Introduction
Café StudyFun seems a valuable opportunity to meet the needs of many customers against the COVID-19 background and various limitations. That is why it is necessary to invest some efforts in creating the Target Market section to understand consumers’ buying influences and behaviors. When the specific goals are formulated, it will be possible to determine appropriate strategies, identify target market peculiarities, choose suitable platforms, select implementation details to ensure that these objectives can be achieved.
Goals
As has been mentioned above, goals are a starting point in creating the Target Market section. According to Barker et al. (2016), typical objectives include brand building, offering new product ideas, increasing customer satisfaction, and others. However, it is necessary to make objectives specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound to ensure that they benefit an organization. For Café StudyFun, the first SMART goal is to increase the number of social media followers by 10% on each social media platform in six months. The second objective refers to engaging more clients in active conversation. In SMART format, the task is to ensure that every post starts receiving at least 1,000 likes and 100 responses or comments in six months.
Strategies
It is rational to identify the strategies that can help achieve the two goals above. To begin with, one should mention that every guidance should meet the Eight C’s of Strategy Development by Barker et al. (2016). However, more specific recommendations are necessary to reach successful results. Thus, the first strategy is to enrich social media posts with humor. Borden and Suggs (2019) stipulate that this phenomenon can be effective in marketing campaigns by exciting and attracting existing and new followers. In this case, the focus is on content because it is necessary to create those posts that will be appealing to customers. Simultaneously, some ethical issues can arise from relying on this approach (Borden & Eggs, 2019). That is why this strategy implies the necessity to invest in producing or purchasing the required content.
The second strategy is needed to make followers more active on social media. A suitable option is to use direct and indirect motivational factors. On the one hand, direct or explicit drivers imply stating that every comment is worth a particular discount or that a specific gift will be raffled off among those who liked a post. On the other hand, it is possible to achieve the desired outcome by relying on indirect and implicit means. For instance, it is possible to use the data from scholarly sources to identify what data invokes more feedback. Thus, including a link to a different page and a few hashtags typically leads to more likes and comments (del Rocío Bonilla et al., 2019). Thus, posting specific content can also contribute to achieving the desired outcome.
Target Market
Now, it is reasonable to present specific characteristics of the target audience. Firstly, it is helpful to begin with commenting on demographics. Since Café StudyFun offers food as well as fun and study opportunities, it is not a surprise that teenagers and people in the early 20s of all genders are at focus. The organization relies on reasonable prices, which means that it is suitable for customers with middle and even level levels of income.
Secondly, one should comment on psychographic issues, including what needs, interests, and tastes can characterize the target audience. It is possible to mention that the café is suitable for an average citizen who is interested in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere as well as traditional food and drinks.
The rationale behind this statement is that the organization does not provide any exotic blends of coffee or specific offerings during sports events. Simultaneously, representatives of various subcultures will not find anything attractive in attending Café StudyFun because this establishment does not meet their tastes. Thirdly, it is rational to highlight the behavioral features of the target audience. Most customers come in the afternoon, they do not invest large sums of money in their visits, while they typically spend a few hours in an organization.
Finally, it is necessary to admit that religious people are currently active users of social media platforms. According to Stokel-Walker (2017), many Christians spend much time on social media, which means that Café StudyFun should also draw attention to this population layer. Since the organization does not have any offerings that could repulse religious individuals, it requires a social media marketing plan that does not have any issues that would contradict a biblical worldview. That is why all the suggestions in this plan are given to meet this criterion.
Platforms
Since the target market characteristics have been identified, it is reasonable to identify specific social media sites that gather individuals with these peculiarities. To cope with the task, one should rely on a statistical analysis of the US community. Thus, Auxier and Anderson (2021) stipulate that YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat are the most popular social media platforms among people of 18-29 years old.
When the population is divided into genders, men rely on YouTube and Facebook, while women are more active in the two and Instagram. (Auxier & Anderson, 2021). The situation is not very different when it comes to assessing ethnic groups. Facebook and YouTube are the most requested platforms among Whites, while African American and Hispanic minorities also spend much time on Instagram (Auxier & Anderson, 2021). These data were obtained from a national survey of US adults and their online behavior.
It is reasonable to explain how the information above can be applied to the strategic marketing activities of Café StudyFun. The organization focuses on young adults of all genders and ethnic backgrounds. Thus, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram seem suitable because these platforms have the highest concentration of the required audience. Consequently, the organization should understand that each social media site is a collection of potential customers. That is why it is necessary to understand what activities are required to target the audience.
Implementation
Platform-Specific Tactics and Tools
Each social media site requires unique tactics to ensure that the target audience can be reached. Firstly, Bahcecik et al. (2019) stipulate that successful results on YouTube can be obtained with the help of viral marketing that ensures that the potential customers have access to the content. A possible strategy is to cooperate with influencers who can distribute the message to the audience. Another suitable solution is to buy targeted advertising to cover larger cohorts of people. Secondly, Instagram requires different tactics to achieve the desired outcomes. For example, appropriate options are to rely on hashtags and organize photo contests to engage customers to be active online (Bahcecik et al., 2019). Thirdly, Facebook offers an excellent opportunity to target the audience through carousel advertisements, hashtags, and other forms of targeted advertising (Belanche et al., 2019). This information denotes that different strategies are suitable to deal with various platforms.
Content Development
In addition to that, each social media site has different requirements regarding the content. Since YouTube relies on videos, Café StudFun should either employ a creative team or buy targeted advertising from specialized companies. As for Instagram and Facebook, it is reasonable to have some employees who will be responsible for creating content for these platforms. Irrespective of whether the content is created or purchased, it is necessary to edit, manage, and publish it. A single person can perform all these functions for all the three sites.
Simultaneously, it is possible to ask this employee to prepare the content for cross-platform utilization. For example, if a Facebook post was created, the person can slightly change it to make an Instagram-friendly post. Furthermore, it is possible to split the content into smaller parts. For example, a long YouTube video can be divided into shorter ones to disseminate them on Facebook and Instagram. These steps will make the process of content creation more optimized.
Assignments
As has been mentioned above, Café StudyFun requires specific employees that can help implement the social media marketing plan. On the one hand, it is necessary to hire specialists who will be able to create humorous content. On the other hand, the organization requires employees who will deal with uncreative tasks, including posting content, managing it, answering comments, and others. Such a division of work can help Café StudyFun benefit from its marketing activities.
Conclusion
If Café StudyFun wants to improve its social marketing activities, it should aim at increasing the number of followers and motivating them to be more active. Since the organization focuses on young and average adults, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are suitable to target this population. Specific tactics and tools are appropriate to promote content through these platforms, and Café StudyFun should employ skillful individuals to ensure that the stipulated goals can be achieved.
References
Auxier, B., & Anderson, M. (2021). Social media use in 2021. Pew Research Center. Web.
Bahcecik, Y. S., Akay, S. S., & Akdemir, A. (2019). A review of digital brand positioning strategies of Internet entrepreneurship in the context of virtual organizations: Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube samples. Procedia Computer Science, 158, 513-522. Web.
Barker, M. S., Barker, D. I., Bormann, N. F., Roberts, M. L., & Zahay, D. (2016). Social media marketing: A strategic approach (2nd ed.). Cengage Learning.
Belanche, D., Cenjor, I., & Perez-Rueda, A. (2019). Instagram stories versus Facebook wall: An advertising effectiveness analysis. Spanish Journal of Marketing, 23(1), 69-94. Web.
Borden, D. A., & Suggs, L. S. (2019). Strategically leveraging humor in social marketing campaigns. Social Marketing Quarterly, 25(3), 193-208. Web.
Del Rocío Bonilla, M., Perea, E., del Olmo, J. L., & Corrons, A. (2019). Insights into user engagement on social media. Case study of a higher education institution. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 30(1), 145-160. Web.
Stokel-Walker, C. (2017). Many Christians are turning to apps and memes to express their faith instead of churches – and it’s raising intriguing questions about the future of the world’s largest religion. BBC. Web.