Digital Marketing Planning, Study notes of Digital Marketing

Download Digital Marketing Planning and more Study notes Digital Marketing in PDF only on Docsity! Quyen Pham Digital Marketing Planning Case: Blooming Grace Thesis Spring 2019 School of Business and Cultures Bachelor of International business 2 SEINÄJOKI UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES Thesis abstract Faculty: School of Business and Cultures Degree Programme: Bachelor of Business Administration Specialisation: E-commerce Author(s): Quyen Pham Title of thesis: Digital Marketing Planning: Case Blooming Grace Supervisor(s): Miia Koski Year: 2019 Number of pages: 59 Number of appendices: 2 Located in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam, Blooming grace is a start-up online store that offers numerous decorative plants for household and offices. Well-nourished plants from Blooming Grace are not only aesthetically but also health-wise benefi- cial, e.g. for air purification, breathing assistance, and stress reduction. In order to raise more brand awareness to drive more sales and earn more profit, and, at the same time, to manage customer relationships, the store has adopted a digital mar- keting strategy as its strategic development to outperform its competitors in the same field. The outcome of this thesis was the utilization of various effective digital marketing tools for the store, including SEO, digital advertising, and social media marketing. Interviews with the store owner also enabled the author to analyse the current situ- ation of the store; additionally, a questionnaire allowed the author to learn more about the online shopping tendency of plants, which thereafter supported the plan to improve the ongoing problematic marketing strategy. The introduction gives the reader an overview of the business scenario of the plant store. While the theoretical chapter introduces fundamental digital marketing defi- nitions, which served as a foundation for the subsequent investigation, the empiri- cal chapter initiates with error detection at the existing online store and, from there on, practically characterizes the strategies to apply on the actual market to help the store drive more traffic so as to reach more customers and maintain their satis- faction. In conclusion, the aforementioned techniques are proven to be a good fit for the further development of the store in the longer run, provided that they have to strictly follow the strategies as planned. By writing this thesis, the author con- structed a concrete background for a further study related to digital marketing planning. Keywords: digital marketing, ad words, SEO, ROI, PPC 5 Tables, Figures and Pictures Table 1. Prevalence of other innovation activities by enterprise's primary position in the production value chain, 2006–2008, share of enterprises with innovation activity (Prelevance 2010). ................................................................................................. 19 Table 2: Return on investment………………………………………………………….44 Figure 1: The SOSTAC planning framework applied to digital marketing strategy development (Source: Chaffey and Smith (2012)) ................................................ 15 Figure 2: Search Engine Ranking (Hubspot, 2018) ............................................... 16 Figure 3: Effective way to choose keywords for SEO ............................................ 17 Figure 4: Display Ad key terms .............................................................................. 19 Figure 5: ON A SCALE OF 1-5, WHERE 1 IS ‘NOT AT ALL CONFIDENT’ AND 5 IS ‘EXTREMELY CONFIDENT’, HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU IN YOUR ORGANIZATION’S ABILITY TO MEASURE THE FOLLOWING? (Source: Econsultancy & Adobe, 2018) ............................................................................... 20 Figure 6: Worldwide digital Ad Spend (Source: PwC Outlook) .............................. 20 Figure 7: Ad paid by content (Globalwebindex, 2018) ........................................... 23 Figure 8: Benefits of using social media (Source: Coles, 2014) ............................ 24 Figure 9: Four stages of SMM ............................................................................... 25 Figure 10: Social media and their uses (Coles, 2014) ........................................... 25 Figure 11: SWOT analysis of Blooming Grace ...................................................... 31 Figure 12: How to determine an effective SEO keyword ....................................... 33 Figure 13: "Blooming Grace" domain overview ..................................................... 33 Figure 14: Suggested SEO keyword for Blooming Grace ..................................... 34 6 Figure 15: "Blooming Grace" Banner Ad No.2 ....................................................... 38 Figure 16: Social Media Planning .......................................................................... 42 Figure 17: The entire SMM plan for a year ............................................................ 43 Figure 18: Survey-Age Group ................................................................................ 47 Figure 19: Gender .................................................................................................. 48 Figure 20: Frequency of impulsive online purchasing ........................................... 49 Figure 21: Thoughts on having a plant in their homes ........................................... 50 Figure 22: How many indoor plants / flowers / herbs do you own in your house? (Please type the number next to your answers) .................................................... 51 Figure 23: What prevents people from buying more plants or any plants at all? ... 52 Figure 24: Procedure of buying a plant (rank from 1 to 4: 1 being the first procedure people would take in purchasing a plant) .............................................................. 53 Figure 25: How much do people want to pay for a plant? ..................................... 54 Picture 1: Blooming Grace Facebook page ........................................................... 41 7 Terms and Abbreviations SSM Social media marketing Ad Advertisement ROI Return on investment B2C Business to customers SEO Search engine optimization SEM Search engine marketing KPI Key performance indicators CPC Cost per click 10 today’s idealized homes, gardens, and workspaces and, subsequently, the central characters in a new gardening movement that values ease over effort. (Bereznak, Consider the Cactus: How Succulents Took Over Instagram—and Then the World, 2018) Taking that perspective, established in 2016 in Vietnam by Tran Ngoc Luu with a foundation as a nursery for nourishing plants, “Blooming grace” has grown much into an online and offline platform which offers a wide range of plants and pots for home, shops, offices and schools with the hope of bringing more enjoyment to cus- tomer’s indoor atmosphere. The plants mainly come in tiny and moderate size, which is suitable for beautifying purpose. Furthermore, in Vietnam, where Feng shui or fengshui also known as Chinese geomancy, is a pseudoscience originating from China, which claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their sur- rounding environment (Wikipedia). As the term feng shui which literally translates as "wind-water" in English, plays a prominent role in designing and architectures, plants placement in indoor and outdoor environment are no exception because they are believed to improves concentration and productivity thereby generating happi- ness for the owner of the home. Considering that element, “Blooming grace” plants and pots are customized according to customers’ Feng Shui (Horoscope), which is one its unique selling point. Moreover, what outperforms “Blooming Grace” from other competitors lies in its ded- icated plant nourishing techniques since the store owner has been raised in a farm- ing traditional family for years, he has a spirit for cherishing plants and flowers. Also, plants delivered to customers are cultivated right from the owner’s garden not from any other sources of supply with high quality and modern design. Additionally, the plants can be wrapped in lavishing packaging like a plant banquet which can be the impeccable gifts for almost every occasion giving a fresh feel to any corner they are placed in. With what being said, a vast majority of regular buyers are satisfied with the products and rate the caring service excellent and helpful. Nevertheless, their social media channel (Facebook) does not have large number of followers and their B2C website does not have a decent look for customer shopping experience. Con- sequently, the traffic and conversion rate are relatively poor at this initial stage of online selling. 11 1.2 Research methodology Research is at times mistaken for gathering information, documenting facts, and rummaging for information (Leedy & Ormrod, 2001). Research is the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data in order to understand a phenomenon (Leedy & Ormrod). Qualitative resThe main approach to the entire thesis is the combination of the two fundamental research methodologies, which are qualitative and quantitative. While the qualitative research is a holistic approach that involves discovery and it is also described as an unfolding model that occurs in a natural setting that enables the researcher to develop a level of detail from high involvement in the actual experi- ences (Creswell, 1994), quantitative research involves the collection of data so that information can be quantified and subjected to statistical treatment in order to sup- port or refute “alternate knowledge claims” (Creswell, 2003, p. 153). Creswell, (2002) asserts that quantitative research originated in the physical sciences, partic- ularly in chemistry and physics. The data was gathered from secondary sources such as books and articles. Implement quantitative data primarily looking at social trends or policy implications. Furthermore, in order to obtain all the essential data needed to learn about the purchasers’ behavior and buying pattern. The author tar- gets selected prospects and send them the questionnaire after that monitor their response pattern. 1.3 Thesis structure The thesis is designed in a comprehensive manner so as to enable the reader to precisely understand the subject starting with problems and research clearly de- fined. In the first part, vital digital marketing concepts are well-explained to establish a solid foundation to apply in the empirical part. For this part, “Digital Marketing Ex- cellence: Planning, Optimizing and Integrating Online Marketing” by Dave Chaffey was immensely used to define the concept of digital marketing, digital planning, SEO, Digital display ad, social media marketing and ROI. The empirical part has unveiled the research questions by applying qualitative research method with an interview with the founder of the store and a questionnaire sent to several online 12 users who are intrigued by online shopping. In the last part, all points are summed up to support the premise research questions. c I. Introduction 1. Thesis background 2. Research methodology 3. Thesis structure II. Theoretical framework 2.1 Fundamental digital marketing concepts What is digital marketing? Digital marketing plan SEO 2.2 SWOT Analysis 3.1 Market Analysis 3.1.1 Blooming Grace Swot analysis 3.2 Aligning digital marketing strategy 3.2.1 SEO 3.2.2 Digital Display Ad 3.2.3 Social media marketing 3.3.3 Improve customer experience III. Empirical study Digital display Ad Social media marketing ROI (Return on investment) 15 Such an approach requires a long-term plan that can provide a roadmap to guide digital marketing activities for 18 months to three years. While many organizations produce longer-term plans say of three to five years, it is important to consider that digital environments are highly dynamic and operational plans should aim to pro- mote strategic agility. (Chaffey, 2015) Due to length restricted and time constrained, this bachelor mainly focuses on the situation analysis and tactics since this brand is just at a start-up phase. 2.1.3 SEO Search engine optimization, or SEO, has come to be a massive priority for most marketers throughout the past couple of decades. It is an organic way of attracting quality and quantity of traffic of a website and obtaining high ranking in various search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo etc. “The competition for online attention should never be underestimated. If one is in a competitive business vertical, be it travel, finance, gambling, web design, property, Figure 1: The SOSTAC planning framework applied to digital marketing strategy development (Source: Chaffey and Smith (2012)) 16 or any number of others, the fight for traffic from the search engines is cut-throat” – Shreves, 2012 explained how harsh the online marketing environment seems to be. According to David (2011), “SEO has several close relatives. SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is a broader term that refers to SEO as well as paid-search placement, contextual advertising, and paid-inclusion advertising. It is also important to think of SEO as including "conversion optimization" the study and practice of improving the conversion of visitors to customers after they visit a web page.” While Google is undeniably the most popular search tools worldwide, constituting 70% of the search market share, there are also alternatives search engines such as Bing, Baidu and Yahoo. In order to improve the visibility of a website on a search engine to generate more sales, a keyword should be thoroughly chosen. “It is true that (generically speaking) optimizing keywords means driving visitors to our website, but in the case of an e-commerce website, the end goal— the true justification of any SEO campaign— must be increasing the number of sales. We must then make sure that our visitors not just visit our website but visit with the intention of buying something.” (Kent, 2014) Figure 2: Search Engine Ranking (Hubspot, 2018) 17 With what being said, four vital factors are suggested by Fishkin (2007) when deter- mining a highly-effective SEO keywords to drive more leads for a business. Navigational keywords are generated for a particular website which shows navigational intent. For example, one was given a link of a form to register for a Seamk Graduation Ceremony, but he/she accidentally deleted it, he/she can search on Google with the keyword “Seamk graduation registration” with the first result being the most desired one. It is very unlikely that the user will click on any other links rather than the reg- istration link. Needless to say, this type of keyword is not beneficial to e-commerce websites since it only responses to the search a single result. Informational keyword – The “how-to” formulated headlines are categorized as the informational keywords. Typically, this keyword will lead the user to an answer to a question. For example, one wants to learn to bake a cake. She will search for it under the phrase “how to bake a cake”. In this case, not only one result is clicked by the finder, but there are also substitute results showcase how to bake a cake as Keyword Strategy Navigational Informational Investigational Transactional Figure 3: Effective way to choose keywords for SEO 20 “Display and banner ads are most effective when you leverage the channel in a way that makes sense for both your business' specific goals and the tone of native site or platform. Display ads are not limited to just banner ads, they have also moved into search engines and social networks." Figure 6: Worldwide digital Ad Spend (Source: PwC Outlook) Figure 5: ON A SCALE OF 1-5, WHERE 1 IS ‘NOT AT ALL CONFIDENT’ AND 5 IS ‘EXTREMELY CONFIDENT’, HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU IN YOUR ORGANI- ZATION’S ABILITY TO MEASURE THE FOLLOWING? (Source: Econsultancy & Adobe, 2018) 21 Organizations that are confident in measuring their return on digital ad spend are nearly twice as likely as their peers to have exceeded their 2017 business goals by a significant margin (29% vs. 15%). This gap is even more evident for those that are confident in measuring their ROI for digital marketing programs (30% vs. 14%). (Econsultancy, 2018) Types and formats of display advertising It goes without saying that display advertising includes all of the visual method to get a marketing message across ranging from videos, graphics, banners, sidebars, logos, and photos. As a study conducted by James, D. & Daniel, L., n.d indicates that online ads can vary substantially in their graphical format. The simplest ads are text ads, which are fully described by a string of words, the color and size of the characters, and the dimensions of the ad’s bounding text box. These ads allow only the most basic in- teractivity: the viewer can click on the ad and be transported to the advertiser’s web site or, more specifically, the ad’s “landing page. Nevertheless, (Simon, 2016) has pointed out the most commonly used ad formats are banners. These have many sizes and are constantly evolving to cope with new screen sizes and resolutions, new devices and also new ways to entice and capture the attention of web users. • In-page banner adverts: these are the banner adverts that are ubiq- uitous around the web. They come in a variety of sizes and need. These adverts can also be highly customizable to what an individual user has seen or done. In-page ad banners are typically animated and designed to build to specifications laid down by the Internet Ad- vertising (IAB). • In-page rich media: these are in-page adverts that have much more functionality or content than a standard banner. The most common examples are: - Video adverts: where a full video can play inside the ad cre- ative. - Expandable adverts: where the ad expands to take up more (or all) of the web page if the user interacts with it. These 22 interactions can be a mouse-over (hover) for a period of time or a click. - Data capture: adverts where the user can submit their email address to sign up for a newsletter or receive a reminder of a product launch date. - Live information: such as prices of an airline route or re- maining stock levels for a heavily discounted or extremely popular product, which can be piped into ad creative from product feeds and point of sale (POS) system. - Mobile ad unit: these can also take control of some of the phone’s features and sensors such accelerator and camera, which could be used to personalize or provide an element of gamification to an advert. • In-stream: this is video creative that plays before, during or after video content on the web. • Skippable video: the skippable format results in users watching the ad who truly are interested in it. Figure 6 reveals the data, from Global Web Index, indicates that if appeals for white- listing are to have an impact among this audience, then the digital advertising they are exposed to should be strictly focused on their favourite content types.) (Ne- timperative, 2018) 25 To run a successful business, an innovative and well-designed social media marketing plan is indispensable with their core strategic development plan. It has also become an important player in today’s economy and marketplace. According to a recent research report, 90% of marketers want to engage their consumers with social media, and believe social media plays an important role in their business and marketing strategies (Stelzner, 2014). Figure 10: Social media and their uses (Coles, 2014) Figure 9: Four stages of SMM 26 “Implementing an effective social media strategy for your business is imperative to the success of a social media campaign, and the only way to build and sustain relationships with customers is to listen to them.” (Dodson, 2016) More importantly, in the implement phase, creating engagement is central to the effective use of social technology and the creation of social business. The move beyond consumption is an important realization in the development of social busi- ness: Content, consumption without a direct consumer/audience role in creation – think TV, radio, print – print is an interactive but not necessarily social approach to building a successful business. In a content-driven interactive media site, the con- tent is the draw and the consumption of it is the primary activity. In a social applica- tion, the content still matters – no one wants to hang out in a vacuum – but the interactions and conversations that the content enables between member take cen- ter stage. Below are effective methods to accelerate engagement for SMM. • Curation: it is the act of sorting and filtering, rating, reviewing, com- menting on tagging, or otherwise describing content. Curation makes content more useful to others. For example, when someone creates a book review, the hope is that review will become the basis for a sub- sequent purchase decision. However, the review itself is only as good as the person who wrote it, and only as useful as it is relevant to the person reading it. This is what curation enables. By seeing not only the review but also “the reviews of the reviewers” or other information about the person who created the review, the prospective buyer is in a much better position to evaluate the applicability of that review given specific personal interests or needs. • Creation – generally recognized as “content creation”, driving content creation is a simple underlying theme: People like to share what they are doing, talk (post) about the things that interest them generally be recognized for their own contributions within the larger community. Reputation management – a key element in encouraging social inter- action – is based directly on the quantity and quality of the content created and shared by individual participants. 27 • Collaboration – it occurs naturally between members of the community when given a chance. Blogging is a good example. Numerous exam- ples will be found from different posts, reinterpreted by readers through comments – that flow off to a new conversation between the blogger and the readers. Bloggers often adapt their “product” on-the- fly based on the inputs of the audience like “comment below your fa- vorite something” or “tell us more about something in the comment” (Evans & Mckee, 2010) 2.1.6 ROI Investopedia describes ROI as the following: “A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to com- pare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate ROI, the ben- efit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.” (Investopedia, 2015) Social Media Return on Investment (ROI) is a direct subset of the marketing perfor- mance discourse. With the emergence of online and social technologies, perfor- mance tracking has become a standard requirement in all digital marketing (Tuten 2008; 10; 25-26). Indeed, as the potential of social media as a marketing outlet is viewed very promising, Social Media ROI has developed into a significant topic for marketers globally (Weinberg & Berger 2011). The equation for ROI is given as: Social ROI isn’t just about assigning dollars to social media, it’s about answering the next order questions. How do we connect social engagement to site traffic, conver- sion, customer lifetime value, and loyalty? How do we leverage social signals to drive marketing actions through our entire marketing process? How do we identify the people who truly impact our business via social media? ROI is not just about measuring the past but also, more importantly for the marketer, providing insights to improve marketing actions in the future. Measuring the past within the media engagement framework can provide good insights for improve- ment, but these must also be understood in context of why individuals participate in social media. Understanding these motivations will then allow marketers to make significantly better decisions for the future given the highly dynamic nature of social 30 Currently, there are several problems facing the online store including strategic ap- proach, performance improve process, management buy-in, resourcing and struc- ture, data and infrastructure, integrated customer communication and integrated customer experience, which result in unstable business. Thus, the author of this thesis has made an overall analysis on the current situation of the online store fol- lowed by general suggestions to improve the capacity for a successful business. The store owner, therefore, is entitled to use this as a reference in his business. However, in this bachelor thesis, the author only focuses on strategy approach, which is closely linked to digital marketing activities to deal with customer commu- nication and customer experience. With regards to the strategic approach to run the business as a whole, barely does the Blooming Grace know how to prioritize its marketing activities at this phase. Hence, in this thesis the author suggests a couple of practical marketing strategy to foster the brand awareness to broader customers, plus to build a cost-efficiency and effective communication channels to customers using social media as well as to create satisfactory customer experience. 31 3.1.1 Blooming Grace SWOT analysis Strengths Strengths are an internal assessment of the product's attributes that give it an ad- vantage over other products. There are many plant products sold on the market, but their originality is unclear. Every plant sold at Blooming Grace comes with the tag including the information about ingredients of fertilizer, time of planting, plants his- tory and methods of watering. Additionally, the buyers’ names can be carved on the pot if they want to. Also, if the buyers do not buy plants for themselves but buy them as a gift, the store is able to customize according to the receivers’ preferences. Moreover, the owner of the store is self-employed with the support from family mem- bers, thus there is no need to hire more staff to run the business. Weaknesses By the same token to strengths, the weaknesses component of the SWOT analysis is an internal assessment of the product's attributes that place it at a disadvantage Strengths Blooming grace enjoys skillfull planting techniques inherented from family tradition => high quality products Low operational cost Customizable with unique designs Weaknesses Start-up obstacles Constrained budget Easily-imitated products Limited access to advanced tech Opportunities Moderate weather suitable for nurturing plants Unlimited target market Threats Competitive market Risk of an economic crisis Figure 11: SWOT analysis of Blooming Grace 32 when compared to alternatives. On the one hand, the products can be easily imi- tated as nothing will prevent rivals from presenting the same products. On the other hand, the business is built from scratch with little knowledge about dynamic future technology, hence it takes a lot time and efforts to make the business well-rounded. Opportunities Opportunities are usually external to the product and they can range from partner- ships to new markets. As stated earlier, the distinctive geographical feature of Vi- etnam enables the owner to grow healthy plants at fast pace. Besides, the brand can exploit new and big market all year round without any barriers for this type of products, especially on special occasions when there is high demand to gift other people. Threats Threats are typically external factors impacting the product. These threats are the obstacles facing the business and what could adversely affect the product in the future. As new market and retailer are joining, fraud and scandal are also increasing, which likely leads to brand damaging. Also, the durability of plastic plants will eliminate the need for real plants. It is also worth mentioning that Vietnam is also a part of the world economy, it is inevitable to be affected by its neighbors’ and partners’ eco- nomic scenario in the event of global economic crisis. 3.2 Aligning digital marketing strategy Digital marketing is the uprising field in the all the industries. The online world is ever changing and ever expanding, to keep up with all the latest trends for the Blooming Grace’s business to strive to its fullest potential, a number of selected digital mar- keting methods are exposed to conduct this empirical research. 3.2.1 SEO To obtain more customers for the online store, SEO – Google Adwords is taken into consideration for SEO tactic. Since Google is the largest and most common search engine in the world, the store will able to present its advertisement in front of users 35 Missing meta description Figure 15: "Blooming Grace" content optimization 36 On the other hand, a critical error is recognized at the meta description of the web- site. Subsequently, the absence of the meta description can impact the search en- gine optimization efforts to a large extent. As anticipated, this particular piece of descriptive information plays a significant part in the user’s engagement. Since us- ers often study the outline and decide whether they want to click on the entire webpage or not, a good meta description enables the store to improve its click- through-rate and larger number of the visitors arriving from the search. Figure 16: Google Speed Score 37 Page speed is also an important factor in search engine ranking and overall site success. This online page takes longer than 5 seconds to load and therefore can lose up to 50% users. At this point, a faster webpage is proposed for higher traffic, better conversions and increased sales over the slower loading pages. Furthermore, analysis is not merely about applying Google Analytics for the website, it also involves daily monitoring to measure certain indicators and thereby adopting proper direction to improve the desired conversion rate for Blooming Grace’s web- site, to which the success is measured by three fundamental measurement meth- ods: Performance Channel Tracking: measurement about the amount of traffic coming from each channel, which channel generates more customers, and which channel earns the highest conversion rate? Audience Response Tracking: measurement about users’ response when they are online such as their duration of browsing the website, on which section do they decide to exit the website, and which pages they have gone through before conver- sion occurs. User Behaviour Tracking: measurement about the users’ behavior through the use of effective tools such as heatmap, which allows the owner of the website know where the audiences hover their mouse on the site, where they click and where they scroll the site to? 3.2.2 Digital display Ad Like most of the worldwide recognizable brands, in today’s world where most of the information is accessed online, it seems quite apparent that if Blooming Grace wants to be more tangible, it should implement digital display ad to promote itself to reach a wider range of customers. While there are many techniques as to how can Bloom- ing Grace get good traffic on a site, this tactic is introduced to build more brand awareness to the store. 40 the target, the higher the marketers should bid in the campaign. The author pro- poses carrying out an analysis on the cost for this type of campaign. Table 1: Google display network budget estimation using google analytics On the positive side, in total, the estimated cost for the digital is €360 for 550.000 targeted-impressions. Campaign CPC bid Impressions in the last 30 days Costs Clicks Cost per impression Cost per click Anyone who view the ads €0.06 supposing 122,912 €30.94 410 €0.000 €0.08 Anyone who clicked the ad but not take any action €0.50 33,498 €14.64 35 €0.000 €0.42 Anyone who visited the land- ing page but did not sign up €1.00 288,658 €204.80 234 €0.001 €0.88 Anyone who visited, signed up and browsed the products €2.00 108,211 €108,211 83 €0.001 €1.34 553,279 €358,591 1441 €0.01 €2,72 41 3.2.3 Social media marketing Social Media has emerged as a powerful digital tool for “Blooming Grace” to impact the buyer’s decision to a great extent. As businesses seek for methods to fuel their returns, Social Media Marketing never fails to capture better attention and kindle new customer relations. To improve the current marketing channel for better social engagement, a few recommendations are advocated with Facebook and Instagram being the two largest social media platforms for Vietnamese users, hence the de- velopments of only two mentioned channels are emphasized in this thesis. It is worth mentioning that social media heavily concentrates on content, Blooming Grace must ensure that its content resonates with audience, and content should be in the ratio of 80:20 for organic versus promotional. To produce organic content, Blooming Grace is reckoned to opt for a mix of casual, inspiring and educational content. The best forms are quotes, visuals and blog posts. Simultaneously, for promotion (paid content), creativity is the key element, for which the readers feel a strong relation when reading the posts. With what being said, the author of this thesis suggests building contents around a trend, favorable of a dignified cause, or showing a testimonial from a satisfied client. It is also im- portant to remember that 80% percent of the content should always be organic. Moreover, Blooming Grace needs a social media marketing plan as a more detailed guide for implementing the strategy over a period of time. Picture 1: Blooming Grace Facebook page 42 In addition to the social media planning calendar, there are many social media man- agement tools available on the market that can help Blooming Grace with this. The author suggests Agorapulse.com which allows the channel to keep the posts organ- ised and scheduled. It is easy for Blooming grace to get client approvals on this platform and it even evaluates the posts’ performance. It is an all-around great tool with multipurpose functions. . Figure 16: Social Media Planning 45 The return on investment for Facebook campaign is projected to be over 100%, which specifically means for each euro invested, “Blooming Grace will earn 1.2 euro. 3.3 Improve customer experience through email and social media In order to satisfy, grow, and retain its customer bases, Blooming Grace must en- sure that every interaction it has with its buyers meet or exceed these growing ex- pectations. Good customer experience should be delivered to all new, existing and potential customers. Although "good" services involve multiple aspects, fast re- sponse time is an important component for Blooming Grace since today's customers are used to getting what they want quickly. Speed is one of the cornerstones of excellent customer support. It enables the buyer to proceed smoothly from the initial contact to sale and solve the problem in time when they arise. The first and foremost consideration for Blooming Grace is to sort and prioritize the emails that it received. Labels allow it to classify and prioritize incoming messages. Create folders to quickly organize support messages based on the type of query. Examples of categories that it can label include inquiry, fraud products, returns, VIP customers, and shipping problems. Additionally, it can create response template to cut the response time in commonly- asked matters including plant returns, cancellations, logistics and refunds. Another useful technique is automation, given that all customers need to know that their email has been received and that help is in progress, negative emotions start to appear when their concerns, problems or complaints are ignored and may affect long-term relationship with customers. An adept way to solve this problem is to reply automatically on social media sites or email to let the customers know that Blooming Grace has acknowledged their inquiries. Furthermore, customers need answers an- ytime, anywhere. In fact, Forrester Group's research found that 41% of customers hope to get a reply within six hours. Customer support strategies that include mobile access will make it easier to support buyers on weekends and holidays. A timely Total cost of the campaign 250€ ROI ((750–250)/250) * 100= 125% 46 response reduces negative feedback and puts Blooming Grace in the right position for the 24-hour response guide. Last but not least, the author recommended adding FAQs (Frequently-Asked Ques- tions) section on the website since it strengthens the customers experience while visiting the website. It is worth noticing that when constructing a FAQs section for the page, grouping questions together by category, such as “Pricing and Payment” “Return Policies” with striking headlines will encourage the buyers to understand the information more easily and obtain more trusts from them. In like manner, it is very likely that customers are not able to know all the questions they are looking for, hence the FAQs will allow them to explore more questions they are not aware of thereby preceding future uncertainty about the plants they want to purchase. Also, it is important to note that these FAQs section must be updated on a regular basis. A vivid example for Blooming Grace’s FAQs should be: Return policies 1. I want to return my purchase what do I do? 2. I would like to return a gift that was sent to me. How do I do that? 3. Can I exchange my order instead of returning it? Pricing and Payment 1. Do you accept international credit cards? 2. What forms of payment do you accept 3. What can cause my order to be delayed? 4. How can I track my order and payment? Shipping 1. How long will it take for my order to arrive after I make the payment? 2. What shipping options are available (overnight, standard, international, domestic only, etc.), 3. How much each shipping method will cost for me? IV. RESULT ANALYSIS 47 The survey was sent out to 39 people and the total number of completed responses was 39. In other words, the completion rate of the survey was 100%. The author targets selected prospects and monitor their response pattern. 4.1 Response and respondent demographics Figure 18 presents the age distribution of 39 respondents in the survey. The ma- jority of respondents are from 18 to 28 years old, accounting for 64.10% of the to- tal. Only 1 respondent is over 50 years old. Respondents are comprised of 64.10% of female and 35.9% of male. Figure 18: Survey-Age Group 50 Interests on owning a plant for homes and offices have been recorded based on the 4th question in the figure 21 – “Have you ever thought of owning a plant?” of the survey. More than a half of respondents said that they want to own a plant for their homes and offices, which is a very useful piece of information to the owner of the store. The results of figure 22 are based on question 5th in the questionnaire asking for what respondents think about having the plants placed at some corner in their cozy houses. “Healthy” and “colorful” are the answer of 15 respondents, compris- ing of 38.46% of the total. This is an absolutely a brilliant sign for succulent mar- ket. “Space intensive” are the second thought on having a plant for their homes. There is apparently a big gap between the positive versus negative thoughts such as “time-consuming” or “expensive” about the having a plant, accounting for only 2.56% of the total. Figure 21: Thoughts on having a plant in their homes 51 Figure 23 shows results based on the 7th question, figuring out how many plants that respondents want to have in their own houses. In order for the respondents easily answer the question, the author has decided to categorize the plants into 3 groups including house plants, flowers and culinary plants (herbs). Flowers are the highest selection for house plants, with 37 respondents want to have at least 3 flowers plants in their houses. Closely followed by house plants from 35 survey participants, who also want 3 house plants on the average for their homes. Sur- prisingly, only 33 people want to have culinary plants for their homes as they are time-consuming to take care of as well as they are not used for decorative pur- poses as mentioned in the “Colorful” thoughts about owning a plant. Figure 22: How many indoor plants / flowers / herbs do you own in your house? (Please type the number next to your answers) 52 Figure 23: What prevents people from buying more plants or any plants at all? Figure 24 points out why people do not want to buy a plant, based on the 8th ques- tion in the questionnaire. The most critical reasons opted by 20.51% respondents are “lack of interest” and “lack of space”. As discussed above, millennials are largely students and basic labour and as a result, are renting homes instead of buying ones, they therefore think space will take a lot of space in their homes. At this point, the strategy is to post more plants photos to prove that having a plant is one of the easies ways to stimulate a greener space for their homes. Conse- quently, the more photos of plants they see the more interest they have for having a plant. “Lack of knowledge” and “lack of time” are the second key reason for hav- ing a plant for their homes, made up 15.38% of the whole. 55 answer aforementioned research questions in the first part of the thesis. Nonethe- less, in order to achieve the assigned marketing objectives, a few things shall be reflected in response to the empirical part. First and foremost, the detection of a critical error existing on the current website is extremely useful to the store. Sec- ondly, the SEO implementation allows Blooming Grace to leverage the brand aware- ness to potential customers who are looking to nurture plants for their homes. There- after, digital display ad will enable it to reach more customers and drive more traffic to the website. Similarly, the constant update of eye-catching customers’ feedbacks on social media will draw more attention from other users. These steps need to be accurately executed and continuously monitored to meet the defined goals. The quality of Blooming Grace’s social media channel is also improved by suggested integrated digital system and a specified plan in the long term. Satisfactory customer experience is guaranteed by responsible real-time response. As a consequence, all of these will lead to an increase in the store’ turnover in the next business year. From the author’s perspective, this thesis has provided a prac- tical insight on how to market a product in this digital age to the owner of the store. Unfortunately, with limited access to data privacy, the author is not able to analyze the actual analysis of the campaign such as the number of people who clicked on the advertisements and where they mainly appear on the network, which negatively influenced the outcome of the thesis on the aspect of measuring the success of each campaign. Nevertheless, findings on various knowledge related digital marketing strategy has enriched the study journey of the author. For further profound research, the author suggests conducting on metrics to measure effectiveness of different campaign. This thesis is served as a fundamental background for any start-up online store to carry out online marketing activity. 56 BIBLIOGRAPHY Bereznak, A. (2018). Consider the Cactus: How Succulents Took Over Instagram—and Then the World. Retrieved from https://www.theringer.com/tech/2018/5/22/17374708/consider-the-cactus- how-succulents-took-over-instagram-and-then-the-world Mark, K. (2018). 8 Secrets to Choosing Highly-Effective SEO Keywords. Retrieved from https://blog.kulturekonnect.com/8-secrets-to-choosing-highly-effective- seo-keywords Carly, S. (2015). 20 Display Advertising Stats That Demonstrate Digital Advertising's Evolution. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/:marketing/horrifying-display-advertising-stats Clifford, C. (2018). Online Advertising: Everything You Need to Know in 2019. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/online-advertising Dave, C. & PR. S. (2017). Digital Marketing Excellence: Planning, Optimizing and Integrating Online Marketing (5th ed.). New York : Routledge. Simon, K. (2016). Digital Marketing Strategy: An Integrated Approach to Online Mar- keting (Vol. 1st edition). London: Kogan Page Linda, Cole. (2014). Marketing with Social Media: 10 Easy Steps to Success for Business. John Wiley & Sons Australia, Limited Ian, D. (2016). The Digital Marketing Playbook: The Definitive Guide to Creating Strategic, Targeted, and Measurable Online Campaigns. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken 57 Shreves, R. (2012). Joomla! Search Engine Optimization: Drive People to Your Web Site with This Supercharged Guide to Joomla! and Search Engine Optimiza- tion. Packt Publishing. Michael, D. (2011). WordPress 3 Search Engine Optimization: Optimize Your Web- site for Popularity with Search Engines. Packt Publishing Ryan, D. (2016). Understanding Digital Marketing: Marketing Strategies for Engag- ing the Digital Generation (Vol. Fourth edition). Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page. Dave, E. (2010). Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engage- ment. Sybex. Warfvinge, H. (1993). Forestry in Vietnam: An Introductory Guide. Ministry of For- estry, Hanoi.[Online]. Available at: https://www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl/actueel/nieuws/2018/04/23/flower-industry- in-vietnam 2018 Digital Trend. Adobe. [Online]. Available at:https://www.adobe.com/con- tent/dam/acom/en/modal-offers/pdfs/0060629.en.aec.whitepaper.econsultancy- 2018-digital-trends-US.pdf Flower industry in Vietnam. Nieuwsbericht | 23-04-2018. [Online]. Available at: https://www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl/actueel/nieuws/2018/04/23/flower-industry- in-vietnam Chiến, N. (2013). Một số nhận định về thị trường cây cảnh tại Việt Nam năm 2016. [Online]. Available at: https://www.brandsvietnam.com/congdong/topic/1769-Mot- so-nhan-dinh-ve-thi-truong-cay-canh-tai-Viet-Nam-nam-2016 https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3210317?hl=en What will the Succulent Plants Market size is in 2028 and what will the growth rate be? 1(1) APPENDIX 1. How to add appendices What is driving this Succulent Plants Market? What are the challenges to Succulent Plants Market growth? Who are the key vendors in this Succulent Plants Market space? What are the Succulent Plants Market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Succulent Plants Market key vendor? 1(3) APPENDIX 1. Survey Questions Buying plants/succulents for home/offices This survey is carried out as an essential component to complete a bachelor thesis on the study of "digital marketing planning" for an online store which of- fers a variety of decorative plants for homes and offices. Your participation shall remain anonymous and the data collected from this will only be used in this re- search. If you have any questions and comments regarding the survey, do not hesitate to contact me at quyen.pham@seamk.fi Your participation is truly appreciated! 1. What is your age? 18 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 44 45 to 54 55 to 64 65 to 74 75 or older 2. What is your gender? Female Male 3. How often do you purchase something impulsively? Always Most of the time Sometimes Rarely Never 4. Which of these do you primarily purchase online? (Select all that apply.) Health Care Personal Care Home Maintenance Lawn and Garden 1(3) Travel Planning None of the above 5. Have you ever thought of owning a plant/succulent for your homes or offices? Yes No 6. Which of these words best sum up your thoughts on keeping plants in the home? Time consuming Healthy Expensive Dirty Colorful Interactive Space intensive Other 7. How many indoor plants / flowers / herbs do you own in your house? (Please type the number next to your answers) House plants: Flowers: Culinary plants (herbs): 8. What prevents you from buying more plants or any plants at all? Lack of interest Lack of knowledge about plants (environment, season, etc.) Lack of knowledge about plant maintaining (watering, food, etc.) Too expensive Lack of space Lack of time Other 9. Rank in order, the procedure you would take in purchasing a plant. (Please rank from 1 to 4: 1 being the first procedure you would take in purchasing a plant) Browse in store, buy in store Browse online, buy in store Browse online, buy online Browse in store, buy online