MBA631 Digital Marketing and Communication: Ad Astra Institute

In this context, the initial assessment of the Facebook presence by Ad Astra indicates that the company makes use of this platform to share promotions, infographic stressing the need and attractiveness of getting trained for a career in hospitality industry and also direct communication for customer acquisition related efforts (Ad Astra 2017b). Some of the samples of the efforts already undertaken by the company are presented as follows,

Figure 1 – Ad Astra’s Current Presence in Facebook (Ad Astra 2017b)

On the basis of the evaluation of the Facebook initiatives already undertaken by the company, further changes can be undertaken that shall meet the following objectives of its digital marketing / communication efforts – create an effective impression on the minds of prospective clients on what Ad Astra offers and the how effective Ad Astra delivers its services and act as a board for converting prospective clients to actual customers by creating suitable motivations (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Khang et al. 2012; Whiting and Williams 2013). While the current efforts of the company already addresses these objectives, the following changes can offer much more significant fillip to its existing efforts,

• At foremost and primary requirement lies the need for creating Facebook posts that lead to increased interaction with the prospective clients. This can aid is an effort to create a visibility of personalized communication and at the same time offer insights into the behaviour of the customers (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Khang et al. 2012; Whiting and Williams 2013).

Sample

Create a campaign with a hashtag of #AdAskAstra with an aim to motivate and drive the people interested in the services offered by the company to ask their queries, clarifications, any information regarding career prospects within hospitality industry, etc. (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Khang et al. 2012; Whiting and Williams 2013). A group of social media team can be established for this purpose and by way of creating an interactive drive, the scope for effective impression and chances of customer acquisition enhances significantly (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Khang et al. 2012; Whiting and Williams 2013).

• In addition to the infographic and text based promotional material the company posts to the user feeds, short video presentation highlighting the effectives of its services needs to be made for increased visits and larger reach of its promotions (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Khang et al. 2012; Whiting and Williams 2013).

Sample

• A series of short videos with testimonials of students who have completed their course at Ad Astra can offer a personalized endorsing to the company (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Khang et al. 2012; Whiting and Williams 2013).
• A short video illustrating the facilities offered at the company’s facilities like the various kind of equipment, accommodating services, etc. offered can create an immediate impression on the people interested (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Khang et al. 2012; Whiting and Williams 2013). 

Digital Marketing Platform #1 – Email Marketing (Mailchimp)

Email marketing, at the outset, represents modern and digitized version of direct marketing initiatives that could aid in a direct one way communication with the prospective customers which shall communicate key information in an effective manner that shall either pique interest of prospective customers to accord their interest in making career in hospitality industry and make use of the services of Ad Astra or else make effective acquisition of the prospective customers who have already made up their mind to make a career in hospitality industry and seeking suitable service provides for the same (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Ashley and Tuten 2015; Papasolomou and Melanthiou 2012).

The tool identified for the purpose of undertaking the email marketing initiative is Mailchimp, an established and effective service provided for undertaking email marketing in a large scale with effective outcomes (Wang et al. 2012; Tuten and Solomon 2014; Mailchimp 2017). Mailchimp represents a platform that enables marketing automation as well as offers services for email marketing. Mailchimp is a service brand offered by the operating group called Rocket Science Group (Mailchimp 2017). This company was established in the United States during the year 2001 (Mailchimp 2017). The company initially started the services of Mailchimp in the paid model and gradually included a free service in the year 2009 (Mailchimp 2017). The introduction of the free services tool enabled the company to enhance its user base to significant extent with emergence as largest service provider in terms of usage for sending bulk marketing emails (Mailchimp 2017).

In the context of the overall strategy for marketing and promotion in digital mediums, the proposed email marketing efforts shall aid in meeting the following objectives – reate an effective impression on the minds of prospective clients on what Ad Astra offers and the how effective Ad Astra delivers its services and act as a board for converting prospective clients to actual customers by creating suitable motivations (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Khang et al. 2012; Whiting and Williams 2013). The following Email marketing strategies and efforts can offer significant boost to its existing marketing efforts,

• Create a simple yet effective infographic based content for emails which include various metrics and simple statements that illustrate the significance of making a career in the hospitality industry, the effectiveness of service offered by the company in ensuring the students develop requisite skillsets, etc. (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Khang et al. 2012; Whiting and Williams 2013). The content that can be shared with the targeted customer based needs to be aligned with all of the existing marketing efforts and specifically the posts that are made in its Facebook pages (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Khang et al. 2012; Whiting and Williams 2013). The sample of the content is presented as follows,

Sample Content

• Create and share simple videos and other text / visual simplification of the video based promotional materials illustrating the facilities offered at the company’s facilities like the various kind of equipment, accommodating services, etc. offered can create an immediate impression on the people interested (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Khang et al. 2012; Whiting and Williams 2013).

Recommendations

The earlier sections offered a critical case for using the tools identified in a manner that is effective and most suitable to the company’s need for digital marketing and affiliated communications. While the tools per se are means to ends certain needs, the identification, strategizing and planning of these needs are very critical. The need in this instance is creating effective marketing impact in terms of increased people and more importantly the targeted customer base getting visibility of the promotions / marketing efforts being undertaken and the effectiveness by which these efforts convert prospective customers to actual customers (Armstrong et al. 2015; Scott 2015; Sigala et al. 2012). In this context, the broader recommendations made in this context, include the following,

• At the outset, the overall context across the various marketing mediums like the conventional mediums, social media marketing using Facebook, and the Email marketing using Mailchimp need to be aligned to the overall organizational strategy and specific marketing strategy of the company (Armstrong et al. 2015; Ashley and Tuten 2015; Papasolomou and Melanthiou 2012).
• In addition, the overall context across the various marketing mediums like the conventional mediums, social media marketing using Facebook, and the Email marketing using Mailchimp need to be consistent in terms of the content / information being shared (Armstrong et al. 2015; Ashley and Tuten 2015; Papasolomou and Melanthiou 2012).
• Further in specific the marketing tools in digital platforms should require additional focus while preparing newer contents as the same needs to address the identified objectives of creating an effective form of impression with the prospective clients on what Ad Astra offers in terms of the services and the how effective Ad Astra delivers these services and shall act as a jumping board for converting prospective clients to actual customers by creating suitable motivations (Ad Astra 2017a; Ad Astra 2017b; Khang et al. 2012; Whiting and Williams 2013).
• More importantly, it shall become essential for establishing an internal team (either as new recruits or within the existing marketing team) or else employing the services of external agencies to manage the digital marketing / communications as a sustained, continued, dynamic and immediate environment related efforts / contents alone garner the interests of the customers and lie at the heart of successful outcomes using the digital marketing initiatives (Armstrong et al. 2015; Ashley and Tuten 2015; Papasolomou and Melanthiou 2012).

Conclusion

At the outset, this report presented a detailed evaluation of the prevailing social media presence of Ad Astra, identified tools that are essential given the nature of its services, social media / digital marketing objectives and proposed changes in its Facebook presence as well as offered an effective communications approach using Mailchimp Email services. In addition, the recommendations made offered an integrated and broader guidance on aligning these tools and affiliated initiatives in the context of broader overall strategy of the Ad Astra Institute.

References

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