SOLUTION: Online Marketing & Social Media Plan | My Assignment Tutor

Bickiepegs Healthcare Online Marketing & Social Media PlanContents1 – Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 22 – Company Overview………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 23 – SOSTAC Model …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 23.1 – Situation Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 33.2 – Objectives ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 73.3 – Strategy & Tactics ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 83.4 – Actions …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 113.5 – Control …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 12References ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 13Appendices …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 141 – Executive SummaryThis marketing plan outlines the main strategies and tactics I would suggest using in order toaccomplish the objectives set by Bickiepegs Healthcare. This plan includes methods toincrease engagement and positive e-word-of-mouth alongside driving users to theBickiepegs website in the hopes of achieving a final conversion.The plan also outlines the main campaign idea entitled ‘Do as I Say and as I Do’ whichembraces the values of the Bickiepegs brand and offers a fun way for parents to get involvedwith the company which will eventually lead to the establishment a strong relationship.The back end of the plan will also highlight the metrics used to measure the success andultimately learn what resonates with the target audience in order to improve digital marketingefforts made in the future.2 – Company OverviewBickiepegs Healthcare (BH) was established in 1925 with a rich heritage. They are acompany that has two main product focusses which are produced in house, these are theBickiepegs teething biscuit and the Doidy Cup. BH products are sold direct through theBickiepegs website as well as being sold through physical retailers such as Boots, SuperDrug, independent baby shops and even online from Amazon.3 – SOSTAC ModelBelow you can see a brief overview of just one of the marketing structure plans, thisparticular model of SOSTAC will be explored in the case of Bickiepegs with new marketingideas hung onto this generic framework. A more in depth version of the model can be seewithin the appendices in App 1.(Bax & Woodhouse, 2013)3.1 – Situation AnalysisFig 1The SWOT analysis displays clear strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, it ismainly used to know which strengths can be capitalised upon in order to take advantage ofopportunities to ultimately reduce the power of any threats whilst simultaneously covering orreducing any weakness’ the business may show.Whilst being smaller than most medical firms, BH still has some incredibly powerful andunique attributes which can be leveraged to position Bickiepegs and Doidy Cup in a strongposition to compete with even the biggest players in the industry. The main aspects whichcan be used to aid in increasing Bickiepegs’ market share are the long 90-year long heritageand the trust that comes along with it, combined with the smaller and humbler nature of thefirm, this can give customers a stronger relationship with the firm and can lead to strongbrand loyalty which will eventually spread the company values through word of mouth(WOM).This smaller nature of the business will help cover some of the weaknesses seen such as acomparatively low reputation with younger audiences if the marketing efforts resonate withthis target audience more than the efforts put forward by what could be perceived as‘faceless organisations’ such as Unilever.The threats listed within the SWOT analysis are all substitute products, this makes themindirect competitors, with teething biscuits being a totally unique product, Bickiepegs mustcompete fiercely with these products (Shelegia, 2012), within the landscape of clinicalStrengths Weaknesses90 years heritage High lead timeHigh brand loyalty (30%) Small production scalePaediatric & dentist approved Placed in the food section ofsupermarkets rather than medicine orremediesSuitable for vegans Comparatively low reputation withyounger audiencesStrong awareness from 55+Unicef approved – had clinical trialsNHS award winnerTotally unique product (USP)“Used in royal nurseries”Niche appealOpportunities ThreatsCreate an engaging user base due to the friendlynature of the firm, for example, not a ‘facelesscorporation’Kidilicious Wafer (nearest competitor)Strong communities who are passionate aboutproducts and solutions within the industryTeething gelsNimbleness compared to massive competitors Teething powdersLong tail keywords & comparative keywords Teething granulesTeething toysSWOTBickiepegsproducts such as this, legislation and other external factors play a massive part andconsumer perceptions of products are imperative to the success of an organisation in thisindustry.A PEST analysis looks at any external factors which may affect a business, it contrastsperfectly with the SWOT analysis which focuses mostly on internal factors unique to thebusiness.Fig 2You can see above in fig 2 that most external factors that will affect BH fall into the ‘social’element of PEST, this is down to the passionate nature of parenting and shows that the mainemphasis of tof this campaign should be to encourage trust and prove to consumers that BHis safe to use, with a high level of knowledge and care within the industry.As previously mentioned, external changes and factors can make huge differences withinthe healthcare industry, this is because, as further research is conducted, popular opinionson products can change and some products can be outlawed which leads to many productshaving to go back to the R&D stage of development, even after the product returns tomarket, it remains at a huge disadvantage due to the negative press surrounding the initialremoval from store shelves.The online marketplace map can be seen below in Fig 3 with the four main target customersegments. From this, we can see that social media, affiliate pages and niche sites such as‘mummy bloggers’ are detrimental to the success of any campaign within this industry, it isparamount to earn the trust of your target audience in order for any marketing efforts to havea significant impact. If Bickiepegs want to drive traffic to their site instead of distributors suchas Amazon or John Lewis, they will need to significantly improve their OVP (online valueproposition) this idea will be developed throughout the strategy and tactics section.Political EconomicLaws changing around ingredients used inclinical products Parents’ disposable incomeTax on clinical products such as this – Bickipegsis classed as food so may not be suceptable tothe same laws as competitorsInterest rates & inflation will effectparents’ disposable incomeSocial TechnologyBaby birth rate Distribution chain changesEthical issues Development of new treatmentmethodsAttitudes towards particular ingredients ortreatment methods shiftingCertain subcultures may abhore treatment ofconditionsAttitudes towards organisations themselves –big product protfolio means bigger riskPESTFig 3As you can see below (fig 4), the main consumers of this product are incredibly active withinthe online space, boasting a massive average of 41 to 45 hours online per week (YouGov,2016). This means that online marketing should be at the centre of any strategy undertakenby BH.Fig 4Dads have been taking a far more proactive role when it comes to buying for children, withthis in mind, it is important to try and get a grasp on this customer segment, particularlywithin it’s infancy as we can expect it to grow further over the next few years (Mintel, 2016).Because of this, it is essential that fathers are not excluded from the marketing efforts asthey are quickly emerging as a customer segment.Fig 5From a technical standpoint, BH’s website can be seen in a very good place, with an overallwebsite score of 7.9 as below in fig 6 (Nibbler, 2016). It can be seen that ‘marketing’ is themain downfall of the site, which is a relief as rebuilding a website takes a significant amountof time, money and most of all, expertise.Fig 6You can see in the appendices (app 2) that BH is fairly optimised from an SEO point of view,scoring a perfect 10 for page titles which should ideally be below 60 characters whilst stillOur Customers Search Engine Usage Social Media UsageYoung Mums (femalesaged 18 – 30) High HighMiddle Aged Mothers(Females aged 31 – 50) Medium MediumCaring Grandparents(Aged 51+) Medium LowHelpful Fathers (males) High LowFacebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn 351 Likes168 Followers59 Followers15 Followers including relevant keywords and the Bickiepegs brand to improve the authority of the brandin the eyes of a Google crawler. Furthermore, incoming links and mobile friendliness alsoscore perfect 10s, these are key cornerstones of any SEO strategy as mobile is growingever larger and impacting on the Google search algorithm more and more. BH is mobilefriendly as backed up by Google’s very own mobile friendliness testing tool. With regards tothe incoming links, BH is a clinical organisation and as such will be likely to receive linksfrom high quality sources such as the NHS and other government organisation which helpsto build brand authority around the subject matter of teething, this will allow BH to rank highlywithin organic search for queries around this topic.Nibbler’s analysis of the Facebook page can be seen below;Scoring a 6.6, this is one area in which BH can greatly improve, with this in mind, Facebookwill be the main conduit for this proposed social media campaign. Furthermore, the lastactivity seen on the BH Facebook page was made on November 26th, in order to gain reachon social media, posts will have to be far more frequent and generate a much higher level ofengagement in order to drive real results.3.2 – ObjectivesAfter being set general objectives by BH themselves, it is important to make these targetsSMART, this allows the objectives to be realistic, gives some clear direction of which toolsshould be utilised in order to accomplish these and then once they have been achieved, weare able to monitor performance to greater future marketing efforts with solid evidence andmetrics that have been collected. Below in bold you can see the objectives set by BH,followed by what I believe the objectives should be interpreted as. They have been adaptedinto the SMART framework, ensuring that they are specific, measurable, achievable, realisticand fitted within a timeframe (Dryburgh, 2011).1) Increase engagement and involvement amongst Bickiepegs and Doidy Cuptarget audience – Average number of comments and shares to double on Facebookover the next 12 months2) Generate eWOW from social media and influencers/opinion leaders – Increasethe amount of followers Bickiepegs has on social media by 700 over the next 12months, whilst still increasing engagement (objective 1)3) Identify ways to support retail listings and drive consumers to the BH site –Increase visits to the Bickiepegs site by 30% YOY (year on year) within the next 12monthsThese objectives relate to the RACE model as you can see below in fig 7;Fig 7These objectives fit into this framework, especially within the new SMART format. Objective1 fits into the ‘engage’ section and will revolve around creating content for users to read andenjoy, objective 2 focuses on ‘acting’ and increasing ‘reach’ which will focus on enticingparents and the target markets to share and amplify the reach of any marketing efforts andthen finally objective 3 is focussed on the ‘conversion’ of products from the BH websitespecifically.3.3 – Strategy & TacticsThe Big IdeaBickiepegs need to be able to convey to consumers that they care, are knowledgeable andalso have a sense of fun by understanding the joy of parenting. This combined with theemphasis placed on social media and community illustrated by the marketing map in fig 3have led to the conception of the idea;Do as I Say, and as I DoThis campaign will revolve around submitting media to Bickiepegs, sharing and voting, thismedia, be it pictures or video will be of children mimicking parents or even animals. I believethe idea of children learning fits with the nature of Bickiepegs and especially Doidy Cup andwill certainly resonate with the target audience. Video is becoming far more prominent withinsocial media and becoming a ranking factor on Google, getting user generated contentonsite would greatly boost BH’s SEO value and encourage sharing among fans. Someexamples of how I imagine the content can be seen below in Fig 5;Fig 8The main hook of the campaign is the fun nature and how theshareable nature adhere to Mashable’s best practice for shareablecontent (Fankhauser, 2011). This can be set up as a competition,with a cash prize, or perhaps vouchers for BH products. Thecompetition would then be seeded out to ‘mummy bloggers’ andinfluencers as they showed great importance within themarketplace map. The nature of this campaign also allows forfathers to get involved also, ensuring BH is appealing to thisrapidly expanding market. This would ensure a fantastic reach andgive off invaluable trust signals to new customers as an opinionleader has endorsed a BH product. Google’s stance on payingbloggers and influencers to share your product has recently beenconsidered ‘black hat’ and as such we will need the campaign tobe enticing from their point of view as this new standard in linkbuilding and PR has evolved. With this in mind, I believe thesubject matter and fun nature will be sufficient to have influencerssharing their own mimicry.Fig 9This would certainly help BH in achieving objectives 1 and 2 by generating eWOW throughbloggers and as their content gets shared on social media, whilst also increasingengagement as users post their own videos onto the BH Facebook page and share with theirfriends. Furthermore, “Facebook especially popular among online women, 77% of whom areusers. In addition, 82% of online adults ages 18 to 29 use Facebook, along with 79% ofthose ages 30 to 49, 64% of those ages 50 to 64 and 48% of those 65 and older” (Duggan,2015) this ensures that BH will be hitting their target market by announcing and sharing uservideos through the Facebook page.You can also see from the Social Mention extract in Fig 9 (SocialMention, 2016) that manyusers feel neutrally about the BH brand, this campaign will help to rectify this and inject alevel of personality into the brand, which in turn should help raise the sentiment score of thecompany as a whole.Below are some potential ‘mummy bloggers’ who I have picked out for BH to targetcollaborating with around this campaign, they are all well respected and highly followed,ensuring that their opinions are heard and taken into serious consideration. This PRoutreach would help BH rank higher within SEO due to the authority passed through linksalongside helping to achieve objectives 1 and 2 by spreading the name of Bickiepegs andengaging with users in a fun, laid back and personal way.A content plan should also be produced; this would help improve the online valueproposition of the Bickiepegs site over competitors such as Amazon as there will be followup content of how to use the products most effectively alongside fun parenting tips. Thesepieces of content should adhere to Moz’s ‘10X content’ rules (Fishkin, 2016) and with BHbeing particularly small, they have the opportunity to be far more flexible and agile in thecontent produced, this means they can beat larger corporations to the punch if there aresome new fads that will likely only last a couple of weeks due to a smaller hierarchy and lessbarriers to posting new content. These larger companies are unlikely to make an effortaround content such as this as it isn’t evergreen and they may not see the value once itactually gets published. Additionally, these content pieces have to opportunity to target lowersearch volume or long tail keywords which larger companies will be unlikely to target, due totheir low perceived worth. This is ideal for BH to target and as such, will improve SEOrankings for these terms, increasing brand authority and once again reaching thatpassionate consumer base. This will help BH in achieving objective 3 as it helps establish anOVP for visiting the BH site and exploring before and after purchase.An example of this content could be infographics of which ingredients to look out for and theeffects that they have on your children, this would help promote the healthy contents of BHproducts especially after the Euromonitor report stating “The ongoing debate in the UK aboutthe high sugar content in food and drinks has also impacted baby food. Baby juices inparticular therefore witnessed strong declines, while manufacturers are increasingly keen onpositioning their products as healthy, low sugar options in order to appeal to healthconscious parents” (Euromonitor, 2016).Content could also be produced about the pros and cons of different teething methods, whilethis may lightly promote rival products the overall effect is likely to be positive, establishingtrust from the consumer by giving a holistic view and also showing how BH products excelagainst other methods, for example, on September 30, 2016, the FDA warned consumersthat homeopathic teething tablets and gels may pose a risk to babies and children. Theagency advised consumers to stop using these products immediately and throw away anythey have (BabyCentre, 2016).Finally, these online marketing efforts could be bolstered with a small, precise, PPCcampaign. This campaign would target smaller keywords similar to the content plan,however the main bids would take place during the night. Adwords’ ‘bid adjustment’ featurewould allow for larger bids to made within particular hours, for example 1am-5am to targetdistressed parents who will be searching for teething remedies. This targeting can be mademore precise by just asking the passionate user base already on the BH Facebook page atwhich time do they get awoken most often. It is important that Bing is not ignored when itcomes to this process, especially with Bing being the default search engine on all Microsoftproducts now, thanks to this, they have gained over a 20% share of all search queries(McKalin, 2016), proving that it is a medium worth respecting and making an effort in,something that larger companies may neglect. This campaign would have a significantlylower budget that the content and social media campaigns however, would likely be able togenerate some strong traffic especially given the timed bid adjustments, with this in mind itwould go towards accomplishing objective 3 as it would be driving desperate users to the BHsite rather than a competitor, it would then be down to the user to decide whether theywished to convert, the landing pages would have to be optimised in order to entice a user tostay on site which will come with the content revamp suggested earlier to accomplishobjectives 1 and 2.3.4 – ActionsThe chart below in fig 10 shows the times at which ‘teething’ spiked as a topic within GoogleTrends with this in mind, the PPC and content activity should be planned around thesespikes in order to gain the largest reach, this is incredibly important and can be a fail point ofmany campaigns, timing is everything.Fig 10 (GoogleTrends, 2016)Fig 11As you can see above in fig 10 the main spikes occur around December, March and June,these presumably correlate with high birth-rate times of the year, with this in mind, I believe itwould be best to stagger PPC activity in order to keep budget and spend low and withincontrol. PPC activity would only be undertaken to take advantage of these trends andregular optimisation and checks would have to be undertaken daily in order to ensure theoptimum spend of budget. If particular PPC campaigns are not pulling in the desiredCampaign Element January February March April May June July August September October November December JanuaryContentPPCPRBig Idea AnnouncewinnerPPC activity commences PPC activity resumes Further PPC activityBegin accepting entries from the public and showcasingcollaborative effortsContent writing for the BH website, with particular focus on current topics and trendsBegin monitoring thesuccess of the last yearto see if SMARTobjectives have beenachieved and perhapswhere improvementsculd be made in orderto improve futurecampaigns with primaryresearchWriting of generic pieces whichcan be posted in coming monthsRegular updates to social media, eg – sharing best campaign entries with focus on the BH values, fun and relatable to resonate with target audienceSetting up submission platformContact bloggers andcollaborative partners Social Media MeasuringPreparationCampaign impressions, the creatives and ad texts could be changed, or that particular campaign couldbe paused to ensure a higher spend on more successful ads.Since content and social media are longer term methods of online marketing, these cannotbe staggered in the same way as PPC tools. Google uses ‘fresh content’ as a ranking factorand as such would be less effective if it was to be inconsistent over the course of the next 12months. For the same reason, social media posting and usage would have to be regular,around 3 or 4 updates a week would be ideal, this would also help promote the ‘Do as I sayand as I Do’ campaign to help spread the word and create a buzz around BH, particularlyhelping the fulfilment of objectives 1 and 2.3.5 – ControlAs seen above in fig 11 the main control will be happening within January 2018, this willallow enough time for SEO changes to impact site rankings and give a good overview ofperformance as a whole over the year. The main tools to use in measuring the success inthis campaign can be seen below;As mentioned earlier the PPC campaigns would be reviewed weekly, so this level of controlwould be performed throughout the 12 months rather than in January.These metrics would need to be taken as percentages to ensure that they are relative to theSMART objectives and fair in assessing the success of particular aspects of the campaign.With these measures and primary research conducted, BH would be able to expand andcapitalise on which aspects work especially for them specifically, allowing each onlinemarketing campaign to be stronger and more effective than the last.Campaign Measure Tool OutcomeContentAverage organic ranking for targeted termsViewsTime spent on site Google AnalyticsAn increased ranking and increased engagement inthe amount of views and time spent reading andexploring the content on-sitePPCIncreased impressions and traffic throughPPC adsConversions through the BH site which canbe attributed to PPC activityGoogle AdWords An increase in sales and traffic driven specificallyfrom PPC activityPRThe amount of bloggers and collaborationsachieved through outreachThe amount of links built through the ‘Doas I say and as I Do’ campaignGoogle AnalyticsBacklink profiling tool – AHRefsIncreased traffic to the site through blogger linksMore authoritative backlink profile with higer qualitylinksImproved organic rankings for parenting terms dueto more relevant backlink profileThe Big IdeaNumber of entriesEngagement metrics of campaign – video &picture views, likes and sharesFacebook analyticsEntry numbersGoogle AnalyticsHighest engagement on FacebookHigh number of entriesHigh levels of traffic to the campaign static page,hosted on the BH site for largest SEO benefitSocial MediaNumber of likesNumber of sharesNumber of commentsFacebook analyticsLinkedIn AnalyticsPinterest AnalyticsSocial MentionWe would expect all classic measures to increaseover the course of the 12 month campaign,increasing engagement which will lead to strongeWOW and a high increase in followers and likesacross all social mediaTwitter would be the exception as analytics oftweets has been disabled recentlySentiment score from Social Mention to haveimprovedReferencesBabyCentre, 2016. Baby Center. [Online]Available at: http://www.babycenter.com/0_teething-remedies-how-to-treat-teethingpain_10357438.bc[Accessed 8 December 2016].Bax, S. & Woodhouse, P., 2013. Cambridge Marketing Handbook. 1st ed. London: Kogan Page Ltd.Dryburgh, A., 2011. Don’t You Believe It…. It’s Smart to Have SMART Objectives. ManagementToday, p. 14.Duggan, M., 2015. The Demographics of Social Media Users, Washington DC: Pew Research Centre.Euromonitor, 2016. Baby Food in the United Kingdom. [Online]Available at: http://www.euromonitor.com/baby-food-in-the-united-kingdom/report[Accessed 1 December 2016].Fankhauser, D., 2011. Mashable. [Online]Available at: https://contently.com/strategist/2011/09/01/how-to-make-your-posts-as-shareableas-mashables/[Accessed 8 December 2016].Fishkin, R., 2016. Moz. [Online]Available at: https://moz.com/blog/how-to-create-10x-content-whiteboard-friday[Accessed 8 December 2016].GoogleTrends, 2016. Google Trends. [Online]Available at: https://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=teething[Accessed 1 December 2016].McKalin, V., 2016. The Windows Club. [Online]Available at: http://news.thewindowsclub.com/bing-slowly-eating-away-google-search-new-marketshare-gain-81397/[Accessed 7 December 2016].Mintel, 2016. Babies’ and Children’s Personal Care Products, Nappies and Wipes – UK – March 2016.[Online]Available at: http://store.mintel.com/babies-and-childrens-personal-care-products-nappies-andwipes-uk-march-2016[Accessed 1 December 2016].Nibbler, 2016. Nibbler. [Online]Available at: http://nibbler.silktide.com/en/reports/www.bickiepegs.com[Accessed 1 December 2016].Shelegia, S., 2012. Is the Competitor of my Competitor also my Competitor?. Journal of Economicsand Management Strategy, 21(4), pp. 927 – 963.SocialMention, 2016. Social Mention. [Online]Available at: http://www.socialmention.com/[Accessed 1 December 2016].YouGov, 2016. YouGov Profiles Report on Pampers. [Online]Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/profileslite#/Pampers[Accessed 28 November 2016].AppendicesApp 1 – Full SOSTAC ModelApp 2 – Nibbler Report