Last Updated on 2020-10-13 by ppcguybklyn
Client types I’ve handled that are relatively uncommon in Taiwan,
and how to efficiently tackle
accounts in unfamiliar industries
When it comes to business in New York City, the first impression of most people would be the financial industry on Wall Street. However, being the largest city in the US, NYC possesses varieties of business types and industries. For a long period of time, the main revenue source of my agency comes from small and mid-size businesses of different industries that want to utilize the digital space to promote their products and services. In this article I will be introducing the business types or industries of my clients that are relatively uncommon in Taiwan, and how I familiarize myself with these accounts in the most efficient way.
Custom Vestibules
The first client I want to share provides custom vestibules for stores and restaurants. Because of the different design of commercial buildings and the warmer winter, you would not find any vestibules in Taiwan. The purpose of a vestibule is to create an extra space in front of your store entrance to prevent the cold air entering your store every time someone opens the door. This way store owners can not only save on heat expense, they can also create an additional area for the customers if they have to line up outside of the store entrance.
The main business of my client is actually custom business signs while custom vestibules being one of the services. However, the demands for vestibules during October to January are so high that over 80% of the conversions come from stores or restaurants inquiring for building their own vestibules.
Kosher Certification
Followers of Judaism, or even Jewish people are so rare in Taiwan, that I hadn’t started to know more about the basics of the religion until I started working in New York City. In short, there’re very strict regulations of your diet if you’re following the traditions. (AKA Kosher food) To make sure that everyone follows the dieting rules more easily, businesses offer Kosher certifications for produces and restaurants. You only have to buy food or dine in the restaurants that have the Kosher certification symbol to know that they are fit to your traditions.
Majority of my coworkers are Jewish and this Kosher certification client came from one of their connections in the community. Their main service is to certify restaurants and manufacturers with their Kosher symbol.
Wholesale Backpacks and School Supplies
This is actually not an uncommon business in Taiwan. But this client of mine is really unique and I want to make a section just for it.
This client’s main service is providing backpacks and school supplies to charity organizations and education institutes. Charity organizations need to provide backpacks and school supplies to the people in need and school need to prepare these for their students before the start of the school calendar year. This causes the demands of these products before the start of the school calendar year (usually around June to August) to spike when these organizations are preparing for back-to-school items and buy them in bulk. My client sees this opportunity and provide wholesale backpacks and school supplies at an extremely low unit price ($2-$3 per bag) with a low margin. The demand of these products are so high that the sale of this client can be up to tens of thousands of dollars during peak season. It is said that the prices of this client are so low, their competitors would just buy their products and resell them at a higher price. To this date I still cannot understand how they can sustain their business with the margin and unit price this low. That’s what makes this client so unique.
How To Tackle Accounts In Unfamiliar Businesses Or Industries
I took over all of the clients I mention above from my predecessor, who left the company after I was one week into the position. So despite having basic understanding of these clients, I had to start from scratch when it came to optimizing the accounts due to the short amount of time I had to be familiar with them.
I believe this is definitely not an uncommon experience while working as a PPC account manager. Sometimes we have to learn everything by ourselves when we take over clients that have existing accounts with the previous manager or even another agency.
So here’re three tips of taking over accounts with unfamiliar industries
based on my personal experiences.
1. Take a deep dive into the client’s website
This might sound cliché, but this is really important. If you are completely unfamiliar with an industry or business, the quickest way to understand its business model is to thoroughly study the company’s website as soon as possible. Which products are most profitable, which website pages have the most views and which part of the website contents could be used as ad copies are all crucial elements that can be helping when we take over the account.
2. Research the account structure details
We’ve all been in the situation when we instantly hate the way of the account we’re taking over is set up because of different personal preferences. Then we want to change the entire account structure into the way we believe is the most efficient. However, if we’re facing a brand new industry or business, researching the account structure details is still necessary. Finding the best performing ad groups and keywords and the relationships among them is the fastest way for us to understand how our clients do their businesses.
3. Find more information on the competitors and the industry
We always need more information for keyword and ad copy ideas. This is where competitor research comes in handy. From the product / service descriptions to their website design, there’re tons of ways for us to better understand the industry and its customer behaviors. If we could find the most efficient way to draft ad copies or even how to impro
