Guest: Aries Aguilar
Presenter: Henry Acosta
Guest Bio: Aries Aguilar is the President of SimpleAds Company. He specializes in e-marketing, branding, positioning, market research and adding creativity to your business. With his passion for pushing brands to the next level and establishing themselves in the digital market, he become the President of SimpleAds Company.
Segment Overview: In this interview, Aries talks about how it’s like being the President of SimpleAds Company and how they help the companies that they work with from all over the world get established in the digital landscape. With Digital Marketing as one of the main trends in the world, SimpleAds Company is the partner you are looking for that helps your business reach a new level.
Contact: Local – (02) 957 0847 || [email protected]
Website: www.simpleadsco.com
To know more about Atelier Lumkha listen to the podcast below!
Our talk with Harry begins at the 21:02 mark of the podcast.
Transcript
Henry Acosta: You’re listening to the Outsourcing and Offshoring Philippines podcast. I’m Henry Acosta the host for the podcast and our guest today is the president of SimpleAds Company. His name is Aristotle Aguilar or better known as Aries. He is joining us today to talk about SimpleAds company and what they offer to their clients and the services that they do or that they offer here for the BPO industry in the Philippines. With all that said, thank you so much for coming on the show Aries and it’s great to finally have you onboard.
Aries Aguilar: Thanks Henry and it was also nice being interviewed by you also and in your program.
Henry: I appreciate that and thank you so much for coming on the show. So to kick things off, I just wanted to ask, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and what you do for SimpleAds Company?
Aries: Alright. Basically, I’m a marketing professional. I started off as a marketing executive for numerous companies and then when the digital age came through, I mean the internet got stronger and then outsourcing became a norm in the Philippines, I started to do my own business with colleagues. We started basically like 10 years ago and then we started back then doing websites for companies in the U.S. and then from there up until now, we’re doing the same but we added a few more or other services along the way.
Henry: Wow, sounds great. And can you tell us about SimpleAds? What are the services that you do and offer for clients outside of the country?
Aries: Alright. Well, SimpleAds as an organization has transformed from just a web development company. Through the years, we have also become a full-advertising company, we call that. From website, we also do designs as an outsource service. We also do a little bit of SEO. But for about a year now, we’re catering to services like digital advertising for our clients because the reason behind that is that since most of our clients are like they made us through their websites, the design, what’s next is how do they make their website I mean get known out there. So before, we did basic SEO but things changed, technology changed, came social media. So from then on, we started offering our services for Google display ads, Facebook ads and entire campaigns for digital also. And then some clients if the language is more or less the same like if they are comfortable with how we do things in as far as write-ups or articles are concerned, we also do provide clients content creation especially clients in the U.S. wherein Filipinos are more attuned with their English style. So mostly, it’s in the U.S. and Australia that we are catering for content creation. Basically, that’s cool.
Henry: Thank you so much for mentioning the countries that you have your clients mostly come from. And so you deal with branding as well with regards to your clients?
Aries: Yes. We also do provide branding and of course, the other things that we do are consultative I mean clients consult us, but more on strategy also. It really depends on the region where we are dealing with clients because some clients wanted strategies like they want to penetrate for example Southeast Asia. There’s one client of ours that is based in Europe. They want to penetrate the market in Southeast Asia. So they tapped us in as far as branding and strategy is concerned but this goes beyond the website and social media of course.
Henry: Wow, that sounds really cool. And about your clients, how big are they usually? Are they usually startups or do you take in small to medium sized enterprises?
Aries: Yes. Majority, we call it by percentages. Startups with account for let’s say 40% of our business in outsourcing and about 30% would comprise of agencies and then maybe a medium scale businesses but all others are individuals. It’s just more on like a special project for their own interests that would comprise all the other stuff but majority are startups.
Henry: And how long does a project usually go for when you start with the company and how long does it take before they actually see results?
Aries: Alright. For startups and websites, it usually depends on the approval process. But usually, we try to target it in as far as at least a week. We can finish everything for them. And some clients also I forgot to mention, we have partner clients that also help us to be able to provide hosting for clients, for some of our clients that doesn’t want to go with the process of buying their own hosting, so we also provide those for clients. But one week as far as the turn around, we try to make it as quickly as possible. But of course, some delays in communication also extend it to about a few days more for some also.
Henry: And with regards to working with your clients, are you flexible with your work with regards to time zones? Does your office offer 24-hour services or they can only reach you at a certain specific time of the day?
Aries: Alright. In as far as the time zones are concerned, there are clients, we’ve had experiences in clients in the U.S. that required us to render based on their time zone which is reversed or in Manila which is we’re doing it at graveyard or night shift. We’ve experienced adjusting on time zones, it really depends on the type of projects but for projects that’s basically development and a few production work, we try to meet it halfway. But if there are clients again, as I mentioned earlier, there are clients that would acquire full-time work, or monitoring and stuff like that, we’ve experienced and we have rendered services midnight shift just to meet with client expectations.
Henry: Wow, that sounds great and there’s no specific cradles that you go through with regards to communicating with the client and keeping them updated.
Aries: Yes, I mean as far as the reports in updating you mean?
Henry: Yes.
Aries: It depends on the platform. But just to answer your question briefly, all the messaging apps we have. So whatever country the client is located at, we have it on our phone, we have it on our desktops. Including the reporting side of it, we also have those that’s why there’s one instance right now, one of our clients is the one that developed let’s say a reporting platform. So we try to stay loyal with what our client is using.
Henry: Wow, that sounds great. With regards to taking in clients and new projects, let’s say in a month, do you have certain threshold with regards to that and that you stop taking in more projects and other clients have to wait or people can just inquire with you and get work done right away?
Aries: As far as taking in clients, most of our clients right now, I mean, we go again by percentages about 60% are regular clients. These are clients that used to inquire with only one project but since I think it’s more of the service that we offer, they are repeat clients or some are as I’ve mentioned earlier are agencies already. So they just continue to provide us with works. But for clients like startups that deal with us with one project at a time, usually we get them from website inquiries. They just send us an email or they reach us through other portals. It really depends on where they get our data but we have also an active sales team pitching into different companies and soliciting projects. So threshold in as far as accepting projects, it depends because we usually align with a client on their expectations, timelines and deliverables. So since we are going through those principles, as far as we can agree on those, then we can more or less get clients. We don’t usually reject clients I mean projects and proposals because most clients are willing to adjust and we are also willing, so we meet halfway. And scheduling so far is doing great unless there are the occasional storms in the Philippines. We can’t really do anything about our holidays, local holidays that we don’t usually expect but it comes. So those are the only hiccups along the production line.
Henry: Wow. That’s great, you know how to stand out from other companies that offer the same services.
Aries: Yes.
Henry: I was going to ask, what else do you think makes you really stand out as an outsourcing firm that really post in the clients like what makes them stay with you to and partner up with you?
Aries: One of the things that clients remember us most would be our after-sales or our insights because beyond, for example, for ordinary or a regular web development companies in as far as programming, probably we are the same level. We are on the same level of understanding in the development site, but the insight in as far as where do you take your website from development towards making it known, getting traffic, monetizing a website, affiliate marketing. Those are the things that we discuss longer to clients because usually if I develop this website, “Do you have any experience in blah, blah, blah?” something like that. The advice that we give beyond the project scope is the one that they really treasure us for, because the engagement is far-reaching like beyond the project and it makes us partners along the way. So that’s what separates us from the freelance guys doing development work at home because we are an agency. We’re a team. So if they want a marketing expert, we provide them one. If they want an SEO expert, we provide them one. If they want a dedicated developer with certain knowledge, we also have those kinds of persons. So whatever a client would need, we try as much as possible to help them through it because there have been experiences with clients like go back to us because it’s been taking them let’s say, half a year and then their website that we have developed didn’t get the desired traffic. So in short, I mean we’re trying to provide clients beyond the usual expectation of development, or hosting or even marketing. So that’s what separates us. It’s our insight and our knowledge in the industry.
Henry: Wow, that’s great and I’m sure at this point a lot of people actually want to get in touch with you and look at your website and maybe find a way to check out your portfolio. So what’s the best way people can check you out?
Aries: The fastest way and it saves you a lot of trouble, it’s through our inquiry form. At least it gets you to detail the essentials of what you’re trying to ask and then we’ll get back to you promptly on that and we provide you immediately on our insights. That’s the easiest way.
Henry: How do you bill your clients by the way, is it for when they hire you, is it per project or is there a specific system that they have to follow?
Aries: As far as billings, the basic payment of most of our clients are through PayPal. But recently, we are launching in the middle I mean come June, our own payment gateway. So our clients can already pay us to our self-developed payment gateway where clients especially those in Southeast Asia who’s not into PayPal and then doesn’t want the added, I mean as far as the charge is concerned, since we do it. That’s why we developed even our own payment gateway to save our clients on cost because PayPal to some, they find it high especially in Southeast Asia. But that’s how they pay, that’s how we bill our clients but for clients who also chose bank transfer, we also welcome bank transfer. It really depends on clients. So as far as the company is concerned and what I’ve mentioned a while ago, we’re trying to adopt even in as far as payment gateways are concerned. We try to make it as comfortable as possible for clients to reach us and engage us in this part of the world.
Henry: Awesome. Can you tell us where you are located here in the Philippines and have you ever had clients come to you and work straight with you?
Aries: Sure. Our development team, we have two offices here in in the Philippines. One will be our Technical Production Development Team which is located in Pampanga also, it’s in North of the Philippines. And then our main office which is the Business Administrative and it’s where I am located, all the support groups, and writers and other guys are located in Metro Manila, it’s the main capital of the Philippines. So we have two offices. So even our offices are separated by geography, so that’s why even us, we are trying to work through digital means remotely.
Henry: Awesome. Well for those interested in getting in touch with SimpleAds company and even checking out the website, can you tell us what your website is and how they can get in touch with you?
Aries: Alright. So the website is simple like www.simpleadsco.com and then there’s an inquiry form there. You can leave us a message and then we’ll promptly reply back to you with whatever it is that you would want or inquire from us. That’s it.
Henry: Sounds great. Well, that’s all our questions for today and thank you so much for coming on the show Aries.
Aries: Thanks Henry.
Henry: And that was Aries Aguilar, the President of SimpleAds Company. We have just finished talking about SimpleAds, and what they do, and who they are, and what separates them and what makes them stand out and build great relationships with their clients here in the Philippines as a BPO firm. And if you liked this interview, please visit us at www.offshoring.com.ph. We’re also on SoundCloud, iTunes, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. So make sure to like, follow and subscribe us on our pages. I’m Henry Acosta and this is the Outsourcing and Offshoring Philippines podcast.
