Individual Digital Marketing - Business Plan Example

Individual digital marketing report Table of Contents Sl. No. Heading Page Number 0 Executive Summary 3 1 Objectives 31.2 Marketing Strategy 3 1.2.1 Mission 3 1.2.2 Targeted Audience 3 1.2.3 Positioning Strategy 4 1.3 Marketing Mix Strategy 4 1.3.1 The Internet 4 1.3.2 The Product 5 1.3.3 Price 5 1.3.4 Promotion 6 1.3.5 Place 7 1.3.6 Positioning 7 1.4 Customer Relationship Management 8 1.4.1 Online Strategies 8 1.4.2 Offline Strategies 8 1.5 Implementation Plan 9 1.6 Evaluation Plan 10 1.7 Appendix 1 12 1.8 References 12 1.0 Executive Summary In Thing is a UK based Ecommerce Company whose principal business is to sell toys online. The company has concentrated on selling their products to wholesalers with its B2B business model. The company also has a sister company I Want I Want who sells toys to individual customers as well. The company is focused on rendering professional services to their customer base across the UK with the ease of purchase and delivery within 24 hours of purchasing the product. They also have the logistics to deliver to their overseas customers in 48 hours. The digital marketing plan of the company will focus on the marketing strategy and framework where they can focus on specific areas with the right combination of product positioning, marketing mix strategy with excellent customer centric services. The plan will provide the right strategy in order for the company to increase their sales and brand image across the country and internationally as well. 1.1 Objectives The objective of the company is to become known as a major brand for selling toys online. To achieve this, the company needs to increase their profit margin by at least 20% and gain 30% more new customers ever year with the ability to retain 70% of the existing ones. The company will focus on the marketing mix to have a clear defined implementation plan for achieving its objectives. 1.2 Marketing Strategy 1.2.1 Mission The mission of the company is to be the number one company in the world to manufacture and sell innovative toys in the United Kingdom and abroad. The company needs to concentrate on their innovative capabilities, brand imaging and fast delivery mechanism. 1.2.2 Target Audience The target audience of the company can be divided into the following groups: 1. Large Scale Distributors across the UK. 2. Large Scale Distributors across the Globe. 3. Small to Medium scale distributors across UK. 4. Small to Medium scale distributors in major cities across the Globe. 5. Individual Customers. a. Parents b. Children above age 5 1.2.3 Positioning Strategy The In Thing needs a market positioning strategy in place where they can analyze the company’s current market position and identify the methods and procedures required for taking the toy brand to the hearts and minds of their customers. “The basic approach of positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what’s already up there in the mind to retie the connections that already exist.” (Ries & Trout, 2001). However the market is more open now and there are a lot of tools which can bring people closer to the products the company is marketing. The internet is such a tool that has thrown open a lot of opportunities to get the right product at the right place. The company can position their toy brand in such a manner that the product is innovative enough and the price is competitive in the market. Therefore price and product innovation will be major factors in positioning of the product. Interactivity with the customers plays an important role in maintaining constant communication with the customer. The customer feels the integration between themselves and the company where the company cares to update their customers on their brands, send newsletters to them (if they give their consent), send new product up-gradation messages to them, have their feedback and push the brand loyalty so that they become returning customers for the company. The registered and returning customers will have discounted price offered to them. The discount offerings on various products need to be worked out in the positioning of the product. 1.3 Marketing Mix Strategy 1.3.1 The Internet “The internet offers new opportunities for selling new products into new markets.” (Chaffey, 2007). The internet offers an ideal platform to support the marketing mix activities of the company. The company can formulate strategies from their existing business activity where they can have better processes for smoother delivery of products. They can have further interactive sessions with the client from their website. These sessions can be in the form of: Live chats; Complaints section; Feedback from clients; Sending them Newsletters; The website should be user friendly where the users can easily navigate their way to purchasing the products. The website designer should ensure that the website is soothing and the products are displayed in the state of the art audio visual mode to make it more appealing to the users. The users need to feel the virtual showroom environment where they can not only see the product but get to know its features as well in a live mode. The company can have an offers section for returning customers or they can issue discount coupons to their existing customers and their families so that they can purchase the toys at discounted prices whenever they are purchasing online. In Thing can showcase their performance to their investors and business partners online. In a similar manner the company can reach out to the customers and involve them with the innovative capabilities of their team and also invite participation from their customers and the general people as well. This can be achieved by an idea where the company can invite innovative people to upload the videos of their toy models where the company management can view them and call them for a live demonstration. 1.3.2 Product The company needs to market its products to new customers as well as retain their existing customer base. To achieve this they need to have some value additions done to their product and services which are discussed as follows: The “In Thing” can have audio visual presentation of their individual toy products so that they can demonstrate to their users of the look and feel and features of the respective product. The audio visual presentation needs to be shown on their website which makes the customer feel confident about the product. Get the website to be more interactive with the customers with live chat options, shopping assistance help with a person available to give online help to potential customers. Have smart packaging for the customers which catches their eye like some smart bags for the children which are eco friendly and cheap but smart to look at. Have exchange offers in place so that customers can bring old toys and exchange for new ones. This is beneficial for so many parents and children who are bored with their old toys and need to have new ones which are cost effective at the same time. Ascertain the areas where the products can become more innovative, simple ideas which can make it luring to the children with a cost effective methodology. 1.3.3 Price Price is such a factor that every customer wants to know about. The price controls the market where the company needs to see its costs low to offer cheaper prices to customers. The In thing has a variety of products and all products have their own cost margins and sale margins. The business development managers and the administration need to look at the various aspects of controlling price for a larger market share. These aspects are as follows: List down the prices of all products. Ascertain the manufacturing cost, marketing cost, overhead cost to come to the total cost. Check what best offering can be given to the company Ascertain the discounts which can be offered to customers. Time the discounts well in the website so that they can have a ‘discounted sale’ in festive seasons. Volume discounts can be given to individual customers and wholesale discounts to the wholesalers. Discounts given on popular products and brands will also enhance sale. Customers on the web are used to searching for the best prices by doing a comparison analysis. Customers can be price guided and some customers can be guided by quality only. For those niche products whose quality and costs are high, the company should make it lucrative by announcing that no one can beat the uniqueness of the product and its quality. A quality conscious customer can buy these products. For the customers guided by lesser prices, new cheaper product prices can be introduced in the market. The customers will be guided by the cheap prices with the company gaining in volume and having a larger market share. 1.3.4 Promotion Promotion drives the business and businesses have to be very specific about the range of promotion activities they would engage into to reach out to a vast multitude of customers. The principal promotion areas of the company can be summarized as follows: i) Promote the website on pay per click sponsored advertisements in Google Ad words or yahoo overture. Though this method is expensive, it brings good promotional results to the company. ii) In expensive promotion can take place with search engine optimization where the website is optimized for the keywords to be granted the first page listing of major search engines like google, yahoo, bing, kanoodle and ask. Once optimized the company can maintain it to be in the top rankings of these major search engines to have a good web presence. iii) Promoting through banners in major advertising websites where people visit often and will take notice of the banner ads. Good examples are yahoo shopping, eBay, Amazon, gumtree etc. iv) Informing customers about the current sales offers being given, discount coupons being distributed for returning customers, have point based system for customers who are purchasing from the website. The points accumulated for a certain amount will result in a free gift for the customer. Customers can also have redemption options from which they can redeem the points for purchasing a toy. v) Adopting means like SMS marketing, direct email marketing, and newsletters for informing about latest offers to customers who have subscribed for it. vi) Affiliate marketing is also a good promotional feature where the affiliates can represent the company to increase brand awareness and sale of products. vii) Promotion through social media networking sites like facebook, twitter, LinkedIn etc. where people visit often. These promotional activities will catch the eye of the potential customer who would like to visit the website. viii) Similar to the point system, have promotional codes sent to customers via email whenever they are recommending the website to a friend or family. These promotional codes can be utilized for availing attractive discounts on future purchases. 1.3.5 Place Businesses do have options of having a target market where they need to sell their products. For the internet seller, the target market can be millions of potential customers to reach out to. Getting an increased amount of traffic to their website will increase the online sale of the company. The company needs to focus on search engine optimization for driving web traffic to the company’s website. By optimizing the website, the company can have a larger presence on the internet through the user’s searching process. They need to analyze the keywords which bring them the maximum hits and optimize them to be visible in all major search engines. The website needs to garner a smooth ecommerce experience to their customers by providing a seamless integration of online payment processing which is done through sagepay, paypal and google checkout and also bank credit and debit cards. 1.3.6 Positioning The positioning of the company’s products and services to the customers keeps the organization upright and ready to deliver. To achieve their desired objective, the company needs to think that how will they position themselves in the hearts and minds of customers. The answer to this is to send emails, SMS, website offers, launches, newsletters, online and offline modes of advertisement which will make the company visible to their customers. The greater the interaction of the company’s products and services are with the people and the customers, the better are the chances of increasing traffic to the website. 1.4 Customer Relationship Management Customer Relationship Management is the need of the hour. In Thing needs to have a plan in place to have the customer relationship management to have the company benefit from increased sales, know their customers a lot better, ability to have regular interactive sessions with them, get their feedback, have a proper communication flow where the company understands the problems and identifies pertinent issues as to their services and build on their brand awareness and customer loyalty. To achieve this they can have online as well as offline strategies which are discussed hereunder. 1.4.1 Online Strategies i) Go for Pay Per Click Advertisement campaigns in Google Adwords, Yahoo Overture to gain visibility by way of sponsored advertisement. ii) Go for Search Engine optimization to optimize the keywords of the website and direct web traffic into the website. Locations need to be identified for SEO where the company has the target audience. iii) Register on online sites having price comparison features to display their prices and offers. iv) Have reward programs for returning customers. v) Referral programs or discount codes given to customers. 1.4.2 Offline Strategies i) Focusing on Customer feedback, better communication with them so that the company understands how the customers feel with their ecommerce website, products and services. ii) Direct Mail campaign, Sending Brochures, Leaflets to customers announcing the new offers. iii) Having seminars organized to promote brand awareness. iv) Participate in national and international trade fairs and events where they can showcase their brand to the people. v) Advertise in television, newspapers and magazines to have the audience look into their products. 1.5 Implementation Plan The Implementation Plan will cover the various aspects of marketing mix where a definite time plan will be given for the execution of the process. The plan will cover all the major processes which are listed here. i) Pay Per Click Advertisement in Google Adwords, Yahoo Overture etc. to have an online sponsored advertisement. ii) Putting in banner advertisement in popular websites. iii) Search Engine Optimization. iv) Giving online support to their clients through the website. v) Increasing interactivity with the customer online as well as offline vi) Getting feedback from customers where the company can judge its effectiveness of product and services. vii) Issuing points for every purchase and redemption mechanism. viii) Referral programs will carry a promotional code for existing customers where they get attractive discounts. ix) Social media marketing campaign in facebook, twitter, LinkedIn etc. x) Advertising in traditional marketing media like newspapers, television, leaflet distribution etc. A set timeline needs to be added to each and every category so that the company can judge the effectiveness of the implementation plan. For example, online sponsored advertisement like pay per click needs to be continued till Search Engine Optimization gives results for the specific keywords only. Example: If “Toys in Hammersmith” or “Barbie Dolls in London” are keywords and they are being advertised in the pay per click section of google adwords, then the ads need to continue till the time these keywords are optimized into google first page rankings. Implementation plan of “The In Thing” and “I Want I Want” websites are the core of the online business model of the company where the former caters to wholesale business and the latter to the retail business. The company management will implement its plan according to the marketing mix where more emphasis will be given to the online business models. Maintaining the liaison with customers remains the priority and a good customer relation and communication can do wonders to the business. There will be more and more people knowing the company brand and existing customers will stick to their brand loyalty with the marketing mix blend of online advertisement and web presence as well as the traditional modes of marketing. A tabular format with milestones has been attached for clarity of time based execution of the implementation plan. [See Appendix 1] 1.6 Evaluation Plan The evaluation plan will have an in-depth analysis of the performance of the company’s marketing plan taking into account the internet services they provide. For an ecommerce website the most important analysis is to check how effective the website is for the users. There are basic questions to be asked like does the website provide a smooth user experience to the customers where they can easily go and purchase the products. In order to have an evaluation of the website, the report will break the various parameters required for a good website design. These parameters are: Professional and Soothing web design Good viewing of the products in the website Ability to go to home page from any link / page. Navigation links to be very clear. Site Map should be present. Ease of purchasing through the website Send invoices to the customers Brief description of the products with features Audio Visual display of the products Ability to show the features on the visual display Good Animation Good Graphics Clarity of sound Site loader needs to be fast All product images needs to be optimized – check latency time if any. All pertinent information is available in the website. FAQs are present in the navigation. Terms and Conditions are spelt out clearly. Any shipping information is spelt out clearly. Any charges of shipping are shown X mile radius shipping free Beyond x mile, y charges per mile will be charged etc. Evaluating Reward Schemes and Point system for customer discounts Process needs to be carefully monitored as to the benefits brought to the business through the point system. The cost-revenue model needs to be evaluated and the volume of additional business generated by redemption method. Checking the advertisement source. This is important for the business to know that from which source the customers have come to the website. Having a hit counter on the website to check the number of hits coming to the website. Checking Browser Compatibility Checking whether the website is working fine with all browsers like Internet Explorer Version 8, Version 6, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Netscape etc. The website visitors should have equal ease and readability of the website on all browsers. The evaluation plan should also have a process where the management can find out the buying preference of their customers. This would enable them to check the purchasing habits of the customers and which products have the most preference. They can do rating on all the products and have a dynamic marketing plan to boost up sales and revenue on these products. This kind of statistics gives a good insight to the In thing Management as to the product sale trend which can also be termed as trend analysis. Check whether all basic information like contact number, store addresses are updated on the website. Have Affiliate programs and business partnerships shown on the website for the business users to know about the company. 1.7 Appendix 1 Sl. No Job Milestone Remarks 1 Pay Per Click Advertisement 6 months 2 Banner advertisement in popular websites 6 months Have identification procedures of knowing the source. 3 Search Engine Optimization 6 months 4 SEO Maintenance to retain keywords in the 1st page – maintenance will start after the keywords are listed on page 1 of major search engines. Ongoing after 6 months Organic Search will increase sales and revenue. 5 Online Client Support Ongoing – review every 4 months. 6 Feedback from Customers Monthly / Quarterly 7 Redemption Mechanism – Point based system 6 months Every 6 months customers can redeem points 8 Referral programs – Customers will get promotional code for all referrals given. 6 months Identify referrals from new customer input / registration form. 9 Social Media Marketing like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn 4 months 10 Live interaction with customers 10 months 11 Advertising in traditional marketing media 3 months Identify source. 1.8 References: Ries, A. and Trout,J. (2001), Positioning: The Battle for your mind, The McGraw Hill Companies Chaffey,D. (2007), E-Business and E-commerce Management, Third Edition, Pearson Education Ltd. Read More