The Company
Amazon.com, Inc. is the e-commerce company chosen for this digital marketing acquisition, conversion, and retention strategy analysis. Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational e-commerce company currently operating in multiple industries by offering e-commerce, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital streaming services (“What We Do,” 2022). The rationale for developing a digital marketing strategy for this company is to solve a current performance gap identified by the management. The gap features the need for strategies to promote further sales through e-commerce offerings and stay ahead of other industry competitors by maintaining the top position globally and regionally. Therefore, the most appropriate justifications for the new program’s feasibility are by taking a detailed overview of the company’s internal capabilities, market data, and customer segmentation strategies for reaching global markets.
Amazon.com, Inc. is among the world’s most valuable brands. The company operates among the Big Five American technology companies; the other four are Microsoft, Apple, Inc., Meta, and Alphabet (“Amazon.com, Inc.,” 2022). The organization, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States, currently employs 1.6 million personnel globally. It has a net worth of $1.245 trillion as of 2022, making it a globally prominent e-commerce company (“Amazon.com, Inc.,” 2022). The company’s average revenue as of March 2022 was $116.4 billion, a 7.30% net positive change in the company’s total net worth from the last reporting (“Amazon.com, Inc.,” 2022). Therefore, the company can stretch its financial capacity by absorbing the upcoming program that entails introducing a digital marketing strategy for better market penetration.
The company has four core operational principles that promote its market dominance despite the presence of other competitive e-commerce giants. The company’s four core operational principles are customer obsession, passion for invention, long-term thinking, and operational excellence (“Who We Are,” 2022). The company’s culture promotes a ‘Day 1’ strategy where the personnel mentality is to tackle everything using energy and enthusiasm like an only upcoming organization (“Who We Are,” 2022). The company’s hierarchical organizational structure (see appendix) supports hybrid categorization of project groups, where personnel from various departments group according to the needed skills for the project (Dudovskiy, 2022a). The company’s flexibility provides hopes that the upcoming project will receive adequate support.
Amazon.com, Inc.’s has a large market size going by the latest analytical data on the company’s global operating environment. The upcoming project will be dependent on the company’s capabilities to reach new customers in its already burgeoning market size with a strong market share. The company’s global service marketing grew to about 38.7% of the e-commerce market share in 2021, garnering up to $386 billion in 2021 alone (Coppola, 2021). The company’s marketing size and characteristics feature diverse revenue-generating activities where e-retail sales of electronics and other web-based services lead to market value penetration. The company has top competitors like Alibaba and eBay, which keeps it on a constant innovation path to remain relevant (Coppola, 2021). The company is a profitable hub for third-party sellers, has numerous prime services for attracting and maintaining new customers, and is a pioneer in voice services.
Customer Analysis
Amazon.com, Inc. runs the most diverse global customer profile, where the company product distribution and penetration strategies target a wide range of customer demographic characteristics. According to Radić (2022), the company’s mobile shopping app attracted 150.6 million users in 2019. Young users are the most frequent shoppers, buying products at least once a week from the store (Radić, 2022). The company uses multi-segment, adaptive, anticipatory, and stop-gap positioning strategies with its segmentation techniques to attract customers. Its geographic segmentation strategies target customers from rural and urban settlements in over 100 countries (Dudovkiy, 2022b). Demographic segmentation strategies target occupations like students, employees, and professionals age 14 or older.
Moreover, behavioral segmentation accommodates benefits sought in terms of competitive prices, accommodating customers from all social classes (Dudovskiy, 2022b). Psychographic (lifestyle) segmentation strategies target mainstreamers, explorers, and aspirers. That implies the Amazon.com, Inc. customer profile comprises students, professionals, soft and hardcore loyal, switchers, and nearly all categories of female and male shoppers from over 100 countries.
Customer Profiling
The key target persona for the upcoming digital marketing project is the young users, male and female, from the company’s current global market base and beyond. The young users comprise students, employees, and professionals from age 14 to 35, with various aspirations for using Amazon.com, Inc. services in the various categories. The justification for targeting young users is that nearly 85% of young consumers visit and purchase an item from the company’s online platforms at least once a week (Radić, 2022). That implies that improved digital marketing strategies and objectives, as outlined in the sectors below, can capitalize on the identified consumer behaviors for the group. The acquisition, conversion, and retention strategies can also work for a young market between the age of 14 and 35, given the group’s preferences for digital devices for social connections among peers. Dudovskiy (2022b) observed that Amazon.com, Inc.’s existing customer base is hardcore loyal, softcore loyal, and switchers. Therefore, the new project will incorporate constant value improvement strategies to model hardcore loyal customers.
Customer Journey and Strategic Objectives
Customer Journey Mapping
The most viable acquisition, conversion, and retention strategy for the young users targeted in the upcoming project are to make them part of the value improvement journey at Amazon.com, Inc. According to Micheaux and Bosio (2019), customer journey mapping provides critical touchpoints defining interactions and influences buying and loyalty decisions. Quick statistics about the significance of customer journey mapping in modern business operations show that 80% of customers now consider the service experience with a company to be more significant than the actual product (Micheaux and Bosio, 2019). Moreover, about 69% of modern customers want to be part of the company’s real-time decision-makers, where the company modifies strategies to accommodate their interests (Micheaux and Bosio, 2019). More global customers expect proper connections between service experience and product/service quality across marketing platforms.
Amazon.com, Inc.’s upcoming digital marketing strategy will walk the customers on an ethical business path, taking key customer service management opportunities through awareness, consideration, decision, service, and advocacy. Awareness in customer journey mapping is the first and the most critical strategy for engaging the key target persona (Micheaux and Bosio, 2019). Amazon.com, Inc.’s strategy for promoting customer awareness on the upcoming platform is to give succinct descriptions of products so that customers use the shortest time to gauge and decide whether to purchase or not. Consideration in customer journey mapping is the strategic value presentation that entices customers to the products or services offered. Amazon.com, Inc.’s strategy will be gentle persuasion with the marketing messages.
Decision part of the journey comes after acknowledgment and consideration in the customer journey, entailing one-on-one engagement with the customer to influence decision-making over a product/service (Micheaux and Bosio, 2019). The upcoming strategy is to offer in-depth demonstrations, free trials, and previous customer testimonials to influence target persona decisions. Service and advocacy strategies in the journey mapping will promote values-based attractiveness to Amazon.com, Inc.’s digital platform, where the company strategizes customer relationship improvement and ethical considerations by listening to customer concerns and advocating for nothing but excellent customer treatment before and after sales. Key customer touchpoints are the places and times where the target persona is likely to come into contact with the upcoming digital marketing platform. Strategic touch points will be social media platforms, advertising through mobile systems and follow-ups, marketing and public relations at the point of sale and follow-up emails, and the customer ratings or reviews on company websites.
SMART Objectives
Objectives for attracting, engaging, and retaining customers in the upcoming digital marketing project are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. The Specific objective is to use Amazon.com, Inc.’s IT resources to improve the existing e-commerce platforms by introducing an outstanding youth section listing their favorite products. The Measurable objective is to increase young customers’ weekly spending averages from 85% for a single product to 95% per week. The Achievable objective is to use as many touchpoints as possible to reach the young customers so their purchase average can move from 85% to 95% per week. The Relevant objective is to push Amazon.com, Inc. to further global dominance by increasing its current market share from 38.7% to 50%. The Time-bound objective is to achieve the other S.M.A.R objectives within the first six months of the marketing plan launch. The time frame is realistic given that customer reach over the digital platform is the fastest and most convenient marketing approach.
Digital Marketing and Strategy Plan
Customer Acquisition and Strategy Plan
The key strategic approach for customer acquisition, conversion, and retention are to create an independent e-commerce wing for the key target persona. The company will be using the new platform to engage the young buyers who, according to Radić (2022), were the top consumers of Amazon.com, Inc.’s online products. One of the plans for customer acquisition is using content marketing tools like infographics and product descriptions to reach the target persona (Yadegar, 2021). Content marketing will go hand-in-hand with the social media acquisition strategies for attracting customers to the new e-commerce wing. Social medial platforms will be useful tools for beginning the customer journey by creating awareness of the new marketing plan and using the social platforms to entice young customers about the fun side of Amazon.com, Inc.’s youthful e-commerce wing.
The other strategy will be remarketing. Yadegar (2021) described remarketing as the retargeting technique that involves sending adverts to previous Amazon.com, Inc. website visitors. The technique will work by sending adverts to visitors on the store’s main online platforms. The visitors and previous customers can learn about the newly commissioned e-commerce wing available for young consumers between ages 14 and 35. The strategy is not to label it a young consumers’ sector but to categorize products relatable to the target population. That implies the Amazon.com, Inc. IT wing will use consumer behavior analytics to propose relatable products for the new e-commerce wing.
The most preferred plan to supplement the other three strategies is the combination of paid search and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to help the key target persona recognize the new e-commerce wing. Yadegar (2021) detailed that SEOs improve company rankings by strategizing meta descriptions, high-quality content for the advertised products, and unique tags for website titles. The SEOs strategic plan will also improve Amazon.com, Inc.’s new digital marketing plan by making it one of the top search results when consumers search for online platforms for the products or services. That implies SEO will cover all the key touchpoints illustrated in the customer journey mapping above.
Customer Conversion Strategy Plan
Conversion in digital marketing takes several definitions, pointing to the success rates a digital marketer counts for using marketing resources and techniques to attract customers to an e-commerce platform. Key indicators for conversion in Amazon.com, Inc.’s digital marketing plan are sales, leads, email signups for the new e-commerce wing, registration, and page visits (Garcia et al., 2019). However, the ultimate measure of digital marketing success is through the analysis of product sales, customer revisits and registered customers who showcase loyalty numbers. One of the key strategies for promoting conversion will be designs for calls to action (CTAs) that will reach customers as eye-catching and compelling (Garcia et al., 2019). Double calls to action will strategically place two attractive adverts eliciting customers’ desire to click on the website.
The second strategy will involve the utilization of smart pop-ups that categorically reaches digital platform users. Pop-up ads can be pushdown or pop-ups for pushing a website content to create room for the advert (Garcia et al., 2019). That implies Amazon.com, Inc.’s adverts will pop up primarily on the company websites and other online shopping platforms. The company will also use delayed pop-ups on paid platforms where the adverts appear on paid websites after customers spend little time perusing the website content (Simona, 2017). The other strategy to accompany adverts are the created sense of urgency that makes customers want to click through in the shortest time possible. The best approach is to use subtle product advertisement techniques that elicit the fear of missing out (FOMO) (Garcia et al., 2019). Messages can show diminishing stock levels, missed opportunities and those running out, and limited free shipping for a determined number of purchases.
Two other strategies will be rewarding loyal customers and focusing the social media marketing journey on the long-form content. That implies advertisements over social media platforms must be strategically placed to maintain relevance for a long period. The marketing techniques must relate to targeted market demographics, implying Amazon.com, Inc. should make more use of social media platforms associated with younger populations like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook (Garcia et al., 2019). The conversion strategies on social platforms will include clarified communication and engagement with the audience and social media communities to spread messages about Amazon.com, Inc.’s new marketing plan. Moreover, the company will leverage social media marketing techniques where established brands and loyal customers can be brand ambassadors for the new e-commerce platform.
Customer Retention Strategy Plan
The customer journey mapping will form the basis of retention strategy plans for the upcoming digital marketing project. There are four strategies to ensure young customers remain loyal to the company’s digital marketing program designed to engage young customers. The first strategy is a smooth onboarding process (Simona, 2017). The onboarding process begins from the customer awareness to consideration and decision-making journey paths. The company will manage customer first impressions on service, product offering, and the pre-and post-sale advocacies. The strategic plan is to make the first experience so good that customers decide to stick around.
Subsequent customer experiences must be nothing less than the first experience. That means the company must include the second retention strategy, which is keeping products and service experience at the top of the customers’ minds. The company will corroborate good customer experiences by keeping constant follow-up reminders through emails, high-value marketing content, and social media advertisements (Simona, 2017). The third and fourth strategies are closing the loop on customer feedback and rewarding loyal customers, as explained in the conversion strategy plans.
Evaluation
Key performance indicators for the upcoming digital marketing project are marketing goal achievement, achievement of key target persona, an expanded digital marketing presence, and an improvement in marketing strategies for reaching out to customers. Most importantly, the digital marketing return on investment (ROI) will be useful for evaluating how beneficial the project is to Amazon.com, Inc. (Garcia et al., 2019). The company will use the HubSpot digital marketing analytics tool to track the step-by-step implementation of the marketing strategies and the outcomes outlined in the key performance indicators. HubSpot is a data-efficient analytical tool that promotes the incorporation of straightforward dashboards for examining data about customer flows (Lim and Heinrichs, 2021). The tool also evaluates engagement and conversion over the social media advertisement channels, call-to-action digital add-ons, and SEO strategies.
Reference List
“Amazon.com, Inc.” (2022) Google Finance. [online] Web.
Amazon.com, Inc. (2022) ‘What we do.’ [online] Web.
Amazon.com, Inc. (2022) ‘Who we are.’ [online] Web.
Coppola, D. (2021) ‘Amazon – statistics & facts.’ [online] Statista. Web.
Dudovskiy, J. (2022a). ‘Amazon organizational structure: a brief overview.’ [online] Research-Methodology. Web.
Dudovskiy, J. (2022b) ‘Amazon segmentation, targeting and positioning: widest range of target customer segment.’ [online] Research-Methodology. Web.
Garcia, J.J., Lizcano, D., Ramos, C.M. and Matos, N. (2019) ‘Digital marketing actions that achieve a better attraction and loyalty of users: An analytical study.’ Future Internet, 11(6), pp.130-146.
Lim, J.S. and Heinrichs, J.H. (2021) ‘Developing context‐relevant project experiences for marketing analytics students.’ Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 19(2), pp.150-156.
Micheaux, A. and Bosio, B. (2019) ‘Customer journey mapping as a new way to teach data-driven marketing as a service.’ Journal of Marketing Education, 41(2), pp.127-140. Web.
Radić, D. (2022) ‘Amazon customer demographics 2022: users, target market.’ [online] Serpwatch. Web.
Simona, V. (2017) ‘Content marketing strategy. Definition, objectives and tactics.’ Expert Journal of Marketing, 5(2), pp. 92-98.
Yadegar, S. (2021) ‘Digital marketing can get you in front of potential customers — the right strategy can get them to convert.’ [online] HawkSEM. Web.
Appendix I: Amazon.com, Inc’s Leadership Structure
