SEO for Tobacco

Tobacco is one of the massive national economic contributors in Indonesia. The tobacco processing industry in Indonesia shared IDR 1345.75 trillion of GDP in 2022, or 4.21% of the non-oil and gas industry’s GDP. Those numbers also contributed to 0.96% of the country’s total PDB.

In addition, those can be said to increase as the number of cigarette smokers in Indonesia increases. Therefore, operating in the tobacco industry might be challenging as you will compete with huge tobacco companies and strive to win consumers’ hearts.

Therefore, you must utilize the right marketing strategies for your tobacco products, including SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Understanding SEO for Tobacco will help you to stand out from the competition. 

This article will bring you to explore how SEO works for tobacco industries, including the production of cigarettes, tobacco leaves, and other tobacco products. SEO will not only boost your brand awareness, but it will also help your business gain higher returns.

Tobacco Industry in Indonesia

As mentioned above, tobacco has played several roles in Indonesia’s economy. The tobacco industry in Indonesia is growing rapidly, from the home industries to big-scale companies. One of the factors is the increase in smoking habits among Indonesians. 

The high number of smokers in Indonesia makes tobacco products like cigarettes become in great demand, making tobacco companies keep growing and contributing to the national economy through excise. 

Not only that, the tobacco industry also prospers the tobacco farmers in rural areas, boosting the area’s economy. In addition, as the tobacco industry develops, it escalates the employment opportunities in the industry. 

The tobacco products vary from conventional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, and heated tobacco products. Even though cigarette production decreased from 2016 to 2018, it accelerated in 2021 with a total annual production of 235.9 billion cigarettes. 

Seeing this huge growth and the fact that tobacco has become a super commodity, the Indonesian government commits to maintaining the farmer's exchange rate as well as cooperation with tobacco producers. 

Recently, there have been big names in the tobacco industry in Indonesia, namely Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna, Gudang Garam Tbk, Wismilak Inti Makmur Tbk, and Indonesian Tobacco Tbk. 

Despite that, there are growing numbers of tobacco companies in Indonesia producing various tobacco products. Therefore, standing out among those players requires a top-notch strategy like SEO. 

The Challenges of the Tobacco Industry

Despite having a great contribution to many sectors, such as GDP, export rate, and employment, this industry still faces various challenges. Here are some obstacles that tobacco companies in Indonesia encounter:

1. Health Concerns

WHO declares that cigarettes are the number one killer globally, with over 8 million people around the world dying from tobacco smoking, including non-smokers and passive smokers. This also leads to antitobacco campaigns done by several groups in Indonesia and worldwide.

Tobacco cigarettes are also not good for long-term consumption, which means companies in this sector cannot market their products openly. 

2. Illegal Cigarette Distribution

Cigarette production once decreased due to a high excise and retail selling price. The increasing excise despite the low cigarette consumption affects the price in the market. 

The government stated that they boost the excise to limit cigarette consumption. However, once the consumption decreased, it did not affect the excise, making the price skyrocketing. Since Indonesia has a massive demand for tobacco cigarettes, smokers will find another way to smoke, one of which is illegal cigarettes. 

The distribution of illegal cigarettes is in line with the excise. If the tariff is low, the illegal cigarette distribution will also be low. In contrast, if the tariff is high, the distribution will be high. This was shown in 2019 when there was no excise increase. The distribution was decreasing compared to the previous year. 

Yet, in 2020, the tariff increased along with the high number of illegal cigarette distribution. The distribution surely will affect the market price since it is more inexpensive than the legal one. In addition, illegal cigarettes do not undergo laboratory checks, leading to unwanted health risks. 

3. Unbalanced Supply and Demand

Indonesians have a strong habit of smoking, making the demand for tobacco higher. However, it is not in line with the local supply. This is due to the limited area for tobacco farming. To fulfill the demand, farmers and companies must expand the area. Let’s say, if the productivity of tobacco plants is 1 ton per hectare, then you need 153,191 hectares of soil to cover it. 

Not only that, tobacco plants also have fierce competition with other commodities. If farmers see other commodities as more profitable than tobacco, they will go for them rather than planting tobacco. This surely will decrease the supply of tobacco to the producers. 

4. Strict Government Regulation

The government regulates how tobacco companies market, promote, and display their products to the public. The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission or Komisi Penyiaran Indonesia ruled how tobacco companies put cigarette ads on television, such as prohibited to show the exact shape of a cigarette and the exact activities of smoking. 

Not only that, the promotion of cigarettes in social media has been limited to controlling consumption, including issuing policies about age restrictions and publication schedules. 

5. Negative Issue of Child Exploitation

Recently, there has been an issue of exploiting children to work at the tobacco farm. This issue was once brought up by the National Commission for Child Protection. Due to this, some tobacco producers’ reputations were affected and the public began to cancel their product. 

How SEO Can Overcome the Challenges

A customized approach that fits your industry requirements and commercial goals is necessary to optimize your SEO strategy for tobacco. Here are some specific SEO for tobacco practices for your company operating in the tobacco industry:

1. Improving Brand Recognition and Online Visibility

Tobacco companies may build a powerful online presence with the use of SEO, especially those who want to target a specific audience like younger consumers. Utilizing SEO for tobacco industry will help your company reach a wider audience as well as help them find your business easily on the internet. 

2. Local SEO Optimization

Implementing local SEO to your tobacco business can help you locate the best area to market your tobacco products. You can conduct keyword research and optimize your Google My Business listing to target the domestic area.

3. Educational Content

Companies may utilize SEO to provide content that tells readers about the appropriate usage of tobacco products like cigarettes. You can also create SEO-friendly content telling people to not consume and distribute illegal tobacco products. 

4. Content Marketing

Not only educational content for your consumers, but SEO also focuses on how to market your product using content marketing since the tobacco industry must follow government regulations, such as age restrictions and publication schedules. 

SEO will match the best content marketing strategies with the regulation to produce relevant but still adhering the policy content. 

5. Reputation Management

Businesses in this sector may address any negative sentiments or misunderstandings about their products by using SEO to track and manage internet reviews and ratings. 

Gaining the trust of prospective customers can be facilitated by acquiring backlinks from reputable media or producing positive press releases and placing them on online media with great exposure. 

Those attempts will change how customers see your products and company, leading to a boosted reputation. 

Start Using SEO for the Tobacco Industry Now!

When it comes time to start SEO, you may either work with a professional SEO firm or create an internal SEO team. However, because of its scalability and flexibility, the first option is often preferable.

As an expert SEO company, cmlabs has everything under control. cmlabs creates custom SEO strategies for companies in the tobacco sector in close collaboration with them. This tactic helps your enterprise target the demographics with great chances. 

Creating content that encourages legal tobacco cigarette consumption is another area that cmlabs strongly prioritizes. This material goes beyond simple marketing which includes educational articles, interesting blog entries, and even visually striking infographics.

Also, swipe away negative issues to boost your company’s reputation with our Media Buying Service. 

Start your SEO adventure right away by getting in touch with our team to find out how we can customize our knowledge to fit the particular requirements of your tobacco company!