Digital Marketing: To the Future and Beyond

          Hello TravelBugs! Welcome to my final post for my digital marketing class.  This class had been my favorite so far in my MBA program.  I have learned so much about how digital marketing has been working in combination with traditional marketing to increase the amount of people reached by ads and companies.  Also finding how I can take what I am learning, how to connect it and utilize it to increase visibility of my personal blog but also for the companies I will work for.  My favorite topics were Search Marketing and Social Media Marketing because they are so applicable to the company I work for now and to the industry I want to work in.  
          For my current company, we are working to develop a digital marketing program.  The company is 20 years-old and has never done any marketing.  Instead, all of the clients were pulled in from cold calls.  My company is hoping, with digital marketing, we can pull in new clients but also keep connected with our current clients.  The Search Marketing topic will really help with generating ideas on how to increase our rank in organic search results.  While the Social Media Marketing topic will help with knowing the best ways to draw new and current clients in while keeping them interested in all of the updates and information we post.  
          For the industry I want to work in, the Thoroughbred Racing Industry, there is a need to start utilizing different marketing efforts or the sport will be lost completely.  While the industry gets good publicity and marketing during the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown races, the other eleven months of the year do not see any marketing or hype and we start losing more and more potential racing fans.  The best place to start is going to be Social Media Marketing because of the large diversity of people and generations you can reach there.  One of the farms making the most head way with this is Winstar Farms.  They have such a great marketing department, not only for their stallions but for the farm itself.  At least once a week they have video out on their Facebook page that features actives happening on the farm.  However, one of the biggest moves they have made, which I think will really pay off for them, was having an ad play during the Super Bowl of 2018.  While it was a small ad it was seen by millions of potential racing fans.  The commercial not only got people thinking about the Kentucky Derby and racing but it also drew them into to what the future could hold in racing.  More farms and racetracks need to follow in the footsteps of Winstar or this wonderful sporting event will be lost.  
         For my personal blog, all topics in this course provided great information but specially Search Marketing and Social Media Marketing will help me to market my blog and myself.  By using my blog to market myself I can show any future employers what I can do and how successful I can be.  The digital marketing space has seen so many changes in such a short amount of time and it will continue to fluctuate for some time to come.  I think the biggest change will be in how marketers access and collect user information.  There are more and more concerns coming to light about how user data is collected.  Especially with behavioral marketing, users are not happy with how the information is collected and used “against them.” I feel over the next several years there will be more strenuous regulations on how marketers can acquire and use data about users.  Do you agree?  Is there another aspect of digital marketing you think will see more change?  Let me know in the comments below.  Thank you for coming along on this journey with me.  Until next time, TTFN! Ta ta for now!

Companies Want to Know: Do you Enjoy Their Website?

           One big pull in digital marketing is the company’s website.  It is where viewers can find information on the product and on the company.  It is where they can go to get answers and write a review.  Hopefully, it is also where the company can connect with the viewers to answer their concerns and issues.  However, the most frustrating thing as a viewer, is to go to a website that you cannot work to save your life.  Those sites that are so complicated that you leave defeated and with a bad taste in your mouth about the company or product.  I am sure many of you have been to those sites.  Personally, I found many school websites were very hard to work.  While searching for a good school to complete my MBA, I started to get really frustrated with some of the sites I visited.  I concluded that those schools really did not want people to attend because of the lack of information I could find.  While DeVry’s website was about average in the amount of information I could find and the ease of use, what I really appreciated was the representatives who actively reached out to me.  

            For my current course, I chose to follow Burberry throughout the eight-week class.  Looking at their website was a lot different than most sites I have seen before.  For those who do not know, Burberry is a high-fashion clothing store with locations around the world and online.  They sell everything from outerwear to make-up to swimming suites for women, men and children.  When you first access their website, it takes you to a modified homepage with one large picture, three navigation options (women, men and children), and a search bar.  While it is nice to have the navigations available, it does take a few extra steps to get to the homepage I am more familiar with.  That is where the company name and logo are at the top, there are department options on either the side or the top (under the company name), and there is a search area at the top right corner.  When you hit the departments, they turn into drop down menus that allow you to further specify what product you are looking for.  What I like about Burberry is they do not do the normal picture slide show that you see in other clothing stores.  Their pictures are much more artistic, while still showing the item itself.  I feel that their mobile store is a bit more user friendly.  This is great for the store because it allows customers on the go to easily access, find, and purchase products.  I have no suggestions for their mobile site.  However, for their website, I would suggest a little less artistic layout.  While it was nice to have the different picture format, it was a bit of a challenge to browse through their products.  Other than that, there is not much to want for with their site.  

            These are the type of suggestions companies want to know about.  They want to see through the eyes of the customers and find ways to make our shopping experience easier and seamless.  Many times, when you shop online, there is a survey at the end.  For those who opt-in, many categories will be address, one of those being the website itself.  Companies, especially those who are experience high bounce rate and high exit rate before checking out, will want to know why the customers are leaving before checking out.  To do this they ask customers active on their site or those who have checked out to take a survey.  The survey helps them to know the likes and dislikes of customers.  While not all issues can be solved, a majority of them can.  So, by providing feedback, you allow the companies to better serve you.  With this knowledge will you be more inclined to take the surveys?  Are there some websites that you believe would benefit greatly from providing surveys?  Let me know in the comments below.  See you back next week for our last digital marketing post.  Until then, TTFN!  Ta ta for now!

Burberry. (2018). Women | Burberry® (United States). Retrieved February 05, 2018, from https://us.burberry.com/women/

Are These Ads Stocking Me?

Welcome back everyone!  This week, we will be talking about target marketing with Ads and the type of Ads that come up on personal webpages.  To start, let me give a few definitions so we are all on the same page.  First target marketing, as some might know, is when a company chooses a group of people they think will want their product and then use Ads to market to that group of people.  The group can be anything from women, ages 25 to 50 to families with more than two children.  To find their target market, companies will use Ad serving networks.  Ad serving networks are the people who collect information on everyone, things like what brands you buy the most to the next most check pages when you leave Facebook.  Gathering this information helps the Ad serving networks to know who is in certain target markets and the best places to put Ads for those people to see.  For example, when I was looking to purchase a car and was looking information up about the cars I had in mind on the brand’s websites, I was followed by those cars everywhere.  If I went to a clothing website, there would be Ads for the cars to the side of the screen.  When I got on Facebook, Ads for the cars would be in the news feed. I could not get away from them.  Ads are regulated by the IAB or the Interactive Advertising Bureau and they have guidelines for both Ads seen on desktops and Ads see on mobile devices.  For those who are interested about those guidelines, you can find the desktop guidelines here and the mobile guidelines here.  For this post, I looked at a few different sites to see what Ads might come up and how they differ between the desktop and my phone.  When I was on the desktop looking at Amazon.com, I saw two slideshow type Ads, one for Progressive and one for Comcast Business.  However, when looking at Amazon.com from my phone I did not see any Ads.  From the desktop, Walmart.com had an AAA slideshow type Ad; but on my phone, there was a static AIG Direct Ad.  On my brother’s suggestion, I looked at UltimateGuitar.com and found that the desktop showed two slideshow type Ads for Overstock.com; but on my phone, I saw two static Ads for Chewy.com.  I was a little disappointed in my search so I will be referencing some Ads I have also seen on Facebook.  The biggest different I noticed between the desktop sites and my phone sites were the different in the brands advertised.  However, I chalk this one up to the fact that the desktop is a shared computer and my phone is only my personal searches.  The other difference I noticed was the type of Ads.  All the Ads I saw via the desktop were slideshow type Ads.  Where the all the ones I saw via my phone were static.  I think there is a difference between the desktop content and the phone content because of the type of device it is and how advanced the site is.  Not to say that Amazon and Walmart are not advanced sites, but maybe they do not want to put in the effort of have active Ads on their mobile sites and save that technology for the desktop users.   Now, the place I see the most advertisements is Facebook.  They have everything from static Ads to video Ads to slideshow type Ads.  As I very rarely access Facebook from anything but my phone, I know the Ads on that device the best.  With a few scrolls in my news feed and I see a video Ad for Sustain, Dick’s Sporting Goods, a movie called Winchester, and BodyBoss.  These Ads are considered Filmstrips by IAB Mobile Rising Stars and are seen more and more on Facebook Ads.  I think that the Filmstrips and the slideshows type Ads are the best way to grab customers attention while they are online.  It is so easy to glance over and scroll by static Ads.  It is the movement and not the Ad itself that really captures the attention.  We, as humans, are naturally curious and when something moves we want to check it out and know what it is; I think this is why the Filmstrip Ads work the best.  Do you agree?  Are there other types of Ads that catch your attention more?  Let me know if the comments below.  Until next time, TTFN, ta ta for now!

IAB. (2018). Mobile Rising Stars Ad Units. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from https://www.iab.com/guidelines/mobile-rising-stars-ad-units/

IAB. (July 2017). IAB New Standard Ad Unit Portfolio. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/IABNewAdPortfolio_FINAL_2017.pdf

Likes and Shares vs Metrics and Keywords: Cannot Have One Without the Other

Hello again everyone!  Tonight, we are going to focus on metrics and keywords; or specifically, the metrics and keywords I am using for my blog.  I know it sounds super boring but hang tight and I will work to make it interesting.  First, I would like to start off by thank you, all of you. Because of you, I had my best week for my blog!  That is where we are going to begin our metrics journey, with you and metrics.  To start, I would like to clarify the word metrics in this setting.  Going into my current marketing class and hearing the word metrics, I assumed it would be the measurement of something but I was not sure what.  If you are feeling the same way, don’t worry, it is very simple.  Metrics are a way to measure the objectives or goals for a website.  For example, I have included a table below of my current objectives and metrics for this blog based on the results achieved from last week’s post. 

Objective	Metric
Increase the average views per day	Average number of views per day can be found from Google Analytics
Increase the retention of current viewers	Amount of returning viewers can be found from Google Analytics Type of link used by returning views can be found from Google Analytics
Increase the number of comments	Comment feed found at the bottom of the Blogger page
Increase the number of likes and shares on social media platforms	Provide link to blog on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn Provide small description of blog post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

While I had a great response to my post last week: two extra Likes on Facebook, one Comment on the blog itself, and 24 views for the blog itself, I feel I can do better.  I will say that is huge increase from the week before and I think the main reason was from my email campaign.  The table above shows what I would like to work on for this week and I think a couple of the objectives go hand in hand.  If I want to increase my average views per day, then I need to increase the number of like and shares my link receives on social media platforms.  I cannot just rely on the people I reach to increase my numbers; but, I want to be interesting enough that they share me with their followers and I am able to gain them too.  If I want an increase in the number of comments my blog receives, then I need to increase the number of current views I can retain.  Most of these objectives can be measured by Google Analytics or Blogger but others need to completed and not measured.  For example, to increase the number of likes and shares, I need to add more of a description to my post when I put the link to my blog out on social media platforms.  I cannot expect people to just open my link based on me putting it out there.  I need to draw people in. 

This is where keywords come in.  A keyword is a word or phrase that helps increase a websites chances of being found in a search.  However, the keywords need to be placed correctly.  If you have too many the search engines will not list your website and if you also use the wrong keywords the search engines will not list you as well.  The reason is they want a source that will be helpful to their users.  So, what you need are enough keywords to be found and only ones that pertain to the topics you are talking about.  Most of the time you will want the keywords to be in your title, description sentence (on social posts), and in the first section of your site.  As you can see, I use the words metrics and keywords in my first paragraph in hopes to draw in people who are interested in such a post.  Now, keywords can be helpful or they can be harmful.  Say you just use keywords like “marketing”, “media”, or “information”, your website will be floating out there with the other thousands of websites that have the exact same thing.  If, however, you use “digital marketing”, “social media platforms”, and “metric information”, will set yourself further apart from the others.  Some of the best keywords are phrases.  Think about when you search in Google. You do not just put “new shoes” or every type, color, and brand will come up.  Instead you put “new purple Nike running shoes” in and you get the results you are looking for.  The same principle should be used when creating keywords to help find your website.  You can use keywords and metrics to increase the share, likes, and visibility of your website.  What do you think would be the best keywords for one of your favorite websites?  Let me know in the comments below!  I hope you have enjoyed this week’s post.  If you are interested on being on the mail updates, let me know and I will add you to list!  Please come back next week for another interesting topic.  Hope to see you all then.  TTFN, ta ta for now!

Olenski, S. (2015, September 10). 7 Reasons Why Your Business Should Invest In SEO. Retrieved January 22, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2014/03/26/7-reasons-why-your-business-should-invest-in-seo/#4498f122563e

Roberts, M. L., & Zahay, D. (n.d.). Internet Marketing Integrating Online & Offline Strategies (Third ed.).

Wells, D. (2013, May 25). The Importance of Using Keywords in Your Content Marketing. Retrieved January 25, 2018, from https://www.inboundnow.com/the-importance-of-using-keywords-in-your-content-marketing/

Racing to the Marketing Finish Line, Will Churchill Downs Fall Behind?

Like most in the racing industry Churchill Downs has really stepped up their social media marketing game, in the past few years.  They can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  While the company has a moderate following on all three social media platforms they are lacking in one major area, direct marketing.  Even after signing up for their emails I have not received a single email from Churchill Downs.  One would think that if you sign up for a company’s emails that they would utilize that to send you information about upcoming events, especially a big one like the Kentucky Derby.  When it comes to their website, Churchill Downs has done a great job with making it very user friendly and easy to navigate.  As soon as their website pops up they show you exactly what they want you to do, buy tickets to Derby Week.  They make it easy with a scroll through schedule of what Derby Week will entail and they give an option to purchase tickets for one day or all the days.  While they have done a great job with their website, Churchill Downs is starting to fall behind and could really benefit from a direct marketing campaign.  Luckily, they already have most of the elements they need right at their fingertips.  The five critical strategy elements are: The Offer, The List, The Media Used, The Creative Execution, and The Service and Support.  The Offer is the product, its price, and the proposition presented to the customer.  Churchill Downs has this working for them by the way they are marketing the purchase of the Kentucky Derby tickets and Derby week tickets.  They also have The List, from the people who subscribe to their emails, and The Creative Execution, which can be seen in their website and social media platforms in the form of page set up, pictures used, and how the text is presented.  The two elements the company needs to work on are The Media Used and The Service and Support, both are big issues. The Service and Support is very lacking in the types of media the company has chosen to use.  While they do not push down low ratings and comment, they do not respond to the comments or work to make the situation better.  The Media Used is good to an extent, they use good social media platforms to get general information out to their followers but they really need to work on a direct marketing campaign.  With the emails they have collected, they could use them to draw people in to their website, which in turn could increase their ticket sales.  While they do not have any trouble selling tickets for the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby, most other race days see significantly lower attendance.  This could be helped if they worked to generate more information with the emails they have currently.  Using a direct marketing campaign, the company could get people interested in other races, get them to click through to Churchill Downs’ website, and get them to purchase more tickets.  This would not only help increase revenue and attendance at the races but it would also increase the betting pool.  I believe if Churchill Downs made these two changes they would see a very positive impact in the number attending the races outside of the Derby and the Oaks and they would also see a more satisfied customer.  Both impacts would then increase their revenue and ability to continue with the direct marketing campaigns.  If Churchill Downs can make these changes they will be able to stay in the marketing race and make it to the finish line.

Account, C. D. (2018, January 19). Churchill Downs (@ChurchillDowns). Retrieved January 20, 2018, from https://twitter.com/ChurchillDowns?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Churchill Downs. (2018). Retrieved January 20, 2018, from https://www.facebook.com/ChurchillDowns/

Churchill Downs (@churchilldowns) • Instagram photos and videos. (2018). Retrieved January 20, 2018, from https://www.instagram.com/churchilldowns/?hl=en

Churchill Downs Racetrack | Home of the Kentucky Derby | Thoroughbred horse racing in Louisville, Kentucky | | Churchill Downs Racetrack | Home of the Kentucky Derby. (2018). Retrieved January 20, 2018, from https://www.churchilldowns.com/

Roberts, M. L., & Zahay, D. (n.d.). Internet Marketing Integrating Online & Offline Strategies (Third ed.).

Fixin' Business Models One Stitch at a Time

Hello everyone!  This week we are going to talk about Business models and specifically take a look at Stitch Fix.  Like I mentioned last week, I am taking a break from the typical travel post for now, but will be back with a new exciting adventure in April!  By looking at most companies’ websites, you are able to figure out what general type of business model they have and are utilizing.  The business models discussed in Internet Marketing Integrating Online & Offline Strategies by Roberts and Zahay are: brokerage, advertising, infomediary, merchant, manufacture, community, subscription, and utility.  Out of the eight types of business models listed here, I would say that Stitch Fix uses Brokerage, Merchant, and Subscription, with each type of model being used in a percentage.  The largest percentage of their business model is Merchant because they are providing goods, in the form of clothes and accessories, and are allowing the customers to designate a day they would like the product; providing the ability to receive a Fix a close together or far apart as they would like.  Then, equal but lesser percentages of their business model would be the Brokerage and Subscription.  The Brokerage model can be seen in the types of clothing Stitch Fix sends their customers. They are small producers, just starting out and needing a platform to sell their clothing lines; who would have otherwise not been able to reach so many customers.  The Subscription model can be seen in the ability of the site to send you a Fix every month if you chose the option.  Again, this allows you to set a specific time frame of how often you would like a Fix; from once a week to once a month, with the added benefit that the site will continue to schedule the Fixes for you.  There is another path the company could have taken with their business model, however, utilizing a Community model like what you would see on Etsy.  While this would be a good way to connect the producers to the customers it would not be as profitable for Stitch Fix, nor would their business have grown as quickly.  That is why I think that Stitch Fix is doing a great job with the business models they are currently using. Please let me know your thoughts.  Do you agree with my analysis?  Do you have any other examples you think would be help?  Thank you for reading everyone!  TTFN!

Roberts, M. L., & Zahay, D. (n.d.). Internet Marketing Integrating Online & Offline Strategies (Third ed.).

Internet Marketing Class

Hello everyone,

      We are going to take a break from the travel posts for a bit and I will be using this blog for my marketing class.  I am hoping by the end of this class I will be able to use this blog more effectively and will have more skills under my belt.  For those who are looking for a great adventure check back in April, I will be traveling to England and be posting a lot of fun things there!  TTFN!

Rachel