Running Head: SMARTCARE 1

Date: March 26, 2016 From: Monica Martinez, COM 630 To: Don Olson Subject: 2016 SmartCare Marketing Communication Campaign for SmartTrack

Overview SmartCare is a company that is new to the child care management software industry. The company is committed to learning the pain points that child care professionals face. The company has successfully identified areas within the child care development market segment that can be improved through efficient and effective software. The company offers a wide range of proprietary features that can be combined with new product enhancements. This strategic marketing communication plan will first focus on SmartCare’s current position in the child care software industry. Lastly, this plan will provide SmartCare with a creative marketing strategy that includes measurement criteria and the expected ROI for each tactic. Introduction The child care management software industry is highly saturated and competitive. SmartCare is one of the newest companies offering software that can provide a fast and easy way to track and report child attendance. With any software company the goal is to provide customers with a tool that can help them run their business at its best. With child care management software the objective is more specific and is aimed at giving child care centers software that is both efficient and saves time. Less time spent with inefficient computer systems or paper tracking systems means less time spent with children. SmartCare will be launching its newest software product called SmartTrack which will be modifiable to each center’s needs and is in accordance with state reporting regulations, which is required for subsidized funded child care centers. Background SmartCare was founded on January 1, 2014 by CEO Andrew Goldberger and his development team. By October of the same year SmartCare presented their product to the public for the first time at the Kris Murray’s Child Care Success Summit in Las Vegas, NV. With a staff of 50 employees the company has established itself in two locations; Las Vegas, NV and Provo, Utah. SmartCare has since branded its software to, “improve classroom ratios, easily process tuition payments, payroll and attendance tracking.” SmartCare offers child care providers and child care center owners the tools they need and want to make one of the toughest jobs in the world, easier (SmartCare, 2015).

Situational Analysis

SmartCare falls within two industries; software and child care. The software industry is highly competitive on both a national and international level and so is the child care industry.

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Fortunately, the child care industry is booming and a lot of centers and agencies are still utilizing outdated manual systems, which is a great opportunity for SmartCare. However, the software segment for child care management systems is growing rapidly and international competitors are expected to enter the market. More women are entering the workforce, which is resulting in more and more families needing child care services. Software based products that meet the desires and needs of both full cost centers and agencies fits in with multiple societal trends including; going paperless, real-time notifications, and the automation of repetitive tasks.

As mentioned SmartCare is new to the industry, but brings extremely innovative software that is designed with cutting edge technology and can be utilized on the web, PC and on Apple products. The company is adequately staffed with 50 employees and has positioned themselves in two states, Utah and Nevada. The company takes advantage of multiple social media platforms including; Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+. As a company they have built strong affiliations to ensure they deliver the highest quality products to their customers. Their partnerships include; Intuit, Care.com, ChildCareCRM, and Child Care Marketing Solutions.

Target Market

There are four primary target markets for the subsidized child care industry. The primary target markets include; government funded agencies, preschools, day cares, and school districts. Government funded agencies are required to provide specific reporting by only approved software. Preschools need the ability to track attendance and immunization records efficiently so they can free up teacher time and give more time back to the children. Day cares and school districts have also reported having to maintain numerous reporting logs that are time consuming and even more time consuming to maintain. With this clear call for action, SmartCare’s SmarTrack software will be customizable to accommodate each client’s unique set of needs.

Communication Objective

Communicate to prospective clients that SmartCare will be launching customizable software that will cater to each client’s unique reporting needs and will now accommodate subsidized reporting requirements. This objective will support the company’s overall goal of making child reporting more efficient for all agency types.

Marketing/Communication Tactics

Tactic 1: Social Media

Establish a stronger social media presence through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram to reach businesses that are using social media platforms to look for products and services. Consumers are completing up to 57% of the purchase process before reaching out directly to contact suppliers (“B2B Marketing Statistics For 2014”, 2014).

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Figure 1. Social Media Comparison Infographic. Retrieved from, https://leveragenewagemedia.com/blog/social-

media-infographic/

The social media channels chosen are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. Facebook has been chosen because of its actively monthly users and affordable sponsorship ads. LinkedIn has been chosen because it is viewed by business and has a strong reputable corporate brand. Lastly, Twitter was selected because of its quantity of users and its high market penetration ratios. Tactic 2: Content Marketing

Content marketing will be used as a strategic approach to distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract a clearly defined audience and ultimately lead to a profitable customer. According to B2B Marketing Statistics (2014), “Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads.”

Tactic 3: Website Optimization

Creating an instantly visually stimulating webpage that is well optimized will not only attract more visitors but will entice them to browse the website and products for longer periods of time. Along with a well-designed website, we will also have a monthly journal publication that

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features how the new software is helping clients throughout the industry. The website will also engage customers through the company’s blog.

Tactic 4: Conference & Trade Show

Conferences and tradeshows are the most important marketing tool for SmartCare and is the opportunity to demonstrate SmartTrack software to industry specific clients. Conferences and tradeshows will increase product awareness and desire. Useable takeaways such as, mugs, magnets, and sticky pads will also be handed out. Additionally, conferences and tradeshows will be used to generate leads for the sales team.

Tactic 5: Direct Response

Direct response marketing will be used to compel customers to seek out more information about the SmartTrack software. We will target our specific audience with strong compelling messages of interest for our product. The ads will aim to appeal to our targeted and segmented audience.

Tactic 6: Cause Marketing

SmartCare will get involved with charitable marketing and sponsor one low income child care center per year. Charitable sponsorships will be leveraged as a partnership and potential future clients. Research shows that industry relevant event sponsorship and charity involvement brings profound recognition and visibility. Measurement Criteria, Goals and Sources of Measurement

The tactics discussed above are strategies primarily aimed at growing the company’s brand awareness, exposure, and sales. A well-defined marketing strategy is essential for SmartCare to have, in order to achieve high-performance in their B2B marketing campaign. SmartCare’s strategy is based around a customer-centric approach by isolating different target audiences and creating powerful tactics to reach them. It is essential that SmartCare is able to measure the ROI and ROO in all areas of marketing. Each tactic will be measured in the following manner:

Tactic 1: Social Media Measurement

The purpose of enhancing SmartCare’s social media marketing is to establish a stronger social media presence through Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in order to reach businesses that are using social media platforms to look for products and services. Once the social media platforms have been optimized with sponsored ads and segmented target audiences have been identified the company can assess its effectiveness through ongoing analytics to monitor and track activity.

Kissmetrics Analytics offers ongoing analytics that are necessary for keeping up with the overall pulse of general conversation about your brand and company (Kissmetrics, 2016). Campaign-focused metrics measure over a longer period of time and provides event specific analytics to help the company monitor the impact of targeted marketing initiatives. To measure awareness, the metrics will measure volume, reach exposure and amplification to determine how far a message is spreading.

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Facebook insights will be used to measure the company’s page impressions and reach. This will allow for determining the number of times a post from the page has been displayed, and the reach will be determined by the number of people who received impressions of a page post (Facebook, 2016). It is also important to measure paid reach, which is the total number of unique people who were shown your post as a result of ads. This will be measured by Facebook insights.

Tactic 2: Content Marketing Measurement

The goal of content marketing will be achieved by a strategic approach to distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract a clearly defined audience and ultimately lead to a profitable customer. To measure lead generation the company’s site will be optimized with a lead form, which can be measure by how many people went to the lead form after consuming the content. The company will also set browser cookies and track when someone fills out that lead form after viewing certain content (Baer, 2015). It is also worth noting that knowing the company’s lead metrics will also measure demand-generation goals.

Google Analytics will be utilized to compare multiple pieces of content to extract more meaningful information. This will help determine which piece of content is performing better. Google analytics will also be used to determine page views by source, by title, as well as identify referral visits. Measuring referral visits will help the company measure the content pieces that best resonated with others since they were willing to link to it.

Tactic 3: Website Optimization Measurement

The goal around website optimization is to increase website visitors, their duration of time spent on the site, and the number of pages viewed. Measuring this information will help company determine how fast the visitor leaves the page after what page they have viewed. Conversions will also be measured to determine what target actions visitors are completing. The website will consist of short software demos and a monthly newsletter that the company will need to know if customers are interested enough to view and/or sign up for the newsletter. Lastly, the website will seek to further engage customers through its blog page. The increased brand awareness and customer engagement will be defined by a conversion rate and will indicate if the company’s posts are increasing advocacy.

Tactic 4: Conference & Trade Show Measurement

The goal of interactive marketing through conferences and trade shows are for SmartCare to be able to demonstrate SmartTrack software to industry specific clients. Attending such events will help further establish the company within the industry and will provide a powerful platform for meeting new customers and expanding brand penetration. Trade shows are a great opportunity to learn the direction the industry is going. In order to determine the success of attending an event a naming convention will be used to determine what leads and sales were generated as a result of the company’s attendance at certain events. Competitive audits and surveys will be conducted at the booth, as well as conducting post event focus groups. Lastly, Facebook and Instagram will be used to boost event attendance and exposure and this will be measured using the platform’s analytic tools.

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Tactic 5: Direct Response Measurement

Direct response ads will aim to appeal to our targeted and segmented audience. The purpose will be to compel customers to seek out more information about the SmartTrack software. The direct response strategy will be frequency, low involvement and a call to action derived from detail. This approach will be tracked in a CRM system that will measure cost per response and cost per sale/acquisition. Google Analytics and ClearSight Analyzer will be used to measure the direct response ads real-time statistics, bounce charts, and report flows on single and multiple segments.

Tactic 6: Cause Marketing Measurement

The goal of cause marketing is to form charitable sponsorships within the industry that will be leveraged as a partnership and potential future clients. Cause marketing is difficult when it comes to measuring ROI; therefore, the purpose of the company utilizing cause marketing will be measured against ROO. This tactic is aimed at increasing brand awareness and the willingness to recommend the company to new potential clients. This will be measured through customer and client satisfaction surveys. The final objective is increase product knowledge, which will be measured by the number of specific sponsorship landing page visits on the company’s website.

Table for Metrics & Goals

The below table provides a detailed outline of each tactic including its measurement goals and sources of measurement.

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Tactic Measurement Conclusion

Business to business selling is greatly different from business to customer selling and therefore requires a different marketing strategy approach. Traditional means of reaching business customers such as catalogs, direct mail, and convention booths remain an important element of marketing for many companies, and they will continue to be valuable tools (B2B Forum, 2016). However, the business to business market has significantly changed and so has the way it’s marketed too. Social media and the internet are the new hottest places to market. Using social media platforms and content marketing to drive customers to your business is proving to have a greater ROI. Use of the right measurement tools are essential for overall marketing campaign success.

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ROI Analysis

Marketing is an investment to produce revenue. The marketing return on investment is the incremental gain from business operations divided by its cost. Return on investment metrics are essential but often tricky when it comes to tracking money spent on marking efforts and how it relates to breaking-even or a profitable return. The following analysis will forecast and estimate the costs of each of SmartCare’s marketing tactics and what they can expect to see as an acceptable rate of return.

Tactic 1: Social Media ROI

The social media metrics will be tracked daily to ensure the right strategies are working. Each social media campaign life cycle will be relatively short. SmartCare will be utilizing social media to increase engagement, social reach, and followers. The company’s metrics will allow them to track the entire customer life cycle. SmartCare will have a total social media marketing campaign budget of $500 with an acceptable rate of return of greater than 1%. The discounted cost for sponsorship ads is $5 per ad. SmartCare would like to run a total of 20 sponsored per month. Dividing $100 into the total campaign cost of $500 will result of monthly return rate of 2%.

Tactic: Social Media Product Gross Margin Break-Even Unit(s) $500 $5 2%

Tactic 2: Content Marketing ROI

Company research has shown that on average 200 leads yields 1 new client sale. Therefore, each lead can be given a $200 value. The overall cost of the content marketing campaign will cost the company $1000. The cost to create the content is $500; therefore, the break-even the company will need to generate 2.5 leads within the fiscal year.

Tactic: Content Marketing Product Gross Margin Break-Even Unit(s) $1,000 $500 2.5 leads

Tactic 3: Website Optimization ROI

The website optimization is primarily aimed at increasing site traffic and conversion by 5% which ultimately decrease bounce rate and promote new web demo requests and newsletter views per month. If the company invests $15,000 on website optimization and successfully increases lead conversion to 1000 on a monthly basis the company’s monthly ROI will be 9% and 105% annually. Resulting in the website overall value having increased from $25,000 to $300,000.

Tactic: Website Optimization Product Gross Margin Break-Even Unit(s) $15,000 5% 9%/mo. & 105%/yr.

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Tactic 4: Conference & Trade Show ROI

Without any level of sponsorship, the fee to attend one trade show costs the company $2500, travel costs for the employee totals at $1500; therefore, total costs for attending one trade show equals $4000. However, the software cost the company $50,000 for all development costs. SmartCare has set aside a budget of $25,000 for the year, which will allow them to attend 6.25 trade shows. The average new client contract for the SmartTrack software is $22,000. Therefore, if SmartCare is able to close three leads generated from a trade show with one year their return on investment will be .82% or a gross margin of $12,000.

Tactic: Conference/Trade Show

Product Gross Margin Break-Even Unit(s)

$25,000 $22,000 .82% or $12,000

Tactic 5: Direct Response ROI

SmartCare’s direct response campaign cost is $3000. SmartCare will spent $.60 per direct response and has a return of 135 respondents with 31 buyers. The conversion rate is 23% of responders will buy, which will generate a ROI of 4% or a profit of $105.

Tactic: Direct Response Product Gross Margin Break-Even Unit(s) $3,000 23% 4% or $105

Tactic 6: Cause Marketing ROI

SmartCare’s cause marketing campaign will be the hardest for the track their RIO. For that reason the company will take a more reserved approach. The company has allocated $3000 for this campaign. The $3000 will be donated to three non-clients within the child care industry on an annual basis in hopes to gain exposure, brand awareness and recommendation. This campaign will be monitored over a 5 year period and can expect to see one new client contract. The company’s break-even threshold will be with one new client, which will bring the company $22,000. This will result in .68% ROI or a $7,000 profit for SmartCare’s cause marketing campaign.

Tactic: Cause Marketing Product Gross Margin Break-Even Unit(s) $3000 $22,000 .68% or $7,000

Final Conclusions & Recommendations

After extensive research it can be concluded that SmartCare has the ability to become a huge player in its existing market and expanding into new markets. It will be achievable through product enhancement and a strong marketing mix communication plan that will allow them to reach market segments that would have otherwise been unachievable. Smart marketing tactics that have a proven ROI will prove to be essential to the company.

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Based on SmartCare’s ROI analysis it is recommended that the company should continue to pursue social media marketing, content marketing and direct response marketing to receive an immediate return. It is also recommended that the company’s investment in website optimization and the attendance of conference and trade shows will pose a great ROI in 1-3 years. It is also worth noting that the website optimization will increase the overall website value for the company. Lastly, the cause marketing tactic will have a conservative approach and will need to be re-evaluated regularly because it is the hardest tactic to track ROI, but can payoff when the cause is invested in correctly.

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References

B2B Forum (2016). Business-To-Business Marketing. Retrieved from,

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/small/Bo-Co/Business-to-Business-Marketing.html

B2B Marketing Statistics For 2014. (2014, June 29). Retrieved from,

http://www.ironpaper.com/webintel/articles/b2b-marketing-statistics-

2014/#.VSIP5DTF96g

Baer, J. (2015). Turning Your Content Marketing Upside Down. Retrieved from,

https://www.ceros.com/blog/4-types-content-metrics-matter/

Facebook (2016) About Insights: Help. Retrieved from,

https://www.facebook.com/help/336143376466063/

Kissmetrics (2016). 5 Easy Steps to Measure Your Social Media Campaigns. Retrieved from,

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-media-measurement/

SmartCare (2015) About Us. Retrieved from, http://smartcare.com/about/about/