E-Ideal's Marketing Services - Case Study Example

E- Ideal Advertising Division: Business Plan Contents Contents References 10 Executive Summary E- Ideal Advertising Division will provide marketing services to companies and other institutions that seek to use electronic marketing techniques as the core marketing approach for their businesses. E- Ideal Advertising will particularly offer email marketing as much as the business may expand its scope to other online marketing techniques later. Remarkably, online marketing is gradually becoming a cost effective marketing approach to reach targeted audience. A research published by Jupiter Communications showed that the response rate to email ads increased from 15 percent in June 2012 to 33 percent in April 2013 (Krishnamurthy 2006). The projection from the research indicated that an estimated 250 million emails would travel across cyberspace before the end of March 2014. The report, however, indicated that only 20 percent of website users go through all their email messages entirely (Stephen 2011; Haegele 2001). Clearly, there is great potential in email advertising and hence e-advertising although there is risk that a significant percentage of targeted audience may not be captured as desired. This plan, though, presents strategies deemed effective in ensuring that companies reach the greatest portion of potential customers. E- Ideal Advertising will design, develop, test, and initiate the email campaign. The Incorporation will always report the campaign progress responsively to ensure that customers enjoy maximum flexibility. In completing the campaign, the Incorporation will analyze its course in order to identify areas that will need improvements in future campaigns. 1.1. Mission E- Ideal Advertising Division will provide local small businesses with a one-stop advertising website. Our marketing campaigns will cut through the dominant mumbo-jumbo marketing, increase sales for companies, and enhance customer satisfaction at an affordable price. The company’s marketing campaign approach will grab web users’ attention immediately and deliver the desired ads message to targeted audience. Customers (small businesses) will in fact receive campaign returns beyond their anticipation and expectations. They will enjoy free membership and have the capacity to manage their own accounts. The public and hence targeted audience will be reached through emails as the company operations will be centered on email advertising. Our customers, however, will use their accounts to monitor progress and developments. 1.2. Company Summary E- Ideal Advertising Division will design, develop, test, and initiate the e-advertising campaign. The company will report the campaign progress and developments in real-time for customers to benefit from maximum flexibility. In completing the campaign, the company will conduct an intensive scrutiny of the email campaign course to identify any shortfalls. That information will be necessary for making appropriate improvements in subsequent campaigns. 1.3. Company Ownership E- Ideal Advertising Division will start as a partnership business of three people: Sebastian Karl, Esther Betty, and Chris Kerubo who have over seven years of experience with e-marketing between them. Sebastian Karl has worked with Buy.com for over seven years while Betty worked with Verison email marketing as a technical lead at 800.com email campaign. Each of the partners will own 33.3 percent of the company. 2. Company Start-Up The three partners, Karl, Betty, and Kerubo will invest equal amounts toward the start-up capital since they are to have equal shares in ownership. It will be necessary to obtain a loan for capital because the initial cost is excessively high for the three. Total assets amount up to $165, 500, total liabilities amount to $100, 000 total planned investments is $100, 000, the total capital is $65,000, and a total funding required is $200,000. Capital and liabilities amount to $165, 500. 2.1. Services E- Ideal Advertising will offer services that entirely cover e-marketing project from the original concept to post campaign assessment and review. Services will include: Designing the e-advertising campaign Personalization and focusing depending on nature of targeted audience Establishment and management of an email list Development of a deployment system Testing and assessing the reliability of the campaign plan Implementation of the advertising campaign Tracking developments and progress of the campaign in a responsively Instantaneous measurability for ROI analysis Post campaign progress analysis 3. Market analysis Summary Lately, it has been revealed that e-marketing, specifically online promotions are powerful marketing tools for both online and offline companies. Notably, consumers feel appreciative of online advertisements and promotions even if they are required to visit stores somewhere (Matthewson 2012). This is specifically the case with offline companies that advertise through online channels such as email marketing and website ads. The impression is that not only online companies will be our customers but also offline companies especially if they target people who use computers at home and in places of work (Andy 2010). A recently published eMarketeer online advertising report showed that consumers are sensitive to customer service, return policies, and product selection. The report indicated that 94 percent of sampled web users in Colchester, Essex, UK have at sometime in their life shopped online (Samuel 2012). Seventy four percent of them said that their buying behaviors were largely influenced by online promotions and ads. About 60 percent of occasional web users said that online coupons were highly persuasive compared to offline coupons. This implied that e-advertising, for instance email campaign, has the potential to reach targeted customers as long as there is demand for the products in the market. It does not matter how small or big a company’s internet presence is (Smith 2011). 3.1. Market Segmentation E- Ideal Advertising Division targets two distinct customer groups: Offline companies Online Companies with e-commerce With an initial customer base of about 630, 900 online customers, the company will have about 1,801,913 customers after five years. This number is projected based on the current rate of increase in number of web users. Offline customers are expected be about 1, 500, 700 in five years. 3.2. Service Business Analysis The internet is a fast growing commercial platform in the contemporary society. This is evident from various perspectives. For instance, servers or host computers increased from 3.2 million to 79.2 million between 1994 and 2001 (Chaffey 2008). The figure must have increased to several trillions now. Within the same span of time, the number of websites increased to over 6 million from 3000. This figure must have increased exponentially lately because some people have even developed personal websites (Stephen 2011; Matthewson 2012). In addition to that, most people have access to the internet because of the invention of handheld smart devices. Most of these devices require users to register with an email address. Therefore, any person using a smart device is a possible audience for e-advertisement. E- Ideal Advertising seeks to take advantage of that. Computers have also gained popularity not only in the UK but also across the globe since the invention of computers costing less than $1000 (Kalb 2002). When asked, most people say that they purchase personal computers to connect to the internet and access their emails. Clearly, E- Ideal Advertising will not disappoint small business owners with regard to advertising. The company will meet their expectations effectively. 4. Strategy and Implementation Summary E- Ideal Advertising has a strategy that it will utilize the extensive network of customer contacts at the disposal of the incorporation’s three founders. The three already purchased the right to use those contacts from former employers. In addition, the company will use internal expertise to establish an email marketing approach focused on the targeted group of customers. 4.1. Marketing Strategy With a potential customer base of about two million customers, E- Ideal Advertising will focus an email campaign on a group of 50,000 businesses every fiscal quarter. We have approximated a 5% response rate to the campaign. That is likely to bear about 1,250 leads that will help in the generation of business contacts. At that rate, the company will realize about 5,000 leads in a year. Customer retention is an important aspect of businesses. This will be ensured by virtue of charging reasonable prices for services while offering quality services. 4.2. Sales Strategy E- Ideal Advertising will use a simple sales strategy. This is because we shall use an email marketing strategy focused on potential customer base. That will serve as a model and example of what E- Ideal Advertising will enable its customers to achieve. It is anticipated that online companies will be accessed easily relative to offline ones. This implies that E- Ideal Advertising will most likely be successful with online companies at the initial stages though certain to gain momentum with offline companies after some time. Meanwhile, we shall focus on online-based companies. 4.3. Sales Forecast There is no cost of sales because our deliverables are electronic and the labor costs are covered in the personnel plan. The immediate chart below shows anticipated sales for the first 12 months in business. Appendix 3 shows the expected sales within three years illustrated using a table and graph. We focus that the company will realize total annual sales amounting to $225,830 within the first year in operation. This value is expected to increase to $370,000 and $530,000 in the second and third years of operation respectively. 5. Industry Analysis Summary 5.1. Competition Knowledge about competitors in intended industry is crucial if an entrant is to operate successfully. It is necessary for entrepreneurs to have a realistic perception of their industry in order to position their company strategically. Direct competitors offer services or products that can serve as substitutes. In that case, customers compare prices, features, and deals. Significant competitors offer some of the products or services. Direct competitors in this industry include Yell.com also called Hibu and Google. These companies, however, have not specialized in e-advertising with a focus to serve small businesses. Moreover, they do not embrace email advertising, which is our identified niche. Most local small companies will most likely prefer our services to theirs. 5.2. Competitive Edge E- Ideal Advertising is advantaged over other companies in the e-advertising industry by virtue of having experienced founders. Sebastian Karl has seven years experience with e-marketing campaigns and over ten years in direct marketing. He holds a BA in marketing. Further, he has worked with various marketing companies until lately when he joined Kemp and Johnson Advertising where he spearheaded the establishment of an internet-marketing group. Esther Betty is a BS in computer science graduate who has worked as an IT administrator at Internet Start-up Temple Communication. She also worked as the technical lead of email campaign at the startup 800.com. Accomplishments of these two people have been singled out as successful models for the email marketing campaign. A blend of their innovativeness will certainly result in a competitive e-advertising company. Clearly, our company will enter into the market competitively by virtue of being founded by professionally knowledgeable people. 6. Management Summary Sebastian Karl will take care of tactical constituent elements of the e-marketing campaign while Esther Betty manages the technical aspects. Chris Kerubo will participate in top company management issues. Knowledge in various aspects of e-marketing amongst the founding team will play a crucial role in ensuring that the company takes lead in the industry. 6.1. Personnel Plan Other than the three founders, there will be other staff members such as: Secretary/Receptionist Accountant Salespersons The founders will remain the highest earners with their pay increasing gradually from $22,000 to $30,000 in three years. Sales people will earn the largest share of all other personnel. This is because the company has to motivate sales people team with a good pay. In any case, the salespeople are the backbone of the company. Anticipated annual expenses on personnel are likely to be $202, 000. This value, however, is subject to change in case of alterations in the personnel structure. 7. Conclusion In summary, entering the e-advertising industry requires strategic planning lest the business is badly competed out. With founders who have worked for online advertising companies at various capacities, our company will certainly perform to expectations. Innovativeness will enable the company to record exemplary performance as anticipated. Small business, both online and offline will benefit from our services. It is increasingly probable that E-Ideal Advertising Division will succeed in the market because we on a specific portion of the e-marketing industry, the small businesses organizations. References Andy, L 2010, April 27, Answers that Marketers Need :E-Marketer, viewed February 14 2014, Chaffey, D 2008, CORPORATE COLLEGE HOSTS EMARKETING TECHNIQUES CONFERENCE. US Fed News Service, Including US State News , 44-47. Haegele, K 2001, E-advertising and E-marketing: Online Opportunities, : New Delphi. Kalb, I S 2002, E-Marketing: What Went Wrong and How to Do It Right, K&A Press: Michigan. Krishnamurthy, S 2006, Contemporary Research in E-marketing, Idea Group Inc, New York. Matthewson, J 2012, e-Business - A Jargon-Free Practical Guide, Routledge, Chicago. Samuel, C 2012, November 13, Online Advertising Industry: Market Research Reports, Statistics and Analysis: Report Linker, viewed February 14, 2014, Smith, S 2011, Even a Coupon Needs Good Copy: EContent , 13. Stephen, K 2011, November 6, approaches to competitive e-advertising: Advertising Age, Viewed February 14, 2014, Read More