Digital Marketing Plan for Leeds Becket University Student Union - Case Study Example

Digital Marketing Plan Name Institutional Affiliation Date Table of Contents Executive summary 3 1.0. Introduction 4 1.2 Current Digital Presence 4 1.3 Report Purpose 5 2.0 Summary of Situational Analysis 5 2.1 Epistle analysis 6 2.2 Competitor Analysis 6 2.3 Customer Analysis 7 3.0. Digital Marketing Strategy 7 3.1 Digital Marketing aims and objectives 7 Aim 7 3.2 Objective one 8 3.3 Objective two 8 3.4 Objective three 8 3.6 The RACE model 9 4.0. Digital Marketing Mix 11 4.1. Website 11 4.1.0 Function 12 4.1.2 Content 12 4.1.3 Interaction 12 4.2. Social media 12 5.0. Implementation Plan 13 5.1. Budget 13 6.0 Control and Measurement 14 7.0 Conclusion 14 8.0 Bibliography 15 9.0 Appendix: Situational Analysis 16 Executive summary This particular reports undertakes to provide a digital marketing plan for Leeds Becket University Student Union, a charity organization operates in the United Kingdom. Leeds Becket Student’s Union has a variety of activities run by the students such as; volunteering, campaigns, events and media opportunities besides, as a Union, it serves to voice the concerns of the students to the University and beyond. This report examines the status of the current digital platform of the union and then recommends a digital platform that will enable the union to better its services to their customers. The following are the aims and objectives of the digital marketing platform after examination of both the macro and micro environments. Aim: To provide a digital marketing platform for Leeds Becket Student’s Union that will enable them retain and increase their online customers in the next 12 months. The report intends to achieve the following objectives Provide a digital marketing plan with justifiable recommendations on how Leeds Becket Students’ Union can achieve its digital marketing goal. Create a new website for Leeds Becket Student’s Union that will have more features that will allow more interaction between the union and its customers. Create an additional social media platform (apart from facebook) for the unions that will enable it sell its services and products to people within UK and beyond. In addition to this, give recommendations on how it can increase its followers on facebook from 4928 to a higher number. The objectives outlined should be met within a period of 12 months. 1.0. Introduction Leeds Becket Students’ Union is basically a student’s organization within Leeds Becket University in the UK.This organization is headed by elected leaders ,four of whom are part-time and rest of them fulltime. Any student at the university is legible to be elected to any elective position in the union and if they win the elections they hold the mantle for a one year term. The union’s main purpose is to air concerns of the students to the university and beyond. Their goal is to make sure that students’ lives at Leeds Becket University are comfortable besides; the union occasionally organizes diverse entertainment activities for the students, volunteering activities that give service to the community, demonstrations on contentious internal and global issues as well as environmental awareness projects and demonstrations. 1.2 Current Digital Presence The Leeds Becket Students’ Union currently has a functional website. The website address is: http://www.leedsbeckettsu.co.uk.This website has information about the union. The information on includes the major roles the union plays, its structure and deeper explanation of the major achievements and contributions the union makes to the society. In addition to this, this website is used to advertise major events like entertainment, demonstration, volunteering activities among many of its functions. The website has an interactive segment that allows readers to send their comments and suggestions to the organization so that they are attended to by the union. To add on to the website, the union has also a functional facebook fan page that has so far 4928 followers. This is a small number compared to the magnitude of this union. Other digital platforms entail telephone numbers that enhance communication to and fro the union. 1.3 Report Purpose As stated, the reports vests its interest in analyzing the current digital platform with a view to generating recommendations on the appropriate digital marketing plan for Leeds Becket Students’ Union. The recommendations made shall help the union increase its market share and followers on the various platforms (current and new one) in the next 12 months. The end goal is to improve and widen service delivery of the union. This implies that there should be a significant positive impact on how the union receives and handles affairs of the students as well as its engagements in charitable activities. 2.0 Summary of Situational Analysis With the advent and widespread use of technology the world is slowly becoming one global viallage.Most people in the current world have access to the internet and often visit different sites to look for jobs, business opportunities, leisure activities or for fun. This gives internet marketing a central role in the current generation. This widespread use of internet means that there is stiff competition emerging given that anyone can advertise their business, firm or union online. Therefore, if Leeds Becket Students’ Union does not make effort to develop an effective digital marketing plan it is likely to be faced out by little known unions within the UK and beyond. Such completion is one of the many factors that it needs to monitor in order to survive in such a competitive environment. As MacDonald (2008) says, a systematic and unbiased audit of both the internal and external factors affecting the business is imperative in measuring the performance of the business. The following are key findings of both context analyses. 2.1 Epistle analysis The purpose of the Epistle analysis is to examine the macro-environment ((Gosnay and Richardson, 2008). The Epistle analysis found out that use of social media play the number one role in disseminating information within Leeds Becket Students’ Union and between the union and other parts of the world. For instance, creating fan page on page would help one communicate information to people not only within his locality but also in the larger world. All that one needs to do is to create an account and add friends. Such a technological tool is a double –edged sword in a marketing scenario. While it can be used to advertise one’s company, it can also be a source of stiff competition among unions who share similar interests. Worse still, some malicious individuals might use the same avenue to propagate hate and malicious messages that can bring down the business. The Leeds Becket Students’ union can use their facebook account to post their events. In this way they will attract the attention of more people apart from their colleagues. For instance, whenever there is a demonstration it can be communicate via the social media to capture a larger audience as opposed to traditional use of posters, among others. Morever, the union is better placed to capture a larger group since most students are users of the social media like face book and whatsapp than people of any generation. 2.2 Competitor Analysis All universities in the UK have student unions that cater for the needs of students in campus. These students are all turning away from their sole traditional role of looking out for the needs of the students affairs while at campus to participating in community development. The latter function is stiff in that there are myriad of charitable organizations in the world today. For one’s impact to felt there is need to market oneself adequately.Perhaps,through effective online marketing it will attract potential investors and philanthropists who will help it finance its projects in the UK and across the world. 2.3 Customer Analysis The main customers of the Leeds Becket University are the students, the neighboring community that the union helps in terms of creating environmental awareness and by offering aid in charity. In its digital plan, it aims at reaching the wider UK and the world at large. Majority of the students are computer literate and ardent users of the internet and social media. The needy in the society like the street urchins can also be analyzed as potential customers to the union. 3.0. Digital Marketing Strategy 3.1 Digital Marketing aims and objectives As MacDonald (2008) notes, setting objectives is an inescapable part in any business. Objectives are set so as to give direction to the plans and for the company to know its strategies well so as to use them to accomplish its goals. The objectives of a company must be SMART. Aim The aim of this marketing plan is to provide a digital marketing platform for Leeds Becket Student’s Union that will enable them retain increase their online customers in the next 12 months. 3.2 Objective one To provide a digital marketing plan for the union with justifiable recommendations on how Leeds Becket Students’ Union can achieve its digital marketing goal. 3.3 Objective two To create a new website for Leeds Becket Student’s Union that will have more features to permit more interaction between the union and its customers. 3.4 Objective three To create an additional social media platform (apart from facebook) for the union that will enable it sell its services and products to people within UK and beyond. In addition to this, give recommendations on how it can increase its followers on facebook from 4928 to a higher number. 3.5 Digital Strategy In the internal analysis of the Leeds Becket Student Union (See appendix) it is worth noting that the union has a well-coordinated internal structure. The process of ascending to power is quite competitive and anyone elected must be competent to hold the leadership position. This structure is what has led to expansion and growth the union over years.However, to be able to reach the market beyond the city of Leeds, the wider UK and the world at large it is imperative for it to develop a digital marketing plan. The first step is to come with a new website. To start with, its current website is rather dull and on its front page it does not reflect, at glance, what the union stands for. The new website will encompass more details including a redefined vision. The vision should capture its intent to spread its operation to not only the students’ body but also the wider UK.In addition to this; the website will create an interactive feature that allows end-users to drop their comments any time. Such comments can be important sources for learning the company’s weaknesses and strong point in order to improve its operation. It is, however, important to note that building a website with huge trunks of information is not sufficient. It does not mean that every user of the internet is going to click on the website. This is where the union will need to consider finding ways of directing traffic to this website. There are online firms that help people generate traffic at cost. Once more people, in and outside UK, access the well-developed website they will definitely find interest in following their activities and supporting them. The other digital strategy to be employed is making the Leeds Students’ Union facebook account more interesting. This can be achieved if the administrator of the fan page posts interesting events, stories, pictures and videos regularly. For a fan page to be followed by many people it must be vibrant and intriguing. Above all, the status should be updated regularly. The followers must be kept abreast of the ongoing in the union. The union will be forced to employ an extra individual who will be implementing this online strategy. 3.6 The RACE model The race model outlines strategies that can be used by used in implementation of such a plan. As discussed in his their book (Chaffey, D.et al 2008), planning for implementation of a digital marketing strategy is geared towards gaining more customers as well as maintaining the old ones. The four strategies in RACE are; Race, Act, Convert and Engage. Reach At this stage, the goal is to make people aware of the services that Leeds Becket Students’ Union offers, its target customers and partners. Even though this is continuous process, much emphasis ought to be given anyway at the beginning. People should be able to tell, from the content developed in the website and social media ,who Leeds Becket Students’s Union are, their services as well what they stand for. The content in the website and any other form of advertisement must be developed in a language that is clear to all people. I would recommend the union calls a conference in the first month to collect as much information as possible to enable them generate accurate content for their website and social media platform. Act The other name for act is “interact”. Once the content in the website has been developed and posted, it is time for the end-users to view it and give their feedback. In some instances, comments can be given .Some individuals would write reviews of the website follow posts on facebook and twitter and then like or comment. From the number of followers and likes, an evaluation can be done. A higher number of followers mean good performance while the vice-versa means bad performance. If the latter in true, then changes can be made at this stage. The reviews can be done in the third and fourth month of the implementation process. Convert The Leeds Becket Students’ Union does not have goods that can be bought online and thus no conversion in terms of monetary value can be measured.Nevertheless, measurement on how well their services are trading can be analyzed from the number of followers they have and measurement of the demand for their engagement in society. Engage The process of engaging the customers in longtime process. In order to maintain the customers, there is need for continuous regular interaction with them. This is an ongoing process right from the first month and continues up until and beyond the 12 months’ implementation period. As mentioned earlier, online marketing needs a permanent employee who be often online to respond to various clients, customers and partners. Note that unanswered mails, messages, chats and comments can disengage the customers. 4.0. Digital Marketing Mix The marketing mix is tool is in business that is applied in marketing .Marketers use this term to especially when identifying the brand of a business. It is associated with terms such as promotion, product, price; place e.t.c.The idea of marketing mix in this plan is going to help bring all the ideas together so that resources are allocated accordingly to attain the desired goals. 4.1. Website The current website of Leeds Becket Students’ Union is developed on the following key elements; content, organization, and form. The new website vests tremendous interest in the quality and quantity of content developed and how interactive with the users the website will be. This does not mean that the developers shall ignore its organization and form. This strategy believes that if a combination of both content and interaction are looked at keenly, the website will generate more traffic and users will be more likely to spend more time on the site to read its content. 4.1.0 Function The main purpose of the website is to enable user’s access more information about the Leeds Becket Students’ Union. This way they get an insight into their activities and thus take an active role in them. The presentation of the information will be altered. The slideshows will be disabled since they make access of the information quite cumbersome and disorderly. The display of the information on the first page will be done in a more attractive manner and in colors that are more appealing. 4.1.2 Content The content developed will be of quality, appropriate and enough to make new readers comprehend what the services and functions of the organization are. In addition to that, the language used will be simple and clear to avoid vagueness and ambiguity. 4.1.3 Interaction The users shall be provided with options for interacting with the organization. 4.2. Social media To meet the third objective a twitter account will be provided. This is geared to giving the users an additional space to interact with the organization. Through this media, the organization will also have a chance to get feedback from the users on the various factors in the organization. The facebook account shall be made more vibrant by adding regular posts, pictures and videos of the activities of the organization. This event will make sure that the audience is always versed with the on goings in the organization. This move will go a long way in boosting the number of followers. The number of followers is crucial in measurement of performance of the organization. 5.0. Implementation Plan The first month will be consumed in trying to reevaluate the current digital platform and content available. It shall also involve carrying out an assessment of the union, its activities, and customers and how best such activities can be done. To generate sufficient content for the website, facebook and twitter, a meeting will be convened on the third week of the 1st month. This meeting shall comprise of the students’ fraternity, partners, administration of the university, the community and other invited charitable organizations. On the fourth week, preceding the meeting, analysis of the comments and views raised will be done. This will be followed by development of the content for the digital marketing in the 2nd month. The Leed Becket Students’ Union can spend the third month reviewing the content developed. At this stage, reevaluation can be done. The content can be posted on the current website for members to give feedback. On the fifth month, the new website can be launched. An assessment of the website could then begin immediately. 5.1. Budget The following is an estimate of the total cost of the project. Item Total per individual tool ,per activity cost in Euros Website development 6,000 Website maintenance 2000 SEO search box development 5000 Traffic generation 1400 Facebook 1400 Twitter 1000 Total cost 16800 Euros 6.0 Control and Measurement The bounce rates are important sources and can be used to analyze and improve the manner in which the new website runs. The bounce rates can be gotten from google analytics and Alexa. The time spent on given pages compared to previous times or other pages can help conduct a study on what content is liked and that which does not attract many people. Websites reviews can also be used to tell how the users are finding the website. Recommendations made should be taken seriously in order to improve the efficiency of the website. Other parameters to be used in the course of measurement include the number of likes, followers or comments. The higher the number of followers on twitter means better performance. A performance graph can be drawn to compare the numbers over a given time. If the pages are appealing, there is likelihood that this number indicates an upward trend over span of time. 7.0 Conclusion The above plan has provided a digital marketing plan that can be implemented by the Leeds Becket Students’ Union to increase awareness of their services thus be able to reach more people within UK and beyond. The plan outlines the objectives of this digital marketing plan, the implementation procedures, tools for the digital migration as well as metrics that can be applied to measure its effectiveness. 8.0 Bibliography Chaffey, D. and Smith, P. R. (2008) eMarketing eXcellence Third Edition Butterworth- Heinemann, Burlington, USA Kondoz, A. M., et al.,(2014). 3D future internet media.http://site.ebrary.com/id/10805544. McDonald, M. (2008) Malcolm McDonald on Marketing Planning Kogan Page Limited, Great Britain 9.0 Appendix: Situational Analysis The Leeds Becket Students’ union operates within a context where technology is readily available and an era where all business marketing is going online. The number of people who access the internet per day. According to internet users’ statistics 2014, there over 40% of the world population can access the internet. In 2014, the figure stood at 3 billion users per day. This was a rise in the number of people who would access the internet per day in the year 2010 (Condos et al. 2014).Such figures are rationale behind the aggressive efforts by most companies to take their businesses online. For those that do not, they face the danger of being pushed out of the market sooner than expected by lesser known companies that are slowly dominating due to the online marketing. Currenty, the internet is used to conduct business and online transactions. Most companies however have invested lot money in developing their websites so as to attract customers. They also do this as a way of marketing themselves to the diverse and limited customers available online. This push factor has given rise to stiff completion. For those who cannot develop eye-catching, informative content on their online platforms risk losing the attention of the internet users. This is the greatest external challenge facing companies in the 21st century. For them to thrive they must consistently post relevant, sufficient and adequate information on social media platforms. The Leeds Becket Students’ Union would be faced out the market if it fails to develop organized and up-to-date content on their website. Above all, it must rise to take a key role in the social media platforms since they are also central marketing platforms. The fact that the Leeds Becket Students’ Union has a majority of its users who are students is an added advantage.Most young people are users of the social media platforms such as facebook and twitter. If this factor is capitalized on, there are chances that the organization will succeed in laying out a digital marketing plan. Other factors within the organization that can be considered include the presence of a well-structured leadership style. The position being elective this means that they are quite competitive and for anyone to ascend to any of them, they must be people of integrity and good qualities.However,this can be looked from a different angle and interpreted as point of weakness.Firstly,it is clear that not all politicians make good leaders. The ability to convince and sway people to vote for you in the electioneering period is not synonymous with the ability to lead well. These procedures end up leaving good leaders out of the mantle and electing people who can’t deliver for the organization. Also it is important to note that the organization has very few permanent office bearers and such may lead to overworking the few or activities takes unnecessarily long before they are realized. Read More