Digital Marketing Plan
Marketing 476 Mariana Denight Matt Goldman Alexa Martz Antonio Medina Glenn Takemoto
1
Table of Contents Introduction
3
Environmental Analysis External Analysis: Demographics & Political
4
External Analysis: Economic
5
External Analysis: Technological
6, 7
External Analysis: Market
8
External Analysis: Competition
9-11
Internal Analysis: Performance
12
Internal Analysis: SWOT
13, 14
Internal Analysis: Business Strategy
15
Internal Analysis: Marketing Mix- Product, Price, Placement, Promotion
16, 17
Building Awareness: Search Engine Optimization
18-21
Website Optimization
23-30
Implementation Plan:
31, 32
Financial Forecasts
33
Performance Evaluation
34
Analytics
35
Conclusion/Further Recommendations
36
Works Cited
37
2
I. Introduction: From 1986-2004 the price of college textbooks in the United States rose about 186% (L, Brian). These prices are a reflection in publisher’s inflation, authors rights, as well as bookstore markup (which has been recorded as 100% at times) (L, Brian). Each semester, college students are asked to purchase an average of 5.3 textbooks, at one point of time this was a reasonable and acceptable demand from the education system but now that number can lead students into an additional $300-$700 in expenses per semester (L, Brian). As the cost of textbooks continually increase, college students are turning to other options of obtaining course materials. Whether buying used textbooks, international editions, renting from online companies, or avoiding books altogether--students are always on the hunt to spend the least, while gaining the biggest return.
ShareTextbookDeals.com is a price comparison website that works to help students save up to 90% off their textbook purchases. Students have the options to purchase their books new, used, or even as rentals from thousands of independent sellers and e-commerce websites. The site also allows students to find the best offers to sell their textbook to retailers at the end of their semester. By opening up the textbook market beyond students' local campus bookstores and ‘brick and clicks’ storefronts like Amazon, students are presented with several options and significantly lower prices.
On the website, users can type in a book’s ISBN number, Author, or Keywords to begin their search. The website then crawls the Internet, searching websites of numerous online textbook retailers and renters, ultimately finding books that offer the best deals. Campus bookstores have bagan initiating rental programs and selling used books, but oftentimes their prices are much higher than those of online retailers and independent sellers.
ShareTextbookDeals.com is an online storefront dedicated to serving the best interests of its students, users and family.
3
II. Environment Analysis: External Analysis: Macro Environment
Demographics
Demographics for the textbook industry include males and females who are either full-time or part-time college students.
Political Analysis
There are not any laws or regulations that directly target the online textbook sales industry but, there are multiple laws that pertain to the textbook publishers affecting the industry. The Higher Education Opportunity Act, enacted in July 2010, requires that all textbook publishers provide detailed information including: the price of the textbook, the copyright dates of the three previous editions, a description of content changes, the availability of the text in other formats and its prices, as well as prices of bundled unbundled and textbook sets, and their availability to professors who are selecting textbooks. The new law also requires textbook publishers to have this information available to student journalist who investigate high textbook prices. Another addition to the law demands that at the time of class registration, colleges must have a list of assigned textbooks available. An advanced notice in what textbooks are required allows for students to shop around for the best prices by using websites like ShareTextbookDeals.com without getting behind during the first few weeks of school (New Federal Law).
4
Economic Analysis
FIGURE 1
Supply and demand for the textbook industry are consistent throughout the year but most prominently in the months of January and August at the beginning of most college semesters. It is at this season that students are given their syllabi and are instructed to get their course materials, i.e. textbooks. FIGURE 1 shown above illustrates the web traffic of the top three online textbook sites: abebooks.com, campusbooks.com, and half.com, as seen the websites experienced the most visitors on 1/2010 and 08/2010.
According to San Diego State University, an average student spends about $1,638 a year on textbooks. Dependent on the student’s course load and major this average varies. When looking at the market of nearly 17 million college students nationwide in conjunction with these spending averages there is a vast market of guaranteed business and income, especially in January and August.
5
Technological Analysis
Technology continues to assist in aiding the textbook industry by reaching people from the comfort of their homes and offices at any time of day. The internet and world wide web have immensely increased reach and frequency of the consumer market.
FIGURE 1.1
According to the U.S. census bureau e-commerce has been one of the fastest growing economic industries in the last decade, see FIGURE 1.1 (U.S. Census). In 2008, e-commerce retail sales valued at nearly $142 billion (U.S. Census). A company like ShareTextbookDeals.com can easily attract members of this community with its ability to bring a combination of low prices, products, and efficient services.
6
In terms of textbooks, the Internet ‘bricks and clicks’ model has made it possible to quickly look for books with powerful search engines by title, author, or keywords in a matter of seconds. This method is much more effective and cohesive with the current consumer lifestyle than the traditional ‘brick and mortar‘ model which demanded travel, searching through shelves and often checkout lines.
Technology has also increased the amount of options students have in terms of their textbooks including: traditional purchase, ‘ebooks’- full or chapter by chapter, and book rental. In addition to offering digital textbooks/readers, these ‘Ebooks’ often include study guides and interactive quizzes enabling students to interact with the material.
As college students continue to rely on the Internet to accomplish many tasks, it is probably likely that they will use the Internet to buy their textbooks, if they are not already doing so. Advancements in technology and the reliance on the Internet further strengthens ShareTextbookDeals.com because it is an Internet based company, focused on finding the most reasonable priced textbooks.
7
Market Analysis
Generating about 26% in revenue, textbooks make up the largest portion of the book publishing industry revenue (Products & Market). The textbook market includes online and printed textbooks for all levels of education, however college textbooks continue to make up a substantial amount of market share due to increasing student enrollment. Enrollment in higher education is expected to continually increase as the expectations for the job market become more demanding over the next generation-- such a trend is likely to boost textbook sales over the next five years (Industry Outlook).
Relative to other book publishing product revenue shares at this point in time, the textbooks market has increased by about 5% (Products & Market). An increase in the textbook market further emphasizes a positive future for a company like ShareTextbookDeals.com. As more and more students turn to the Internet in search of good deals and consumer reviews an interest in comparative price allocation sites like ShareTextbookDeals.com will increase, as it makes it easier for consumers to get what they want at a price they can afford.
Also see Technological Analysis for current trends in textbook products
8
Competition Analysis
FIGURE 2
This chart, FIGURE 2, shows the size of the products or services that industry operators sell. It is based on the proportion of revenue each product or service segment contributes to total industry revenue. FIGURE 2.1, below, shows an analysis of the textbook market, indicating competition as one of its highest barriers.
FIGURE 2.1
Life Cycle Stage Revenue Volatility Capital Intensity Industry Assistance Concentration Level
Decline
Regulation Level
Low Low Low Medium
Light
Technology Change Barriers to Entry Industry Globalization Competition Level
Medium High Medium High
SOURCE: WWW.IBISWORLD.COM
9
In today’s e-commerce focused market, many consumers are using web search engines like Google.com and Bing.com to meet their current needs in regards to information and product search. When looking for textbook comparison sites like ShareTextbookDeals.com within these search engines the top 5 results are:
1). www.allbookstores.com:
U.S. Traffic rank- 21,039
Sites Linking in: 869
2). www.bigwords.com:
U.S. Traffic rank- 48,183
Sites Linking In: 363
3). www.bookfinder.com:
U.S. Traffic rank- 8,961
Sites Linking In: 2,666
4). www.cheap-textbooks.com:
U.S. Traffic rank- 243,161
Sites Linking In: 85
5). www.textbookhunting.com :
U.S. Traffic rank- -------
Sites Linking In: 6
It is clear that there is a market for comparison sites like ShareTextbookDeals.com, but the competition is heavy not only within its e-commerce model- textbook price comparison-but also product market-textbook purchases online.
10
Review of competitor’s sites/models: 1). www.allbookstores.com: •
The ‘allbookstores.com’ site is comprised of three basic colors: blue, black, and red with a white foundation. It is simple but very text heavy,
•
On the initial home page, there is a direct call to action leading users to “Find the lowest price” through a step by step instructed process
•
The site not only searches initial textbook cost but multiple other comparisons including: shipping costs, shipping times, sales tax, and avaliability & condition (new or used)
•
Navigation within the site is done through a left flushed ‘subject’ bar where users can browse subject by subject- ‘Antiques & Collectables’ to ‘Technology & Engineering’
• •
The site also provides a list of the ‘New York Times Best Sellers’ and a ‘Featured Books’ highlight In order to further word of mouth promotion, the company has added a ‘link to us’ page to give users html codes to share with their friends, it is a great idea but implementation and options could greatly be improved.
2). www.bigwords.com: •
At this point in time, this site was down for construction
3). www.bookfinder.com: • • •
The layout of this price comparison site is simple, it uses a periwinkle blue, white, and back color scheme. Users are immediately challenged to ‘Compare prices on over 150 million books for sale’ The Search bot enables search by: ‘Author,’ ‘Title,’ ‘ISBN,’ as well as the options for ‘New,’ ‘Old,’ and ‘Used/Out of Print’
• • •
The site uses mini testimonials such as, ‘When all else fails use this simple site. - The Scotsman’ Search results are text based- very crowded and overwhelming The site effectively manages a blog about ‘reading, buying and selling books’ with articles discussing ‘cool secondhand bookstores,’ sharing photos, and a twitter feed.
4). www.cheap-textbooks.com: • •
Another text based layout: using serif and sans serif fonts, it looks very un organized and chaotic. The site claims to find ‘real-time reports of the lowest, new, used and rental textbook pricing including shipping cost so our cheap price quotes are the cheapest total price”
•
A front page section highlighting their ‘favorite sites’ including: Amazon.com, Half.com, Chegg.com, and CampusBookRentals.com providing a brief description of each site as well as coupon codes. This seems like a very effective way to gain consumer attention as well as website optimization through relevant linking and terms,
•
There is also a Facebook widget which enables visitors/users to ‘Like’ the service/product/company
5). www.textbookhunting.com : • •
Provision of example comparison results, illustrating how users will find the information they need A blog is featured but it has not been written in since 8/2009 which defeats the whole purpose.
11
Internal Analysis Performance Analysis:
Though the website, ShareTextbookDeals.com, has not been formally launched, it has been going through a brief trial run to gauge interest and observe viewer behaviors for optimization over the last few months. In this trial run, there have been several purchases made through the website. As of mid-December 2010, the average discount students have experienced is 56% off their textbooks. The highest savings so far has come in at 99%, and the average amount that students save on each book when using is $68. In addition, there have been 79 members of Facebook to indicate that they ‘like’ the website and service.
Although there is not enough statistically significant evidence of success or effectiveness, these indicators show a positive outlook for future endeavors of the site and service.
12
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths One of the greatest strengths of ShareTextbookDeals.com is its simplicity. Rather than showing the consumer an abundance of various deals from a bundle of retailers, ShareTextbookDeals.com shows only the best deal from each category: new, used, and rental books.
Partnerships developed with several of the top textbook retailers and a general focus on quality over quantity enables the service to save the user money as well as ensure an efficient, reliable purchasing and product reception.
In addition to the mix of social networking and e-commerce capabilities give the site an advantage as it enables users to ‘like’ the organization and share so with their friends.
Weaknesses Currently, there is a complete lack of advertising and promotion methods to spread awareness of the website. Due to an awkward launch date mid-semester, this winter serves as the first realopportunity to start advertising to students in search of book deals.
The market for textbook services online is highly saturated and as a result, ShareTextbookDeals.com is at a distinct disadvantage in gaining potential consumer attention because of the lack of search engine rankings and advertisements among competitors.
In addition, the price results pages for each textbook on the website lacks indexable content for the search engine spiders to pick up on, besides the title and author of the book.
13
Opportunities
Students are finally beginning to say “No,” to absurdly over-priced textbooks and looking for alternatives. As more and more students become comfortable with purchasing or renting their books from websites rather than their local bookstore, the potential for a website like ShareTextbookDeals.com continues to grow.
In the future, it is important to pursue social marketing avenues to further give consumers/users the power to connect with and influence their friends to purchase their books online as well. There is currently a fairly deep integration with Facebook throughout the website, but in the future, we can do more to help people connect. Tools such as ‘share’ buttons and linking can enable the C2C relationship to be built, increasing impressions and business.
An iPhone application would be a great addition to the website, giving students the ability to compare prices while browsing at their bookstore. Also, during this economic downturn, it is pretty easy to get news coverage for an appealing website/tool which can help people save money.
Threats One of the most glaring threats to the website is the abundance of price-comparison websites on the internet. As stated before, the simplicity of finding deals on ShareTextbookDeals.com is an advantage, but it is unclear whether a student would consider this an advantage (or if they prefer viewing several options at once). Even though the competitors have more confusing and tedious websites, they may appear to have a larger selection of retailers from which they compare prices when in reality this couldn't be further from the truth. We need to find a way to communicate to potential customers the benefits of using our website over the competition.
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Business Strategy:
Targeting – In determining the perfect target market for ShareTextbookDeals.com, it is important to consider who stands to benefit the most from the service. Although middle-aged women who like to read romance novels can find great deals using the website, but they are less likely to use a pricecomparison website versus going straight to Amazon or Audible for example. Rather, focus has been directed to college students looking for textbooks (given the name), and targeting our promotion activities to this market.
Positioning – By diversifying our marketing strategies, we will be able to position ShareTextbookDeals.com in front of our target market in various locations. Through the use of an affiliate program, we will be placing ourselves indirectly on school campuses throughout the U.S. and we will be the topic of many student organization meetings. Also, through the use of SEO and internet advertising, we will be positioning the service just-in-time for students looking to save money on textbooks online.
15
Marketing Mix:
Product – ShareTextbookDeals.com is a price-comparison website specifically made for textbook purchases and buybacks. By compiling prices from some of the most-reliable and most-trafficked ecommerce textbook sellers online, we can show consumers the best prices. Here are some of our partners:
•
AbeBooks.com
•
Amazon.com
•
Barnes & Noble
•
BetterWorldBooks.com
•
BookRenter.com
•
CampusBookRentals
•
Chegg.com
•
eCampus.com
•
ValoreBooks.com
•
Textbooks.com
Many of these partners have marketplaces on their website which allow students to place their own books for sale in a classifieds-style listing. These listings are also scanned and included in the price results on ShareTextbookDeals.com. The website is essentially bringing together the best prices from thousands of sellers, independent (C2C) and corporate (B2C), and organizing them into a simple and easy-to-use interface.
Price – ShareTextbookDeals.com is free and makes its profits through affiliate commissions paid by book retailers in exchange for sending them book buyers. The average commission spans from 5-10% and allows us to offer the price-comparison service free to users.
16
Place – ShareTextbookDeals.com is operated strictly online and may expand to mobile devices in the future. Also, there is a short URL, www.txtbks.info, which also resolves to the website. This was mainly purchased to track our own affiliates and give them a shorter link to use in their promotions. For example, one of our affiliates' links is www.txtbks.info/21.
Promotion – Up to this point, no promotional methods have been pursued besides creating a Facebook fan page and spreading the word to close friends of the owner, which was then passed onto their friends, etc.
As you continue to read through our proposed strategy, you will discover several proposed promotional strategies to pursue beginning in January 2011, and continuing in January and August of each following year during the high-peak book purchasing seasons. In the future, this company can begin to market heavily during buyback season as well.
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Building Awareness / Differentiating the Brand, Engaging Stakeholders / Customers, Developing Relationships Through Dialogue with Consumers / Customers. Search engine optimization: Listed below are key words that are the most relevant to ShareTextbookDeals.com and the associated cost per click associated with Google AdWords: FIGURE 3 Keyword
Competition
Global Monthly Searches
Local Monthly Searches
CPC
books for cheap
0.94
201,000
74,000
$1.04
books for college
0.74
110,000
40,500
$1.24
Bookstore
0.17
2,740,000
1,220,000
$1.13
bookstores
0.30
246,000
135,000
$0.98
buy textbooks
0.94
60,500
14,800
$1.35
cheap books
0.94
201,000
74,000
$1.16
cheap textbooks
0.98
1,650,000
40,500
$1.39
college books
0.74
1,100,000
40,500
$1.32
college textbook
0.87
165,000
49,500
$1.11
college textbooks
0.91
135,000
40,500
$1.35
isbn
0.68
1,830,000
301,000
$0.66
McGraw Hill
0.15
823,000
450,000
$1.15
paperback
0.34
368,000
201,000
$3.68
Prentice Hall
0.23
368,000
135,000
$1.01
school books
0.41
165,000
74,000
$1.02
textbook
0.43
1,220,000
673,000
$0.89
textbooks
0.78
1,220,000
450,000
$1.18
textbooks for cheap
0.98
165,000
40,500
$1.39
textbooks for college
0.91
135,000
40,500
$1.38
university bookstore
0.24
246,000
165,000
$0.69
used books
0.8
368,000
246,000
$1.17
used textbooks
0.95
135,000
33,100
$1.54
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The list above, FIGURE 3, shows the common terms that someone would search when looking for a place to purchase or find textbooks online. These terms are also the most popular terms in the number of global searches people do when trying to find a place to buy textbooks. When there is a specific search like a business textbook, psychology textbook, or history textbook there are less global searches that occur but the cost per click is around $2.50. Since the website is new and does not have a high operating budget for advertising using these terms will not be the most beneficial for search engine optimization. The cost per click associated with each of the following words will consume the allocated budget of $2,000 that has been set aside for the total advertising budget in no time at all. All of the keywords above average at least 150,000 global monthly searchers on the bottom end with the high end being close to 3,000,000 global searches. Even if one of those words were bid on, the budget could be used up within a few hours, if not maybe even minutes depending on how many were chosen. Keeping in lines with the budget that has been allocated it is not wise to try to compete with the already established competition websites in this domain. The use of the head terms, even though they are most relevant for the average person searching, is not a feasible option at this point. Instead focus on tail end terms in order to try to gain awareness through search engines given the limited budget. In order to focus on the tail end terms and specific searches, the proposed strategy is going to be based around specific searches for books and authors. The list below has been gathered by visiting various sites and finding out what the most popular textbooks that have been rented or bought within the last six months. With this product targeting method, it is anticipated to capture people who have searched only for a specific textbook. By focusing on specific books, the advertising budget may be used most effectively while still gaining interest, impressions and sales. The goal is to try to limit the cost per click associated with each search and keywords to as low as possible while bringing in web traffic and business transactions.
19
Listed below are key words that are focused on the tail end terms which are most relevant to ShareTextbookDeals.com and the associated cost per click associated with Google AdWords: Keyword
Consumer Behavior
Competition
Global Monthly Searches
Local Monthly Searches
CPC
0.25
480
91
$0.60
0.45
880
210
$0.60
0.34
4400
880
$0.45
0.48
1900
1600
$0.44
Design Patterns book
0.12
2900
480
$0.36
architecture text book
0.34
720
260
$0.28
Transport Phenomena
0.09
210
28
$0.20
rent textbooks
0.98
49,500
9900
$0.05
Fundamentals of
0.28
210
28
$0.05
------
------
------
$0.05
------
------
------
$0.05
0.54
260
140
$0.05
0.52
320
110
$0.05
------
------
------
$0.05
------
------
------
$0.05
0.38
1900
590
$0.05
0.61
140
58
$0.05
book Accounting Principles book Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease Nursing Diagnosis Handbook
book
Finance book Marketing by William M. Pride An Introduction to Language textbook Introduction to Sociology textbook Chemistry by Karen C. Timberlake Human Anatomy by Elaine N. Marieb Worlds Together Worlds Apart book Financial Accounting by Harrison Principles of Microeconomics textbook
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This list of tail-end terms was compiled very strategically. Our researchers visited the KB Books, a local San Diego used bookstore, website and searched many general education books and listed a few of them. By choosing to include general education books pertinent to a target campus, it increases the likelihood of students searching for these books because they are required courses for most students. Another technique used was searching though Amazon.com’s “best sellers” under textbooks. Knowing that these books were best sellers increased confidence in choosing these terms to implement search engine optimization. In addition, it was noted that separating the words “text” and “book” from “textbook” resulted in a less cost per click, for example: the term “architecture textbook” resulted in a cost-per-click (CPC) of ($.71) but the term “architecture text book” resulted in a CPC of ($.28). That is an example how money can be allocated and used efficiently while still remaining relevant to tail end terms with positive search results and transactions.
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Website Optimization:
In order to have a successful website certain content needs to be added to the existing landing page and site. Right now it is a very simple website, which is a great interface for design and navigation but, it is lacking content for the user to read and also for search engines to pick up on. Right now one of the main goal’s for e-commerce and websites is to have high rankings on organic search within an engine. Organic search is free and most-often trusted by consumers. In addition, organic search is free so that there is not a need to pay for relevant key words and to come up as a sponsored listing.
Content should be added to the home page including: the reasons and motives as to what the website does. Within this new content, relevant keywords (that have been previously listed above) will be used to have the search engine recognize what this website is about and what services it provides. After creating content optimized photos (appropriate file names and meta tags) and graphics will need to be placed within the website layout along with meta tags on all the pages, and a very simple and effective layout that is easy to navigate.
EX:
<HEAD> <TITLE>ShareTextbookDeals.com</TITLE> <META name =“textbooks” content=”Price comparison for textbook purchase, rental, and viewing”> <META name =”keywords” content=”bookstore, textbook, rent textbook, consumer behavior book, isbn, psychology book”>
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The following pages should also be added to the web site: Affiliate program, forum, blog, testimonial page, contact us, and links page. By adding content to the page this will help us move up the organic search and gain market share.
[Affiliate program:] The website will contain an affiliate program in order help create a motive for people to participate and engage themselves with the ShareTextbookDeals.com brand. Under the affiliate program, a person will obtain a unique number and landing page which will be used to track the number of sales generated from that individual. It is a very easy incentive for users because it takes a very minimal time to sign up and relatively no effort on their part to advertise the website. The person will get a small portion from each sale generated from their identification number. This incentive of payment generated through sales will motivate people to actively advertise their individual link to the website in order to gain money from it. By creating this program it will help generate user interest and ultimately spread the awareness of the website. Affiliates will be challenged to invite friends, family, communities and acquaintances through their social networks online: Facebook, Twitter, etc.., word of mouth, etc. etc. This is a very viable option since it does not cost any money for advertising and spreads the awareness and potential audience of the website through consumer reviews which is one of the most reliable sources for information. [Online Forum:] Creating an online forum for the website will help people become actively involved in the website. A forum will be created in order to accomplish a variety of aspects for online content. The forum will act as an online community for people who share the same values of trying to find cheaper textbooks. Participants will be able to converse with one another on different subjects and also be able to talk about various book deals that they have been able to find from the website. The forum will also serve a purpose to deal with issues regarding the site or customer service. It is very important that the website is user friendly and that people find good
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deals, are happy with it, and is easy to use. With the forum there will be real time information that people can read about and also get responses to issues in a timely manner. Additionally, developers can look into creating a consumer to consumer book transaction process on campuses nationwide- eliminating shipping charges and timing. Another benefit of the forum is that new content will constantly be created on the website which will help out with search engine algorithms and crawlers that look for relevant content. This will help the website climb in terms of its organic search placement on the search engines.
[Blog:] Creating a blog on the website in order to release updates, special deals, and other information. The blog will become the â&#x20AC;&#x153;voiceâ&#x20AC;? of the website and will release updates to the readers. Information that can be included might be: special deals going on, information regarding the website, facts about savings/markups at mortar stores/etc... in order to keep the content fresh and relevant.
[Testimonial Page:] There will be a page where people will be able to put their testimonials about using the website. This will accomplish user feedback and give credibility to the website in order to gain more customers. People will be allowed to comment on their experiences, how much money they saved, the easiness of the website and there will be no filter as to what they can put. By putting this on the website we will gain the much needed and very important word of mouth feedback that is needed to give credibility to services which is crucial to any online commerce.
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[Facebook Fan Page: ] The website already contains a Facebook fan page with 81 fans, which is only a tiny portion of the potential 17 million textbook consumers available. In order to gain more presence on their fan page advertising campaigns should have a link to the fan page in advertising. It is also suggested that the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;shareabilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of Facebook walls and status be taken advantage of with consumers/users having an ability to post interactions with ShareTextbookDeals.com with their friends including: purchases made, deals found, money saved, etc.. With Facebook one of the most influential and popular social networks, it is crucial that ShareTextbookDeals.com has a lot of presence and engagement.
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[Twitter: ] Creation of a Twitter page in order to keep up with the current trends of social media. Although much of the Twitter posts will be a duplicate of the Facebook page and the blog, it is important that there be a presence on twitter. Millions of users are onTwitter and it is a viable means in the forms of advertisement, customer relations, awareness, feedback, and credibility. Right now there are several ‘conversations’ that go on throughout the Twitter week, including: #FF meaning: Follow Fridays which is where users tell their networks some of their favorite Twitter identities whether they be friends, market gurus, celebrities, etc... They are sharing networks with one another. ShareTextbookDeals.com can potentially start its own hashtag (#) campaign, highlighting specials, stand-out affiliates, money-saved/earned, etc.. Perhaps #TTh = #TextbookThursday (since #TT is already taken by #TravelTuesdays). It is a difficult campaign to implement but, if done correctly during a peak textbook season- January/August, the returns and viral feedback could be exponential. There is also separate market that will be tapped into by creating the Twitter account since there are people who do not use Facebook but use Twitter.
[Mobile Application: ] With today’s society and the current trends everyone will have a smart phone in the near future. People want things on demand and at the tip of their fingertips. By creating a simple mobile application for the website it will allow users to search for books instantly where ever they are. If the creation of a mobile app is too much or is over the allotted budget then we will create a mobile page that is optimized for smart phone browsers. This will be a quick and easy page that they navigate to in order to serve the same function as the regular page does but without all the bells and whistles.
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[Advertising Online:] Depending on the advertising budget banner ads should be placed via Facebook and on other relevant websites that the college demographic visit regularly. Facebook advertising will allow us to create a small advertisement that we can target to specific locations and even demographics. The creation of a small ad will consist of the logo of the website and a slogan â&#x20AC;&#x153;search for the cheapest textbooks online.â&#x20AC;? Facebook offers advertisement that is per thousand impressions and is on our price range plus they offer a cut off limit that we can limit the amount of daily advertisements shown. The keywords that we will target will be college and also do a geographical sorting of the major college areas in the California. We will create two ad campaigns and monitor which one generates the most amount of traffic and purchases in order to determine which one works better. The other advertisement for Facebook will be a picture ad with books, the equal sign, then a money sign. Other sites with high volumes of college student web traffic that should be considered include: Website
Traffic
Banner Ads?
Contact
www.ratemyprofessor.com
1,902,381
Yes
http://ratemyprofessors.com/ advertise.jsp
www.textsfromlastnight.com
696,228
Yes
ads@textsfromlastnight.com.
www.collegehumor.com
982,777
Yes
http://www.collegehumor.com/ advertising
[Contests: ] In order to raise awareness, create a motive, and get attention there will be various contests held online to achieve this. The contests will include one for the top referral websites that bring traffic and purchases to the site, a Facebook fan page and Twitter contest in order to gain more fans on the social networking sites, a sales representative contest for the person who brings in the most traffic, and a forum contest for people who are active in the community. The contest will help bring awareness to the site and also provide incentive for people to actively promote the website.
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[Mailing Lists]:
Obtaining relevant mailing lists in order to advertise the website to potential customers. Mailing lists that will be included will come from top schools nationwide. Targeting influential members on campus including those in: fraternities and sororities, school clubs and organizations, alumniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, and sports organizations.
University
Enrollment
Website
SDSU
30,016
www.sdsu.edu
UCLA
39,593
www.ucla.edu
USC
33,408
www.usc.edu
ASU
75,341
www.asu.edu
CSU
27,000
www.colostate.edu
Oregon State
19,352
www.oregonstate.edu
There are multiple universities state and nationwide, but these are a few of the first markets targeted to penetrate. Email is a very important means of online marketing and we will use it to our advantage since it is free and very easy to use. This will build awareness and will lead to an increase in use of the website. Example Message- FIGURE 4
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FIGURE 4 Email for affiliate program My name's Matt Goldman and I'm a Marketing senior at San Diego State. I recently launched a price comparison website that helps students save up to 90% on their textbooks (www.ShareTextbookDeals.com). Also, students can use the website to find the best offers from retailers wanting to buy used textbooks. I've created an affiliate program for this website (which is the reason I'm contacting you).!In case you're not familiar with what an affiliate program is, it is a performance-based marketing program in which reps promote a website, and in return, they receive a commission for each sale they generate. In the case of my affiliate program, you can earn 2% for every book purchase (or buyback) you send through!ShareTextbookDeals.com. I'm contacting leading members of fraternities, sororities, and student organizations since you come into contact with the most students on a regular basis. For someone in your position, an affiliate program is a great way to make some extra cash at the beginning and end of each semester. Here are some promotion examples that current affiliates have used successfully: 1) Announcing the website at the first and last meetings of your student organization each term. 2) Posting fliers around the dorm buildings on campus. 3) Writing your custom link (which will be given to you when you sign up) on chalkboards around campus. Payments are sent out monthly!to all affiliates who have over $20.00 in commissions in their account. You can choose whether to send the money to yourself, to your organization, or to a charity of your choice. You can sign up using this link (it's free, and you can have your account up and running in less than 60 seconds): http://www.sharetextbookdeals.com/affiliate/promo If you have any questions about the affiliate program, the website, or anything else, please give me a call! Also, please feel free to pass this information along to fellow members of your organization if you think they may be interested. Best regards, Matt Goldman matt@goldvine.biz (619) 793-4645
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FIGURE 4.1 Press Release for Universities
====================================== FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Students Can Now Make More Money Selling their Textbooks Back SAN DIEGO, California (December 8, 2010) - GoldVine Web Solutions, a San Diego-based web development company, has launched ShareTextbookDeals.com - a price-comparison website that helps students save up to 90% off their textbook purchases, and also allows students to find the best offers to sell their textbooks to retailers. Students have the option to purchase their books new, used, or even as rentals from thousands of independent sellers and e-commerce websites. By opening up the textbook market beyond students' local campus bookstores, they are presented with much lower prices. With textbook prices soaring over $1,000 per year for many students, it is clear that the textbook market has gotten out of hand. It is not uncommon for professors to upgrade to the newest edition each year despite the amount of updated content included. This repeating cycle leaves students paying more each semester, not being able to buy used books, and not being able to sell back used books. Campus bookstores have begun initiating rental programs and selling used books, but oftentimes their prices are much higher than those of online retailers and independent sellers. "Within the few weeks the site has been operational, the average discount students have experienced is 56%. The most that any student saved was 99% and the average amount students saved on each book was $68. It's about time students started saying no to being overcharged on their textbooks." -Matt Goldman, GoldVine Web Solutions To find the best deals for buying or selling your textbooks, visit www.ShareTextbookDeals.com Contact: Matt Goldman, Owner GoldVine Web Solutions hello@goldvine.biz (619) 793-4645 ###
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Implementation Plan The first step in our implementation plan for ShareTextbookDeals.com is to purchase ads through Google ads. Our second step for raising awareness is to add meta tags and keywords to the body of our pages in order to show up more on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Currently, we only rank first when users type in share textbook deals. We would like to add keywords like: Keyword
Consumer Behavior book Accounting Principles book Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease Nursing Diagnosis Handbook Design Patterns book architecture text book Transport Phenomena book rent textbooks Fundamentals of Finance book Marketing by William M. Pride An Introduction to Language textbook Introduction to Sociology textbook Chemistry by Karen C. Timberlake Human Anatomy by Elaine N. Marieb Worlds Together Worlds Apart book Financial Accounting by Harrison Principles of Microeconomics textbook
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In order to raise awareness when users search these relevant keywords. The third action we will be pursuing is by sending out a buyback reminder to all of our current users to remind them to sell back their books and show them how much their books are currently going for. We are also going to be adding textbook information into our site at the bottom after the title and the prices so that customers can view edition number, page numbers, reviews, etc.
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Financial Forecasts 1. Domain Name We have already registered our domain name sharetextbookdeals.com and currently pay $14.95 a year to maintain ownership over this URL. 2. Web Hosting We currently purchase server space from GoDaddy.com and pay $9.99 a month to access server space for our website. 3. Software The software used to develop and edit our web content is Dreamweaver. We purchased this software for $399 last year. 4. Advertising Currently we have not implemented any advertising for our website. We have relied on word of mouth and school contacts to reach consumers. We are now ready to purchase advertising space and have allocated $2,000 for advertising. We will be advertising in the months of January and August when most students are purchasing textbooks. We will also be watching the market trends to see if there are other times we should be advertising to students who use the quarter system. We will also watch regional trends and focus in on certain universities at different times to see how it affects our profits.
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Performance Evaluation Surveys To find out more about our target market we interviewed fifty students at East Commons (San Diego State University). Through our research we discovered many insights into the world of textbook buying. All of these will be very helpful in aiding in the future decision making process of our business. There are a few findings that stand out to us that could have the greatest potential effect on our business. The first is that most students are looking for a new way to buy textbooks due to the high price of them so there is definitely a market for our service. Another finding is that there is no gender difference related to whether or not a student would use our business; in fact, our results show that all students regardless of demographic are likely to use the site. According to our research, a main point for consideration is how to market our business. The differences in students show up in the behavior of students during the textbook buying process. Lower class-men tend to buy more of their required textbooks which means there is a great potential market, however they are not aware of options besides the SDSU Book Store. The main focus with them should be on raising awareness through advertising and promotions. With the upper class-men it became clear that although they purchase less of their required books, they utilize a variety sources to acquire them. Therefore, the main focus with this segment would be to emphasize the benefits of the service and make it stand out above the rest of the competition.
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Analytics
Above: Likelihood of Respondents Using Share Textbook Deals
Above: Frequency of Respondents Looking for a Different Way to Buy Textbooks
Above: Percentage of Respondents Comfortable with Buying Books Online
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Conclusion / Further Recommendations In the years to come we have plans to expand our website to fit the needs of our customers. The first goal we are working towards is to enhance our website with social networking where students could also sell books. We are also planning on enhancing the website with a user bar where you can sign in, view your cart, and purchase textbooks. This would help us to better know our customers and send them our latest promotions. We would also like to add an information bar where you can browse through books by topic. In order to provide our customers with more options we are planning on adding a bottom of the page banner ad that would show older editions of the textbook searched with prices listed. We would also like to add a testimonial page so that customers can read reviews of other customers and we can build their trust. In order to come up higher on search engines we will be adding a blog page where we can post new press releases and content. One of our major issues is creating awareness we will be hosting twitter contests throughout the year so that we can add more friends on Twitter and Facebook and further penetrate our target market. With these further recommendations we could expand our business to reach more students and increase our profitability.
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Works Cited
"Industry Outlook." IBISWorld. Web. 15 Dec. 2010. <http://www.ibisworld.com.libproxy.sdsu.edu/industryus/industryoutlook.aspx? indid=1233>. "New Federal Law Will Curb Skyrocketing Textbook Costs." Student PIRGs. 21 July 2010. Web. 16 Dec. 2010. <http://www.studentpirgs.org/release/newsreleases/textbooks/new-federal-law-will-curb-skyrocketing-textbook-costs>. "Products & Markets." IBISWorld. Web. 14 Dec. 2010. <http://www.ibisworld.com.libproxy.sdsu.edu/industryus/productsandmarkets.as px?indid=1233>.
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