Learn marketing systematically from BowNow's support and become a driving force for internal marketing promotion ｜ GEAR8 (THAILAND) CO., LTD.
Mr. Yuta Umeki, Representative of GEAR8 (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
Successful email nurturing to existing customers by fully utilizing BowNow. Currently accumulating information assets to improve the sales system.
GEAR8 (Thailand) Co.,Ltd.
| Business Activity | Web site design, coding, and construction (CMS construction using WordPress and MovableType) Planning and consulting of marketing strategies using the Internet Internet-based advertising, advertising agency, and sales promotion planning agency CI/VI planning Graphic design, etc. |
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It will be interesting to see how BowNow is utilized in Thailand!
Please introduce your company
Mr. Umeki: GEAR8 was established in 2016 as the Thai subsidiary of GEAR8, which is headquartered in Sapporo, and is developing two main businesses.
The first is a website production and web marketing business. The first is website production and web marketing. We mainly produce corporate websites and LPs for Japanese companies operating in Thailand. We also provide support for Internet advertising and SNS operation after production. The majority of our clients are in the manufacturing industry due to the nature of the region.
The second is the operation of our own media, "Trippino HOKKAIDO. This is a web media that provides information about Hokkaido's attractions and local information in Thai language for tourists, and there are both a website and an app version. It is operated in cooperation with a wide range of Hokkaido-related businesses, including restaurants, lodging facilities, commercial facilities, airlines, and local governments.
We are using BowNow mainly for the former business, and they are supporting our local subsidiary in Thailand.
Many of the local Japanese companies do not speak Thai very well, so they often ask Japanese companies to create their websites for them. We feel that there is a certain demand for our services because we can communicate with each other in details such as confirming the progress of the project.
【Challenges before implementation】No sales force in place. Introduced MA for active sales activities to acquire new customers.
What challenges did you face before implementing MA?
Mr. Umeki: We thought of introducing MA because we had not been able to implement sales activities to acquire new clients.
Currently, there are five employees at the Thai subsidiary, and only one Japanese. There is no sales team, mainly directors and other production staff, and I, as the representative, am in charge of marketing and sales in general.
We were not able to conduct active sales activities to acquire new clients, so we were not able to re-propose to clients who had received one-off orders, or to propose other products after the website was created.
One of the reasons for this was that the local clients felt that they only needed a website for the time being and did not go into marketing measures, and we were not able to follow up with them on operations and advertising.
In terms of acquiring new clients, we waited for word-of-mouth to spread after the website was created, and often received referrals from local banks and existing clients, and we felt that we were not able to conduct active sales.
【Selection Points】BowNow's multilingual support, cost, and generous support were also deciding factors.
What was the deciding factor for you to choose BowNow among the many MA tools available?
Mr. Umeki: We decided to sign up with BowNow because of its multilingual support, affordable implementation cost, and excellent support. The timing was also good, as our manager introduced us to BowNow just when we were facing challenges in acquiring new clients. This was the first time for us to introduce MA tools, and to be honest, we didn't know how to use the tools, but BowNow was very helpful in teaching us not only how to use the tools but also how to think about marketing.
At present, we sometimes use BowNow to explain to Japanese companies in Thailand that there are ways to use BowNow and that we can get this kind of data.
【Measures & Effects】Focusing on email nurturing, the mail magazine open rate reached a high of 44%. Five existing companies became business partners, and two companies received orders.
What kind of measures are you currently using BowNow for?
Mr. Umeki: We are mainly engaged in email nurturing. By using BowNow, we are able to send email newsletters all at once, and we are able to continue our relationship with our clients more efficiently.
We also create and email whitepaper content that can provide marketing know-how to customers who "just need a website for starters".
Specifically, we have linked ActiBook (an e-book creation tool provided by *Mtame) with BowNow to post know-how articles on our website.
What specific results have you seen since you started your marketing efforts?
Mr. Umeki: We had a mailing list of about 400 companies, and the highest open rate was about 44%. We had two or three business meetings with existing customers, and eventually five companies. Of these, two orders were received. Since the Japanese community in the area is not widespread, I think the fact that they felt close to us led to the results.
After sending out the newsletter, we received more calls from people who wanted to talk to us about their problems. Every time we send out a newsletter, we get reactions from two or three companies. We have also seen a steady increase in the number of projects that have actually resulted in additional orders after consultations.
In many cases, we receive inquiries that are not directly related to the content of the newsletter we sent, such as "I want to add content. We feel that this is a good opportunity for our clients to remember us, and that we are now able to communicate with them, which used to be the end of the process of creating a website.
【Future Outlook】Strengthen the framework for collaboration between marketing and sales to achieve further results.
What would you like to challenge in the future with BowNow and marketing initiatives?
Mr. Umeki: I would like to make our internal marketing activities more "structured".
At present, we mainly respond to customers who have some kind of reaction, such as inquiries or consultations. However, in the future, we would like to share with our internal staff what kind of operation we should do in each phase based on the data obtained through BowNow so that we can respond to new customers as well.
In BowNow, we are focusing on the function of finding companies from corporate IP. I think there are some things we can do at that stage if we prepare our sales system. Currently, we are focusing on email nurturing and accumulating information assets so that we can continue our relationship with existing customers.
【Customer's Voice】The support was great and it gave me a chance to learn marketing systematically.
What do you expect from BowNow in the future and what do you think of Mtame's proposal?
Mr. Umeki: What I can say is that BowNow's support is excellent. I appreciated the fact that they didn't stop at explaining the tools and functions, but also systematically taught us the concept of marketing, for example, how nurturing would benefit us. After that, they taught us the role of MA, saying that BowNow does this and has these functions.
I can say that what I learned through BowNow's support can be applied to my customer service. As for the marketing knowledge needed to create a white paper, I also referred to an article in M-Tame! as a reference.
We were able to hear about valuable examples of how BowNow can be used by overseas customers.
Thank you very much!
