Local enterprises, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), exchanged measures to promote their business ability and production development through online marketing channels at a forum in HCM City on Tuesday.

The Viet Nam Online Marketing Forum 2017 (VOMF 2017), organised by the Viet Nam E-commerce Association (VECOM), aims to strengthen awareness of online marketing channels and enhancing the market share for Vietnamese enterprises in the global market.

“The most effective way to do business online is to have a website and social media presence that work together to spread your message and foster relationships with the broadest range of target customers,” said President of VECOM Nguyen Thanh Hung at the event.

“Once your website and social media page are run together, you can leverage benefits across both. Your website can be the epicentre of all your brand communication while your social media page can be used to engage and redirect customers back to your website,” Hung said.

According to a business survey released by RedShift Research and GoDaddy, 59 per cent of businesses that own a website said their business grew once they had built their website. Another survey on online consumers also showed that 67 per cent of consumers shopped online on websites or mobile applications after checking reviews and comments from social media.

Participants said that despite the effectiveness of social network advertising, having only one marketing channel may not guarantee business success. Unlike a social media page, website reflects a company’s brand in its design, user interface, and messaging. Thus, SMEs can use a combination of both to connect with their target audience in order to stand out amidst the increasingly intense competitive environment.

“Choosing the right domain name is the first step towards building a successful and credible online presence. By using trusted domain extensions, there is a level of credibility awarded to the businesses. For that reason, we advise businesses to choose .com for their websites because it is the global trusted standard for doing business online,” said Hoc Nguyen, Director of P.A Vietnam domain provider in the south.

The Vietnam e-Business Index 2017 reported by VECOM indicated that social networks surpassed search engines to become the most popular online advertising medium in 2016 used by 47 per cent of businesses while the numbers using search engines and emails are 41 per cent and 36 per cent respectively.

In general, social networks were not only the most used channels but also considered as the most effective one compared to search engines. Forty-six per cent of businesses said social network advertising was highly effective while 44 per cent are confident with search engines.

The event has drawn the participation from over 1,000 enterprises and organisations nationwide.

A similar event will also take place in Ha Noi on August 17.

VOMF 2017’s main topic is “Outstanding marketing trends” with a focus on affiliate marketing trends and search engine marketing, programmatic marketing and multichannel marketing and mobile marketing, social marketing and content marketing. — VNS