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UOB-SMU Asian Enterprise Institute

Dr Patricia Lui

  • Full-time Faculty, Lee Kong Chian School of Business
  • Lecturer of Marketing
Expertise
Marketing

About Patricia
Dr Patricia Lui is a faculty member of Marketing Discipline at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business. She has a PhD in Marketing and specializes in services marketing, digital marketing, consumer buyer behaviour and brand management. As a lecturer of marketing, Patricia teaches in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. She has been on the Dean’s teaching list since 2016.

Over the years, Patricia has advised and consulted companies in marketing. She regularly conducts corporate training programmes and public seminars for senior management and marketing professionals. Before joining SMU as a full-time faculty, Patricia practised marketing in advertising, media, research and consulting for over 20 years. 

 

What can you ask me
Anything related to marketing, consumer behaviour, branding, services marketing and digital marketing.

Answered Questions

Question posted by Mr Lee, Professional Services industry on 06 Sep 2023

Q: Dear Patricia

I operate an accounting office specialising in insolvency and restructuring practice, a B2B model. I wish to avoid the pay-per-click advertising or the use of a digital marketing agency because I do not think it is financially sustainable and my concern of marketing agency tends to boast or "over-sell" which may contravene my code of professional conduct. Would you be able to shed light on how could I improve my business income in the light of these constraints?

Dear Mr Lee

Thank you for your inquiry and for sharing your challenges in reaching potential clients. Firstly, the primary concern is identifying your firm's target segment, as mentioned in your inquiry – B2B clients needing insolvency and restructuring services. Another important question is how to reach these potential clients using a digital marketing strategy effectively. While increasing your business income is the ultimate goal, it's crucial to understand the likely journey your potential clients go through when searching for an accounting firm specializing in insolvency and restructuring practice.

That said, it's essential to understand these potential clients' buying journey. Assuming they are clear about their need for accounting services in insolvency and restructuring, the first stage of their buying journey is to search for information online regarding the availability of these services. Subsequently, they will gather information from a few selected accounting firms and evaluate their offers before choosing one accounting firm. Once you clearly understand your potential clients' buying journey, it's time to decide how to reach out to them at different stages: awareness, information search, consideration, evaluation, and purchase.

As you pointed out, search advertising is commonly used to reach out in Singapore. However, it can be costly and, if not done correctly, may not be effective. For B2B businesses like accounting firms, an effective website design and search engine optimization (SEO) strategy are necessary before implementing search advertising.
A website design strategy in digital marketing is a plan that outlines your website's goals, the target audience you want to reach, and the design elements that will help you achieve those goals. Key elements include layout, tone, content, navigation, and call-to-action. Following this, you need to work on an SEO strategy to drive traffic to your website. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a set of techniques and practices designed to improve a website's visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal is to attract organic (non-paid) traffic by optimizing various aspects of the website to align with search engine algorithms. An effective SEO strategy includes using a sound keyword strategy to help people understand your accounting firm's services, and on-page and off-page optimization to boost traffic.

You might consider starting with the website design and SEO strategy to increase your firm's visibility on Google's search results page and enhance your firm's reputation. Once the website fundamentals are established, you can then explore search advertising. Google has a self-purchase advertising platform, allowing you to purchase search ads without using an advertising agency.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Thanks!

Regards,
Patricia 

Answered by Dr Patricia Lui on 12 Sep 2023 17:26

Common Questions asked by SMEs

Q: I run a small B2C business. Do you think if I should use influencer marketing?

Yes, why not? An influencer marketing strategy can help you reach out to your target market. It works well because influencers connect your brand with their followers. The followers listen and trust recommendations from the influencers.

Start small, look for a micro-influencer who has between 1,000 to 1,000,000 followers and is an expert in his/her respective field, such as a fitness blogger or a chocolate lover. The micro-influencers can connect on a much deeper level with their followers and build higher social engagement rates. They interact with their followers in an informal setting regularly through sharing tips, photos, daily life experiences around topics they are the experts.  With the frequent postings on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, their followers respond via likes, shares, follows, questions and comments. You may engage a micro-influencer who know your product category well.

Develop a campaign with the micro-influencer and see how he/she can share your brand story with his/her followers. Your campaign is more likely to be accepted by their followers as they can relate a lot more to the micro-influencer who is like one of them in real life.

Consider using a micro-influencer to promote your brand, and chances are you will see more people trust recommendations by influencers. Please contact me if you need any further information on the topic.

Answered by Dr Patricia Lui on 12 Sep 2019 10:20

Common Questions asked by SMEs

Q: We are a local SMEs. How do we improve our website's SEO ranking?

I'm glad that you have recognized the importance of SEO.  SEO stands for "search engine optimization".  It is the practice of increasing the quality and number of people to a website. Most SMEs have limited resources for website marketing. I can suggest a few strategies that would help you increase your website ranking on search engines.

We always say that content is the crucial driver of a website's ranking. Develop and publish quality content for your target customers would improve your website's authority, relevance and trust. You should also update your website content.  Search engines feel strongly about updated content as it is a relevant indicator of a website's relevancy to the customers.  I would recommend you to plan a schedule to make updates regularly.

Another key point to an effective SEO strategy is to build a link-worthy website.  You need to create relevant links within the text. It helps improve your search engine rankings and the ranking of the page. You should also describe the links by using linking keywords, so people get to know what exactly the content.

Lastly, using the right sets of keyword phrases is essential.  You need to identify and use keywords correctly throughout a page on your website. You should consider using keywords in headings, link text and photos to improve search engine ranking.

Follow the suggestions, and an effective SEO strategy would help your company reach out to more potential customers and ultimately increase conversion rates. Please feel free to write to me again if you have any further question.

Answered by Dr Patricia Lui on 12 Sep 2019 10:20

Unanswered Questions

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