SINGAPORE: Claypots stewing over a fire and Ad- Words, Google’s search-engine-pegged marketing feature that churns out hits in milliseconds, seem to be worlds apart, but for some small and medium- sized businesses (SMBs), the ability to tap into such an online capability makes all the difference between stagnant sales and a roaring business.

In Vietnam, a family business selling ca kho, or braised fish baked in a claypot, is discovering just that.

While Singaporeans may be more familiar with beef pho, ca kho is another popular dish, with millions of portions consumed daily all over the country.

Each locality has its own variation of ca kho, with its own blend of spices and other ingredients.

One of the oldest and most famous versions of ca kho comes from Vu Dai village, in Ha Nam province, about an hour’s drive from Hanoi.

There, Tran Ba Luan carries on the family tradition of selling the Vu Dai version.

However, anyone who wants a taste of Tran’s ca kho has to make a trip to the village — fast, as he sells only 100 claypots a year.

In 2009, Tran’s son, Tran Ba Nghiep, thought of setting up a website to help drive sales.

Volume promptly surged to 350 claypots a year, but soon tapered off.

The Tran family then began using AdWords to increase the prominence of the business website, cakhotranluan.com.

Within the first month of spending on this marketing tool, the Tran family received 47 orders online and, by end-2010, sales volume had nearly tripled to 995 claypots, from 350 in 2009.

Since then, revenue has kept growing, averaging 150% a year, and the Tran family has hired more help, bringing the headcount to 15.

They also invested in nearby farms to secure their supply of fish and other ingredients for the ca kho.

The Tran family did not sell their ca kho themselves.

They built up a network of sales agents throughout the country, and even nudged them to start using AdWords.

This helped further boost sales to 3,300 claypots in 2013.

Of sewing machines and gowns Of course, the Vietnamese are not the only ones making smarter use of online tools.

When two Malaysian brothers — A R Linggam and Suppaiyah — took over Lings Service Network in 2004, they followed in the footsteps of their father by going door-to-door to peddle their sewing machines.

Five years into the business, Linggam noticed active online discussions about their company, which made them realise they already had a cyberspace presence without having to create one.

They began to engage those potential customers on the forums and, from there, a proper website was launched — making the company the first sewing machine agent in Malaysia to have an e-commerce site.

Chock-full of information, the website features the latest machines equipped with USB slots and full HD touch screens, and that can work on designs saved in digital formats.

Excited by the power of the Internet, the company also decided to give active online marketing a try.

For the first month, Lings Service Network budgeted merely RM10 a day for Google Ad- Words so that the company’s ranking on the search engine could be improved.

The brothers saw an immediate uptick in traffic.

AdWords also helped save the company between 50% and 75% in marketing costs.

Now, with a growing proportion of Internet traffic generated by mobile devices, the company has also modified the design of its website to suit the smaller screens.

When the proportion of traffic from mobile devices hit 70% early this year, Linggam shifted his business plans accordingly, allocating half of his daily advertising budget to mobile, which features a “click-to-call” ad function that prospects can quickly tap and call when they see results of searches that interest them.

The two brothers believe that every ringgit spent on AdWords has generated returns of RM35 ($14) to RM50.

In Singapore, AdWords is helping Angela Lee, who runs La Vita Brides, sell more customised wedding gowns.

In 2010, out of frustration at her own experience in hunting for the perfect wedding gown, Lee started La Vita Brides online with limited capital and worked part-time from home.

But even with her marketing background, Lee found the going slow initially.

Social media, favoured by many upstarts, did not quite work for her.

“The first time I tried to measure a customer, I was so nervous, my hands were shaking and I think the measurements turned out wrong,” jokes Lee.

She decided to give AdWords a try.

With a budget of just $12 a day, traffic doubled in eight months.

She avoided keywords such as “cheap gowns” and chose instead to focus on the “customisation” aspect of her business, as 99% of her customers met up with her for face-to-face fittings instead of just buying via her website.

In about a year, La Vita Brides turned profitable and, the following year, Lee was confident enough to quit her day job to run her business full time.

Need for an online presence Julian Persaud, Google’s managing director for Southeast Asia, believes that cases such as those of the Tran family, Linggam and Lee are not unique.

And large companies have much to learn from the entrepreneurial spirit, grit and ambition shown by these small familyrun setups.

“Big businesses have too many stakeholders, balancing too many interests, and decisions are made slowly,” says Persaud, at a recent briefing showcasing SMBs from Asean that have made good use of online tools (including those offered by Google) to grow.

“On the other hand, small businesses are more agile and more disruptive.

They are able to use the Internet to disrupt and grow,” he adds.

Several trends have enabled SMBs to tap the power of online advertising.

For one, the number of Internet users has surged and, increasingly, many are accessing websites via mobile devices instead of notebooks and PCs.

Ghislain Le Chatelier, director of SMB operations, Google Southeast Asia and Greater China, explains businesses need to have an online presence.

“Your prospects, your potential customers are online, and if you are not there, somebody else will be,” says Le Chatelier.

He also says companies need to have a great mobile site or app.

Not having one or having one that is badly designed or underoptimised is like shutting your shop’s door to customers, just because you do not support the devices they are using.

“If you have to pinch and zoom, or your site has complex navigation, consumers will leave your site and simply go elsewhere,” he says.

He advises businesses to provide content relevant to customers.

To decide what content to create, video or blog, know what is popular.

He suggests the use of Google Trends, which can help business owners see what is of interest to people who are searching on specific country Google sites, he says.

In addition, SMBs do not need to remain small.

They should think big about reaching out to potential customers, using tools such as Global Market Finder, which helps estimate the opportunity of expanding to new markets, translates keywords into different languages and estimates the cost of advertising using those words at sites in other locations.

SMB owners can also measure their online marketing using tools such as Google Analytics, which will indicate which portions of their websites are the most popular.

They can then make the necessary tweaks to improve sales and drive traffic, says Le Chatelier.

This article appeared in the Enterprise of Issue 653 (Nov 24) of The Edge Singapore.