Three-Year Strategic Digital Marketing Plan - Essay Example

Three year strategic digital marketing plan Table of Contents Brief 3 SMART objectives 3 Year on year forecasted bookings 5 Projected budget requirements for 2015 and 2016 6 Targeting and data strategy 7 Targeting and segmentation 8 Recommendations 9 Appropriate measures 10 Detailed activity plan 11 Objectives 12 January 2014 – March 2014 13 April 2014 – June 2014 13 July 2014 – September 2014 14 October 2014 – December 2014 15 Budget breakdown 2014 16 Reference List 18 Brief The digital marketing report has been compiled for Gap 360, an independent UK based travel service providing company. The purpose of this report is to plan regarding the ways to achieve the status of a market leader thereby enhancing the level of customer satisfaction, broadening the range of product offerings and increasing the amount of bookings. The company expects to reach a target of 11,000 bookings by the end of 2016, alongside achieving 10% of total bookings as repeat sales. The budget allotted for the year 2014 is £180,000. SMART objectives Specific: Considering the fact that Gap 360 is a relatively new company in this market, the success achieved by the company in its first and second year of trading is noteworthy. Having enjoyed a successful stint over the past two years, the company should aim to achieve a higher ground that provides robust foundation to become an undisputed leader in the market. In order to be able to reach the pinnacle in this market, Gap 360 must aim to attain a higher customer satisfaction index. This is precisely because a widening base of satisfied customers will serve as a sustainable source of profit for the independent travel service provider. However, the objective of higher customer satisfaction level can only be achieved if the company is able to increase its base of potential passengers which in actuality is the second objective that is specific to the requirement of the company. The objectives are very closely associated to each as one can only be attained if the other is accomplished. The fact can be evidenced with the third objective of the company which is to widen its products and service offerings (in terms of increasing number of destinations and types of trips) within five years of its launch. By doing so the company endeavours to attract greater number of passengers which in turn will provide them with the opportunity to offer superior quality services and hence, increase their customer base to a further level. Measureable: Gap 360 has to focus on increasing the amount of bookings done every year. In addition to that, they will also have to implement appropriate strategies in order to attain growth in the level of repeat sales per annum. As far as measurability of this objective is concerned, a target of 11,000 booking has been set which is to be achieved by 2016. On the other hand, a measurable target of 10% of the total bookings has been placed for repeat sales. Attainable: Given the size of the market in UK, the target that has been set in the section above is attainable. According to the US estimated provided by Gap advice (2014), close to 230,000 young people take trip every year, 90,000 people take a trip on their career breaks and 200,000 retired personnel go on a trip every year. Such a wide concentrated market with few competitors such as Gap Force, Real gap Experience and The Leap provides Gap 360 with the opportunity to achieve 11,000 bookings by 2016 from its current level at 1135 bookings. Relevant: The objectives that have been set by Gap 360 is highly relevant given the fact that the company has been able to increase their number of bookings by twice the value that was recorded in their first year of trade. Gap 360 was able to successfully complete 1100 bookings in the year 2012. Following that, the company was able to meet its project increase in number of bookings in 2013 (which was 2500). With such a level of growth, it is expected that the company will atleast complete close to 4700 bookings in 2014. Having experienced such an exponential increase, it can be anticipated that the company will surely achieve its target of 11,000 bookings by 2016. Time based: As mentioned above, the target of 11,000 bookings cannot be achieved in the very first year. It has to be attained gradually with year on year augmentation in the number of bookings. The objectives have to be equivalently complimented with appropriate finance and marketing strategies in order to make sure that Gap 360 leaves no stones unturned while on its quest to become the undisputed leader in the market. Year on year forecasted bookings Gap 360 2013 2014 2015 2016 Year on year leads 35,000 46,500 65,000 84,700 Total leads 70,000 116,500 181,500 266,200 Booking ratio 15 to 1 11 to 1 9 to 1 8 to 1 Fresh bookings 2300 4200 7200 10500 Repeat booking (in %) 3% 5% 7% 10% Number of repeat bookings 69 210 504 1050 Total number of bookings 2300 4269 7410 11004 Average value of booking £1,000 £1,050 £ 1,100 £1,150 Total £2,300,000 £4,482,450 £8,151,000 £12,654,600 The current number of leads for Gap 360 stands at 70,000. It is expected the leads will increase by nearly 2500 to 3,000 every month. With such a level of growth, the number of leads in 2014 is expected to reach a value of 46,500. It is anticipated that Gap 360 will be able to improve its marketing strategies and achieve further leads of 65,000 and 84,700 in 2015 and 2016 respectively. The current booking ratio has been reported to be 15:1. However, in order to attain 11,000 bookings by end 2016, Gap 360 needs to bring down the ratio drastically to 11:1, 9:1, 8:1 in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. The repeat booking for the current year stands at 3% and it is expected that the company will achieve greater repeat booking percentages over the next three years which in turn will enable them to achieve a repeat booking of 10% of total sales. Combining all the above mentioned figures, it can be seen that Gap 360 will attain 11,000 bookings by 2016 which will generate revenue of £12,654,600 a staggering increase of 6 times the current revenue (£2,300,000). If this target is achieved, then it will pave a path for the company to become the market leader in the immediate future. Projected budget requirements for 2015 and 2016 Channel Cost in 2015 Channel Cost in 2016 Content marketing £12,300 Content marketing £15,600 15 Articles £4,500 10 Articles £9,800 6 Videos £7,800 4 Videos £5,800 PPC £80,000 PPC NA Social advertising £95,000 Social advertising £73,500 Twitter £37,000 Twitter £30,000 Facebook £40,500 Facebook £32,000 LinkedIn £10,000 LinkedIn £7,500 Instagram £7,500 Instagram £4,000 Mobile application £90,000 Mobile application £50,000 Competition £5,500 Competition £5,000 Quarterly £3,500 Quarterly £3,500 Annually £2,000 Annually £1,500 Total £307,300 Total £133,050 Given the fact that Gap 360 has to establish its presence in the market, a considerable proportion of its budgets need to be allocated behind the marketing activities. Content marketing is perhaps one of the most appropriate strategies that have proven to be extremely beneficial when it comes to grabbing the attention of customers. The average price of writing a 10 page article (600 words per page) article is estimated to be between £300 and £350. This is why the cost of writing articles has been projected to be £14,250 and £9,800 in 2015 and 2016 respectively. In order to create pay per click ads the company will most likely incur a cost of £80,000 in the year 2015. As far as social media advertising is concerned, the cost is estimated to reach a value of £95,000 and £73,500 in 2015 and 2016 respectively. The cost has been estimated according to the average annual salary paid to social media marketers in the UK which is close to £29,000 (Total Jobs Group Ltd, 2014). Given the fact that the company’s mobile website turned out to be an unsuccessful venture; it is recommended that Gap 360 should develop a Smartphone application. This is precisely because mobile applications are proving to be a huge success especially among Smartphone users. The Smartphone application will be developed in 2014 at an estimated cost of £120,000 and the company will incur a maintenance cost of £90,000 in the year 2015. In 2016, the maintenance cost of the same application has been estimated to be £50,000. Therefore, the total budget requirement for 2015 has been estimated to be £307,300 whereas that of 2016 has been forecasted to be £133,050. Targeting and data strategy Targeting and segmentation of the market is perhaps one of the most important activities to be conducted in order for Gap 360 to enhance their brand image throughout the world. In order to make sure that targeting and segmentation is done appropriately, it is imperative for the company to implement appropriate data strategy. Gap 360 has to gather crucial information from authentic data sources. Therefore, the market research department will be conducting surveys over telephones, internet survey portals as well as email in order to learn about the tastes and preferences of their existing and potential customer base. Detailed information regarding the same will also be gathered through interview process conducted with the most frequent customers of Gap 360. Alongside providing critical information regarding customer tastes and preferences, the surveys and interviews will also reveal crucial information that will allow Gap 360 managers to segment customers on the basis of Demography, behaviour and Geography. The targeting strategy for some of the customers has been depicted below. Targeting and segmentation The following information is based on the survey conducted with existing customer base of Gap 360 one month ago. Segment Name Status 1 John Final year of degree – applied for graduate employment scheme – to commence employment from September 2015 – P.T. job holder – saved money for gap year to explore career options – Loves travelling. 2 Melisa About to conclude A levels – Confused between F.T. employment and university program – Has been in secondary education for 7 years – Wants to take a break – P.T. employment during education – Wants to engage in voluntary work abroad and add that to her C.V. 3 Joshua Highly paid manager in an MNC – Loves travelling and feels like he has the free will to travel – nonetheless unlikely to manage substantial time off. 4 Cade GCSE completed – considering to purse A levels – Would like to go on a holiday with friends after completion of A levels – Trip to be funded by parents. 5 Julia Lives in the US – studying history –planning to take a trip in the immediate future – does not have much information about friends who have recently travelled somewhere. 6 Oliver Lives in Australia – travelled with Gap 360 twice – planning to travel again in three months. 7 Brad Adventure seeker – wants to learn scuba diving and sky diving – loves travelling and planning for a trip within the next 5 months – lives with parents – works as an accountant. *F.T. – Full time; P.T. – Part time Segment Name Age Type Content Social PPC Email Mail App Advert Priority 1 John 20 G.Y H 2 Melisa 18 G.Y H 3 Joshua 38 C.B H 4 Cade 16 G.Y M 5 Julia 19 G.Y M 6 Oliver 27 C.B H 7 Brad 22 G.Y H *G.Y – Gap Year; C.B. – Career break; H – high; M – medium Recommendations The major challenge for Gap 360 is to be a stand out performer in a concentrated marketplace by means of offering broad range of travel plans and services as well as by providing exciting opportunities to its customers by keeping themselves updated with latest trends regarding travelling. One of the most effective strategies that can be considered by the company managers is to enhance the foundation of its establishment in the UK by harmonizing a plan of acquiring new base of customers as well as to maintain stronger relationship with existing client base (Hoffmann, Pennings and Wies, 2011; Hoots, 2004). Gap 360 market research analysts are required to have a comprehensive view of the needs and requirements of their customers at every stage of their journey. This can be done through the establishment of a robust line of communication between the company’s customer help desk and the customers themselves. Gap 360 has to ensure that a consistent and relevant messaging mechanism exists between them and the customers whereby they will be able to provide quality assistance to the later across all devices and channels (Harker and Egan, 2006; Saarijarvi, Karjaluoto and Kuusela, 2013). In order to increase the number of bookings, Gap 360 should implement an effective mobile communication strategy given that the company’s previous mobile communication was a failure (Hennig-Thurau and Hansen, 2000). The current market of Smartphone users will provide the company with an opportunity to provide services through mobile devices and increase their target customer base. The company should also enhance its brand awareness by appealing both older and younger audiences without isolating the other. Appropriate measures Gap 360 can consider acquisition of smaller travel service providing companies in order to widen their target customer group. By doing so they will be able to increase the number of bookings and reach the desired figure by 2016. Proper customer relationship management strategies has to be implemented in order to strengthen the relationship between the existing client base and increase the level of repeat bookings as well as achieve a 10% multiple of total bookings by 2016 (Buhler and Nufer, 2012; Chang, et al., 2002). Gap 360 needs to establish its presence in the UK market by emphasizing on key customer segments such as sixth form students who are at the verge of having a gap year. The company should also focus on career breakers over the age of 35. Favourable customer feedbacks can be promoted both over company websites as well as in external websites. They could also start conducting extensive analysis of the US market in order to target customers in the country from 2016 onwards. Gap 360 should use its company websites extensively as an advertising platform and use it to promote discounts, offers and other travel related contents. The company should continue search engine optimization activity rigorously and run its pay per lick campaigns in order to target its customer segments. This can be done through the use of unique landing pages that are incorporated with data capture forms. Emails should be sent to clients in order to conduct follow up activity. Customers need to be emailed at each and every stage of the cycle. This is precisely because email serves as a crucial tool can prove to be extremely beneficial when it comes to increasing repeat bookings (Ryan, 2014; Azzadina, Huda and Sianipar, 2012). Social media should be used extensively in order to display offers, discounts and update information related to the company. This medium can be used as a tool to manage and strengthen relationship with customers (Clow and Kurtz, 2003). Moreover, competitions can also be posted over social media thereby grabbing the attention of more audiences. Mobile application should be developed and subsequently promoted through social media, email, company website and online shopping websites. Mobile apps will link customers with a personal account which further can be used in order to maintain communication with customers as well as to keep them appraised about ongoing offers and discounts. Moreover, company analysts can also record the customers’ activity through mobile applications. Detailed activity plan 2014 – 2016 is perhaps the most important phase of Gap 360’s life cycle. Given the fact that the company is relatively new compared to its competitors, 2014 would be the perfect time frame for Gap 360 conduct implement various strategies and conduct activities that will improve its changes of becoming the market leader in the near future. That is why a detailed activity plan needs to be prepared in order to explain individual activity and the timeframe required to conduct the same. The detailed activity plan will enable the company managers to schedule their workflow process according to the need of hour. Alongside, that they will also be able to predict the requirement of funds for each and every activity and make sure that it is readily available at that point of time (Chaffey, P. R. Smith and P. R. Smith, 2012). Objectives Increase annual bookings from 2500 (2013) to 4700 in 2014 and subsequently to 11,000 in 2016 by b ringing down the leads to booking ratio from 15:1 to 8:1. This needs to be achieved through the implementation of enhanced target marketing strategy by gaining access to grater consumer insights. To make sure that atleast 7% of the total bookings in 2014 is made through the Smartphone application of Smartphone application. Increase the amount of repeat bookings from 3% in 2013 to 5% in 2014 and subsequently to 7% and 10% in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Enhance the level of customer satisfaction through promotion of online reviews thereby sustaining an approval rating of nearly 75% and subsequently increasing it to 80%. Increase email opening rate by atleast 2% by means of enhanced market segmentation strategies. Increase the average amount paid per booking from £1000 in 2013 to £1050 by end 2014 and subsequently to £1100 and £1150 in 2015 and 2016 respectively. In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives the following activities needs to be conducted with extreme precision. January 2014 – March 2014 Regarded as the preliminary time phase, the time period between January and February will be used mainly for the purpose of conducting extensive market research. In house market research analysts will be conducting surveys and interviews over phone, email, person to person in order to learn about the tastes and preferences of the existing consumers. Following that, an external market research agency will be contacted in order to conduct market research with households in UK. The data will be used in order to make sure that Gap 360 is able to segment and target its market appropriately. The company will also be able to learn about the immediate and future travel plans of existing and potential customers. This will allow Gap 360 to plan accordingly and target its customers appropriately. The time period between February and March will be used mainly to prepare customer profile of Gap year travellers. The travellers will be targeted with offers such as paid work/volunteering opportunity. They will also be provided with the option of enjoying longer trips at a medium price range. Following that customer profile of career break travellers will be created and the people with relatively shorter breaks will be targeted. They will be offered with shorter trip packages at a low to medium price range as they may opt for two trips in a single year. April 2014 – June 2014 The month of April will mostly involve the development of a database that will store critical customer information such as age, email, contact number, mail address, status/position, recent trip taken, countries preferred, adventures sought, mode of transport, hotels stayed, other tastes and preferences. Such an extensive database will serve as a robust foundational allowing Gap 360 travel experts to customize trips for its customers (Raman, Wittmann and Rauseo, 2006; Reinartz and Ulaga, 2008). Following that in the month of May, Gap 360 will be primarily busy in widening the number of destination travel packages offered to customers. Thereafter, senior managers will be looking to form partnerships with hotels as well as airlines of different travelling destinations. Several meetings will be organized with hotel managers as well as airline managers over the month of May and June, in order to discuss partnership terms and issues. This will enable Gap 360 to enhance its portfolio and will also them to attract customers by offering more discounts on travel packages. The month of June will also see the beginning of the promotion phase. As a part of promotion activities, Gap 360 will start preparing promotional articles and videos in order for them to be published over different medium. Discussion forums will be arranged over social media in order to grab the attention of millions of users available over the internet. July 2014 – September 2014 The time period between July and September is arguably the most important developmental phase for Gap 360 in the year 2014. The development of mobile phone application will be initiated in the month of July and it will continue along with its testing phase over the next four months of the year. Primary research will be carried out during this phase regarding the features desired by customers in applications like this. The application will be tested over the next six months with the help of existing customers who will be the preliminary users of this app. Their feedback will be taken into account in order to make any necessary changes. The month of August will mainly involve the preparation of online brochures which would thereafter be promoted over social media, company websites, external websites, pay per click and several other mediums in order to extract contact information of potential customers. By preparing online brochures the cost of printing paperback brochures will be reduced by a significant margin. In September, Gap 360 will be majorly busy in surveying its existing customer base regarding the applicability of the Smartphone application. The application will be tested rigorously and any bugs present will be fixed with absolute precision. October 2014 – December 2014 In October, Gap 360 will be preparing for the promotion of its application launch event. The promotion will be conducted predominantly in three cities of UK (London, Birmingham and Manchester) besides promoting the app launch over the internet. The promotional event has been arranged in order to urge as many audience as possible to download the application. After the conclusion of the promotional event, the application will be launched in the end of October on Android, iphone and Windows platform so as to make this application accessible to Smartphone users throughout the world. The month of November and December will mostly involve follow up activities where Gap 360 travel experts will be communicating with the customers who have recently completed a trip by availing the services of the company. In the post trip phase, the customers will be contacted by the travel experts of in order to gather their reviews regarding the services provided by the company as well as to learn about the drawbacks if any. The clients will be requested to upload pictures of their trip which can later be used for promotional purpose. The surveys feedback will then be used in order to bring about further improvements in the quality and range of services offered by the company (Beaujean, Davidson and Madge, 2006; Berndt and Brink, 2004; Brink and Berndt, 2009). This concludes the activities that are to be performed in the year 2014. Budget breakdown 2014 Channel Cost in 2014 Market research £100,000 Content marketing £8,300 12 Articles £3,300 4 Videos £5,000 PPC £92,000 Social advertising £100,000 Twitter £39,000 Facebook £43,500 LinkedIn £10,000 Instagram £7,500 Mobile application £120,000 Promotional event £200,000 Competition £5,500 Quarterly £3,500 Annually £2,000 Total £620,300 The contract with an external market research organization for a one month period will cost £100,000. The company will incur cost of £8,300 for content marketing which includes preparation and publishing of 12 promotional articles and 4 videos. The creation of pay per click ads will cost the company £92,000. As far as social media marketing is concerned, Gap 360 will incur a cost of exactly £100,000. The cost has been estimated according to the average annual salary paid to social media marketers in the UK. According to a survey with IT professionals conducted by AnyPresence in 2013, 24.3% respondents stated that average cost of initial development for a typical mobile phone application falls between $100,000 and $500,000 (Formotus, 2014). Similarly, according to Appmuse (2014), the development of more complex and recognized mobile phone apps cost $50,000 to $150,000. That is why in the case of Gap 360 the budget for mobile phone application has been estimated to be somewhere close to £120,000. The promotional event that will be conducted in London, Birmingham and Manchester will cost Gap 360 a whooping £200,000. These are the likely expenditures to be incurred by Gap 360 over the year 2014. Therefore, the company has to make sure that they have adequate amount of funds available at their disposal in order to make sure that none of their activities are stalled because of inadequate financial resources. Reference List Appmuse, 2014. How much does it cost to develop a mobile app? 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