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LeapOut Gets Media Spotlight on Award-Winning TV & Radio Show Pilipinas, Ngayon Na

Tony Chua January 11, 2024

Marvin, LeapOut President and CEO, imparted digital marketing insights on the radio program on the topic Thriving Businesses: Ride the Digital Wave. Marvin Ortiz, LeapOut Co-Founder and CEO, had the honor of guesting in a radio program Pilipinas, Ngayon Na on January 8, 2024, aired on DWIZ 882 and Aliw TV 23 and hosted by Undersecretary (USec.) Robert Rivera and Lady Elyza. Marvin’s guesting highlighted the power of digital marketing and e-commerce to the hosts, who, like many ordinary Filipinos, are still not well-versed but are enthusiastic about this thriving sector. Helping Businesses Leap Into Digital At the start of the program, USec. Rivera stressed the importance of keeping abreast with developments taking place on the Internet. “We know that AI and digital are all over. That’s why communication time has been cut considerably. With the touch of a finger, you can video chat anywhere in the world and talk to anyone.” USec Rivera also admitted that many businesses in the Philippines are struggling to compete because they still opt to use traditional methods. However, he emphasized that to be competitive in today’s world, they need to keep up with the fast-changing business practices such as establishing an online business presence. Taking off from this backgrounder by USec Rivera, Marvin introduced LeapOut and its mission. He said that the company aims to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and even micro-enterprises “to leap into its digital transformation.” The company equips companies with capabilities to break into and then grow and succeed in the digital realm. “We are a digital marketing agency that helps businesses maximize their business presence online — especially legacy businesses — to spot more opportunities and thrive online.” “From First-Scale to Full-Scale” Marvin, one of the pioneers in the country’s digital marketing landscape, commented that it is LeapOut’s mission to help Filipino businesses, especially those who are eager to establish their footprint online via digital marketing. “The goal of digital companies is not only to share information but also to help users navigate the digital landscape by elevating their user experience. Usually, we help companies that have the vision and goal to serve online customers but have no capabilities and capacities to venture into digital media,” he said. To guarantee success in this transformation, Marvin said LeapOut is committed to empowering its clients to succeed from laying their foundation online to providing excellent customer experience. This end-to-end approach is what digital marketing professionals consider the “from first-scale to full-scale” approach. Using this extensive approach, the company has provided and is currently providing these services to its clients from SMEs to those belonging to the top ten Philippine companies. “We have already helped and continue helping businesses and organizations in the Philippines. in transforming their digital footprint,” Marvin added. LeapOut’s clients include household brands such as SM, Ajinomoto, Cebuana Lhuillier, Malayan Insurance, and Wilcon Depot. To accomplish this, LeapOut helps conceptualize, create, and compose digital content for its three key businesses: social media and content marketing, e-commerce, and paid media. The company started as a digital marketing agency. The company later ventured into e-commerce development and programmatic advertising. Screengrab of Marvin explaining how digital marketing benefits businesses during the radio interview streamed live on Pilipinas, Ngayon Na Facebook page. Hypertargeting 101 To showcase what digital marketing can do to businesses on the program, Marvin described the power of programmatic advertising. With this technology, companies can now show their marketing content and copies directly to their specific intended audience. He demonstrated this technology through an example. A company wants to offer two contents to two demographics: Content A is for seniors and Content B is for millennials. With programmatic advertising in Google and social media platforms, the company can show only Content A for seniors in the platform you subscribed to and Content B to only your target millennial audience. Since this method will only allow your content to be seen by your ideal audience, it provides amazing efficiency to your campaign. It lowers the cost as it prevents you from showing the ads to unintended audiences. And because only your target people can access your content, your probability of sales increases considerably. It Started With A Mission When talking about LeapOut’s mission, Marvin shared the humble beginnings of the company. He recalled the time when a plumber sought his service when he was still an advertising agent in 2009. Short of funds to pay for the ad, it took some time for the plumber to pay for the creative and publish it online. At a time when the internet was just starting and selling online services was difficult, the freelance plumber believed that the new tech would open business opportunities. This kindled Marvin’s passion to open an agency to serve as a launch pad for the growth of SMEs and micro businesses. With digital marketing, he believes these small and startup businesses have a “leveling playing field” where they can compete head-on with established companies and corporations. Cybersecurity Insights Aside from digital marketing, Marvin also provided his insights on cybersecurity, especially on email and social media accounts. “Social media accounts like Messenger and email addresses can be hacked and faked,” he stressed. One of his takeaways is to be mindful of emails that we receive. For email, check for the sender. To find out if the email address or URL is legitimate, check the domain name if it matches the exact spelling of the domain name (.com or .edu) of legitimate sites. Another thing you can do is to verify whether the sender uses a real name. When you are doubtful of the sender, you should research if the email is factual over the Internet or confirm with your friends and people you trust. Pilipinas, Ngayon Na! airs every 2 pm – 3 pm on DWIZ 882 kHz and Aliw TV 23. The entire interview can be streamed on the Pilipinas, Ngayon Na Facebook page.

Featured Blog

LeapOut Gets Media Spotlight on Award-Winning TV & Radio Show Pilipinas, Ngayon Na

Tony Chua January 11, 2024

Shopify SEO: Everything You Need To Know

March 14, 2022 1 Comment

In the age of the global pandemic, online stores have become one of the primary sources of goods for people. In response, brands are focusing on their e-Commerce websites and pages to meet the demand of their target consumers, utilizing various platforms like Shopify to establish their online presence. In fact, the platform has had a surge in usage as data shows its subscribers increased in number since October 2017. But with so many brands going on Shopify to establish their online stores, there’s bound to be competition. Businesses must continuously adapt to efficient methods and strategies to not get left behind. One such method is search engine optimization (SEO) for Shopify Stores. If you’re a beginner in the field of SEO, here’s what you need to know and how it can help boost your Shopify store. Why SEO is Important for Shopify Stores Search engine optimization or SEO is the process of optimizing a website through various methods to rank high on the Google search results. This is done in order to increase the number of people seeing the website link when they search for the relevant keywords. SEO solutions benefit not only a brand’s website traffic but also their profit. According to SearchEngineJournal.com, stores get almost twice as much traffic on their websites when they rank first compared to the one ranking second. While higher traffic is not the direct cause of increasing profit, there is a correlation. With more traffic comes more customers that will buy something from your store and add to your sales. Adding keywords to your Shopify store Your ranking can be affected by the following factors: Natural links leading to your page from other websites Engagement-based website authority Domain name age Optimized website structure and content While the first three are hard to control, especially when you’re just starting, the last part can be done with the use of good keywords on your website. When choosing them, certain factors should be considered. Namely, what are your competitors ranking high on, and what types of keywords to target. Experts recommend checking competitors’ keywords to get an idea of what the competition is doing and what keywords to target. It also helps to analyze why precisely these competitors are ranking high and why your shop isn’t. Another thing to consider when choosing keywords is if certain ones are easy to rank on. For example, most shops use the long-tail form because it’s more specific and targeted. In addition, it’s easier to rank on due to low competition. Still, shops must learn to consider the customer’s search intent or why they’re searching that phrase. Whether the intent is informational, transactional, commercial, or navigational, the keywords you’re targeting should match the content on your website. Applying SEO to home, product, and collection pages The best way to apply SEO on your Shopify page is to use keywords into the following: Meta titles – The search engine checks your title tag and your content to see if they match. Meta description – This is the quick summary of what your content entails and can be seen under the meta title when the page appears on your search results. Image alt text – As the search engine can read text but not images, alt texts are necessary so they can be crawled. Page content – The recommendation is to use unique, readable content with the keywords integrated seamlessly. All of these should be done for the home, product, and collection pages. Make sure that the meta titles and meta descriptions are SEO-friendly and persuasive enough to attract people. For the product and collection pages, keywords must be inserted in the alt text of the product, collection, and featured images. Add rich snippets or structured data to inform users of more product details and entice them to click. Moreover, other measures to help optimize a website are to put descriptive file names on the images, match the link text of internal links to the page they’re linking to, submit a sitemap to Google for verification, and hide content that might negatively affect SEO through robots.txt. While Shopify has automatic features that you may not need to optimize structure or create your own robots.txt file, you can still make an effort to improve things manually. For the robots.txt file, you can allow or prevent certain URLs from being crawled, block specific crawlers, and more. Fixing the page loading times of your store With all the efforts to optimize your Shopify store, you can run into different kinds of issues. A common one is the site speed, usually caused when loading images featured in collections pages. A slow loading time is a bad thing, as 47% of online shoppers typically expect a 2-second load time. Otherwise, they’re likely to leave your site in favor of others. Fortunately, there are ways to fix this through Shopify’s platform. For one, selecting a lightweight Shopify theme can do wonders, as some take longer and shorter than others. You can also optimize the images themselves, using .JPG files over .PNG as the former’s file sizes are smaller. Lastly, you can use the lazy loading function so that the images load as you scroll down, therefore decreasing the time it takes to load. By doing these, you’ll be able to reduce the bounce rate, the percentage of users leaving your site after only viewing a single page. Sample SEO projects LeapOut has done various SEO work for a variety of clients. Such high-profile clients include Sports Central, an online store apparel in the Philippines, and Crate & Barrel, a high-end home decor store. For Sports Central, the website visibility is 8.88% as of January 2022. This is a good improvement from the initial visibility at 7.32% last July 2021. Moreover, from an authority score of 16 last June 2021, the website increased to 35. Its scores last November and December were 38 and 36, respectively, with the drop associated with the migration to a different domain. Otherwise,

The Impact of COVID-19 on Digital

April 17, 2020 1 Comment

The current COVID-19 crisis has dramatically affected several nations. With over thousands of cases worldwide and countries on lockdown, it’s safe to say that this pandemic has rocked the whole world to its core. We see cities implementing Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), preventing people from leaving their homes and limiting their movements only to do the essentials. The ECQ has also forced companies to restrict their operations, affecting all employee ranks from bottom to top. With all the challenges the outbreak brought, some digital businesses have managed to thrive despite the difficulties. While enterprises that deal with physical transactions are struggling to sustain their trade, digital companies have integrated agile and innovative ways of working to continue their operations. More than ever, digital businesses have shown resilience and adaptability in coping with “the new normal”. So how has COVID-19 affected digital businesses? We look at it through specific examples. How Did Digital Agencies Operate Before COVID-19? Despite the nature of work being digital, employees are expected to work in a physical office to promote productivity, collaboration and ease of communication. Some companies provide flexibility to do a work-from-home option once-a-week, a telecommuting strategy that helps relieve employee stress. Some companies and digital agencies, such as LeapOut, operate using a hybrid method that combines face-to-face interaction with both clients and team members while applying project management tools and online applications for working with customers remotely. Though the company requires some of its members to be in the office physically, it can easily switch its processes in working purely online when the need arises. In trying to contain the spread of COVID-19, companies had to make adjustments to continue their operations. While others had a difficult time adjusting to the situation, the agility of digital-centric companies proved advantageous to their trade. In the case of LeapOut, Managing Director Marvin Ortiz had this to say: “We had a headstart given that the majority of our work-force are digital natives. The tools to manage remote work effectively are not new to our team since we’ve been supporting some offshore clients.” The Effect of Coronavirus on Digital Businesses The economy is expected to slow down due to the pandemic, and digital businesses are presumed to become a catalyst from trimming the shock to expediting the economic recovery. Image of Philippine Stock Index Performance Screen capture from: Investagrams.com The economy is expected to slow down due to the pandemic, and digital businesses are presumed to become a catalyst from trimming the shock to expediting the economic recovery. We can see order taking and delivery apps enable trade during the ECQ, as well OTT payment transactions increasing; however, for the digital industry in general, sales demand has been significantly less during the COVID-19 crisis. As Ortiz points out, it’s harder to tell a brand to start advertising at this present time. “Everybody is a bit worried that they may come out insensitive during the ECQ. There are also concerns that digital ad budgets will go to waste since people are only purchasing only the essential things,” he says. Still, he points out that there are new opportunities on the horizon, as people have time and can pay more attention to relevant messages. “People know about COVID and they’re already scared about it. Our audiences need content that can inspire them and make them feel better. We might not get purchases now, but it’s an opportune time for business to win customers’ hearts.” People know about COVID and they’re already scared about it. Our audiences need content that can inspire them and make them feel better. We might not get purchases now, but it’s an opportune time for business to win customers’ hearts. This isn’t just exclusive to the digital front, however. Conversions in various industries have also declined because of the pandemic, according to Neil Patel, with food, health services, and media are the only ones getting an increase in demand. Even in figures important to awareness and conversion, such as website traffic, you can see these industries rising alongside finance. This showcases the priorities of the general public lies on a limited set of essentials, namely: food, medicine, money, and news. This is why clients have reduced their advertising efforts. Ligo Sardines, in particular, has allocated that chunk of their budget to help relief operations instead. However, not all clients have been conservative in their digital campaigns. Ortiz shares that some have taken the opposite route by pushing more digital initiatives and re-allocating their budgets on digital in order to serve their customers with significantly less physical contact. Servicing these types of clients is what keeps agencies busy amidst the outbreak. Several brands have also taken advantage of the situation to promote their Corporate Social Responsibility and brand image while still maintaining tastefulness in their execution. Bud Light, for example, has held virtual concerts the same way pop stars have done so in the comfort of their homes on Instagram Live, Facebook, and other streaming platforms. Miller Lite also launched their #VirtualTipJar campaign to raise money for bartenders out-of-work due to the outbreak. This shows that brands can still leverage their presence online without sacrificing the human quality needed during these hard times. What Does it Mean for Digital Businesses Post-ECQ? While possible cures and vaccines are underway, the pandemic is expected to continue up until next year. With this development, it seems likely that this working situation will last during a good part of 2020. Digital companies like most businesses will survive the downturn so long as they stay relevant and create value for their customers. According to Ortiz, this is a chance for brands to show humanity beyond their company logos and exercise compassion. Both the public and private sector are encouraged to do anything they can to lessen the blow of COVID-19 to our citizens, as well as keep communicating to their audiences on social media. On how other enterprises should act at this time, Ortiz encourages companies to evaluate the situation

The 5 Digital Marketing Cliches You Need to Break Up With

February 28, 2020 No Comments

While digital marketing in the Philippines might be a relatively new industry, it’s a booming, competitive sphere in the country. The field is notorious due to its fast-paced approach in business. Hustling to get consistently fresh ideas can be tough, but breaking off cliches in your writing routine can be much harder. Read on how you can ditch the most overused tactics in digital marketing. Empty taglines Sound statements are the bread and butter of great marketing. Because if you don’t communicate your message precisely, what’s the point? Adding overused buzzwords like “world-class”, “one-stop-shop”, or phrases like “built from the ground up” don’t add any flair. It’s time to do away with this practice and start phrasing your message based on the Golden Circle. THE SOLUTION: Use the Golden Circle, a concept introduced by Simon Sinek that asks the What, How & Why of a business. When put to writing, it should emphasize your product or service’s importance. Be direct as if you’re speaking with a customer face-to-face and telling it how it is. Crazy positivity You heard that right: happy is the new trendy. From self-care geared items to Treat Yo’ Self activities and all that jazz, sporting positive energy has been all the rage lately. Companies even like to use giddy stock photos and other similar styles in an attempt to market emotionally. Emotional Marketing is a type of approach that taps into people’s feelings to attract, engage & delight their market. THE SOLUTION: While emotions are one of the biggest drivers of our purchasing decisions, it doesn’t mean we’re happy all the time. An overly optimistic approach can sound more insincere than exciting. Brands thrive in conflict, AND it’s okay to point that out. Isn’t that right? Content for content’s sake Have you heard of the quote “Content is King?” Bill Gates coined this phrase in his essay in 1996. It’s an adage as old as time and still rings true for content marketers. Despite the changing algorithms, continuously churning out content doesn’t mean you will reap great results. People no longer consume whatever content that catches their eye. They look for quality (whether they know it or not) with their impressive filtering skills. THE SOLUTION: In the age of information, most consumers today know better and have ample access to info they don’t even know yet. With proper planning and effective collaboration with your teams, you can cultivate more valuable content that’s worth consuming. It also saves everyone’s time, effort and energy. Spammy on the socials Even if there are more than 50 social sites on the Internet, there is so much you can do with just a few apps. Brands are also okay with utilizing two to four platforms, but some make use of those channels poorly. How? Imagine this: let’s say you have big news to share. There’s your family, your friends, and your SO. Would you break the news to your friend the same way you do it to your parents? Of course not. THE SOLUTION: Each platform has a distinct personality with a well-established approach for its audience. Instead of going spammy on all socials, tailor your content to the strength of each platform. You can make it short and sick for Twitter, graphic-driven on the ‘Gram, or go long with good ol’ Facebook. A one-style-fits-all model Whether you have a startup or an established enterprise, reaching the Maturity Stage is part of a business life cycle. It’s a make or break situation that requires grit and creativity for brands. Some choose to reinvent themselves with new positioning. Some would rather invest in emerging markets. Either way, it is crucial to not fall into giving false promises to your clients. THE SOLUTION: Remember the “I have a solution for a company of any size or industry” pitch? It’s just bad as it sounds, folks. Each industry has its own needs and expectations, and it won’t be catered enough by your strategy no matter how universal it seems. So go ahead, scale away each segment with what fits them best!

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Growing Your Audience On Instagram

February 19, 2020 No Comments

Since its inception, Instagram has been a popular platform for users all around the world. In fact, about 95 million photos and videos are posted on it per day as per Reuters. From sharing photos and videos on a curated feed to posting fleeting moments through short stories, it’s a great social media app for digital and content-savvy individuals. Aside from this, businesses have also reaped the benefits of using the platform for their social media advertising through the use of Instagram Business. Using it has a lot of advantages to your brand such as being visually appealing, engaging, and fun to execute. Still, being able to create great Instagram content is only half the battle. Your brand must also gain a wide audience for them to see and engage in what you post. Here’s how: Hashtags You’ve probably seen certain brands and even some influencers make use of hashtags in their posts. Though it may seem quite obnoxious, these are actually a great way to gain followers on your business account. You can look through the most popular hashtags on Instagram to check which ones have the most number of people visiting it. At the same time, you need to make use of popular hashtags that are also tailored to your brand. Just using random popular hashtags without taking into account if it works for your posts will not result in better engagement in the future. Influencers As per an article from Forbes, “influencers are the new brands.” This means that these Instagram celebrities have the power to convince people to buy certain products or avail certain services. With this, it’s recommended for brands to partner with the right influencers to increase more people checking out your page. Even the smallest accounts still have a reasonable following that will eat up what their favorite celebrities buy and consume. Take advantage of that, and you’ll see a significant increase in your Instagram community. Contests and giveaways Sometimes, the best way to get more followers is to hold contests and giveaways for your followers. The common ones involve commenting on the contest post and tagging a certain number of friends to be eligible. Doing this exposes your brand to potential followers and fans of the products you offer. You can even include liking your page as a mechanic of the contest so that whoever joins needs to be following your account before they’re fit to participate. Stories and IGTV One mistake most brands make when they handle their Instagram account is not taking advantage of the stories and Instagram TV (or IGTV for short). Stories are a great way to show updates without spamming or breaking the pattern of your curated feed. It also gives a sense of exclusivity, as it’s only available for 24 hours and cannot be viewed after (unless you put it on your highlights). IGTV on the other hand are good for long-form types of content and for mini series your fans can find on your page. Don’t miss out on using these features as only posting pictures on your feed can seem quite repetitive. Consistency In social media management, consistency is key. This is applicable in all aspects, from the brand voice to the aesthetic to even the posting frequency. Ever see a feed that’s so curated and perfect? That’s the kind of feed you need to achieve for people to follow you. Aside from that, even your posting times should be consistent, as irregular posting can be quite counterproductive to your goal of gaining a bigger following. As much fun as Instagram can be, gaining significant traction on it can be hard work, let alone getting a huge number of followers, You have to plan and apply an effective strategy to ensure that you don’t just get said followers, but also the right ones who will give you engagements, participation, and, most of all, sales and business.

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7 Proven Ways To Increase Your Website’s Organic Traffic

February 14, 2020 No Comments

Apart from making your business a customer’s top of mind, it should also be at the top of their search. Whether you like it or not, the internet has become an integral part of life, making websites an effective business move. All it takes is one search and click, however, the question remains: are you searchable? Being a searchable website means you are visible on a search engine. Google, for instance, has over 5.6 billion searches per day. Take advantage of these numbers and increase your website’s organic traffic by doing the following fail-safe tips: Resonate with your target audience Determine your buyer personas and ensure that your content is made for them. By creating quality content that addresses their issues and pain points among others, you will be able to drive traffic and connect with the visitors of your website. However, keep in mind that it’s one thing to attract the attention of your market and another to make you their first choice. Your goal is to keep them coming back for more. Being a credible source of information for your target audience will help promote and drive traffic to you. Create content regularly One of the most effective ways to increase organic traffic in your site is to consistently create helpful content. Although you’re doing it frequently, be reminded to keep your postings of high quality as any inferior content can have a negative affect on your website. Come up with a content marketing strategy that can help you boost your standing in the industry and open doors of opportunities for you. Promote your website There’s nothing wrong with promoting your website. In fact, it’s even a recommended effort. You can join online groups and communities which are relevant to your content as well as your buyer personas. Being part of an online group, however, doesn’t exactly scream immediate results. Instead, it’s advised to build rapport by being active, showing your expertise with helpful insights, and encouraging authentic interactions which can cultivate your relationship with your audience. Choose long tail keywords While we have said that your content must be able to address queries and concerns of your buyer personas, this doesn’t mean that you should push aside search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. One of the basic steps in being optimized is choosing specific long tail keywords that represent your product or service. Doing so can help search engines include your website as a landing page for the subject and keyword you have selected. This can also improve your ranking and, in turn, make you searchable for your targets. Insert internal links and welcome external links With these internal links, your website visitors are then directed to other relevant content of yours. This is usually done after reaching a reasonable amount of posts. Content efforts are then maximized by linking one content to another. Doing so will keep them your target audience on your site, boosting your ranking further to the top. External links, especially those coming from established websites, have a greater effect on your ranking. This is because Google sees websites more credible and authoritative when externally linked with other trustworthy sites. Connect via social media Allow your business to connect with your audience personally. By being shareable and reachable, being on social media can definitely put your brand out there and get the traffic your website needs. Base on insights to better optimize Make use of tools that can help your track the performance of your site and the traction of your content. Being aware of your buyer persona’s behaviour can help you adjust and improve your content. At LeapOut Digital, our expertise includes making clients searchable. Partner with us and let your website reach its fullest potential. Our team of digital experts can help turn your digital audiences into customers.