Marketing is the overall combination of many different activities. Sometimes, the indicator is stunning, but in reality, the effect it brings is trivial. Without experience in analyzing metrics, businesses are easily misinterpreted that their campaigns are running well, but the results obtained do not bring considerable impacts.

For example, a low CPL is great, but it does not mean that the potential leads can be converted into actual buyers. It just means how much money you are getting leads, and there will be many further activities to bring these leads to qualified customers.

Break down your goals into phases

An overall marketing campaign will be divided into several stages. Each stage can be organized into a small campaign. It is necessary to clearly define the overall goals and the sub-goals for each stage.

Selecting a reliable data source to measure marketing effectiveness

Many social networking platforms allow running digital ads, such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Google Ads, Google Analytics, etc. These channels have different ways of calculating metrics.

Because of the data source, each channel's metrics are different. If your business is running on Omni-channels, you need to find an experienced marketer to measure the effectiveness of your marketing in the most accurate way.

Limit the use of unnecessary data 

With a massive amount of data available with a few clicks, marketers need to determine which metrics their business is interested in. Which metrics matter to which campaign.

Regularly checking the metrics in the overview report will give you an accurate view of the status of your marketing campaign.

Choosing the right metrics really matters in digital marketing. We hope this article's information on advertising metrics will reconcile your marketing efforts and the available budgets to reach the maximal results. 

Nicky Minh

CTO and co-founder

Seven Strategies For Business Owners To Run Low-Cost Advertisements

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Low-Cost Advertisements

Seven Strategies For Business Owners To Run Low-Cost Advertisements

Low-Cost Advertisements

Marketing campaigns play a critical role in brand positioning and a company's success or failure. Big brands are now spending a lot of money on marketing campaigns and expect the best results. Is there a way for business owners to run cheaper ads for their marketing campaigns? 

Seven Strategies to help business owners run low-cost advertisements

Low-Cost Advertisements

Here are seven tips to help business owners run low-cost ads and optimize marketing campaign costs. These suggestions are appropriate for both startups and SMEs.

Social Media Marketing: Marketing via social networking sites

If you survey today's digital gurus, 95 percent of the experts will say, "Social network is the most effective marketing channel today."

Social media platforms with many users and interactions, such as Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, Gmail, Blog, Twitter, and others, have become essential in people's digital lives.

 Facebook currently has about 3 billion users, Instagram has 800 million users, and Twitter has reached 300 million. This figure is bound to rise.

Therefore, don't pass up the chance to run low-cost ads on this platform.

Social media marketing, in particular, has the potential to generate powerful viral effects— going beyond space and distance.

Social media marketing is a cost-effective and practical solution. You can run an ad campaign of short videos at a bargain cost.

The greatest strength of social media marketing is the spreading speed. When a single user is influenced, it can significantly affect many customers, their relatives, and friends.

The most significant advantage of using social media platforms in marketing is providing a massive and intricate user database.

Marketers can learn about their customers' preferences for products or brands, how frequently they visit a website, how much they are willing to pay, and their customer's priorities and consumption habits by conducting surveys or observing user behavior. 

Then they can determine the number of potential customers and design appropriate communication approaches.

Social media marketing is also an excellent way to build and maintain customer relationships.

You can create a company's fan page, a community group or a hashtag, etc., to build a community of brand supporters. You also can help or advise in answering questions and promoting more remarketing.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization - optimization of search tools, unquestionably one of the center activities in online marketing.

While traditional marketing can distract and attract customers, SEO is more sustainable as this approach relies on search keywords to direct users to websites.

SEO can generate a large number of customer leads. When you optimize SEO, the credibility of your website skyrockets, as does your company's reputation. 

Content Marketing

Content marketing is also one of the best ways SMEs can use to run low-cost advertising campaigns.

You may choose creative, trending content to market your products to the market.

Marketers using content Marketing should assume that potential customers will be interested in their products due to "curiosity," this can help to boost the conversion rate to a higher level. These potential customers will then move from the "curious stage" to the "desire to discover more stage" if your content appeals enough.

Video Marketing

Video marketing is a huge trend now, happening across many platforms such as Tik Tok, YouTube, and Facebook platforms.

Statistics figured out that users are spending up to 1 billion hours on YouTube every day. This figure is multiple times higher than Tik Tok and Facebook. The potential for growth in video marketing is undeniable.

The best part of it is that video marketing is not expensive. The original idea and unique presentation are what set you apart from others. 

A good tip in making videos for marketing is using stock footage to cut the cost, and using short-length videos can help you save tons of money. You should then upload the video directly to the company's social media accounts or free social media.

Video marketing is unquestionably one of the most cost-effective advertising methods for businesses in the golden age of streaming marketing.

Banners ads marketing

Banners ad is a traditional marketing strategy that is still useful today.

A well-designed banner strongly affects your potential customers. You will entice the customers to enter your store by using a great design banner with a meaningful slogan and CTA sentences.

Banners ads can also help in branding without breaking your wallet. You invest one time and can use it for a long time. In the long run, this is also one of the most affordable advertising options that leave a lasting impression on customers.

Partnership marketing

The explosion of social media has led to the development of partnership marketing, happening between brands and brands, or brands and KOCs.

Marketing collaboration between two brands allows both to access each other's customers and takes advantage of other benefits: such as distribution network, infrastructure, or brand identity.

An example of this strategy is brand sponsorships for popular TV shows and game shows.

When the MC introduces a game show and mentions sponsors, it is a marketing collaboration.

When visiting restaurants, shopping malls, etc., you will also see logos of delivery Apps such as Grab, Gojek, and Now. It's also called co-marketing.

Partnership marketing uses both parties' marketing resources for mutual benefit, which is one of the low-cost advertising options for companies looking for cost-effective solutions for their marketing campaigns.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most affordable and cost-effective forms of advertising that has existed. While many companies have exploited their email lists to convert general audiences to customers, many are still leaving email marketing on the table.

With email marketing, you can easily impress potential customers and build long-lasting relationships with them in a direct way. A great way is using automated mailing tools to send general emails such as: thank you emails, successful transaction notification emails, payment reminder emails, promotions emails, etc., to save the effort. With personalized emails, you need to have a great writer to write impactful, highly converting emails to cater to the need of each potential customer group. 

These days, a lot of e-commerce sites are doing an excellent job with this type of low-cost advertising. Email marketing is affordable, yet the conversion rate is worth using.

A remarkable notice when running an email marketing strategy is that you should personalize the sent emails. 

In other words, different customer segments should receive distinct content which gives a more professional impression and makes customers feel more valued than mass alike emails.

Furthermore, statistics show that emails with business domains are frequently rated higher than personal emails.

Don't pass up running this low-cost advertisement while it's cheap and effective.

Suggestions For Lowering Marketing Costs

After each marketing campaign, many businesses expect to optimize costs to maximize ROI (Return on Investment). It would be best to keep the following things in mind to ensure that your overall marketing campaign is successful.

Optimize advertisement delivery

Before developing a marketing strategy, you need to analyze the data gathered thoroughly. 

It would help if you first determine your target audience, including demographic details like age, gender, income, purchasing habits, etc. The more information you have, the more detailed your plan will be.

The more specific the target audience is, the more targeted the campaign can be. This aids in avoiding financial waste and cutting the cost for non-targeted audiences.

In addition, regularly reviewing the ads' performance allows you to understand the insight and adjust the target to reach your potential customers at the lowest cost.

Identify the right potential customers

Identifying the right potential customers is a critical skill in marketing. No company wants to waste money advertising products to people who don't need them.

Take advantage of marketing trends

Creativity is always an essential factor in marketing. Those who have the latest, better impressive ways of acquiring customers will be the ones to attract more customers.

 

 

 

 

Nicky Minh

CTO and co-founder

Tips To Help Business Owners Run Low-Cost Marketing Campaigns

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low cost ads

Five Tips To Help Business Owners Run Low-Cost Marketing Campaigns

low cost ads

Digital marketing has evolved into one of the most beneficial tools for businesses. Digital marketing technologies improve corporate performance while also assisting in developing brands. Paid advertising tools are constantly changing to meet the needs of reaching target customers on social interaction platforms. So, how can businesses use low-cost advertising to boost their bottom line?

The Primary Purpose Of Running Advertisements

low cost ads

First, businesses must understand why they need to run advertisements. As previously stated, the goal of running ads will typically fall into one of two categories: business performance and/or branding.

  • Running performance-based ads will include promotional activities directly aimed at increasing revenue. These marketing activities will have a direct impact on the sales team.
  • Brand advertising will include activities that increase brand awareness, brand identity, or brand sentiment on social media channels. These activities are often planned and are linked to the business's branding strategy.

What exactly is low-cost advertising?

low cost ads

Running cheap ads is defined as running ads so that the cost per result from the ad is as low as possible. 

There are various ways to measure an advertising campaign depending on its goal. When it comes to business performance advertising, the metrics to keep in mind are typically CPL (cost per lead), CPI (cost per installation), CPC (cost per customer), and CIR. (cost to income ratio). 

Meanwhile, brand development ads will be measured by CPR (cost per reach), CPE (cost per engagement),... or other interaction metrics.

Tips to help business owners run low-cost advertisements

low cost ads

Investigate and select the most cost-effective advertising channel

Currently, all advertising providers allow for multi-platform and multi-channel campaigns. Every company should take the time to learn about the benefits of advertising providers and the advantages and disadvantages of the tools they provide. Business owners can then plan to select appropriate advertising channels. In running advertisements, companies will save a lot of money if they do their research ahead of time.

Advertising content optimization

Each type of advertising will allow you to create unique content. Here are some examples of what might appear on your ad:

  • Text: Include all editable text, such as titles, headers, and paragraphs
  • Icons: Include signs that demonstrate nuance and draw attention to your article.
  • Image: Consists of purposefully designed static and animated images consistent with advertising objectives.
  • Videos: These are short videos.

Optimizing advertising content requires businesses to see their target customers and what message they want to convey to them and build content accordingly. Companies must harmoniously combine the elements above to form a complete advertisement to achieve this.

Sort and optimize the target customer database

Customers' consumption habits will differ depending on their demographic characteristics. As a result, businesses must tailor their advertisements to each distinct audience segment. Categorizing and continuously optimizing customer files will assist companies in recognizing differences in their purchasing behavior and developing a plan to build content accordingly. Here are some common demographic factors that advertising tools frequently allow businesses to optimize:

  • Age 
  • Gender 
  • Location
  • Interests
  • Behavior 

Avoid technical blunders

You might not realize it, but advertising tools always require time to optimize ads, even if you are the creator and directly run them. 

Typically, your ads will be delivered to the most targeted customers within half a day of going live. So, you'll have to spend time and money editing and rerunning another ad for every technical error.

Analyze and improve ad campaigns regularly

As previously stated, the ad running process is complicated by numerous factors. As a result, businesses must constantly monitor and analyze their advertising campaigns' effectiveness to maximize the cost per dollar spent.

Platforms That Allow For The Running Of Low-Cost Advertisements 

low cost ads

There are currently many social platforms that allow paid advertisements to be placed. The most well-known are Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Zalo Ads, Coc Coc Ads, and the newcomer Tiktok Ads. As a result, each platform offers a unique set of advertising options.

Facebook Ads is an advertising service offered by the social networking platform Facebook, which has over 1.9 billion daily visitors. Facebook allows advertisers to reach users through a variety of channels, including the News Feed, Messenger, Videos, Stories, and cost per impression (CPM). Furthermore, Facebook owns the social network Instagram and allows advertising on both platforms.

Google Ads: This is an advertising service available to all users of the Google.com search page, which is an effective advertising channel because the users have some demand for the product/service. Unlike Facebook, Google Ads uses a cost-per-click (CPC) billing model, which means businesses only pay when someone clicks on their ad. Furthermore, Google Ads allows display advertising on other Google social platforms such as YouTube or affiliated websites.

Zalo Ads: Like Google Ads, Zalo Ads is a cost-per-click (CPC). Currently, Zalo Ads is not an effective advertising tool compared to the two giants mentioned above. Still, in the future, Zalo Ads may be able to capitalize on the potential of some new channels because Zalo has the advantage of owning a phone number.

Tiktok Ads: As a rising star in the advertising industry, the Tiktok social network is rapidly expanding. Tiktok, launched in 2016, now has over 1 billion visitors per day and is still growing, making it a fertile ground for advertisers. Tiktok Ads currently charges for cost per 1000 impressions (CPM).

Ads are now almost an essential part of any business. With the numerous advantages that online advertising provides, every company should devise a strategy for making the best use of advertising. However, this is still a cost-effective method of increasing efficiency, so businesses must focus on the appropriate use of financial resources and continuous improvement to achieve advertising effectiveness. Remember that running cheap ads means the lowest cost per result from the ad, not the least amount of money.

Nicky Minh

CTO and co-founder

Types of Expenses That Should Be Cut To Optimize Profits That Managers Should Know

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expense optimization tips

Types of Expenses That Should Be Cut To Optimize Profits That Managers Should Know

expense optimization tips

Profit optimization is always a problem that needs to be solved throughout the business process. Simply put, optimizing profit means increasing the balance between cash inflows and expenses.

Keeping a healthy cash flow is crucial for SMEs and startups to face arising market challenges. To successfully optimize profits and increase revenue, the managers need to pay close attention to existing costs to determine the most appropriate direction.

Are all business expenses necessary to maintain? 

Business expenses are divided into two categories:

  • Fixed costs are fees that are not affected by any business life cycle effects and
  • Variable costs are fees that increase or decrease depending on a specific time.

In particular, fixed costs are more difficult to cut because they are closely linked with business activities such as rent, tax, insurance, loan interest, etc.

The costs will be divided into management costs and production costs for raw materials, factories, and many more for manufacturing businesses.

It seems that all fees are essential for the business to operate. However, with the current volatile economic situation, managers need to be very alert to manage these costs well.

So, what costs can be cut to maximize profits?

expense optimization tips

Excess production or service costs

A company with many non-key products can easily cause a surplus of raw materials. Although this does not significantly affect the cash flow, if we can reduce what is not needed, the business will save a considerable amount of money, and consequently, the profit is also optimized.

Another situation is the output is much higher than the sales. This leads to the waste of materials, occupying warehouses, and even reducing the quality of products when they are in stock for too long.

Ineffective PR campaigns

PR campaigns help businesses promote sales revenue but are not always the best tactic.

For small and medium-sized businesses and startups, focusing on PR activities can increase brand awareness on the market, but a wise CEO will always know when to "burn money" and when to preserve capital.

Promoting PR activities without a specific strategy will lead to business exhaustion. Before reaping the results, the money is already burned.

Expenses for unnecessary personnel

For small and medium enterprises, the more streamlined the operating process, the more advantageous it is. Under economic volatilities, having a lean procedure will help businesses adapt more quickly and efficiently, minimizing financial waste on unnecessary "gears."

For example, the division of separate departments helps employees work best at their own duties, but it also makes the operating process cumbersome.

Therefore, at the early stage of starting a company, there should be measures to optimize each personnel position to save costs and avoid wasting resources.

Depreciation costs of excessive promotions

Promotions and discounts are effective programs to boost sales at particular times, but many companies abuse them as an indispensable sales tool.

If the market value of the service is $500, but the actual revenue that can be received is only $250, this is also considered a large depreciation charge.

Managers need to consider drawing up more innovative sales strategies to maximize revenue without spending too much on promotions to optimize profits.

Time cost

This fee cannot be measured directly in money but will negatively impact the long-term operation. If the business activities fall into a state of "pending," it proves that a waste of time is taking place.

The excess "pending state" will slow the company's business progress. Therefore, managers should consider a plan to help companies optimize working time to increase efficiency and productivity, and eventually, the profits will be more optimized!

Jenfi Insights - Manage All Business Expenses With Just A Few Minutes

Jenfi Insights is a tool to help you optimize advertising costs on digital platforms and provides a detailed guide to help you expand your business effectively.

Make sure you always get the best return when running online ads with recommendations just for you. Sign up to use the Insights feature to use every penny properly!

Must have Marketing Tools

 

Nicky Minh

CTO and co-founder

How To Write An Impressive Case Study

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Case studies are comprised of the real-life stories of a business’ challenge, accompanied by the details and hard data of how they were able to overcome it and triumph in the end. Just like many marketing tactics, case studies are one of those materials that benefit from having a narrative woven through it to keep readers engaged and inspired to interact with your brand.

In essence, its purpose is to tell the story of how a client and supporting merchant or service provider were able to work together to solve the client’s issue.

After reading your case study, potential customers should be able to envision themselves in the shoes of their peers and be compelled to establish a partnership with your business. Here’s how to accomplish exactly that.

 

Obtain an authentic client testimonial

It can be tempting to try your hand at crafting your own testimonial and draft a case study from that, but the truth is contrived testimonials are often so blatantly obvious that clients can spot them from miles away.

“Something gets lost when you try to write your own testimonial. It's nearly impossible to re-create the individualistic, unique tone of voice that each of your clients or customers has,” says Jon Simpson of Forbes.

The best thing you can do is utilize direct quotes from your client and entwine them in with the expository of your case study. It’ll really help the flow of your format, and keep readers both entertained and trusting of your transparency.

Have a versatile angle that appeals to all prospects

They say being niche is the best way to appeal to the masses, and this certainly rings true when it comes to your case study. A good tip to keep in mind is to find a compelling, but broad angle to base your case study on.

For example, if you can find a particular client who has come across a seemingly uncommon roadblock, and your company was able to help them solve it, that could be a great way to demonstrate your business’ ability to creatively and critically resolve client dilemmas. Just be certain that the unusual obstacle in question appeals to all prospective clients in your target market.

Include concrete data and statistics to support your methodology

Engaging storytelling is great, but when it comes to selling yourself to potential clientele, cold hard data is going to be your wingman. Anything you can include that directly illustrates where the problem began, and where it was resolved, will help round out your case study.

Now, your company may not be about statistics, but as long as you can provide substantial evidence to support your claims you should be good to go. But remember, try not to overload your audience with extensive, boring data. Succinctness is key, and the more relevant they are the less you need to focus on explaining yourself. Let the numbers speak for themselves!

Write in a “Challenges” and “Solutions” section

Now, this may seem redundant considering all the ways you’ve probably outlined this information in the case study already, but think of this as a basic bulleted list where you can break down what the challenges were for this particular client, followed by a brief section about what you did to help them out.

Consider it a simple recap of what you discussed where you can drive the rest of your case study home to get readers to sign up.

Incorporate some captivating visuals

Intricately written text is the lifeblood of any good case study, but with our modern visually-driven world, decorating your case study with stunning, high-resolution imagery is the icing on top of the marketing cake.

This is a wonderful opportunity to not only paint a picture of your problem-solving expertise, but also to integrate your unique branding and really solidify the image you wish to put out into the market.

Be the supporting character in your client’s hero story

Iris Leung of Piktochart mentions that, “63% of marketers have said that they’ve been able to generate leads using case studies. And as today’s consumer typically reads up to 10 user product reviews before considering to make a purchase, it’s clear the impact that case studies will have on conversion rates.”

This means that mastering case studies is a great way to supplement your marketing strategy for casting the widest lead-generating net. And of course, we all need a little support when it comes to implementing effective marketing strategies and Jenfi is here to help.

If you’d like to learn about how you can obtain the funding to grow your business and make your marketing dreams come true, visit Jenfi today to see if you qualify for up to $200k in funding for your marketing expenses!

Nicky Minh

CTO and co-founder

How To Obtain A Small Business Loan Through PayPal

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PayPal allows you to have a smooth transaction process by letting you hook up your bank account directly to your PayPal and be an asset for most bank needs, local or international. It continues to innovate with valuable features for effortless business management.

You may be currently be using PayPal for many of your business transactions, but did you know you can also get a small business loan just for having an active business account as well?

How is a PayPal loan different from traditional bank loans?

PayPal loans and PayPal Working Capital have an ample range of $5,000 to $500,000 and have an easy application process compared to most traditional bank loans.

With bank loans, extensive documentation, including financial statements or legal documents, is typically necessary before you even get the process started. It can also take days or even weeks between submitting an application and receiving a notice of a reward.

PayPal, however, can take as little as 5 minutes to see if you’re eligible for the appropriate funding necessary for your business. Repayment works by deducting a 5% minimum percentage of each sale, paired with a fixed fee you’re made aware of before accepting the loan. This can be pretty comforting relative to how traditional loans work, as interest can be periodic and fluctuate more than once.

Other attractive benefits of PayPal loans are the lack of a credit check and additional application, annual, early, repayment, and late fees that can rack up your balance with a bank.

Am I eligible?

PayPal Working Capital eligibility requirements are pretty straightforward. Your must-haves are as follows:

  • Have a PayPal Business or Premier account for a minimum of 90 days
  • Have a proven track record of processing at least $20,000 in annual sales through your Premier account, or $15,000 in annual sales through your Business account
  • If you already have a PayPal loan, you must repay any remaining balance from the previous loan.

On the other hand, it’s important to note that PayPal does have a list of non-eligible industries for funding. You may not qualify for a loan if you are an attorney, a school, a civic organization, an independent artist, or a financial services provider, among others.

Check out the list here to see if you make the cut.

How do I apply?

Some basic information is required when it comes time to apply for your PayPal Working Capital loan. Depending on your business, you may need to provide contact information and birth dates, and social security numbers for your business owners and management. However, rest assured PayPal will not utilize this information for a credit check.

1. Once you have gathered this information, you have two options for filling out their simple eligibility questionnaire to determine if your business is currently in good standing.

You can:

Fill it out yourself online — it only takes 5 to 10 minutes.

Or, if you’re a tad anxious about errors, you can speak with a Business Funding Expert on the phone that will guide you through the process step by step.

2. Next, PayPal will ask you for a number based on what you need where you can specify your preferred amount, in addition to the duration of the loan

3. Once approved, you will sign an electronic contract with instructions on setting up weekly payments directly from your account.

4. When that’s all squared away, Paypal will deposit your loan into your PayPal Business account, at which point you have the option to either withdraw it and deposit it into your bank account or let it stay in your PayPal account instead.

How do I apply?

Some basic information is required when it comes time to apply for your PayPal Working Capital loan. Depending on your business, you may need to provide contact information and birth dates, and social security numbers for your business owners and management. However, rest assured PayPal will not utilize this information for a credit check.

1. Once you have gathered this information, you have two options for filling out their simple eligibility questionnaire to determine if your business is currently in good standing.

You can:

Fill it out yourself online — it only takes 5 to 10 minutes.

Or, if you’re a tad anxious about errors, you can speak with a Business Funding Expert on the phone that will guide you through the process step by step.

2. Next, PayPal will ask you for a number based on what you need where you can specify your preferred amount, in addition to the duration of the loan

3. Once approved, you will sign an electronic contract with instructions on setting up weekly payments directly from your account.

4. When that’s all squared away, Paypal will deposit your loan into your PayPal Business account, at which point you have the option to either withdraw it and deposit it into your bank account or let it stay in your PayPal account instead.

Are there any downsides?

As with any loan program, PayPal loans have their downsides as well. We talked about how having a PayPal Business or Premier account is an essential requirement of the loan and that not all industries are eligible, but there’s one other con.

Notably, it’s imperative to keep in mind that consistency in payments is crucial for maintaining good standing with your loan. Falling behind with your payments can cause PayPal to place specific limits on your account, which can no doubt be detrimental to the operations of your business.

Of course, if you feel confident with the steadiness of your revenue flow, then this may be no sweat!

Supplemental Loans

Loans can help many facets of managing a small business, but they don’t always cover every single part. Every business is undoubtedly unique, but overwhelming marketing expenses can be a constant for business owners across the board.

That’s where Jenfi comes in! Like PayPal, Jenfi also offers a simple and fully online application process to see if you’re eligible for marketing and inventory funding for your company. Jenfi loans are excellent supplemental loans that have your back regarding anything related to marketing your business for optimal growth.

Apply today, and discover all the ways Jenfi can help you expand your reach!

Nicky Minh

CTO and co-founder

Skyrocket Sales by Optimizing Your Facebook Target Audience

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Facebook ads are an impressively cost-effective tool when you realize just how many people you can potentially reach with your advertisements. An estimated 14.5 billion people log onto Facebook a day. 

The complex part of reaching such a broad audience is being able to classify users according to characteristics specific to your ideal customers. This, of course, begins with having a clear profile of who you think will be shopping for your product or service. 

Luckily, Facebook arms you with thousands of parameters to accurately distinguish each of your target audiences for laser-focused advertising. 

Types of Target Audiences

Facebook has a few significant categories of target audiences that each has their benefits depending on the kind of ad campaign you’re looking to launch. 

Here’s how you can get the most ROI from your budget by optimizing the hyper-precise features of Facebook Ads. 

Saved Audiences

A saved audience can also be called a core audience, and it’s comprised of targeted settings that you plan on using regularly. Essentially the group of characteristics that are at the common ground of your typical customer base.

When building your core audience, you can choose from a range of features such as demographics (age, location, gender, and language), interests (activities, hobbies), as well as behavior patterns (shopping habits, traveling, etc.)

It’s an excellent way for businesses who are still exploring their ideal target audience to collect data for future ads that includes insights into the current state of their market.

Lookalike Audiences

Once you know what your core audience looks like, a pivotal next step is to create a lookalike audience. Essentially, Facebook reduces the need to play the guessing game by utilizing its robust algorithm to find quite literally a lookalike audience that has relevant parameters to your existing core audience. 

How To Optimize Them 

Lookalike audiences are suitable for when you feel you’ve already exhausted your other options or if you want to create similar target audiences within different segments your past campaigns have excelled in. Meaning, if you happened to have a successful ad campaign run among people in their 20s, you can use lookalike ads to segment the audience further and find additional users ready to jump on the bandwagon. 

Choose whether you want to optimize your reach to a specific or broad audience, and Facebook will find you the top 1% of similar users in your target country, or the top 10% of that same pool of users, respectively. 

Custom Audiences

Custom audiences can be one of the trickier types of targeted audiences to navigate. It allows you to utilize behavioral data to target users who have had previous exposure and interaction with your brand by uploading your separate customer lists that include Facebook ID, email address, or phone number to reach specific accounts.

You can also pair it with Facebook tracking pixels, which you can use to track behavioral data directly from your website, such as sign-ups or items added to the cart, to benefit a future campaign. Upload your separate customer lists that include Facebook ID, email address, or phone number to reach specific accounts.

And of course, you can also include users who have interacted with your brand on the Facebook site itself, such as other ads you’ve run in the past or if they visited your Instagram account. 

How To Optimize Them

Custom audiences are a valuable tool to those companies that want to retarget previous customers to remind them of your products or service, if, for instance, it’s been a while since they’ve visited your site. Purchase additional behavior subcategories specific to your niche, or dive deep into Life Event Targeting to reach users who would benefit from your product or service during a significant time in their lives. 

Layered Targeting

Layered audiences are the ultimate and maybe most complicated facet of Facebook targeted ads. Layered targeting involves taking existing audiences and layering them with each other to create an ultra-specific group of users to advertise to. 

How To Optimize Them

The benefit of this is clear. The more you zero in, the more you can demonstrate that you’re able to tackle the specific needs of your customers with your product or service. For instance, if you sell dog food, surely you’d want to target individuals who just got a new dog, but you’d also like to advertise to existing dog owners who are in the market for a new dog food brand. You can then continue to get more specific with parameters such as dog breed, household type, etc. 

Facebook ads can be a refreshing way to approach pay-per-click advertising. It utilizes a completely customizable outreach system that lets you choose an audience that will be eager to buy from you as soon as your ad appears on their screens. If you’d like to know more about how you can receive the funding you need to employ Facebook ads as part of your marketing strategy, visit us at Jenfi and apply now to see if you qualify in as little as 24 hours!

Nicky Minh

CTO and co-founder

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