Marketing Campaign
“Custom Sensors, for
Unique Situations”
TABLE OF CONTENTS 01 • Executve Summary
09 • Target Market Personas
02 • Strategic Summary Chart
1 0 • Campaign Strategy / Postioning Statement
03 • Introduction
1 1 • Media Strategy
03 • Primary & Secondary Research Objective
1 5 • Budget Explanation
04 • Situational Analysis
1 7 • Pricing
05 • Secondary research Summary
18 • Evaluation
06 • Primary Research Summary
1 9 • Appendix
0 7• Competitive Analysis
33 • References
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
iButtonLink is providing sensor network technology worldwide. Since 2003, iButtonLink has been creating customized sensors for their customers to help achieve goals that were unachievable before. iButtonLink serves both small and large companies, such as the ones in the Fortune 500 companies. iButtonLink has requested an integrated marketing campaign for a new product, the corrosion sensor. This plan will help see what iButtonLink is doing successfully and what they can improve for the new sensor, that will be launching. We started off by looking at the current marketing strategies for iButtonLink, along with their competitors. We looked at strategies such as email marketing, social media, google adwords, and direct mail. iButtonLink does a good job of giving the customers the customized sensors that they have been looking for; however, should look into improving some of the other marketing strategies. Primary research was looking specifically to connect with engineers at different companies that had match the primary target market for our company. Since the we were looking for a specific group, our marketing team reached out by phone to the specific companies that could benefit. After reaching out to about 30 different companies, our marketing team was hoping to find out how the customer would use the sensor. Although we did not have a high rate of responses, we plan to implement surveys in the future to better understand the awareness iButtonLink is creating. Our main target market is managers or people with the purchase ability in a paper mill or database center. This is our target market as our customers need to have the ability to buy our custom-made sensors, along with know what to use the corrosion sensors for. Our marketing plan will use media strategy through Google Adwords, social media, email marketing and direct mail. The slogan for our campaign “custom sensors for unique situations�, this is used to help get across the main part of iButtonLink. These different media strategies will help iButtonLink in connection to current customers, along with reaching out to potentially new customers.
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STRATEGIC SUMMARY CHART KEY FINDINGS
STRATEGIC RECOMENDATIONS
According to a study by Ibis World (2017) the paper mill industry in the United States is facing a growth rate of -2.8% annually. (secondary, second line)
Create a sensor that will meet the needs at a paper mill
According to entrepreneur.com Seventy-two percent of U.S. adults say they prefer companies to communicate with them via email, and 91 percent say they’d like to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with https://goo.gl/dK8Z4a
We will be sending emails to current and potential customers
In a survey of 115 marketing specialists in B2B roles, Omobono found that 79% rated social media as the most effective marketing channel, with 38% noting that if they had extra budget for next year, they would spend it on social media. goo.gl/zQ7KE6
iButtonLink needs to step up its social media efforts to reach the intended audiences to drive engagement, sales and ultimately profit
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INTRODUCTION iButtonLink is a custom sensor manufacturer for the global community. They serve both large and small scale organizations and can deliver customized solutions in a short period of time. They are currently in the process of launching a new corrosion sensor product, and need a marketing plan to determine which industries to target, the key influencers in those industries and the messaging strategies required to reach the target audience. The purpose of this plan is to understand what tactics and strategies iButtonLink currently engages in, to identify their major competitors and to determine where iButtonLink could improve its services and messaging to better meet the needs of its customers. The first section of this plan examines the sensor industry as a whole, followed by an examination of iButtonLink’s position in this industry, a SWOT and PESTEL analysis and a review of their brand image. The next section of the plan identifies and analyzes their major competitors, followed by a summary of the results of the primary research that we conducted. The fourth section of this plan identifies the personas that iButtonLink should target for their corrosion sensor sales. The final section of this document outlays the campaign strategy and the stretch objectives that they should attempt to achieve related to corrosion sensor sales.
PRIMARY RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
SECONDARY RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
• Understand what industries a corrosion sensors would be most useful to.
• Potential customer industry trends (i.e Paper Mill industry in growth or decline)
• Determine what roles various positions in companies play. (i.e engineer= user, secretary= gate keeper, administrator= desicion maker)
• Understand what substitute products and alternative solutions are available in the market place
• Identify current methods of tracking corrosion • Identify digital and physical channels that key influencers interact with
• Identify competitors in the sensor industry (Direct and Indirect) • Determine cost estimates for producing one sensor • Understand Senor Industry as a whole
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Situation Analysis Industry Background
The sensor market is growing has been growing over the past decade. According to an article written by Sensor Industry, “Sensor systems and electronic instrumentations are the highest growing and upcoming segments in the semiconductor market”. This growth in part, is driven by low cost, easy systems integration and wireless connectivity. Sensors allow decision makers to have access to the key information they seek in the palm of their hands when they need it most. They allow users to see anything from device usage data, to temperature, vibration, speed or even corrosion. It is quite clear, that there are a lot of different use cases for sensors and demand is on the rise. Current estimates from Statista show the value of the sensor market at $1.01bn for 2017 and $1.20bn by 2025, the highest segment of which will be made up from consumer electronics, industry and oil and gas. The annual growth rate for the next 8 years has been calculated at 5% for all the demand from the related industries.
Company Snapshot
iButtonLink is a custom sensor manufacturer for the global community. They serve both small and large Fortune 500 companies, creating both commercial products and custom solutions. The company specializes in creating sensors, they can provide both custom and standard products for 1-Wire® and Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) protocols. They offer innovative solutions to businesses looking to solve unique problems and can resize or reshape their products to fit their customer’s needs. They have previously worked in collaboration with IBM, Maxim Integrated, Hewlett Packard and even NASA. They are based in Whitewater, Wisconsin, where they engineer and manufacturer smaller, more limited, production runs. They have also created relationships with manufacturers in China, who can process the large order requests that they receive. This way they are able to scale their production capacity to meet the needs of their customers. iButtonLink has several products that generate revenue, but for this project we have selected corrosion sensor sales as the major metric we would like to improve.
Brand Image Review
Upon searching for “iButtonLink” on Google, the first result will be an ad from Thermochron, a competitor, followed by a weblink to the iButtonLink website and several articles written about them. The next few pages of results are also filled with articles about them, such as reviews of their products and articles about their move to the innovation center. The majority of these articles are older, meaning that there is very limited current information on them. When searching for iButtonLink on various social media sites, the results are the same. iButtonLink doesn’t have any social media profiles (outside of LinkedIn), so they do not engage with their customers. However, there is a significant amount of content written about them on Twitter. The majority of these posts are positive reviews and experiences with their products. Due to the limited amount of information on iButtonLink, at this moment it would be unfair to assess their brand image.
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SECONDARY RESEARCH SUMMARY For this marketing plan we have selected two industries for iButtonLink to focus on; the first is paper mills and the second is data processing & hosting service providers. According to a study by Ibis World (2017) the paper mill industry in the United is facing a growth rate of -2.8% annually. This means that the industry as a whole is shrinking and companies are being forced to find ways to be more efficient. Those who are successful in achieving this, stay alive and those who fail to do so, are going out of business. While the overall revenue for this industry is $43.8bn, they only have an average profit of 5%. Since 2009, the revenue in the paper mill industry has been increasing on average by 1.5% annually; however, the gross output of these firms has been decreasing by $27m dollars each year. There are just over 500 paper mills in the United States today, the majority of which are located near large rivers or near the coasts. The process of manufacturing paper was traditionally very labor intensive and required large amounts of harmful chemicals to be successful. Nowadays with the inventions of computerized machinery and chlorine-free bleaching agents the process is more efficient and environmentally friendly. However, a bi-product of the paper production still remains, sulfur dioxide gas, which is not good for humans, computers or the environment. To separate these harmful gasses from their data centers inside the facilities which run their operations, paper mills employ large scale filtration units. These filters are very effective at this process, but become less effective over time because of the corrosion that clogs their filter media. Exactly when to change these filters is difficult to determine and as a result the paper mills often replace them pre-emptively, leading to inefficient maintenance spending. The iButtonLink corrosion sensor can help measure the built-up corrosion and can alert maintenance directors in advance to when these filters will need to be changed. This alleviates the unnecessary spend on replacing filters that are still performing perfectly. The second major target market that we have identified is the data processing & hosting service providers in the US. According to the report from IBIS world (2017), the data processing & hosting service provider industry in the US is expected to grow annually by approximately 6.6%. This growth in part, is due to the trend of companies in the US outsourcing their data hosting needs because of the cost savings of not having to manage it with internal staff. Additionally, with the trend of increased online shopping, there has been an exponentially growing demand for these hosting services. The overall revenue of this industry is $154.4bn with an average profit of 7.2%. Outside of the major fixed costs of this industry (server rooms, servers and wires) the next major costs are HVAC and electricity which happen to be variable. Companies in this industry today tend to do one of two things to cool down their servers. Either they use the outside air to cool them (Google) or they recycle the air and then they chill it. The former option is much more cost effective, so more and more companies are beginning to follow suit. One of the major problems with this method though, is that the outside air is sometimes polluted with harmful contaminants to the computers. Meaning that the air will break down the computers inside of the room, leaving them useless. iButtonLink’s corrosion sensor is positioned perfectly to measure the level of corrosion in the air to determine the best times for outside and recycled air. This will help maximize the efficiency of a server room’s HVAC costs while protecting the computers inside.
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PRIMARY RESEARCH SUMMARY Regarding the primary research, our marketing team has reached out by phone to numerous different companies that match with the primary target markets for iButtonLink. Our main focus is to talk with the engineers within companies that are either Paper Mills, chemical related manufactures, and data centers. iButtonLink creates sensors that can monitor corrosion within filtration systems in real time, and all the above listed potential clients could benefit from the use of these BACnet Corrosion Sensors. Our marketing team contact has reached out to around thirty different companies currently seeking their insight into whether or not they could benefit from the use of the sensors that are created by iButtonLink. Although the corrosion sensor is not on the market yet, it will be extremely beneficial for companies to have the sensors in their facilities. Currently, sensors created by iButtonLink are being bought by Service Managers, our goal is to redirect the purchase intent to the engineers. With the complexity that falls behind the sensors, the engineers in the companies will be more likely to understand the need, and the benefits that they will receive from using the corrosion sensors. We then asked what they are using the sensors for, and what are they using it in conjunction with. We want to understand how the consumers are using the product, so we can improve our marketing campaign in the future. Another major point to understand is when would the potential consumer buy the sensor in the first place. This could tell us when a good time would be to push our marketing forward. Specifically, when speaking amongst paper mills, our account contact asked how their company currently monitors the number of corrosive particles in the air inside the plant and how well that process works. From there, it was asked how they were to determine when the filtration systems in their data centers would need to be changed, and if they felt as though they were paying for media and services that were not wholeheartedly necessary for their company. Our marketing team wants to understand if these companies would be able to benefit from using our product, or if they were content with their currently process. Unfortunately, we were only able to get in contact with one potential customer after contacting numerous places. Our findings showed that Kapstone Papermill, currently has another company outside of their company to monitor the corrosion from the particles that are released from the paper making process. This outside company enters their facilities and uses a small sensor to monitor the possible hazardous material in the environment. This engineered informed our team that they have currently have not found corrosive materials in the air. We plan to continue getting in contact with potential customers to ensure that we are targeting the proper customer. We also plan to implement surveys in the future to get a good sense of the awareness that we as a company are creating. These results will later appear in the Strategic summary chart, and will be helpful for the rest of our marketing plan.
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COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS Purafil
Thermachron
Purafil manufactures revolutionary products which set standards in this industry. The main focus of Purafil is create the world’s best air purification products. They work with eight highly well known organization within in the industry. Purafil reaches into six different markets including commercial/residential, museums, electronics, water/wastewater, medical and industrial/transportation. They make solutions for corrosion control, odor control, pathogen removal, toxic gas scrubbing and indoor air quality. Some of the products that Purafil makes include chemical filtration, equipment, lab services, and monitoring. Purafil is currently on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Thermochron is a manufacturer of humidity and temperature sensors. They primarily focus on the medical industry as well as the food transportation industry. The temperature sensors monitor and log all readings to ensure that specific temperatures are kept, this is especially important when transporting food and vaccines where a slight increase in temperature can compromise its safety. They currently do not have any social media accounts; however, their customers do mention them on several social media channels, including Youtube and Twitter to name a couple. Thermochron does not appear to conduct any marketing online. A quick google search of their name reveals that they do have positive PR from other companies in the form of new articles and product reviews. Overall, while they do not directly compete with iButtonLink, they seem to be in a similar position in the sensor marketplace and could produce a corrosion sensor at anytime.
Mouser Electronics Mouser Electronics focuses on the rapid introduction of new products and technologies for design engineers and buyers. They provide an extensive product offering including semiconductors, interconnects, passives, and electromechanical components. Mouser features more than 4 million products online from more than 500 leading manufacturers, making them one of the top in the industry. They want to ensure that all of their customers are guaranteed the best customer service; to accomplish this, Mouser Electronics provide a multitude of different languages and currencies, to ensure easy and flexible customer offerings. They specifically position themselves this way to increase the brand loyalty and keep their customers happy. Mouser Electronics currently has a presence on most medias, including Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Youtube and LinkedIn. Mouser Electronics is more than likely to secure current and future customers with their wide spread customer service platforms.
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ProMark Associates ProMark Associates primarily focuses on providing sustainable indoor air quality solutions that use an advanced technology to minimize impact on the environment. Currently that are maximizing the economic value through different types of efficient production and use of resources, protect equipment and processes all while delivering clean air for the people’s well-being. This is important because each person is different when it comes to the type of air quality they need so by having the custom air filtration sensors they will be able to meet the unique customer needs. ProMark has a pledge to enhance any organization’s focus on their sustainability by creating products that use processes that would minimize negative environmental impacts, conserve energy and natural resources, safe for employees, consumers, and are ecologically sound. These are all done by using a highly powerful proprietary filter media. They currently have a blog written by Jeff Roseberry who is the President and founder of ProMark Associates that customers can follow and get updates on about the latest Indoor Air Quality Solutions ProMark is coming up with. They currently do not have any social media accounts and are not on google adwords. Looking at ProMark Associates they are in a position just like iButtonLink where they could be developing a corrosion sensor soon.
Cosasco Cosasco focuses on quality products, quick delivery, and great customer service. Cosasco considers themselves as the world leader in corrosion monitoring technology. Corrosion is an enormous cost to these industries as measured in equipment maintenance and replacement, leaks, and system failures. Cosasco helps dramatically reduce this waste by delivering corrosion detection, extending equipment and asset life. Cosasco provides leading-edge corrosion control solutions for industries such as oil and gas, petrochemical, water treatment, chemical, pulp and paper, pharmaceutical, and utilities Some of the quality products produced by Cosasco include transmitters, data loggers, portable/handhelds, probes, corrosion coupons, sensors, polymer coupons, access systems, chemical injections, integrated systems, corrosion under insulation, and legacy brands. They offer quick delivery on some of their more common corrosion monitoring products and replacement parts. They’re very proud of their 48 hour quick ship guarantee. They offer live online support on their website. Here you can talk to an operator using their instant messaging software. Cosasco is a global company that does business all over the world. Some of the nations they do business in include the United Kingdom, the Middle East, China, Singapore, Perth, Canada, and the United States. Cosasco is present on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, and partakes in email marketing.
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TARGET MARKET PERSONAS Manny - Maintenance Director of Paper Mill
Manny is the maintenance director for his paper mill. He is 49 years old, college educated, and has 20 years of experience in the paper industry. He prefers face-to-face communication when speaking internally or externally, but he is also fine with speaking on his work cell phone. He likes when outside companies reach him, rather than him reaching them. Manny manages the paper mill to achieve budget manufacturing costs and searches for new methods to allow cost reductions. The number one thing he hates is when his machines go down unexpectedly. He wishes there was a way he could forecast in real time when his machines are going to stop working.
Paper Mill Mark
Mark is associated with the ‘filtration’ target audience of iButtonLink. He is currently a 43-year-old engineer working for a Paper Mill company. As a member of the ‘Filtration’ segment, Mark spends his mornings ensuring that the mill is running at max capacity. He had recently been informed that the filters in the Paper Mill have become less effective extracting the harmful chemicals that remain in the air after the process of making paper. Even though an external worker has informed him that they will need to be replacing the filters, he would like to understand why the filters in the Mill have been less effective than they normally would have been. He is looking for an easy solution to be able to monitor the corrosion of the filters. He tends to try and solve problems in the company with his in-company team first, but when he discovers that they are unable to resolve the issue, him and his team go straight to the internet and find the best match for their issue. They have decided that using a custom sensor to monitor their work environment may lead to the answers of why their filters are becoming less efficient. Him and his team ran across the company called iButtonLink, and discovered that they create custom sensors that are unique to each customer. Mark loves to be able to directly contact the engineer of the products that they are seeking to help their company, and be able to understand the process of why things work as they do.
Director Dave
Dave is in charge at a data center that is a target audience of iButtonLink. He is currently a 55-year-old, manager at Amazon Web Service(AWS). As a manager, Dave spends his days helping his team collect data. Dave likes to have projects ready to go for his employs. He does most of his work through his cell phone, computer or face to face communicating. Dave and his team work with both new members and past customers. Him and his team are looking for customized solutions to fix recurring issues. One of the main issues found at AWS is air pollution and corrosion.
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Campaign Strategy The goal of this campaign will be centered around driving awareness of iButtonLink and the corrosion sensor they produce. Our objective, is to drive 10 warm leads into the sales funnel each month, which will result in sales of the sensor. We also want to increase the social media presence of iButtonLink to create a community of individuals who use their products. We would like them to be able to leave reviews on products, leave feedback for the company and to communicate with one another. We would also like to drive more positive PR from other companies to increase the credibility of iButtonLink. To accomplish this goal, we have created a marketing strategy which will drive consumer awareness, in return, filling the sales funnel with leads. Our campaign is focused on direct mail flyers, social media engagement, email campaigns and digital ads. We have taken a combined digital and traditional marketing approach to reach consumers on both ends of the marketing technology spectrum. To execute correctly, they will need to ensure that the message is communicated uniformly across all their platforms. Consistent messaging is key to establishing credibility and expertise in the sensor marketplace.
Positioning Statement “Custom Sensors for unique situations.” iButtonLink tagline “Custom Sensors, for Unique Situations” strives to let customers know that they will be able to receive customized sensors for their individual needs. This tagline makes it quick and easy to have the customer realize that iButtonLink will be able to help with their independent needs. The phrase “unique situations” relates to everyone being different and how no two situations are the same. With the use of this phrase, along with the link to iButtonLink, it will emphasis the ability to have sensors that are strictly for the individual need. For the individual needs of customers that cannot have the same standard sensor, iButtonLink allows the customer to get the specific censor they need. Our positioning statements, explains they we are looking to better the brand image, this will allow us to receive more customers and generate more sales.
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Media Strategy iButtonLink will be reaching to their customers through email, social media, google and direct mail. iButtonLink will be sending five different kinds of email depending on what the potential customer will want. The five different types include newsletters, new product information, individual product information, abandoned shopping cart, and CEO success stories. Email marketing is new to iButtonLink, so we will be adding a way to sign up for emails on the website. iButtonLink will be active on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Youtube. Through these different social media account iButtonLink will be able to target more specific customers, have “how to� videos, give updates about iButtonLink, and have consistency on when the posts would be for each social media. Each social media will be targeting potential customers of iButtonLink using different ways to target according to which platform they are using. Along with reaching out to current and potential customers through the internet we will using flyers, promotional materials and catalogs through direct mail. iButtonLink will be increasing the words that they pay for on google to try and get more hits. Through these forms of direct mail we will be able to give out promotions, give updates about iButtonLink, and inform current and potential customers all that iButtonLink has to offer. Our goal is to continue sales from current customers, along with new customers through the different channels we are using to reach out to customers.
Direct Mail Google Adwords Email Marketing Social Media Marketing
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Direct Mail iButtonLink will send flyers/postcards, promotional materials, and catalogs to companies that could use our specially made censors. The flyers will quickly inform the companies about the things that iButtonLink can do for them and how it can make their company better. Every month we will send a new flyer to the company. The flyers will include what new we have done, more ways we can better suit the company's, and more information about iButtonLink. The promotional materials that iButtonLink will be sending the companies will include ways the company could benefit financially using iButtonLink’s personally made censors. Included in these promotional matters will be better bundle rates, discount percents, and the more times you order from iButtonLink the more coupons you will receive. Twice a year we will be sending our customers our catalog. In this catalog iButtonLink will be reminding them of our current products, products that they could personalize, and new products we have come out with.
Google Adwords For the section we decided to search iButtonLink.com on Spyfu to analysis iButtonLink’s Pay-Per-Click campaign. Currently, iButtonLink has 141 paid keywords with an estimated monthly budget of $889. Temperature logging appears to be the most profitable keyword. With this being a major keyword for iButtonlink, we suggest that iButtonLink should add more keywords related to temperature logging. For example, two relevant keywords such as temperature monitoring solution and temperature sensors from iButtonLink may be a good idea. Other good examples of long-tail keywords may include corrosion monitoring solution, robust environmental monitoring solution, how to measure corrosion rate, real time corrosion monitoring, and customizable corrosion monitoring. Google Adwords only charges their customers per click, therefore even if no one clicks on these ads, iButtonlink will not be charged. It’s important to try different keywords, but it’s even more important to measure the success of these keywords. The goal is to find keywords that have a high conversion rate and double down on these. It’s also important to get rid of keywords that may be costly with little to no conversion rate.
Backlinks:
Backlinks are one of the most important components to a successful search engine optimization campaign. Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website. For example, if IBM mentions iButtonLink on their website and include a link to iButtonLink.com or any of their other web addresses. Not only will IBM’s followers see this, but iButtonLink will appear as a more relevant website when customers search for their keywords on Google. iButtonLink has done some pretty amazing projects in the past, partnering with IBM, Maxim Integrated, NASA, and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. iButtonLink backlinks all of these company’s websites, except NASA. Step one is to backlink NASSA’s website. Step two is to get these major players to backlink iButtonLink. A few emails and phone calls to these companies to backlink iButtonLink could go a very long way. These backlinks may be the deciding factor if a customer sees iButtonLink first on Google or if they see a competitor.
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EMAIL MARKETING Intro on Email Marketing:
Email marketing is a method of exposure that cannot be overlooked. Email marketing allows companies to directly target specific individuals based on their personal interests. Sending out different types of emails such as newsletters, new product information, individual product information, and CEO success stories will help inform the potential customer while also building trust. The more positive exposure you can send the customer, the better. Currently, iButtonLink does not partake in email marketing. When companies choose to not to partake in email marketing, they choose to leave money on the table. With iButtonLink relying heavily on customers reaching them, some form of email marketing must be done.
Subscription Email Marketing:
First off, it’s important to determine what kind of emails you want to send to your potential customers. If the customer only wants weekly/monthly newsletters, then that’s all you send them. If they want weekly/monthly newsletters and new product information, then you will send them two separate emails on the two topics. If the customer only wants CEO success stories and sensor information, that’s all you will send them. This concept continues until all the different variations have been met. When the potential customer goes to sign-up for iButtonLink’s email subscription list, it’s important to get as much information as you can from the customer, while not overwhelming them in the process. For example, if you reference Figure E: Email Subscription Sign-Up Forum in the appendix, you will see that the only required information is email address, first name, last name, and country. While phone number, industry, and company are optional components. This allows the customer to choose what they want to share with iButtonLink, while not being overwhelmed them in the process. The first email that should be sent to the customer is a standard welcome email thanking them for subscribing to the email subscription list. Reference Figure F: Thank You Email in the appendix for a specific example that should be used as a minimal for a thank you email.The next step is to put information about signing up for the email list on the home page. Typically, companies put the email subscription box on the bottom of every page. If you reference Figure G: Subscribe to our mailing list in the appendix, you can see just how easy it will be for customers to find subscription box, while not distracting them from the website itself.
Abandoned Shopping Cart:
Customers add products to their shopping cart, then don’t purchase those products all the time. There are plenty of reasons for this. One being that they simply ran out of time when browsing the website and had to close the page. Another being that they added these products to the shopping cart when they were casually browsing the website and had to abandon their shopping cart. For example, a potential customer could be on their mobile device when they were laying on their couch and simply didn’t want to purchase those products that day. The problem with people leaving the site for these reasons, or any reason, is that they probably will not come back to complete the purchase. Sending a customer an email if they abandoned their shopping cart will increase customer purchase rates. The first email should be sent one hour after they abandoned their shopping cart, the second email should be sent twenty-four hours after they abandon the shopping cart, and the final email should be sent three days after they abandon the shopping cart. This way the customer will be reminded to complete the purchase on three separate occasions.
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Social Media Marketing Facebook will be used to advertise in brand awareness as well as targeting to specific customers. The awareness of the type of sensors we create will be done by using specific “how to” videos where our customers will be able to see how the sensors work. Every first and fourth week a new video will be posted. These videos would also include the different uses on how the product would work. On the Facebook page, there would be several postings on what is going on in the company, these would include updates on new sensors as well as what is going on internally of iButtonLink. Updates would be about readings about how iButtonLink can help you and updates about what is going on with the company. Facebook would be another great way to have customer reviews about iButtonLink. This is a place where our customers can come and leave comments or even post pictures on their sensors that they are using within their company. Our goal of the Facebook is to generate awareness in our target markets.
Similar to how we will be promoting our advertising on Facebook, we will also have a Youtube channel where every first and fourth week of the month we will have a new “how to” video about our sensors. This video will include how our sensors work and they best types to use in different settings. Videos would also incorporate how the sensors are customized for our customers. On this page we would also consist of customer testimonials about the sensors. The testimonials would take the spotlight away from us and focus it on our customers. Since each of our customers are started in the same position they can hear from someone who is actually using our sensors and feel at ease when making their final decision.
Twitter would be used in a way where we can have immediate updates on our sensors where we could be live tweeting at a convention or trade shows. Our customers would be able to know what we are currently doing by searching for the hashtag #ibuttonlinksensors. By following this hashtag customers would be able to find the latest information. If our customers have any immediate questions that need answering about the sensors they can also use #ibuttonlinkhelp where an advisor would be able to see the problem fast and assist with fixing the problem. Every time a new sensor comes out we will have a launch on Twitter giving a brief overview on the product and where customers can go to find more information. Our goal with Twitter would be to gain follows to increase awareness through live tweets, current information and hashtags.
To gain a presence on LinkedIn iButtonLink would work on getting target audiences based on current pages customers have already visited. By doing this iButtonLink would be able to reactivate the audience’s interest by delivering content that would be relevant to them. Taking iButtonLink and promoting paid ads on LinkedIn for people that are in our industry or the target position would allow the others in the industry to get informed about the sensors. iButtonLink could take the connections to help them along their buying journey and drive sales and qualified leads. With 467 million LinkedIn users, each year getting the word out about the sensors and connecting with other qualified customers would be a great benefit to the future markets.
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Budget Explanation Overall, we were given a budget of $10,000 to start out with for our marketing plan and an additional $10,000, as we hit milestones.We believe that this amount of money will significantly impact the top line revenue of iButtonLinks, by filling the sales pipeline with leads. We plan on spending the investment in four key areas including: direct mail, social media, email and google adwords. We will initially spend the same amount on all four categories, but as we start to understand which tactics bring in the highest ROI, we will adjust our spending accordingly. Some of the budget will also be spent on creating the digital ads, such as video advertisements and info-graphics, which will help iButtonLink engage with its customers and communicate its value proposition in a more succinct manner. Direct Mail is the traditional go-to for most businesses in the B2B space. Each mailer typically costs around $.75-$1 and can be expected to deliver an approximate response rate of 1%, which is difficult to track. We suggest spending $250 for the first round of production and deliver one each week (for a total of 4 weeks) to the businesses in iButtonLink’s target market in Wisconsin.To help with tracking, it is suggested that a referral code be added to the card, so the called can specify how they found them. After said period, iButtonLink should evaluate the ROI of the campaign and determine if they should increase or decrease the spend on this category of marketing. Social media marketing is the largest channel that we suggest investing in for iButtonLink’s budget, because it is the easiest to track, it has the quickest potential for returns and it allows for highly targeted campaigns. As mentioned above, there are four main social media platforms that iButtonLink should utilize for marketing, they include LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. For LinkedIn, we suggest setting a daily budget of $5 and the “impression” payment option for the account-based marketing campaign. For the website retargeting campaign, we suggest setting a weekly budget of $25 and “link clicks” as the payment type. iButtonLink can then use google analytics and LinkedIn’s internal tracking system to measure their campaign’s results to determine the ROI of the campaign based on its month spend of $350 and adjust its budget accordingly. The monthly budget for Facebook, Twitter and Facebook should be similar to LuinkedIn, but they should have a different focus. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube advertisements shouldn’t be focused on driving sales, but rather on achieving a higher level of engagement. To achieve superior engagement with their customers, iButtonLink should spend approximately $10 daily on its brand awareness ads, $3 daily on its lead-driving ads and $3 daily for link-ads (on Facebook) that drive traffic to their website. The major metrics that will determine the success of their Facebook ads, are the amount of “likes, shares and comments” on their posts, as well as the number of webinar signups and site visits. To track the ROI on the Facebook ads, iButtonLink will need to setup google analytics and perform a page behavior analysis overlaid with a traffic source analysis to determine how people found them and what their ultimate action was. On Twitter, it is suggested that iButtonLink publish content based on their expertise, thus making them a “thought leader” in the industry. These posts should be boosted with a $5 daily budget, to help increase the number of people who can see the ad. iButtonLink, should attempt to make three posts each week using their own content and re-brand someone else’s content on the other two business days. The metrics of the Twitter campaign to track, will be the amount of retweets, likes and shares. The total monthly allowance for Twitter should be approximately $150 in ads and 20 hours of labor. While Facebook and Twitter are primarily focused on text ads, Youtube is the perfect venue for video content such as “How-to-videos”, “Best Practices” and “Product Launches”. We suggest that iButtonLink not spend any money promoting
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their Youtube videos, but rather spend 50 monthly labor hours on video production for their products. The reason for this is simple, most people will not watch their videos for fun, but rather, they are most likely interested in learning more about it. Thus, they should create evergreen “pull” content rather than “push” content that they would promote. The primary metrics tied to the Youtube campaign will be views, shares, “thumbs up” and comments, there really won’t be an ROI tied to revenue. While these digital marketing tactics are focused on engagement which is good for positive customer interaction, businesses still need to make money. The two major drivers of ROI for companies today are Email marketing and Google Adwords. While iButtonLink does not currently have a lot of the emails for their target customers, they can easily purchase a list of them online. The budget for purchasing this email list should be around $500 and should be outsourced to a service like Fiverr. Once they have the email list, we suggest that iButtonLink invest in an enterprise email system like MailChimp, which costs $25 monthly. This will allow them to track the relevant metrics and the outcome of their emails to help determine their ROI. A few of the metrics that they will want to monitor are the bounce rate, the delivery rate, the open rate and the click through rate. To develop the creatives for each of the emails, iButtonLink should outsource the production to Fiverr, which will allow them to purchase marketing materials starting at $5. The total budget for the email marketing campaigns, should be approximately $500 upfront and $250 monthly, along with 25 labor hours. The final major investment that iButtonLink should budget for, is Google Adwords. Google Adwords allows for the highest targeting capabilities of any of the current marketing tactics. It also allows companies to show their advertisements on a variety of different platforms and websites. We suggest investing $1,000 monthly on Google Adwords in three key areas. The first is a display network ad, which we suggest spending $5 daily to promote on the “impressions” payment option. This will allow their content to be displayed on Youtube and two million other sites, which will increase their brand awareness and their web traffic. The second is search ads that are focused on sensor keywords, we suggest spending $25 daily on this campaign. To improve the results of this campaign, we suggest using the geolocation feature combined with the “bulk address list” (allows users to select specific addresses of their target audience and then place a 1-50 mile radius around each of them.) To track the ROI of this campaign, iButtonLink will need to link their Adwords account to their analytics account. This will allow them to track users behavior to help them understand how they navigate their online channels. A few of the metrics that will be important to the campaign’s success, will be the number of impressions, interactions, clicks ultimate cost (per click). The third and final area of investment in the Adwords platform that we suggest, is a video ad that would feature iButtonLink’s custom sensor solutions. The budget for this campaign should be set to $50 per week and the payment type should be “impressions”, so that the maximum amount of people can see the ad. The ROI for this campaign should be based on the number of people who view and interact with the ad.
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Pricing To determine how to price iButtonLink’s corrosion sensor, we looked for competitive products, we took into consideration the cost of producing each sensor and we uncovered the benefits that the sensors had for the end consumer; ultimately we set price targets to test and alter based on the related results. When we examined the corrosion sensor industry, we were unable to locate another company that produced a similar sensor to iButtonLink. Instead, we found a lot of companies that produced sensors with different purposes, such as temperature monitoring or air quality monitoring. Due to the lack of competitors in this space, we were unable to make any conclusions about price. However, this is an ideal scenario for iButtonLink, because it means that they are in a Blue Ocean market, where competition is non-existent and they have ability to capture a significant amount of market share. To determine the costs of producing the corrosion sensor, we initially attempted to do research online. We looked at sites such as Alibaba and Amazon to determine how much each of the components would cost. After being unsuccessful in finding the price, we decided to look for comparable products. We made a bit more leeway here, but with the large order quantities required for a single sensor, we determined this to be an inaccurate way to judge the costs. We ultimately decided to reach out to a representative from iButtonLink. We spoke to Jake, who said that the total costs (both variable and fixed) to produce one sensor was $46. Jake also mentioned that in the previous contract with IBM, they sold each sensor for $349. The final approach we took to determine the initial sale price, was to calculate the benefits that the sensor would provide to their customers. A few of the benefits that we uncovered could not be directly tied to a monetary value, but the energy savings they accomplished with IBM could. According to iButtonLink’s website, their sensors helped IBM save 53,400 MWh of electricity in one year. With one MWh of electricity costing $150, their sensor saved IBM nearly $8 Million dollars in one year alone. There are many other companies with data centers similar to IBM, meaning that they too could save millions of dollars each year by optimizing their HVAC costs using corrosion sensors and the outside air. Taking all of these factors into consideration, we suggest that iButtonLink price each corrosion sensor at $460. This price satisfies a benefit-cost ratio that attracts value seeking businesses, while giving iButtonLink a fantastic profit margin. If sales are stagnant at this price, we suggest dropping it by 7%. If sales continue to be stagnant, once again drop the price. When sales start to flow in, maintain the price until sales slow down again. Continue to repeat this process of dropping the price, waiting until sales become stagnant and dropping again until sales become consistent. The absolute minimum price that the sensor should be sold for is $46.01, but the target minimum price we suggest is $279.
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Evaluation Direct Mail
This metric will be measured by the number of customers who use the referral code when purchasing sensors. iButtonLink will evaluate the return on investment of the campaign and determine if it should increase or decrease the spending of direct mail. Social Media
iButtonLink currently does not have a Facebook page, therefore getting any number of customers to view the page will be great for building awareness. Facebook will be measured by the number of likes, shares, comments, webinar signups, and site visits.
YouTube
iButtonlink currently does not have a YouTube account, therefore getting any number of customers to view it’s YouTube content will help iButtonLink generate awareness. Success will be evaluated based on the number of views, shares, likes, comments, and subscribers.
Out of all the social media accounts, LinkedIn is the only active account. Success will be determined by the number of profile views, post views, post likes, post reposts, and page followers. With only 54 followers, iButtonLink will have to be more active on LinkedIn if it wants to grow its LinkedIn network.
iButtonLink currently does not have an active Twitter account, therefore getting people to follow the new Twitter account will be very helpful for building brand awareness. iButtonLink’s Twitter success will be evaluated by the number of likes, retweets, comments, and followers. Twitter will also track its Twitter success by the number of iButtonLink hashtags used by potential customers at tradeshows.
Once iButtonLink has its email marketing strategy laid out and that first email is sent out, it can then start to evaluate its success. Success will be determined by looking at relevant metrics, such as the bounce rate, the delivery rate, the open rate, and the click through rate. Tracking these metrics will help determine return on investment.
Google Adwords
With iButtonLink being an ecommerce company, evaluating its Google Adwords is very important. Knowing what keywords are converting to transaction will really help iButtonLink. Google Adwords will be used to better understand how customers navigate its website. The metrics that will be looked at when evaluating return on investment, include the number of impressions, interactions, and clicks. The return on investment should be based on the number of people who view and interact with the ad.
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APPENDix A:
Calendar
APPENDix B:
SWOT ANALYSIS S
STRENGTH • Engineer and manufacture custom sensors for each customer • Scalable production abilities • High quality manufacturing process • Source high quality parts • Previous success with major companies like IBM and NASA • Superior customer service
WEAKNESS
W
• No marketing plan • No social media platforms • Limited external outreach • Sales funnel not currently tracked • Non-focused approach to their target markets • Limited sales personnel • Currently turn away business • Not aware of current competitors
o
OPPERTUNITIES
T
THREAT
• Demand for custom sensors in increasing • IOT market is just starting to gain traction • Few competitors in the corrosion sensor market • Blank slate to create and execute marketing initiatives • Ability to create more strategic partnerships with key influencers in the sensor marketplace
• Relatively low barriers to entry in the corrosion sensor marketplace • Fierce competitors in the overall sensor marketplace with the ability to produce similar corrosion sensors for lower overall costs • Turning away customers is not a sustainable practice • Lack of awareness for the need of corrosion sensors • Substitutable products on the rise
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APPENDix C:
S.W.O.T Explained Strengths: iButtonLink has several key core competencies and resources that contribute to their internal strength. First, they have a team of internal engineers that can create custom sensors to meet virtually all their customer’s needs. Unlike most companies, they also manufacture their products in house, meaning that they have an extremely high level of quality. To meet the needs of customers who request large quantities of a particular sensor, they have partnered with manufacturers in China. This allows them to scale their production as necessary. Due to their ability to scale production and their high-quality sensors, they have been able to partner with IBM, HP and even NASA. These companies are tremendous influencers in their respective industries, which has given iButtonLink large amounts of credibility. Overall, they have many strengths which they should use to their advantage when negotiating contracts with potential customers.
Weaknesses: iButtonLink is the typical startup company with engineering founders. They believe that they have superior products, so they don’t believe in the need for marketing. Instead, they focus all their efforts solely on creating more technology to drive sales. They currently don’t have a marketing plan in place, they have few social media accounts and minimal external outreach to customers. They primarily wait for customers to reach out to them before they start the sales cycle. Their overall sales funnel is not tracked, so they are not aware of any particular target markets for their products. Due to this, they sometimes turn customers away and do not serve them. In the future, they will need to shore up their weaknesses to ensure their continued growth of sales and to improve their position in the sensor industry.
Opportunities:
Threats:
There are many opportunities for iButtonLink to exploit, to drive sales, increase their customer base and capture more market share. Overall, as noted in the industry analysis, the demand for sensors is increasing. This can be attributed to a lot of different factors, such as the growth in demand for IOT technology and other things, the majority of which are positive for iButtonLink. In the corrosion sensor market, there are very few competitors, which means that capturing market share is relatively easier at the moment. Additionally, as mentioned in the “weaknesses” section, iButtonLink does not currently have a marketing plan and they have not executed on many marketing tactics. This means that they will be able to immediately track their efforts to determine the ROI of the different tactics. This is important, because going forward they will be able to utilize the most effective tactics to maximize their limited budget.
As with all companies, there are external threats which can undermine their efforts and eventually cause them to fail. Specifically, in the corrosion sensor marketplace, there are a few factors that threaten iButtonLink. The first, is that there are low barriers to entry in the marketplace and there is low awareness for the need of them. All that it would take for another company to enter the corrosion market, is a bit of engineering knowledge and a manufacturing plant overseas. In the regular marketplace there are many competitors who already create sensors and who have created relationships with manufacturers. They would just need to focus their efforts on creating a corrosion sensor and execute and would be able to produce a similar product to iButtonLink for a lower cost. Currently iButtonLink turns away some customers, when they do this they strengthen their competitors and almost incentivize them to join the corrosion sensor marketplace. If iButtonLink wants to continue to gain market share and increase their sales, they need to address these threats.
APPENDix D:
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Comparative Table
Currently, iButtonLink is not utilizing much of the Social Media Mix in comparison to some of their competitors. With the use of only Google AdWords and sometimes LinkedIn to communicate with potential customers, they are limiting themselves on potential reach. Whereas the competitors are utilizing almost all of the media options in order to stay connected to their new and returning customers. If iButtonLink where to also utilize more than just Google Adwords and linkedIn, they would not only increase the chances that they are first to be found in a search for custom sensors, but it would also make them more accessible to their customers. Using the Media Mix to market your company will open up a whole new side of the customer sector that has not yet been touched by iButtonlink.
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APPENDix E:
Email Sign-Up Forum Thank you for choosing to subscribe to iButtonLink’s email subscription list. Here at iButtonLink we want to only send you relevant emails according to your interests. Stared field names are required, everything else is for you to decide. Email Address* First Name* Last Name* Country* Phone Number Industry Company Check Every Box That Interests You [] Sensors [] Software [] iButtons [] New Products [] CEO Success Stories [] iButtonLink Newsletters Are You a Robot* ----------Click Here To Sign Up---------Terms and conditions section Your privacy is very important to us. All information received are in place to send you personalized relevant emails. This information will not leave our personal records. Once again, thanks again for signing up for iButtonLinks email subscription list. Have a great and innovative day!
APPENDix F:
Email: Thank You iButtonLink
iButtonLink | info@ibuttonlink.com http://www.ibuttonlink.com
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APPENDix G:
Subscribe to our Email list
APPENDix H:
FaceBook AD
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APPENDix I:
Direct Mail Example
APPENDix J:
TWITTER AD
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APPENDix K:
U.S. Level Sensor Market (2015 to 2025)
APPENDix L:
Budget Table Political
Economic
Social
Technological
Environmental
Legal
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APPENDix M:
Environmental PESTEL Analysis Political
• Political uncertainty on EPA and other governmental regulators • Corporate tax level uncertainty
Economic
• Growing demand for IOT technology • Growing economies of scale for production levels • Cost benefits from manufacturing overseas • Distribution network: Brazil, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, and Australia
Social
• Growing demand for energy efficiency • Social demands for green energy utilization • Social demands for waste reduction • Growing demand for sustainable PR
Technological
• Technological advances in sensor capabilities • Complex big data streams, leading to disorganized information flows and lack of clear insights for decision making
Environmental
• Pollution in the environment directly related to the need for corrosion sensors • Global temperatures rising, leading to increased dependency on HVAC systems
Legal
• Safety regulations relating to emissions control for manufacturing in the US • OSHA requirements relating to employee safety
APPENDix N:
Corrosion Costs
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References • Information related to iButtonLink’s LinkedIn profile: https://goo.gl/LKobiC • Information related to iButtonLink’s competitors: https://goo.gl/P415T2 • Information related to industry research: https://goo.gl/ui5Ac1 • Information related to industry research: https://goo.gl/SfU55N • Customer review of iButtonLink sensor: https://goo.gl/w8EjiZ • Customer review 2 of iButtonLink sensor: https://goo.gl/2YjNtK • Paper Mill industry information: https://goo.gl/UZVeKD • Paper Mill Revenue information: https://goo.gl/6x9S8h • Paper Mill Output Production: https://goo.gl/GYUWYC • Data Center and Data Processing Industry: https://goo.gl/iZtP7E • Paper Mill industry report: file:///C:/Users/snowb/Downloads/32212%20Paper%20Mills%20in%20the%20 US%20Industry%20Report%20(1).pdf • Sensor Industry Overview: https://goo.gl/Ue4CG4 • Corrosion Management Information: https://goo.gl/zFm5Ts • Data Processing Industry Outlook: https://goo.gl/5AaZQt
Primary Research Contacts: • Call 1: Orange County Container Group ((214) 515-6400) Reached Steven who transferred me to Robert Haney (ext-6475) who is the Maintenance Director -> Left message • Call 2: WestRock Company Paper Mill (334) 289-1242 Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering. Left voicemail for Diane. • Call 3: Jackson Paper Manufacturing Co (828) 586-5534 Brian Bishop (engineer)- left voicemail Doug Dong (engineer)- left voicemail Keith Allison (engineer)- left voicemail Kody Durhm (engineer)- left voicemail Dan Vergland (engineer)- left voicemail Doug (engineer) - left voicemail • Call 4: PaperWorks Industries Inc (215) 984-7000 Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering. Left voicemail for Frank Delgrago
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• Call 5: Horizon Paper Co(203) 358-0855 Do not call back • Call 6: Domtar Paper (843) 479-0200 Do not call back • Call 7: International Paper Co(843) 546-6111 Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering. Left voicemail for Bill baker. • Call 8:Kapstone Papermill (630) 820-6300 • Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering. Spoke to Greg (engineer outside of paper mill) who mentioned: They have outside companies monitor - when doing the air monitor -> put devices on the employees -> no hazardous materials. They get big rolls of paper and convert it • Call 9: Resolute Forest Products(803) 981-8000 Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering. Left voicemail for Ron. • Call 10: American Eagle Paper Mills (814) 684-1610 Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering. Left voicemail for Allen • Call 11: Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc. (603) 588-3311 Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering, Rich Beam -> Direct Number 603-588-8281. • Call 12: Shotwell Paper Mill (415) 816-5870 Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering. Left voicemail for Jill Schram • Call 13: Georgia Pacific Camas Mill(360) 834-3021 Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering. Left voicemail for Jim • Call 14: KapStone Paper and Packaging (360) 425-1550 Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering. Left voicemail for Beth Lasenger • Call 15: Boise Paper(509) 547-2411 Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering. Left voicemail for Michael • Call 16: Port Townsend Paper Corporation(360) 385-3170 Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering. Left voicemail for Barbara • Call 17: US Paper Mills Corporation(920) 336-4229 No Answer • Call 18: Catalyst Paper - Biron Mill(715) 422-2100 Left voicemail • Call 19: Verso(906) 779-3200 Reached the operator, immediately transferred to engineering. Left voicemail for Michael • Call 20: Dunn Paper (906) 863-5595