Month: November 2024

There are many skills that I have gained throughout my time in the BA 536 course.

Website Best Practices

The first significant lesson that I learned from this course is the fact that user experience (UX) is dependent on many variables and that there are many elements that factor into what makes a website “good”. A website that effectively communicates a business’ services and overall brand while simultaneously creating a positive user experience determines the business’ success. Namely, two key factors that stood out to me was Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and overall website design.

When users visit a business’ website, each element influences the user’s experience in differing magnitudes–even something as minuscule as color coordination on the website. Each interactable surface on the website (ie. menu options or visual cues) creates an impression on the user and influences their image of the business’ brand. I learned that it’s important to focus on the balance creating aesthetically pleasing websites without compromising the speed of the website; it’s important to place focus on creating a visually pleasing website with welcoming imagery and even smooth menu transitions, but not to overload the website and cause loading times and navigation to slow down for the users.

SEO was a new concept to me and it was fascinating to learn that it played such a pivotal role in bringing traffic to the website. I always thought that small companies had a very small chance to be seen by new customers because their website would usually be buried in a search engine result page by bigger brands. However, with proper SEO practice, even small business can reach their target audience if they pick posts and information that’s displayed on their site that matches with the current trends in the market.

Customer Personas

The second significant skill I gained from the course was the usefulness in creating and understanding customer personas. In marketing a product or service, it’s important to understand what what traits the typical customer that uses your product possesses. Once this element of marketing is understood, businesses can take this information to create a personalized marketing product utilization experience. Furthermore, by understanding key characteristics of their customers (ie. traits such as hobbies, income, occupation, and even location), companies can use this information to develop new products to match the needs of their customer.

Customer Relationship Management

The third lesson that I learned from this course is the importance in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). CRM is an important concept to grasp for businesses because it allows businesses to form long-term relationships with their customers (B2C and B2B) to foster new product development and maintain customer retention. Good CRM practice can take the form of exclusive deals, whether it be discounts for repeat customers or early-access for new products. However, keeping track of the different elements of CRM (ie. data communication and revenue goals) can prove to be a challenge. Thus, many businesses choose a CRM application that best suits their needs.

I wrote my CRM software on Zoho. If I were to create a business, I would choose Zoho has the software to manage these elements because of its simple and streamlined client when accessing important information. Furthermore, Zoho can either be downloaded or utilized in a web application. Zoho creates different compartments that allows different information to be accessed by employees in different sectors within the business. For example, a revenue goal page can be accessed by everyone on Zoho, but the application has a built-in cloud file management software that can be administrated so that information that’s pertinent for a given department is only accessible by those employees.

E-Commerce Platforms

The fourth lesson that I learned from this course is the importance of selecting the right e-commerce platform. In the ever-changing landscape of the internet, businesses must find a way to communicate their product online and handle transactions remotely over the internet. Businesses of all sizes utilize e-commerce platforms for this operation, but there are many different options to consider for a business’ specific objectives and/or size.

If I were to create an e-commerce online shop, the platform I would use is Shopify. Although being one of the most expensive e-commerce platforms, Shopify simplifies the experience for all users so that products and transactions can be easily managed. Furthermore, Shopify offers plans that allow users to list unlimited products, as well as handle transactions in physical retail locations. This would be helpful for businesses that utilize Shopify for their e-commerce transactions, but would also like to expand to a physical location and expand their reach within the market.

Online Advertising and Affiliate Marketing

The fifth takeaway that was important to me was the significance of online advertising and affiliate marketing. With much of the population possessing a means to connect to the internet and social media users, businesses can use this as an opportunity to expand their reach to these audiences. Furthermore, due to the popularity of social media, users have taken this to their advantage to create a business and grow their brands. Businesses can, in turn, utilize these influencers to market products. Influencers remain as a powerful online advertising tool because their audiences are very likely to purchase a product that they see advertised by their favorite online personalities. Learning this topic has been very important to me because I realized that there are many different outlets in which I would be able to advertise a product, and creating a deal with an influencer I watch can prove to be beneficial to both me and the influencer.

Most Valuable Takeaway

Overall, I think that the most valuable takeaway from this course is the importance in selecting the right e-commerce platform. This skill is important to me because I have given thought to creating a drop-shipping business and learning about the different platforms that I can utilize in this process has given me an idea of a starting budget and how I should be marketing these products.

In a widely-utilized digital landscape, businesses aim to take advantage of an interconnected worldwide audience to advertise their products and services. Online advertising and affiliate marketing are powerful digital marketing tools to enable companies to reach a wide audience, drive traffic to their websites that display their products and services, and, ultimately, generate/increase revenue. While online advertising entails many different methods to generate website traffic, affiliate marketing is an online advertising method that’s becoming more common in today’s digital landscape with the rise of social media influencers.

As a whole, online advertising involves promoting products and/or services through various online channels, such as social media platforms, entertainment (streaming) services, mobile applications, and much more. One form that online advertising can take is in display ads, which entail banners, videos, and images that often show up on the sidebars of different websites, such as YouTube. Furthermore, YouTube also displays video ads before the YouTube video starts, containing two ads that last approximately 15 seconds. Social media platforms, such as TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram, also utilize video advertisements on each user’s explore page for products and services that each individual is interested.

Elaborating on the previous point, online advertisements are highly effective due to their highly-personalized nature. Social media apps and online entertainment services are able to create a user profile of each individual that uses the app. From these curated profiles, businesses are able to purchase and access this information to target marketing towards an audience that would benefit most from the business’ products and services (Dublino, 2024). For example, Netflix uses big data generated by users across the globe that watch the same show to recommend other shows/genres to each individual (eg. if an individual watches a specific drama, Netflix can refer to other watched shows from individuals who also watched that drama to recommend the starting individual a next show to start).

Affiliate marketing entails businesses working with content creators and their brands on different social media outlets to advertise the business’ products and services; with the rise of social media influencers in today’s world, businesses may feel compelled to increase their traffic by utilizing these influencers to deliver statements regarding their products and services. Each affiliate that works with the business receives benefit from them in the form of commission for each conversion made for their products. Affiliate marketing is most useful when a product is aimed towards a specific market, and that affiliate has built a brand in that market (Enfroy, 2024). For example, gamers are more likely to purchase an electronic component for their computers when they see a big tech YouTuber promote that product (eg. motherboard manufacturers, like Asus, will find it beneficial to sponsor Linus Tech Tips, a YouTuber in the tech industry with a large brand, to promote its product to boost conversion rate and reach a higher amount of their target audience).

For products and services that are marketing to a general population (eg. furniture or finances), businesses may be more compelled to utilize display advertisements to sell their services to a wide population. However, once products are targeted towards a niche community, affiliate marketing is more beneficial in converting their sales because members of those markets would be more motivated to purchase products that their most-watched social media influencer promotes (eg. the newest phones that are positively reviewed by top content creators in the tech industry, like Marques Brownlee). All in all, online advertising provides a high degree of control over targeting and placement, making it ideal for broad campaigns. Meanwhile, affiliate marketing leverages trusted voices within niche communities, driving conversions through authentic recommendations. By selecting the right approach or combining both strategies, businesses can create a robust marketing plan that reaches and resonates with their target audience.

 

References:

Dublino, J. (2024). Reinventing Business Intelligence: 10 Ways Big Data Is Changing Business. Business.com. https://www.business.com/articles/reinventing-business-intelligence-ways-big-data-is-changing-business/.

Enfroy, A. (2024). 10 Reasons Why Small Businesses Should Use Affiliate Marketing. Business.com. https://www.business.com/articles/why-smbs-use-affiliate-marketing/.