Market Net as a New Approach to Providing Marketing Students with a Place to Find All the Marketing Knowledge - Essay Example

Internet Marketing Project For Market Net Executive Summary Market Net is a new approach to providing marketing students with a place to find all the marketing knowledge. This in other terms is a n attempt to bring together a group of students and professionals together to share their knowledge and passion for marketing. This report has been prepared to analyze the target segments for Market Net along with other elements that would affect the traffic to the website. A clear web traffic plan has been included. Also a very important aspect has been included, which mainly deals with the website selection and jurisdiction. A through analyzes of the various marketing websites has been made here to gain an understanding of the various benefits that the users might gain from the other websites as well. Also a survey has been included in the report which will aim at identifying the usefulness of the site, i.e. Market Net. This survey has been designed to identify the personalities and the opinions of the users and to use this as a mode of improving the website. The report in short has provided for a clear set of ideas and options for Market Net to improve and increase the traffic to its website. Table of Contents Introduction: 2 Target Audience Analysis: 2 Web Traffic Plan: 6 Members of Facebook: 6 Website Design: 7 Interactive Applications in the Social Network: 8 E-Newsletters and Email Marketing: 9 Website Selection and Justification: 10 Marketing Today: 12 The Marketing Association of Australia and New Zealand: 13 The American Marketing Association: 13 Survey Development and Justification: 14 Justification for the Questions: 16 Conclusion: 17 Bibliography 18 Introduction: MarketNet is a relatively new initiative to create a network of students and professionals related to the field of marketing and also to provide valuable resources and articles on marketing. This report analyses the target audience both in terms of demographics and psychographics, based on the users of the social network application, Facebook. Then the various strategies to drive traffic to MarketNet are discussed. As the budget is limited, the various cost effective options and the best way to implement them are also presented. In order to add various articles and content to the site, the marketing resource websites are researched and the four websites that have been found to be potentially useful to MarketNet are listed along with the rationale behind the selection. Finally, a survey development process was undertaken to include within MarketNet, in order to monitor the performance of the website and a rationale for this is also presented. Target Audience Analysis: Marketing is a technique which requires to be planned well to ensure that it reaches out to the right set of people, i.e., the target market (Dibb & Simkin, 1996). The target market is generally a set or group of people who have one or more common interests. In this case the target audiences have one thing in common ‘Marketing’. The first most essential criteria for the target market are that they are Facebook users (Holzner, 2008). After which Market Net has a chance to reach out to a number of different groups of people. These include: a) Prospective Marketing Students b) Current Marketing Students c) Marketing Professionals d) Websites or companies that act as resources for marketing. Prospective marketing students, this group will prove to be a beneficial for Market Net, as Facebook is now becoming a very important source of information for students of various courses. This group will consist of people between the age groups of 17 – 22. Market Net can prove to be a source of information for this group of people. Also this will provide the students with a chance of getting in touch with other students, professionals, and even gain information to various articles that are available on the web to gain a better understanding if this is the correct choice for them. Prospective students use the various social networking sites as a model for information on various universities and also for advice from other students who have already taken the course in the universities. This provides the prospective students with details of what they can expect and also provides them with a chance to rethink their choices for specialization as well. Also the prospective students would be inclined to come into the community as it would prove to be a strong source of information and will not only provide them with information from the current students but also from professionals working in the area. Current Marketing Students can also be a part of the target market as these groups of people would be interested in gaining basic and latest information of the trends in marketing. Also the community will provide the students with a better chance to excel in the course and even in the exams. These students can be a part of graduate courses which involve marketing, or even undergraduate courses which include post graduate student specializing in Marketing. The normal age group of this group can be classified between 20 -30 years. This site can prove o be beneficial to the group as it will provide them with a chance to discuss the subject, also to get in touch with marketing professionals who could provide them with tips and secrets of the trade. Also this will appeal to the marketing students as it will provide them with a chance to gain an insight on how their work life would be after finishing the course, what kinds of salaries that they might get, also prepare themselves to face the interviews for the jobs. This can also be a place for the current students to pass on their learning and tricks for studies to the prospective students to help them succeed in the courses as well. The current marketing students would also gain a better understanding of the practical aspects of the subject. This could be incorporated into the theory that they study. This can prove to be a base for the students to discuss topics which they have difficulty understanding in class and use this to help them score better in the assessments at the universities. Market professional like marketing managers, teachers and anyone with a focus on marketing in their face book profiles can be targeted and invited to join the community. Having the professionals in the community will not only make the community more interactive but will prove to be very beneficial to all others within the community. This community could provide a chance for the marketing professionals looking for new talent to find and use the current students to be a part of their organization. Also the marketing professionals can prove to be very helpful to students who aim at coming into the marketing field by providing them with details and basic requirements for working in the field. Also this can be a nice mode for the marketing professionals to socialize with other marketing professionals and also share ideas and solutions for issues. The normal age group of the professionals will be between 28- 55. The major aim of focus will be on marketing managers, teachers, marketing executives and also marketing consultants. This will provide the students with a wide range of information and also a better range of information to gain complete knowledge of the subject. Websites which provide marketing resources can also be a part of the community. There are numerous websites and companies which publish and provide for marketing material. Examples of such websites include Marketingabout .com, marketing today.com, Marketing Association of Australia and New Zealand and American Marketing Association. Each of these provide students, professionals and any person interested in marketing with a number of articles, latest developments and a lot of other information as well. Being a part of this community will help and provide these businesses or even the websites with a chance to gain more information and also to provide the community with articles and links to their own website as well. This will prove to be more like a chance for the community to build the content on the page and thereby lead to higher number of visits for Market Net. Each of these target audience groups will prove to be very vital in the marketing of Market Net. A mix of all the above mentioned target audience would mean a community with excellent content and also as meeting place for people with the same interest and passion for marketing. Targeting these groups of people would be relatively simple. In terms of finding professionals on Facebook who are interested or even work in the marketing field could be gained by working through their profiles, the friends, and even the various groups that they are a part off. Also the target audiences that have been chosen can create a very interactive environment in the community which in turn can lead to a high number of visitors. The right mix for the target market can provide the website with a good amount of content and information that could increase the traffic to the website to a great extent (Buelte & Wuyts, 2007). Also this could ensure good use of the investments made on marketing. Web Traffic Plan: Members of Facebook: There is a very large scope that Market Net has in terms of the number of potential members that it can gain directly from Facebook. This can be done manually, i.e. there are a number of people on Facebook and their interests are listed on their profiles. This can be used as a basis of choosing the prospective members for the group (Jaq, 2008). There are a number of ways of getting in touch with the people who are listed to be interested in Marketing. It is important to understand that there are numerous communities that deal with marketing on Facebook. It would possible to move into these communities and invite the members to join Market Net as well. This would provide a vast number of people being invited into the group. Also, it would be possible to gain a number of users, by visiting forums related to marketing and using these forums to pick and choose the prospective users for the group. Approaches need to be focused and not just an invite sent to all. This would be a very negative form of marketing and could lead to the group losing face on the social networking site. Excessive care needs to be taken and it is important to make sure that the messages sent are marketing oriented and not just any message sent to anyone on the site. Thus it would be best to have a manual process of recognizing and identifying the possible members for the group by thoroughly analyzing and choosing each one of the members. However while considering the various communities, groups and current members, the messages can be sent to the full group as a whole. This is majorly because the group is already marketing oriented and the members who have registered as a part of the group are obviously interested in the subject hence they join the community (Weber, 2009). Although this looks like a simple process there are a number of different factors that need to be kept in mind while approaching the individuals even to invite them to the group. This is mainly because the approach should not be perceived to be a negative marketing approach or considered as spam. To do so, it is essential that care is taken while choosing the members and messages which are definitely accepted to be genuine need to be sent out to the members. Thus while the manual member search can be beneficial in gaining a number of members for the group, it is still important to make sure that the messages sent are not bulk, irrelevant and out of focus. Messages like these could lead to a complete negative image and thereby reduce the creditability of the group by itself (Smith, 2008). If care is taken, this method can prove to be very useful in increasing the traffic to the group and also increase the interactivity within the group. Website Design: Website Design is another extremely essential aspect of increasing the traffic to a site. Since Market Net is a complete marketing based site, it is essential that the design by itself should provide the viewers with an understanding of what the site is related too. To make a site more user friendly, one of the most essential elements that need to be present in the website is interactive features. The design of the website also plays a very important role in the popularity of the website. The website can also be improved and generate high amounts of traffic if the design is one which is relevant to the content of the site. An appealing website design can provide the user with a strong impression of the company or community. It would be most beneficial if the site is user friendly, appropriate design, easy navigations, simple yet attractive design. If a website contains all these the chances of the number of users increasing and the number of hits increasing is very high. This will also lead to more interactions among the people on the site which in turn means higher levels of content on the site. Thus it is essential to focus on the site design to quite great details, as the first impression and the user friendliness of the website will provide the users with higher levels of satisfaction and also lead to more people coming into the site. Therefore a lot of care, patience and a clear flow of thoughts need to be present in the design. Interactive Applications in the Social Network: Facebook applications are very efficient and effective in reaching the potential audience within a short time frame. According to Freiert (2007), Facebook received over 26 million visitors to the social network in one month, August of 2007. It is evident that the network has high popularity and there are continuous visits to the website by existing as well as new members. It has been measured that over 14 million users interacted with the Facebook applications in that month. It is clear that the applications were run on more than 50% of the total visits to the website in one month. The importance and the reach of the applications indicate that it is a very effective way to gain users’ attention. Hence MarketNet can gain web traffic by strategically developing the applications. The simplest applications that can be developed using the inbuilt features of Facebook include simple quizzes. Initially simple quizzes can be developed and promoted to all the users of MarketNet. This application should then be promoted to the potential users identified, as described earlier in ‘Members of Facebook’. This can be taken one step further and more interactive options can be added to the applications. Options to post the results of quizzes to friends, invite others to take the quizzes, use of graphical images and notations to represent results and also to customize the quiz will increase the usage of the application. Though this involves a small investment in terms of development costs, it will create more awareness and in turn, directly influence the web traffic to MarketNet. Videos and podcasts also attract visits and increase awareness. Hence videos of marketing seminars and other events can be published in MarketNet. Another way to utilize multimedia such as videos and podcasts is to create viral marketing videos and spreading them through the existing members. This will increase awareness and in turn visits to MarketNet. E-Newsletters and Email Marketing: The most important aspect to be considered in order to get repeat visits from users is to provide fresh and more interesting content very frequently. Also, it is essential to inform the members about fresh content, important events and also any other significant information. This will ensure repeat visits to the website as the mails are being sent to interested users who have opted in to receive newsletters and emails from MarketNet. However, as discussed earlier, care has to be taken in choosing the frequency and the content that is sent in the mails. In case the user gets the feeling that MarketNet is flooding his message box, it will again result in a negative impact. It is also important to constantly track the clicks received from mail campaigns and newsletters. This will provide insight into the effectiveness of the type of messages that are successful and other such factors. It is easier to get repeat visits from existing user than to get a new user to visit a website (O’ Reilly, 2007). Hence it is essential to undertake this operation to ensure repeat visits from the users. With a minimum marketing budget, it is feasible to run an ad campaign in addition to the above mentioned web traffic plan. The ad campaign can be run in Facebook Ad Services or on Google Adwords. The ads can be run in the number of impressions mode so that MarketNet is billed on a cost per thousand impressions basis. MarketNet should focus on running image and video adverts rather than test adverts, as the main focus here is to increase awareness. Website Selection and Justification: There are a vast collection of materials and resources available in the Internet about literally any subject and marketing is no exception. However it is essential to identify resourceful websites which provide reliable and useful materials and articles. A few websites have been identified as potentially useful for MarketNet. These websites were chosen on the criteria that they have to provide useful articles and information to the marketing group and also constantly update with newer practices that are prevalent. This will provide valuable insight to the marketing students about the various best practises and also advances and new techniques that are in practise. This information will make the students realise how the marketing concepts and theories are applied in the real world and equip them to face these challenges. Four websites are presented in the following sections, along with their access information and also the justification for selecting the website as an appropriate resource for MarketNet. About Marketing: The website can be accessed at the following Url. Website Url: http://marketing.about.com/ The website highlights the blog which is written and constantly updated by Laura Lake. The site ‘About.com’ nominates a guide for each section and for this marketing section, Laura Lake is chosen as the guide. In addition to the blog which is constantly updated by the marketing guide, there are a number of useful sections for people interested in the field of marketing, irrespective of their status – students, professionals or students looking for information regarding the field of marketing. The website is categorized into four basic sections, namely, Marketing, Branding Basics, Careers and Public Relations. The marketing section has a number of articles related to the field of marketing, including the common glossary, marketing basics, marketing vs. advertising and also on marketing budgets. Information is also categorized and presented as topics, so that a user can reach the information based on the topic, he is looking for. The Branding Basics section detail the branding concepts, the importance and various other issues related to it. The Careers section highlights the various fields and verticals that can be chosen by marketing graduates and professionals. There are also a number of articles which highlight the typical day for various roles in marketing and also the methods to search and apply for interested positions. The final section is specifically focussed on public relations, explaining the various methods and also the tips on developing the public relations strategy (Lake, 2009). It is evident from the website content that it will be very useful to the potential visitors to MarketNet. Hence marketing.about.com can be added to the group. Marketing Today: The website can be accessed at the following Url. Website Url: http://www.marketingtoday.com/ The Marketing Today website highlights that it is the online guide to marketing in this information age. It has a wide variety of resources related to marketing, including fresh job openings, salary trends, a book store with all the leading titles in marketing, latest analysis and presentation of data relevant to marketers. Another section is dedicated to the Internet Marketing, where all the latest trends are discussed and presented to the readers. There are number of other sections which interact with the users in many ways, such as blogs, eNewsletters and a comprehensive internal site search (DeLegge, 2009). This website is ideal for current and prospective marketing students to get a clear picture of the careers related to marketing. Marketing professionals can also obtain latest information on marketing tools and also the various data required to take marketing decisions. Hence Marketing Today can be added to the MarketNet page. The Marketing Association of Australia and New Zealand: The website can be accessed at the following Url. Website Url: http://www.marketing.org.au/ The Marketing Association of Australia and New Zealand (MAANZ) has an online marketing database named as the MAANZ On- Line Information Database (MOLIB). The website not only has information about the field of marketing related to Australia and New Zealand, but it has a section that brings the latest news, stories and articles from around the world, which is named as the Marketing Information Hub. This website will be useful to the undergraduate and postgraduate students of marketing (CQU cohorts), as career information related to various regions in Australia and New Zealand are listed in the website (MAANZ, 2009). There is also an optional membership to get emails and notifications about interested subjects and articles. The professionals can also register for Chartered Professional Practitioner. The potential visitors and members of the site are very much interested in career prospects in addition to course materials and articles. Hence this site will be useful to the members of MarketNet. The American Marketing Association: The website can be accessed at the following Url. Website Url: http://www.marketingpower.com/ The American Marketing Association (AMA) is a professional association for individuals and firms related to the practices, teaching and study of marketing worldwide. There are nearly 40,000 members including strong and experienced marketing academics, researchers and practitioners from every industry. The website also offers highly acclaimed seminars, workshops and Hot Topic events completely focussed on the ever growing needs of marketers. The website also hosts a vast collection of marketing data, articles, case studies, best practices and also a careers section with a number of job listings (AMA, 2009). The members of the MarketNet are exposed to a large network of experienced professionals and can interact with them. The articles and database on the website will also provide valuable insight about international marketing trends. Survey Development and Justification: In order to obtain feedback from the users regarding the usefulness of the site, the best suited option to be used in the case of MarketNet is collecting survey responses. It is essential to develop a short survey which takes up only about 45 seconds to one minute to complete. If the surveys are longer, it is very probable for the user to get annoyed and close the survey half way through or even worse, he can leave MarketNet (Fine, 2008). The short survey should gather all the required information that can be used to estimate the usefulness of the site and also some additional information such as the demographics and expectations. Survey Questionnaire 1. Age Group 18-25 26-35 36-45 >45 2. What describes you best Prospective Marketing Student Current Marketing Student Marketing Professional Others 3. What according to you is the most useful feature of MarketNet Network Interactions Content Videos and Quizzes External Links 4. How would you rate MarketNet on a scale of 1 – 5 (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest) 1 2 3 4 5 Justification for the Questions: 1. Age: Age has been chosen as a question for the survey, as this will provide for the demographic details of the people who use MarketNet. Also the age provides a strong link to understand the personality of the person and the answers to the other questions. The age of the people will also provide for a better understanding of the changes needed to the website to suit the taste of all age groups. 2. What Describes you best: This is a very important question for the survey, as it provides a chance to understand the category of the target market that the user falls into. Also this will provide for a clarity of the level that the people who use Market Net. It will also allow an analysis of the changes needed as per the needs and requirements of each category of the target market as well. 3. What according to you is the most useful feature: This survey question gathers the most valuable information regarding the feature that is considered useful by the users. Any unanimous result will immediately indicate that it is the only feature that is being valued by the users. However a more spread result requires a little deeper analysis, by mapping the responses of this question to that of the third. This will give an indication of the feature that is most appealing or useful to each of the user types. The results can then be used as a feedback to make the necessary changes to MarketNet. This can improve the visits to MarketNet by a great amount, as the most useful feature is being developed. 4. How would you rate MarketNet on a scale of 1 – 5: This final question will provide the overall response of the users regarding MarketNet. An average score of 3 or above on this question will indicate that most of the users find the site to be very useful and that the initiative is a success. However, a rating below 3 indicates the need for improvement. Based on other analyses, the necessary adjustments can be made and the feedback can again be taken in the form of the survey, to measure of the effectiveness of the changes and so on. This can be carried on as a continuous process till an optimum result is obtained. Conclusion: The web traffic plan illustrated in the report is based on the target audience analysis and hence when implemented properly, will generate high traffic to MarketNet. The strategies to add resources and articles from various websites and also to keep the content fresh and interesting are also presented. The effectiveness of the website can also be monitored using the survey that has been laid out in the final section. When all these processes are adopted, MarketNet will gain a strong position in terms of visitors and also the marketing related information shared. Bibliography AMA, (2009), The American Marketing Association – Marketing Power, Accessed on 26 May 2009, Available at http://www.marketingpower.com/ Buelte, C.V., & Wuyts, S., (2007), 'Social Networking and Marketing', 6 March 2007, Marketing Science Institute DeLegge, P., (2009), Marketing Today: A Publication of Peter DeLegge Consulting, Accessed on 26 May 2009, Available at http://www.marketingtoday.com/ Dibb, S., & Simkin, L., (1996), 'The Market Segmentation Workbook: Target Marketing for Marketing Managers', 1 edition, 22 February 1996, Cengage Learning Business Press Fine, D., (2008), 14 Tips for Writing an Effective Online Survey, Syberworks, Accessed on 27 May 2009, Accessed on http://www.syberworks.com/articles/14surveytips.htm Freiert, M., (2007), 14 Million People Interacted with Facebook Applications in August, 14 September 2007, Accessed on 26 May 2009, Available at http://blog.compete.com/2007/09/14/facebook-activity-breakdown-application/ Holzner, S., (2008), 'Facebook marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow your Business', 1 edition, 7 September 2008, Que Publishers Jaq, N., (2008), ‘Facebook Marketing: 25 Most effective, Unknown, Black – ops Marketing Techniques for Bands Businesses’, 19th January 2008, 1st Edition, Nick Jag.com Laura, L., (2009), About.Com – Marketing, Accessed on 26 May 2009, Available at http://marketing.about.com/ MAANZ, (2009), The Marketing Association of Australia and New Zealand, Accessed on 26 May 2009, Available at http://www.marketing.org.au/marketing_information_and_resources.aspx O’Reilly, T., (2007), The Facebook Application Market, Graphing Social Networks, 9 October 2007, O’Reilly Media Inc, Accessed on 26 May 2009, Available at http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/facebook-application-market-tim-oreilly Smith, J., (2008), ‘The Facebook Marketing Bible: The Guide to marketing your Brand, Company, Product or Service Inside Facebook’, 10 December 2008, CreateSpace Publishers Weber, L., (2009), ‘Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business’, 3 March 2009, 2nd Edition, Wiley Publishers Read More