13 minute read
Saidah Scott
SAIDAH SCOTT
Saidah’s Gifts & Things
Executive Summary
Saidah’s Gifts & Things is a small minority-owned, women-owned business that has recently relocated to the Orlando, Florida area and needs to establish a local clientele and expand its online presence. The following social media marketing plan entails how Saidah’s Gifts & Things can increase their online presence through increased engagement, followers, and click-through. This plan details the steps that Saidah’s Gifts & Things will need to take to not only successfully expand its social media following but to ensure that it is maintained and continuously moving in an upward direction of growth. Included in this plan are tools that can assist the company with analyzing its social media and scheduling posts, as well as sharing content that is engaging to the target demographic. If the company implements this plan as directed and evaluates its results at the conclusion as suggested, Saidah’s Gifts & Things will be equipped with the information needed to reimplement and create new goals and objectives.
Saidah’s Gifts & Things provides custom gift baskets for every budget and any occasion. Every basket is made to order with the recipient in mind. Saidah’s Gifts & Things refers to those making a purchase as Gifters, and those receiving a gift basket as Giftees. The firm strives to see Giftees become Gifters. Saidah’s Gifts & Things is always aiming to see their social media engagement increase.
The Internal Environment
Saidah’s Gifts & Things’ current goals are to acquire customers and followers on social media. Saidah’s Gifts & Things (SGT) was frequently posting on Facebook and Instagram to maintain a consistent social media presence with hopes to increase followers. SGT also purchased advertisement posts on Facebook and Instagram to promote pre-packaged gift baskets, and distributed physical flyers to family, friends, a salon in Southfield, Michigan, and a church in Detroit, Michigan. These goals are consistent with the mission of SGT and aligned with the trends on how consumers are reached but were not executed efficiently. SGT appears to have fair pricing for its products and is a direct distributor. SGT has not done any marketing through its social media accounts since August 2019. While none of the posts on Instagram generated any website clicks, two posts did generate new followers. One of their posts that received the most likes than any of their other posts was a paid post that reached approximately 133 people, with 85% of them not being followers, and 74% of those people were reached because of the paid promotion. On Facebook, SGT paid to boost two of their posts and was able to reach approximately 374 people from one post and approximately 1,116 from the other post. SGT was not able to report that they received any leads from distributing flyers. Social media seems to be working well for the company, but the inconsistency with their posting is not effective. The marketing flyers distributed did not contribute to the growth of the business. SGT currently has a low sales volume resulting in a lack of profitability individually and compared to other firms in the industry. With the restrictions that COVID-19 has imposed and the lack of time and effort people like to put into gifting, the performance of the gift basket industry is improving. SGT’s performance is not improving with the trend of the industry because of their lack of consistency with their social media marketing efforts. They have a good strategy but need to be consistent with implementing the plan, evaluating the results, and making changes when necessary.
The firm has limited resources financially and capitally but has an abundance of experience. These resources will increase as the firm expands its marketing and acquires new customers. The firm can begin to leverage additional resources by partnering with local suppliers for their needs, providing them with an advantage over its competitors when it comes to pricing and local involvement. With the increase in resources, the firm can allocate more resources into its marketing department that can be used to increase engagement and visibility on social media.
External Environment
SGT’s major competitors are Do It Yourself Gift Baskets, Thoughtful Presence, The Basket Case, and Orlando Gift Baskets. Do It Yourself Gift Baskets and Thoughtful Presence appear to be medium-sized businesses that have been functioning for many years with a steady clientele. They both offer premade gift baskets and Do It Yourself gift baskets have the option to build your gift basket. The Basket Case and Orlando Gift Baskets appear to be small businesses that primarily deal with local business transactions. They both offer pre-made gift baskets, and The Basket Case offers a variety of services that include gift wrapping, character deliveries, custom imprinting, and personal shopping. All competitors excluding The Basket Case are active on social media. Do It Yourself Gift Baskets, Orlando Gift Baskets, and Thoughtful Presence have great marketing and customer engagement on their social media sites. The Basket Case does not have a visually appealing or user-friendly website, like the other competitors. Potential future competitors for SGT could be 1-800 Flowers and Edible Arrangements who are extremely active on social media and have a high rate of engagement. The current COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the income of some individuals resulting in less free-spending on things that are not essential for survival. This pandemic has also however created more of a need for special and creative ways to celebrate special milestones and occasions while practicing the social distancing guidelines that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended. The suggestion for people to stay at home because of COVID-19 has caused consumers to have more free time than they previously did. This extra free time is often being spent online utilizing social media sites. This is the most convenient way to stay connected while socially distanced. The internet and the popularity of social media have made it easier for the firm’s customers to view recent products and promotions at any time of the day or night. The advancement of website development to include optimization specifically for mobile devices has also made it more convenient for customers to view the firm’s website from any device with
ease and security. With the help of technology, there are many safeguards in place to protect customers as they communicate and make purchases with SGT. Customers enjoy being able to see the personalization and showmanship of the products and gain confidence and excitement in the product they are expecting. Just as customers can look at products from SGT with ease and convenience at any time, they can also look at the products of competitors.
SWOT Matrix
Strengths: • Quality Products • Stellar Customer Service • Affordable Pricing • Creative Leadership Weaknesses: • No Storefront • Lack of Social Media • Unfocused Marketing • Limited Financial Resources Threats: • Competition Has More Offerings • Competition Has Greater Social Presence • Economic Slowdowns • Cyber Attacks
Opportunities: • Community Grants • Few Local Competitors • Seasonal Holidays • New Technology
Social Media Strategic Planning
With the firm having quality products and few competitors in the area they can increase promotional offerings as seasonal holidays approach to increase sales. Consumers will be drawn in by the firm’s quality images and low prices and retained because of their stellar customer service. As the firm begins to improve its social media presence with more consistent posts, its following and social media engagement will increase. This would result in removing this item as one of their weaknesses. The strategic focus of the social media plan is to increase social media engagement, followers, and click-through rates. There is no data available for Instagram followings and interactions because the firm has not reached the designated number of followers to receive such data. There is data from Facebook shown in figure 1, that shows that SGT fans have more recently on average been active on Facebook from six o'clock in the morning to eight o’clock in the evening, with numbers peaking between 7:00 am and 11:00 am, and 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm. According to Marmer (2020), it is recommended that you post one quality post per day to Facebook to get the best results. SGT will follow this recommendation and post once daily. They will also seek to engage with fans during the peak times.
Figure 1
Figure 2 shows that SGT’s posts reach a decent number of people organically but have a more successful reach when they have a boosted promotion. There are however more organic posts with engagement, and posts with the highest engagement are centered around seasonal holidays and events. To increase reach the firm will purchase boosts for future posts targeted toward engaging current fans and gaining new fans. To increase engagement on posts SGT will continue to post about seasonal holidays and expand its holiday calendar. The firm does not have a large enough presence on social media to analyze sentiment, feedback, or average response time.
Marketing Goals and Objectives
Objective A1: The company is to increase social media following by 46% on Instagram and by 35% on Facebook in ninety days, which would bring the following to 100 and 200 respectively. This will be achieved by reviewing Instagram and Facebook analytics for previous paid and unpaid posts and increasing the success of the most successful posts. This will require an increase in budget for promotional posts on both platforms that will allow for consistent scheduled posts as well as content for organic posts. The company can also encourage Gifters to follow SGT on Instagram and like them on Facebook when taking and distributing orders. Objective A2: The company should aim to increase engagement on Facebook over a ninety-days. This can be achieved by offering Gifters and Giftees 10% off their next purchase for leaving a review on Facebook. The company can also encourage Gifters to leave a review on Facebook when picking up and delivering orders.
Objective B1: The company is tasked with increasing clickthrough rates within a ninety-day period. This can be achieved by running an online promotion to include discount code ‘GIFT1’ giving customers 10% off their first order. The promo code would be advertised via Facebook and Instagram every other week for sixty days. Objective B2: The company should increase click-through rates by utilizing the built-in shopping tools on each platform. The graphics associated with the shopping tools should be animated and eye-catching for the user. Facebook and Instagram offer a shop now feature on their advertisements that can take users directly to what they are currently viewing.
Social Media Marketing Strategies
Primary Target Market
The primary target market of SGT is mid to upper class, goaloriented women, aged 25-60, that are family-oriented living in urban and suburban areas. These consumers maintain a busy schedule and value ease and convenience being associated with quality products and stellar customer service. They frequent convenience stores such as CVS and Walgreens for last-minute items and utilizes social media to stay connected and up to date with current events and popular brands.
Social Relationship Zone Strategies
The goal is to increase the social presence of the company to encourage engagement from users. This is to be accomplished by utilizing earned and paid media. For earned media, SGT will share original content through their Facebook and Instagram to increase its influence impressions, likes, followers, and fans. The company will also converse with users that leave comments. Paid media will be attained through sponsored and boosted posts on Instagram and Facebook respectively. These posts will be made to reach our targeted demographic.
Social Publishing Zone Strategies
To increase click-through rates the company should increase its use of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media optimization (SMO). This will be achieved by sharing content that aligns with seasonal interests and includes terminology that can be used for optimization. The company
will be easier to recognize by utilizing a particular set of hashtags that represent the brand as well as its easily identifiable blue logo. Using the logo will assist in retaining the target demographic because according to Dash (2018) blue is considered to be a color of stability and sincerity, often associated with persistence, dependability, and loyalty. This will contribute to increasing the ease and convenience of finding and going to the company website.
Social Commerce Zone Strategies
The ‘Baskets Over Plastic’ campaign will be advertised on social media to increase sales. The Baskets Over Plastic campaign will encourage people to purchase thoughtful and personalized gift baskets over thoughtless, generic gift cards. Customers will have the opportunity to earn 10% off their first basket by subscribing to receive texts or emails from SGT. The budget for this campaign is $1,000, with $700 being allocated to social media advertisements and $300 reserved for miscellaneous expenses. There will be multiple ads created for this campaign. The first ad will consist of a clearly labeled gift card moving then a red prohibition sign will appear over the gift card, and it will move into the background. As the gift card moves into the background a gift basket will appear in the foreground and a green checkmark followed by the company information and discount. The second ad will be a split-screen with a hand closer to the bottom gifting someone a gift card and the recipient appearing unsatisfied or disappointed. On the right side of the screen, there will be a set of hands closer to the bottom gifting someone a gift basket with the recipient appearing elated and the imagery will become unfocused and the company information and discount will appear. The top line of the graphic will say “Baskets Over Plastic” and the second line will say “Get 10% off,” followed by the firm’s logo, website, contact information, and social media.
Activation Plan
SGT will create a social media content calendar to maintain consistency on both Facebook and Instagram with their posts. The calendar will include seasonal holiday promotions and organic posts. They will then employ a graphic designer to create quality graphics to be used in social media posts. SGT will also acquire access to analyze and post, segments of Buffer to schedule and analyze social media posts and engagement. To properly integrate SMO and SEO the firm will research keywords at a minimum quarterly. The anticipated costs are listed in table 1.
Table 1
Responsible Budgeted
Baskets Over
Plastic SGT $1,000 90 days to
complete
Graphics Agency $1,000 Ongoing
Buffer SGT $45/mo Ongoing
Manage and Measure
The company will conduct a social media audit following the Baskets Over Plastic campaign to gain a full perspective on the successes and failures of the campaign. SGT will also compare analytics from Buffer on a biweekly and monthly basis to establish how engagement has and/or can improve. The company should look for if the shared content resonated with the targeted audience and why or why not. SGT should also track website traffic to determine if click-throughs have increased and if the SMO and SEO are increasing traffic. If the current model is not working the firm must be open to adapting the graphics, content, and hashtags associated with its shared content at any given time if they are not yielding the proper success (Wind, 2008).
Dash, S. K. (2018). Role and importance of colour in marketing. Vilakshan: The XIMB Journal of Management, 15(1), 105–112.
Marmer, Daria. (2020). How frequently should I publish on social media? A HubSpot experiment. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-frequently-should-ipublish-on-socialmedia?MessageRunDetailID=1915876076&PostID=15625299&ut m_medium=email&utm_source=rasa_io
Wind, Y. (2008). A plan to invent the marketing we need today. MIT Sloan Management Review.
