The Importance of Acquisition, Conversion, and Retention Tools in Digital Campaigns

To: Sales Director at Playrite From: Marketing Manager at Playrite Subject: Investigation into opportunities for using digital marketing campaign tools to help build new and existing business Date: 30th November 2012 Contents The importance of acquisition, conversion and retention tools in digital campaigns3 Different types of digital marketing campaign tools4 Acquiring new customers4 Converting Sales5 Retaining Customers6 Search Engine Marketing for Acquisition7 Website for Conversion7 Email for Retention8 Appendix9 1:1 Background to Nearlygrass9 :1 Evaluation and measurement of current Nearlygrass website11 3:1 Statistics12 Statement16 Bibliography14 The importance of acquisition, conversion and retention tools in digital campaigns Acquisition, conversion and retention tools are incredibly important in digital campaigns and enable businesses to acquire prospective customers, convert to sales and retain for future purchases. Digital marketing tools support marketing activities aimed at achieving profitable acquisition and retention of customers throughout their lifecycle (Dave Chaffey 2012 [Online]).When digital tools such as email marketing are integrated with more traditional media such as direct mail they form the basis of successful marketing campaigns. Although we are currently in a recession, the contribution of the internet to the economy is growing and will continue to grow at more than 10% annually for the next five years. By 2016 the reach is estimated to top $4. 2 trillion (Economist 2012 [Online]). 80% of households in the UK now have access to the internet with 83% of those adults aged 24-44 years old using the internet daily which is an increase of 21% since 2006 (Office for National Statistics 2012 [Online]) see fig 3. and 3. 3. If Nearlygrass wants to increase awareness of their product range then digital marketing is essential to develop a more interactive and engaging relationship with customers. The internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media. Blogs, online video, news releases, and other form of Web content let organisations communicate directly with buyers (Scott, pg 11, 2010). With a business-to-consumer website like www. nearlygrass. co. k it’s important to acquire individuals who are web savvy, convert them once they are on the website and retain or get a recommendation for the Nearlygrass range to friends and communicate about our products and services online. Different types of digital marketing campaign tools Acquiring new customers What? | How? | Pros| Cons| Search engine marketing| * SEO to optimise www. nearlygrass. co. uk * PPC campaign to drive traffic. | * If the current website can be edited in house, SEO is quick and low cost * Continually improve www. nearlygrass. o. uk by adding new, engaging content * PPC campaigns are fast to set up, amend and can be managed in house to budget. | * If not edited in house, costly and time consuming to change * Some PPC terms are costly * PPC is time consuming, requiring constant research. | Email| * Sending out cold email marketing campaigns * Include details of new content and news. | * Promotes products and drive traffic * Increase engagement and stickiness * Convert into more sample orders/enquiries and sales * Easy to personalise (Chaffey, pg 550, 2009). * Difficult to buy quality list, emails could be classed as spam * Costly to send HTML emails, unless use free service like Mail Chimp. | Online PR| * Publish press releases on relevant websites. | * Grow brand and product awareness alongside USP * Drive traffic to the website by speaking directly to customers, unfiltered by the media (Scott, pg 86, 2010). | * Lots of competitors in current marketplace doing similar things * Time consuming * Costly. | Converting Sales What? | How? | Pros| Cons| Website| * Keep information relevant * Improve sample ordering processes * Clearer calls to actions. * Offer better user experience * Increa se conversions. | * Costly to change website, especially with database and CMS| Copywriting and presentation| * Create easy to understand DIY PDF’s * Create different pages for target audience * Use Google Analytics to determine questions searchers are using to get to the site and answer in weekly blog posts. | * Helpful information is more likely to be shared across the internet on social channels like Twitter (Mashable 2008 [Online]) * Nearlygrass seen as experts in their industry. * Need support from individuals inside organisation * Uploading information is costly if the website can’t be edited in house. * Requires time and know-how. | Customer support| * Live chat facility during office hours to answer questions. | * Relatively cheap to set up * Trace and track users * Prompt conversations * Encourages engagement and enhance user’s experience. | * Requires resources to run and control * Only useful during working hours and needs those with expert knowledge to control and manage. | Retaining Customers What? | How? | Pros| Cons|Customer service| * Feedback questionnaires * SMS to alert when delivery is on way * Order confirmation emails. | * Receive valuable customer feedback * Providing better services through mobile marketing. | * Difficulty getting emails and mobile numbers * Need resources to send and process responses. | Email| * Sending post sale emails with information about installation, maintenance and add-on products. * Email customers whose surfaces are near replacement. | * Increase user experience by offering helpful advice * Up-sell products * Recommend an installer in their area * Get repeat custom. * Could be duplicating information * Need to collect emails during sales process * Need resources to manage. | Referrals| * ‘Recommend to a friend’ * Tweet/upload images to Facebook to be entered into prize draw. | * Previous customers promote Nearlygrass range * Increase social reach * Engage with new customers t hrough previous customers| * Relies heavily on customers and getting them to upload/submit images * Difficult to get convince management into investing in social media (Scott, pg 267, 2010). | Search Engine Marketing for AcquisitionSearch engine marketing is the most important tool for acquiring new customers as it is the most cost effective method for driving traffic to a website. Improvements are needed for www. nearlygrass. co. uk to be found by prospective customers through search engine marketing. If a website isn’t listed in the first few search results, that business is out of the customer’s consideration set and has no chance to make that sale to that customer. Your customers must first find you to learn about your products (Moran & Hunt, pg 20, 2008). Looking at the top ten keywords www. earlygrass. co. uk appears with a ranking 100| grass artificial| 1| 60500| >100| what is artificial grass| 1| 60500| >100| grass artificial grass| 1| 60500| >100| artificial l awns| 1| 49500| >100| synthetic lawns| 1| 49500| >100| astro turf| 0. 8| 49500| >100| grass synthetic grass| 1| 49500| >100| grass synthetic| 1| 49500| >100| synthetic grass| 1| 49500| >100| 2:4 PPC advert example Artificial Grass www. nearlygrass. co. uk/samples UK made. No Watering, No Mowing, No Hassle Get your Free Samples. 2:5 Ranking from Open Site Explorer As you can see the current website gets a low rating in terms of domain and page authority Also the site only has 3 linking root domains. This can be tracked during the project to see what affect the acquisition tools are having on the trust of the site. 2:6 Top competitor sites * www. asgoodasgrass. co. uk * www. evergreenuk. om * www. lazylawn. co. uk * www. easigrass. com 3:1 Statistics 3:2 Households with Internet Access, 1998 to 2012 Households with Internet Access, 1998 to 2012| | Â  | Year| Per cent| 1998| 9| 1999| 13| 2000| 25| 2001| 36| 2002| 42| 2003| 46| 2004| 49| 2005| 55| 2006| 57| 2007| 61| 2008| 65| 2009| 70 | 2010| 73| 2011| 77| 2012| 80| 3:3 Adults who used a computer in the last three months, by frequency of use and age group, 2006 and 2012 Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | | | Daily| | Weekly| | Monthly| | Between 1 – 3 months| Â  | 2006| 2012| Â  | 2006| 2012| Â  | 2006| 2012| Â  | 2006| 2012| 16-24| 63| 82| | 15| 12| | 7| 2| | 3| -| 5-44| 62| 83| | 16| 10| | 4| 2| | 2| 1| 45-54| 56| 71| | 13| 14| | 5| 2| | 3| 1| 55-64| 36| 63| | 17| 13| | 5| 2| | 3| 2| 65 +| 9| 29| | 8| 11| | 3| 4| | 3| 3| All| 45| 67| Â  | 14| 12| Â  | 5| 2| Â  | 3| 1| Base: Adults (aged 16+) in Great Britain| | | | | | | | | – Data too small to display| | | | | | | | | | Bibliography Chaffey, Dave 2012 Digital marketing definition http://www. davechaffey. com/Internet-Marketing/C1-Introduction/E-marketing-Internet-markeitng-%20definition [Online] Accessed 19th September 2012Chaffey, Ellis-Chadwick, Mayer, Johnston (2009) Internet Marketing – Strategy, I mplementation and Practice Pearson Education Limited: Essex Economist 2012 How much does the internet contribute to the economies of G20 countries? http://www. economist. com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/04/daily-chart-2 [Online] Assessed 18th September 2012 Evans, Sarah 2008 HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter http://mashable. com/2008/11/10/twitter-community/ [Online] Accessed 23rd November 2012 Moran and Hunt (2008) Search Engine Marketing, Inc. IBM Press: USA Office for National Statistics 2012 Internet Access – Households and Individuals http://www. ns. gov. uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables. html? edition=tcm%3A77-270031 [Online] Assessed 18th September 2012 Peck, Dave (2011) Think Before You Engage: 100 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Social Media Marketing Campaign Wiley: USA Schachinger, Kristine 2012 How to Write Title Tags For Search Engine Optimization http://searchenginewatch. com/article/2154469/How-to-Write-Title-Tags-For-Search-Engine-Optimization [Online] Accessed 23rd November 2012 Scott, David Meerman (2010) The New Rules of Marketing & PR John Wiley & Sons: New Jersey StatementI confirm that in forwarding this assessment for marketing, I understand and have applied the CIM policies relating to word count, plagiarism and collusion for all tasks. This assignment/project is the result of my own independent work/investigation except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged in the body of the text and/or a bibliography is appended. The work that I have submitted has not previously been accepted in substance for any other award and is not concurrently submitted in candidature for any other award. Total word count: 1,315/1,200