Introduction
The given report will primarily focus on a digital advertising campaign for an online sports nutrition store, Nutrishop, proposed by a consultancy firm DigMar. The general approach is utilized throughout the process is based on a proper combination of email marketing and social media marketing. In order to properly track the progression of the proposed efforts as well as monitor the results, it is critical to identify and assess the correct set of metrics. These include revenue growth, customer growth, average order value, percentages, Google ad expenditure, social ad expenditure, email contacts, and email subscribers. There are also elements, such as bounce rate, email open rate, followers/subs (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube), and sales by platforms.
The client is an online sports nutrition store, which heavily relies on its capability to be competitive and exposed among other websites. Therefore, the most plausible approach is based on digital marketing because the lack of physical stores means that the sales are in online format (Baker and Hart, 2016). The metrics can be categorized into three parts, which are general elements, email marketing metrics, and social media marketing metrics. The former aspect is rooted in direct business-related components of performance measurement, such as revenue and customer growth as well as average order value (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). In the case of the second group of metrics, the emphasis is put on the email marketing elements, which include email contacts, subscribers, email bounce rate, and email open rate. The remaining category primarily addresses SMM-based measurements, which involve key social media platforms and relevant sales.
Justification
General Metrics
The first category of essential metrics, which are included in the dashboard, are general business performance elements. These include revenue changes, customer growth, and average order value, which are vital for the evaluation of the overall business state under the influence of the proposed marketing efforts. Revenue growth and its change across the specified period provide a clear insight into the businessâs performance (Chaffey and Smith, 2017). Therefore, it is evident that the monitoring process of the given item is paramount for the development of a properly functional dashboard. It will demonstrate the bigger picture, which represents the cumulative effect of all activities directed at improving the Nutrishopâs improvement.
One should be aware of the fact that although revenue growth is an outstanding indicator of increased money circulation, it does not explain the source of the change. Thus, it is critical to keep track of two additional general business performance metrics, which are customer growth and average order value (Kingsnorth, 2019). These two metrics will be vital to understanding the forces behind the expected revenue growth element. The main reason is that the revenue might increase either due to an increase in customer numbers or customer order value. In the case of the former, Nutrishopâs revenue is positively altered due to increased exposure in the online sphere among other websites, which makes more people interested in considering the purchase in the given store (Armstrong et al., 2019). Therefore, the enhancement is manifested in capturing the unaware customers, who have the needs, which can be satisfied by Nutrishop but are not informed about its existence (Svend, 2019). The given metric is mainly targeted by social media marketing efforts because they utilize a wide range of platforms in order to increase the online reach of the company (Malhotra, Nunan, and Birks, 2017). It will enable the store to be more accessible and visible within the internet because it activates all social media platforms as potential points of exposure.
However, it is important to note that revenue increase can also be attributed to average order value alterations. In other words, the company might grow without expanding its clientele, which is based on the fact that each existing customer began to order more than before (Kannan and Li, 2017). The specified aspect of such growth is primarily targeted by email marketing efforts because they are useful to be in touch with the customers and reveal more products in which they might be interested (Todor, 2016). By exposing more products to existing clientele, Nutrishop will be able to increase its average order value by a significant margin, where each customerâs purchasing behavior changes to a larger extent (Machado and Davim, 2016). This will inevitably lead to revenue growth, which will indicate the effectiveness of the email marketing campaign as well as reveal the source of the change.
Email Marketing Metrics
One should note that the proposed digital marketing campaign is comprised of two targeted approaches, which are EM and SMM. As it was mentioned previously, the key focus of email marketing will be based on the improvement of average order value by exposing more Nutrishopâs products to existing customers. In other words, it does not seek to expand the clientele base by bringing in more people but rather addresses the current ones (Zhang, Kumar, and Cosguner, 2017). Email marketing metrics include sales by email, email contacts, email subscribers, email bounce rates, and email open rates (Hartemo, 2016). These metrics will provide valuable insight into the overall effectiveness of the EM specifically. Sales by email will show the direct result of email marketing efforts, which will illuminate the proportion of revenue occupied by EM (Reimers, Chao, and Gorman, 2016). Email contacts is a simple metric, which merely showcases the number of potential and existing customers available for the company.
It is important to note that an increase in the email contact list does not necessarily reflect the customer base expansion because emails of non-customers can also be gathered. Email subscribers are a better measurement of interest of both existing and potential clients because subscription allows the marketing team to expose more products to these individuals. In other words, existing customers will be more informed about the Nutrishopâs products, and potential customers will be more likely to become existing ones. In addition, there are email bounce rates and email open rates, which are critical to understanding whether or not the email reaches the receivers (Sahni, Wheeler, and Chintagunta, 2018). Email bounce rate is a direct and precise indicator of the validity and plausibility of an email address because some of them might be inactive (Waheed and Yang, 2017). In other words, email addresses with high bounce rates can be considered completely useless, and thus, they should be eliminated from the contacts list. The email open rate is necessary to further reveal the usefulness of an email address because some emails might reach the recipient but not be opened due to either being disregarded or dislocated as spam (Dahl, 2018). In other words, these metrics are designed to shrink the contacts list to leave the most accessible individuals.
Social Media Marketing Metrics
Another major component of the proposed digital marketing campaign is social media marketing, which is primarily focused on expanding the current customer base as well as increasing the general visibility of Nutrishop in the online sphere. It is achieved through the utilization of various key social media platforms, which are necessary to increase the overall reach of the company to its prospective clients (Alalwan et al., 2017). Therefore, the metrics include Google ad and social media ad expenditures, follower/subscriber numbers, and sales by platforms (Alves, Fernandes, and Raposo, 2016). Although Google and social media ad expenditures can indirectly affect email marketing outcomes, they are primarily required for SMM. Without these expenses, it will be difficult and even implausible to effectively conduct social media marketing because it is critical to be promoted on key platforms, pages, and channels in order to capture the attention of the relevant audiences.
The abundance of Internet marketing tools forces companies to look for new effective ways to implement Internet communications with customers. One of these methods is social media marketing, or SMM, which means a set of activities aimed at using social media, such as social networks, blogs, forums, and photo and video hosting, as promotion channels. This allows companies to stand out from a large number of competitors, attract potential consumers, increase customer loyalty, and significantly reduce the cost of online advertising.
Since sports nutrition products are in demand among both professional athletes and people who regard training or sports as a hobby, both formal and informal social media platforms need to be used. These platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and thus, expenditures will be present in all of them (Tuten, 2020). In addition, it is not well-known or well-established whether one platform is more effective than others, which means that follower/subscriber number increase needs to be tracked among all of these media (Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch, 2017). However, one should note that follower/subscriber size does not necessarily reflect the purchasing power of the customers, which is why sales by platforms are paramount for creating a more accurate picture of the situation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is important to note that the selected metrics are relevant, and they are based on the specificities of the proposed digital marketing campaign. There are three key categories, which include general metrics, email marketing metrics, and social media marketing metrics. The former group involves business performance measurements, such as revenue and customer growth, as well as average order value. Revenue is an overall reflection of the growth, which can either be due to client base expansion or each existing customer purchasing more than before. Therefore, the average order value is key to demonstrating the effectiveness of email marketing, which primarily seeks to expose more products to existing customers. Customer growth is mainly intertwined with SMM efforts because social media marketing is designed to increase the online visibility of Nutrishop as well as its reach.
In the case of EM, the metrics are based on email contacts, bounce rates, open rates, and subscription rates. The overall list of emails helps to observe the scope of email marketing, whereas open rates and bounce rates are required to identify the inactive and useless email addresses. The addition of the subscription rate metric reveals the most useful emails, which are essential and relevant for the EM efforts. In the case of SMM, the metrics are based on followers/subscribers per platform type as well as their sales. In addition, one should be aware that the given category of targeted digital marketing will require heavy investments in order to identify the most relevant platforms with the highest level of prospective buyers.
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