Introduction
Our product (mobile phone accessory) is to be marketed to a specific age category (14-18 year olds), therefore the marketing strategy adopted has to appeal to this age group. Therefore, the marketing team will design a plan that targets the specified market segment. The strategy will involve the use of websites frequently visited by children between 14-18 years.
Before developing the marketing strategy for the mobile phone accessories, it is imperative that we analyze the nature and size of the market, then establish our presence in all the target markets through the web. The Strategy is outlined below:
Marketing Strategy
The first stage is the development of the marketing plan. Our products will be sold in the African and Asian continents in bulk to wholesalers and stockists. Since we are a new supplier, we will devise ways of attracting people to our website, however, to turn visitors into buyers, we will to use a website interface that is friendly and easy to use (Laura 2011).
This stems from the fact that the target market is 14-18 year olds, and since these are children who cannot make their own purchases, our website will mainly target parents. Therefore, we will advertise our products in websites frequented by both adults and teenagers.
The second stage is to review the website. Statements such as “This site optimized for Internet Explorer 9” will be omitted since it will ‘scare away’ persons using Firefox or other web browsers, instead, we will use adequate visual representations or people donning our products and will use a Flash player.
An important technical design at this stage will be to use Search Optimization Engine (SEO) tools to help web users find our website (Fiona 2011). The website design will allow additions and updates.
The third stage is to use web analytics to learn about people who visit our site. The analytics will provide the number of visitors, keywords used by the visitors, sources of referrals, the proportion of visitors that actually made purchases and the number of visitors lost at each stage of the checkout process.
This information will assist us in revising the design of the website to ensure that the checkout process is as smooth as possible (Mohammed 2004).
The fourth stage is to promote our website through pay-per-click advertising (PPC) and other effective methods that will increase the flow of visitors to the site. PPC is faster than SEO and is more reliable (Charlesworth 2009). PPC also enables web designers to test numerous keywords at any one time so that they can know the set that has the highest ‘conversion rate’.
Conversion rate is defined as the number of visitors who make actual purchases. Once the most effective keywords are identified, then we can optimize the website by using these words to describe our products (Chaffey et al 2009).
The fifth stage is the rollout of our website with all the modifications that are bound to attract a steady number of visitors. Since the keywords have been optimized to achieve the highest conversion rate and the checkout procedure simplified, the role of the marketing at this stage is receive orders, process, and ship to customers.
Occasionally, the website is modified to inform customers of new products, or to match the website with the current trends. Success will not be achieved overnight, but through a dedicated team with support from the administration.
References
Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F, and Mayer, R. (2009). Internet marketing: strategy, implementation and practice. NJ: Prentice Hall.
Charlesworth, A. (2009). Internet marketing: a practical approach. Oxford: Elsevier.
Fiona, M. (2011). Google Places: The Next SED Marketing Tool? Web.
Laura, L. (2011). Five Levels of Internet Marketing and the Sales Process Move your potential clients through a successful sales process. Web.
Mohammed, R., et al. (2004). Internet Marketing: Building Advantage in a Networked Economy. NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.