The challenge
A B2B exporter in Songkhla founded in 2007 by a 2nd-generation rubber family, expanding into processed food (instant chilli paste, kanom jeen, frozen fruit) in 2012. Currently exports to Malaysia (52%), Singapore (22%), Indonesia (15%), other markets like Brunei + Philippines + Hong Kong (11%); 2024 revenue THB 280M, EBITDA 12%. Team: founder, COO, sales team (English + Malay), production, QC + logistics, admin + finance.
In discovery the founder + COO shared the problem: sales pipeline 70% from offline channels (trade show, in-person visits, referrals from existing buyers). Sales travel cost THB 4.8M/year; the sales team flew to KL, Singapore, Jakarta 4-6 trips/month, investing 80-100 hours/month they should have spent closing qualified deals rather than chasing cold prospects. Online leads from the website were just 2-3/month; most were unqualified (free sample requests, students doing research, retail price inquiries).
The legacy WordPress + Avada theme site was built by a Bangkok agency in 2016 and used for 9 years without rebuild — loading 8.4s on 4G, failing every Core Web Vital. Content was Thai + English on the same page with no hreflang, no multilingual structure Google could understand. The product catalogue showed only photo + name — no spec, MOQ, lead time, certification or packaging options B2B buyers need. No RFQ (Request for Quotation) form — buyers had to fill a generic contact form and wait for admin reply.
Worse, B2B export in Southeast Asia is brutally competitive — MY/SG/ID buyers searching Google find competitor sites from Vietnam + Malaysia with dedicated B2B websites built for procurement teams of large corporates: product spec sheet PDFs, certificates (HACCP, ISO 22000, Halal JAKIM/MUI, BRC) clearly displayed, buyer case study references, technical documentation, MOQ + lead time + Incoterms all visible. Buyers shortlist 5-8 suppliers within 30 minutes of online research and then contact them. The client wasn’t getting onto shortlists because the site didn’t address this phase at all.
Why the previous solutions failed
The founder had tried 3 approaches, all unsuccessful. First: Google Ads for “supplier Thailand”, “OEM food Thailand” for 6 months in 2023 at THB 65,000/month — ROI negative because the keywords were generic and didn’t match real B2B buyer intent, which uses long-tail like “HACCP certified rubber glove manufacturer Thailand” or “OEM frozen durian Malaysia HALAL JAKIM” — Ads didn’t target these. CPC was THB 38-65/click; landing page conversion 0.4% (slow site + no proper B2B content).
Second: hired a freelancer for LinkedIn ads + outreach for 4 months. LinkedIn was better but cost per qualified lead was high at THB 8,500-12,000 + most LinkedIn leads were mid-level buyers requiring 6-8 rounds of conversation before reaching decision-maker — ROI break-even was slow.
Third: ramped up presence on B2B platforms — Alibaba + Made-in-China + Tradekey for 8 months. Leads did grow to 18-25/month but quality was very low — 80% were tire-kickers from non-target markets (Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East with logistics + payment risk) + Alibaba commission 22-28% per deal + Vietnamese competitors 18-25% cheaper due to scale — making nearly every lead unclosable.
Common gap: agency + freelancer + B2B platforms didn’t understand B2B export segment needs — technical SEO + specialised multilingual + Schema Organization + Product + Service + a lead funnel designed for procurement workflow.
Southern Whale’s approach
After 4 hours of discovery with the founder + COO + sales lead + a day at the factory understanding production capability + seeing certifications onsite + interviewing QC manager + customer service, we set four pillars.
Pillar 1 — Technical foundation + B2B-specific architecture. Next.js 14 + Payload CMS + Cloudflare APAC edge + PostgreSQL Singapore region. The reasoning: B2B websites need dynamic functionality (RFQ form, product catalogue filter, lead scoring, gated content) that Astro static site doesn’t handle gracefully. Next.js + ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration) delivers both SEO performance + dynamic features. Payload CMS is open-source headless with full enterprise features (RBAC, audit log, draft/published workflow, multi-tenant) — Sanity/Contentful cost USD 400-1,200/month while Payload self-hosted has no per-record fee. Cloudflare Singapore edge is close to MY/SG/ID buyers, latency <30ms. Read more about our web development approach.
Pillar 2 — Multilingual SEO 4 languages TH/EN/MY/ID. Not translation but rewriting per locale to match search intent. MY buyers search “pembekal makanan halal Thailand”, “pengeksport getah Thailand JAKIM”. ID buyers search “supplier makanan beku Thailand HALAL MUI”, “OEM produsen Thailand”. SG buyers search in English but in Southeast Asia context (e.g. “HACCP food manufacturer Thailand Singapore export”). Hreflang setup per locale + Search Console verification per language. Native translators are real B2B copywriters (essential — B2B terminology + technical spec needs accuracy, otherwise procurement teams won’t trust you).
Pillar 3 — Schema markup + content architecture. Implemented Schema markup Google uses for B2B rich snippets: Organization + Product (with offer + AggregateRating + Review) + Service + Article + FAQPage + LocalBusiness + Person (sales contact). Product catalogue redesigned as filterable architecture — filter by category, certification (HACCP/ISO/Halal/Kosher/Organic), MOQ range, packaging option, Incoterm. Spec sheet PDF download (gated by email + company info). Case study library showing real customer references (with permission). Article hub on regulation updates (Halal cert change, FDA Thailand regulation, Indonesia BPOM, Singapore SFA).
Pillar 4 — B2B lead funnel + HubSpot CRM. RFQ form collecting specific info (company name, country, industry, product interest, MOQ, target lead time, current supplier, certification requirement). Lead scoring algorithm (high score = buyer from large company + MOQ > threshold + specific product inquiry; low score = generic + small quantity). HubSpot CRM integration auto-assigning leads to sales reps by country + product line. Email automation 7-day nurture sequence (Day 1 welcome + product brochure, Day 3 case study, Day 5 certification doc, Day 7 schedule call CTA). Sales handoff workflow + Calendly integration.
How we worked (week-by-week)
Week 1-2: Discovery + onsite + audit + competitive analysis. Founder + COO interview 4 hours. Factory visit for 1 day inspecting production + QC + warehouse + certification display. Sales team interviews on buyer persona + objection handling + current closing rate. Audit of legacy site via Screaming Frog finding 720 issues (96 canonical, 480 alt, 64 duplicate, 42 broken links, 38 mixed content). Lighthouse baseline LCP 8.4s, CLS 0.42, INP 820ms. Competitor benchmark across 24 B2B exporters (8 Thailand, 8 Vietnam, 4 Malaysia, 4 Indonesia) on Schema, content depth, multilingual, CMS, lead funnel. Keyword research 280+ keywords across 10 clusters split by 4 languages.
Week 3-6: Build + migration + CMS. Migrated WordPress → Next.js, dozens of main pages + product category pages + product detail pages. Set up Payload CMS + trained marketing + sales 3 sessions (2 hours each). Implemented product filter + spec sheet PDF generator (auto-generated from Payload data). Set up Cloudflare Pages + R2 + Workers (proxy + image optimisation + PDF generation). Built RFQ form + lead scoring + HubSpot integration. Reshot 180 photos (factory, product detail, certification, team) + 6 videos (factory tour, QC process, packaging line).
Week 7-9: Content hub + multilingual + Schema. Wrote 24 starter articles TH primary + native rewrite EN/MY/ID with separate translators per language (MY used a KL translator with prior food industry buying experience, ID used a Jakarta translator with procurement background) + case studies (real customer references) + product spec sheets + regulation articles. Implemented full Schema markup Organization + Product + Service + Article + FAQPage + LocalBusiness + Person.
Week 10-11: HubSpot setup + email automation + launch. Set up HubSpot CRM + sales pipeline + lead scoring rule + auto-assignment. Email automation 7-day nurture sequence × 4 languages (28 emails). 3-day soft launch + hard launch + 72-hour monitoring. Submitted local citations to 40+ B2B directories (Kompass, Europages, GoSourcing365, Made-in-China organic listing).
Week 12: Training + documentation. Trained sales team across 4 sessions on HubSpot + lead handling + email response templates + Calendly setup. Built SOP + runbook + photo bank + 12-week content calendar.
Ongoing, months 2-6: 6 articles/month × 4 languages. Weekly GBP posts. Backlink outreach to B2B publications + trade associations (FTI Thailand, MATRADE Malaysia, BPOM Indonesia, Singapore Business Federation). Lead pipeline monitoring + monthly report + adjustments to lead scoring + content strategy.
Obstacles and pivots
Obstacle 1: Halal certification document format that JAKIM requires. MY procurement insisted on seeing JAKIM-format Halal certificates, not Halal Thailand (lower acceptance in MY). The client had JAKIM-equivalent recognition through Halal Thailand but the document format didn’t match. Pivot: built a dedicated landing page explaining cross-recognition + uploaded official MOU documentation between Halal Thailand + JAKIM + included JAKIM authority verification contact info so buyers could verify themselves. Trust score lifted MY conversion +180%.
Obstacle 2: founder wanted to keep Alibaba listing. Week 8 the founder worried that cutting Alibaba would lose a backup channel. Pivot: we explained we didn’t need to cut, just deprioritise — maintain Alibaba listing at standard tier + redirect organic effort to direct channel + use Alibaba inquiries as a market research signal + skip premium Alibaba upgrade. Lead quality from direct + organic ran 4-5x higher than Alibaba leads.
Obstacle 3: HubSpot lead scoring false negative. Week 4 post-launch, the scoring algorithm rejected 38% of leads sales feedback said were qualified. Analysis: the algorithm weighted company size too heavily — medium-sized MY restaurant chains (USD 2-5M revenue) were rejected for being “small”. Pivot: adjusted weights — lower company size + higher weight on industry fit + product-specific inquiry + repeat visit count. Lead quality + quantity balance lifted 65% after 4 weeks.
Post-launch and ongoing
8 months post-launch: qualified leads +320% (3 → 13/month); organic traffic 220 → 2,820 sessions/month (+1,180%); MY traffic +580%; sales travel cost down 42% (THB 4.8M → 2.8M/year) because the sales team could focus on closing qualified online leads instead of cold visits; deal pipeline value +180% + closing rate up from 18% to 32% (because leads were better qualified).
Lessons learned for Thai B2B exporters: 1) B2B websites need technical depth B2C doesn’t (spec sheet, certification doc, MOQ, Incoterm, case study). 2) Multilingual MY/ID is critical for Thai exporters targeting Southeast Asia, not optional. 3) Halal certification document formats differ per country and need proper landing-page handling. 4) Lead scoring algorithms have to iterate against sales feedback every 4-6 weeks — initial design usually misweights. 5) Schema markup Organization + Product + Service matters for B2B rich snippets that procurement teams see as added trust signal.
The client is in month 11 of retainer, has signed Year 2, and the founder is discussing Phase 2 to build a buyer portal for existing customers (order tracking, certification download, document repository, payment history) on the same tech stack. See other B2B case studies or our software development services.