A Detailed Digital Marketing Plan for eBay's Expansion Strategy

This document presents a digital marketing plan for eBay, aiming to increase sales by 10% and the customer base by 12% within six months. The plan identifies the target audience as youth (16-55) and business professionals, emphasizing the use of social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and email marketing. It includes a competitor analysis focusing on Amazon and outlines strategies for implementing the plan, measuring outcomes, and controlling performance. The report recommends leveraging social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, along with content marketing and YouTube reviews, to enhance customer satisfaction and brand awareness. The plan also stresses the importance of monitoring customer feedback and adapting strategies to bridge the gap between planned and actual performance, ensuring continuous improvement and alignment with marketing objectives. Desklib is your go-to platform for similar assignments and study resources.

Running Head: DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN 0
Digital Marketing Plan
Student name
FEBRUARY 27, 2019

DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN 1
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Setting objectives.............................................................................................................................3
Target audience................................................................................................................................3
Competitor’s analysis......................................................................................................................4
Analysis of digital tactics and channels...........................................................................................4
Selecting the best alternative...........................................................................................................7
Implementing the plan.....................................................................................................................7
Measuring outcomes........................................................................................................................8
Controlling.......................................................................................................................................9
Recommendations............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN 2
Introduction
Marketing is an essential part of a business, there have been many strategies that the
companies are followed for marketing their products and services. Although with the change in
time, the technology has been changed, and so do the social trends. According to this, the
marketing scenario has also been changed, and rise to digital marketing has been observed.
Digital marketing is the marketing of the products and services using the internet services. In
today’s world, where the people prefer to keep active in their social media and various social
platforms. It would be beneficial for the companies to go for persuading the customers through
these platform in order to gain better opportunity (Adam & Kotler, 2014).
For a better understanding of digital marketing, an organizational case of eBay would be
discussed further, for which the digital marketing plan will be prepared. EBay is an e-commerce
company based in America, initiated in 1995, serving consumer goods and electronics globally.
The company is liable to provide online services to the customer that also include door to door
delivery services (ebay, 2019).

DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN 3
Setting objectives
The objective for digital marketing of eBay would be
 Increase in sale of the company by 10% until next year, which the company could
through increase brand awareness through digital media (Chung & Fiore, 2017).
 Increase in customer base by 12% in the next six months. One of the major targets of the
company is to increase the number of customers by reaching out to the maximum
customer through social media platforms and thus persuade them to make a purchase
from the company (Byrne, 2018).
 Enhance customer satisfaction, another objective would be to enhance the satisfaction of
the customer through its services as quickly as possible. For this, the company aims to
enhance its services to the customers. This can be measured by the company through
social media reaction by the company that is their reviews over the social media, like and
dislikes by a number of people, and their comment over the posts (Armstrong &
Giardina, 2016).
Target audience
For this digital marketing plan, it is essential to decide that for whom are these digital
marketing plan has been prepared by the company. The major customer segments that would be
targeted through the digital marketing plan would be
 Youth – first criteria would be according to the age, the audience for this marketing
would be from sixteen to fifty-five. The reason being the youth is the customer segment
who are active on social media to a greater extent than that of any other age. Moreover,

DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN 4
digital marketing is all about technology use and advancement. Young people are largely
indulged into the adaption of technological advancement while spending most of the time
on electronic devices like computers, and mobile devices (Gong & Yi, 2018).
 Businessmen/women – another target audience for the same would be targeting the
businessmen or women, the reason being the goods offered to the company would be
most approachable for this target audience. Moreover, these are the people who are very
much active over the email and exploring the different platforms over the internet.
Moreover, this audience is more interested in getting the door to door service, due to busy
in business work, and do not get time to purchase goods physically and would prefer to
receive the required products at the doorstep (Du & Bstieler, 2016)
Competitor’s analysis
This is an important aspect as it is important for the company to keep a track over their
competitor’s strategies and current activities, in order to mold oneself strategy according to the
change in competitor’s strategy. One of the major competitors of eBay would be Amazon, which
was the first mover e-commerce Company, which could be one of the major threat for eBay. The
company needs to check for the Amazon strategies, as Amazon is very much indulged into
digital marketing, and are able to attract many customers (Hu, Krush, & Agnihotri, 2016)
Analysis of digital tactics and channels
After deciding over the target audience, the next step in the digital marketing plan would be
to select the digital marketing channel through which the company will reach out to the target
audience or the potential customer. This stage includes to plan various possible alternatives best
suttee for the company, some of them include:

DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN 5
 Email marketing – this is one of the popular digital marketing platform, which is helpful
for the company to target the customer personally that is customized marketing through
sending an email. This includes the information regarding the new launch of the goods, or
can be a reminder to the customer regarding their wish list, or making a purchase
according to their preference, or their search history over the website (alleywatch, 2019)
 Search engine optimization – in today’s trend, people prefer to have a direct search of the
products and services over the search engines. This digital marketing includes getting the
website suggestion for the customer when any product is searched with the name. this is
used by the maximum customer, therefore it is one of the advisable channels for the
company to target the potential customers (Zahay, 2015)
 Pay per click advertisement – the company can go for the paid advertisement for better
reaching out to the customers. Pay per click is one of the paid advertisement forms, this
includes highly targeted traffic, and able to reach out to the customer quickly (Kowalski,
2015).
 Social media marketing – social media is the place where people like to spend maximum
time, and due to this, it provides an opportunity for the company to target the customer
over these platforms. The company can include the advertising or post, or blogs in the
form of the content writing or the images to make it more eye catchy for the customer.
Moreover, which the change in trends the gifs and the videos are used to the post for
gaining the customer attention. Some of the popular social media platforms include
 Facebook – it is the largest social media platform which is responsible for
targeting the customer, and it is the social media platform which is used by
maximum users when compared to other platforms. Therefore, it is recommended

DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN 6
for the company to go for this platform in order to reach out to the customers
through including post regularly through the eBay page. Moreover, with enhanced
technology, the Facebook page can directly link to the company’s website for
shopping convenience for the customers (jeffbullas, 2019)
 Instagram – this is another platform used by the users in greater extent after
Facebook. The company can target the customer by posting images through the
Instagram page of the company. Moreover, this could include the everyday offer
by the company to the customer (businesstopia, 2018)
 Twitter – this social media network is more indulge to know what the customers
think or feedback of eth customers. This platform is used to make the marketing
more interactive through two way communication that is knowing the customer
point of view and the company can bring changes accordingly. This is considered
as there are tweets and retweets. This platform is not as much used as the
Facebook and Instagram, still, the company can go for this platform due to
increasing users with time, and yet a popular social media platform all over the
world (Kim & Edelson, 2015)
 YouTube – in today’s scenario, people prefer to go for the review by the You
Tubers before going for the purchase decision regarding the products and
services. For instance, it has been observed since time, that the people are
preferring to view videos on youtube for sending the unpacking of electronics and
similar videos
 Content marketing – this is yet another digital marketing platform, it has been observed
that the people prefer to read the blogs about the products and services and read the

DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN 7
review before going for the purchase decision. This may include the blogs over the social
platforms, this could be the customer reviews over the site and experience of the
individuals on a real-time basis. This also includes good quality content over the official
website of the company, and the major purpose is to provide the relevant information to
the customers (Griffiths & McLean, 2014)
Selecting the best alternative
For this digital marketing plan of eBay, the channels or eth digital tactics that would be
selected is the applying the search engine optimization, as this is one of the tactics opted by the
competitor of the company, and must be implemented by eBay. Another alternative for this
digital marketing plan would be social media marketing, which is one of the most popular ways
to attract customers. These alternative are selected as the target audience is young people, which
are very much indulged into the social media platforms. Moreover, for targeting the second
target segment that is the businessmen and women would be the email marketing. As already,
discussed, the businessmen and women are highly active over the emails for the conversation to
different parties. The email marketing would be perfect to target them and persuade to make a
purchase (Hudson & Roth, 2016).
Implementing the plan
Another aspect to be decided in the digital marketing plan is to deciding an appropriate
schedule for the implementation of the plan. It is of no use to go for the best option for digital
marketing if the plan is not implemented appropriately. This will include by initiating with the
content development that is the development of the information that eBay is willing to make
reach out to the customers, for instance preparing the images, the videos, or the blogs. This is an

DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN 8
important step as it includes the wise choice of words and information, which will create a
positive brand perception, and would be attractive to the customers. Another aspect is to create
email marketing campaigns, microsite development, page development and optimization, mobile
marketing campaigns, website development, and social media promotions activates. Moreover,
implementing through the post on social media, and developing search engine optimization
(business.qld.gov, 2018).
Measuring outcomes
After the implementation plan, another aspect is to measure the outcomes. As already
discussed, the objectives of the digital marketing plan, this stage will analyze if the objectives of
the plan are accomplished or not. This includes keeping the track over the activities implemented
over the digital media. This includes analyzing the views over the social media that is the
number of views and subscribers over YouTube, likes by the users over Facebook or Instagram
(Nacos, 2016).
Moreover, this also includes analyzing the change in sales figure after implementing the
digital marketing within a short period of time, and also in long run. Moreover, the company can
understand the needs and requirement of the customers through analyzing tweets and comments
of the customers that what they are expecting from the company regarding the products and
services, and what are the positive aspects of the company that the company must continue to
enhance the customer satisfaction (Matteo & Dal, 2015).
Controlling
After implementation, and measuring the plan, it is important for the organization to
control. eBay, must analyze the gap between the predetermined objective if the company or

DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN 9
standard performance like the objective was to increase by 10 percent, in case the company is
unable to increase top this extends through measuring the actual performance, the company must
take the required action to decrease this gap. The major area for control includes bringing change
in campaigns and correct the deviations identified (Ryan, 2016).
Recommendations
The major recommendation to eBay regarding digital marketing include:
 Regular track down – this is important for the company to keep a regular check over the
activities on digital platforms, for enhancing the effectiveness of digital marketing. This
is done as the external environment is dynamic and changing rapidly, according to which
the company needs to change the digital marketing content (Smith, 2018)
 Active response – in the social media marketing, one of eth major issue is for the
company to be very active. The reason being in case of any comment the company has to
respond to the customers within some hours of a complaint or comment over the social
media. This will make the customer feel that they are being listened to and the company
is considering their viewpoint to be important. This recommendation could help the
company to retain the existing customers to the large extent (Taylor, Fritsch, &
Liederbach, 2014)
 Customer services – this is one of the major recommendations to the company, the
company can use digital marketing to get the ideas to enhance customer service.
Moreover, the company can provide customer service through digital media. This could
be in form of additional services like helping customers to install the devices, or

DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN 10
answering to the queries they raise. This will also help the company to retain the existing
customers and attract new customers (Thomson, 2016)
 Technological innovation – innovation is the key in the digital world, which must be
implemented by the company. The innovation can be through the use of updated
technology, or through innovation in the campaign created by the company. It is the best
way for the company to attract new customers, and make the customers interested in
viewing or following the company over social media (Tiago, 2014).
 Attractive pages – one of eth major recommendation to the company would be to make
the campaign very attractive, this could be creating attractive images to be posted on the
social media platforms. This will be helpful for the company to make maximum users
follow the company’s page. It is also recommended to the company to provide more of
the external view to the company instead of just posting discount offers ort the website
information through a digital platform (Tuten & Ashley, 2015).
Conclusion
From the report, it can be concluded that the eBay is an e-commerce company dealing in
the large product line that is consumer goods globally. The report included developing the digital
marketing plan for the company, which initiated through setting the objectives. The objective for
this digital marketing plan includes an increase in the sale of the eBay by 10 percent within a
year, and to increase the number of customers of the company, and increase the customer
satisfaction, which can be measured through customer reviews and comment on the social media
platforms. Another step was to decide on to the target audience for digital marketing, which
would be the businessmen and women, and young potential customers for eBay.

DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN 11
Another step was to analyze the digital channel and digital tactics, among which the best
alternative for the company would be social media marketing, search engine optimization, and
email marketing. Moreover, it was observed that the implementation plan is equally important, as
it is of no use if digital marketing is not implemented appropriately. This includes to decide over
the content to be posted for the marketing, this could include the email content and presentation,
marketing campaign content.