Digital Marketing in Vietnam

Southeast Asia is home to countless digital marketing agencies and digital nomads.

It's the ideal playground for a high quality of life, low cost of living, and enough sunshine to give you heat stroke.

Although still not as popular a destination as Thailand or Bali, digital marketing in Vietnam is on the rise.

Vietnam is full of kind and creative people, delicious food, and great cafes. It’s been my home-away-from-home since 2014. And except for when the sharks bite the internet cables, it's a great place to work!

Digital Marketing Explained in 52 words.

Before we begin, let’s make sure we have a clear definition: 

Digital marketing is online marketing used to promote a brand’s offer over the internet.

It includes email, online ads, social media, and other text or multimedia used to promote a message online.

Testing many channels, digital marketers can review the performance of each with analytics and double down on what works best.

Viet Nam

During my time here, Vietnam has undergone massive development across the board. Everything from modern infrastructure to social changes has made noticeable headway.

Apart from the inevitable smog that comes with this rapid development, it’s been a joy to witness.

I have yet to master the language though and so many parts of the culture remain a bit of a mystery. But there's no denying that Vietnam today is a far cry from the 'nam' taught in history class.

It's actually quite common to hear a fellow expatriate mention they feel more free here than they do back home.

This all makes Vietnam a great destination for digital nomads. Plus, as we’ll see it's got world-class programmers and some great marketing opportunities.

The Digital Business Environment in Vietnam

In its current stage of development, optimization is more than a strategy in Vietnam, it’s a necessity.

Compared to the West, investor resources can have limitations. Companies thus must operate in a cost effective manner. This breeds creative solutions.

A growing number of companies have outsourced or moved their operations to Vietnam.

This is not only for cheap labor (Vietnam labor costs being 90% less than the USA), it's also because of how skilled the labor force is.

Vietnam is both a strategy and solution for businesses competing for team operation optimization.

Massive companies, including Microsoft, Intel, and IBM have found this advantage in Vietnam.

They've all made investments in the country to help Vietnam become one of the top countries for software companies to outsource to.

To be clear though, Vietnam isn't simply a country for the West to outsource to.

It's a country with some of the brightest minds in the world. With leading digital developers coming from all over. From Vietnam's largest cities to its smallest fishing villages.

It may surprise outsiders, but Vietnam is at the forefront of the latest technologies. Even AI and Fintech solutions have been popular topics of interest here for years.

A recent Finder's study found that Vietnam is the world leader in crypto adoption.

I had the pleasure of working with one of the top entrepreneurs leading this charge for Vietnam. One of his Facebook posts sums up this evolution perfectly.

So why do I mention all this?

To highlight the point that opportunities in Vietnam are on the rise. Especially in digital. And digital services are popping up all over the country.

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

There are many great cities across Vietnam. But to stay on the cutting edge of the digital marketing environment, Ho Chi Minh City, best known in the West as Saigon, is certainly an excellent choice.

Ho Chi Minh City is the country's commercial capital and a major hub for the Vietnamese marketing scene.

Great local companies have offices here as well as a large group of expats working in a variety of digital industries all over the city.

This makes Ho Chi Minh City the perfect place for frequent gatherings.

Before and after COVID, bright minds congregate and build their networks. They meet and share insights into digital marketing strategy, and more.

Working in all kinds of industries, there's a lot to learn and enjoy at these events.

And these events are also a great place for local businesses to build contacts.

Digital Marketing Landscape in Vietnam

In the past few years, Vietnam has shown a remarkable internet penetration rate. With the rise of mobile, widespread internet access is readily available.

Vietnamese internet users have risen to 70% of its population and the average user spends upwards of six and a half hours per day online.

Local companies marketing to Vietnam and vice versa are quickly developing. As a result, marketing trends are doing the same to keep pace.

Over the years, SMEs and big companies in Vietnam have prioritized social media marketing and advertising.

Vietnam has quite a young population. Over 55% of the population are under the age of 35 and as the image below shows, these generations use many social media platforms.

Over 27,000 Facebook accounts use the social media network as a retail platform to market and brand build with content and ads.

Video marketing and mobile optimization have been a focus. Facebook and Instagram, YouTube and TikTok are all extremely popular.

The issue for brands, though, is that this has led to an over-saturation in social media marketing.

Companies’ digital marketing campaigns should use a variety of channels to reach their audiences.

Challenges in the current trends

The preferred marketing style for companies in Vietnam is relatively different from the West.

Please note that some of what I've been saying here is just my opinion from experience.

I've noticed local businesses can promote their brand to Vietnamese audiences as much as, or even more than, customer benefits.

A recent study by Q&Me Market Research gave some great insight into a potential cause.

The leading concern surrounding digital marketing for companies in Vietnam is a lack of opportunity to learn the subject.

They note despite its rapid development, management sometimes lacks understanding in digital marketing.

This presents both a challenge and a lot of opportunity.

Global Commercial Opportunity

Our world is getting smaller.

More and more companies are expanding their markets globally. There are many companies in ecommerce, SaaS, and even app developers already doing this in Vietnam.

Their operations are mostly here, which lets them out-price their competitors in the West.

Vietnam is developing rapidly, but most people still make relatively little. Local companies thus can get more bang for their buck targeting the West.

Doing so successfully though takes more than a hreflang tag and translation of a website.

English content

Some aspects of their marketing, like English content, have to be outsourced to expats or agencies.

They can outsource copywriting for their websites and social media marketing campaigns. This allows a local company to reach their target audience with more localized content.

These all present great opportunities for a foreign marketing agency or digital nomad based in Vietnam.

One thing to note, though.

While still not as fluent as other major countries in Southeast Asia, English skills in Vietnam are improving fast.

When I first arrived, especially in the northern regions of Vietnam, strong English speakers were very rare. Today, a surprising number of requests from local companies are copyediting services.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City is a hotspot for SEO experts. Some notable names in the community choose to live here. Karl Kangur, Ben Starr, Eric Van Bursick, Mads Singers, and Daryl Rosser, to name a few, have been living here for years.

Most do affiliate marketing or service international clients. But all, at least the experts I've encountered, have been remarkably nice, down to earth, and happy to share.

This is invaluable and can help you gain actionable SEO insights to help you level up your abilities.

This can make it possible to help local brands outrank competitors in search. Some local companies have already enjoyed some nice success in getting help with SEO.

All brands, especially those targeting the West, want a strong ROI. And so their marketing strategies may want to rely less on ads.

Ad costs are much higher in the West than in Vietnam. This creates a need to invest more in written content and earned media for SEO.

At a lower cost and longer time horizon, a company can build its brand with owned media. They'll mostly just need to produce useful content that matches search intent, and build strategic partnerships for links.

A quick and easy way to rank in international search is to target keywords ranking forums.

Influencer Marketing

The combination of owned and earned media can create a nice marketing mix.

Some agencies (like 8-Bit Content) can offer clients content for their website pages, blog, and social media platforms. Plus other services to help strengthen market penetration through the use of influencer and affiliate marketing.

This strategy combines the benefits of search, social media, and native advertising. You can partner with YouTube and social media influencers. And affiliate sites willing to help you build your online presence and promote a product or service.

Brokering these agreements can boost a company's visibility, reputation, and link profile.

It can be really profitable to work with micro-influencers.

Compared to bigger influencers, 'micro's have smaller dedicated audiences anywhere from under 5k to 50k. These smaller audiences usually come with higher engagement rates.

They also may be quite new to this and enjoy the clout of even being considered. These win-win partnerships make it possible to reach a relevant audience at little to no cost.

This kind of service is great for agency expertise. Local Vietnamese companies often need help from native English speakers to develop and carry out this strategy.

Conclusion

Vietnam has highly capable people in all fields.

There are a lot of solutions for IT, mobile app development, SaaS, and Facebook and Instagram social media marketing management.

Opportunities for expat digital marketers remain. There are some quality local agencies, but English remains an issue.

Today, a marketing strategy needs to go above digital advertising and include content that can help them build organic search.

Offering a service that can take care of this in both English and Vietnamese is where a value proposition gets interesting. Contact us at 8-Bit Content if you'd like any help.