Executive Summary
Carter Capital Management is a small business operating in the fund’s management sector. Its main investment is in pension funds and hence requires better marketing strategies to increase its customers. Currently, the company’s main advertisement channel is a small corporate website that illustrates its operations, contact details, and some information on investment opportunities. With its head office in Brisbane, the company must improve its advertisement strategies by exploiting opportunities in social media and other emerging technologies. The best social media platform that can be used to enhance marketing is Google+. Despite being the third-rated social media platform, Google+ has a user-friendly application, and has the potential of expansion and diversification as compared to Facebook and Twitter. The following report will evaluate Google+ features, plans, and options, which can be implemented by the company to increase returns.
Advertising Options in Google+
According to Brogan (2012), Google+ is becoming one of the fastest-growing social networks in the world, with its features being expanded regularly to fit customers’ demands. Google+ has developed various user-friendly features, which allow businesses to get found across the leading search engine, get face-to-face interactions with their customers, and make the social network accountable for their business success. One of the special features offered by Google+ includes Google+ Ads, which enhance business popularity across the social network. Also, the social network has Google+ badges that drive traffic from a company’s Google+ page, hence increasing the business’ popularity. Google+ also offers businesses share and +1 buttons, which allow followers and potential customers to popularise organizational brands and to share the brands amongst friends and other followers by creating circles.
The Google+ applications available for business marketing are referred to as Google+ social annotations. They include Google+ share buttons, +1, Google Ads, and Google badges. However, the major feature in Google+ is Google Ads, which is designed purposely to promote business development, popularity, and advertise organizational brands. One of the advantages of Google+ Ads is the link already established with all other Google search platforms including Google maps. The working process of Google+ annotations involves connecting the business across all AdWords selected by the company on Google and other search partners. The annotations are compatible with other ad tools, hence making it easier for use by any business in the social network.
Once a company decides to advertise its product using Google+ Ads, the social network offers the user an opportunity to select the annotations, which seem appropriate depending on whether the business is service or product-oriented (Brogan, 2012). This means that different companies can be using Google+ Ads, but have different annotations depending on their business needs. Besides, pricing for the products differ according to the user, and the number of services being offered by Google+. Pricing is based on business expectations and the type of customer actions expected by every business entity. One of the pricing strategies is known as Cost-Per-Thousand impressions (CPM), which is recommended for businesses intending to increase their brands’ popularity since it is billed according to the number of times the advert shows on the social network. This billing option is however limited to display network campaigns, at which companies benefit by having their brands popularised over a given period.
The second billing option is the Cost-Per-Click (CPC), which is recommended for businesses using Google+ badges that drive traffic to the entity’s website. This billing option calculates the number of times every link to an organization’s website or AdWord is accessed by any user. The last option is known as Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA), which is billed according to the actions taken by customers. This last option is recommended for seasonal users, who benefit through conversions like purchases. Google+ offers all businesses an opportunity to control their costs depending on an organization’s financial capacity. Some of the available ways of controlling costs include setting up daily budgets to avoid excessive spending. Also, the businesses are allowed to fine-tune their bids to fit their needs and financial capacity. Lastly, every business is encouraged to create relevant ads to maximize value for their money. The network’s features are therefore user friendly and flexible enough to accommodate organizational needs.
Best Strategy for Carter Capital Management
The best advertisement option for Carter Capital Management is the Cost-Per-Click strategy, which would drive traffic to the company’s website and hence increase the number of customers. To increase the number of customers, the company needs to purchase Google+ badges and incorporate the feature with other annotations like Google+ share buttons and Google+1 buttons. One of the most important steps is opening a Google+ page, which enables the company to start interacting with potential customers and partners across the social network (Brogan, 2012). However, implementing Google+ Ads would require some significant investment to increase value for money and to ensure that the company’s information is secure. The main benefit of using Google+ Ads is in its integration with other Google services, hence increasing the target population.
Cater Capital Management should use its current website and connect it to Google+ to establish an active Google+ page. With the Google+ business page in operation, the company needs to invest in content writing by using either internal or external editors to update the web content to keep the customers updated on the company’s current information. The cost for Google+ set up and design should factor website social integration, analytics, reporting and auditing, and Misc service items. The company also needs to invest in Google+ page updates and sharing, by getting the Google+ share and +1 buttons. By adding these notations to the Google+ page, the company will enhance its popularity and manage the number of following, across the social network. The +1 notation would allow the business to estimate the number of customers following the Ad words included in the company’s Google+ page. Through the +1 buttons and other Google+ annotations, Cater Capital Management will establish its business circles, which are expected to booster returns by increasing the number of followers.
Figure 1: Estimated Budget.
The advertisement strategy is very effective since it establishes circles to engage with potential customers and like-minded investment partners. Besides, Google+ annotations make it easier to harmonize the available features without increasing investment costs (Ovadiaa, 2011). Some annotations like Google+ share and +1 buttons are offered at no extra cost, offering the investor an opportunity to increase customers’ traffic and enhance value for money.
References
Brogan, C. (2012). Google+ for Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything, Second Edition. London, United Kingdom: Que Publishing.
Ovadiaa, S. (2011). An Early Introduction to the Google+ Social Networking Project. Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 30 (4), 259-263.