Richmond University: Digital Marketing Strategy Report (MKT6800)

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of digital marketing strategies, using McDonald's as a case study. It begins with an introduction to digital marketing and its processes, highlighting the importance of online promotion and the evolution from traditional marketing methods. The report then delves into the overview of digital marketing, including email marketing, search engine marketing, content marketing, and affiliate marketing, emphasizing their role in connecting businesses with customers. The core of the report focuses on a six-step digital marketing campaign framework, including situation analysis (using SWOT), linking digital business with strategy, formulating objectives, designing implementation plans, budgeting, and measuring campaign effectiveness. The report provides a detailed SWOT analysis for McDonald's and illustrates how the company links its digital business with marketing strategies. It also covers the importance of setting objectives, designing implementation plans, and measuring campaign results, ultimately aiming to enhance the company's profitability through effective marketing activities. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of digital marketing campaigns in establishing a strong market presence and fostering customer loyalty.

DIGITAL
MARKETING
STRATEGY
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
OVERVIEW OF DIGITAL MARKETING PROCESS........................................................3
DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN.................................................................................5
SIX STEPS OF DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN......................................................6
Step 1- Situation analysis.......................................................................................................6
Step 2- Link Digital Business with Digital Marketing Strategy.............................................8
Step 3- Formulate objectives..................................................................................................9
Step 4- Design implementation Plan to meet the Objectives...............................................10
Step 5- Budgeting.................................................................................................................10
Step 6- Measure the campaign.............................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Digital marketing refers to operational activities performed by management of a business
firm to promote their products or services in given marketplace with motive of boosting up
companies sales. It considers marketing of product or service sold by an organisation through
digital sources like; search engines, social media, google ads and many more (Akter and et. al.,
2019). Previously various business firms were used to promote their products through tradition
methods they have to keep huge chunk of financial resources but by the introduction of
promotion through digital marketing respective companies are able to save that resources and
utilise those resources in any other needful activities of the firm to give better results in profit
maximisation by increasing sales. In this present report McDonald is been taken into
consideration (Alampi, 2019). This report will highlight respective digital marketing strategies
used by the firm for promoting it's product for boosting companies sales.
OVERVIEW OF DIGITAL MARKETING PROCESS
It is that section of marketing function of an organisation which is used to promote
respective products or services offered by company to their customer. The main aim of digital
marketing is to provide essential information about any new product being launched by business
enterprise or to boost up sales of current product or service sold by the firm. It uses online or
internet based technologies such as mobile, computers and other digital media platforms for
promoting company's band. There are various types of digital marketing process some of them
are as follows:
E-Mail Marketing: This is a popular medium which is been used by most of the
companies to promote it's product and services. It includes providing information about
companies product through e-mails by attaching attractive posters of companies product.
Search Engine Marketing: This particular process focuses on advertisements and paid
promotions of respective companies products and services. The poster of company product or
service may pop up while browsing any site online.
Content Marketing: This type of marketing focuses on creating quality contents for
promoting companies brand. It creates content which is attractive and genuine that catches
attention of respective customers of an organisation.

Affiliate Marketing: This type of marketing a business firm get together with any person
with good social media following and pay respective person for displaying companies product or
service. The workforce pays commission to respective person and is a good field for making
career for bloggers.
Digital marketing helps in reducing the distance between companies products and their
respective customers. It helps the workforce to establish long term relations with their customers
and enables business firm to maintain it's goodwill in given marketplace (Convertino and et. al.,
2019). For better understanding of power of digital marketing tools and techniques(steps) used
by McDonald's to promote it's product on digital platforms are as follows:
Online Visibility of Business: It is the first step that includes setting up of business firm
online. In context to chosen organisation, the business firm has it's own official websites for
selling it's products online and displays various ads for it's products to increase companies
market presence.
Generating Potential Traffic for the Business: It is the second step used by the company
to set up good reputation in online market. In this stage potential user of companies products are
been determined and developed which is also called Traffic in technical terms. McDonald's
conducts various seminars and creates various vote polls for analysing feedbacks from
companies customers. It uses various social media platforms to do so such as Instagram,
Facebook, Linked In, Pinterest etc. It helps the firm to adopt marketing trends and enables it's
management to make effective decisions in companies production activities.
Customer Engagement Plans: Moving forward to establish business on digital
platforms, third stage emphasis on designing respective advertisement and promotions that
connects with personal sentiments of consumers and motivating respective consumers to
purchase companies brand also increases their trust (Huggins and Cunningham, 2019). With the
help of these activities marketing department of McDonald is able to boost up it's sales.
Lead Generating: This stage is considered as the final goal for entire process of digital
marketing. There are two types of lead generation, one is micro level that includes, different
viewers clicking on respective ads displayed by the company and another one is macro level that
includes consumers having interest in companies products and are intensionally searching for
companies brand on internet. Here, it is the high level of probability in macro level then micro
level lead generating to convert viewers into loyal business firm customers.

Calculation of ROI: It is last step of the process, here calculation of new revenue on
return of investment is been calculated. This toll helps company to effectively utilise it's financial
resources and enables marketing department of firm to promote companies product efficiently
(Koehn, Lessmann and Schaal, 2020). It analysis key results from investment done on digital
marketing of companies products and guide company to carry it's promotional activities in more
productive way.
From the above process of Digital Marketing helps marketing department of McDonald
to conduct it's marketing activities more productively and enhances profitability of business firm
by maximisation of it's sales activities.
DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN
A digital marketing campaign of a business firm includes execution various marketing
strategies of a business firm executed through respective digital channels. It helps a company to
establish it's huge market presence and promotes it's respective product or services in order to
gain customers trusts towards companies brand. An online campaign includes it's purpose,
strategy, relevancy of content, consistency and potential of campaign to reach target audience.
Management of chosen organisation i.e. McDonald's had came up with some clever campaigns ,
companies innovative minds focused on driving promotional activities of the firm by taking
digital means for boosting up of sales of respective workforce (Kožul, 2020). The respective
company have adopted 10 digital campaigns over past years that not only increased footfall
towards their restaurants but also helped in establishing strong brand loyalty of companies
customers (10 brilliant digital marketing campaigns from McDonald’s). There are six steps
included in proper setting up of digital marketing campaigns which are as follows with context to
McDonald's:

(Source: What McDonald’s New 'Transparency' Campaign Is Hiding, 2021)
SIX STEPS OF DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Step 1- Situation analysis
First step towards setting up of successful digital marketing campaign is to analyse
current marketing trends and situations in the marketplace. Since a quick but string research and
development is needed to analyse market situation wherein a business firm will be conducting it's
respective business activities. Since the chosen company deals in fast food products, it's
marketing department should make a detailed study on current marketing trends as well as taste
and preferences of product consumers (Lukyanova, 2018). Keeping various factors in mind
including threat to substitution and companies competitors it becomes crucial to analyse these
factors for successful conduction of campaign. Therefore in order to critically analyse these
factors McDonald's adopts SWOT analysis as stated:
SWOT analysis is referred to as analysing companies strengths, weaknesses, upcoming
opportunities and threats to a business firm. It helps an organisation to formulate it's plans and
policies keeping in mind external factors of a business environment (Plant and et. al., 2017). It
helps management of the firm to grab upcoming opportunities to a firm and enables it's planning
process to make future polices as per current marketing trends and demands of companies
customers.
Illustration 1: Companies logo

Strength Weaknesses
 The biggest strength of McDonald's is
that it has a established market
presence in international marketplace.
It leads second largest restaurant
network after subway throughout the
world. That has a total count of 37,242
restaurants in across 120 countries of
the world.
 The company makes purchase of it's
raw material in bulk with it's trusted
suppliers that enables the firm to
deliver best quality products to their
respective customers at reasonable
prices. Since it's establishment in
1955, the company was well
recognised for delivering it's quality
products that helped organisation to
establish it's good brand image in their
respective customers minds
 McDonald's is facing annual dividend
hike, because of low productivity
caused due to lack of coordination
between respective departments of the
company caused lack of efficiency in
it's operational activities. Due to this
company is unable to perform to their
best of it's abilities.
 As company is deals in fast food
products, it suffers problem of their
product being substituted from other
companies products. Due to lack of
uniqueness in companies products
demands of their customers changes
with a slight changes in prices of other
company offering same product.
Opportunities Threat
 McDonald's being a fast food industry,
which is now been developing in
current marketing trends have a great
opportunity to grow it's business. With
the change of life style and eating
habits of people, it gives good
opportunity to the business firm to
adopt respective approaches in
1. Competition plays an important role in
deciding up of companies success or
failure in it's plans. McDonald's faces
intense competition as it deals in fast
food products, some of it's biggest
competitors are KFC, Pizza Hut,
Subway and many more. As the
industry deals with similar products

conduction of their operational
activities.
 The workforce adopts various social
friendly techniques for operating
business activities. It helps in fulfilment
of social obligation of company
towards society and increases trust of
companies brand in minds of their
customers.
there is a greater chances of getting
companies product substituted with
other companies products.
 As due to this pandemic situation and
with growing number of obesity cases it
is a threat to an organisation. As
various people are now being more
concerned about their health and are
avoiding fast foods for maintaining
good diet. With rising initiatives for
maintaining good health it's a huge
threat to the company for reducing it's
net sales.
Step 2- Link Digital Business with Digital Marketing Strategy
It is a crucial step which related to process of linking respective operational activities of a
business firm with it's digital marketing strategies. The term digital business refers to application
of various digital techniques for pursuing pre decided plans of an organisation to enhance
customer experience and effectiveness in it's business activities (Singh, Ranjan and Mittal,
2018). It should not be considered that adoption of digital marketing techniques by a business
firm leads to elimination of traditional techniques. It involves transformation of various
traditional methods to boost up efficiency in operations of business organisation. It includes
creating content, webinars, blogs, free sample offers and online contest etc.

(Source: Residents launch campaign against plans for new Southampton McDonald's near
Northam Bridge, 2020)
Step 3- Formulate objectives
In the next step management of the company lays respective objectives that will prove to
be helpful for effective conduction of digital marketing campaigns. It helps the marketing
department of a firm to establish it's good reputation in market. Proper breakdown of objectives
helps in managing every part of campaign effectively. This enhances decision making of
companies management and helps company to deliver it's product at best prices possible without
hampering product quality (Thontirawong and Chinchanachokchai, 2021). With context to
chosen firm, this helps management of an organisation to improve it's productivity in various
business operations. It helps in boosting effective production activities of the firm and enables
proper coordination between respective departments of the business firm.

Step 4- Design implementation Plan to meet the Objectives
Next step towards successful digital campaign after setting up of respective objectives in
a firm. It helps in proper implementation of plans and objectives been setted up in previous stage.
It is important for a business firm after setting up of it's respective objectives to implement these
objectives in an efficient way. In this step pre decided objectives are been taken into
consideration and management takes needful steps for it's effective implementation.
Step 5- Budgeting
It refers to accounting of overall expenses incurred in carrying digital marketing
campaigns. In this step management of a business organisation are indulged in calculation of an
estimated budget and provides an effective way to carry out it's activities. As it is very well
known that resources of a given business firm are limited in nature, so it is foremost duty of it's
management to use those resources in effective manner (Yadav, 2017). Setting up budgets for
various activities of a firm helps in better coordination of resources and enables business firm to
operate it's operational activities towards achievement of it's pre decided goals and objectives.
Step 6- Measure the campaign
In this final stage of setting effective digital marketing campaign of a business enterprise,
the rate of return on investment is been measured (ROI). Since a huge chunk of financial
resources in been spent by management of a business firm in establishment of digital marketing
campaigns. All the resources are been directed on a motive to do proper research and
development of market as well as to maintain good brand image of companies products in minds
of their respective customers (Yu, 2017). This helps enterprise to gather current needs and
demands of various product consumers as well as to adopt respective innovative and trending
techniques that also helps in creating healthy competition to respective companies competitors.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be analysed that digital marketing campaign plays an
important role in directive operational activities of a business firm towards completion of firm's
objectives and plans. It can be said that various companies measure it's success in digital
marketing campaigns through different ways. Setting up digital campaign helps marketing
department of a firm to effectively promote companies newly introduced product or boosts up
sales of current company product. Digital marketing campaigns can be break down to various
steps which is followed by various business enterprise to boost companies productivity.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akter, S. and et. al., 2019. Analytics-based decision-making for service systems: A qualitative
study and agenda for future research. International Journal of Information
Management. 48. pp.85-95.
Alampi, A., 2019. The future is micro: How to build an effective micro-influencer
programme. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing. 7(3). pp.203.208.
Convertino, A. D. and et. al., 2019. An evaluation of the Aerie Real campaign: Potential for
promoting positive body image. Journal of health psychology. 24(6). pp.726.737.
Huggins, K. A. and Cunningham, J. E., 2019. The Social Media Magnet. A New Paradigm in
Inbound Marketing Instruction.
Koehn, D., Lessmann, S. and Schaal, M., 2020. Predicting online shopping behaviour from
clickstream data using deep learning. Expert Systems with Applications. 150. p.113342.
Kožul, L., 2020. Managing team conflicts in digital marketing departments (Doctoral
dissertation. University of Zagreb. Faculty of Economics and Business.
Lukyanova, G., 2018, May. Is There a Future for Voter Targeting Online in Russia?.
In International Conference on Digital Transformation and Global Society (pp.
115.126). Springer. Cham.
Plant, A. and et. al., 2017. The break up: evaluation of an anti-smoking educational campaign for
lesbians. gays, and bisexuals in Los Angeles County. Journal of health
communication, 22(1). pp.29.36.
Singh, A., Ranjan, J. and Mittal, M., 2018. Big data and behavior analytics in marketing.
In Handbook of E-Business Security (pp. 519-520). CRC Press, Taylor & Francis.
Thontirawong, P. and Chinchanachokchai, S., 2021. TEACHING ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING IN MARKETING. Marketing
Education Review. pp.1-6.
Yadav, M., 2017. Social media as a marketing tool: Opportunities and challenges. Indian Journal
of Marketing. 47(3). pp.16-28.
Yu, S., 2017. Luxury brands in the digital age: an empirical analysis of the effectiveness of
digital marketing strategies(Doctoral dissertation. Ghent University).
Online
10 brilliant digital marketing campaigns from McDonald’s, 2019. [Online], Available through:
<https://econsultancy.com/10-brilliant-digital-marketing-campaigns-from-mcdonald-s/>
What McDonald’s New 'Transparency' Campaign Is Hiding, 2021. [Online], Available through:
<https://time.com/3501921/mcdonalds-transparency-campaign/>
Residents launch campaign against plans for new Southampton McDonald's near Northam
Bridge, [Online], 2020. Available through:
<https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/17559890.residents-launch-campaign-plans-new-
southampton-mcdonalds-near-northam-bridge/>