Marketing Campaign For Rockpick Legend Co.

Preface

Additional Information About Rockpick Legend Co.

     Rockpick Legend Co. has created a website and an online shopping cart to help support and continue to do business with their cliental which has moved out of state. Many of their customers use the same lapidary equipment (equipment used to cut and polish rock), and the crew at the rock shop likes to offer continued service for these pieces of equipment, as well as identification and informational articles for rock hounds of all ages. The large amount of information available on their web-site has been miss-organized and jumbled and is becoming difficult to easily locate, and the staff at Rockpick has expressed an interest in re-creating and/or reorganized their website.

The First Meeting

     Nearly 10 weeks ago Rockpick Legend Co. and the Marketeer sat down to discuss a plan of action in reconnecting with their customer base, finding new customers, and re-organizing their website to better accommodate their customers online. The proposal spawned 7 pages of text detailing every issues Rockpick's staff has encounter attempting to move their business closer to downtown Salt Lake City. With in this proposal it was discussed that Rockpick Legend Co. needed a new marketing campaign that did not require them to close their business, and would allow the staff to learn how to manage their campaign after the marketing team was released. Since the time this proposal was written several marketing concepts have already been implemented and many more are undergoing second round critique by the staff of Rockpick Legend Co, and should be implemented shortly. (To download the proposal from Google Docs as it was written click here.)

Needs Analysis From Rockpick Legend Co. 

     Now it's time to pull out all the stops and help Rockpick Legend Co. get back their customer base! With the marketing tools available nearly any of the staff at Rockpick can learn to maintain their campaign after we finish creating it.

The Proposal

Free Programs To Use

     After investigating the companies currently SaaS programs, there are two programs that everyone at Rockpick Legend Co. can easily learn to use, and that should be implemented into their marketing strategies before even starting marketing strategies. These two are Google Docs a free program which the company can use to upload instructions, and documents that all employees (or even customers) will need access to. The company can use one Google account for both documents that they only want their employees to have access to and documents that they want their customers to have access to. Google Docs allows the publisher of documents to decide who can view each one individually. They can be viewed by Only The Publisher, Anyone With The Link or Publicly. This is where we can start uploading instructions for each employee at Rockpick as to the operations of their new marketing campaign. The company can also use it to organize lapidary equipment instructions which they currently have “typed” all over their website making it appear very cluttered. By putting those instructions in the form of documents on Google Docs and then creating simple links that their customers can follow to download a variety of instructions they will clear up much of the clutter on their site, and make finding instructions easier for their customers.

Sharing Options on Google Docs 

     The second program is a back-up program which Rockpick Legend Co. is currently not using. By using a back up program such as Carbonite.com non of the information that the company is currently paying for will be lost. Information such as instructions, customer profiles, financial records, and tax preparation information is all vital to keeping a companies marketing campaign running smoothly. If information is lost through power surges, computer malfunctions, viruses or Malware or any other number of disasters than a company could be looking at starting over completely. Rockpick Legend Co can not afford another huge loss, and at only $59.00 a year Carbonite should be purchased and in use before going any further.
Another free program that could be utilized to clean up the website and make it more interactive is Animoto. It can also be purchased for $30.00 a year to be able to make full feature videos and have more options. (Here is a quick demonstration on how the program looks using the program itself.) This flash and video program can be easily used by any employee with minimal training and flash videos demonstrating various lapidary techniques can be used. Eliminating pages of text that currently clutter the rocks4u.com webpage, and making the website more interactive and entertaining for customers to view. Fore more information about these programs continue reading here.

Animoto Flash Video Program

Customer Relationship Managment Software    

   Now that solutions have been found to clean up the rocks4u.com web-page, back up critical information and keep all employees informed of policies, procedures and new information on the marketing campaign let's talk about Customer Relationship Management Software which can not only help us organize our existing customers but begin to understand their shopping trends, remind employees about call backs, and help keep a profile on each customer for better customer service. Knowing who your customers are, what their purchasing trends are and how to better serve them is critical in today’s market where customers have the option of shopping with any one of hundreds of businesses. But in the case of Rockpick Legend Co. rebuilding a customer base of individuals over 65 years old, it is vital that a Customer Relationship Management Software be implemented. Otherwise progress would be nearly impossible to track, and customers who are no longer interested will be difficult to weed out and eliminate from the “lost” folder of the rock shop's customer archives. For this small family owned business a CRM software with high ratings, easy to learn tutorials and a free trial is an ideal match. The software recommended is Inuit QuickBase. (For more comperhensive information on Intuit QuickBase read the full report on Google Docs by clicking here.)


Intuit QuickBase

E-mail Marketing 

     E-mail marketing maybe one of the most important steps outisde of tracking and understanding their customers that Rockpick Legend Co. can take to regain their customer base. Moving into and keeping up with the technology era is something that the staff at Rockpick Legend Co. has stressed their desire to do. However up until just 3 weeks ago they had not created an e-mail marketing campaig. After adding a quick add-on that allows customers to sign up for their e-mail newsletter list onto their website and setting up Constant Contact the staff saw an imediate responce to the new e-mail campaign.

Newsletter Sign Up Now Active On
Rockpick Legend Co.'s Shopping Cart
View at www.erockshop.com

     Because of the responce it is highly recommended that Rockpick Legend Co. invest in a full account with Constant Contact and use the marketing tools they provide to track their e-mails and learn what works best for their customers. What e-mails spark SPAM notifications, and what e-mails does the company see a positive responce to. The trail that was set up to show the staff at Rockpick Legend Co. should not be the end of their e-mail marketing. Constant Contact should become as well used as the grinders at Rockpick Legend Co.

Constant Contact Makes It Easy For The Staff At Rockpick
Legend Co. To Send Out Newsletters.

     E-mail marketing can be extremely affective, and Rockpick Legend Co. has almost neglected to use it at all even though they have thousands of e-mail addresses for customers who left their information on a yellow lined notepad at the front desk hoping to be contacted with rock shop updates. This tool alone could let hundreds of past customers reconnect with the rock shop in a new exciting way that will keep them up to date, and coming back for future visits. To see a sample e-mail newsletter using Constant Contact go here.

Website Marketing

     Decluttering the website was perhaps one of the most imporant marketing techniques used to help customers find their way around, and get information they are looking for. But, what about just viewing the website? Rocks4u.com was set up in 1998, the site is ran in Frontpage and is all but falling apart. A new website constructed in a modern program such as Dreamweaver would help the site rank on search engines, and help customers looking for "rock shops" in the Salt Lake City area find their site. Since many customers who lost touch with the rock shop maybe hoping to relocate it or even find a replacement, making sure that their site is easily found is essental! And, there are a few tools we can use to help make this possible.

Example of clutter currently on rocks4u.com

     One of these tools is a prototyping tool. Which will helps as the website is rebuilt make sure that it will function, and is mapped out correctly. Since the staff at Rockpick Legend Co wants to be able to maintain the marketing campaign on their own, and prototyping tools can seem somewhat overwhelming to anyone who's not a professional website programmer we have constructed a Presentation on Google Presentations (part of the Google suit which also includes Google Docs) to help the staff at Rockpick understand what a prototyping tool does and determin if they felt they could use this tool on their own (after watching the tutorials) or if they would need assistance. It is recommended that due to the extreme overload of options available when designing a website of any kind, and the fact that the rock shop staff wishes to implement their new site with in the next 3 months, that Rockpick Legend Co seeks a professional website designer and programmer to help do their site.

OverSite A Prototyping Tool Presentation

     Rockpick Legend Co. is a small family owned business which relies heavily on a 65 year old loyal customer base. However, changing locations for their familiar rundown center-brick building to a new well light facility closer to downtown had the opposite reaction they were hoping for. Instead of adding to their customer base the staff at Rockpick Legend Co. has been fighting just to regain their old customers attention. Rock hounds that started coming in as children are now spread across the country and convinced their little stop in Salt Lake City, Utah has been closed down. Because the building was demolished and has since been rebuilt as a Feline Breeding Facility there is no way for the crew at Rockpick legend Co. to advertise at the previous location of their new whereabouts. This has created a huge drop in customers and sales for the rock shop, and they are now seeking a new marketing campaign to help bring back their rock hounds, and find those new clients they had hoped would come with their move.

     Making sure their website is comparable with a variety of common browsers and with both Windows and Mac computers is a huge step towards letting your customers know that you are a professional business and not a scam company online. Distinguishing a small business and a scam company is a huge challenge in today's market. However, several tools can get you one step closer. Adobe Browser Lab is a great way to check compatibly and make modifications to any tables, widgets, buttons, and text that appears to have issues in various browsers. This tool is free to use, easy to learn and will work well for Rockpick Legend Co's new updated website look. I highly suggest as part of this marketing campaign teaching each person on your website marketing team to use this tool.

The Marketeer Blog in Adobe Browser
Viewed in Internet Explorer 6.0 Windows

Digital Privacy

     Finally as part of Rockpick Legend Co's comprehensive business marketing plan let's dive into digital privacy. As mentioned above distinguishing yourself as a reputable business online among the masses of scam companies, identity thieving Malware downloads, and organizations hoping to make extra money off your personal data by selling it in the form of "customer lists" is nearly impossible. But there are some steps we can take to show your customers you are serious about keeping their information safe. 

Accept Alternatives To Credit Cards 

     An easy affordable and instant change that Rockpick Legend Co can make during their check out process is to accept PayPal, Amazon Check out and Google Checkout. These companies are considered "safe" by many online customers, and will help customers of Rockpick Legend Co feel as if they are among the trusted online. These programs are easy to enroll in and easy to maintain. Money can be directly deposited into the bank account of Rockpick Legend Co. after the purchase is finalized, and often the fees for using these programs are only slightly more than the fees charged for processing a credit card. For more information about the hesitant public about using personal information online, and future alternatives to credit card processing online go here.  

Secure Certificate 

     Making sure that not only does the check out portion of Rockpick Legend Co.'s website has a secure certificate but that it was purchased from a well known company who's logo is trusted online. Such a certificate can be purchased from companies like VeriSign, or Volusion. For this campaign it is highly recommended that Rockpick Legend Co invest the money to purchase a VeriSign Secure Certificate. This is the company that many large organizations go with, and is the most trusted online. When the certificate is active web-pages covered under it will show as "HTTPS" instead of "HTTP". This extra symbol means that the website is being secured by VeriSign. 

Extra Marketing 

     In this proposal we have discussed many options for a solid marketing campaign to help Rockpick Legend Co. regain their customer base, and branch out to new customers online and help local customers find them. There are a few last steps we can take to help achieve maximum affect and reach as many customers as possible. These steps are outlined below. 

Visitor's Burro
     Because of the tours, and unique local items that are offered through Rockpick Legend Co. as part of their marketing campaign it is highly recommended that fliers are printed and left at the Visitor's Bureau for tourists information on local shops with things to do and things to see. The fee for the Visitor's Bureau in Salt Lake City, Utah is $320.00 per year, and includes distributing fliers and a web-page advertisement on their site. This will help people in Utah searching for local "hidden treasures" and those passing through. It may also help many out of town customers who had previously visited the rock shop at it's old location, re-find them if these customers are looking for a new rock hound stop while in town.

Summery of Proposal 

What We're Accomplishing 

     This proposal includes many aspects to help the crew at Rockpick Legend Co. re-connect to the local rock hounds of Salt Lake City, find new prospects and make themselves more reputable through their web-page. 

The Timeline
     Rockpick Legend Co. has expressed and intrest in having an updated web-site launched with in the next 90 days. Everything in this proposal can be completed with in that time. The timeline used for this proposal will be 90 days. With-in that 90 days our goal is to reach out to at least half of the rock hound population in Salt Lake City, Utah who has previously been a customer of the rock shop.

The Cost
     Many of the programs and changes we have laid out to be implemented with-in the next 90 days are free. However, there are some costs involved. Items such as a Customer Relationship Management Software (Intuit QuickBase), The E-mailing Program (Constant Contact), A Secure Certificate from VeriSign, Membership to the Salt Lake City, Visitors Burro etc. have costs. The monthly cost after set ups would be approximately $178 dollars. The Yearly costs for membership to the Visitors Burro and yearly Secure Certificate is $390. Aminoto full feature would be $30.00 per a year and Carbonite Back up is $35.00. The new shopping cart options have a higher percentage rate of sales than the credit card operator that Rockpick currently uses, which is a calculated cost. However, the perception of added security to online customers will help spawn more website sales. 

Privacy Concerns - Credit Card Information Online

For some using a credit card or bank account online to make a purchase, pay a bill, or verify their age is just another routine of number punching, but not everyone feels the need to "risk" their financial information just to purchase online. In fact according to the Wall Street Journal 79% of people who were conclusive about their online spending habits said they would spend more online if they felt it was safe.

Image Reference 1

Consumers continuously quote the same reasons for holding off their shopping until they can hit a physical store, and the reasons despite large chains re-assurance it's safe to purchase online, haven't changed. The top reason for skipping the online "fad" is the risk of being flooded with junk mail by either the merchant items were purchased from, or other merchants that consumer information was sold to. With 51% of consumers saying they do not trust merchants to not "share" or "sale" their personal information. Other reasons included merchants misusing credit card information, and personal information being "intercepted" or "hacked" online. Anyway a merchant interpenetrate this information they are loosing out on online sales by not offering a form of payment that is perceived as safe. Also merchants who are not participating in mass customer database "swaps" or sales should re-assure customers that you will not share, or use their information with out their permission.
Alternate forms of payment that are "limit the risk" of security loss, that merchants could implement into their online shopping carts include PayPal, Amazon Check Out , and Google Check Out. Another level of security is Direct Mobile Billing where customers use a PIN to complete purchases and the charge shows up on their mobile bill rather than their credit card or bank statement. Many countries are already seeing a switch but that faze hasn't quite hit the United States in a big way just yet (although Amazon has announced a move in that direction). However, with still over 50% of people saying they'll hold off at least some online purchasing for the sake of security, offering peace of mind just maybe the biggest marketing campaign most companies can offer potential customers who are currently searching for their wallets and glasses to type in that 16 digit number and "risk" their financial and personal security.

References & Further Reading:

Press Release (December 13, 2011) Wall Street Journal Market Watch, Four Times More COnsumer COnsidered Mobile Payments Safer Than Credit Cards. Retrieved January 07, 2012 from: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/four-times-more-consumers-consider-mobile-payments-safer-than-credit-cards-2011-12-13

Image 1
Drea (March 2, 2009) Business Pundent, 5 Ways To Boost Your Credit Score. Retrieved January 08, 2012 from: http://www.businesspundit.com/5-ways-to-boost-your-credit-score/

Mash-up Review - Content & Product Reviews

When establishing your services or products online as valuable, trustworthy, and overall a "safe buy" reviews are one of the most helpful tools you can use. Let your potential customers and repeat customers see what others thought of your products and services in a glance. After discussing with Rick, the CEO of Rockpick Legend Co., and his staff he has agreed that a customer review section on their website would indeed be beneficial not only to help validate the quality of products they sale but also to help answer some commonly asked questions. Since their shopping cart is set up through Volusion we incorporated a simple "add-on" and activated the customer feedback ares of the site with in just a few hours. This is extremely valuable tool is a simple digital mash-up made possible by what is known as Web 2.0.

To help the employees at Rockpick Legend Co. understand the value of this and other digital mash-ups we first had to define what a "mash-up" is, and what the term Web 2.0 refers to. The term Web 2.0 came about as broadband speeds started to increase beyond what had been possible when the internet first became popular with businesses and individuals; and computers became powerful enough to execute more detailed and challenging script with out delay or lag. When these two aspects began to combine on a "regular" basis developers pushed the boundaries of what they believed the internet could do. Huge servers hosting entire blog indexes were launched and easy to use interfaces were developed. The era of the "blog" was born. But that's not where Web 2.0 ended. Tags, Bookmarking, and many other "second generation" internet advances were made. In the storm of faster internet means more power, came mash-ups (Ross, 2006). They are the meat loaf of the internet world. Combining the power of this with the hosting of that, and the sound quality of this with the animation of that. Some mash-ups combine two programs such as this webpage is doing right now:

The Google hosted blog known as Blogger (which you are viewing right now) is using a Googled owned program called Picasa to host the photograph shown below in this very same blog. The mash-up required to incorporate a customer feedback section on a web-site (with out just publishing reviews by hand) is a Content Management System and a Web Analytic System.

In our case we are using the Customer and Product online storage system developed by Volusion as our Content Management System. This system holds all the products currently on our website (rather they are live or not) and all our customers who are currently registered with the website. Content Management Systems are often used in shopping carts, POS systems and more to help prevent duplicating information, keeping information easy to find and easily sortable in a variety of ways, and storing mass amounts of data with that is classified in certain ways (IE: customers are classified with a customer number, and inventory is classified with a separate sequence of numbers to keep them separate). While Volusion has developed a Web Analytic System which can be added onto their own pages as a mash-up (since they are not the same program just the same developer) so does Google and it is easily integrated with Volusion's Content Management System.

Customer Feedback On 33B Basic Tumbling Kit

Because the staff at Rockpick Legend Co. already understands how Volusion operates we tried incorporating their customer feedback, however it did not give us the option to give a 1-5 star rating, and didn't give us the wonderful "Was this review helpful to you?" question on bottom. So we switched over to Googles add-on and found it was easy to integrate and worked even better! So we are now using a Google customer feedback add-on.

As far as the customers and the staff at Rockpick Legend Co. see it, this simple customer feedback option now offered on each product that listed on www.erockshop.com is seamless with their website. However, this website is a just one more example of digital meatloaf! Examine a little further and you'll notice that the customer feedback and reviews section of this website isn't the first mash-up to make it's self present. Verisign offers a SSL on the site already. This is a Secure Certificate stating that Verisign is connected to the website making it more secure and protecting your information while placing orders. And, a credit card processor (in this case it is Authorize.net according to Rick) is processing credit card information once an order is placed. There is a Facebook widget offering up to the minute status updates and coupon codes that may be currently available and an entirely different add-on working to process any coupon codes being in-put into orders.

Mash-ups are operating all over the web, most often with out our even knowing it. However, being aware of their existence, and knowing how to use them to our benefit can make us better marketing engineers, by putting power at our fingertips.

References and Further Reading:

Litchenburg, Joe (February 2, 2011) JoeLitchenburg.com, Strategic Marketing For Technology Companies. Retrieved January 2, 2012 from: http://www.joelichtenberg.com/2011/02/02/web-analytics-%E2%80%93-overview-options-and-technology-enablers/

Ross, Rob (June 27, 2006) iMedia Connection, Marketing Mashup Tools, Retrieved January 2, 2012 from: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/10217.imc