Digital Audit of Marks and Spencer: Issues, Drivers, and Opportunities

This report discusses the digital audit of Marks and Spencer, including the issues faced by the organization, drivers of digital performance, and opportunities for growth. It explores the use of various digital marketing strategies and tools, such as SEO and PPC, and provides insights into the metrics used to measure the effectiveness of digital activities. The report also highlights the challenges of high competition and the need for strategic decision-making in digital marketing.

Assessment
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1) Audit devices of Marks and Spencer.......................................................................................3
Snapshot summary.......................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
In era of digitalisation it is necessary for companies to increase their presence digitally.
This is because it enabled them to attract more people and make them aware about products and
services. However, best way to do it is use of digital marketing strategies. Through that, it
becomes easy to internet and promote product and service. Digital audit refer to auditing of
company presence on different social platforms. It enables in gathering of data and analysing
number of customer interacted, where etc. besides that, issues are identified and results are
measured with set metrics. In this report it will be described about digital audit of Marks and
Spencer. Moreover, it will be explained on issues for organisation, driver of digital performance,
metrics used etc. (Caviglione, Wendzel and Mazurczyk, 2017)
1) Audit devices of Marks and Spencer.
It is important for business to increase their digital presence on various platforms. This is
because it helps them to attract more people. Moreover, it require them to gather data so that
changes is made with strategies. Digital audit refer to inspection of data and info and digital
presence of company on different sites. Along with it, conducting audit is useful in analysing
whether strategies are properly implemented or not. Beside, organisation gets insight on what
changes are required and how well digital activities are executed. However, there are various
types of auditing tools available which enable in inspection. The use of tool depends on type of
digital marketing. So, the various audit tools available in digital activities are SEO, Spyfu,
WebCEO, etc. (Kim, Wang and Oh, 2016). these all enable in analysing data and info in
effective way. There are various types of digital activities which can be initiated by companies in
order to increase presence on social media. The activities enable in posting of images, videos,
content, etc of products and service on internet. It allows in continuously doing advertising and
promotion. Apart from it, different techniques are followed as well in it. The activities
undertaken depend on target audience. For instance- for youngsters social media platform like
Facebook, Instagram, etc is used. Likewise, in Marks and Spencer as well audit of digital
activities was done. From that it is found that there are various initiatives and activities
implemented by them. Furthermore, the data obtained from it is : (Lee and Chan, 2016)
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By above graphs it is analysed that Marks and Spencer is promoting it via social site
Facebook. It is stated that in august 2010 the number of followers were 1,249,10 and in 2015
there was high increase in followers. It was identified that the number rose to 2,251,877. so, it
can be evaluated that digital activity presence of company has effective enough. They are
promoting in efficient way on facebook. It has resulted in attracting large number of people.
Moreover, there is proper use and implementation of strategy as well as activities of company on
it.
It is identified from chart there are various metrics used by Marks and Spencer in audit of digital
activities. The metrics allows them to measure results with set standards. Thus, for each activity
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there is a separate metric used. So, metric are conversion rate, bounce rate, followed, etc. it has
provided them relevant and precise results. Furthermore, metrics has enabled in measuring
outcomes in effective way. With help of that it has become easy to determine whether digital
activity is benefiting company or not. In this it is also mentioned about budget allocated in digital
marketing. Therefore, it is found 30% is allocated to social, 30 % to PPC, 5% of email and 1 %
to mobile. So, for PPC and social company allocate 30% budget. From these both as well they
are able to generate high revenue and profits. (Pagani and Pardo, 2017)
From above table it is stated that digital activity of Marks and Spencer state that company
name is directly searched with 59.43 %. besides, on social site it is only 8.97%. however, direct
search is 34.78%. this means that customer find it easy to search directly for company name
rather than n social media or referrals. It has enabled in ease in searching for its name. Here,
there is limited role of digital activity done by organisation.
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it is analysed from graph that the digital presence of Marks and Spencer on various social
platforms. So, about 45.71% traffic is generated from Facebook. Moreover, it is found that
23.94% is generated from You tube and 15.87% is from pinterest. Apart from it, 5.61% is from
twitter and 2.21 % from redditt. Therefore, from above it is concluded that there is high presence
of digital activity of organisation on Facebook and other social media platforms. Alongside, they
have focused on these popular social sites rather than on many platforms. This is useful for them
to increase customer base and promote.
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It is find out that graph is of sales of food and cloth in company. This shows that in 2014
– 2016 the sales of clothing was high within firm. Moreover, in 2018 business focused on
promoting of food products as well. They took various digital marketing activities for advertising
food products. Thus, social sites, e mail, PPC, etc were techniques used. It resulted in increasing
sales of food products.
Snapshot summary
By analysing the audit data and info it is found that there are several issues and
challenges which is been faced by Marks and Spencer in digital activities. Due to it, they are not
able to attract customers and increase profit and sales (Pinkard, Erete and McKinney de
Royston, 2017). However, despite being engaged in different activities on various platforms the
value generated by it is not sufficient. The organisation is not able to create awareness about new
products within people. In addition, there are some opportunities of growth and development as
well for company. This can be useful for them to compete in market for long term and retain
customers with help of digital activities. Through that it will be easy for them to grow rapidly in
digital context. So, the issues and challenges are described as :
The main issue faced is that people are directly searching for Marks and Spencer website rather
than from social media. So, the awareness of digital activities is not widely spread. It has led to
change in activities on frequent basis but not getting results which is required. Thus, it has led to
decrease in effectiveness of digital activity on different sources (Ren, Zhou and Ahmad, 2017).
However, another issue is that with frequently change in aactivities it has led to creating
confusion among people. They are not been diverted towards one particular activity. This has led
to chaos among customer as well.
Marks and Spencer faced challenge of high competition within industry. As there are akrwdu to
many companies offering high quality products and is engaged in digital activity so it is difficult
for organization to differentiate their activity with other.
Moreover, there are many types of digital tools available for aduit so same tool can not be used
to measure and analyse data. It is because the outcome obtained varies and it leads to change in
goals and strategies.
Along with it, there were certain opportunity which was identified in it. The company can highly
focus only on social media platforms and develop effective and attractive digital activity. This
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will help in promoting of products and services to a specified audience and generating high
revenue from it. Also, there can be change in things as well (Salas-Olmedo, Moya-Gómez and
Gutiérrez, 2018).
Marks and Spencer can specify their target audience and then according select digital activity. It
will be highly useful in retaining and converting them. Besides that, business can focus on young
generation who are spending lot of time on social media. They will be able to interact with them
easily.
The company can enter in new and emerging markets such as India where there is large customer
base. For that they can provide discount and offers to them in order to attract it. This will be easy
for firm to maintain strong relation with them for long term. Alongside, digital activity personal
relations can be initiated as well.
Company can use various other types of digital activity tools as wel. For example, PPC e mail
marketing, SEO etc in order to improve their presence on digital media. This will rise in cost but
it will provide relevant and quality results. There will high rise in customer attraction. In
addition, it will led to promoting in efficient way (Troxler, . and Wolf, 2017)
Furthermore, there are several drivers of digital performance which is used by Marks and
Spencer. It is evaluated that customer relationship is most effective driver in company. This has
enabled business to develop strong relation with them that is about 41.23%. along with it,
reputation of brand is another driver which state that company is having a high reputation in
mind of people as well within the industry. The people are easily able to identify and distinguish
brand from other. However, with strong brand name it is easy for company to attract people.
They are automatically attracted towards it. The digital activity provide simple and flexible way
of maintaining relation with customer with brand name. Moreover, it is analysed that there driver
was Strategic decision making. Here, decision taken by company manager was effective and
focused on particular aspect of activities. Through that, change were made into strategies and
activities as well. Also, decision were taken by analysing data and customer response towards
activity. Thus, with quick and efficient decision and those taken in right time it led to
implementing of digital activity to target audience in effective way. So, it is found that these all
arw drivers of digital performance which has resulted in promoting and advertising products in
digital way. There has to be changes required in it which will be useful in segregating activity on
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basis of drivers. So, organization will initiate further activity on basis of outcome of each driver
and how effective it has been in advertising of products. (Kim, Wang and Oh, 2016).
Thus, these drives has made it easy in use of digital activity. It has allowed company to develop
effective activity and display it in various digital platforms. Then, metrics are used to compare
outcomes with set goals. So, according change are made and it directly affect on driver’s of
digital performance.
CONCLUSION
Hereby, it is concluded that Marks and Spencer is digitally presented on various social
media platforms. There is high response of customer towards it. Also, there are several issues
which is being faced by them in digital activity is high competition, direct search through
website and Internet, etc but there are certain opportunity like enter in new market, use of
different digital activity tools SEO, PPC and other in advertising and promotion. There are many
drivers of digital performance that are brand reputation, strategic decision making etc
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Caviglione, L., Wendzel, S. and Mazurczyk, W., 2017. The future of digital forensics:
Challenges and the road ahead. IEEE Security & Privacy, 15(6), pp.12-17.
Kim, Y., Wang, Y. and Oh, J., 2016. Digital media use and social engagement: How social
media and smartphone use influence social activities of college
students. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 19(4), pp.264-269.
Lee, F.L. and Chan, J.M., 2016. Digital media activities and mode of participation in a protest
campaign: A study of the Umbrella Movement. Information, Communication &
Society, 19(1), pp.4-22.
Pagani, M. and Pardo, C., 2017. The impact of digital technology on relationships in a business
network. Industrial Marketing Management, 67, pp.185-192.
Pinkard, N., Erete, S. and McKinney de Royston, M., 2017. Digital youth divas: Exploring
narrative-driven curriculum to spark middle school girls’ interest in computational
activities. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 26(3), pp.477-516.
Ren, G., Zhou, P. and Ahmad, B., 2017. Dynamical response of electrical activities in digital
neuron circuit driven by autapse. International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, 27(12),
p.1750187.
Salas-Olmedo, M.H., Moya-Gómez, B. and Gutiérrez, J., 2018. Tourists' digital footprint in
cities: Comparing Big Data sources. Tourism Management, 66, pp.13-25.
Schmoelz, A., 2018. Enabling co-creativity through digital storytelling in education. Thinking
Skills and Creativity, 28, pp.1-13.
Troxler, P. and Wolf, P., 2017. Digital maker-entrepreneurs in open design: What activities make
up their business model?. Business Horizons, 60(6), pp.807-817.
Troxler and Wolf, 2017
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