Online Marketing in Russia

Introduction

Delivery Incorporation is in the process of restructuring its marketing strategy to improve productivity and stimulate brand loyalty in the face of mounting competition. The marketing team accorded this responsibility must come up with a marketing model that will influence optimal results among the online community. The marketing department has introduced paid media and owned media as the designated brand media plans showcasing the objectives set and benefits the firm will acquire from the use of online media marketing.

Paid Media

Paid media is any marketing activity that is paid for by the firm. It is used to either promote the brand directly or drive users to owned media. The third-party is used to broadcast the brand message and reach the target audience (Lovett and Staelin 2016). The most common forms of paid media channels include search ads and display ads, paid per click advertising(PPC), affiliate marketing programs, and sponsored content.

Types of Paid Media

Pay-Per-Click is a form of paid media that charges marketers for each click a promoted result receives. The most prevalent form of PPC is Google PPC, which suggests an option to users looking for similar products or services; thus, more users come across the firm’s brand and the services offered. Display ads are the most recognizable form of paid media. It appears as pop-ups and wallpaper ads that appear when one is browsing online and video ads that represent a small video that plays when a user visits a page. Sponsored content is synonymous with social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. These sites offer advertisement that is essential in promoting the firm’s page, thus boosting traffic. They offer content that will allow the firm to create ads, thus prompting to message or like the page, thus getting more leads.

Advantages of Paid Media

Paid media amplifies the reach the firm has to the market and gives the brand visibility. Paid media guarantee a place in the user’s feed (Colicev, Malshe, Pauwels, and O’Connor 2018). This provides the opportunity to drive website traffic and sales for the firm. Paid media enhances the frequency of retargeting prospective customers; for example, Facebook has installed a feature that lets you retarget users who have previously visited the firm’s website. Paid media coverage creates exposure to the company’s brand effectively. The vast usage of social media makes it easy to cover a broad audience, thus generating awareness. Delivery Incorporation can use paid media to access social media sites such as Instagram to inform the public of its services, especially at mealtime.

Owned Media

This is a digital media channel created by a company and which the company exercises complete control over. It includes the content that an entrepreneur shares on behalf of the company across various social media sites (Chaffey 2019). This includes websites, blogs, videos, and brand owned social network channels such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. It is typically used when an organization wants to make a statement, inform or engage the audience as a way of walking the journey with the customers.

Types of Owned Media

Websites are used to promote products and services offered and offer a chance for the customer to make a purchase. Customers are given an option to sign up on the websites to receive promotional messages by email. Social media sites allow brands to reach out to their target audience on a more personal, informal level. Infographic images can be posted on the sites, thus attracting more audiences. Blogs are used by brands to attract customers by way of the published content. The content on blogs is designed to create topics and discussions on the brand, thus getting more coverage.

Advantages

Social media can target a broad audience of audiences by replying directly to their followers’ social media activity. This kind of advertising leads to the creation of a customer base as the tweet may have mentions stimulating the need to discover the mentioned company, which leads to the growth of the company clientele. The information can reach a sizeable population of customers in a click of a button. Blogs engage prospective and customers socially hence creating brand awareness. Marketers have realized that content is the key component of the advertising; hence they post regularly on their pages for the prospective customers to be able to view products and services daily. This also helps businesses target and retarget their followers with the information, which brings more customers on board (Tuten and Solomon 2017). This type of marketing media is also cost-effective as social media sites are free to use, although the business pays for web hosting and domain setup.

Earned Media

Earned media involves turning prospects and customers into brand advocates and influencers who push the brand into the market. Earned media include publicity from media outlets, search engine optimization, review sites, social media mentions, retweets, and word-of-mouth marketing. It is the most sought after marketing information for consumers to consider when making a purchase decision.

Strategies to Generate Earned Media

Trends indicate shareable content as being useful or funny, thus captivating the customers. The content can be in the form of infographics, statements, or videos. Social share links and buttons should be placed appropriately on the shared content to create a buzz around the brand name.  Investing time into social media interactions is also useful in bringing the consumers closer to the company brand. Time is invested in engaging people individually on social media sites. Time spent on social media sites can help monitor the conversations about the brand and thus chip in information regarding the topics discussed (Katz 2016). Engaging users shows the willingness to show that you care about them and the brand, thus eliciting positive reviews; thus, the content is shared online, generating earned media marketing.

Action Plan to Generate Earned Contacts

The process starts with the identification of the target audience, a step crucial in the creation of actionable content put across, which appeals to a particular market segment. This target-oriented content will increase the chances of getting new prospects for the cuisines offered. The identification of the audience leads to the decision of the resources to use. This media should focus on the social media sites frequented by the target audience. The target audience may have a preference of twitter over other social media sites; thus, content posted can be retweeted, thus gaining recognition and prospects direct message the company inquiring more about services offered. Turning employees into social media advocates for the company will also lead to building up more contacts. Employees’ pages can be used to fish for the target audience of the products from their followers.

Brand’s Reputation

Brand reputation refers to public opinion about the company. A favorable brand reputation creates a positive review from the consumers as they are confident in the quality of services. An unfavorable brand reputation leads to a negative review; hence the consumers distrust the services offered (oroudi 2019). Brand reputation in today’s digitalized world can be analyzed according to online reviews and mentions. Delivery Incorporation brand reputation on the Twitter platform, the most preferred among the target audience, implies a positive reputation. The company gets shout outs from the customers who have enjoyed the services provided, thus stimulating healthy discussions about the company’s service.  The company’s app has an excellent rating based on customer reviews.

SWOT Analysis of Brand Reputation

Strategies to help maintain and protect the positive brand reputation can be analyzed based on the SWOT business model, where it helps map the brand strength in the industry and improve it.  The strength of a brand can be measured by the ability to control branded online content. Control of this Content will help mitigate the risks presented when fake news about the company is shared online.  Being able to control the information about the company released on social sites is a significant contributor to countering fake news spreading. Good brand reputation also makes it easy to introduce a new product into the market as there is a loyal market in place

Weaknesses that should be eliminated is the posting of harmful online content that can damage the brand’s reputation. For a food delivery company, bad reviews are associated with the cuisines which are not satisfied with the customers’ satisfaction. Management should investigate bad reviews and ensure it is not repeated. Opportunities include identification of the gaps in the market and offering strategies to solve the problem. This can offer cuisine that the target audience has an interest in, thus cementing brand loyalty and reputation. Threats to a positive brand reputation include a downgrade in service quality delivery, corporate scandals, negative online reviews, and competitors aimed at destroying the brand’s reputation.

 

 

References

Chaffey, D., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.

Colicev, A., Malshe, A., Pauwels, K., and O’Connor, P., 2018. Improving consumer mindset metrics and shareholder value through social media: The different roles of owned and earned media. Journal of Marketing, 82(1), pp.37-56.

Katz, H., 2016. The media handbook: A complete guide to advertising media selection, planning, research, and buying. Taylor & Francis.

Lovett, M.J., and Staelin, R., 2016. The role of paid, earned, and owned media in building entertainment brands: Reminding, informing, and enhancing enjoyment. Marketing Science, 35(1), pp.142-157.

Oroudi, P., 2019. Influence of brand signature, brand awareness, brand attitude, brand reputation on the hotel industry’s brand performance. International journal of hospitality management, 76, pp.271-285.

Tuten, T.L., and Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage