Meet Ian, a seasoned digital marketer who combines expertise in SEO, content strategy, and web analytics to help brands amplify their online presence and achieve measurable results. With a strong focus on driving organic traffic and converting insights into action, he has supported a wide range of businesses—from startups to established enterprises—in building sustainable growth through smart digital campaigns.
What sets Ian apart is a data-driven approach that balances creativity with precision. Beyond just rankings and impressions, he helps clients truly understand their audiences, refine their messaging, and optimise every stage of the customer journey. Ian is passionate about helping businesses succeed in today’s hypercompetitive digital space.
What inspired you to combine your passion for marketing with entrepreneurship to start Roots Digital?
I would say this goes quite a way back to around 2011 when I first started in the digital marketing field. Back then, digital marketing was more of a necessary skill set for me to stand out in the job market. In fact, when I first started, I didn’t really know what path I wanted to take.
Coincidentally, I was working in a marketing agency as a marketing personnel. I noticed all my colleagues were running their own campaigns, managing projects—and I faced a challenge. Being a diploma holder, I struggled to stand out compared to degree graduates.
I realised that digital marketing was a skill that wasn’t taught in school, and this presented an opportunity. I knew I needed to acquire a skill that could only be validated through experience and practical execution. That’s when I stumbled upon digital marketing, self-learned it, and fell in love with it—specifically the digital aspect of marketing.
Eventually, in 2016, I decided to start something of my own. Having worked in operations, running campaigns in an agency, I always felt like a bottleneck because I was seen as a non-revenue-generating personnel. To break past that ceiling, I decided to start this agency.
I loved the fact that digital marketing lets you see real impact through stats and revenue. Combined with my desire to start a business—which I already had from studying entrepreneurship in poly—I finally connected the dots. That’s how Roots Digital was started.
Digital marketing is a crowded space. So how does Roots Digital differentiate itself, especially in the e-commerce and B2B sectors?
When it comes to specialisation or trying to differentiate the agency, it wasn’t something I got right from the start. When we first began, we were trying to do everything. Along the way, I tried offering different services and eventually realised what I really wanted to specialise in.
I discovered that differentiation, similar to how I once tried to stand out in the job market, came from developing expertise in specific areas. Nowadays, digital marketing is widely taught in WSQ courses, so I had to find gaps.
I focused on two core areas: conversion rate optimisation and analytics. In the B2B and e-commerce space, media buying is common, but after the traffic lands, it’s the website or landing page that takes over. That’s where we specialise—deep diving into what causes drop-offs and improving conversion rates.
We also specialise in advanced Google Analytics tracking. Many treat it as just pasting a code, but there’s so much customisation possible. I went deep into GA and set up advanced tracking as a service. I found that many agencies couldn’t execute these services in-house.
By building this capability, we positioned ourselves outside the usual pricing war and gained a strong differentiation. Of course, competition remains because digital marketing has a low barrier to entry, but this is how we stand out.
Transparency is your number one practice. How does that shape client relationships and campaign success?
I believe transparency is the most important thing in agency work. In the marketing world, agencies sometimes have a bad reputation—there are black sheep with questionable practices. I firmly believe transparency builds trust, and trust takes time to develop but can be lost in an instant.
Marketing is still a people business—whether it’s with your team or your clients. So, we’re transparent in everything: access to ad accounts, full visibility on how much is being spent, and if there are issues, we inform the client immediately along with our proposed solutions.
This approach ensures that clients know we act in their best interest at all times.
Can you share a specific case where your team helped a client improve their conversion rate significantly, and what made it work?
One case that comes to mind is a client who’s been with us since around 2019. We initially worked on a smaller campaign, which went well. During the renewal, the client reached out and said, “Ian, we have a monthly lead target of 100 to 150. What can you do to help us hit that?”
So we worked backwards—reverse-engineered based on their lead target and current conversion rate. We used heatmap tools to identify user experience issues on their landing page. Through redesign and A/B testing, we improved the conversion rate significantly.
One interesting insight we discovered was that if a landing page doesn’t have a form above the fold, the conversion rate drops drastically. Along the way, we uncovered many such UI/UX patterns that helped us optimise future pages more effectively.
What are the most common mistakes you see businesses make in digital marketing, and how do you help correct them?
One common mistake is depending too heavily on limited channels to drive traffic. There’s no “best” channel—putting all your eggs in one basket is risky. I’ve seen businesses overly fixated on SEO and neglect other channels, or solely focused on social media content.
But if platforms like Facebook or Instagram change their algorithms, all their effort can go to waste. That’s why we advocate for traffic diversification.
Digital marketing is a broad spectrum, and each channel has its strengths and weaknesses. A diversified strategy ensures resilience.
How do you keep your team of experts aligned with fast-changing trends in digital marketing, especially on platforms like TikTok and with AI tools?
When it comes to team development, I focus on R&D and specialisation. I’ve intentionally kept our scope tight—we specialise in performance ads, SEO, and analytics. We often get enquiries for social media management, but we turn them down because it’s not our strength.
Specialisation means solving the same problems repeatedly, so we become more efficient each time. We’ve also built internal SOPs, allowing us to handle new platforms more easily—TikTok, for example, has a similar interface to other ad platforms, so the knowledge transfer is seamless.
Internally, we also have a knowledge-sharing system. If we come across useful AI tools, like a custom GPT, we share them with the team immediately.
Looking ahead, what’s your vision for Roots Digital and how do you plan to scale your impact in the e-commerce and lead generation space?
My vision is to continue specialising in e-commerce and lead generation. I often tell clients that if you don’t have a conversion goal, there’s nothing a marketer or agency can optimise.
When there’s no target, you’re simply being dragged by market forces. Our agency remains focused on driving e-commerce sales and leads through strategies like SEO and paid media.
We’re also expanding into adjacent services—for example, offering website management to complement SEO. This gives us control over implementation speed and adds recurring revenue, while deepening our involvement with the client’s business.
What’s your vision for Singapore in the next five years?
Personally, I see this year as a defensive year—we’re monitoring the situation closely. But just like during COVID, I realised that difficult times can be an opportunity. Strong businesses with good fundamentals will survive—and even thrive—after the storm.
That’s what happened to us post-COVID; my team grew stronger. I see the current period in the same way: both a threat and an opportunity. As for Singapore, I believe with our strong foundations, we’ll continue to grow and overcome challenges together.
Connect with Ian: Roots Digital and LinkedIn.
