1. 1. Digital Marketing Plan November 2014 Kate Baumann Bill Theis Robert Yanik
2. 2. 1 Table of Contents Executive Summary .....................................................................................................................................2 Situation Analysis................................................................................................................................... 3-29 Industry Analysis .......................................................................................................................................3 Internal/Client Analysis .............................................................................................................................6 External Forces...........................................................................................................................................9 Competitive Analysis...............................................................................................................................11 Competitive Matrix ..................................................................................................................................16 Digital Marketing Audit..................................................................................................................... 17-26 Current Website ..............................................................................................................................17 Email Marketing .............................................................................................................................20 Online Advertising..........................................................................................................................21 Social Media Channels ...................................................................................................................21 Mobile.............................................................................................................................................26 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) .................................................................................26 SWOT Analysis .......................................................................................................................................27 Marketing Objectives ................................................................................................................................30 Marketing Strategies..................................................................................................................................31 Plan of Action ..........................................................................................................................................31 Segmentation Method................................................................................................................................32 Implementation/Tactics....................................................................................................................... 33-61 Marketing Objective 1 ....................................................................................................................33 Marketing Objective 2 ....................................................................................................................51 Gantt Chart/Timeline ................................................................................................................................62 Budget Breakdown.....................................................................................................................................64 Evaluation...................................................................................................................................................66 Contingency Plan .......................................................................................................................................68 Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................70 Appendix............................................................................................................................................ 71- 109 Works Cited..............................................................................................................................................110
3. 3. 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Pink Elephant is a boutique event branding company seeking to provide premium branding services for weddings, corporate events, and other special life moments. As a new firm that opened earlier this year, Pink Elephant is working to increase their brand awareness within Chicagos North Shore Lake and Cook counties. The firm is owned and managed solely by Devika Kagereillas who designs an array of event branding and decorations such as invitations. Pink Elephants current digital presence exists on its website and through its Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter social media platforms. Pink Elephant has two main objectives in order to strengthen its digital presence. Objective 1: Increasing traffic to the website to approximately 1,000 visitors per month mainly targeting brides, brides-to-be, wedding planners, and event decorators. This objective can be achieved through a redesign of the company website in terms of design and content, SEO activities on the website, the creation of an email marketing plan and CRM system. Objective 2: Building content on social media sites to increase following by 50%. This means having: 241 Facebook Likes, 210 Pinterest Followers, 81 Twitter Followers, and 312 Instagram Followers. This objective can be achieved through a comprehensive social media strategy including hiring an intern to manage and maintain the channels as well as creating accounts on Yelp, Etsy, and The Knot to increase company exposure to the target market.
4. 4. 3 SITUATION ANALYSIS Industry Analysis Pink Elephant is an event branding company and is part of two industries: event planning and graphic design. The company officially launched in August 2014 and is operated full time solely by the owner, Devika Kallergis. According to IBIS World, the Party and Event Planning Industry is a competitive service industry with success relying on multiple economic variables. Economic variables most pertinent to this market include disposable income or available company profit, marriage and birth rate, access to credit, and leisure time. This industry is well-established and has low barriers to entry and exit, making it easy for new competition to enter. There is little regulation over this industry. This allows companies to base decisions on company created values and norms rather than government standards. In addition, there is relatively low fixed capital investments required to participate in this industry, making company success highly dependent on human capital and business partners. The market is segmented into three main sectors including weddings, birthdays, and corporate events. As of 2013, weddings comprise the largest proportion of this market. There is a diverse range of pricing and offerings to fit a wide range of customer needs. The event planning industry is a $6.5 billion revenue industry and is made up of many small to mid-sized companies. Each company makes up less than 1% market share. The projected annual growth rate for this industry is 3.4% from 2013 through 2018, which is based on the economic variables impacting this industry.i Since the company is dependent upon location, the industry is fragmented across many geographical locations. Pink Elephant is also part of the graphic design industry since design is the companys primary competency. According to IBIS Industry Report, this industry encompasses activities
5. 5. 4 involved in creating visual materials for the purpose of communicating a message. In Pink Elephants case, this would be communicating a specific brand for an event. This industry depends on various economic factors similar to the event planning industry. These factors include corporate or advertising budgets, disposable income per capita, and demand for such communication tools. It is a $11.3 billion revenue industry, which has grown 2.2% since 2013.ii Like the event planning industry, the graphic design industry is also fragmented among many companies with over 83,000 companies within the industry. In fact, many people working within this industry are freelancers or work in-house within a company conducting business in another industry. Half of this industry supplies static design services opposed to video services and consulting. Historical growth for this industry is only 1% since 2009 and is projected to be only 1.8% looking into 2019; the graphic design industry took a deep nose-dive in terms of revenue from 2008 to 2009 where industry revenue growth was -14.9%.ii This industry is lightly regulated and requires low capital startup costs, suggesting that market entry is relatively easy. However, this industry is in the mature stage. This suggests that graphic design services may be saturated within the market. In addition, graphic design services are highly dependent on technology advancements making competition high when technology is rapidly changing. To succeed in both the event planning industry and the graphic design industry, companies need a number of key success factors including providing services for companies in an array of industries so that the source of income is not dependent on any single industry event. In regard to the changing technology, companies who are able to adopt new technologies easily are more competitive. The ability to customize work and make it unique is another key success factor in these industries. Being able to make changes and adapt to clients needs indicates higher quality and satisfaction with the service.
6. 6. 5 Competitors of Pink Elephant include both in-person and digital companies specializing in graphic design and/or event planning. In addition, some online, open source websites can be seen as a competitor. Although Pink Elephant stands out with custom event designs, social media sites such as Pinterest encourage people to do it yourself. This trend appeals to many individuals as a means of saving money. These social media sites are indirect competitors and will be discussed in more detail later. Primary competitors, however, will be other local businesses operating in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Pink Elephant targets high-end customers with relatively low price elasticity. These customers typically have high disposable income and are less likely to rely on do-it-yourself (DIY) forums. Pink Elephant is in a prime geographic area for these types of customers. For example, Highland Park where Pink Elephant is located estimates to have a population 29,763 individuals with a median household income of $119,126.iii Highland Park and other north suburban towns offer similar high income, low unemployment, and large populations that are ideal for Pink Elephant. Although the company has historically branded weddings, it does not want to be limited to only this type of event. Pink Elephant plans to expand its portfolio into other events, including but not limited to Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, corporate events, birthday parties, and showers. This will provide Pink Elephant a competitive advantage over other companies that have only a wedding focus. It also provides the company with a more stable sales stream as it does not limit its work to only one type of event. One of the main competitors for Pink Elephant is Bliss Weddings and Events. This company offers a variety of event needs from decorations and photography to transportation and venue selection. Also a small, woman owned local organization, Bliss Weddings and Events poses as a threat to the local market share for Pink Elephant. Mint 102 is another top competitor which uses the same website design. This company offers wedding and
7. 7. 6 corporate events branding products for its clients. Mint 102 is also on multiple social media platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. As these are the same channels Pink Elephant uses, Mint 102 competes directly with Pink Elephant for customer attention. Internal/Client Analysis Pink Elephant is a wedding and event branding company. They offer a variety of design and branding services for events and weddings ranging from invitations and rehearsal invites to gift tags and party favors. It mainly focuses on paper goods and decorations. Pink Elephant is owned and operated by Devika Kallergis. She is the only employee and works out of her home in Highland Park, Illinois. Since the company is new, it has not yet grown enough to require more employees or interns. Ms. Kallergis performs all the tasks needed for her clients events. Pink Elephant differentiates itself from its competitors based on the quality of its products. The materials that Pink Elephant uses can range from gold leaf to imported fabrics and materials from all over the world. These high-end materials can be included in any of the event or wedding branding supplies made my Pink Elephant. Pink Elephant is very flexible with their clients desires, so there is really no limit to what they can do for their customers. Additionally, it is unique in the way that it provides clients with a completely customized brand for each event instead of reusing templates. Pink Elephant works to provide its customers with a one-stop-shop for event branding with service from start to finish. Promotion Pink Elephant currently does not do very much in the way of promotion; this is partly due to how new the company is. That being said, the companys main form of promotion is through
8. 8. 7 social media. Pink Elephant is currently connected on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. Additionally, Pink Elephant has a blog, which is actively updated by the owner of Pink Elephant. On the blog and on its social media sites, the company showcases its past and current projects with pictures and descriptions of the events that took place. In addition to social media, Pink Elephant has a partnership with a small printing company in Glencoe called Miteprint. Pink Elephant has its business cards by at Miteprints retail location to and attract new clients. Pink Elephant has had one promotional contest which was not well received by the public. In this contest, Pink Elephant was going to award the winner with a coupon for 15% off one Pink Elephant branding service. The contest was on Instagram and unfortunately, due to the lack of followers, there was no response to the promotion when Pink Elephant contacted them via email. Online Positioning As mentioned previously, Pink Elephant specializes in using the highest quality supplies for its event branding services. While this is very evident when clients meet with Pink Elephant for a consultation, it is not very evident from its website. Its website provides an un-intimidating and inviting feeling for potential customers, but it does not align with the high-end event branding that Pink Elephant provides its customers. Pink Elephant has positioned itself in the market as an ultra-high-end event branding and design company. Her competitors (while some do convey high-quality design as well) are more focused on event planning, which divides their focus into the many aspects of the event as a whole rather than focusing on each piece individually. Many competitors will provide event branding services, but outsource them to other
9. 9. 8 companies. Unlike its competitors, Pink Elephant focuses on event branding alone and does all the design in-house and provide each customer with custom, one-off branding designs. Pink Elephant Website: Frank Event Design Website: Profile of Customers Pink Elephant is located on the border of Lake County and Cook County just outside of Chicago. Since Pink Elephant targets customers in the north-shore suburbs of Chicago, its primary customers are women between the ages of 22 and 40 within the northern area of Cook County and the southern area of Lake County. According to 2010 Census Data pulled from SimplyMap, the average disposable income for Cook County is greater than $55,000 and the
10. 10. 9 average disposable income for the southern towns of Lake County is $65,403 and up.iv Since money spent on events is dependent on disposable income, these high disposable income figures are idea for an event branding company such as Pink Elephant Event. Lastly, most of the population has at least some college or a bachelors degree. External Forces There are many external forces outside of the companys control that affect the companys ability to succeed in the branding and event planning industry. Political and Regulatory Political and regulatory force that affects the event branding industry is copyrighting. Branding and creative works need to follow copyright laws. This imposes a small restriction on Pink Elephant in that the company must rely on original work or creative commons. Economic Economic forces affect this industry because if the economy is down, brides spend less money on their weddings. According to a report from US News, in 2009, 34% of brides stated that their wedding budgets were decreased due to the impacts from the economic downturn in 2008.v Pink Elephant charges a premium for customizable event branding. Since a substantial number of wedding budgets are cut when the economy is down since disposable income decreases during these economic periods, brides may not want to pay a premium price for branding services. This can create a shortage in demand for Pink Elephant Events service
11. 11. 10 Social Recently there has been a trend towards people getting married at a later age. According to Business Insider, the average age for women to get married is 27, while the average age for men is 29.vi This allows individuals to become more established in their lives with a steady income stream or higher educational level before getting married. The heightened maturity level and higher education suggests these couples have a higher disposable income and a higher budget for event branding services. At the same time, there is a trend towards people not getting married. Pew Research on Social and Demographic Trends has noticed that in 2010, 28 percent of adults in the United States have never been married and only 51 percent is actually married.vii . Couples getting married have been on a steady decline since 1960 and negatively impacts the industry. In June 2014, Illinois same sex marriage law went into effect. Now that these couples are allowed to get married legally and acceptance of same sex unions has become more prevalent, the desire to celebrate these marriages is at a higher demand. This social change has a positive effect on the event planning industry. Technology Technological forces help the company create the products and allow for the products to be customizable. As technology becomes more pervasive, consumers may want use it more for their events. In addition, companies wanting to have a corporate event might want to include technological branding. Evolving with technology to meet future needs of event branding will make companies stand out in this industry.
12. 12. 11 Environmental Environmental and sustainable actions have increased dramatically over the past few years to the point where they have become common household terms. One environmental force that affects Pink Elephant is sustainability. If clients request products made out of certain materials that Pink Elephant does not have access to could negatively impact the business. Alternatively, as green initiatives increase, the availability of environmentally safe products increases. This can have a positive effect on businesses in the industry. Competitive Analysis/Matrix There are many companies in the Chicagoland area that also provide similar event branding materials as Pink Elephant; however, many of these companies do not customize the materials specifically for each customer. While Pink Elephant did not initially provide us with specific competitors, we did find a few companies with similar services. These services include catering, floral, venue planning, scheduling and entertainment, in addition to branding. Pink Elephant focuses mostly on branding as well as providing print and decorative materials. Many competitors offer these services in addition to things like floral, food, entertainment and makeup. These competitors provide more wedding and event plans versus branding; however, they also provide some custom branding materials. Because Pink Elephant does not offer all of these services, it is important for the company to make sure that it emphasizes the fact that it can offer a higher-end and more impressive event branding materials. In addition, it is important to note that the event planning companies that we identified as competitors are firms that are taking potential clients away from Pink Elephant as these firms already have established vendor relationships with event branding, invitation, and decoration companies.
13. 13. 12 One of Pink Elephants competitors in the Chicagoland areas is Frank Event Design. This company is located in Rogers Park, which positions itself perfectly for both downtown and suburban customers. This design company focuses on wedding and event planning in addition to branding. It has the resources to work on everything from lighting to hotel arrangements. It provides its customers with a much broader variety of services, which could put Pink Elephant at a disadvantage. Frank Event Designs website does not have a clear call to action. Frank Event Design is on social media, but it only has a Facebook and Twitter account. It does not have a mobile application and is not optimized for mobile, but the website does maintain most of its functionality on mobile. Their website is very organized and intuitive. They do not do any SEO. They have a blog, which is posted directly to their website. Most posts are short, but do a great job of showcasing their work, which is the blogs main focus. Another competitor is Two Sisters Events. It does not have a physical store front. It is entirely an online business, similar to Pink Elephant. This company is more similar to Pink Elephant than Frank Event Design because it only offers wedding branding and decorations. It provides a beginning-to-end service for its customers, just like Pink Elephant. Two Sisters Events also emphasizes its ability to create custom dcor and branding that highlights each couples unique tastes. Its website has a simple, but clear call to action. To interact with its customers, Two Sisters Events is active on social media through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Like Pink Elephant, Two Sisters Events also has a blog, which is used primarily to showcase their work and to provide helpful information to couples getting married, such as makeup tips and trends. Their blog is uploaded directly to their website. It does not have a mobile application nor is it optimized for mobile and they have no SEO. Although the website is not optimized for mobile, it does maintain most of its functionality on mobile.
14. 14. 13 Another competitor identified is Bliss Weddings and Events. It is located in the West Town, a neighborhood of the Chicago. Similar to Frank Event Design, it offers a variety of different services for both weddings and events. However, it has a greater focus on event branding over planning planning being defined as providing services like sound, lighting, food, and beverages. Bliss Weddings and Events has a very interactive and professional website with a clear call to action. It has an active online presence with Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter accounts in addition to a blog. Bliss Weddings and Events blog is posted directly to its website and contains work samples, how-tos for couples and new information about the company. Bliss Weddings and Events is not mobile optimized, but they have done some very minimal SEO with keywords. Despite not being mobile optimized, the website does perform its functions on mobile. One company that Pink Elephant identified as a competitor is Oh So Beautiful Paper. This company provides paper product design ideas for events and weddings. Although the company does not actually make products for customers, it provides a lifestyle blog for a DIY audience. The website is basically a giant blog, which allows users to browse through paper designs for things like invitations and cards. The images posted are the works of paper design companies. The website provides a place various designers to come together to post pictures of products that they would like to sell. All sales are linked to the designers website where the customer can complete the order. The website is very heavily search engine optimized and on the search engine results page, it is the first website that pops up when you type in Beautiful Paper or Oh So Beautiful Paper. The second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth that pop up on the search engine results page are social media accounts for this company. The website has a logical, vertical layout. The website is linked to five social media accounts, including: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and an RSS feed. Oh So Beautiful Paper is optimized for mobile.
15. 15. 14 Another competitor that Pink Elephant identified is The Paper Perfectionist. The Paper Perfectionist is a single-owned business run by a women with kids from Rhode Island. They specialize in paper event branding materials. Their website offers a portfolio of prior work, ranging from events like graduation, holidays, weddings and birthdays. The owner has an option where the customer can design their own paper products. They have over 100 styles to choose from and then there are options to choose colors and upgradable features (pearl paper, glossy images, etc.) to make their products higher-end. In contrast to Pink Elephant, The Paper Perfectionist focuses on semi-customizable paper products. The Paper Perfectionists website is bold, colorful and uses an auto-scrolling picture rotation. The layout is logical and the entire website helps identify the brands identity to the viewer. Their website has the links to their four social media accounts, but the link for Twitter is invalid and it appears that they do not actually have a Twitter account set up. The Paper Perfectionists website is heavily optimized for search engines, but is not optimized for mobile. Mint 102 is another event branding company that competes with Pink Elephant. Similar to Pink Elephant, it operates without a storefront out of the owners houses. Like Pink Elephant, this company is run by female owners with backgrounds in graphic design. It is clear on its website that it is not a wedding and event planning company, but rather event branding professionals. It specializes in all sorts of events but focuses on events like birthday parties, weddings and bridal showers. Mint 102 is not as interested in event planning for corporate or more formal events, which is a crucial difference between them and Pink Elephant. Mint 102s website is colored brightly, which makes the text and pictures difficult to see and read. The website does have a clear call to action and the websites layout is intuitive. Mint 102 is connected on social media with links to its Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, RSS feed
16. 16. 15 and blog on its homepage. The blog is posted directly to its website and the posts are long and very specific, but are uploaded less frequently than Pink Elephant. The posts showcase their work, ideas for events and to provide information to couples planning their weddings. They are not mobile optimized and have not incorporated SEO. While the website is not mobile optimized, it does perform normal function on mobile and most features still function normally. Results on First Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Not many of these websites are actively optimized for search engines. There are only a small amount of keywords in which Pink Elephant and its competitors come up on the first SERP page. Pink Elephant and its competitors all come up on the first page of results when their full company names are put in. All of Pink Elephant Events competitors (minus Bliss Weddings and Events) still come up on the first SERP page when pieces of their names are typed in. For example, when Frank is searched (In place of Frank Event Design) the company still comes up. Pink Elephant and Bliss Weddings and Events do not come up on the first SERP page when Pink and Pink Elephant or Bliss are typed in. Proper SEO will help Pink Elephant get placed in the first SERP page and allow it to come up when pieces of the name are entered.
17. 17. 16 CompetitiveMatrix
18. 18. 17 Digital Marketing Audit Pink Elephant is very hard to find on search engines. There are many companies around the world called Pink Elephant, which makes finding the company difficult even when searching Pink Elephant specifically. When typing Pink Elephant, the company does not come up within the first 10 pages of results. Additionally, there is another company called Pink Elephant Parties that offers similar services and come up in Google before Pink Elephant does. This implies that Pink Elephant is currently not optimizing its website. To begin, Pink Elephant Events website performs correctly on all internet browsers but is a hard to view on a mobile browser because the images take time to load. The homepage is visually appealing and consistent in design but does not direct visitors to do anything, rather the website seems to act as a portfolio. There are a lot of images of the designs and of past events that Pink Elephant has done; however, there is nothing on the homepage directing a visitor to products or services. There is a contact tab on the website where visitors can email Pink Elephant, suggesting that the purpose of the website is to convert consumers to use Pink Elephants event branding services. The contact tab is located at the top of the page, along with: home, portfolio, info, about and blog. The tab is very easy to find and the resulting page has a form that asks for the customers name, email, subject, phone number and a place for a message. We feel that this is the correct amount of information to ask from an inquirer. Navigating the website as a first-time visitor, there are no clear calls-to-action (CTAs) on the home page. Going along with the large amount of images as mentioned before, there is very minimal messaging on the home page. The numerous pictures make the website look beautiful, but a visitor may not know what the company does until he or she navigates through the website
19. 19. 18 for more information. The images display ability and style of the types of branding that Pink Elephant is capable of but make it harder to navigate around the website. There is a tab called info on the homepage. In the tab, a visitor can find a list of services and printing options. There are no prices for the services listed on the website, but that is common for the industry. Additionally, consumers can access past projects easily from the info tab. This is good because the visitor can see what past projects looked like and can anticipate what to expect if they use Pink Elephants services. While Pink Elephant Events website works on all browsers, it is not optimized for search engines. When pictures are placed on a website, it is possible to tag the images with words, which can easily be found by search engines, like Google or Bing. Adding these tags helps a search engines find a companys website and, therefore, move up the companys listing on the search results page. Pink Elephant has a lot of pictures without these tags, which makes it harder for a search engines to locate the website.
20. 20. 19 Looking at the pictures above, the website does have messaging that pertains to the types of services and printing options offered. This messaging is relevant to the company and helps visitors get to that end goal of being converted into a client. Although, there is one flaw about the messaging: all the messaging is presented through images. This makes the website not optimized and the content look blurry. Search engines are not able to find images without tags or text attached to the image in a caption. The messaging in the images above are images themselves, not text on the website. The images do not have tags or captions, so search engines will not place pinkelephantevents.com as highly on a search engine results page as they would a company with properly tagged images. If a consumer searches Pink Elephant, Pink Elephants website is listed towards the top. If a consumer searches Pink Elephant, Pink Elephants website is not on the first five pages of the search results. *See other keyword searches in competitive analysis/matrix section*
21. 21. 20 The website collects information from visitors through its contact webpage. This is a huge step in reaching the end goal to convert the consumer into a client. The information is collected by a visitor filling out a form located on the contact webpage. Through this form, visitors are able to submit emails and ask for more information about services. However, the website does not do a very good job of directing visitors to a goal or attempting to convert consumers into clients due to the lack of a call to action. The contact webpage is vital to any companys functionality. On Pink Elephants webpage, the visitor is greeted with a picture of the client. This webpage acts as a means of contact in order to convert the visitors into clients. Pink Elephant does do a great job of adding accents to this webpage that coincide with the brand and the personality of the company. Instead of saying phone number, the client used the term digits. Instead of saying write your message here, the client used say hello! Also, the user interface is simple to use; Consumers simply fill out the form on the contact webpage and then submit the information to Pink Elephant for follow-up. Lastly, usually a marketing audit involves an evaluation of the website traffic. However, the website has not been live long enough to evaluate metrics because there is not enough data yet. Email-Marketing Pink Elephant currently does not have any email marketing efforts and prefers social media platforms to communicate company messages. Focusing solely on social media and excluding email marketing efforts can limit the companys success in obtaining email addresses as well limits the companys ability to engage customers in private, online communication. The
22. 22. 21 reason the company does not have an email marketing plan is because the company is still new and is not be explicitly focusing on email campaigns right now. Nevertheless, building an email list is recognized as an important goal in the next coming months in order to retain customer contacts. Online Advertising Online advertising is essential to any online-only business. At this point, Pink Elephant does not pay for online advertising. Social Media Channels Social media has become a global phenomenon. Pink Elephant has taken advantage of this paradigm and has integrated social media into its marketing efforts. Pink Elephant is currently active on the following social media outlets: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. However, engagement across the platforms with followers is universally low. Across all social media platforms, Pink Elephants posts have few-to-none calls to action. A lot of Pink Elephants posts are links to shared content, but do not inspire followers to follow the link other than their own interest. There are no other incentives to encourage click-throughs. On the positive side, all of these channels are branded consistently. The design of each account page and each of the handles match from platform to platform aside from twitter. Twitter uses @pinkelephantevnt while the others use @pinkelephantevents. There are two letters that were not used for the twitter handle. Also, all of the social media profiles link back to Pink Elephants website. This creates a consistent flow and tries to direct followers to the website.
23. 23. 22 Facebook Engagement levels on Facebook are low; on the average post, Pink Elephant receives less than 10 likes and 0 comments and shares Pink Elephant has liked many local businesses, which shows a deep connection to the local community 161 Likes The name on Facebook is Pink Elephant, not Pink Elephant. This can create confusion when searching for the company on search engines. On Facebook, Pink Elephant posts pictures, highlights of past projects, thought leadership, and promotions. The content is colorful and concise and provides opportunities for consumers to engage with Pink Elephant. An example of what a typical Facebook post looks like on Pink Elephants page is shown below. Pink Elephant also uses Twitter to drive consumers to the companys Facebook page, share pictures, and interact with consumers. Pink Elephant does not pay for any sort of advertising on Facebook. In terms of posting frequency, the posts are not consistent and the content fluctuates between personal, lifestyle posts and promotional, company related posts. The Facebook posts also do not consistently contain call to actions.
24. 24. 23 However, the content on twitter is clear and has good calls to action as seen below. Pink Elephant does not currently use the video features on Facebook. Pinterest Pink Elephant has more followers than people it follows, which shows that there is an online interest in the boards she pins 140 Followers Following 132 7 Likes across 39 Boards 1295 Pins The name on Pinterest is under the owners name, not the name of the company The Pinterest doesnt have a theme to brand itself on the site Pink Elephant Events company bio. suggests that it primarily a wedding branding company. This can discourage customers with branding needs for other types of events. The boards on Pinterest are diverse and go beyond branding ideas to things like quotes, food options and costumes. Some of these boards can be confusing when posted on the brands board, as they may not seem relevant. Pink Elephants Pinterest profile is more about the lifestyle of the companys owner than it is about event branding. The content is relevant to Pink Elephants target market but again, is more about lifestyle rather than the companys branding.
25. 25. 24 Twitter Interaction on Twitter by the company in the form of favorites and retweets are nearly zero; alternatively, Twitter followers also hardly ever favorite or re-tweet the companys posts. 54 Followers Following 72 2 Favorites 331 Tweets Pink Elephants Twitter handle is branded as the company. However, the name is the name of the owner. This can cause confusion among those searching for Pink Elephant. Many of Pink Elephants Twitter posts link to its Facebook page. This is positive, as theres many links. However, visitors are being directed to the Facebook page, not the website. The use of hashtags is inconsistent. At times, there will be tweets without any hashtags and other times there are three or four hashtags attached to a tweet. Twitter posts use Smart URLs, which allows for more non-link characters. Occasionally, Pink Elephant tweets at other companies, which encourages interaction between visitors and higher tweet visibility among networks. Pink Elephant primarily tweets text and does not make advantage of the image feature.
26. 26. 25 Instagram Pink Elephant has between 1-25 likes on Instagram posts and between 1-5 comments on most posts 208 Followers Following 740 225 Posts Posting is inconsistent Some weeks Pink Elephant posts multiple times. Other times, there are days and even weeks between posts. Pink Elephant uses Instagram to help share pictures that are posted on Facebook. Doing this helps increase exposure and creates connections with consumers that are on Instagram. Links on website to the Instagram account leads to INK361.com, not Instagram. Pink Elephants Instagram is not named after the brand, it is named after the company owner. The bio. is different from Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. The image on Instagram is of the owner, not the company logo. Content posted on Instagram is the same as whats posted on Facebook.
27. 27. 26 Pictures posted are primarily company and portfolio sharing related, which is cohesive with the brand. Mobile Pink Elephant Events mobile website is not a web application but has been optimized by the website service provider, WordPress.com. Because of this feature, consumers are able to conduct business on Pink Elephants website on their mobile device. Consumers are still able to fill out the forms on the Info and Contact tabs of the webpage as well as engage in social media links on the website. In fact, the process of sending Pink Elephant information via the Info and Contact tabs is just as simple as the process of doing it on a computer. There are no delays in sending Pink Elephant a personalized message. In regard to social media, engagement is as easy as pressing the Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest icon at the bottom of the page. Selecting one of these buttons opened the respective social media site on a new web page on the mobile device. Lastly, Pink Elephant is not tracking its mobile performance based on the information provided thus far. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) CRM systems help companies organize, track and create reports, and provide software to help create, enhance, and deliver marketing campaigns to consumers. At this point, Pink Elephant does not use any CRM software system. Currently, Pink Elephant uses a form on the contact page to collect consumer data and information. Through this means, Pink Elephant is slowly building an email and contact list.
28. 28. 27 SWOT Analysis STRENGTHS Various channels for its online presence Photos used on site are not stock photos Experience/interface of website Volunteer/giving back aspect Portfolio Site is updated frequently Blog Mobile Optimization WEAKNESSES Online website is not differentiated from other event planning businesses Difficult to find on internet (via searches) Does not do any SEO No clear call to action Long, block text Text is actually an image The image makes text appear blurry Awareness of company is low OPPORTUNITIES Increase SEO Tagging images FAQ section Partnerships with complementary businesses THREATS Competitors Both boutiques (i.e. Bliss Weddings and Events and Mint 102) and large event stores (i.e. Party City) Other companies with same name Economy/company success is based on disposable income Demographics such as marriage rate SWOT Discussion Pink Elephant has an online presence through its website, Instagram, Twitter handle, blog, Pinterest, and Facebook accounts. This multi-channel online presence is a strength for Pink Elephant. Since the company specializes in design and branding, it is important to have online channels that can visualize the companys deliverables. In addition, the company uses only company generated photos; there are no stock images displayed on any of its channels. This speaks to the companys values of custom designs and personalization. Another strength of the company is that the website is optimized for mobile users as according to a Pew Research Internet Project conducted in May 2013, 63% of adult cell phone users use their phone to
29. 29. 28 conduct online searches.viii Having a mobile optimized website can help Pink Elephant increase its website traffic. Other strengths include the user experience of the website. Each page has a consistent layout, allowing visitors to easily navigate through the website. At the bottom of each page, Pink Elephant displays its social commitment of giving back to the community. The company also has a broad portfolio with custom descriptions to give website visitors an in-depth perspective of the types of deliverables Pink Elephant gives to its clients. Lastly, the website is updated frequently with blog posts. This is another strength for the website as it gives website visitors a reason to come back to the website and increases the companys SEO. Despite Pink Elephants distinguished, high quality products and handmade work, its website is not distinctive from other event planning or branding websites. The website is visually appealing; however, none of the pages have a clear call to action. Pink Elephant is not only difficult to find online through search engines (indicating that it is not actively working on SEO), it does not have a clear sustainable advantage at this time. Working on SEO is very important for a companys success. This is especially true as there are also three other easily found event planning and branding companies with a similar name as Pink Elephant. Although the website has comprehensive information about its services, the text on the website is very lengthy. Visually, there is a lot of block text, which can distract the visitor or create reader fatigue. In addition, there is little actual text on the website as most of the information uploaded is an image (a PNG file). These texts that are uploaded as an image look blurry because they are actually an image. Lastly, the awareness of the company is low. Coupled with low SEO, this can lead to high bounce rates and prohibit potential clients from finding the website. Nevertheless, there are many opportunities for Pink Elephant to strengthen its weaknesses and create a sustainable competitive advantage. First, there is opportunity to increase the
30. 30. 29 companys SEO through creating headers, tags, text content, and other SEO tactics. Adding a FAQ or next steps section to the website will help visitors know what to expect throughout the event planning process. This helps visitors overcome potential barriers prohibiting them from contacting the company for their project. Recognizing that Pink Elephant already has a couple established partnerships with local printing businesses, expanding the scope of business partnerships will be beneficial for Pink Elephant to decrease costs of supplies. In terms of threats, Pink Elephant faces three large forces of opposition that can hurt business: competitors, economics, and demographics. Competitors such as Bliss Weddings and Events and Mint 102 pose a threat to Pink Elephant as both companies have the same target market, are located within close proximity, and offer the similar value to customers. Creating differentiation between the companies is important to neutralize this threat. Secondly, there are three other companies with similar names as Pink Elephant; they are Pink Elephant Parties and Events Boutique, Pink Elephant Celebrations, and Pink Elephant Party Planning. Again, differentiation along with SEO tactics will give Pink Elephant a sustainable competitive advantage over these other companies. Economic health such as the amount of disposable income as well as demographics in terms of marriage and birth rates will always be a threat for Pink Elephant if it does not monitor and adjust its market strategy accordingly.
31. 31. 30 MARKETING OBJECTIVES Objective 1: Increasing traffic to the website to approximately 1,000 visitors per month mainly targeting brides, brides-to-be, wedding planners, and event decorators Objective 2: Building content on social media sites to increase following by 50%. This means having: 257 Facebook Likes 210 Pinterest Followers 87 Twitter Followers 452 Instagram Followers *Note that these numbers in objective 2 are based on likes and followers as of 11/19/2014
32. 32. 31 MARKETING STRATEGIES Plan of Action Proposed re-design of website to appeal to all potential customers; this includes individuals interested in weddings, birthday parties, and other anniversary events as well as companies interested in corporate events. This will entail restructuring the top navigation pane Restructure home page layout Restructure header/footer across pages Restructure content on each page Include internal links within blog Address the text vs image issue Create CTAs for each page Increase SEO Finding keywords, creating tags, headers, alt-text Writing content that includes keyword phrases Improve blog to include inter-site links Simplify content on site and enter it as text instead of image Increase online visibility outside of search engines Get on review sites: the Knot, Yelp, Etsy Improve inter social media cohesion Analysis of social media use and design strategy for each Create email plan and CRM system Look into paid advertising Analyze costs and benefits
33. 33. 32 Segmentation Method Pink Elephant primarily targets brides and wedding planners in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Pink Elephants secondary market includes corporate event planners, corporate businesses, and other event hosts. Given the demographic of the North Shore, Pink Elephant is physically well positioned; however, by effective employment of online media channels, Pink Elephant will be better positioned in the online arena. Pink Elephants primary customers are young brides with high disposable income in suburbs around Highland Park, and the website demonstrates this through cohesive coloring and verbiage that would appeal to this segment. Since, Pink Elephant would like to target additional segments, the website should be rebranded. Improving Pink Elephants online visibility by means of increasing its search engine optimization (SEO) will impact visitor traffic by both the primary and secondary markets. Social media channels will be rebranded to appeal to the younger audience and promote further referrals to the website.
34. 34. 33 IMPLEMENTATION/TACTICS The following strategies are designed for Pink Elephant to attain the two objectives identified by Devika Kallergis. Marketing Objective 1 Increasing traffic to the website to approximately 1,000 visitors per month mainly targeting brides, brides-to-be, wedding planners, and event decorators. Strategies and Implementation for Objective 1 Transition to New Website Design From the digital audit, we noticed redundancies on the website. For example, the info and contact page showed similar forms which could cause confusion among website visitors. In addition, the website has a lot of image content and moving media which limits Pink Elephants ability to rank high on search engines. Redesigning the website will help to improve visitor usability and appeal to both Pink Elephants primary
35. 35. 34 and secondary markets. First, we recommend restructuring the home page. Currently, the home page of the website has a layout of the image on the right. We recommend redesigning the website layout to follow the image on the right. The style of the website was created as a template in PowerPoint and is therefore a crude design. When creating the new layout in WordPress, it will look more professional. The template is to demonstrate location of content. The header of the website should be configured to follow the scroll. Therefore, when a user is at the bottom of the page, they will still have access to the header without scrolling to the top of the page. Social media buttons should be accessible from the top pane. Studies have shown that online users eye motion when opening a websites is a reverse F with high visibility in the top left corner.ix The logo will have a link following to the websites homepage, removing the need for a home button. Further description of the change in the top navigation buttons will be explained later.
36. 36. 35 We included a Contact Us button that will lead to a quick form that visitors can fill out for a consultation. This will improve ease of access to the contact information. The next section of the website is similar to what was there before; however, there are three distinct changes. First, there should be relevant text overlay on the image to increase the websites text content which will help SEO. In the image it is designing stunning materials for wedding and events in the Chicago area. By including this text, the mechanism by which search engines screen websites will be able to pick up this text and rank the website higher when online users search with similar terms. Second, this section needs a clear call to action. In the template, this is made manifest through linked buttons to the contact page and to the gallery to encourage visitors to remain on the website rather than bouncing out. Third, we recommend removing the automatic picture rotation to a static slider where the user is in control. Each option would have an image, textual content with keywords, and call to action buttons. This decreases browser to browser image-motion variability and decreases the chance visitors will be overwhelmed by an abundance of moving imagery. The second layout of the slider will be similar with an image, text, and buttons for visitors to click. The section below should provide testimonials since people have a larger trust in people. Thus, with user generated content on the main home page, people can read positive reviews about the company. Again, this slider should be manual so that users are in control. This increase visitors usability and decreases moving content which can be overwhelming to first time visitors.
37. 37. 36 Below, we recommend internal quick links to the wedding event page, the corporate event page, and the blog. After the testimonials, comes the footer. This content will appear on every page within the website. We recommend inserting information about the company using keywords that will be picked up and will increase SEO. One example of links that should be put in the footer would be Partnership Opportunities for potential partners to contact the company. This will also be an optimal space for the social responsibility link. Other additional information to include would be text concerning the communities in which Pink Elephant serves. For example, Pink Elephant could include serving wedding planners, corporate event planners, and hosts of lifes special moments across North Shore Chicago. The footer is also a good place to include a phone number, a company email for quick access to contact information, and a subscribe button for visitors to subscribe to the email list for regular Pink Elephant updates. Although our template is for the homepage specifically, the layout should carry through the whole website. Specifically the header and footer will remain exactly the same through the website. Redesign Color Content Pink Elephants current color options are perfect for its wedding target market; however, it can raise concerns for corporate event planners. We recommend blending complementary colors with the current palate. We suggest addition one or two other color to the current palate, such as gold coloring to supplement the high quality products Pink Elephant designs.
38. 38. 37 Complementary color palate example: The colors shown above are a good example of complimentary colors that Pink Elephant could incorporate in its website. The versatile range supplements its versatile portfolio of work while the bright colors still reflect the Indian heritage. Restructure Site Map We recommend restructuring the navigation titles to pull the site into a more cohesive layout in term of its page hierarchy. Currently the navigation titles are as follows: We recommend the following site map. We recommend this because it eliminates redundancies that occurred on the current site map. For example, since the logo links to the home page, there is no need for a home tab. This layout streamlines the user experience. This site map also uses common phrases that online users would commonly search for on search engines, which helps Pink Elephant's SEO.
39. 39. 38 Design Services Selecting design services will lead the visitor to a page with a brief overview of the services offered per category with a picture or two to illustrate an example of the end result. The categories we included are: Wedding Events, Corporate Events and Life Events, and are all sections in the Design Services. This section will include information located in the info section of the current navigation bar. A description of the content will be covered in the content/content optimization section (below). Gallery This will include images that are currently in the portfolio section of the website. Images should be tagged appropriately. For example, wedding branding images should be tagged as wedding branding and wedding invitations should be tagged as wedding invitations. This will help improve the website SEO. About us This page will provide an overview of what the company does, who they serve and where they serve. This section should have short, direct content with headers. Example: Mission Statement We are an event branding company, specializing in custom designs in order to make your event memorable for all your guests for years to come Vision We strive to be the most sought after custom event branding firm for every clients needs. Who we serve Brides and Wedding Events Corporate Events Life Events (including all of lifes special moments)
40. 40. 39 Event planners - select the partnership opportunities button at the top of the page to learn more Social Responsibility Good Karma: We donate a portion of our proceeds to an all-girl school in India that specialized in education for women Behind the Design This is the blog. It will lead to a page with an article title, an abstract and an image. Selecting the title will lead the visitor to a new page that will encompass the article. We suggest updating the name of the blog to Behind the Design to make it more personable to the brand. It will also help when online users are searching for the blog. For example, when a person searches for blog online, there is zero probability that Pink Elephants blog will appear due to the vast volume of online blogs. By having a unique name, the blog will be more easily identified on search engines. Note that we recommend removing the contact bar from the navigation site. This is because of our earlier recommendation to include a contact us button above the bar in the header. Content Design Some of the content on the website is lengthy to read and contains a lot of information. It is recommended that Pink Elephant simplify the content, include keywords in the text, and incorporate call-to-actions in order to generate lead and spread awareness. It is important that content is written directly onto the webpage so that search engines can recognize text and keywords. This allows for search engines to rank Pink Elephants website higher because the website will appear more relevant when consumers search for topics or words related to Pink Elephant. We therefore recommend typing the text directly into WordPress rather than uploading any content.
41. 41. 40 Additionally, content must also be consistently updated, especially for the blog. This encourages visitors to continuously visit the site and will also help search engine rankings as updated information is part of Googles ranking algorithm. Another aspect of search engine ranking algorithms is the amount of times a website is linked to is one item, such as a blog page. Thus, posting new content on the blog that links back to Pink Elephants website will help generate the links to increase search engine ranking. Overall, continuous updating of Pink Elephants blog will positively impact the companys online visibility on search engines. As for the more concrete information about the company that does not need to be updated as frequently as a blog, we recommend making a few adjustments to this text. Pink Elephant should rephrase its static text (text about the company that will not be continuously updated) to include clear, concise phrasing with relevant keywords. This will help enhance user experience and make it easier for consumers to navigate and collect information from the website. Below are examples of what that simplified content could look like for some of the web pages: Example of simplified content from the About web page: INSERT Mission. INSERT Vision Statement. INSERT client background. INSERT short description about the philanthropy that Pink Elephant is tied to and why that charity was chosen. Removing a lot of the conversational language will provide visitors with direct, easy to access information about the company. It will also help search engines quickly find information to increase search engine rankings for the website.
42. 42. 41 Example of simplified content from the services tab under the info tab that will be included in the new Design Services tab: At Pink Elephant, we offer a variety of premium, customized services to meet any of your branding needs required for your next event. The services we offer include: Include a list of all the services offered without the descriptions of what each service is.* If you would like to find out more information about our offerings or would like to receive a quote for your next event, feel free to send me a message here (insert link to the form submission on the contact page) or select the Contact Us button at the top of the page.** *Not listing in-depth descriptions of the services invites interested parties to email the client to find out more information about a service. **Both the link and the Contact Us button will lead to the same form. We recommend doing this so that visitors are aware of the quick access contact button next time the visitor comes to Pink Elephants website. By encouraging visitors to click on one of these links is an example of a call to action, since they are calling the visitors to take action and remain within the website. Below is an example of simplified content from the processes tab under the info tab that will be included in the new Design Services tab. This information will be included under the list of services with its own header labeled Next Steps to Planning an Event. This title is recommended since it is similar to common language that users type in search engines. Providing common languages as headers increase the websites SEO.
43. 43. 42 Power Hour: An hour-long consultation session to discuss details of the event and gain an understanding of what services you want for your branding needs. Estimate and Deposit: Following the consultation, an estimate will be provided with a detailed breakdown of all expenses for the services that would be needed. Once the estimate has been approved and a contract has been drafted, a deposit must be put down before any designs are created. Design: After receiving the deposit, design concepts will be provided to the client for feedback. Approval and Production: After feedback has been received, a final proof is given to the client for approval. Upon approval, materials are ordered and go into production. Order Completion: Once the order has been completed, a pick-up time is scheduled or shipping arrangements are made. Final payment is due upon shipping or at the time of the scheduled pick-up. Simplifying the websites static content similar to the examples above, consumers are able to learn about the process effectively without having a lot of content to read through. Additionally, a lot of the text throughout the website is presented through images, which makes the website not as optimized and makes it load slower on mobile platforms. It can also make the content appear grainy or pixilated depending on the internet browser a consumer uses or the image quality that loads for a user. We recommend removing any images that include text and recommend hard-entering the text from the images into the website code so that it appears as text which makes it easier to optimize the webpages. This would allow Pink Elephant to appear higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). Nevertheless, images are important to a website. Images uploaded to the website should be tagged and have alt-text in case the image is not able to load on a visitors device. One way to do this is to save the file on the computer from which
44. 44. 43 the image will be uploaded with a relevant name. Once uploaded, this text will be attached to the image. It is therefore important to include keywords in tags, alt-text, content headers, and general website content. Identify keywords associated with event planning It is important to identify keywords that Pink Elephant should use to tag its content with. This will help increase the rank for search engines. Identifying keywords can be done using Google Trends. Below is a graph that shows the rank for certain text searches as it relates to Pink Elephants industry since 2008: Blue line represents searches for event planning Yellow line represents searches for branding Red line represents searches for wedding planner Green line represents searches for custom invitations Purple line represents searches for wedding decorations Based on this data, it is recommended that Pink Elephant choose keywords that are similar to the ones above as these words are have a high volume of search inquiries. Adding
45. 45. 44 keywords should increase the rank of Pink Elephants website so that appears more relevant in searches for the keywords that are tagged for the content and website. A relevant exercise to complete if Pink Elephant is looking for keywords is to go to Google and begin typing text. Words and phrases that pop up when typing are terms that online users are currently using to search the internet. Establish Communication Design We recommend designing an email marketing plan to increase regular communication with interested parties. The direct benefits of email marketing include automation, the ability to targeting specific audiences, acquiring metrics of user behavior, speed, and efficiency. Because email marketing is such a key driver of sales for both big and small companies, we suggest that Pink Elephant implements an email marketing plan. Not only is email marketing very cost-efficient, but it provides some of the best consumer turnover rates in the consumer marketing process. Strategically segmented email marketing provides the highest click through and email open rates; therefore, we recommend an email campaign that uses different language depending on the segment that the email is sent. Please note that recommendations in this section should be continuously tested in order to find the best language use that result in the highest user engagement. We suggest that Pink Elephant uses MailChimp in order to help them design and send emails easily and efficiently. Not only will MailChimp help with the sending and design of emails, but it will also provide email analytics which will help Pink Elephant make future decisions regarding what to include in emails.
46. 46. 45 Email Analytics It is very important for Pink Elephant to use email analytics to see what content is most effective in its emails. By looking at and analyzing this information, Pink Elephant will be able to better understand what information is effective at encouraging user engagement and what information is less impactful. This will help Pink Elephant better tailor its future emails so that traffic to the website will increase. MailChimp analytics include numbers surrounding the times an email is forwarded, email conversion (emails to sales), click through rates (open and immediately close), and open rates. Marketing email content should include six key features. The first feature includes important links to the companys website or social media site. Email communications should include at least one link, but no more than three. Any more, the cohesive message of the email may be confused. In addition, links should send the user to the specific section of the website, rather than the website homepage. This will give the user a purpose. If the user clicks on social media link, they should be taken to that social media page, not the website. Link included in the email should also have complimentary language encouraging the user to click on the link, also known as a call to action. This is the second key feature to emails. This language lets the reader know what Pink Elephant wants them to do. For example, if the email discusses wedding services, the link should lead the email recipient to the Design Services section of the website. The emails complimentary language would include, click here to learn more about our custom wedding services or check out the latest images from this past seasons top wedding. The goal is to spark email recipients interest to click the link and go to Pink Elephants website.
47. 47. 46 The third element to email communication is to add pictures to the content that complement the text. This requires limiting the images to only a couple so as to not detract attention away from the emails message. The fourth element is a logical layout that is vertical. This ensures that recipients are able to view the message on mobile devices. Fifth, the email communications need an effective subject line. Subject lines are the first thing that recipients see. Providing a descriptive and relevant subject line will increase the likelihood that a recipient will open the email. The subject should encourage the recipient to open the email and should refrain from using spam words such as click here, open, or anything including the word free. HubSpot has a good list of spam words to not include in email subject lines.x Lastly, content written in emails should be limited to less than 300 words total. This will counteract reader fatigue that can occur when online users see a large amount of bulk, block text. These features and characteristics should be applied to all email communications. We suggest that Pink Elephant sends out emails with different purposes, such as upcoming events, new promotions, important company information, and scheduled newsletters. Before writing emails, it is important to consider the following questions and base the content of the emails in response to these questions. This will ensure cohesive, direct emails with clear communication. The questions are: What is the purpose of the email? Who is the audience? What is your format? What is the long/short term plan for your email marketing?
48. 48. 47 Create email template designs using EmailChimp An important step to take with email marketing is to make email design templates. We suggest that Pink Elephant apply these templates to all emails in order to look professional and to brand themselves consistently. We suggest that Pink Elephant create a few templates for the different types of emails that are sent and to test each layout against an alternative layout with the same content to discover the best email communication template for its consumers. If Pink Elephant wants to use different templates depending on the purpose of the email (promotions vs newsletters), the templates should not stray too far from each other in terms of colors and design. All Pink Elephant emails should be easily identifiable as Pink Elephant emails. We suggest that Pink Elephant designs these templates with the help of EmailChimp. Above is an example of an effective marketing email layout. It includes the six features mentioned above. Recall the six features: 1. Limited text (approx.. 300 words)
49. 49. 48 2. Pictures that help, not hinder 3. Logical layout 4. Properly linked links 5. Clear call to action 6. Relevant subject Branded Holiday Greeting Cards for Winter 2014 This sample is a good example as it is clearly branded as Pink Elephant due to the integration of color and font that are similar to the websites design. Design a CRM System/Build Email List Building an email list is essential before email campaigns can be launched. This list includes previous customers, customers who signed up for company updates from the website, and emails obtained at trade shows. As previously mentioned, the subscribe button in the footer is one way visitors can subscribe to email communications. Developing and maintaining this list will require a customer relationship management system. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a companys system to manage its customers. We suggest that Pink Elephant focuses on incorporating CRM into its marketing strategy for a few key reasons. First, a CRM will help Pink Elephant continue to build stronger relationships with its customers. Since it is typically less costly to retain customers than it is to acquire new customers, maintaining high customer satisfaction is integral in customer retention. In addition, since word of mouth advertising is such a large piece of all of Pink Elephants advertising, having strong relationships with its customers will ensure that these customers have
50. 50. 49 only good things to say about Pink Elephant to other potential clients. It is very important for companies like Pink Elephant to work on CRM due to the very specific and small niche space it fills in the event branding market. MailChimp, which is the same program that we suggested Pink Elephant use for its email marketing, can be used for CRM. This program will provide the critical customer data that Pink Elephant needs in order to build its CRM and, therefore, develop strong relationships with their customers. Pricing for MailChimp ranges from $10-$525 depending on the amount of subscribers. With pricing around $10 for less than 20,000 subscribers, Pink Elephant can expect to pay about that amount. Plan/Budget Paid Advertisement Campaign Paid advertisements are an effective way to spread communications about the company to a vast audience that is naive about Pink Elephant. Paid advertising can be done on a variety of social media sites, search engines, and websites. For example, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, the Knot, and search engines such as Google have options to implement paid and unpaid advertising campaigns. Paid social media advertising is something that we strongly suggest for Pink Elephant if there is an increase in the marketing budget. Due to the expensive pricing, we do not suggest using this type advertising until the company grows. If Pink Elephant wants to invest in paid advertising, we suggest beginning with The Knot. The Knot is a wedding planning website where wedding clients, branders, and planners can connect with each other.
51. 51. 50 For reference, advertising campaigns are on average $15 CPM (clicks per thousand impressions) and are purchased individually for each device. Therefore, if Pink Elephant wants to make its advertisements available on laptops, tablets, and smartphones it would cost up to $45 CPM. Paying to advertise on this website will be effective because the main audience of the website is the same as Pink Elephants target audience and would save Pink Elephants resources. At this time, we suggest that Pink Elephant begins by using social media as the primary channel for marketing and communications. Simply using effective promotion for news, events, pictures and promotions on Pink Elephants managed social media will help increase the publics awareness of the Pink Elephant brand. There are distinct benefits of advertising on social media. First, it is very easy. It requires minimal resources to create effective promotions and post on the companys social media channels. Second, it is inexpensive. Third, posting on social media channels will increase brand awareness, especially if effective social media strategies are implemented. This will be discussed in the next section.
52. 52. 51 Marketing Objective 2 Building content on social media sites to increase following by 50%. Strategies and Implementation Social Media Plan Overview Social media is an important forum where Pink Elephant and its potential customers can interact. The most important factor is information acquisition and engagement. Since Pink Elephant has limited resources in terms of staff, it is essential to have a social media plan in terms of where to post and what to post. Content posted on one social media platform should not be reposted on another. Instead, each channel should have its own unique content. Pink Elephants brand between channels, however, should remain consistent. Because Pink Elephant is already active on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram, we suggest that Pink Elephant does not open any more social media accounts. Pink Elephant should optimize and brand its current social media accounts consistently across each platform. There should also be clear calls to action for each post, and each channel should be updated on a routine schedule. We suggest posting to each channel at least twice per week. Across all social media accounts, it is recommended to follow aspirational companies to see what they do. Sometimes it is not always necessary to be the first to think of something; taking what works well and using it when relevant to the company is one way to benefit on others success.
53. 53. 52 A social media calendar and schedule should be created and maintained to make social media marketing is an integrated part of the business practices rather than as an add on, post when there is time activity. Sample editorial calendar: Optimize Facebook For Pink Elephant, Facebook should be used as a platform to share and engage consumers with the companys latest events and happenings, such as new blog posts. All links posted on Pink Elephant's Facebook page should link to the companys website. The value of Facebook is that businesses are able to post a variety of media, including text, images, URLs, video, vines, and gifs. This gives visitors unique and dynamic options to engage with content. Pink Elephant should continue to employ these media to supplement its text content. Recently Facebook has changed its algorithm in terms of who is able to see content posted from a business account. According to a techcrunch article, engagement is essential. Posts
54. 54. 53 that have less engagement determined by less click, likes, and comments will be displayed less in future newsfeeds.xi Posts that include these diverse media types, specifically pictures, have a higher engagement among visitors. The implications for this are to create clear posts with direct actions for consumers to take. For example, Pink Elephant needs to have specific language that encourages users to interact with the post. Posts should have a clear link to Pink Elephant's blog and should encourage visitors to (a) like the Facebook page, and (b) follow the link to the company blog. Ways to engage Facebook users include posting conversational questions where visitors can supply thoughts and reactions. This method of posting has higher engagement over the post-and-tell method where the page owner posts images of what they have done without encouraging visitors to take an action. Engaging posts bring the business to the same level as the visitors and makes the business seem more like a human and less like an entity. Examples of engaging Facebook posts: Like this post if youve ever had a DIY disaster (include video, image, or gif relevant to the text). Interested in how you can make your next birthday party scream YOU? Read my latest blog post: 5 ways to brand your birthday (include link to blog post). Although there are options to advertise on Facebook, at this time we do not recommend it as there are more effective channels to advertise given the budget of $1,000. Lastly, one of the best times for a company to post content is from 1PM 4PM. During this time, interaction between Facebook users is higher than other times of the day. Pink Elephant should post to its Facebook account during this time frame.
55. 55. 54 Optimize Pinterest For Pink Elephant, Pinterest should be used as an extension of the companys blog. Since extensive image use can slow down a companys website, Pinterest works as a means to post content that would otherwise not be posted on the blog but may be useful for visitors to see in order to gain a holistic perspective on the company or an events life cycle process. All links posted on Pinterest should direct consumers to the companys website. Pinterest is a hub that aggregates online content in one space. One of the best features Pinterest has for businesses is its business account. On this account, business owners are privy to a myriad of analytics to help monitor clicks, pins, and redirects to the company website. Thus, if Pink Elephant is not using a business account, it should consider changing its settings as to take advantage of these analytic features. To ensure that Pinterest users know that the board is a company, Pink Elephant needs to change the accounts alias as Pink Elephant instead of the name of the companys owner, Devika Kallergis. The companys Pinterest account and the owners Pinterest account should be separate but should also interact with each other. Currently Pink Elephant uses its Pinterest site as a center for sharing the owners lifestyle. With over 40 boards, however, there is not a strong connection between Pink Elephant and the Pinterest account. It is recommended to streamline the site around a central theme of branding. Boards and pins relevant to creative or branding ideas should be kept. In addition, some boards on the site are closely related to another board on the same site and should be melded to one board. Offering a more condensed board will give followers a manageable perspective of the brand without being overwhelmed by the many choices to click on.
56. 56. 55 Pinterest is all about a lifestyle. Pink Elephant should use this aspect of the site to help followers through the event planning lifecycle process. Although Pink Elephant offers customizable branded pieces for events, not all online users are able to pay for tailored decorations or invites and therefore rely on DIY content. Pink Elephant could take advantage of this need to create a DIY or tips for event branding that anyone can do and post this content to both its blog and on its Pinterest site. When posting content, it is important to label things as a consumer would search for it as mentioned in the keyword section previously mentioned. One example is that Pink Elephant could create a blog post of 5 Tricks to Making Your Invites Look Great. Then, on its Pinterest board, Pink Elephant could pin photos and provide a link to the blogs website. This allows consumers to easily find the content and then redirect them to the company website. Another reason Pink Elephant should consider posting DIY content is to generate positive word of mouth, also referred to as future sales. Those consumers who cannot currently afford Pink Elephant's services but follow the company on Pinterest because of the useful and engaging content the company has will have Pink Elephant's brand name in mind when friends are looking for a company to brand their event. Recommended by the Entrepreneur, business success on Pinterest depends on engagement.xii It is therefore a good idea to link pins to the company blog. Providing links to the blog encourages followers to remain up to date with the companys latest events. To keep engagement high, Pink Elephant needs to interact with its followers. Examples of how to do this include commenting on a follows new board, conduct competition for followers to create their own design, comment on followers designs. The purpose is to exchange ideas around design and branding so that followers gain an understanding behind Pink Elephant's expertise.
57. 57. 56 Lastly, make sure that pins have a clear call to action; in other words, ensure that the pins make the followers or potential followers do something, whether it is go to the company website, like a pin, or visit the blog. Every post should have an actionable calling for users. Optimize Twitter Twitter is a micro blogging tool that allows users to share their thoughts and reactions to events in the world. It is also an important tool for business owners to raise awareness of their brand and create leads. As stated above, Pinterest is for lifestyles and Facebook is for deeper engagement and advertisements, so what should Twitter be for? So as not to duplicate content, Twitter should be used to raise awareness, push relevant updates to followers, and engage with other companies in idea generation. This can be done through posting promotions and titles of new blog posts with links to the blog site. Using pictures as well as text provides followers with diverse media and can make a tweet stand out against competitors. In addition, citing and referencing other Twitter users builds credibility and a larger network with whom to reach to share the companys updates. All links in the companys tweets should provide links to the website and not its Facebook page as are most of the links on Pink Elephants Twitter handle. First, it is important to note that a companys Twitter account description on Twitter impacts whether or not people will follow the company. Adding words such as expert or leader in the field make it more likely that people will follow the Twitter account. Second, to ensure that Twitter users know that the @pnkelephantevnt handle is a company, Pink Elephant needs to title the handles alias as Pink Elephant instead of the name of the companys owner,
58. 58. 57 Devika M. Kallergis. The companys twitter account and the owners twitter handle should be separate but should also interact with each other. Pink Elephant's Twitter presence is consistent with the Pink Elephant brand; however, posts need to be more scheduled. It is optimal to post less than 3 times a day. According to Fast Company, engagement drops after a company posts its third tweet.xiii For now, it is recommended to tweet once a day or every other day and provide clear calls to action in each tweet to build a credible Twitter handle. It is recommended for Pink Elephant to create a branded hashtag. This hashtag can be shared between followers and the company to code their tweets. This allows users to easily interact with the brand without having to directly tweet the companys handle which can use up some of the users 140 character limit. Pink Elephants hashtag should be memorable and relevant to the company. Examples of possible hashtags include #designedit #brandingpink #behindthedesign (name of the blog) As with the other social media channels, Pink Elephant should remain reciprocal in the engagement. This means favoriting a followers relevant tweets or re-tweeting posts. This makes the company seem more human to followers which is seen as a positive thing and will encourage followers to interact with the company more frequently. The best times to tweet is on weekdays from 1PM 3PM.
59. 59. 58 Optimize Instagram For Pink Elephant, Instagram should be used as a showcase. Content on Instagram should link followers back to the companys information or contact page on its website. Instagram allows users to share pictures with its followers. Therefore, Pink Elephant should post relevant pictures that tell followers a story. One example would be a compare and contrast, before and after picture of the latest invitation design. The Social Media Examiner suggests connecting the Instagram account to Facebook and to use relevant hashtags to gain greater visibility.xiv We therefore recommend that Pink Elephant continues to use its branded hashtag across platforms. Videos are also supported on Instagram and are encouraged when relevant. Posting short 30-40 second videos ensure that consumers viewing the videos watch the whole thing. Again, Pink Elephant needs to follow its followers and comment on its followers posts to encourage their engagement. Just like the other social media channels, each post should have a clear call to action. Instagram allows businesses to capture a moment of time. Encouraging users to post their own images or link the companys posts to the website provide ways for users to interact with the brand instead of just seeing it. To ensure that Instagram users know that the @pinkelephantevents handle is a company, Pink Elephant needs to title the handles alias as Pink Elephant instead of the name of the companys owner, Devika. The companys Instagram account and the owners Instagram account should be separate but should also interact with each other. To obtain the latest information about Instagram for business owners, Pink Elephant should visit the Instagram for Business blog posted by Instagram.
60. 60. 59 Create Yelp Account Yelp is an important channel for Pink Elephant. Having a Yelp site will allow previous customers to post relevant information about how the company is doing. It also provides a neutral platform which can increase the credibility of the reviews. Pink Elephant should create a Yelp site for its company and encourage past clients to review their experience. One way to engage users to review on Yelp would be to send out an event followup email congratulating the