Jaycee De Guzman – Content Marketing Shifting to Better Technology
Derek is joined today by Jaycee de Guzman of iPresence which is a digital marketing company. They will discuss Jaycee’s extended history in outsourcing and digital marketing services.
Summary
- Jaycee is a computer scientist turned digital entrepreneur. His venture into the digital marketing business started back in 2001 as a freelance writer.
- iPresence offers services to Philippine companies as well as companies across the world. Although, 98 percent of their clients are from the Western world.
- This 2018 iPresence is planning to top the Philippine market by utilizing video content marketing. iPresence aims to raise awareness about the benefits of outsourcing.
- Jaycee mentioned three major reasons why business owners should outsource to the Philippines;
- Cost-effectiveness
- Filipinos are hardworking people
- Commitment and dedication
- Jaycee discussed that he already had an outlook back in 2001 that outsourcing will be booming industry.
- Jaycee mentioned that the Philippines has already overtaken India as the most sought-after country when it comes to outsourcing. One reason behind that is the Filipino people’s grasp of the English language.
- iPresence started by offering content writing, then they eventually added services one by one.
- When iPresence was just starting out, they offered discounted rates to attract new clients and client reviews.
Key Points
- Based on research from 2018 until 2020 the content marketing style will start to shift from text-based content into video content.
- According to Jaycee, majority of the Filipinos are visual people which is why iPresence chose video content marketing as an approach to top the Philippine market.
- According to Jaycee, generally, a majority of their clients are open to the idea of outsourcing.
- According to a survey conducted by Jaycee’s team, a staggering 92% of business owners would choose to outsource their digital marketing needs.
Resources
Transcript
Hi and welcome to another episode of the outsource accelerator podcast. My name as always is Derek Gallimore. And this episode is number 120. Today we are joined by Jaycee de Guzman of iPresence digital marketing. We talked to Jaycee about his origins about his extended history in outsourcing and digital services and content writing since 2001. So it’s a good episode. Hope you enjoy. If you want any of the show notes then go to outsourceaccelerator.com/120. Enjoy.
Derek: Hi everyone. Welcome back and today we are joined by Jaycee de Guzman of iPresence which is a digital marketing agency here in the Philippines catering to both Philippine companies. And of course companies across the world. Hi Jaycee. How are you?
Jaycee: Hi Derek. Good morning. I’m doing great.
Derek: Good good. Thank you so much for joining us now. You have quite a sort of strong digital presence here in the Philippines. You have a website that offers services to both Philippine companies and of course companies across the world. Can you just give us a bit of a background I suppose initially introduce yourself and your journey to this point here.
Jaycee: Sure. So I’m really a computer scientist by profession so I am a computer scientist who turned into a digital entrepreneur. And my venture into the digital marketing business started in 2001 as a freelance writer. And. But while working as a freelance writer back then I also got employed into the BPO industry in various verticals such as customer service, sales and technical support. And the good thing about my exposure and experience in the BPO industry is that an idea dawned on me. So I wonder what why don’t I build my own my home based BPO. So fast forward in 2012 I decided to quit the rat race world and be a full time digital entrepreneur. Now when I say being a digital entrepreneur that does not only mean providing digital marketing services but also other non digital marketing related services that operate at home. What are these services so aside from these digital marketing firm that I have right now. I also have a financial, financial consultancy services on the side. And also this year I’m planning to launch a tech startup firm wherein I intend to offer a thesis consultation services as the first leg or an intro to say an intro to this tech start up firm. All of these companies are operated at home. Starting from my level all the way down to the level of the people the people who work with me we all work at home.
Derek: Right, right and just give us some sense and you know it’s interesting to see your own journey starting in BPO in more whatever sort of traditional broad call centre but then specializing yourself. And that is also a similar journey of outsourcing generally in that you know whatever 20 20 years ago was just call centres. But now you’re getting more and more specialist verticals and deeper and deeper specialisms. Can you just sort of give us give us an insight into what proportion of your customer base is local Filipino, Philippine vs. people out there in the whole world. Because of course with BPO you would have I imagine been serving the West and now you’ve set up your own agency. Are you really targeting people in the West or predominantly people here of the Philippines.
Jaycee: Well although iPresence digital marketing Incorporated is a Philippine based business. Ironically nearly 98 percent of our clients are from west from the Western world from the from the native English speaking people. So, however, these 28, This 2018 we are. We have tried, we have already planned to top the Philippine market. We would like to establish awareness, awareness of the benefits of outsourcing, outsourcing administrative tasks and their laborious or routinary tasks.
Derek: Right, right, so you’re trying to. And that’s interesting isn’t it that you started by serving the West but now actually you’re turning your sights inwards into the Philippines because you see there’s good growth options good opportunities there.
Jaycee: Yes that’s right too.
Derek: Cool and so what are you and how are you planning to kind of monetize that new angle with the Philippines you you’re trying to get build awareness of more people directly working for people in the West.
Jaycee:.Yup. The plan is to use video content, video content marketing in establishing awareness among Filipinos because based on research these 2018 and probably until 2020 the content marketing style has started to shift from text based content into video content. And the reason as well why our bias is into video content marketing is that majority of the Filipinos are visual people. They are visual people and they tend to be they tend to be attracted when they see a video talking about the business how is it related to their own business and how it could improve how it can improve their processes. That’s it yeah.
Derek: Interesting. And so, and how have you seen the growth in over you know, you got a new job in 2012. Are you finding that the that your customer base is more and more receptive with working with you sitting in the Philippines. Are you finding that people are more agnostic as opposed to where you’re sitting. Because it doesn’t really matter as long as you provide good service there.
Jaycee: Yeah. So on a general based on a, generally a majority of our customers are open into the idea of outsourcing their outsource into the idea of outsourcing to the Philippines. Specifically there are many reasons why but I’m going maybe I’m going to give it three major reasons why they would love to outsource to the Philippines. Number one is the cost effectiveness of services we can afford to be cost effective, we can afford to give a non pricey pricing scale to direct customers just because we can just, just because we can. Because of the
Derek: The cost space is significantly low, isn’t it?
Jaycee: Foreign exchange
Derek: And with some sort of professional services like your own as well. The heaviest cost is actually salaries. So if your salaries are significantly lower than those in the West then it really is a cost advantage, isn’t it?
Jaycee: Exactly. You nailed that one, Derek. And then the second the second major reason why they would love to outsource to the Philippines is not they. You know we Filipinos are known to be hard working people. We are known for that. In fact, I think we are everywhere because of our overseas Filipino workers or OFWs. And then the third one is we are known to be what we are known for our commitment, for our commitment for our dedication to work. Many Filipinos are more than willing to go the extra mile especially in the very beginning because I don’t know maybe that’s a, that’s an innate quality of Filipinos when it comes to working regardless of who we are working for a non Filipino or a fellow Filipino. It’s part of our personality to give our level best.
Derek: Absolutely. And I’m seeing quite a lot you know being based here, you know. I’ve seen sort of a burgeoning supply of digital agencies. And I think you know as you suggest Filipinos have very good communications very good at sort of the interpersonal stuff and maybe then the higher suitability to digital marketing. Do you see a quite a strong affinity between Filipinos Filipino agencies and sort of digital marketing as opposed to maybe something like hardcore coding which is more kind of mathematical more binary. You know, do you see a lot of people are really suited to digital marketing skills?
Jaycee: I would say so because if my memory serves me right I think the Philippines has already taken overtaken India when it comes to the, on the first spot of the sought after country when it comes to outsourcing. And the majority of the Filipinos they can speak they can speak in English. And not only not only that, biased as it may seem but I would say that we can write and speak well in English and that’s being likened by that’s being liked by, by our customers already. When when they know that they can outsource there for example the content writing needs to a Filipino writer. That writer can not only write in English well but can also speak not only through chat but also through verbal communication to his or her client.
Derek: Absolutely. And then so are you finding a bit of insight into your kind of client base. What are their typical needs. Are they generally looking to promote their message to the world or are you finding that most people are still looking at localized markets. So if you get, I don’t know like a western company are they are they generally just trying to impress people in their own hometown or state or country? Or is everyone now taking more of a worldview?
Jaycee: Based on the survey that we did on the first half of 2017 which I think is still published on our website. We have learned that a staggering 92 percent or maybe even higher than 92 percent. We learned that 90 over 92 percent of our clients choose to outsource their digital marketing needs outside their country then than to hire a local person or from their state probably.
Derek: Right. Fantastic. Yeah and I’m you know I have a theory that not ,well I believe that not enough as in these small medium businesses are yet outsourcing and I believe that eventually every single SME will outsource. But it will become so normal that outsourcing won’t be called outsourcing anymore. It will just be called employment and you know because the world will be so connected with technology it will the you know finding the best candidate or the best agency to do the work regardless of where they’re sitting. Because it is it’s just becoming more and more one world. Have you seen how have you seen the progression of this when you started in 2001 vs. now? What is the understanding and appetite like?
Jaycee: I kind of have, I kind of had I kind of have this. I’ve already had this outlook way back in 2001 that outsourcing will become a boom, a booming industry in the Philippines. Because way back then when I when I started as a freelance writer I’ve already thought the idea of. So if someone from the United States or from the U.K. is willing to outsource his or her content writing needs then probably five or ten years from now they would be interested not only will outsource their content, content writing needs but even their website design, graphics design and maybe some virtual assistance related services too. So that’s when that’s when the idea of building my own digital marketing firm you know existed. That’s when it, that’s when I gave birth to this idea. So.
Derek: Yeah. And it is true isn’t it. You know and I preach that to everyone it’s just basically getting people started. And they might start with one VA or one bookkeeper but then they see how easy it is. They see that it works and then they can expand to their entire websites being built or their entire operations team. It is quite addictive, isn’t it?
Jaycee: Yeah yeah. Even for iPresence. We did not start having six services. We didn’t start having 6 services published on our website. We started with just one service which is content writing and then we tried to expand our scale then that’s when we added keyword research. One by one we, one service at that time we tried to add one service at a time on our website.
Derek: And have you found it’s getting easier to convince people to give you a try like maybe 10 years ago people were like you know what is this. What is the Philippines? What’s this all about? Whereas now it’s becoming such a norm.
Jaycee: In the beginning especially when you don’t have existing customer reviews yet. You know when you don’t have existing samples maybe some articles written for other clients then you’ll have to you’ll have to give something out that would set you apart from your fellow beginners who are also willing to go the extra mile. So in the beginning what I did was I gave them a discounted price. So let’s say let’s start at this price and then once you become comfortable working with me and you think that my work is, it has a superb quality then then we can start working on my on my standard rate afterwards. So you have to see some sort of give an allowance to, for you to gain some customer reviews.
Derek: I mean as you rightly point out it’s kind of that applies with your new business starting in the U.S. or in the Philippines or anywhere in the world, doesn’t it? You’ve got to get that initial confidence and start.
Jaycee: Yeah once you gather your customer reviews and once you’ve establish your online presence not only on your website but also through social media. Or maybe once you’ve got some mentioning from other bloggers out there then it won’t be as challenging as it was you know some years ago marketing wouldn’t be as challenging as it was some 10 years ago because you already have your online presence let’s say everywhere.
Derek: Yeah fantastic. That’s amazing. That’s pretty good insight and I want to get you back of course Jaycee. We are going to in the next episode when you come back shortly. I want to re- deep dive into iPresence, so iPresence is your digital marketing agency and really want to deep dive into what you do your specialties and kind of you know how you offer your.
Jaycee: Sure.
Derek: Value to your customers. But in the meantime if people do want to get in touch with you how can they do that Jaycee?
Jaycee OK. We have. We have a website. It’s ipresencebizsolutions.com and you will also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and on our website you’ll find our email address, Skype idees and our phone numbers.
Derek: Fantastic. And of course you don’t have to worry about spelling that. I will include all of that in the show notes if anyone wants to go and visit you. Thank you so much Jaycee.
Jaycee: Thank you, Derek
That was Jaycee de Guzman. Hope you enjoyed that. If you want to get in touch with Jaycee or know anything about iPresence digital marketing then go to our show notes which is at outsourceaccelerator.com/120. And of course if you want to ask us anything anything at all just send us an email to [email protected]. See you next time..
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