iSmart Communications Blog

11.11 (Double 11) or also known as Single’s Day originated from China in the early 1990s. It began when a group of Nanjing University students started celebrating it as a holiday. It is a celebration for being single and treating yourself, encouraging shoppers to buy things for themselves.

And so, the word spread to various locations. With social media, the awareness of this holiday became more well-known. However, this holiday only became significant with the launch of Alibaba’s Single’s Day E-Commerce Festival in 2009. They focused on the message thats says: “就算没有男女朋友陪伴，至少我们还能疯狂购物” which translates to "Even if you don’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend, at least you can shop like crazy".

Mark your calendars, 10.10 is coming! The fourth quarter is always the busiest period for retailers and brands across the world. This is no exception in Southeast Asia. We have seen the impact of Shopee (if you have seen the advertisement of Cristiano Ronaldo dancing during their 9.9 campaign).

Thanks to Alibaba, Amazon and even Lazada, these mega sales campaigns are now occurring almost consecutively on 9.9, 11.11 and 12.12 (September 9th, November 11th and December 12th). Don’t be surprised to see 10.10 (10th October) join the fray as a major year-end sales event. On top of these dates, there is the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. These could only cause more headaches for brands new to e-commerce.

(Source: Shopee)

E-commerce players must now plan well in advance with a 360-degree marketing approach to hit their annual online revenue targets as the year draws to a close.

Though it may seem like an impossible feat to beat out Wikipedia for Google’s answer box spot, it’s completely doable.

According to Google, "Featured snippets are special boxes where the format of regular listings is reversed, showing the descriptive snippet first"

First of all, let’s put it out there. “If Google can’t find your business, so will your prospects.” So you know the importance being found on Google, but 45% of small businesses aren’t sure what Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) means, according to Small Business Trends.

For beginners, starting on SEO may be daunting, which requires time to take effect. Keyword selection is fundamental along with other SEO basics such as internal linking. For a start, come up with a list of 10-15 keywords that your prospects might be searching for. What’s more, you don’t have to work alone. Make use of tools like Google Ads keyword planner or even Moz’s Keyword Explorer to find the most popular keywords. In the B2B field, especially in a niche industry such as manufacturing, most businesses consistently publish blogs and articles, which helps with SEO. You may find out more in this post.

In this post, I will be sharing some SEO fundamentals about keywords which beginners and even experts should not ignore.
So let's begin.

With the popularity of digital media and User Generated Content, comes with the price of the spread of confusing and inaccurate messages, which is more popularly known as "fake news".

Why the sudden shift of attention to fake news in Singapore?

Even without digital media, the attention to fake news has risen over the years. This is especially the case when shops were found promoting their shops with misleading ads such as "closing down sales" and "everything must go", when in fact the shops have been using that slogan for years. The misleading words used to advertise their shops suggested that the items are being sold at huge discounts, which may not be necessarily the case. That's when the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) stepped in to develop a set of guidelines on honesty and price transparency.

Organic traffic is ideal when looking to drive traffic and boost engagement on your website. However, if fast growth and immediate results is what you are looking for, you would need to consider adding paid search ads to your digital marketing strategy.

Social Media is a Restaurant's Best Friend and today, there are more reasons than ever for you to implement it to Grow your Business and Promote your Brand. Happy Reading!

When it comes to being found online, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the key. Learning SEO as a skill can be helpful for anyone who wants their company or brand to be easily discovered online. No doubt, it takes a lot of experience and knowledge of the subject matter to stay on top of the Google Search Engine, but SEO itself actually takes little effort.

So, hop on to find out the best practices to achieve high rankings and attract the right kind of traffic to your website!

Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving your website ranking so that it attracts more visitors through the use of search engines. In Inbound Marketing, this is a key step, so make sure that you follow these 5 crucial tips to maximise your SEO.