Week 16 Part A: Developing Your Marketing Strategy

Dora Tapioca Crepe social media strategy will be part of our promotional efforts, which will integrate advertising, social media marketing, sales promotion and PR campaigns. Nowadays, every business has some web presence, in the form of a website and accounts/pages in social media platforms. The depth of such presence varies according to the size of the business and the financial resources available to invest. The maintenance of online channels require money, people and time to support a continuous communication with clients and potential customers. Dora Tapioca is a small business company with limited resources. Our online plan is to create a strong web presence with focus on four specific actions:

1) Social media: Facebook and Instagram pages. These social media platforms have immense popularity and most users are part of our target audience. These accounts can make use of more educational posts on how Tapioca Crepes are prepared and the health benefits of a nutrient dense meal. We plan also to add a few hashtags related to the restaurant menu and its proposition to offer a high quality diet, and a few hashtags related to its location. Facebook and Instagram will have links to the restaurant website, where purchases can be made online. The restaurant website will include easily accessible buttons to Facebook and Instagram accounts.

2) A well-designed shop website: Design and aesthetics have a profound impact on how users perceive information, learn, judge credibility and usability, and ultimately assign value to a product. A well-designed website can help form a good impression on prospective customers. It provides good user experience and helps website visitors access and navigate it with ease. Style does not replace substance, but style and substance in balance work much better. Image-rich and food descriptions in a digital menu that try to create in the buyer’s mind the sensation of a delicious meal. An easy to navigate menu for orders, with find-a-store feature and immediate payment solutions. Highlighting the use of organic, fresh and gluten free ingredients that make the product sound healthy.

3) SEO: Search engine optimization alliance with Google (paid ads) and collaboration with the food delivery services available in the restaurant location.

4) Email marketing: Send a biweekly newsletter with suggestions of meals from our menu list, taking in consideration the time of the meal, breakfast, lunch or dinner and the four seasons of the year. Randomly, I would also include coupons and discount campaigns. The email marketing would in fact be part of a loyalty program. Clients would sign up to the program, providing their email to receive our newsletter and special offers. Customers are always attracted to the idea of a bargain, which is a good way to convince customers to return.

The marketing budget for Dora Tapioca Crepe during our first year of operations was proposed based on a projected net profit and target sales amount. This budget will be allocated between the marketing strategies we have deemed most fitting for our casual fast food restaurant: Advertising through social media and Google Ads campaigns and Sales Promotions in the form of event participations, coupon discounts and sampling. Ongoing campaigns on Facebook and Instagram combined with Google Ads campaigns constitute 55% of the budget, while the other 45% will be allocated to events, sampling during events and special discount coupons. 

Week 15 Part B: What We Can Learn from FaceBook Analytics

"Research into how the changes that Apple has made to their privacy practices has impacted FaceBooks ability to collect data to share with their Business customers."

Last year, Apple changed how its mobile operating system that powers the iPhone (iOS), handled users’ privacy preferences. It introduced a new privacy feature, App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which gives more control to iPhone users on whether or not they want to be tracked by advertisers online across apps. This makes it harder for app-makers and advertisers to follow user behavior.

While this may have helped Apple with its aggressive stand on in-app privacy protection, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and others are losing revenue due to the stronger privacy wall that reduces their ability to collect data on users for personalized advertising. Targeted ads are a big source of revenue for social media platforms. 

The feature, first introduced in iOS 14.5, directly affected this business model. ATT makes it tough for them to target users. Facebook’s parent company Meta earlier this year said Apple’s new privacy feature will decrease the social media company’s sales in 2022 by about $10 billion.

Once advertisers realized that it is tough to target users, they started cutting back on their expenses, which meant loss of business for the big tech companies. As per a Financial Times report, Snap, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube saw a revenue loss of an estimated $9.85 billion since Apple’s changes. The revenue fall has hit Facebook the most in absolute terms because of its size.

In the past few months, Meta has initiated a mass layoff that may reduce its workforce by as much as 20,000 employees, nearly 23% of its staff globally, as part of Mark Zuckerberg's plans for a “year of efficiency” in 2023.

Meta recently reported a profit of $7.5 billion for the first quarter of 2023, down 21 percent from a year earlier. The results followed Meta’s dismal financial report in February, when the company also posted falling profits and slowing user growth. The next day, Meta’s stock plummeted 26 percent and its market value plunged more than $230 billion in the company’s biggest one-day wipeout ever. The two quarters were the company’s first back-to-back profit declines in over a decade, a sign of the difficulties it is encountering with a slowdown in online ad spending and increased competition from other social media platforms.

Week 15 Part A: What We Can Learn from Google Analytics

I visited the Google Analytics platform, but my learning experience accessing a business page did not go well. I was not able to properly navigate and generate some insightful data. However, I looked at the information available and how to maximize the benefits of using this tool.

Google Analytics is a web tool that tracks performance and performs in-depth analysis of a business website. It also provides multiple options to follow key metrics to track marketing objectives.

It has a “built-in Automation” feature that provides fast answers to questions about your Analytics data, predict user behavior, and tap into powerful modeling capabilities. By applying Google’s machine-learning models, Analytics can analyze data and predict future actions people may take, like making a purchase. Companies can then create audiences that are predicted to take these actions to drive conversions or retain more users.

Its Reporting feature show at a glance how customers interact with websites and apps. It is easy to navigate and provide in-depth data for analysis and decision-making. To me the most important are:

- Real Time reports: Allow the company to monitor its site or app as it happens.

- Acquisitions reports show how users reach your site or app through different paid and organic sources.

- Engagement reports: Allow a better understanding of what content drives engagement and conversions to the site or app. The three most used reports are:

1. Events Report: Get a detailed view of user actions, system events, or errors.
2. Conversion Report: See how all your marketing channels are working together to drive conversions.
3. Pages and Screen Report: See which web pages and app screens users engage with the most.

 - Monetization reports: Show how much revenue the website or app generates whether it’s from ecommerce, subscriptions, or ads.

1. Ecommerce: Analyze purchase activity including product and transaction information, average purchase revenue, average purchase revenue per user, and other data.
2. In-App Purchases: Improve the app monetization with insights about the highest performing products and subscriptions. 

Week 14: Social Media Management Tools

I did my research based on the recommendations of the Best Social Media Management post. I selected four different tools: Sprout Social (Best Overall), Zoho (Best All-in-One), Buffer (Best Budget), and SocialPilot (Best for Small Teams).

Sprout Social was rated as the best option for businesses based on the number of scheduling tools and analytics it offers, it has a mobile app for iOS and Android, and its paid promotion tools to help companies boost Meta posts. This software supports all the major social media platforms, including Meta, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. One major benefit of Sprout Social is a 30-day free trial with any of its plans. However, after that, all their plans are expensive compared to other options; there are three paid plans to choose from:

• Standard: $249 per month
• Professional: $399 per month
• Advanced: $499 per month

The Professional plan lets you manage an unlimited number of media accounts in one place. It also comes with an all-in-one social box, social content calendar, response rate and time analysis reports, analysis tools for Twitter hashtags, and other valuable tools. With any of its plans, you also get a mobile app to manage your social media accounts on the go. The Standard plan includes many of the features of the Professional plan, yet you can only manage up to five social profiles, among other reduced features.

Zoho was ranked the best all-in-one tool based on the CRM product it offers in addition to social media management software. You can utilize Zoho to store and manage your email, create and oversee products, and take care of accounting all in one place. Zoho also offers comprehensive social media management software that can be purchased separately or integrated for complete all-in-one management. Zoho offers three affordable plans for businesses:

• Standard: $20 per month
• Professional: $35 per month
• Enterprise: $50 per month
• Ultimate: $65 per month

Each plan lets you publish and schedule posts across multiple platforms, access summary reports and analytics. The Standard and Professional plans are limited to one team member, but both plans let you add additional team members or social channels for an additional cost. A free plan with limited functionality is also available. With the free plan, you get access for one team member and the ability to publish multiple posts in one place.

Buffer was rated the best budget option for small businesses with few employees that want to manage social media without a pricey management plan. It offers a free plan that lets one user access three social channels. For an extra $5 per month, a Team Pack upgrade allows for unlimited social channels and unlimited users. The Team pack has a 14-day trial to get started, and all plans let you directly schedule posts on the platform. Other core benefits of Buffer’s plans include a posting scheduling tool, a link shortener tool, and optimization tools for hashtags, tags, and mentions across platforms.

All plans also come with a browser extension, access to a mobile app, two-factor authentication, social media, and email support, and access to the Buffer community. As one of its disadvantages it does not integrate with as many major platforms as competitors. The free plan is also limited to three social profiles. As such, you may need to go for a Team Pack upgrade, which is still the best price compared to others.

SocialPilot was ranked as the best option for businesses that want access to affordable social media software for more than one user. Their most affordable plan is $30 per month. The offer and discount if you pay for one year of usage upfront. They have a 14-day free trial available. Its Small Team plan lets up to three users have access for $50 per month. However, to access this special pricing, you must pay for a year of access upfront after the 14-day trial. Four plans are available:

• Professional: $30 per month (10 social media accounts; 1 users)
• Small Team: $50 per month (20 social media accounts; 3 users)
• Agency: $100 per month (30 social media accounts; 6 users)
• Agency+: $200 per month (50 social media accounts; Unlimited users)

All plans allow the management of a minimum of 10 social media accounts. It comes with features like unlimited scheduling, bulk scheduling, access to social media analytics, a browser extension, and customer support. More expensive plans from SocialPilot let you have more users, oversee more social accounts, manage more Facebook ad accounts, and gain access to special features like client management tools.

Conclusion: It is difficult without any real experience using a social media management platform to express an opinion of the key features required to select one tool versus the others available in the marketplace. From an initial investment/cost perspective and the size of my small fictitious business, it is hard to justify the price asked for Sprout Social. It seems that all other 3 options have similar offerings with relatively small differences in pricing. At this point, I would select Zoho for its unique CRM solution. 

Week 13 Part B: Developing Online Advertising

 

  

I have created three different ads following the recommendations of “how to create and ad” on Meta Business Suite. The objective of the ads was to reach my target audience and make a product sale (fast food) on the restaurant website. I defined the location, the group age and how I wanted to be reached. The three versions are different on how the restaurant converts the sale to customers:

1) Shop now: there is a link to the website, where the customer can access a digital menu, make an order, choose the form of delivery and make a payment, 

2) Get my location – directions to the restaurant address are provided. The customer, who at the time of the post is near the restaurant location, receives an invitation to drive in. 

3) Send a message – this type of ad is directed to those clients who are not used to placing online orders, or prefer to talk and ask questions about the characteristics and ingredients used in the preparation of our meals. 

Another objective was to include some type of special offer, a coupon or discount, for certain products or for orders placed in the hours the restaurant is least busy. Unfortunately, my learning navigation did not get me in this section and how to make such offers available on the posts.  

 

Week 13 Part A: Online Advertising - Analysis of the Marketplace

Lately, my daily social media activities have been almost exclusively at Instagram. I believe their algorithm receives data not only from my navigation in their platform but also from mostly all other sources of navigation and online search. As such, the ads and sponsored posts that appear to me are somehow related to topics of my recent interest. There is customization to my individual preferences. It is natural that such ads have a high potential of being effective and get my engagement. It does feel intrusive at times and an invasion of my privacy. Another problem is that once you show interest in that subject, by clicking on the sponsored link, for example, more and more ads and posts from different sponsors are offered, which at a certain point can become quite annoying.

I think that the traditional media has lost a lot of its power. I barely watch TV and all my news reading is done online, where we can just ignore the ads posted. One exception is still YouTube or free news vehicles, like CNN. To watch their videos, we must wait until the sponsored ad is completed. This can be quite effective, if the message and images are done properly.

Week 12 Part B: Business Specific Tools

I commented on Christian’s, Jessica’s, Anthony’s and Dustin’s posts. 

All my classmates' comments have one thing in common; they all consider Google Applications as the tools that would be the most helpful for their business. It also applies to Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn as social media platforms, which allow their business to connect with potential clients and display their products and expertise through posts and videos. 

I think there are hundreds of online tools for business available on the internet. It is difficult for anyone who is not a technology professional to become familiar with so many alternatives. In the end, most owners and managers of small business companies rely on the most popular tools that are reliable and efficient: Google Applications, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Yelp. Some other popular platforms can be great for more specific target markets, like TikTok. There are also those web-based business tools that offer solutions in specific categories, such as: website building (WIX), marketing (Hootsuite), payment processing (PayPal), branding (Canva) and communication tools (Microsoft Teams).

Week 12 Part A: Using Business Specific Online Tools

In this post, I will try to summarize my findings in the research I did on some online tools for business specific purposes. I will divide it into two sections: the first with the tools that I am familiar with and/or I have already used it for my business or as a client of someone else’s business. Among those are LinkedIn, Google Business, Google Map, Yelp, BandCamp, Spotify and TikTok. The second section is about the other tools that are new to me and I had never heard about it before this class introduction. Snacknation, Meetup, SoundCloud, Reverb Nation and Twitch. 

I see Google Business/Google Map and Yelp as online tools that offer many features that are appropriate to my fictitious restaurant business. I know a few small business companies and service providers who rely on their numerous and highly rated Yelp reviews to reach their target audience. This is also true for the reviews posted on other retail online platforms such as Amazon, The Home Depot, TripAdvisor, Airbnb, VRBO and more. I personally do not use music stream tools. Commercial ads are usually displayed only at the free option accounts. I am not very enthusiastic about these platforms as a means to reach my customers and I do not see it as an important way to develop business connections.

 
Snacknation is in fact an online platform that delivers a mix of snacks and drinks direct to consumers in their offices and homes. They have a blog and there is a post with an article on some of the best online collaboration tools and software platforms for business teams to work together on projects from anywhere in the world. Some immense knowledge and information are available and surely can be a big help to the people who have small medium business. I especially like the information with pros and cons of each solution. I am familiar with the listed Google tools (Drive, Keep, Docs) as well as with Dropbox, Evernote, Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams. The majority of the other solutions would require more in depth analysis to understand its fit to the business.

Meetup is an app that encourages people to meet face-to-face. While it does host online events, it focuses on promoting events and groups in your community. I read a few Meetup reviews and it seems that it is still an excellent way to make new friends and experience fun events. Although some users have reported bad experiences in certain groups, it is important to define your exact location and select groups and activities that relate the most with you. Sign up for events that are realistic for your time-management. Join as many meetings as you like, but try not to over-commit. Meetup is also as safe as other social media websites, so long as you exercise caution when meeting with those you are connected to through the website. 

Week 11 Part B: Comments

I commented on Nicole’s and Christian's posts. We all have done some research on Twitter. A social media platform different from Facebook and Instagram. However, Twitter can be another great platform to interact with people online, and ultimately bring more traffic to your website. Twitter sounds like an underrated marketing online tool and is not used as often as the other more popular platforms. It does require some unique techniques to boost engagement and you must be aware to avoid or manage the risk of bad engagement.

Week 11 Part A: Marketing with Twitter, TikTok, Google for Business, LinkedIn, AI and more

Twitter:

Without any reasonable justification, I have always been reluctant to be part of Twitter. With so many other social media platforms already in use, I just did not join Twitter. With all the recent media coverage on its controversial acquisition by Elon Musk, I thought this exercise could be an opportunity to learn more about it. 

With 320M+ monthly active users, Twitter can be a powerful tool to raise awareness about any business, engage with customers and develop leads. Twitter is a place where users, and clients get to talk about a brand, also publicly, on their Twitter accounts. A Twitter presence is a great opportunity for brands to build solid relationships with their audience. Setting up a Twitter for Business profile is simple, but it needs to be used regularly to be most effective. 

In my research, I was initially surprised to know that the use of Hashtags, a practice that has now become very common to see on social networks like, Instagram and Facebook, has all started with Twitter. 

In theory, the purpose of Hashtags is to group same-topic conversations to help users find more content on topics that matter to them. Moreover, the easier they are to find, the more likely it is that people will engage with them. With Twitter, however, this is not necessarily right. According to a recent twitter engagement report, using hashtags does not appear to increase Twitter engagement. In fact, it turns out that the level of engagement goes down as the number of hashtags used goes up. Therefore, instead of using a ton of hashtags, the suggestion is to use relevant hashtags that the target audience is following. 

Another finding is on video, which is generally rated as one of the best formats to trigger engagement regardless of the social platform. Twitter, however, is not the best platform to post video content. There are technical limitations in terms of time duration, resolution and maximum frame rate per second (FPS) which can cause the video quality drop drastically. 

On the other hand, Twitter is an excellent platform to create GIFs - which are very short clips made of a series of images. GIFs are one of the best ways to grab the attention of one’s audience on social media nowadays: They are animated with movement. They are not as heavy as a video and they will load fast on mobile devices, even on a low signal. 

It seems that the ideal tweet length - those that generate the most engagement on the platform - is between 71 and 100 characters. If a link to the company’s website is included the ideal size is between 94 and 123 characters. 

Twitter is also seen as a vital marketing, customer care and market research tool that can provide valuable insights on every aspect of the business. The platform makes it easy for customers to reach out to brands and provide their feedback or ask for help. Brands can then use this as an opportunity to not only collect vital feedback to improve their products but also to deliver the support their customers need.

Week 10 Part A: Researching Email Marketing

In my fictitious health food restaurant, I would send a biweekly newsletter with suggestions of meals from our menu list, taking in consideration the time of the meal, breakfast, lunch or dinner and the four seasons of the year. Some specific offers would be designed to reduce product inventory or take a profit on food ingredients that were purchased at reduced prices. 

Randomly, I would also include coupons and discount campaigns. The email marketing would in fact be part of a loyalty program. Clients would sign up to the program, providing their email to receive our newsletter and special offers. Customers are always attracted to the idea of a bargain, which is a good way to convince customers to return.

Week 9: Blogs, Vlogs, Podcasts & Webinars, Adding Categories

I am a strong believer that using a Blog and a Vlog for any business can provide valuable content and information for visitors and potential customers. In my specific fictitious health food restaurant, informational posts with scientific based articles, interviews and wed presentations can work as an educational platform for visitors to learn all the benefits of a healthy diet.

Considering that our main ingredient – the tapioca flour made from the cassava root – is still not very popular in our target market, blogs and vlogs covering the attributes of this superfood and showing how it is cooked and prepared, would be crucial to reduce its remote recognition by the target public.

It can also function as a means of association of these diet benefits with our restaurant menu and the various options offered to achieve each individual nutrition goal. It creates the opportunity to increase sales with both existing and new clients.

Week 8 Part B: Your Instagram Hashtag Use

I believe Dora Tapioca Crepe can add a few hashtags related to the restaurant menu and its proposition to offer a high quality diet. Also, include a few hashtags about its geographic location to reach its target customers. A few hashtags to consider would be:

#glutenfree #veganfood #organicfood #healthychoices #plantbased  #encinitas #sandiegofoodscene #doratapiocacrepe

I researched hashtags used on Instagram posts made by fast food competitors and related health food businesses/influencers. I have not created any hashtag specific for our food business, with the exception of the restaurant name #doratapiocacrepe

I tried to add my posts at least one hour before lunchtime on weekdays. As this is still a fictitious business I cannot assure how effective this strategy is.

Hashtags are important on social media as they enable the content of our business to be found by the right people - our potential clients. Using some relevant hashtags can help us deliver the content to our target customer and helps drive traffic to our page so that you can boost views, likes, and shares.

I commented on Tawni Bernard's and Christian De La Torre's pages.