Digital Marketing Strategy Proposal

 

 

The company I audited for the previous work was Boohoo, and for the strategy proposal, I chose to try and improve upon two of their features, the first being Boohoo’s paid searches, or their lack of using it. Then we move onto the bounce rate and strategizing how to lower that. I have tried to simplify it through the use of the diagram. In the later stages of this process, I shall be using the SOCTAS framework to talk through the individual steps and targets to be achieved.

Pay-per-click marketing is a method of advertising on search engine results pages. Basically, you bid to have your ads appear in the sponsored results when someone types in a query including your keywords (Kim, 2017). This is something which Boohoo has very little of, and is an area I feel they could see vast improvements if they make some investments.

When a user (e.g., customer, prospect, or reader) visits your site on any page (known as an entrance page) and leaves without visiting other pages on the same domain, it is a bounce (Patel, 2016). This could be down to the website not being engaging enough, or the home page not enticing the consumer enough that they want to carry on deeper into the website. Once the website is fully effective, the bounce rate in theory will be lower, and the customer conversion rate should be higher.

 

When we examine Boohoo in terms of a successful company, an immediate close competitor springs to mind. Asos are another UK based online fashion retailer, so comparisons are easy to draw between them. When it comes to search marketing, they use a different models to each other, and ASOS have been a much more dominant firm when it comes to market share/ sales etc. When looking at Boohoo’s paid searches, they have very minimal website traffic from paid searches, bringing in only 2% meaning they don’t partake very much. Looking at the stats, about 21% of ASOS’ traffic comes from it (Similar web, 2017), with keywords bringing up their page on a google search. The difference in size between the two companies cannot be fully attributed to this one channel, however with Boohoo at 15 million total visits and ASOS sitting comfortably on 73 million (IBID), there must be vast differences somewhere. This could be a tactic which Boohoo may want to incorporate, as ASOS is their main competitor, but in terms of business ASOS are miles ahead. With the internet being such a prevalent thing in today’s society, I feel that they should employ more paid searches, as their whole business is online.

Secondly, their bounce rate is very high, at 31%, something which they could definitely work on improving. By updating their homepage, they may appeal to some new people, and be able to capture a wider audience, but that is only if they feel their needs have been tailored for. There is not as big of a difference between the two competing firms in this, and it may be a feature of the industry, however with added interaction for the users, I feel they could bring this figure down. With a lower bounce rate, it theoretically means the site will have a higher conversion rate, and in turn Boohoo will bring in more revenue from sales.

Overall, I think the Boohoo have a solid strategy, which is currently working for them, as they are still bringing in around 15 million visits monthly. When compared with other larger firms like ASOS however, there is a vast difference in their size, and at first glance the websites do not look noticeably different. However, with higher paid searches, a lower bounce rate topped off with a large social media following, I feel it would be a wise move for Boohoo to implement changes in these areas to unleash their true potential.

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Kim, L. (2018). SEO vs. PPC: When to Use Organic Search, When to Use Paid Search | WordStream. Wordstream.com. Retrieved 28 January 2018, from https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2010/08/19/seo-vs-ppc

Patel, N. 13 Ways to Reduce Bounce Rate and Increase Your Conversions. Neil Patel. Retrieved 28 January 2018, from https://neilpatel.com/blog/13-ways-to-reduce-bounce-rate-and-increase-your-conversions/

SimilarWeb. (2018). Boohoo Traffic Statistics. Retrieved 25 January 2018, from https://www.similarweb.com/website/boohoo.com#alsoVisited

Blog Post 2 – Investigating a channel

Blog Post 2 – Investigating one of the channels

Gregory Crowther

 

The channel which I am going to be investigating in this case, will be ‘Social media marketing’ within the fashion retail industry. In recent times, social media has become a massive part of our day to day lives, with most people having accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and more. This global usage gives way to opportunities, as now there is an audience all around the world which your products can reach.

‘Social media creates the possibility in marketing to move from blasting our messages to interacting with our prospects’ (Evans, 200?). What this means is that, rather than on a billboard or advert on the TV, they have space to advertise their products over social media. However, with the other forms of advertising it is a strictly one sided thing, on social media it allows the customers to interact with the company itself, which gives them somewhere to voice their opinion on the service/products. ‘Allows customers and prospects to communicate directly to your brand representative or about your brand with their friends’ (Vinerean, 2013). This is another argument for the case of social media, as people already use it to communicate with their friends, so when there is a new product they like, it can be shared over social media, and from there, and word of mouth can take it even further.

 

‘Two of the exceptions are Distribution and Energy firms, which adopted on average less than one application’ (Culnan, 2010). This is an indicator that marketing over social media is not fool proof, and there are obviously instances where it is not necessarily a good addition. For energy firms for example, the product is not varied from customer to customer, meaning there is a lack of things for most customers to talk about, and overall it has a wider base of business customers. However, this varies industry to industry, as with fashion retail I feel it is much more prominent. The industry as a whole attracts a generally young adult audience, who are the main users of social media, so it would appear that the two go hand in hand.

Boohoo, the online fashion retailer with an army of 16 to 24-year-old fans, has nearly doubled its profits, helped by paying celebrities and other “influencers” to promote its products on Instagram (Neate, 2017). What the firms will do in situations like this, is pay public figures to showcase their products to their fans, who tend to be in the retailers target audience anyway, which builds traction for the products, as people seem more likely to trust something if somebody they follow promotes it.

 

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Source: The Guardian (Neate, 2017)

One of the main elements for social media being such an important part of a companies’ marketing these days, is that it provides them with no just another platform to promote, but also gives somewhere else for them to receive feedback. Almost all companies will have a ‘live chat’ or customer contact station, however social media essentially gives them a forum for customers to interact with themselves and one another. ‘Finally, they need to develop absorptive capacity so they can learn from the content their customers generate’ (Culman, 2010). This enforces my previous statement that they must adapt and learn from the feedback generated by the customers, so they are able to change with the times and stay on the ball, providing exactly what the customers are looking for.

 

And finally, we come to the conclusion ‘trust and purchase intention were highly related. Customers’ trust was strengthened via interaction with other users as well as brand on social media sites. Trust gained while enjoying entertainment and communication provided on the sites seems to contribute greatly toward a luxury brand’s profit’ (Kim & Ko, 2010). From the research I have been doing into this channel, it is clear that there is a strong correlation between social media emerging, and companies incorporating it into their marketing campaigns. The article by Kim & Ko tells us that when customers gain trust, there is much more intention to purchase, and trust was fuelled by interactions with other users, alongside the websites providing entertainment. The last move in a change toward more social media interaction, would be trying to get customers to discuss their experiences amongst each other, on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Also, if they are active on their social media, posting some things for entertainment, and also things like special offers, they could become even more successful in their overall campaigns.

 

 

 

 

References:

Culnan, M. (2010). Retrieved 7 January 2018, from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mary_Culnan/publication/279893388_How_Large_US_Companies_Can_Use

Evans, D. (2008). Social Media Marketing. Google Books. Retrieved 7 January 2018, from https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=CZcS7JZEqrMC&oi=fnd&pg=PT7&dq=importance+of+social+media+marketing&ots=YZo1gZ_Bgf&sig=1W2KbD1IS5yhdNbllaj_gqPnM5I

Hays, S. (2012). Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use by national tourism organisations. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved 7 January 2018, from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13683500.2012.662215

Kim, A., & Ko, E. (2010). Impacts of Luxury Fashion Brand’s Social Media Marketing on Customer Relationship and Purchase Intention. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved 7 January 2018, from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20932685.2010.10593068

Neate, R. (2017). Fashion retailer Boohoo nearly doubles profit after celebrity Instagram tie-ups. the Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/26/boohoo-profits-nearly-double-celebrities-instagram-online-fashion-retail

Vinerean, S., Cetina, I., Dumitrescu, L., & Tichindelean, M. (2013). The Effects of Social Media Marketing on Online Consumer Behavior. Retrieved 7 January 2018, from http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijbm/article/view/25378