Developing a Plan of How Future Digital Marketing will be in the Next 5 Years (Coursework Sample)

Word Count: 2265 words
Digital Marketing Plan
Introduction
The global market has experienced changing market tides and trends over the last two decades. In this case, external market changes necessitated the evolution and a change of organisational operations, such as the marketing function. An organisational marketing function is charged with the mandate to increasing organisational market share and influence respectively (West, For & Ibrahim, 2015). A key emerging trend that is expected to project into the future is the use of technology in marketing operations, known as digital marketing. This marketing plan offers a critical evaluation of how digital marketing is bound to change and evolve in the next five years. The plan is based on the SOSTAC model which outlines the various stages in the development of an organisational strategic plan as illustrated in figure 1 below (PBT Consulting, 2012). As such, the plan offers a situational analysis, plan objectives, segmentation, the activation plan and the control and evaluation process respectively

Figure 1: SOSTAC Planning Framework
Source: PBT Consulting, 2012
Situational Analysis
A situational analysis involves the process by which the internal and external environmental factors are evaluated (Cant, 2009). In the development of the social media marketing plan, the study analysed both the external macro-environmental factor changes as well as micro-environmental factor changes impacting on digital marketing and its expected future.
On one hand, an external analysis was executed through a PESTLE analysis. However, due to the unique nature of digital marketing, not all the factor impacts were evaluated. Instead, the plan reviewed the economic, social, technological and legal factors respectively. An economic analysis by the World Bank report (2012), on the global market illustrated that nations are increasing their growth rates after the 2008 global financial crisis, increasing the opportunities and chances for increased investments in capital expenditures such as technological developments. A similar evaluation of the social trends globally illustrates increased use of social media as a communication medium. As illustrated in figure 2 below, is expected to project in the future (Polites, 2014).


Figure 2: Facebook and Twitter Growth Trends
Source: Polites, 2014
Further, a technological analysis on the global market illustrated increasing connectivity globally. In this case, as Sadorsky (2012) stated, the rate and extent of technology use and adoption in organisations and households has increased over the last decade and is expected to increase in the future. Finally, the rise of technology legislations such as the social media censorship regulations in China are expected to impact on digital marketing trends into the future (King, Pan & Roberts, 2013).
In the other hand, an internal analysis of the digital marketing practices in organisations can be illustrated by the changing marketing approaches. In this case, organisations such as Kellogg among others have invested heavily on digital marketing as an alternative marketing approach (Kellogg, 2015). However, as Apulu, Latham and Moreton (2011) in a case study of Nigerian SMEs established, the application of this trend has hit major challenges in the developing nations and among SME ventures due to funds in availability. In this case, the development of initial technology and digital marketing infrastructure requires huge capital investments that the organisations lack.
Based on the above review on both the external and internal factors, the marketing plan developed a SWOT analysis framework illustrating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of implementing a digital marketing strategy both in the present and the forecasted next five years.
Strength
Increased focus on ICT application
ICT knowledge and understandingWeakness
Lack of sufficient funds
Lack of supporting ICT infrastructure in organisationsOpportunities
Increased connectivity globally
Increased social trend to ICT and social media use
Threats
Increased regulations on digital marketing
Table 1: SWOT analysis
Source: Summarised by the marketing Plan
The Plan Objectives
Based on a critical analysis and evaluation of the above digital marketing situational analysis and trends, the plan is aimed at meeting these changes. In this regard, the key marketing plan objectives were hedged on the Smith and Chaffey (2006) model on 5 S of internet marketing which include sell, serve, speak, save, and sizzle respectively. In this case, the plan aimed at increasing sales through digital marketing, serve its user through adding value, as well as speak to the customers through the social media. Moreover, it sought to save through marketing cost reduction, and sizzle through increasing the online brands’ image. Therefore, based on the above model guidance on digital marketing and the developed situational analysis, SWOT analysis, the plan had its specific objectives as
Increase customers’ engagement through social media platform marketing in the next five years
Transform the use of standard emails to customised phone marketing through mobile supported social media platforms in the next five years
Develop a viral marketing team to perpetuate the viral marketing use in the next five years
The delivery and attainment of the above marketing plan objectives will be a critical basis for the evaluation of the success of the plan.
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
In the development of marketing strategies, it is imperative that such a target market is selected from the entire market. In this case, the process of market segmentation involves a strategy by which a market is categorised based on key similarity and differences, with similar market components classified under the same segment, and those differing grouped under different market segments (Xia et al, 2015). As Cross, Belich and Rudelius (2015) noted, the process of market segmentation allows organisations to focus and target specific markets, a virtual that increases the overall probability for market success and customer satisfaction.
An evaluation of the digital marketing, consumer base establishes that the younger population is the most ideal market segment. In this case, the population between 20-45 years is within the working and earning category. As such, this makes the consumer group the largest in terms of IT related products as evidenced in figure 3 below (Brown, 2015). Moreover, as opposed to the older generation, the targeted market base has increased understanding and knowledge on technology and ICT application, forming the largest group on social media platforms.


Figure 3: Youths Smart Phone Ownership
Source: Brown, 2015
The proposed marketing plan will serve as an additional information sourcing tool for this consumer group. As Kaur and Medury (2011) argued, the younger population results to the online platforms as their main source of information search when making purchase decisions. Therefore, through digital marketing, the plan will ensure that there is available credible and accurate information on different products, a value that will increase the information search efficiency and the overall purchasing decision quality. Therefore, in terms of market positioning, the plan intends to position its value proposition as a key reliable and credible information source for online searches in purchasing decision making process. This is expected to not only serve in availing information, but support the alternatives evaluation and selection stages in the decision making stages respectively.
Activation Plan and process
In order to deliver on the social media marketing plan objectives, it is imperative to develop an implementation plan. In this regard, a marketing implementation plan outlines the various functions and activities to be executed in order to deliver on each objective. Moreover, it offers an analysis of the key resources required for the implementation process respectively.
On one hand, in order to deliver on the customer engagement objective, the plan will adopt the use of social media marketing platforms. On one hand, the plan recommends that organisations should focus on exerting their presence on the social media. One of the strategic approaches through which organisations can leverage their presence on social media is through the establishment of individual accounts such as Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as other blog platforms available (Chan & Yazdanifard, 2014). Through the use of the social media, the organisations will increase and propagate a change from the traditional centralised push marketing approach to a new decentralised pull marketing approach. A decentralised pull marketing approach will be enhanced through the creation of an opportunity through which the customers will interact with one another as well as with the organisational marketing staff, thus creating the desired information pool (Andzulis, Panagopoulos & Rapp, 2012). In order to achieve this strategy, the organisation will require resources on the development of social media platforms and thus will require ICT experts in setting up the accounts as well as finances for supporting the required ICT infrastructure.
On the other hand, in order to deliver on the digital marketing plan objective on the use of mobile digital marketing to replace standard emails. In this case, the marketing plan proposes that organisations should use the content analysis approach. The focus on mobile phones will be tailored through the use of increased content analysis systems. A quantitative data analysis approach is a research tool through which, a text is analysed through an empirical evaluation of the number of times given words, phrases and sta...