Designing A Digital Marketing Strategy For Amazon

Company Background

Digital marketing is not only a rapidly developing force within the field of current marketing but is also implemented to the marketing future (Ryan 2016). Therefore, it also seems that the digital media would soon together replace more conventional forms of marketing strategies (Leeflang et al. 2014). Hence, in this context, this report sheds light on designing a new digital marketing strategy of Amazon in order to help this online retailer for building relationship and target more number of customers. This report also addresses the social media marketing, mobile marketing and content marketing strategies of Amazon. In case of, social media marketing analysis, this report identifies how Twitter and Facebook marketing can be utilized for building customer relationship and the core stages those have to be taken into consideration for developing an effective Social Media Marketing Strategy. Moreover, as per the mobile marketing part, this report focuses on assessing critically the range of opportunities that a mobile environment can provide the online retailer. Additionally, in case of content marketing, this report also critical explain the role of content marketing and examine how it can be utilized for attracting customers. Thus, this report also discusses relevant regulations those should be adopted by the company.

Amazon is an American cloud computing and e-commerce company that was established by Jeff Bezos on 5^th July, 1994. Amazon is based in Seattle, Washington. Amazon is the biggest online retailer all over the world by means of market capitalization and total sales. Initially, it started as the online bookstore, later it has diversified for selling various products. It has separate retail websites in several countries all over the word. Walmart was surpassed by Amazon in 2015 as the most valuable retailer by market capitalization in the United States.

3.1 Twitter and Facebook Marketing Strategies

Both the Twitter Marketing and Facebook Marketing are the most significant social media marketing strategies utilized by the business organizations especially the online retailers in terms of building customer relationship as well as reinforcing customer retention (Holliman and Rowley 2014). However, according to the Facebook and twitter statistics, Facebook marketing can more effectively build customer relationship and reinforce customer retention between both the social media strategies (Royle and Laing 2014). This is simply because of the fact that it is practically impossible for any kind of social media for competing with Facebook in terms of the number of users. However, in case of Amazon, Twitter is more effective social media marketing platform than Facebook (Järvinen and Karjaluoto 2015). Thus, it can be stated that the effectiveness between the social media marketing platforms depends on the organizations how they utilize the platforms for online marketing of their products.

3.1.2 Twitter Marketing Strategies

The Twitter users can enjoy online shopping through Amazon and they can also be prepared for their minds to be blown (Yadav and Pavlou 2014). If someone can see the feature of a product on Twitter as well as there is also an Amazon code incorporated, then there can be a way for that customer for adding those items to his or her Amazon cart immediately by replying with “#AmazonCart”. Therefore, it is very essential to be innovative as well as try to think out of the box with the social media strategy and know their customers (Ashley and Tuten 2015). Therefore, Amazon has currently 108 million followers on Twitter. However, the online retailers have to be more creative with their tweets and create their own hash-tag for promoting more customer engagement with Twitter. Twitter marketing strategies are much more different than the Facebook marketing strategies. It is completely different from the Facebook or Pinterest marketing plan (Simula, Töllmen and Karjaluoto 2015). Twitter Marketing strategies can play significant role in driving engagement for promotional activities, interacting with consumers, sharing content and information, networking, branding and reputation management.

3.1.2 Facebook Marketing Strategies

Social Media Marketing

Amazon has currently 23 million likes on its Facebook page because as per the analysis made in this section, Facebook engages most of its customers. Amazon offers coupons and highlights products for encouraging sales increment (Chang, Yu and Lu 2015). Efficient segmenting, maximizing real-time reporting and intelligently attributing through Facebook marketing strategies have helped Amazon to build good customer relationship and reinforce customer retention all over the world (Vinerean et al. 2013). The unlimited character updates of Facebook can make it the perfect channel for brand storytelling. Storytelling is very essential for feeding into the social media strategy of the online retail organizations such as Amazon as their audiences are more likely for buying if the organizations nurture with them throughout every stage of the buying funnel (Schulze, Schöler and Skiera 2015). Therefore, Facebook is very much successful from the context of sales as well as building customer relationship as it is the appropriate channel for long conversations. On the other hand, Facebook has the built-in feature, which permits the online retailers for scheduling a post for appearing on the ecommerce website page of the organization. Moreover, integrating the Facebook Plug-ins within the website of Amazon has also provided this organization more benefits over the implementation of branding awareness among the customers, which ultimate help in building customer relationship. Investing on Facebook ads has provided Amazon a lift in creating strong customer base (Ananda, Hernandez Garcia and Lamberti 2015). Facebook marketing strategy is the dream of the ecommerce advertiser’s while it comes to near limitless potential of customer acquisition and retention.

3.2 Core stages of Developing Social Media Marketing Strategy

There are few significant and core stages those must be considered by an online retailer for developing an effectively social media marketing plan (Luo and Zhang 2013). Most importantly, these stages are required in order to assure that the social media marketing campaigns contribute to the greater business objectives of the brands of the online retailers. These are as follows:

Stage 1: Ensuring Social Objectives Resolve Challenges – this stage is mainly aimed to ensure the social objectives by resolving key business issues associated with the online retailers. Setting objectives is a staple of all the business as well as marketing strategies. Thus, in this regard, social media is not an exception (Keegan and Rowley 2017). It can obviously be difficult with a range of social capabilities for determining exactly what the objectives of the online organizations should be (Hudson and Thal 2013). A smart campaign of social media marketing can answer every of these questions such as

• Is Customer Loyalty low?
• Has website traffic dipped?
• Does an online retailer need to do a better job of establishing a positive brand reputation?
• Does an online retailer need to make people aware that their products exist

Amazon has successfully answered all the questions mentioned and it has helped this online retailer to ensure social objectives by resolving the challenges like low website traffic, decreasing customer retention, poor customer service as well as weak brand awareness (Zhu and Chen 2015).

Stage 2: Extending Efforts throughout the Online Retail Organizations – the major aim of this stage of social media marketing strategy is to extend the efforts throughout the online retailer such as Amazon (Winpenny, Marteau and Nolte 2014). Online retailers should involve as well as integrate several departments such as sales, customer service, human resources, research and development as well as marketing in terms of creating a completely integrated social media marketing campaign. 

Mobile Marketing

Stage 3: Fostering on Channels that Add Value – the major aim of this stage is to foster on the social media marketing channels those can add value to the business operations of the online retail organizations (Watson, McCarthy and Rowley 2013). Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and many other social media channels can be proven very effective for the online retailers for conducting their marketing strategies.

Stage 4: Creating Engaging Content – online retailers should start building engaging content for their social channels after getting involved with the appropriate social media networks, department and stakeholders (Lamberton and Stephen 2016). The online retailers such as Amazon generally builds engaging contents through videos, guides as well as info-graphics.

Stage 5: Recognizing Business Scopes through Social Media – this particular stage of social media marketing strategy adapted by the online retailers is mainly aimed to recognize the business scopes through social media (Ström, Vendel and Bredican 2014). There are few ways that can help the organizations for monitoring social media to recognize largest business scopes for the retail brands such as brand mentions, industry terms and competitor info.

Stage 6: Engaging instead of ignoring – this particular stages aims to foster more on engaging customers instead of ignoring to the online retailers in terms of the social media marketing strategies  (Poyner Lamberton and Stephen 2015). This is simply because of the fact that the customers would eventually start disliking the brand if they are consistently ignored.

Stage 7: Tracking, Improving and Marketing Organizational Efforts – this stage particularly aims to track, improve as well as market the organizational efforts by utilizing a tool of tracking success, building on success, sharing their success and implementing social media marketing checklist (Cantrell et al. 2017).  

3.3 Utilization of Social Media Marketing and traditional Marketing in Reinforcing Organizational Marketing Strategy

An organization can implement and adapt booth the social media marketing as well as traditional marketing strategies in order to reinforce the organizational marketing strategy (Holliman and Rowley 2014). This is simply because of the fact that both the strategies have few shortcomings along with their advantages. However, these shortcomings can be resolved by adapting both the social media and traditional marketing strategies as the two strategies have the potential for compensate the shortcomings of each other (Järvinen and Taiminen 2016).

Utilization of social media marketing can enable the online retailers for looking further towards their reach to more number of customers (Lin and Yazdanifard 2014). The customers of the online retailers generally interact with their brands through social media, thus, having a potential social media marketing plan as well as presence on the web is the major step for tapping into their interest (Baltes 2015). According to the social media marketing strategies, posts in social media can be utilized for driving the targeted traffic. The social media marketing can bring significant success to the business organizations if it is implemented correctly (Ahmad, Musa and Harun 2016). On the other hand, the traditional marketing strategies incorporating print advertisements like newspaper print ads, flyers, billboards and newsletter as well as commercials or television spots are very popular to people as these methods have a high rate of success (Jefferson and Tanton 2015). Organizations especially online retailers such as Amazon can also reinforce organizational marketing strategies through applying traditional marketing strategies as well by reaching a group of particular customers that do not utilize necessarily internet browsing. Apart from that, the traditional marketing strategies are also utilized for implementing face-to-face contact and providing tangible offers (Karjaluoto, Mustonen and Ulkuniemi 2015). Traditional marketing also offers product testing through this method based on the product.

4.1 Opportunities of Mobile Marketing 

Content Marketing

Mobile Marketing is such a promotional activity that is designed for the delivery purpose over smart-phones, cell phones as well as other handheld devices generally as the component of the multichannel campaign. According to Simula, Töllmen and Karjaluoto (2015), mobile marketing can be referred to the marketing method, which generally aims to make the utilization of the features of the contemporary modern mobile technology location services to the tailor marketing campaigns depending of the location of customer or frequently visited places. On the other hand, Yadav and Pavlou (2014) have also mentioned the fact that mobile marketing can be termed as the way for the online retailers through which technologies can promote the personalized services or goods to the user or consumer who is connected constantly to a network over the mobile devices. As opined by Chang, Yu and Lu (2015), the location-based services provided by the mobile marketing strategies can gather customer information as well as then offer deals, coupons or promotions depending on the nearby centre for dispatching goods or services. Moreover, Schulze, Schöler and Skiera (2015) have also stated that the mobile marketing campaigns send the food-related coupons to a customer any time they come within half a mile of a particular supermarket. GPS messaging, 2D barcodes, augmented reality along with the location-based services are the major mobile marketing strategies which can provide a huge range of opportunities that a mobile environment could provide to the online retailer.

Immediacy – the mobile marketing strategies are capable enough of yielding immediate results (Hays, Page and Buhalis 2013). These methods can provide the easy as well as executable way for delivering messages to the recipients within seconds very promptly.

Affordability – While implementing the mobile marketing strategies, the online retailers do not need to pay for printing or air time as well as for postage. It just charges a nominal per text message fee (Ananda, Hernández García and Lamberti 2015). Moreover, the pricing for this kind of marketing strategies are proven very modest to the online retailers. It is one of the most affordable ways for advertising the products or services of the online retailers, which plays a significant role in building a brand name and boosting customer loyalty (Luo and Zhang 2013).

Reach the Targeted Audience – Each business organization wants to reach a particular customer group for benefiting from the marketing campaigns. Moreover, due to this fact, mobile marketing has become one of the most effective strategies of marketing (Winpenny, Marteau and Nolte 2014). Therefore, the online retailers have to reach their phone numbers and permission for sending them the promotional material to be capable of reaching the mobile users.

Establishing a good relationship with the customers in the long term – the capable of reaching the target audience at any place as well as at any time can permit thee online retailers for building a good and loyal relationship in the long term (Watson, McCarthy and Rowley 2013). Therefore, in this regard, the online retailers can make their customers special and appreciated by informing those regarding special deals, new product arrivals and sales and others. The mobile marketing strategies can provide the online retailers the scope of being capable of reaching the customers on-the-go as well as creating highly effective two-way communication (Ström, Vendel and Bredican 2014). Moreover, a customer who feels that he or she is getting a special treatment from the online retailer is more likely to respond to the marketing campaigns arranged by the retailer.

WOW Factor – the strategies of mobile marketing is so new that the huge number of the potential customers has not seen it firsthand yet (Ahmad, Musa and Harun 2016). Therefore, it permits an online retailer for establishing itself as the leader in the retail industry and insures as well their messages would achieve the highest influence with their target audiences. This particular marketing strategy also provide the scope to the online retailers for integrating innovative as well as new forms of promotion or advertising with the existing strategies for enhancing their impact as well as interactivity (Karjaluoto, Mustonen and Ulkuniemi 2015). Moreover, the outcomes of the campaign can be tracked easily through the customer opt-ins, page visits, downloads and various other methods depending on the mobile marketing technique being used.

The marketing communication mainly functions within the marketing framework for a certain organization. The major aim of the marketing communication is for reaching a demonstrated audience for affecting its behavior by reminding, persuading as well as informing (Simula, Töllmen and Karjaluoto 2015). Therefore, the Marketing Communication Decisions are very crucial functions for the promotional activities of the organizations as the aim of these decisions for acquiring new customers for brands by establishing awareness and encouraging trial (Chang, Yu and Lu 2015). The decisions taken in marketing communication maintains the current customer base of the organizations regarding the benefits of the brand. Thus, sound decisions should always be made in terms of adapting mobile marketing within the promotional activities for making the marketing communication to be successful. In recent days, mobile devices are being utilized while taking marketing communications. Moreover, the mobile devices have become the unique media selection with the extreme potential for marketers.

The online retailers including small or large ecommerce organizations are utilizing the mobile devices as the unique platforms in order to build a huge marketing communication among the customers (Schulze, Schöler and Skiera 2015). The mobile devices have impacted the decision making strategies of the online retailers for establishing a successful marketing communication among the potential customer to sustain and create a good customer base. Mobile devices especially smart-phones are available to more or less all people worldwide (Hays, Page and Buhalis 2013). The marketing departments of the online retailers such as Amazon have selected the mobile devices to do online advertisements as well as sending notifications through SMS in order to create awareness regarding new arrivals, discounts as well as offers. These messages or notifications simply create huge eagerness among the customers of thee online retailers to avail the services or buy their selected products (Ananda, Hernández García and Lamberti 2015). On the other hand, mobile devices also help the online retailers by becoming the way through which they can get the customer feedback regarding their services or products. These would help the organizations for improving their customer services in future.  

5.1 Role of Content Marketing for Attracting Customers and Building Relationship with Target Audience

Content Marketing is such as strategic marketing approach that mainly fosters on the distribution as well as creation of consistent, relevant as well as valuable content for attracting and retaining a clearly demonstrated audience (Holliman and Rowley 2014). Besides that, the content marketing also aims in driving the profitable customer action while promoting the products or services offered by the online retailers (Järvinen and Taiminen 2016). Today’s prospects have the potential appetite for thee good information but more powerful resistance to the so-called hard sell. In case of online retailing, people research services and products online and also purchase their desired products online. Therefore, people always want the good content that can help them to take good buying decisions specifying all the details regarding the features of the products or goods the customers want to buy.

In today’s date, consumers have become less responsive towards the traditional advertising and it is true for both of the B2B and B2C customers (Ahmad, Musa and Harun 2016). Thus, in case of the online retailers, content marketing has been proven one of the most significant marketing strategies which play significant role in attracting the customers and building relationship with the target audiences. For the customers who buying products from the online retailers, there is no scope to directly judge as well as checking the products before buying (Jefferson and Tanton 2015). They have to only go through the specifications provided with the products on the ecommerce websites of the online retailers such as Amazon. If the customers cannot be satisfied with the purchased products as the product is found different from the specifications given in the ecommerce website, then the customer dissatisfaction factors can be evolved (Baltes 2015). Therefore, such kind of incident can damage the customer base for the online retailers and decrease the revenue generation rate. Thus, the online retailers should always be concerned about content marketing while promoting their products to their new and existing customer. This kind of particular marketing strategy directly impacts the image of the online retailer (Holliman and Rowley 2014). Content marketing strategies always aims to improvise the customer experience as well as optimize the marketing efficiency along with obtaining enablement of the stakeholders, partner and sales. Apart from that, the establishment of marketing relationship through implementing content can also incorporate several intermediary goals and steps like growing fan community.  

Along with the features stated above, it can be stated that the content marketing is important for the business operations of online retailers in terms of attracting attention and generating leads, expanding their customer base, increasing or generating online sales, engaging an online community of users and enhancing brand awareness or credibility (Jefferson and Tanton 2015).

There are few significant steps of content creation by the online retailers such as:

• Defining the target audience as well as their needs
• Determining the categorization of contents
• Proper establishment of the Content Management System

The successful content distribution is often among the most overlooked contexts of the successful content marketing campaigns because it needs a consistent time commitment (Kumar et al. 2013). There are three major steps through which successful content distribution can be done such as building own websites, guest posts and re-engagement as well.

The common metrics for determining the success of a content marketing are tied often to the actual goals of the campaign (Hays, Page and Buhalis 2013). For an instance, the content marketer may measure different conversion metrics as well as different engagement metrics such as

• Visibility and Brand Awareness
• Diversified User Base
• Sales

The content marketing strategy can be grown by following five significant laws of content marketing. These are as follows:

Gaining the true details regarding social media – there are mainly two things, which must be known to the marketers while undertaking content marketing with social media. The first fact is that the social media has the ultra short shelf life (Järvinen and Taiminen 2016). Therefore, online retailers should be sure about diversifying where they are posting in terms of expanding the reach of their contents to their potential and target customers. Apart from that, content is the head honcho within the online marketing world. Just posting on the social media as well as cutting out website content can result in fans not having anywhere to progress to in their marketing funnel.

Getting SEO working with the content – Search Engine Optimization is significant to the success of the website of the online retailers (Baltes 2015). Therefore, it the content of the online retail organizations is not relevant or successful in engaging customers then they are not going to keep reading even if the organization is first on Google.

Being Creative – There are billions or millions of websites who are fighting for the customer attention. Thus, the online retailers should always be focused on applying the creativeness while making contents through content marketing (Lamberton and Stephen 2016). Moreover, the contents made while conducting content marketing should always be concise and short. Elongated contents can create irritation among the customers which becomes the restriction for online retailers while creating customer base.

6. Conclusion

After conducting the entire research, a conclusion can easily be drawn that all social media marketing, content marketing as well as mobile marketing strategies have been proven very significant for the online retailers. All of these marketing strategies have played significant roles in creating a huge customer base for the online retail organizations as well as these strategies can also take a crucial part in creating a loyal relationship with the customers and reinforcing customer retention for the online retailers. The online retailers such as Amazon always depend on these strategies in terms of creating their brand image among target audiences as well as existing customers. All of the three marketing strategies are proven very effective in updating the people regarding the products or goods offered by the online retailers. Moreover, sometimes, traditional marketing along with the online marketing strategies can also be proven very efficient for the online retailers to create their brand image to their potential customers.

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