A set of four digital marketing strategies will be applied to multiply donations to World Vision Australia and enhance its brand awareness among the Australian public. The chosen macro strategy is social media marketing, commercial or non-profit use of online social applications as a platform for advertising and promoting. Another one is influencer marketing, and, as Anhalt (n.d.) says, “influencer partnerships can allow organizations to connect with their target audience through the use of popular, relevant public figures” (para. 1). The last two are paid social content and organic one. The combination of these four promotional approaches will motivate Australians to donate more to World Vision Australia through its website and make the organization popular.
The Rationale for Chosen Marketing Strategies
These four digital marketing methods were chosen because their designs and the tools they provide are the best at addressing World Vision Australia’s current issues. Social media can serve charities as a convenient, low-cost, and time-saving tool for marketing campaigns (Bilgin & Kethüda, 2021). It allows them to connect specifically and productively with current and prospective donors and participants (Bilgin & Kethüda, 2021). Collaborating with public figures and celebrities is a relatively inexpensive method of gaining attention and informing a generous public. Moreover, Gunawan (2021) notes that “the roles of influencers and people with social power have shown their effective result in gaining exposure, campaign’s virality, driving it into a trend and turning it into numerous engagement and awareness” (p. 2302). Paid social content and organic one are traditional and practical means of delivering a message to a large audience and creating and maintaining a broad and intense engagement (Zelefsky, 2022). It is also worth noting that this combination of marketing strategies was chosen due to the compatibility of their designs and principles of application and operation.
The marketing campaign will occur on all online social platforms World Vision Australia has accounts. The organization will contact global and Australian influencers and celebrities and invite them to participate in promoting the charity. When the desired number of influencers is reached, the organization will collaborate with Jaywing to develop paid and organic contents and tactics for their efficient posting, distributing and popularizing. With the data-first approach, it will be possible for World Vision Australia to achieve a reach that exceeds its current one many times over. Organic content will be aimed at increasing brand awareness among existing contributors and participants and potential ones. Paid social will target the general public to become new donors. According to Zelefsky (2022), developing content this way will make future efforts as productive as possible. Partnering with Australian influencers and intensive collaboration with Jaywing is critical to achieving maximum impact.
Major Marketing Challenges of World Vision Australia
It is clearly seen that World Vision Australia needs help with its current marketing approach and how they present itself on social media apps. Their followers on Instagram and TikTok are relatively small for charities, as is the number of likes and views on their posts. For example, all UNICEF posts on Instagram have a much larger reach (Martinsson, 2019). The proposed measures would make the organization more productive and serve as a basis for future charitable initiatives.
The digital space has become one of the most lucrative marketplaces for most organizations in the 21st century. As a modern company, Lee’s Artificial Flowers greatly benefits from online marketing and sales. Currently, most of the company’s inventory sales come from its website, which implies that it is gaining a lot from online activities. To effectively enter and dominate more international markets, it will be instrumental for the firm to develop and apply critical digital marketing strategies.
Part One: India’s Demographics
One of the most lucrative international markets that Lee’s Artificial Flowers can consider investing in is the Indian market. India is one of the most populated countries globally, with approximately 1.39 billion people as of January of 2021 (List of industries in India, 2021). The population of internet users in the country in January 2021 was 624 million, which was about 8.2% more than the population registered in the same period in the previous year (“National Account Statistics Releases 2020, 2021”). The country’s economy has been relatively stable; in the 2020 financial year, the economy recorded a gross domestic product (GDP) of 2.708.77 billion U.S. dollars which was a slight deviation from the 2,870.5 billion U.S. dollars GDP recorded in the year 2019 (“National Account Statistics Releases 2020, 2021”). The population of the country, its enormous internet users, and the high GDP make it an appropriate international market for Lee’s Artificial Flowers.
There are other notable trends that India, similar to other countries of the world, has adopted, making it a viable international market for the company. For instance, business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce is widely embraced in India. Factors such as the increased use of smartphones, high penetration of the internet in urban and rural areas, and hectic lifestyles, among others, have contributed to the popularity of (B2C) e-commerce in India (Kalia et al., 2021). The average online spending in India has been on a sharp rise since 2014. The average online spending in India in 2020 was significant at approximately 64 billion U. S dollars. India’s annual commercial retail sales have also been impressive in the past years (List of industries in India, 2021). In 2020, the Indian Brand Equality Foundation (IBEF) estimated the country’s Annual commercial retail sales to be 883 billion U.S. dollars (List of industries in India, 2021). From all the factors analyzed above, it is evident India has numerous market opportunities for the company.
The concept of network readiness is highly instrumental in the determination of appropriate international markets to venture into. Network readiness reflects a country’s ability to use Information, Communication Technologies (ICT) to improve its wellbeing and competitiveness in the global market. It is also a fundamental indicator showing the performance of a country in the digital world. In 2019, India ranked at position 79 in the Network Readiness Index (Dutta & Lanvin, 2019). Challenges affecting the extension of ICT skills and access to the general population explain the position, although the country still can make significant improvements.
Online Market Places in India
There are numerous online marketplaces in India, although the most dominant ones include Amazon and Flipkart, which deal in general products and Myntra, which focuses on fashion products. Snapdeal, Shopclues, Meesho, Paytm mail, Limeroad, and Pepperfry are among other online marketplaces on the rise dealing with general, homeware, and fashion products in the country. Despite the availability of various marketplaces, there are still several challenges that the company may experience should it decide to operate in the Indian market. Inadequate digital literacy is a significant challenge limiting the e-commerce performance in the country (Kumar et al., 2018). Again, infrastructural development in the country is still poor, leading to connectivity problems in some parts of the country, affecting e-commerce (Kalia et al., 2021). The consumer perception may be another potential problem for the business since a significant Indian population still believe that e-commerce transactions may be exposing them to various threats (Kumar et al., 2018). Having a clear understanding of the potential challenges is important because it prepares the company for the possible challenges which may impede performance.
Lee’s Artificial Flowers Digital Marketing Strategy
Search engine marketing (SEM)
SEM is one of the marketing strategies that will help the company’s website be more visible to potential customers in the Indian market. It will be prudent to consider adopting SEM with Google since it is the most vibrant search engine in the country.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The search is an instrumental part of the online presence. Therefore, SEO will be a perfect part of the digital strategy because it will enable the company to effectively rank its target phrases and keywords so that the clients can easily reach it (Suleiman et al., 2020). Some of the best SEO companies in India which Lee’s Artificial Flowers should consider working with include Growth Hacker Digital, RankZ, and Seotonic Web Solution PVT Ltd.
Affiliate Marketing
Lee’s Artificial Flowers should develop a digital affiliate program to ensure effective marketing of its products in the digital space. The existing affiliate programs in India, such as the Flipkart affiliate, Amazon Associates, vComission, and BigRock Affiliate, are working excellently for the online companies. With a commission of between 5% to 30%, Lee’s Artificial Flower should succeed in establishing the program.
Social media
Online sales have proved to be better for the company in the past. Thus, the company needs to maintain a 24-hour social media presence. The company should have a team to continuously maintain social media posts to ensure the customers and potential clients are exposed to relevant and up-to-date content. The platforms on which the company must capitalize its resources include Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, and Pinterest. Social media will improve the company sales within the Indian market and increase traffic on the firm’s website.
Mobile marketing
The company should embrace mobile marketing by sending weekly emails and Short Message Services (SMS) to clients. The company should also develop its application for clients to download and improve their interaction with the firm.
Email marketing
Lee’s Artificial Flowers should consider maintaining regular customer communication to thoroughly understand their clients and build a strong relationship with them. The company should send at least one email per week to the customers to keep them engaged, close deals much faster, and identify new opportunities in the market through the feedback received from the clients (Suleiman et al., 2020). One mail per week is reasonably good since a higher frequency of mails may be considered spam by the customers.
Evaluation of digital marketing strategy results
To effectively evaluate the results of the digital marketing strategy, the company should focus on monitoring the changes in sales and the progress towards the strategic business goal. The traffic of the company’s website will also greatly inform the performance of the digital strategic strategy. Increase in sales and traffic on the website will reveal a positive impact of the digital marketing strategy while a decrease in the two factors may call for need to readjust the plan.
Conclusion
In summary, it is highly instrumental for the company to adopt a digital marketing strategy as it focuses on getting into the Indian market because of the reasonably significant online presence of customers in the country. However, there is a need to exploit other none digital options of sales and marketing in the country because of the negative mentality of online business among a certain fraction of the citizens. It will also be necessary for the company to reinvent its digital marketing strategies to optimize its performance once it begins operation in the Indian market.
Kalia, P., Kaur, N., & Singh, T. (2021). E-Commerce in India. In P. Kalia, N. Kaur & T. Singh, Mobile commerce: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications (1st ed.) (pp. 736-758). IGI Global.
Kumar, N., Anusara, J., Hossin, A., Sarkar, K., Chanthamith, B., Shah, S., & Russel, I. (2018). Challenges and opportunities of e-commerce in India: Pathway for sustainable e-commerce. International Journal of Engineering, Business and Management (IJEBM), 2(2), 13-21. Web.
National Account Statistics Releases 2020 | Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation | Government of India. (2021). Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation. Web.
Suleiman, M. I., Muhammad, D., Bin, N., Yahaya, I. S., Adamu, M. A., & Sabo, A. U. (2020). Benefits and challenges: For marketing strategies on-line. European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine, 7(3), 164-179.
Moonpig.com is a UK-based e-retailer and pioneer in the online greeting cards market. The industry leader with a 60% market share sells personalized cards, gifts, mugs, and t-shirts (Moonpig Group, 2021). In recent years, it has diversified into flowers and augmented reality segments with video cards. Moonpig’s core markets are the UK, Netherlands, US, and Australia. Data from IBISWorld (2020) show that Moonpig’s sales rose by 156%, and app downloads tripled in the April-June 2020 period. Its business comprises two categories: greeting cards and gifts (card-connected and standalone).
Moonpig has a large selection of over 10,000 designs for greeting cards, accounting for 56% of its sales revenue (Moonpig Group, 2021). It is a development-driven firm with a strong focus on improving digital experiences through personalization. Recently, Moonpig listed on the London Stock Exchange with an estimated stock value of £1.2 billion (Nazir, 2021). Thus, a strong brand positioning based on personal touch, a digital print technology, and a broad product range is a key growth driver.
External Analysis: PESTEL Analysis
Political
Without a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, barriers to capital and labor flows are likely to increase. Moonpig’s license to operate in the EU and access to skilled staff will be limited, affecting its marketing, new investments, and R&D activities (Moschieri & Blake, 2019). Raising taxes to cover budget deficits due to the pandemic effects would reduce consumer spending. A depreciating pound since the 2016 Brexit referendum and limited government responses have affected B2C transactions invoiced in foreign currency. An increase in the minimum wage by 2.2% to £8.91 by April 2021 will lead to additional labor costs for Moonpig (Gov.UK, 2020). On the other hand, higher median earnings are likely to enhance consumer spending and demand.
Economic
The inflation rate could harm UK-based firms, especially after Brexit. It has remained relatively low since 2016, at 1.7%, but it may rise due to weaker sales in external markets (Moschieri & Blake, (2019). A low GDP growth and incomes occasioned by the global pandemic will decrease people’s purchasing levels.
Social
High access to the internet by the UK’s population is a crucial driver of online retailing. Personalized greeting cards are growing in popularity among the youth. Thus, greeting card designers must include designs attractive to the youthful and female demographic. According to Statista (2018), women buy an estimated 80% of all cards and often make bulk orders. Web-based platforms have gained acceptance among users as a tool for maintaining socially distanced connections during the COVID-19 period.
Technology
Increased penetration of smartphones in the UK has accelerated the development of e-cards and innovative features, such as augmented reality or 3D cards. The expansion in 4G and 5G connectivity supports the sending or receiving, avoiding high postal rates. Regarding technology, the UK is considered 10 years ahead of other countries in technical designs (CardFactory, 2021). The e-cards are made to match the preferences of the tech-savvy generation.
Environmental
No major issues relevant to the online greeting cards industry can be identified. However, consumers increasingly prefer eco-friendly or sustainably produced items, such as t-shirts. The sustainability-marketing strategy on social media (Facebook) has a high emotional appeal and customer engagement (Lee et al., 2018). Therefore, personalized mugs and t-shirts aligned with these principles are preferable.
Legal
A legal issue relevant to the UK online greeting industry includes regulations on product placement and promotions. Under British law, marketers must provide an editorial justification for placing a brand in a program (CardFactory, 2021). Copyright infringement related to images and videos placed on e-cards is another pertinent legal issue.
External Analysis: Microenvironment
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis (Appendix) shows that the degree of rivalry, customers’ bargaining power, and the threat of new entrants are high in this industry. These three forces have the greatest impact on Moonpig’s business performance. Competitors and similar UK websites, including funkypigeon.com, cardfactory.co.uk, and hallmark cards, control about 40% of the market (IBISWorld, 2020). Further, as supermarkets expand to many locations, competition is expected to increase.
The VRIO framework can reveal strategic capabilities based on Moonpig’s actual operational tactics. Based on publicly accessible data, the VRIO model (Appendix) comparing the firm’s resources and competencies in the UK online greetings card market indicates that Moonpig has sustainable competitive advantages in technology, human resource or talent developed in its innovation hub, and brand reputation (IBISWorld, 2020). However, Moonpig’s financial resources may not confer a long-term advantage, as competitors such as funkypigeon.com are performing relatively well in the UK market. Innovation and creativity are also imitable; hence, not a source of sustainable competitive strengths.
Buyer Persona for Moonpig
The Buyer Persona Spring (BPS) is a useful digital marketing strategy for e-commerce businesses. According to Vieira et al. (2019), BPS comprises five key elements: strategic business objectives, buyer persona, content, channels, and data depicted as loops (Figure 2). Moonpig has two different B2C buyer personas for its business: individual and corporate customers.
Figure 2: Buyer Persona Spring (Vieira et al., 2021).
Individual Customer – Jim Cole
Jim is a 23-year-old male student in a London university and an avid user of digital communication. He is not married but has a girlfriend who lives in Manchester.
Channels
Jim uses Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube to connect with family and friends. He is also active on Twitter and Instagram and looks for good deals on shopping and leisure.
Motivations/Hot points
Jim is aware of the emotional connection that greeting cards and gifts offer but does not get the personalization he desires from retail stores. He recently turned to websites to avoid the hassle of visiting physical stores.
Goals
Needs personalized greeting cards and gifts tailored to each occasion.
Would prefer to purchase in bulk to fit diverse preferences.
Frustrations/Pain points
Limited filter options for culture-specific or localized cards.
Fewer results when localized cards filters are applied.
Corporate Client – Weston Cricket Club (Andrea Rogers)
Andrea is a 31-year-old married female from Liverpool working as a marketing and communications manager for the Weston Cricket Club. She manages a team that promotes the club through TV, newspaper, and social media.
Channels
Andrea uses TV, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for marketing the club and connecting with the audience and fans. She interacts with family through WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter. She uses LinkedIn, Email, and Twitter to maintain her professional network and for media relations.
Motivations
Making decisions promoting the brand image of the club.
Using new technologies to attract a younger audience to the club.
Goals
Enhance digital member engagement.
To be responsive and connect emotionally to members.
Frustrations
She has to manage diverse channels, content, and audiences.
A fast-changing environment poses a challenge to managing club reputation.
Explanation
For the two customer groups, the channels, content, and data are analyzed to determine the best strategy for reaching them. From the buyer personas outlined above, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are appropriate channels to access individual customers, for example, Jim. Moonpig can use this platform to promote downloads for its app. For corporate clients, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Email can be effective for accessing decision-makers. Additionally, Moonpig’s website is a useful resource to customers searching for cards.
Regarding content, using personalized messages enables customers to associate the firm with the emotional gratification derived from giving a gift or card. Its brand positioning, “unleash the caring instinct and cultivate the caring habit”, resonates with the company’s goal of being an intermediary in this experience (Lyons, 2018, para. 9). Increased presence on TV and social media will create the social capital to reach Cole. In Andrea’s case, personalized messages about Moonpig sent via LinkedIn or email are an appropriate digital marketing strategy.
On data, the BPS can be tightened using Moonpig’s website and social media analytics. The firm uses data analytics to analyze traffic to its site and app by country and online source. The majority of its traffic (54.9%) comes from paid searches followed by display ads such as hotukdeals.com (2.1%) and social media referrals (1.3%) – YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest, and Twitter (SimilarWeb, 2020). Users leave digital footprints when using social media that can be harnessed to access the buyer persona through these channels.
SWOT Analysis
Organizations use SWOT analysis as a tactical tool to refine the strategic process in the digital marketplace. It comprises the internal factors under the firm’s control (online strengths and weaknesses) and uncontrollable elements (opportunities and threats) resulting from the external environment (Vlados, 2019). Comparing Moonpig with top online greetings card retailers in the UK will be useful for building the SWOT for this firm. Competitive analysis in this market is included in Table 1 below. It shows that Moonpig’s lags behind in traffic sources and referral sites (weaknesses) but performs well in social engagement (strength). It shares most of its customers with funkypigeon.com and cardfactory.co.uk (a threat).
Table 1: Competitive Analysis for Moonpig (Alexa, 2021).
Site
Traffic sources
Referral sites
Audience overlap score
Social engagement
Funkypigeon.com
78.7%
115
37.4
5
Gettingpersonal.co.uk
70.9%
234
12.2
6
Cardfactory.co.uk
63.2%
81
18.3
15
Moonpig.com
56.2%
156
–
17
Scribbler.com
41.9%
38
13.0
2
A SWOT analysis of Moonpig based on the above information and web searches is provided below.
Strengths
Broad product portfolio – Moonpig offers a big collection of personalized gifts and cards (via its app) at a low cost.
A personal customer service – From the Alexa analysis, Moonpig performs better than competitors in social engagement of users. Thus, it has a strong personal touch with customers in their online experiences
Delivery service – Delivery is a value-added service for purchased cards and gifts that has enhanced consumer trust in the brand.
Accessibility – Moonpig has a strong online presence; it is highly accessible because it is a digital business.
Strong growth – Moonpig can leverage its strong growth in the UK – controls over 60% of the market – to expand internationally (Lyons, 2018).
Weaknesses
Limited physical presence – Moonpig operates few physical stores and has less partners with brick-and-mortar operations in its traditional markets.
Low brand visibility – Its limited presence in social media is low as indicated by the low traffic sources from these platforms and referral sites to its website relative to its competitors (Table 1).
Opportunities
A market shift to e-cards – The rising popularity of e-cards and online shopping will increase demand for these products.
Increasing recognition of holidays – Many holidays (Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day) and festivals are now being celebrated across the globe and represent potential growth segments.
Growing demand for personalization – Customer preferences are shifting towards brands that offer a personal touch and customized products, such as those integrating lighting with audio features, video cards, and augmented reality.
Depressed competition – Competition from offline retailers is likely to remain low, as non-essential stores are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Demographic shifts – A growing millennial population that needs personalization when sending e-cards will increase demand for digital greeting cards in the future.
Threats
Competitive pressure – Moonpig’s markets (the UK, Australia, and the US) have many established competitors with a large product portfolio – a threat to the firm’s sales performance and growth.
Physical stores – A significant proportion of consumers still favor brick-and-mortar retailers over online stores.
Economic slowdown – Depressed economic growth and lost incomes due to COVID-19 effects are likely to hit Moonpig’s customers, reducing their purchase volume and frequency.
Marketing Plan for Moonpig
From the SWOT analysis, the major weaknesses of Moonpig’s strategy are limited offline and social media presence. The following marketing plan will help promote the Moonpig brand through multiple channels. As Chaffey and Smith (2017) indicate, firms can use six different types of digital media to reach defined buyer personas: search marketing, internet-based public relations, digital business alliances, interactive ads, emailing, and social media. Firm-initiated ads or messaging (owned media) would help enhance customer acquisition and sales compared to user-generated content (Vieira et al., 2019). The proposed marketing plan will focus on creating a digital investment portfolio controlled by Moonpig using the SOSTAC framework.
Situation Analysis
Based on SWOT analysis and the review of the macro- and micro-environment, Moonpig’s current performance is the online greetings card market is average. It performs well in customer engagement through augmented technology but low brand visibility on social media affects traffic to this site and sales. Macro-environmental factors, including Covid-19 effects and Brexit, also affect its performance due to reduced disposable incomes and potential inflation (Moschieri & Blake, 2019).
However, Moonpig leverages customer insight to provide personalization products (customized video cards) that reflect changing trends. The key marketplace opportunities to exploit exist in new segments such as lockdown cards, augmented reality, and personalized e-cards. Competitor benchmarking shows that funkypigeon.com, gettingpersonal.co.uk, and cardfactory.co.uk are Moonpig’s strongest rivals.
Key SMART Objectives
Build company profile on social media, follow influential figures, and share content 5-10 times daily to increase sales by 20% within the next 1 year.
Email 30 customers and send newsletters to 500 clients to increase traffic to the website by 25% within the next 9 months.
Strategy
Strategic Recommendations Utilizing Buyer Persona Strategy
Based on the two buyer personas’ profile described above, segmentation strategies for multiple channels, content, and data components of the BPS are recommended. Moonpig’s target audience is active on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. Enhanced online presence in these two channels and SEO optimization are recommended to increase social engagement, app downloads, and traffic to its website (Silva et al., 2020). To reach the B2B client segment, email marketing is suggested.
On content, it is recommended that email messages focus on corporate e-card offerings that can help firms connect with employees and customers on a personal level. Further, increasing TV ads would be useful in initial consumer acquisition and redirection to the Moonpig website and app (Chang et al., 2019). Press releases shared through traditional media and LinkedIn networks can be useful for targeting corporate customers. The company can also disseminate its personalization and augmented reality capabilities through its app.
On data, a marketing strategy that includes information security is recommended to prevent breaches that can have a reputational cost on Moonpig. Contacting unique visits or visitors to Moonpig’s website can help increase the conversion rate and expand the market share. Moonpig should also mine online data (visits to its site and e-cards or categories browsed) to understand customer behavior and preferences and provide relevant products, especially for the younger demographic.
Strategic Recommendations for Further Digital Analysis
A recommendation for further digital marketing actions is comprehensive competitor analysis of the top online and offline players in the greeting cards industry. According to Gur and Greckhamer (2019), competitor analysis helps compare an enterprise’s strategy with that of rival firms, establish weaknesses in their strategic plans, discover new marketing opportunities, and exploit preferred channels. Therefore, this approach would give Moonpig informed, actionable insights into online marketing. Sridhar and Fang (2019) note that a full competitor analysis in the digital marketplace should cover all online marketing domains, including websites, search rankings, and site analytics capability. The firm can emulate a rival firm in any of these areas to address its weaknesses.
A further recommended digital analysis for Moonpig is in-depth target persona research. Analyzing consumer variables, including age, gender, location, challenges, needs, values, and fears, would provide the data for developing a responsive strategy (Ruiz et al., 2020). Moonpig needs to examine the channels used by target customers to search for personalized e-card or gift solutions. Moonpig should analyze diverse strategies, including local search engine optimization (SEO) and social media ads to determine their impact (DigitalMarketer, 2021). From the analysis, it should adopt the most impactful marketing approach in its marketing plan.
Tactics
The focus for Moonpig is to attract more prospects or traffic and convert visits or leads into sales. The digital marketing tactics to implement over the next 12 months include SEO, email marketing, and social media marketing.
Actions
Tactic 1: SEO
Analysis of keywords – Moonpig, Moonpig UK, Moon pig, and birthday cards (Alexa, 2021)
Optimization – sites carrying the targeted keywords will be optimized raise Google ratings
Content – involve key bloggers or sites to develop quality content around Lockdown cards and augmented reality
Linkages – link target websites to create authoritative sites
Tactic 2: Email Marketing
Tracking – monitor email delivery, opening, and conversion rates to determine the efficacy of this tactic
Tactic 3: Social Media Marketing
Viral content – follow influential figures on Twitter to generate traffic and increase retweets and likes
Reviews – request customers to write reviews about Moonpig’s products
Control
Web analytics will be used to monitor performance towards the achievement of the objectives over the 12-month period. Among the key metrics to track will include monthly search traffic, click-through rates, leads created and closed, and the number of mentions. For each of the above actions, the monthly measures that will be monitored are included in Table 2.
Table 2: Gantt chart – Control Metrics.
Tactics
Actions
Control metrics
SEO
Keyword analysis
Weekly search traffic
Optimization
Website ranking within Google
Content
Website traffic
Linkages
Number of websites linked
Email marketing
Tracking
– Email delivery, opening, and conversion rates – Number of clicks on links
Social media marketing
Viral content
Website traffic, retweets, and likes
Reviews
Number of mentions
Risks
Managing specific risks is critical to successful digital marketing efforts. The potential risks Moonpig must manage in its online marketplace include are included in Table 3.
Table 3: Marketing Plan Risks and their Mitigation.
Risk
Mitigation
– Data breaches that compromise the privacy of consumer information (Rogers, 2019)
– Network security using firewalls and standard encryption protocols for the website (Rogers, 2019)
– Insufficient traffic to its website and conversion rates
– Auditing the current marketing efforts – SEO, email, and social media
Chaffey, D., & Smith, P. R. (2017). Digital marketing excellence: Planning, optimizing, and integrating online marketing (5th ed.). Routledge.
Chang, Y., Li, Y., Yan, J., & Kumar, V. (2019). Getting more likes: The impact of narrative person and brand image on customer brand interactions. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(6). Web.
Chen, X., Li, Y., & D., & Zhou, Z. (2019). Seeking the support of the silent majority: Are lurking users valuable to UGC platforms? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(6). Web.
Lee, D., Hosanagar, K., & Nair, H. S. (2018). Advertising content and consumer engagement on social media: Evidence from Facebook. Management Science, 64(11), 5105–5131. Web.
Lyons, E. (2018). Moonpig hunts for emotional connection in marketing refresh. Web.
Sridhar, S., & Fang, E. (2019). New vistas for marketing strategy: digital, data-rich, and developing market (D3) environments. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47, 977-985. Web.
Vieira, V. A., Almeida, M. I. S., Agnihotri, R., Silva, N. S., & Arunachalam, S. (2019). In pursuit of an effective B2B digital marketing strategy in an emerging market. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(6). Web.
The main theme to be addressed is the fact that digital marketing presents opportunities and challenges to organisations. The study will list and explain the five element formula for digital marketing and provide a description of two opportunities and two challenges for organisations when using digital marketing.
The analysis will describe three ways organisations can learn to use digital marketing. Lastly, the study will recommend the main reason why organisations should adopt digital marketing and justify the preferred choice. In general, digital marketing is an outward sign of the intention of an organisation to promote itself globally.
Importance of Digital Marketing
Digital media provides markets with custom frameworks and models of interaction, which coordinate operations from location of consumers including their activities at that present time. Therefore, digital marketing enhances all these moments in order to foster success at all levels (Klososky 2012).
The other issue is that digital marketing promotes social connectivity. Therefore, as brand engagements stretch across platforms, it starts to create a forum for focused consumers’ interaction where they get to socialize with the brand itself.
Moreover, it provides an environment whereby consumers get to share more information with others regarding the brand. In this respect, consumers act as brand ambassadors. This is because it provides tools and mechanisms which influence customer’s behaviour across existing social networks, such as Facebook or MySpace (Martin & Todorov 2010).
However, digital marketing has its peculiar challenges of organisations. The most obvious reason is that it is expensive since it requires stronger e-Marketing components. Therefore, small businesses, for instance, may find it very expensive to have a sustainable web presence (Parkin 2009;Ryan & Jones 2012).
The other challenge may refer to intellectual property issues whereby firms risk having their products manipulated by other malicious businesses in the process of advertising. Well, this may be controlled by having sound internal controls but then governed by cyber laws which would prevent violation of cyber rights for a given business (Schmid 2007; The CIM 2011).
Digital Marketing in Organisations
It is essential to stress that social technology for enterprises involves more compared to networking. People commonly indulge in using social facilities such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Therefore, a good comprehension on its underlying concepts including how to integrate them to investment processes or strategies can be of paramount importance today (Klososky 2012).
There are growing concerns as to why the public should care so much about acquiring shares with Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn under the IPO pact. It is the case that it is not appropriate for any company to disregard social technology in 2012.
Social networking promotes collaboration, interaction and effective communication thus enabling companies to stay linked to one another. Thus, Facebook and Twitter among others offer such possibilities for businesses. In addition, social media creates a platform with the help of which people can easily access videos, files, documents, films or presentations. The main tools for this are You Tube, Flickr and Slideshare.net among others (Klososky 2012).
Social relevance defines the online reputation of an organisation or individual. Additionally, through social tools or what would be referred to as the “eWord of Mouth”, new ideas can be propagandized, this will help a lot of companies to economize their finances with the help of updated design of interface (Klososky 2012).
Research indicates that social technologies are popular due to their ability to assist in driving revenue in new directions so that they can be in tandem with the wider scope of marketing (Weber 2009).
The next subsection will provide more analysis on the five-element formula involved in digital marketing.
Five-Element Formula:
Development of Useful and Reliable websites: These refer to the destinations where people obtain access to stored information or carry out other processes. The other thing is that people will not visit such properties without a specific rationale; additionally, websites do not capitalise on providing ongoing relations (Klososky 2012).
Establishing technologies across social networks: This sustains mechanisms that ensure remote relationships with clients. Also this builds trust with prospects towards sharing vital information (Klososky 2012).
Mobile Tools: It Recently, it has become possible for businesses to connect 24/7 across networks; this facilitates a good link between them and their clients all over the world. It is vital for any company to be linked with its clients randomly and from any place of origin. In this regard, an organization must be in a position to achieve such connection (Klososky 2012).
Driving Online Traffic: The other consideration is to have a heavy traffic across the relationship net, which can be attained with the help of traditional advertising, pay-per-click campaigns and search engine optimisation (Klososky 2012).
Measurement Systems: The essential point here is that what undergoes measuring also gets done. Therefore, upon fulfilling the first four strategies mentioned above, the next thing will be to establish an overall measurement which can be used to understand what functions properly or what requires improvement (Klososky 2012).
Organisations may learn how to use digital marketing by training their own personnel. This can be focused on the marketing department thus, pick a few professionals to be trained on digital marketing processes. Secondly, organisations can learn digital marketing processes through benchmarking.
This is where they may seek ideas from other companies that have successfully used digital marketing. Last but not least, an organisation can invite experts to conduct training on the benefits of digital marketing, including their applications across the organisation.
The essential reason why companies ought to adopt digital marketing is because they can target a wide group of clients all over the world. Digital marketing actually means conducting a world marketing campaign without limitations of boundaries (Wind & Mahajan 2001). Therefore, it would be possible for an organisation to have a global presence through digital marketing processes.
Conclusion
It can be seen that digital marketing is the way to go for any business which hopes to capture global interest on its products. As such, digital marketing may not be easy to sustain but with the emergence of social medial tools, such as Facebook or Twitter, organisations can still achieve the best.
It is not necessary to struggle to have in place a website in order to have a web presence; but the aforementioned tools can be effective to achieve this end. The parting note would be to have strong and reliable legal provisions that will make digital marketing beneficial to organisations that depend on it.
Reference List
Klososky, S 2012, Social Technology, Financial Executive.
Martin, K & Todorov, I 2010, ‘How will Digital Platforms be Harnessed in 2010, and How will they Change the Way People Interact with Brands?’, Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol. 10, No.2 (pp.61-66).
Parkin, G 2009, Digital Marketing: Strategies for Online Success, New Holland Publishers.
Ryan, D & Jones, C 2012, Understanding Digital Marketing: Marketing Strategies for Engaging the Digital Generation, Kogan Page Publishers.
Schmid, V 2007, E-Marketing Strategy for Reg Vardy, GRIN Verlag Publishers.
The CIM, 2011, The Marketing Century: How Marketing Drives Business and Shapes Society, John Wiley & Sons Publishers.
Weber, L 2009, Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business, John Wiley & Sons.
Wind, J & Mahajan, V 2001, Digital Marketing: Global Strategies from the World’s Leading Experts, John Wiley & Sons Publishers.
In this paper, I want to highlight the advantages of digital marketing. It gives results much faster than traditional marketing, being more flexible and accessible for business. Due to a surprisingly wide selection of tools that allows entrepreneurs to find unique recipes for success, it is appropriate polishing and not a sugar-coating.
Social networks are spreading rapidly, and I still consider them the most powerful media on the Internet, where businesses can effectively communicate with millions of people. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter platforms are used by every modern organization to promote their brands. Therefore, this method of marketing significantly increases the awareness of the advertised brands.
There are many reasons that prove the importance and real effectiveness of digital marketing. Firstly, digital marketing provides an optimal opportunity to promote a brand to a wider audience with a relatively smaller budget than traditional ways. This is the most cost-effective marketing channel that ensures results in the shortest possible time. Moreover, a digital marketing campaign improves customer engagement in real time via social media or email. It creates a consumer’s sense of unity with the business, and when this happens during a long period of time, brand loyalty increases significantly.
I believe that digital marketing is the future of business, and no sector will be able to compete in the market without an appropriate digital marketing strategy. That is why I like to study it.
