Digital Marketing Strategy For Professional Training Course In Social Media

Situation, challenges, market analysis and objectives

The company considered in this paper is named as shoppertark which is part of Tyco Retail Solutions. The company is firmly established in the market; it provides retail intelligence to different retailers of the world with the help of intelligence experts. For the purpose of deliberating on the topic of social media, a meeting is arranged with all the relevant stakeholders. This meeting will explore the different options available with the company. The digital marketing strategy in general and social media strategy in particular will change to cater to the new and exclusive needs of the organization. These needs can be analyzed from the social media trends available on social media sites (Kannan & Li, 2017). The pros and cons of social media campaigns will be clearly identified to balance the approach of digital marketing. The consumer behavior insights and Location based analytics will be done in the context of social media trends.

The company has made profit in the last quarter so it is financially viable for the company to implement the change in the organization (Askanase, 2014). The company started its business in 1989 and its headquarter is in Chicago, USA. It operates worldwide and provide its services to global retailers, malls and entertainment avenues. Use of social media campaigns for the purpose of predicting consumer behavior and performing location based analytics can proved to be very beneficial for the company as the company will come to know about the latest buzz in the market. The latest information regarding the demand of the consumer can be gathered which can then be passed to retailer and malls. The company needs to have a prudent social media  marketing strategy as well. Traditional marketing techniques need not be completely abandoned, but definitely, there is a need to embrace digital technology and use the social media sites to get the insights of consumer behavior (Greene and Kasselheim, 2012).

In addition to this, the digital transformation of the company will give it a competitive edge. It has been proved by Microsoft that embracing digital transformation is very much necessary to survive in the market of globalised world. There is need to imitate Microsoft in this context, while analyzing and fulfilling the unique needs of the organization. The meeting which going to be organized for the purpose of deliberating on the issue of social media advertising campaigns will be provided with all necessary information gathered from different reliable sources like Government reports, white papers, previous balance sheets related to the company.

Situation analysis- two methods will be used to gather information regarding the situation of the company in the market. The primary research method will be used first which involves surveys and interviews. The survey can be done by following different methods like questionnaire, multiple choice questions, consumer insights etc.  Face to face interview of the celebrities can be taken online through different tools present over the internet. The excerpts of recorded interviews given by celebrities will incite the youth.

After getting primary information, secondary data will be collected. The random sample surveying and other suitable methods can be employed too have a statistical analysis of the data taken from various sources such as government documents, magazines, white paper, social media information etc.

Situational analysis and challenges

Demographic analysis shows that youth of the country are to be targeted as they are more concerned about the energy efficient solutions. The new entrepreneurs are  environmental friendly so they should be targeted on the basis of priority. Quantitative and qualitative research methods are followed to gather the data. Finally, the data is compiled and the target population is identified. Then the SWOT analysis is performed and the current value of the company in the market is assessed.  Customer perceived analysis is done and all the data is interpreted (Sathya, 2015).

Economic analysis- according to the latest government data, the USA has come out of Financial crisis or recession and it is gain on the trajectory of growth. The latest data related to GDP, employment and value generation provide many growth opportunities for Shoppertrak. The USA has also been ranked at good position out of more than 190 countries in the ease of doing a business ranking of the World Bank. The investor sentiments are also high in the current market of the country. There is a need to harness the sentiments of investors by following the sound digital marketing strategy using social media advertising campaigns (Catterall, Maclaran &.Stevens, 2013).

Demographic analysis- There is a need to identify the target population by analyzing the information present regarding the demography of the country. The youth are targeted, who are the most active group on social media sites. The youth can become the harbinger of change. Therefore the new policy must be attractive for the youngsters. The youth will be able to understand the need of implementing the change strategy of e- marketing and social media campaigns.

Stakeholder analysis- Black Friday gave optimistic results for Shoppertrak. Traffic exceeded the expectations on black Friday which shows that sound digital marketing strategy can be very beneficial for the organization. Proper knowledge management amongst all the stakeholders through digital marketing strategy will bring the transparency in the working of the company and make it a brand name (Bekoglu & Onayl?, 2016).

Competitive analysis-  the top competitors of shoppertrak are RetailNext and Traf-sys. RetailNext is a private company founded in California in 2007 and is one of the top competitors of shoppertrak (Pelsmacker et al., 2018). RetailNext has 203 fewer employees in comparison to Shoppertrak. Another major competitor Traf-sys was founded in Pittsburgh in 2011. Traf-sys competes in the service industry; it is the largest rival of shoppertrak but it generates less revenue in comparison to shoppertrak.  

Strength

1)    Well experienced- the company is firmly established in the market since the beginning. It understands the latest technological and industry related changes. It is experienced and generating revenue for last few quarters.

2)    Corporate social responsibility- The company has the good image as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned so it is not going to face any major problem on this front (Fulgoni & Lella, 2014).

3)    Prudent acquisition and merger policy- Shoppertrak follows a sound and prudent acquisition and merger policy that can yield the positive results for it.

SWOT analysis

4) Revenue generation- the company is in sound fiscal health as the Black Friday and other occasional deals fetch good amount of revenue for the organization.

The company has certain weaknesses as well like changing consumer expectations, technology innovation and rising demands of customers. The expectations of customers are increasing each day. In addition to this, there are strong competitors in the market. The company has good fiscal history but it innovation is missing in the organization so it can lose the competitive advantage in near terms if business as usual is continued (Fierro et al., 2017).

1)    Growing economy- according to the latest international reports or sources, the world is on a trajectory of growth once again. In addition, employment is getting increased. This can result in positive factors for the company as the company can expand its operations in developed markets to provide energy efficient batteries and other equipments (Kuberappaa & Kumar, 2016)

2)    Supportive government- The environment is friendly for the investors and businessmen from the perspective of government support. Each country is  a hoard to make its ease of doing ranking good. The countries are trying to remove the bottle necks for the businesspersons and their respective businesses.

3) New market- the company has option to expand its business in new markets. There are various areas and countries which are still away from the reach of company. In addition to this, shoppertrak can expand its business in various other sectors. It will diversify the nature of the company.

1)     Increase in labor costs- according to the latest policy of the USA, it is mandatory to hire a certain portion of the local population (Martin, 2017). This can increase the production cost as the labor cost is high among the USA workers.

2)    Industrial espionage- since the Edward Snowden has revealed the massive espionage policy of the USA, the investor sentiment is not high in the business sector as far as intellectual property rights are concerned. This can be a major threat for the Tata Motors in the USA.

3) Changing political dynamics- the political strategy of the USA is changing since the Trump government came to power. The policy instability and loss of controls by republicans in congress may lead to stalling of real-time projects (Dhote et al., 2015).

4) Loss of intellectual property rights- the company has to keep its intellectual property safe and strategy confidential. Any loss in intellectual property rights will lead to the loss of competitive advantage

The new model of advertising campaign must fascinate the young population. There would be state of the art facility and real time data related to the latest buzz in the market (Trusov, Bucklin & Pauwels, 2012). There will be instant appraisal regarding the latest consumer expectations. Through social media strategy, the company can better target the market by segmenting it into relevant groups. Latest government documents reveal that the economy of the USA is again on the trajectory of growth so this will be the most suited time to launch new policies in the country. The social media strategy and e-marketing at this time may lead to generation of goodwill for the company from civil society groups and governments (Dhote et al., 2015).

There are 5 SMART objectives which are as follows:

a)    Increasing the awareness regarding the brand is the first objective. Increasing awareness will help to convert the site visitors into buyers. This will increase the traffic; thus it will help in generating the brand image.

b) Achieving a growth rate of 20% in the country in 2 years. This target is realistic as well as measurable. The rationale behind this target is to keep the company on the path of growth.

c) Associating with the 500 new customers in 5 years. This is the long-term objective to take the company to the highest level. Though difficult due to competition is given by the corporate giants in the same market, it is realistic as the economy is growing and the customers can afford luxury customers (Coombes & Nicholson, 2013).

d)    Improving the fiscal health by generating revenue of more than $100000. This will increase the profit for the company. This amount can be used on the innovation and research and digital transformation of the company

e)    Increasing the number of loyal customers. The rationale behind this objective is to build customer loyal base and convert potential customers into buyers.

a) Analysis of e-market and social media techniques

There must be a website for the customers. The site will engage the customers and it must sync with the requirements of social media strategy (Wymbs, 2011). It should have well-written content, pictures, and videos so that customers are able to see the real-time photographs of the services offered by the company. The methods used to analyse the information regarding the end consumer will be explained in detail over the site. Thus transparency will be increased along with good corporate governance. The transparency will increase the trust of retailers and malls in the information provided by the shoppertrak. The reviews provided over the website will help the customers in decision making. In addition to this, it will generate brand awareness (Edmiston, 2015).  

In addition to a website, there must be online desk support so that whenever the customer (in this case retailer) has a query, he or she can directly contact the support section (Paquette, 2013). There must be a positive interaction with the customers. It will also help as a grievance redressal mechanism. The customers will be able to register their complaints online.

The marketing strategy will be applied in the context of RACE framework. The brief description of the strategy is as follows:

As mentioned above, youth is targeted to usher in the new era of e-marketing and digital transformation (Radu et al., 2017). Through digital and social media marketing the mission, vision, and objectives of the company will directly reach to the targeted population. The incentives can be easily shown to the youth through digital marketing (social media is a part of digital marketing). Media advertising and webinar presentations will yield positive results for Shoppertrak (Stephen, 2015).

In addition to this, the latest buzz on social media will provide the necessary information regarding the new trends in the market. There will be 24 hours monitoring along with reaching customers through social media blogs, search engines, and publishers. The regular and updated content posted on the site will provide valuable insights to the customers. Digital marketing and social media campaigns will help in customer retention and increase the number of loyal customers (Edmiston, 2015). There will be SEO content and backlinks to rank the site at number one position on different search engines. In addition to this, there will be social media marketing, public relations, and outreach, online webinars and presentations, and paid ad campaigns. These all points need to be explored from the view of social media in the meeting.

There will be a door to door marketing as well. It will help complement the digital and social media marketing and the mass population will be accessed at a single point of time. There will be a continuous supply of new stuff on the website and there will be a live chat window for the customers to get the best possible answers to their questions. The population will be targeted at the community level also. Customers will be asked to rate the services online (Fierro et al., 2017). These ratings will help other customers, as well as the company, improve its customer services. It includes sales process refinement, email marketing, live sale calls. Email marketing will help engage with the customers and apprise them all the latest developments regarding the services of the company. Newsletters, drip marketing, sales funnel optimization and many other mass media campaigns will be used (Bekoglu & Onayl?, 2016).

This is to be kept in mind that customers of shoppertrak can be engaged at a level only so there will not be frequent disruptions like the customer will not be flooded with the too many emails. Too many emails can infuriate the customers which can lead to generation of bad image and make the customers reluctant to buy services of the company (Fulgoni & Lella, 2014). The marketing strategy related to social media will decide the fate of the services company along with the quality of the real time information provided by the company. The sound marketing strategy is needed to keep the organization competitive in the market.

The appropriate content and sale pitch will impact the decision of the customers. There will be following provisions-

•    A/B testing
•    Conversion rate optimization (CRO) practices for all digital media
•    Lead gathering
•    Website audits

This will help generate goodwill among customers. In addition to this, the sound CRO practices will result in brand image development. The digital marketing or social media campaigns need to convince customers that the company uses the best analytical tools and strive hard to keep them updated with the latest information (Kuberappaa & Kumar, 2016). The transparency in the working will increase the confidence of employees and trust of customers.

All the stakeholders must be engaged in the working of the marketing strategy. The clear guidelines must be provided like promoting unity in diversity, knowledge management, building a sound image of the company etc. Engagement with all parties will ensure the inclusive and participatory approach (AD Askanase, 2014). All rules and regulations will be complied with along with maintenance of adequate safety standards. The support of government and non- governmental organizations in the name of good corporate governance will be very helpful (Martin, 2017). There will be awareness regarding the salient features of the services provided by the company. Different kinds of services are specially made for targeted for young retailers and entrepreneurs. It will involve the following things:

•    Blog marketing
•    Video marketing
•    Whitepapers
•    Newsletters
•    Story-telling web copy

1. Strategy- the strategy of digital marketing and social media campaigns are planned effectively
2. Structure- the physical and human resources of the organization are identified
3. Style- the style of working is adapted to cater with the new needs
4. Staff- staff is consulted and explained the procedure. In addition to this, additional number of employees are recruited
5. Skills- skill training program for older employees
6. Systems- business process and digital methods used to make the change in the organization’s marketing strategy
7. Shared values- the company shares the value of providing environment friendly car to the citizens at an affordable price with maintaining all the safety standards.

The company needs to employ sound marketing techniques from the perspective of social media to be ahead in the competition. All other competitors are having an online presence so the Shoppertrak cannot lack on its part (Paquette, 2013). There need to engage with the customers and all the relevant stakeholders so as to frame a sound and inclusive marketing strategy that will address the need of every person associated with the company. The targeted population is provided incentives to use the latest information supplied by the company. The valuable consumer insights generated through the information present over the social media will lead to competitive advantage for any organization. Retailers need to be convinced about the genuine customer views provided by the Shoppertrak . Sound social media strategy is imperative to survive in the globalization era of the 21st century.

Conclusion 

The company have potential to expand itself in the market of the USA. There must be a sound marketing plan to gain a competitive edge. There are many potential customers according to the market analysis done by the company. Every organization understands the importance of social media information to better target the customers and make available the products and services according to the latest demands. So the business organizations, which are customers of the Shoppertrak will get valuable information from it (Martin, 2017). But, in addition to opportunities, there are certain challenges also. These challenges need to be overcome by following a sound marketing strategy. This paper critically analyses the situation of the company and presents a sound plan for social media and digital marketing.

References 

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