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Problem identification: Despite successful in-person sales campaigns, Big Skinny struggled to find an effective online marketing platform that would grow and connect them to their consumer base.
Big Skinny also ran into negative consequences with their current online marketing campaigns that brought unwanted negative attention ND resentment towards the company. When Big Skinny transcended into the world of online marketing, it had to develop a way to attract visitors to the website while attempting to convince these visitors to buy wallets. Since most of their wallets were being sold at trade shows or retail stores that centered on a straight-forward approach regarding impulse and value, the translation of this strategy to the internet proved to be difficult.
Big Skinny looked at various means of advertising such as display ads, algorithmic search, sponsored search, A/B Testing and social media. Evaluative criteria: 1 . Improve (or at least maintain) profitability: The primary goal of any business is to increase profitability as without profitability a business will not survive in the long run. This increase would be through increasing sales, thereby increasing revenues, and maintaining current fixed costs. 2.
Increase market share: Market share is the portion of a market controlled by a particular company or product. With higher market share, economies of scale can be attained so there is a cost advantage. Market leaders have clout that they can use to their advantage and they have more bargaining power as a larger layer will have more of an advantage in negotiations with suppliers and channel members. Market share can be determined as Big Shinny’s sales over a period of time and dividing it by the total sales of the industry over the same period. . Increase customer satisfaction: Customer satisfaction “is a profit strategy because it results in more new customers, more business with existing customers, fewer lost customers, more insulation from price competition”l and fewer mistakes requiring refunds. Overall satisfaction can be measured through a survey conducted from customers after they finish the purchase process. Survey Monkey has a comprehensive set of surveys that can be used to assess a customer’s satisfaction.
Part of this survey could also be used to evaluate net promoter score which is an index ranging from -100 to 100 that measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company’s products or services to others. It is used as a proxy for gauging the customer’s overall satisfaction with a company’s product or service and the customer’s loyalty to the brands. 4. Be within acceptable risk parameters: There has already been an error that has exposed Big Skinny to substantial financial and reputation risk. Future online marketing campaigns must ensure that coupons resulting in zero or near-zero prices are avoided.
Alternatives: 1 . Display ads: It is not clear what the conversion rate would be or the price of this advertising but as display ads are only clicked through 0. 1 % of the time it would seem that this would be ineffective in creating brand awareness or increasing sales. The return on investment would be low. 2. Search engine optimization (SEE): SEE may generate an adequate return on investment. However, search engines are not paid for organic search traffic, their algorithms change, and there are no guarantees of continued referrals.
Due to this lack of guarantees and certainty, a business that relies heavily on search engine traffic can suffer major losses if the search engines stop sending visitors. Search engines can change their algorithms, impacting a websites placement, possibly resulting in a serious loss of traffic. In 2010, Google made over 500 algorithm changes – almost 1. 5 per day. Therefore, it is considered wise business practice for website operators to liberate themselves from dependence on search engine traffics. This alternative may increase sales and brand awareness but it may expose Big Skinny to unacceptable risk. . Social media: In 2014, 92% of marketers claimed that social media marketing was important for their business with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. This demonstrates a huge potential for social media marketing to increase sales. Social media increases brand recognition. Every opportunity Big Skinny takes to increase visibility is valuable. Brands which engage on social media channels enjoy higher loyalty from their customers. A tragic social media plan could prove influential in morphing consumers into being brand loyal. Social media marketing results in higher conversion rates. Every post made on a social media platform is an opportunity for customers to convert. Every blob post, image, video, or comment shared is a chance for someone to react. Every reaction could lead to a site visit and eventually a conversion. Even if the click-through rates are low, the sheer number of opportunities on social media is significant. Interacting with customers regularly is a show of good faith for other customers. When people compliment a product or service, they turn to social media.
The more people that are talking about Big Skinny on social media, the more valuable and authoritative the brand will seem to new users creating greater brand awareness. Every customer interaction that occurs on social media is an opportunity to publicly demonstrate Big Shinny’s customer service level and enrich the relationship with customers. For example, if a customer complains about a Big Skinny product on Twitter, the comment can immediately be addressed and Big Skinny take action to make it right. Alternatively, if a customer compliments Big Skinny, they can be thanked and additional products can be recommended.
Social media also creates the opportunity for improved customer insights as it gives Big Skinny an opportunity to gain valuable information about what customers are interested in and how they behave via social listening. 4. Online Distributors: The chief draw of selling on marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay is the scale of their online presence. Amazon alone draws nearly 85 million unique monthly visitors and those can translate into higher sales volumes. Although customers will not visit Amazon or eBay searching for Big Skinny, they may be searching for wallets and discover Big Skinny wallets.
While there are some significant upsides to selling on marketplaces, there are also some drawbacks that need to be considered. Marketplace fees are deducted as a percentage of each sale (7-15%). Big Skinny must have a good sense of profit margins to determine if the monthly fee of $39. 95 plus the sales commission is feasible. 5. A/B Testing: Well-planned JAB testing can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of marketing efforts. Narrowing down the most effective elements of a promotion, and then combining them, can obviously make marketing efforts much more profitable and successful.
However, it will require another full-time employee which will be costly and may be something to consider in the future. Implementation of social media platform: The advantages of implementing a social media platform are detailed above. It will lead to many positive outcomes, including increased brand recognition, higher brand authority and improved customer insights. These will all increase sales and profitability. 1. Assemble a social community engagement team and project manager- immediately – this does not have to be just young people who are “tuned in” to social media.
It should include people with writing and editing experience, photo editing and some technical knowledge. This group will take ownership and responsibility for carrying out day-to-day updates and the long- term campaign. 2. Conduct social media audit – within 1 month – examine Big Shinny’s existing social media strategy and develop recommendations on what strategy should look like moving forward, with instructions on how to measure results. 3. Get social media inspiration from industry leaders, competitors and clients- use social media listening to distinguish Big Skinny from its competitors- within 1 month. . Conduct a one day workshop by a social media consultant with the team to discuss and help develop a strategy – within 6 weeks. 5. Social media strategy creation and integration with existing marketing efforts – within 2 months – establish short-term objectives for each of the social channels to be used, team assignments, general content ideas to be built on and how specific platforms will be used, for example, lists on Twitter, hangouts on Google. Social Barrel has designed an anaphoric that shows specifics to consider: suitable media types objectives, potential reach, demographics 10.
Choose the most effective platform – within 1 month- set up social interaction reporting on Google Analytics to see which channels send visitors to the Big Skinny website. 6. Develop a one sentence mission statement for each social media platform – within 2 months – for example ‘We will use Mainstream to showcase our 5 major wallet problems solved by Big Skinny Wallets. ” 7. Establish editorial calendar and content plan – within 2 months – establish content across Edie, streamline resources, drive mutual teamwork and focus ideas and timeliness and accountability for deliverables among team members.