Addressing Problems in Digital Marketing

 Addressing Problems

It is important to recognize potential problems in new marketing strategies so that they can be addressed in the future.

Assume that a new domestic tourism operator specializing in surf holidays wishes to build an interactive web site that allows the customer to see in real time the weather, wind, surf and other data relating to their destination. As a new and bold initiative the operator wishes to tie in the price of the holiday with the weather situation. Better waves and better weather attract a higher price and vice versa. It is a new and potentially risky project and the owner of the business has asked you, a recent project management graduate, to assist him in planning for this project.

For the marketing plan pertaining to this endeavor, it would be product to list the following:

A) List the risks associated with this project

B) List the top ten steps you would undertake in delivering this project

There are many risks associated with building an interactive web site that allows the customer to see in real time the weather, wind, surf and other data relating to their destination.

There are many risks involved in this project. Because of the interactivity associated with the design of the website, there are many challenges that any interactive website would encounter. The website would need applications which are hosted within an environment controlled by a browser. With the site you can update and maintain the web applications such as the live-feed weather reports.

Potential problems include having to develop specific browser-based technology which might prove a costly endeavor, offset by users paying a monthly fee instead of downloading the software linked to the web access.

You might have to hire a web programmer to write the web application to work with your internet operating system which would incur an additional cost. This can reduce the number of errors in the program, which will help attract more customers, but there can be security-related problems with the frameworks of the program.

Not only would you have to develop an application that links any weather software with the web access, but you would need to take on the risk and costs of creating an interactive payment program, and an equation for linking costs with weather, an endeavor which would need to be constantly monitored.

This web site would sacrifice basic usability and user experience for the interface and weather updates. The issue of standard compliance might arise. As with any website, the browser applications are reliant upon access to the application files. These files are located on remote services which are accessed via the internet. If their connection is interrupted, then they cannot use the application. There is the potential for a loss of flexibility since the web applications are not always an open source. This means that users are generally dependent upon third-party servers which mean there are no options for customization. There can be privacy issues associated with the fact that any company can track the actions of the users. There can be unwanted costs associated new software and necessary alterations to functionality.

The risks associated with tying in the price of the holiday with the weather situation are quite simply the potential for a loss of revenue because of uncontrollable events. There are also risks such as determining how much to charge for any given weather situation and the amount of additional measures one would need to include in determining this number. There are many different factors such as wind speed, direction, etc… This would require meticulous detail into the influential factors and the affects that each had on the overall price for the vacation spots. Also, another issue would be people who book their vacations at a set price based on weather and upon arrival the weather changes, changing the price with it. There would need to be stipulations for whether or not they can be charged more or less upon arrival based on the weather, or if their purchase is finalized based on the weather at the time they book their reservations.

As far as the top ten things I would do for this project, I would begin with the browser type, such as Java or JavaScript to make the applications possible for each of the clients.

The website would need a familiar interface that combines things such as the specific weather application, audio, video, and keyboard access. I would establish general purpose techniques that allow things such as drag and drop. I would integrate client-side scripting so that the clients can enjoy the interactive experience of the live-feed and up to date weather information without consistently requiring the page reloading.

You would have to break down the necessary applications into what are commonly referred to as “tiers”. Each of these “tiers” would be assigned a specific role. You would recommend a three-tier application for this site with the first being presentation, the second being application, and the third being storage. The web browser is the presentation tier. Web content technology is used for the second tier.

This is where the updates and user interface are generated. Since this is a moderately complex application for the weather, the third tier would provide users the continual access to the data. Since this interface is meant for a business, you would need to devise a business strategy to use interconnect the new software with the web access.

You would ensure that all new features were implemented on the original server which would negate the need to upgrade. You would integrate the server-side web procedures such as the ability for clients to search and email.

You would ensure that the website has cross-platform compatibility so that it can be operated within any web browser window.

Procedures

Understanding what potential problems might be faced and how a company can go about ensuring that marketing plans are implemented is one important aspect to a successful marketing plan. Consider the following example:

Your company wishes to obtain data from private companies regarding their economic activity. The project requires 100 firms to be interviewed. These are split into 3 categories. The project manager has a timeframe of 2 months and has 3 employees to deliver this project. The results need to be verified by a second government department before they are used.

For this project, the stakeholders include the project owner, project management team, the three categories of businesses, the second government department as well as the end user of the data.

For each step of the project, it would be necessary to document written understanding and agreement from all involved parties to ensure that there is no confusion amongst any group and that each stakeholder is well aware of their responsibilities and their due dates.

For the design, you would need to divide the one hundred firms into the three categories. After this point, you would establish three teams. In this case, it would be one employee per team since there are only three employees tasked for this assignment.

They would have to designate a specific goal for the number of firms interviewed per day. This would help maintain a consistent quota.

Given the fact that the project needs to be completed and verified by another company before the two month time period, it would be best to acquire the results to the one hundred interviews as quickly as possible.

Assuming each employee works five days per week, ensuring the completion of at least one interview per day would mean that the total interviews per employee would be finished in a matter of thirty three days which is a little over six weeks, leaving one and one half weeks for the final review.

It would be more prudent to establish goals of 1 ½ to 2 interviews per day to ensure that the other government agency has time to review the interviews. You would manage the stakeholder interaction in the design stage by monitoring the division of the one hundred interviews and the establishment of the 3 employees per one set of interviews.

You would also ensure that the project owner was aware and that the other government organization was informed of the time period in which they could expect to receive the completed work. If they reported that they needed the work soon to review, then communication between the three employees would be needed to speed up the progress of the interviews.

For the inception, the three employees would need to be monitored for progress in terms of the interviews. You would manage the stakeholder interaction in the inception stage by providing updates to the project owner as well as the second government organization.

You would supply them as often as requested, whether daily, weekly, or bi-monthly. This would require maintaining updates from the project management team as to their progress during a designated time period so that the current information can be passed along to the project owner as well as the second government organization.

For the scope agreement, you would need to ensure that every organization as well as business was informed of the deadlines, the goals, the necessary progress reports, and the frequency for all of the aforementioned.

You would manage the stakeholder interaction in the scope agreement stage by ensuring that each group was in agreement as to their necessary deadlines.

This would mean that the project owner was aware of the official deadline, which businesses were divided into which category, which employee from the project management team was responsible for overseeing the interviews of their designated group of businesses, the daily goals of the interview progress, as well as the length of time needed and given to the second government organization to complete the final review.

For the delivery, you would need to ensure that the throughout the two months each of the employees from the project management team were meeting their goals in terms of the amount of daily interviews, that they were establishing current updates which were to be passed along to the project owner as well as the second government organization.

You would have to ensure that the project owner was receiving the necessary updates and that the second government organization was also kept informed as to the progress and when they would receive the total project with the one hundred interviews.

You would manage the stakeholder interaction in the delivery stage by checking on each of the three employees to determine that they are filling out any necessary updates and that they have met their goals, combined their total interviews, and submitted them to the second government organization.

For the review, you would need to ensure that the second government organization received the interviews and reviewed them within their designated time frame,

you would manage the stakeholder interaction in the review stage by conversing with the second government organization to get written confirmation that they received the document with the interview materials and that they were reviewing.

For the completion, you would need to ensure that the completed project was submitted back to the project owner. You would manage the stakeholder interaction in the completion stage by verifying with written confirmation the sending and receiving of the completed document from the second government organization to the project owner.

These are simple concepts, though the detail in implementing them from beginning to end is a necessary component to the marketing plan because without that attention to detail, all employees cannot contribute because they will not fully understand, nor will you be able to dictate the necessary roles each facet of the company plays.

Marketing Objectives

In a marketing objectives section of your marketing plan you should describe the future picture. This section should answers that objectives your company wishes to achieve over the course of the following year. You should include a narrative of what you intend to accomplish alongside the data to support the objectives.

As an example you could start with the following:

Strategic management has recently expanded to include the management of logistics.

Within the maintenance of logistics, information technology has played a large role in productivity. Thanks to the complex developments involved in travel, shipping, global supply chains, and supplying businesses with materials, logisticians have been called to ensure that businesses like ours are able to offer services which get all of their clients where they need to be and when.

From this point you should be able to work with each department of your company to determine how the group best feels about implementing new strategies for the coming year, what things worked previously, what advances have been made recently that would help to bolster numbers for the following year, as well as how strategic management would work with the marketing plan at hand.

With the widespread use of technology, the coordination between logistics management has been greatly affected. Processing and communication has been improved which in turn increases interdependencies between different organizations. Technology has created computer networks which provide coordination between large numbers of people with the ability to work together. Computing tools and information technology have created new collaboration in the form of electronic collaboration, aiding logistics management. The effective integration of information technology has built commitment into business management, making it one key factor in the success of effective management. Interpersonal computing has made organization processes less expensive and quicker. Real organizations can dramatically reduce the costs of their coordination as well as communication through new information technologies radically creating more flexible organizations.

Conducting business logistics management to its highest capacity has been a conflict for small and large corporations since their inception. Aiding this challenge, technology has proved an effective medium for over one hundred years. Electronic collaboration is debated to have rescued communication, projects, data-entry, processing, and the continual search for better production. However, the all-encompassing rescue is now generating skepticism regarding its impact on creativity, effectiveness, and quality. Given research from the past decade, it is debatable whether or not e-collaboration has been an aid or hindrance; still, the more important inquiry is finding the balance for small and large businesses between efficiency and produced quality generated by the advancement of these technologies.

E-collaboration spaces intended for advanced methods of maintaining contact with fellow employees during the work day and creating instant communication, ability to view availability, and create conferences, generated Lotus Notes and Domino. These environments expanded from military to business to educational with the development of e-learning environments catered to class discussions, class projects, and rapid accessibility to documents and information through Blackboard and WebCT. Sharepoint, and Documentum Eroom are additional portals developed specifically for the sharing of documents. While these systems allowed correspondence and minimal documental transactions, they were expounded upon to create the web “made up of millions of platform-dependent web servers providing users access to static and dynamic content through platform-independent web browsers”. Overall, this produced browser-based systems within the web as well as the earlier non-browser based systems of peer-to-peer and client-to-server systems. These innovative tools for e-collaboration were founded and distributed by key players such as Microsoft, IBM, and Groove Networks and sharply reduced the cost of traditional business collaboration.

All of the aforementioned platforms and systems have been exercised by small and medium sized enterprises as well as corporations in their marketing plans for the benefits of product innovation and infrastructure management.

Corporations have learned from trial and error, gambling with large up-front costs, and merely predicting which of these methods best suits their needs as the technology develops and their new marketing plans have been developed.

Corresponding via e-mail is the oldest of these technologies and still functions as the most accepted means of asynchronous collaboration for all sized businesses. E-mail provides the ability to create mailing lists for specific teams both nationwide and internationally. It allows a means of better organization and communication with all employees.

Building off of email offers online discussion boards used for those for whom email is not a sufficient means of grand communication and require more focused discussions. These discussions can take place in online forums allowing for better monitoring of project progression.

Advanced security measures allow centralized management to reduce their list management and create levels of viewing, editing, and access for clients and employees involved in said projects and forums. The Bulletin board system within forums allows members to complete an online profile, descriptive of their interests, which other members may view for the purpose of discovering like-minded personnel.

Another large forum used in most systems currently integrated into daily business is the use of instant messaging (IM).

This expansion is the first step to leveraging ease, speed, and affordability in this market. Instant messaging is allotted through systems such as lotus notes, aiming to provide continual access to staff through synchronous collaboration.

This portal delivers instant gratification as one is able to instant message a colleague once viewing their availability—whether they are listed as available, busy, or offline—to clear up minor matters with ease. Integrating calendars allows business to better coordinate office functions and meetings as well as tracking documents, notifying group members of new documents, and changes to documents in progress.

Implementing special features within e-collaboration technology produces multiple layers of correspondence such as video streaming within an instant message. Incorporating voice and picture into these communication types presents us with sophisticated conferencing.

The conference styles included are phone conferencing, which can connect business communities with other members nationwide at the same time. Video conferencing allows others to view not only the people with whom they are speaking, but also any objects held in front of the camera such as diagrams or charts. Both types of conferencing are offered through the web, with Voice Over Technology (VOT) for video phones, or Skype as a means of video and written chat, as well as via electronic connection for phones. These measures exhibit a larger use of telecommunications and international clients.

Sales and Finance

Your sales and finance departments should be able to work hand in hand when it comes to developing the quantifiable goals and costs necessary to implement said goals.

For small business owners, it is common knowledge that sales and finance are hardly able to interconnect, making the relationship between the two impossible until now.

Thanks to sharing data online and sharing communication, sales and finance departments and staff can come together to maintain the best credit for your company. Prior to now, these two were completely separate departments or areas.

The two have had a difficult relationship in spite of their actions affecting the success of each other. Profit levels, business volumes, tracking progress are all components of finance while sales is directed toward closing deals and continuing to grow the customer base. Finance is often responsible for the imposition of aggressive targets in terms of business restrictions.

As far as sales are concerned, these moves limit their creative revenue and add unnecessary complications to the sales process. More often than not, Sales has viewed Finance as only caring about closing business instead of accurately billing and recording.

However, in order for companies to effectively maintain their transactions including a debit as well as a credit, they must have a relation with each other so that there are no errors in invoicing, poor customer services, and broken processes.

Until now, Finance was not as privy to the complexities of relationships with the customers upon which Sales focused. Sales departments were not pleased at spending months creating good relationships with clients, only to have that relationship tainted by receiving an incorrect invoice from Finance.

Thanks to new technology such as cloud computing, these two are forming a relationship with great communication, immediate responses, and improved collaboration. Modern accounting has now been linked to modern business, forming a relationship between Finance and Sales. The two can now invoice effectively, improve customer services, better understand credit balances, and collect cash in a more time efficient manner.

Prior to now, Sales was reliant upon a system for managing customer relationships while Finance relied on software for accounting.

This older software was often stored in a back office because it required significant upkeep as well as infrastructure which led companies to continue working with systems which were a decade or two old.

Thanks to cloud computing, accounting systems have grown and advanced to allow companies to work with the best software. This has encouraged a mind-set for Finance that is customer-centric, much to the appreciation of Sales.

The customer relationship management systems have been integrated into the cloud along with accounting software which allows the two departments to inter-connect, share data up-to-the-minute and collaboration online.

This collaboration has allowed the Sales’ revenue to grow thanks to new accounts, better customer service, an improved corporate reputation, and extra sales. In order to define future strategy, Sales requires a forecast from Finance which is often times convoluted at bust when reported.

This forecast dictates the allocation of resources and time. Cloud computing has created the close communication between Finance and Sales which has allowed for more direct forecast reports.

This has allowed for more accurate data to be exchanged between the two departments by maintaining accounting applications and customer relations management applications to work in sync. Answers regarding invoices can be provided immediately with cloud computing as opposed to the past when Sales would have to email Finance and would only respond to the customer once they had received a response.

Budget

Your marketing plan should include a section which allocates the necessary budgets for each anticipated activity that year. People in charge of each subsection of each new activity should be informed as to their allotted budget. The anticipated costs should be approached in an objective manner. If you have no budget experience, then you should add at least 25% to any estimate. You should also include a budget for internal hours and external costs. The budget should be maintained on a spreadsheet or in Lotus so that it can be manipulated throughout the process.

Your budget section might include the following:

Gross Sales $140,000

Budget for annual marketing $8,045

Yellow Pages $2,400

Sales letter mailing $600

Clerical help for mailing list $135

Advertising in local magazine $400

Advertising in local business newspaper $1,300

Brochure design plus copywriting $420

Brochure Printing $375

New mailing label software $250

Registration for business exhibition $125

Tracking Effectiveness

In order to track the progress of your marketing plan as the year progresses, you should establish regular meetings. You should develop a plan for incorporating adjustments, a plan for monitoring sales progress, as well as a plan for monitoring costs. You should be able to state what was accomplished during the last quarter during each meeting, how much of the budget was spent, and what else is anticipated for the following quarter. At each meeting, reports should be verbal with a printed copy. Whatever changes you decide to implement as the year progresses, they should be included in the marketing plan.

Conclusion

The marketing plan should address the short term (which is one to twelve months) as well as the long term (which is over twelve months).

It should outline the major goals of the year while also analyzing the mechanics necessary to meet those goals, bringing together the short term actions with the long term goals. It is good to think beyond the upcoming year and include the next few years in your planning.

You should be able to anticipate how many employees you will add over the upcoming years, how much office space you will need, whether your staff should endure additional training or certification, if you will hire another manager, whether or not you will be purchasing major equipment, how you can improve your profit margins, how to become active in local trade groups, regional trade groups, or national trade groups, as well as how the market demographics will affect your business in the future.

Overall, your marketing plan acts as the key ingredient to a successful business plan and business.