My previous blogs have discussed a variety of digital marketing strategies that are available to organisations to construct. From creating an email marketing campaign to designing a game changing app leaving competitors behind, each digital marketing strategy has its undoubted benefits. But what I want to know is, who has been successful? Having gained an understanding of theory and practice whilst conducting my blogs I want to put it to the test and see which organisations digital marketing strategies I have been positively affected by.

Groupon

With well-designed emails and an increasingly popular app, Groupon have excelled in their digital marketing strategies. I am a regular user of Groupon and believe the business idea is unique and benefits from being personal to consumers. In case you didn’t know, Groupon is an easy way to get huge discounts while discovering fun activities in your city, with daily local deals consisting of restaurants, spas, hotels, massages, shopping vouchers, things to do, and a whole lot more, in hundreds of cities across the world (Groupon, 2015).

E-mail campaign

Once an individual is registered with Groupon users have the option to receive promotions and exclusive deals via email. Personally I am generally one to ‘opt out’ of such facilities however the Groupon email campaigns have been a useful information point for me. The emails are personalised to me, offering exclusive deals in my area based on my previous purchases. The subject line is generally straight to the point and the content of the email is short and sweet. From this I am able to gain quality information, regarding offers that I would not have been aware of otherwise. Of course not every time Groupon send me an email do I purchase I what they have to offer, but generally I open the email to see what the latest offers are. From this I am encouraged to visit their webpage, where a variety of deals are available to purchase, which is essentially the main purpose of an email campaign from an organisations point view.

Mobile app

Further to a successful email marketing strategy Groupon have designed an articulate app that consumers are delighted with. The app is user friendly and regularly updated making experiences of the organisation simple and effective. The app has a variety of categories for consumers to browse, which enables a user to navigate the app easily, tailoring their search to individual needs. I regularly use the app and have (touch wood) never had issues with purchasing products or the availability of items, which encourages me to reuse the facility as often as I can. With the availability of exclusive deals the app provides consumers with unique experiences that the webpage of the business might not be able to offer. I feel this is an effective design feature of the app to encourage user engagement. With 89% of consumer media time in mobile apps (Colwyn, 2014) it is important that an organisation promotes the use of its app on top of their website page and I feel Groupon have definitely addressed this opportunity and the customer review section supports this.

Size? – Social media 

Size? are a global supplier of outstanding footwear and garments by a collection of the world’s best brands (Size, 2015). Size? positively engage with customers on all social media platforms with over 100k followers on Twitter, 120k likes on Facebook but more impressively 459k followers on Instagram and are an account I follow on all three platforms.

Instagram Campaign

The success of the size? Instagram page is not surprising, with the ability to showcase their latest products with exclusive deals on an ever-increasing popular social media platform, Size? truly exploit this opportunity. Over the Christmas period size? ran a digital marketing campaign solely for the Instagram account. The campaign offered followers the chance to enter competitions daily in order to win secret prizes from the store. Each day a new product was placed on Instagram and followers simply had to ‘repost’ the image with a relevant hashtag to be in with a chance of winning.

This campaign really stands out in my mind as one that exploited an opportunity from social media advertising and benefited greatly from doing so. By creating a competition around the Christmas period followers were inclined to share content to their peers and encourage users to visit the shared pages. With consumers looking to buy presents in the festive season anyway, size? ensured their webpage had the maximum exposure possible. The competition was also a way of building the brand image by creating content that was regularly shared by users. Although I didn’t win any of the prizes myself, I shared the competitions posts and regularly visited the company’s webpages on all platforms. I would also state that I have an active relationship with size? as a brand, that has certainly been built and encouraged through positive relations on social media .

Now there are of course a plethora of digital marketing campaigns that have positively affected me but these two organisations were the ones to stand out in my mind in terms of design and user engagement. Groupon utilise the email facility to provide customers with relevant information which encourages traffic to their website and app. Whilst, taking a different approach to digital strategy, size? ensure their social media accounts are relevant, appropriate and engage their followers to ensure a positive relationship is built alongside a strong brand image.

References

Colwyn, S. (2014) ‘New consumer media consumption research – Smart Insights Digital Marketing Advice’,

Groupon INC (2015) Groupon: Deals and Coupons for Restaurants, Fitness, Travel, Shopping, Beauty & more. Available at: http://www.groupon.co.uk (Accessed: 20 April 2015)

size? (@sizeofficial) (no date) Available at: https://twitter.com/sizeofficial (Accessed: 20 April 2015)