Introduction

When it comes to running a business, going digital is a must. Having a brick-and-mortar store alone is not enough to attract customers and make a profit, especially in our current situation. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, fewer consumers leave the comfort of their homes to make purchases from a physical store for their safety. 

Due to the shift in consumer behaviour, many have turned and adapted digital transformation so their business would survive. According to a news article from Singapore Business Review, the frequency of online purchases among consumers have increased up to 74%. 

However, digital transformation does not only involve the usage of social media platforms. Even though they are an effective outlet to interact, connect, and communicate with consumers, you will miss out on the opportunity to expand your reach significantly and establish credibility if you solely tap on social media platforms.

Know that when you have a website, anyone searching for keywords related to your products or services on search engines like Google, Yahoo!, or Bing might be able to find you. The problem, however, is that having a website is just the start. With the rise in competition in the digital world, standing out from the crowd would require more effort and an effective digital marketing strategy. One of the ways is to get funding support from the government.

Out of all the funding support available, the government announced the expansion of the Productivity Solution Grant (PSG). Now, businesses can tap the PSG grant for digital marketing solutions such as SEO, SEM, and social media management strategies.

LEARN MORE: PSG Grant – What is Productivity Solution Grant (PSG)?

What Exactly Is The PSG Grant?

The Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) is funding support that the government provides to businesses and organisations that plan to adopt digital solutions and equipment to improve their operations.

Once a business or organisation gets approved for the PSG grant, they can expect to receive up to 80% support from the government and access to quality digital marketing tools and services. Thus, you can focus more on the digital transformation of your business and the digital marketing strategies you want to apply to your campaigns. 

You should be aware that the PSG grant is constantly evolving to cater to the needs of businesses. What we have known today may or may not be applicable in the future. That is why you should always be on the lookout for the latest updates on the PSG grant.

Part 1: Understanding The Importance Of The PSG Grant

As a present-day business owner, you would agree that we have arrived at the point where social media platforms, ecommerce websites, and SEO strategies are essential components of digital marketing. 

That is not surprising since Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that 6 billion people worldwide will have internet access by 2022. They also mentioned that the numbers will grow to more than 7.5 billion in 2030 and the years to come.

Nowadays, most consumers, especially the younger generation, are online. Whenever they need something, they are one click away from the solution. 

If your business has a website, potential customers will more likely discover your products or services via search engines like Google, Yahoo!, or Bing. And once your company’s website is fully optimised with the right SEO and SEM strategies, there is a higher chance that searchers will come across your web page on the first page of the search engine result page (SERP) when they search for keywords related to your business.

All of these will become available and accessible once you receive a PSG grant for digital marketing and seek help from a pre-approved PSG vendor that specialises in digital marketing solutions.

The following are the benefits of the PSG grant for your business. 

1. Covers Up To 80% Of Support

As stated above, you can receive up to 80% of support if you apply for the PSG grant. With this, the amount of money saved can be utilised for other aspects of the business. 

This 80% of support is part of the enhanced PSG grant, which is valid until March 31, 2022. Do keep a lookout for updates from time to time if you are interested in applying, in case there are updates along the way. You can refer to this link for several resources on what you can expect from the PSG grant, along with other funding support.

2. Access High-Quality Digital Solutions

Another reason why business owners apply for the PSG grant is to gain access to high-quality digital solutions, but keep in mind that regardless of digital transformation you want, the PSG grant can only give you all of that up to 80% of the support. 

However, you should know the type of access to high-quality digital solutions you gain would depend on the pre-approved PSG vendor. That is why if you want to use your PSG grant for social media management, seek help from an agency that provides social media management services. And if you want to implement the right SEO or SEM strategies for your campaigns, get in touch with the top digital marketing agencies in Singapore that provide SEO and SEM services.

In other words, get in touch with the right pre-approved PSG vendor and make sure they have and can do the digital transformation you want to happen. 

3. Create Long-Term Investments

Budget constraints for long-term investment may be one of the obstacles that most businesses are encountering. Since the future is always uncertain, many business owners are hesitant to risk anything. With up to 80% support from the government, this is the best opportunity to test the waters. The objective of the PSG grant is not only to help SMEs improve their operations with the adoption of IT solutions, but to also equip them with digital marketing knowledge. With the proper digital marketing structure set up, as well as knowledge transfer, SMEs have the ability to run the digital marketing aspect of their business independently, even after the PSG grant has ended. 

Just make sure they are the SEO, SEM, and social media management strategies that the pre-approved PSG vendor has taught you and done. With that bit of knowledge, you have learned, you can go against your competitors and increase your brand awareness online by yourself. 

While it would not be easy, it is better than not doing anything to improve your digital marketing campaign. 

Listed below are some of the digital solutions that you can invest in with your PSG grant. 

• Search engine optimization
• Search engine marketing
• Social media management

1. The Grant Is Applicable For Most Industries

As stated previously, the PSG grant provides up to 80% support to businesses and organisations that want to adopt digital solutions to improve their operations. 

If you are one of them, the following industries that are eligible to apply for the PSG grant:

• Construction
• Ecommerce
• Food and beverage 
• Landscaping
• Logistics
• Precision Engineering
• Retail to Wholesale Seller

Aside from these industry-specific firms, the PSG grant also covers digital solutions across other sectors as long as they are within the customer management, data analytics, financial management, and inventory monitoring industry.

Part 2: The Eligibility Criteria For The PSG Grant

When applying for the PSG grant for your business, keep in mind that there are criteria you have to meet first. These qualification requirements you need to satisfy to be eligible for the PSG grant. 

Who Can Apply For PSG Grant?

Most importantly, any purchase of solutions of the given grant, must be used in Singapore alone and not outside of the country. 

Your company should also have a minimum of 30% of the local shareholding, its annual turnover rate should not be more than S$100 million, and it does not have more than 200 employees. 

Once you have met all of the said criteria, that is when you become eligible for the PSG grant. And the next thing you need to do after checking your eligibility is to fill out the PSG grant application and submit it along with the required documents. 

Who Does Not Qualify For The PSG Grant?

If you belong to the following entities, you will not be eligible to apply for the PSG grant. 

• Charities, Institutions of Public Characters (IPCs)
• Government agencies and subsidiaries
• Religious Commodities
• Voluntary Welfare Organisation (VWO)

What Are The Required Documents For Application?

Meeting the eligibility criteria for the PSG grant is only the first step. To successfully apply for the PSG grant, you have to process and compile all of the necessary documents. 

Listed below are the required documents that you need to prepare: 

• Your business’s financial statement for the last three years 
• For start-ups of less than a year, you must submit other relevant supporting documents like projected income statements and up-to-date unaudited financial statements endorsed by directors or shareholders. 
• Unsigned quoted services from a pre-approved PSG vendor.
• The license number for particular sector-specific solutions
• For those with non-ACRA registered addresses, you may use utility bills as proof of occupancy.

Take note that there is a waiting period before receiving the PSG grant approval. If any issue arises, for example, the submission of additional supporting documents for your PSG grant application, the person in charge will contact or notify you. 

For in-depth details of the required documents, go to thislink.

Common Mistakes To Take Note Of When Applying for the PSG Grant

Even though it is natural for everyone to commit mistakes, you should not make one with your PSG grant application. 

Apart from learning from those mistakes, it would be a good idea for you to take note of them, so you could easily avoid them before you even submit your PSG grant application. Below are some of the PSG grant mistakes to refrain from.

• Poor Grammar And Wrong Spelling

These are the common mistakes most PSG grant applicants commit when submitting their PSG grant applications. To prevent this, you have to ensure you proofread and spell check everything. If you can, ask someone else to review the grammar and spelling. Doing so would guarantee that your PSG grant application would leave a good impression.

• Not Following Instructions

Applying for the PSG grant may seem easy, but there are many instructions that you need to follow. Not abiding by any of them can cause delays in your PSG grant application. To prevent that from happening, always read the given instruction again before clicking on the send or submit button.

• Missing Attachments

Since there are many required documents that you have to submit along with your PSG grant application, you have to ensure you attach all of them. Otherwise, it would only cause a delay in your PSG grant application when it has to be placed on hold while waiting for you to provide the missing documents. To prevent that from happening, consider creating a PSG grant checklist of your application, so you can see at a glance the documents that are missing. 

PART 3:  How To Apply For The PSG Grant?

Whether you have an ecommerce business or not, to simplify your PSG grant application, here is the step-by-step process. 

Make sure you take your time on each step before moving on to the next. Doing so would help rest assured that you did not miss anything.

16 Steps of PSG Grant Application

STEP 1: Log Into The Business Grant Portal

Once you decide to apply for the PSG grant, you should visit and log in to the Business Grant Portal with your business’ corp pass.

STEP 2: Click On The Applications To Get New Grant

Once you have logged in with your business’ corp pass, click on My Grants, then Applications. Afterwards, new options will appear: Edit Company Profile, Get New Grant or Learn to Apply. 

Among the three choices, select the one in the middle—Get New Grant.

STEP 3: Choose The Right Business Industry

After clicking on the Get New Grant tab, it will direct you to a web page where you can choose the industry your business belongs to in Singapore.

The available industry options are:

• Agriculture
• Air Transport
• Building & Construction
• Education
• Environmental Services
• Financial Services
• Food & Beverages
• Healthcare
• IT
• Landscape
• Logistics
• Manufacturing & Engineering
• Maritime
• Media
• Professional Services
• Real Estate
• Retail
• Security
• Services
• Tourism
• Wholesale Trade
• Others 

If the business industry you are in is not on the list, you may choose Others.

STEP 4: I Need This Grant To

The next step is to choose the second choice—upgrade key business areas, such as adopt technology, improve business processes or raise service standards—as shown in the image below. 

Once done, click the Next button. 

STEP 5: Choose The ‘Pre-scoped Productivity Solutions’

At this point, the Business Grant Portal will be asking you, Which best describes the area you will develop with this grant? To apply for the PSG grant, you must choose the first choice: Pre-scoped Productivity Solutions and click on Apply button.

STEP 6: Click On The Proceed Button

After clicking on the Apply button, a new page will appear where you can fill out the PSG grant application. To do so, click on the Proceed button.

STEP 7: Click The Eligibility

Afterwards, a new page will appear, where you can check your eligibility for the PSG grant on the Eligibility tab. You can find this on the left side of the screen, like the image below.

Once you have read through the eligibility criteria and you have determined that your business satisfies the said qualification requirement, tick the word Yes and click the Next button.

STEP 8: Provide The Contact Details

Make sure the contact detail that you provide is the information of the primary contact person. That means they are the first point of contact in the company to manage the PSG grant application. And when something happens, government staff will reach out to that person first.

Before proceeding to step 9, check the spelling of the details you type. The same goes for the following information you will include in the next steps of the PSG grant application. 

STEP 9: Jot Down The Mailing Address

If your preferred mailing address is the same as the one registered on your business’s profile, tick the box. If not, type in your preferred mailing address. 

Remember, the mailing address you jot is where you receive the notification about your PSG grant application besides the primary contact person’s email address.

STEP 10: Type The Details Of The Letter Of Offer Addressee

Only tick the box if the primary contact person is the same. If it is someone else, you should type the addressee’s details.

However, if the screenshot is not that readable for you, the details you need to type of the addressee are the full name, job title, and email address.

You should know that the person to address this part of the PSG grant application should be the CEO or Managing Director. If not available, any approved individual registered with ACRA.

STEP 11: Submit The PSG Grant Proposal

At this step, you will have to answer the question, what type of solution are you purchasing? For digital marketing solutions, the option you should choose is IT Solution.

Once done, click on Solution. Then search for the type of IT solution your preferred pre-approved PSG vendor is offering, followed by the name of the vendor under Vendor List.

For example, if you are looking for the digital marketing grant package that OOm offers, you will have five (5) options to choose from for your business digital marketing needs.

To learn more about OOm’sdigital marketing grant packages, check out the details of the digital marketing PSG on the Grant tab on their website. You could also contact the said digital marketing agency to find out more about their packages. 

Afterwards, you have to write down the reasons why your business needs the digital marketing solution, choose a date when you would like the pre-approved PSG vendor to get started and indicate the number of packages you will be getting.

STEP 12: Select Files to Upload the Quotation

Once done, click on the Select Files button to upload the quotation you got from them. 

Under the pre-scoped IT solutions,  pre-scoped equipment, and pre-scoped consultancy service, you will see different pre-approved PSG vendors that provide the needs of a business from various industries.

STEP 13: Choose The Deployment Location

The deployment location is where the digital solution will take place. Make sure to choose one within the option in the dropdown. Click Yes if the deployment location is the same as your ACRA registered address. If not, click No and fill in the address of the deployment location. Once done, click next.

STEP 14: Provide The Cost Details

Make sure to fill in details of the projected cost of the digital marketing solutions. Doing so would give the government an idea of how much you are going to spend on the PSG grant.

STEP 15: Explain The Business Impact

Explain in detail how the digital marketing solution will impact your business. 

STEP 16: Declare, Review, Acknowledge & Submit

Complete the declaration section by answering yes or no, and review everything. Next, indicate your consent.

Then tick the box to acknowledge and click on the Review button to review everything and submit the PSG grant application.

After all of these sixteen (16) steps are completed, you will have to wait for about four to ten (4 to 10 weeks) to receive the outcome of your PSG grant application. 

If you need to inquire about a digital marketing grant, get in touch with OOm. They are a pre-approved PSG vendor that you can trust for your digital marketing needs. Contact them now at 6391-0930.