Digital Marketing Communications Report: Boosting Online Sales for Amazon UK

This report analyzes the digital marketing strategies of Amazon UK, the leading online retailer, with the aim of identifying opportunities to increase online sales. It explores the benefits of digital marketing over traditional methods, examines the company's current digital presence, and utilizes the SOSTAC planning framework to develop a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. The report concludes with recommendations for new strategies to attract new customers and further enhance Amazon UK's online presence.

DIGITAL MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS REPORT
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Contents
LO1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................3
LO2 Background analysis of the company and the reason for selecting it.....................................3
LO3 Literature Review....................................................................................................................5
LO4 Analysis of the digital marketing using the SOSTAC planning framework.........................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References:....................................................................................................................................14

LO1 Introduction
Digital marketing can be basically defined as the marketing, buying and selling of different
goods and services by the use of different digital technological methods like the use of internet
on a computer or a mobile phone. Today any business can become an online business by having
a domain and an online catalogue of the products and services available on the website of the
company. Digital marketing exclusively refers to the tools and ways of marketing with on the
internet on a national or a global platform. Digital marketing has developed significantly in the
past few years and has changed the way different brands and companies make the use of
technology for marketing. People now are getting used to online shopping rather than physical
shopping as it gives them the freedom to shop from their home and the increase in the number of
digital platforms has made it more convenient for consumers and buyers. Digital marketing
communication refers to the tools and the methods used for marketing of a product on digital
platform in order to boost the online sales.
The aim of this report is to help in developing new online marketing strategies with an objective
to increase the percentage of online sale within overall sales. The industry that we are talking
about here in this report is the online shopping industry, the fastest growing and one of the
largest money spinning businesses in the entire world. The company that has been lately ruling
this industry is none other than AMAZON or Amazon.com ( online website) and it feels me with
great honor and pride to say that I have fortunately been selected as the new marketing manager
for Amazon (UK) and have been handed over the responsibility to increase the online sales of the
different products and services. Amazon UK is a digital platform with the overall sale of the
company being online through the official domain but the company keeps looking for ways and
strategies to boost the sales. Therefore, I as the new marketing manager of the company will
present a report containing different strategies and methods for the use of digital marketing
communications in order to boost the sales online.
LO2 Background analysis of the company and the reason for selecting it
Amazon or Amazon.com famous all over the world as just Amazon is an American based e-
commerce and cloud computing company that is based in Seattle, Washington and was founded
by Jeff Bezos on July 5th in the year 1994. The technology giant is the largest online retailer in

the world as measured by the revenue and market capitalization and the second largest company
in the world after Alibaba group in terms of the overall sales (Charlesworth, 2018). The website
amazpn.com started functioning as an online bookstore and then later on spread its branches on
to video downloads and streaming, MP3 downloads/ streaming, software, videogames,
electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys and jewellery. The company also provides and sells
consumer electronic goods like Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV and Echo and is the
world’s largest cloud infrastructure provider.
Amazon has distinct retail websites in countries like the USA, the UK, Ireland, France,
Germany, Canada, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, China Japan, India and Mexico. All these websites
are available in different languages. Amazon also has the facility of international shipping of
some of its selected few products to different other countries. Amazon is the third most valuable
public company in the world and the largest internet company in the world in terms of revenue
(Hackley et al., 2018).
Products and services offered by Amazon
Amazon has a long list of products with a wide range in variety throughout the world. The
general products and services that are made available to its customers by Amazon all around the
globe are the following:
 Amazon fresh
 Amazon prime
 Amazon web series
 Alexa
 App store
 Amazon drive
 Echo
 Kindle
 Fire tablets
 Fire Tv
 Video
 kindle store

 Music
 Music unlimited
 Amazon digital game store
 Amazon studios
 Amazon wireless
Amazon UK (amazon.co.uk)
Amazon UK is an online retail store and a part of the Amazon group all over the world. The
website for Amazon UK is amazon.co.uk. Amazon is really doing exceptional in the markets of
UK throughout the great nation and is a major revenue generating sector for Amazon. A case
study of the same will help in better understanding of the digital market and the methods and
strategies for improving the overall digital marketing experience.
In this report we have chosen Amazon for certain specific reasons. As discussed Amazon is the
largest online retailer in the world with earnings and revenues no other online retailers could
imagine of. It is way ahead of all its competition in the international market (De Pelsmacker et
al., 2018). Being an online company, Amazon keeps on developing new and innovative
strategies and methods to boost its market and developing the tools for marketing and the overall
shopping experience for its customers. Amazon has a very strong digital marketing and
communication with its customers all over the world and specifically with its customers in the
United Kingdom. Amazon is the apt company for studying the topic thoroughly. There are a lot
of other companies that would have helped with studying digital marketing but none better than
Amazon.
Now let us have an in-depth analysis of digital marketing and communication.
LO3 Literature Review
Key benefits of digital marketing compared to traditional marketing
There are many small businesses all around the world with confusion over what to use? Whether
to use traditional marketing or to use digital marketing? They have a lot of struggle in making a
decision regarding the same. It is not an easy decision to make as every business wants to make
sure that they earn the most money through correct marketing.

Traditional marketing is the way of marketing that has been used by companies for years and has
proved successful (Kahraman and Karaşan, 2018). Methods used for traditional marketing are
print advertisements such as newsletters, billboards, flyers, newspaper ads, etc. The use of print
ads on newspapers and magazines is a commonly used example of traditional marketing. When a
business develops an official website or uses different social media platforms like facebook,
twitter, instagram or youtube for the purpose of marketing and promotion of its business, the
method is called digital marketing.
In order to understand the benefits of digital marketing when compared to traditional marketing,
let us first analyze the benefits of traditional marketing so that it would be easy and convenient to
compare them later.
Benefits of traditional marketing:
 Convenient to reach the target audience: it is easy to identify your local audience with
the help of traditional marketing and targeting them. Suppose if a radio ad plays in a
certain location it can reach to the ears of the target local audience who listen to the radio
regularly over that particular region (Kasemsap, 2018).
 The source material of the ad can be preserved: if the ad is printed on a newspaper
then the newspaper can be kept and be used to read the ad again and again as per the
wish.
 Simple to understand: most of the old people are used to the traditional way of
marketing and so it is a lot easier for them to understand it. Many people still shy away
for the digital platform and are comfortable with traditional ways of marketing. They still
find it more convenient to read an ad from a newspaper rather than surfing the internet to
go through different ads and offers (Dasgupta and Kothari, 2018). So it is simple for them
to understand.
Disadvantages of traditional marketing:
 Low interaction between the channel and the consumers: it does not provide much
needed information about the company to the customers. It just makes them aware of the
fact that there is a company with the following name with the following offers (Sharma et
al., 2018). There is no more for the customer to know.

 Traditional marketing is expensive: print mediums and radio can prove to be very
expensive for the company in the long run. Newspapers apart from being expensive to
print need people to distribute them through the different corners of the city (Lashgari,
2018).
 No correct measurements for result: it is debatable that whether this method of
marketing is successful or not. One cannot correctly measure the results from the
traditional marketing methods.
Benefits of digital marketing:
 Target audience can be local as well as international: this ensures that the as campaign
is more effective. Digital marketing gives you the freedom to expand your target
audience to the global market. Any product or service can be available not only for the
local customers but also to the people all around the globe. It expands the market globally
and this is one of the key benefits of digital marketing.
 The audience has the liberty to choose the payment mode and delivery mode: digital
marketing provides the customers with the liberty to chose how they want to receive a
certain product. Amazon offers different payment modes and cash on delivery option to
all its customers across the globe. Suppose a person buys a product from Amazon and
wants to pay the amount for the same after receiving the product on his/her address then
they have the freedom to do so as digital marketing offers these facilities (Sinha et al.,
2018).
 Seller to buyer interaction: seller to buyer interaction has been made possible by digital
marketing with the use of social media platforms. One can directly contact the
spokesperson of a particular online retail store to solve their queries. Every online retail
company has a customer support team that is ready to help the customers anytime
through telephonic conversations, e-mails or different social media platforms like twitter
and facebook. Digital marketing has made things so easy and fast (Müller et al., 2018).
 Cheaper: digital marketing is much cheaper when compared to traditional marketing.
You do not have to invest any money on print ads or on any radio ads (Evans, 2018).

 Data maintenance is easy: different ads on the internet can be looked on using a single
click and it is very easy for any company to keep a record of their sales, inventory and
track any product on route to delivery to make sure that it reaches on time (de Lira and
Magalhães, 2018). All the data of a company can be saved and maintained very easily
with the help of new and innovative tools that help manage and keep work in a simple
way and safe on a computer.
 Balance competition: no matter what the size of any online business is, they can still
compete with each other with the help of a beautiful and innovative website that would
easily attract customers.
 Fast results: you don’t have to visit to see the improvement as is in the case of
traditional marketing. The results in digital marketing are lightning and fast. An increase
in the number of visitors on the site or new subscribers ensures that your marketing
campaign was successful and people have noticed (Grigore et al., 2018).
 Development of the brand name and value: correct use of digital marketing ensures an
increase in the brand value and the brand name. With more and more people aware of the
company’s website and more sales, the company is to benefit and develop.
 Viral: ad campaigns on social media get instantly viral all over the internet. Any
beautiful ad that can attract more and more people can instantly get viral on facebook,
twitter and youtube and comes to notice of millions of people thereby helping any
business in the long run (Dasgupta and Kothari, 2018).
Characteristic of digital marketing when compared to traditional marketing
 Adaptability: any company opting for digital marketing rather than traditional market
has to be adaptable.
 Strategies and presentation: proper digital marketing strategies are like blueprints. The
first and foremost thing is to plan your work and strategies for digital marketing to ensure
its efficiency. For any online retail business the website is everything. When comes to
online business you don’t have any shop to show, all you have is your website and it is
very important for a company to present its website in the best manner to increase sales.
 High quality website: a high quality website is the most important requirement. A
business website helps connecting the business and customers from all around the world.

A business website has a lot of similarity to a company’s brochure being always available
for the customers and presents the professional outlook of the company (Stokinger and
Ozuem, 2018).
 Presence in the social media: call it an advantage or a boon but people of today have so
many ways to communicate with the help of social medial tools and websites such as
facebook, twitter, youtube, google etc. These websites are one of the primary sources of
promotion for any business or company. You can get people to talk about your business
all over the globe.
 Electronic mails: e mail is a big tool for promotion and seller and customer interaction.
Using it is absolutely free and does not take any time as it is very fast (Stewart et al.,
2018).
E- Marketing communication tools, digital channel performance and social media
marketing
It takes the following tools for e-marketing:
 Search engine optimization
 Email marketing
 Content optimization
 Pay per click advertising
 Mobile marketing
The different ways to publish any content on the internet are the following:
 Blogs
 Info graphics
 Whitepapers
 E-books
 Videos
 Webinars
 Podcasts

Social media marketing of any product or services or any company can be done with the use of
different social media websites like facebook, twitter, youtube etc. Digital marketing through
social media is the most effective way of marketing and gives positive results. Social media is
the new tool for marketing in today’s world (Kline, 2018). Digital marketing has taken over
completely when compared to the traditional marketing.
LO4 Analysis of the digital marketing using the SOSTAC planning framework
A good digital marketing plan needs a very in-depth analysis and understanding of any brand, its
situation, its demography. A plan needs to have a clear objective.
Let us use SOSTAC planning framework for analyzing digital marketing.
Situation analysis: the first and the most important analysis is to talk about the current situation
of the company i.e. where the company stands at present?
The things to remember here are:
 Who are the digital customers at present?
 What are the different digital channels used by them?
 Who is the main competition?
Objectives: the main plan is to have different goals for different stages of the online customer
cycle.
The objectives should be related to brand awareness, generation of leads, engaging of clients and
retention of clients. For the objective to be successful, it needs to be “SMART’: specific,
measurable, actionable, relevant and time bound (Camilleri, 2018).
Strategy: it implies to analysis of the collected information during situational analysis so as to
make sure that the objectives are fulfilled.
Things to remember here are:
 The different sectors to be targeted
 Activities of the competitors
 How to have a difference online in compared to the other online retailers.

Tactics: this stage of planning helps in identifying the correct tools needed for the target
audience and explains how to use those tools. The early stages are very essential for tactics to
work and jumping straight to tactics and paying attention to the early stages of planning, one can
waste a lot of money (Hassan and Jung, 2018).
The things to remember here are:
 The choice of tools is important in identifying the target audience.
 The ways of conveying the online preposition
 The content that needs to be developed
Action: this stage consists of formation of a working schedule to make the tactics work
efficiently.
This can be explained in a better way like, what is to be done, when is to be done, how is to be
done and by whom it is to be done? Another question to be asked here is, whether the company
is capable of solving every problem by itself with the needed skills or anything needs to be
outsourced?
Control: the last but also the most important step is planning on how to control and monitor if
the strategy’s objectives are met or not (Paul et al., 2018).
Planning is the most integral phase of any business. Without proper planning it is very hard for
any business to flourish. Every company needs to have proper planning strategies before
launching any product online. Things are no different here for the digital market. Marketing is an
art of promoting products or service to increase the sale of that particular product. Digital
marketing is the way of promoting goods or services on the internet with the help of several
social media platforms. The ways and methods for good marketing need to be properly planned
and then executed for a successful result.
Here, in this report we used the SOSTAC planning framework to analyse the digital marketing of
our company Amazon (UK). SOSTAC is one of the strategies that one can use for the purpose of
planning in marketing (Blakeman, 2018). We have been successful in explaining all the aspects
of the SOSTAC model in details.

Conclusion
After doing the entire report and analyzing so many different aspects of digital marketing it is
safe to say that every other online portal company needs to have proper and efficient digital
strategies for the company no matter how big the company is in terms of scale, size or revenue.
I have done this report keeping in mind Amazon (UK) as the company which is actually leading
the online shopping industry as of late. This industry is one of the largest money spinning
industries in the entire world. People now find it more comfortable and easier to shop from their
home. Amazon offers lots of products with different price and qualities for its customers and so
it’s a lot easier for the customer to choose and select what to buy and what not.
Proper digital marketing and use of correct digital marketing strategies is one of the primary
reasons why Amazon is such a huge success and always ahead of its competition. The company
works hard on its digital strategies and makes sure that the strategies are new and innovative and
not repetitive.
From the above analysis, the digital strategies of Amazon comprises of the following:
Emails: the company makes the most use of email facility. Use of emails is an important strategy
in digital marketing. The company sends all the details of new products, brands, new exciting
offers, and discount on products through emails to the subscribers who have subscribed with the
company or have provided their email id’s to the company while buying a product. Use of email
is a very important tool for marketing that helps in consumer awareness. Apart from that emails
also help in interaction between the company and the customers. There are customer associates
who are online 24*7 to help the customers with their problems and questions.
Social media and its ever increasing contribution to digital marketing: any ad or news on social
media spreads like fire in today’s world. Social media is a great agent for marketing and the most
efficient form of media all over the world today. The ever increasing use of facebook, twitter and
youtube have made different online companies focus more on these websites for their marketing
purposes and developing strategies for them. Every day, there are millions of new people who
join facebook and twitter and youtube is the common source of entertainment now. Every other
person uses youtube for getting the latest news, watching music videos, movies , etc. this has
made the company realize that they need to focus more on these social platforms for digital

strategies of marketing and for the purpose of marketing as a whole. Amazon has so many
official pages on facebook and has millions of subscribers. It is through the official facebook
page of Amazon that people all around UK are updated about all the latest news of Amazon.
As the marketing manager my recommendation would be to develop some new strategies that
will help the company to try and attract new customers. By new customers, we mean the people
who don’t have any interest in online shopping and are still used to and find physical form of
shopping more comfortable than digital marketing.

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