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.