Guest: Jomer Gregorio
Presenter: Henry Acosta
Guest Bio: Jomer B. Gregorio is a professional and specialist in integrated digital marketing and holistic SEO. He is the founder of Digital Marketing Philippines and CJG Digital Marketing. Jomer Gregorio is an experienced and client-backed Internet Marketing consultant with a wide roster of clients coming from all over the world including the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand. Jomer Gregorio has been recognized by the International Center for Communication Studies as a certified leader of Marketing and Advertising Strategies in a Digital Media Environment during the 4th EdukCircle International Convention on Marketing and Advertising.
Segment overview: Digital Marketing Philippines offers the most effective multi-channel and multi-platform Internet marketing services that will help your brand, products and services reach their full marketing reach and potential. Jomer Gregorio shares that what makes the Philippines the better option is our hardworking attitude because most Filipinos really work hard and so outsourcing partners really like us because we work hard and they think what they are paying to us are worth it. Their main vision is to make DMP a global and competitive digital marketing company not just in the Philippines but also in all of the world. To become a world class digital marketing company that competes in the digital arena and provide talented Filipinos a job that they enjoy, a job that they are passionate with. According to Jomer, their vision for their clients is to help them grow, to maximize their payments so they are happy and they are getting value with our services.
Address: Unit 25, 4th Floor, AMJB Building, Aguinaldo High-way, Palico 4, Imus, Cavite 4103
Contact Number: (+63) 46-235-9225
Website: http://digitalmarketingphilippines.com/
To know more about Digital Marketing Philippines, listen to the podcast below.
The interview will start at 19:25 mark of the podcast episode.
Transcript
Henry Acosta: Hello and welcome to the Outsourcing Philippines Podcast. Today we have Jomer B. Gregorio, he founded the company CJG Digital Marketing and Digital Marketing Philippines, his specialties are Integrated Digital Marketing and Holistic SEO. Today we’re here to talk about Digital Marketing Philippines and how the Philippines is a go-to destination for everyone who wants to do outsourcing. Hi Jomer and welcome to the show.
Jomer Gregorio: Hi thanks for inviting me here and I hope I can give some useful tips about outsourcing.
Henry: I really appreciate you doing this for us. So can you give us a quick introduction about who you are and what you do for Digital Marketing Philippines?
Jomer: Yes, so basically I founded the company in my 20s. So what I do is I’m usually the one who is doing the strategy, the execution and as well as oversee the operation. So basically you can call me the all-in-one guy for this company.
Henry: And what inspired you to have in the idea of building an outsourcing business specifically here in the Philippines?
Jomer: I think it was, I got the initial idea when I was working for a US person in the past, I think it was 2009, so that person actually trained me to become an SEO and a WordPress guy so I thought that this got potential because there are a lot of different skilled Filipinos in the Philippines that can be taught these skills and as you know we are a native English people and we also have at least a bit familiar culture when it comes to western countries like America as you know we’re very American friendly country. Australia and all of those western countries that are very, very strong in terms of economic power. So that’s what motivates me, so I thought that why not scale this type of business and hire talented Filipinos so you can give them this job and as well as earn above minimum because as you know the rate here is very, very low and the only possible thing that you can do is to give outsourcing job which pays better than normal business here so that’s what, those are the things that, initial things that motivated me to build an outsourcing company.
Henry: That sounds like a very good background from you. And what do you think makes the Philippines different compared to other countries that service outsourcing and what are the main benefits of outsourcing here?
Jomer: I think firstly as I mentioned earlier, first we are a native English people. So actually I was doing my speaking engagement last saturday in a university in Caloocan and I also told them about this and I actually told them that if they are really serious in earning that much they need to master this one. So I told them that one of the most advantage of Filipinos or Philippines from other countries like for example India, China and all those countries are we are very, very good in terms of speaking English, I don’t think that we speak perfect grammar English but at least most westerners understand us so I actually made an example of a cigarette vendor, I don’t want to belittle them or insult them but if you go to any streets in Manila and asked about street vendors or cigarette vendors ask them about something via English they can understand it so how much more those people who graduated in for example top universities or universities in Manila. So basically we have a good advantage when it comes to English and they…clients the speaking in English clearly and understanding us or the outsourcing party is very, very important because sometimes the project has to clear and some specification has to be precise because if something is lost in translation then it can create some issue. So that is why when people went to DMP or went to me they usually complain that for example I don’t want to name a country but there’s some countries that are popular in outsourcing that they had some difficulty in explaining or making clear the projects’ specification because that country or the people in that country does not speak English well so they went to DMP and they gave us a feedback that Filipinos really are better English speaking so the projects were done in the correct fashion, so that’s one we are very, very good in terms of speaking in English although I don’t claim to be, I am not claiming that we are perfect but at least they understand us. So second is of course as I also mentioned earlier about familiarity in terms of western cultures, as you can see if you go anywhere in Manila you can see that Manila is like America or other western countries so many FIlipinos are idolizing American entrepreneurs, so personally I idolize entrepreneurs. I follow motivational figures like Robert Kiyosaki all of those popular motivational speakers I follow them, so basically we are very, very used in the culture of western countries that’s why when people or Americans, Australians or UK people go to us to outsource they typically does not need to adapt or at least we go along well because our culture at least relevant to them. And I think the last thing that makes the Philippines the better option is our hardworking attitude because most Filipinos really work hard and you know that because there are a lot of hardworking Filipinos so people like our outsourcing partners really like us because we work hard and they think what they are paying to us are worth it. So the last thing is the rate, as you know for example USD to PhP rate is a bit high so for example if someone pays us for example 500 USD it means 20,000 which is a bit good amount so although it’s a bit low to them but in the Philippines it’s a bit high so they can save a lot of money by outsourcing to the Philippines because they can pay us low and they get high quality service and all of the advantages which I mentioned earlier they get those also.
Henry: Right and that was very insightful and a very helpful answer. So were there any cultural barriers that you faced with regards to when you were starting your own company?
Jomer: I think probably the typical Filipino bad attitudes or habits which I thankfully overcome so for example I experienced some typical Filipino problems like delaying work and the second is ‘Filipino time’ something like that but I initially experience those and I had a fair share of those but thankfully I was able to find people who are really in line with my culture, with my own work ethic, work values so typically the cultural barriers are those negative attributes of Filipinos which we need to talk about because we are talking about real stuff here so I think it’s better if people listening to this podcast can listen and can learn that there are really some negative aspects of Filipinos but they just need to find the right people because not all Filipinos have those negative attributes.
Henry: Alright, so how has been the experience of your clients and can you give us a testimonial from them?
Jomer: Yeah, so I think one of the most successful campaign we ran so far was an Australian service management software. So before we came in they are a medium sized business so we really don’t know their figures because they don’t share it with us but before they came into us they told us they are a medium sized business and they want DMP or us, my team, my company to help them grow more and become let’s say a big sized company. So what we did was we talked to them, we understand all their pain, struggles, all of the past marketing companies that they have done, we checked their Adwords, their spending and what we have done is just we optimized their campaign and we also think of some other ways to make their results much better. So that was last year, I think it was June 2015 and I think in about 4 to 5 months we were able to give them a lot of leads that our contact was able to make into the company. Our primary contact was their some sort of consultant, he didn’t own a thing in the company but after 4 to 5 months of working with us they were able to make their company in a well funded one and currently they still work with us and actually they just renewed, you know the end of fiscal year in Australia right? In the last few months, they renewed with us and until now they’re still our clients and that’s one of the things that keep us working because our mindset is really to make meaningful results in growth with our clients and that’s one of our biggest success currently and we’re happy with their success.
Henry: Alright and since Digital Marketing Philippines it’s locally made right? What makes it different from other outsourcing agencies here in the Philippines?
Jomer: I think first is that our mindset is to produce results. I usually tell this to new applicants before they work with us that DMP does not just work for example x amount of hours or x amount of contents or x amount of all the stuff but our main mindset or aim at the end of the day is to produce results so that’s one of our key USPs. Second is the pricing, I can safely say that we are one of the most competitively priced company here in the Philippines so although I have a lot of friends who also owns a company so I can’t speak with them but in our case we have a pretty competitive pricing and usually if the client has special needs or we think that his budget is good then we have enough work so that’s the second. The third one is I think experience, so I’ve been running Digital Marketing or SEO since 2009 so I’ve been pretty active over the years and I’m usually up-to-date with the latest changes in Google or all the stuff so experience that’s the third one. Fourth one is that we have a lot of references so if clients for example in Australia who wants to know the clients that we are serving there, we can give them whatever clients they want from Australia so we can give that to them. If they want contacts in America we can also give that to them so we have different testimonials or reference from all over the world. I think last is that we are a fully registered company here in the Philippines so most companies that are popping up right now either just have a website but really are not registered so I think it’s important that you’re registered and you’re paying the right taxes as well as taking care of your staff. So all of our staff here in the office … we pay them their benefits, we pay them the standard benefits and if there are some holidays we also pay them, something like that so we take care of our guys and clients as well so they’re both happy and we’ll be happy if they’re both happy.
Henry: And can I ask what is the main vision and mission of your company?
Jomer: The main vision is to make this company a global and competitive digital marketing company not just in the Philippines but also in all of the world. So that the vision to become a world class digital marketing company that competes in the digital arena and I think the vision is that I want to give talented Filipinos a job that they enjoy, a job that they are passionate with and also to give some jobless people a job as well because as you know there’s a lot of jobless people here and I want to help them and I also want to hire the best and the most talented people because I only want the best for our clients so that’s the vision for the staff. And I think the vision for our clients as well is that we want to help them grow, we have to make their payment or their money, we want to maximize their payments to us so they are happy and they are getting value with our services.
Henry: What is your process for recruiting clients?
Jomer: Our process right now is all inbound. What that means is that what we do to our clients, we do to our internal website. So for example we do SEO, content marketing, outreach, social media so all of those stuff that we are doing to clients we also do it to ourselves so that’s why people reach out to us and we don’t really actually cold call people so people just found us in Google. For example if you google ‘Marketing Philippines’ you can see Marketing Company of the Philippines, Internet Marketing Company of the Philippines so all of those keywords that are targeted to our business, we already ranked them higher because I think the main thing about a marketing company is that they should apply what they are saying or what they’re doing to their own websites not just for clients because if they are successful in their own websites then there’s a good chance that they’ll be successful to clients’ websites as well. So that’s our philosophy that we should apply our strategies first so our internal website and then we’ve proven that because you can see some of the keywords are ranked pretty well and we a hundred percent rely on our internal marketing partners excluding our outsourcing partners. So we purely focus on inbound marketing right now.
Henry: Alright. What about for anyone interested in working there as an employee? What is your process and what do you look for when you’re hiring employees?
Jomer: Right. So first thing that we look for employees is attitude, I think that’s one of the most important thing because you can’t really change someone’s attitude if they already have that so the employee must have a good attitude, must have a hard working attitude, must have a mindset that we are not just working, we are producing results so that’s one. And second is the skills, the applicant must have a perfect English at least in written English because that’s where we usually communicate with clients. So English and of course the applicant must be internet savvy, what that means is that at least basic for example basic Google search, basic account creation, basic internet stuff, must be possessed with applicant and third must be trainable because I experienced some applicants in the past that not be trainable so I learned in, I already have a requirement that the applicant must be trainable, he must be open to stuff because there’s some tendency that if you are hiring for an example an experienced guy most of the time the experienced guy have his own way of doing things so that experienced guy must open to be teachable or else I won’t be able to get them onboard.
Henry: Can you say that the businesses of your clients have grown considerably since they started working with Digital Marketing?
Jomer: Yeah, I think so. So there’s the different context about growth, there are some people that just want you to fix for example their SEO. They are not really that much focused on growing business because their business is already growing so there’s different context in terms of growth but I think we definitely had an impact on our current and past clients and I can probably say that. Of course there are some clients that I will not lie, there are some clients that aren’t just familiar with what we do so most of the time they complain that we didn’t do what we claim we do but if you really check or for example the statement of work or what was promised, we already done that. They just didn’t understand that it’s that work that we did and they are thinking of something else or some things so I think I can say 90% of our past and current clients had at least some results in the marketing campaigns that we are doing for them.
Henry: Alright. What are the common misconceptions that you usually face every time when you get a new client? What do they usually want to know more about the outsourcing here in the Philippines?
Jomer: I think one of the most, what’s that misconception?
Henry: Yeah.
Jomer: I think one of the most misconceptions is that cheap is better so most. I mean this is not a general statement but this is a statement for some of the inquiries. So the main misconception is that if they got some proposal lower than for example ours or some other standard company, they think that it’s the best way but it’s not. So you need to really check the portfolio, the references and the website of a provider before signing up with them and don’t focus more on price, focus on the portfolio and the achievements of a company first. And second I think is in terms of marketing outsourcing I think most clients generally believe that you are their miracle and it’s farther from the truth. The client and the provider needs to work together to make the campaign much better so outsourcing digital marketing is not the cure all medicine you need to, it’s a puzzle so the client must be proactive or working with you to make the campaign better. And third one is I think that this is about I mean there’s a negative connotation as well, so third is if a client thinks it’s an outsourcing then they think that it’s a low quality service, it’s not that on par with western companies but it’s farther from the truth actually in my experience actually if you just take a bit closer to what local companies in the Philippines do and some other local companies for example in America you can see that the services as a work is not that much. I mean there’s no gap actually and actually if you can really check the technicalities the Filipino companies are actually doing more than the other local companies in a client’s country so those are the three most misconceptions when people are outsourcing.
Henry: Three most common misconceptions. And with regards to your company and its growth, do you have any memorable experiences that you can share with us about your company and its growing pains?
Jomer: What do you mean?
Henry: So what I mean is do you have any memorable experiences that you can share with us with regards to starting your own company and any advice that you can share with anyone who’s interested in starting their own company as well?
Jomer: Right. So Digital Marketing Philippines is not actually the first company that I’ve started. So I started an SEO company as well in 2011 so that SEO company I had a partner so although the business didn’t really grow well, we relied on outbound marketing calling. So it didn’t worked out and of course I love my partner, I love my past partner in there and we had some misunderstanding and some different mindsets. I think if you are starting a company or a digital marketing company or an outsourcing company number one is you really need to know the nuts and bolts of your industry. You really need to know the intricacies in the systems because if you don’t know that and some problems arise then you can’t really do something about it so you need to really know the stuff so I advise that you work in your industry first. For example if you want to start a call center or an SEO company then you need to work as an employee so you can see the actual processes, the actual things that they are doing and you can have an idea on the process which you can replicate on your business. And second is you really need to be familiar with the papers and the legal structures here, so for example registering in DTI or Security Exchange Commission, working with BIR, working with your local government agency, the Mayor’s permit, working with the benefits of your employees. So all of those things that must be done in your internal company, you really need to learn more about it because when I was running that first start-up that I was co-owner with, that’s where I learned actually the nuts and bolts of legal processing. So I was really thankful for that experience that’s why when I started this one this DMP I already know the stuff and I know that you need to pay taxes every month, you need to pay taxes every quarter, you need to pay taxes every year, something like that so that’s the one and so you need to know. So number one you need to know the industry, you need to work there and number two you is you need to know the legal processes. Number three is I think is you really need to have a good attitude and you really need to be ready with upcoming storms and trials which you are about to face because building a company, whatever company you’re building it’s not a walk in the park. You have to work really hard, personally I actually worked 10 to 12 hours a day myself, Monday to Friday, so if you are not willing to pay the price then I think you need to do something else but if you’re ready to pay the price then you can start your own but you need to be prepared, you need to have a good attitude because good attitude is the only thing you need because if you have a good attitude then you will study, you will learn, you will persevere, all the stuff that are needed to become a successful entrepreneur.
Henry: Alright. For our last question, how can anyone who’s interested in Digital Marketing Philippines get in touch with you both for potential clients and employees?
Jomer: Yeah so they can google us Digital Marketing Philippines or CJG Digital Marketing Philippines and we are easily accessible online so just google our name and you can find us.
Henry: Alright. Well thanks for that Jomer and thanks for being on the show for all the insightful answers. That was Jomer Gregorio Founder of Digital Marketing Philippines, he specializes in integrated digital marketing and holistic SEO and you’ve been listening to Outsourcing in the Philippines Podcast, it’s your host Henry Acosta and thank you for joining us today. If you’ve missed the interview or want to listen to it again an audio file is available on SoundCloud and iTunes. Transcripts and archive are available at offshoring.com.ph.
