Deliverables

Group Members First & Last Names: Courtney Stodola, Emilee Shostrom, Hannah Person, Shampaign Fields, Molly Schiermeyer Business Name: MECS Photography Date Last Updated: 11/19/18

I. Digital Marketing Audit Business Mission Statement: ​Molly will candidly capture a moment in time whether it’s a wedding, sporting event, or senior photo session. Business Goals: 30 day goal: develop more engaging social media posts by increasing the number of reaches by 10%. 60 day goal: increase accounts reached to 1,000 per week. 90 day goal: set up her HoneyBook account and create pricing guides for potential clients. 12 months: Increase prices by $300 per session. Catalyst for Audit:​ Work with the company to outline their interest in completing this project with the students from Beacom and what they hope to get out of it. Channels

Activity & Schedule

Current Effectiveness Rating (1-5)

Search

Molly has no analytics set up for her website. Her keywords are her four target markets. Sports, Love, Seniors, and Family. She had never heard of a long tail strategy before this course. She really doesn’t have much going on for offsite or onsite SEO. Her website is kind of sad on the SEO side of things. She wants to link up analytics to her site, but just needs to find time. Her main keywords are love, seniors, family, sports, weddings, and Nebraska photographer.

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Referral

Molly posts irregularly on

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Facebook and Instagram which are her only two social media outlets. All of her posts include images whether they are ads, photos from the most recent shoots, or updates about her life on her Instagram story. She also creates Facebook albums of each senior and wedding, and creates highlights from her stories on Instagram. Her photos have been featured on GoYotes.com​, and in The Volante for sports photography. She doesn’t have any scheduled postings but would love to start! Paid

MECS Photography has done four paid Instagram campaigns, and two paid ads on Facebook over the past year. Overall, she spent $51 on Instagram and $21 on Facebook. Her most successful Instagram campaigns gained 53 and 83 promotional clicks, creating 76 and 139 new profile visits. The campaigns usually target women ages 12-24. A majority of her Instagram campaigns were based around wedding photography. On Facebook, she highlighted her sport photography talents. Her largest Facebook paid campaign had 439 engagements and reached 2,974 accounts.

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Email

She does absolutely nothing with emails.

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Graphics / Brand

Top Engagement Example on Social Media Post, Paid Media, Email

Her target market engaged with this because it highlighted beautiful midwestern wedding photography. MECS Photography’s target market is usually women from ages 18-35, who live in the midwest. This photo is super fun because a sort-of drunk groom grabbed his brides butt, and did not get away with it. She tries to target fun-loving people, who want to have a good time and become her friend in the future. The caption has silly verbiage and talks about how gorgeous farmland in Iowa can be. SWOT Analysis for Company Strengths Solid website Easy to work with Willing to travel More relatable / trendy

Weaknesses Not well known Still in school Lack of time No utilization of web analytics

Opportunities Implement web analytics Photo workshops Referrals Social media giveaways

Threats Well-known photographers Prices More experienced competitors Location change

Audit Summary (everyone)

MECS Photography is an up-and-coming business lacking a strong social media presence, but excelling in word of mouth recognition. Molly’s goals align with most popular photographers - she wants to be trendy, become friends with clients, and the ultimate goal is to keep them as repeat customers photographing their senior, wedding, newborn and family photos. Molly has gone to many photography workshops by bigger and more experienced photographers to make herself more marketable to potential clients. She is willing to put in the work to make her business better! Molly is open to many ideas, she just didn’t know where to begin improving her digital presence. She recently created a fabulous new website that’s geared toward her target markets. Although her site is nice, she doesn’t have any analytics set up to track those target markets. Her social media posts are pretty close to being fantastic. Her content is strong but she doesn’t post regularly, and we believe that a content calendar with scheduled posts could increase her engagement tenfold. Another step to increasing engagement could be to do a photo session giveaway! These are super popular on trendy fashion and photographer instagrams. Doing a giveaway will increase new followers, have her instagram pop up on the discover page, and create more exposure for her business. Everything she has done so far is on the right track to success! Molly has been just dipping her toe, and her business needs her to dive in to make more money and build a bigger brand. The risks of charging higher prices to make more money, would be losing clients to cheaper photographers. But this can be fixed by explaining the VALUE clients will receive by choosing MECS Photography. Molly is also in the “toddler” stage of having a business, MECS Photography is only three years old. She needs to build brand recognition by keeping her editing style the same on almost all images - and making sure her social posts look cohesive. Molly has a great website to help curate her business! When potential clients look at her website, they see the quality work Molly does for her clientele. It showcases everything Molly offers, from weddings, to senior shoots, to sporting events. With Molly looking to book at least ten wedding sessions and twenty-five senior shoots, she could potentially improve by featuring more of those types of pictures on the website. She could also add more sports photos to show how she wants to work more with that type of photography. By keeping her website updated, she will be able to display her best photos. This will help draw in more customers. Molly has the potential for more business once she graduates college. Although she may be at a slight disadvantage because she is still in school, she has shown that her dedication to her clients and improving her business is unwavering. One way Molly can improve her business and outreach to potential clients while still in school is through email. A suggestion we have for MECS Photography is checking in with previous clients around times they could be experiencing life changes (marriage, children, holidays, etc.). Then if they book another session with Molly, she could offer them a discount on their shoot. We also suggest she offer referral discounts because spreading her business through word-of-mouth and shares on social media could significantly grow her client base. Another area where MECS Photography is excelling is that she can shoot in more than one location. Because Molly goes to school at the University of South Dakota, she can shoot seniors/weddings/sporting events in and around the South Dakota area. Molly also is from Nebraska, which she frequently goes back to. Having more than one location to shoot in helps her business because she has more people to target! Even though this sounds awesome for MECS Photography, there is a downside. The South Dakota area, especially Vermillion, is on the poorer side compared to Omaha, Nebraska. If she keeps the same price that she charges in Omaha as she does in Vermillion she might

lack clients who will not be able to afford the price. If Molly lowers her prices in Vermillion, a client in Omaha might find out and be upset. So, even though it is awesome Molly has two different areas that she can shoot, it does come with a difficult decision to make regarding prices and the number of people she shoots. Molly’s business is still fairly new, so she is working of getting the clientele that she wants. Increasing the social media presence on Instagram and Facebook will be the most effective way of getting the name of MESC Photography circulating. Her long-term goal would be to shoot athletic photography for a D1 university. She is on the right track to reach her goals. It would be a good Ideas get some experience shoot action shots. She might be able to use the connections at the University of South Dakota to gain some more experience. The Vermillion high school may also be a possible new market. II. User Personas MECS photography has four target marks. Seniors, Sports, Weddings, and Families are all user personas that the owner, Molly, focuses on capturing. The first graphic is of a Senior. Seniors are the most popular out of the four user personas.

Name: Lexi Current occupation: Full time student. No part time employment. Short Summary: Lexi is from Fremont, Nebraska. She is an athlete who wants to pursue volleyball in college. She is hoping to get into a medical program. She is a homebody who would like to stay around Nebraska for college. Words that describe the user: Smart, very shy, blunt, and athletic. Favorite Brands: Nike, Converse, American Eagle, and Adidas. Problem Statement: Lexi’s little sister has been diagnosed with leukemia and lymphoma. Unfortunately, things are not looking so good for her little sister. Bills have been piling up for her family so Lexi was not wanting to spend a lot of money on her senior pictures. Afflictions: Warming up to new people is not a priority for Lexi. She is also financially struggling because of her sisters cancer. One could tell by interacting with her that she has been affected by her sisters diagnosis. Her mother is always busy working at the local school, so Lexi has had to spend most of her time watching and caring over her younger sister.

Affections: Becoming a student athlete is one of Lexi’s main goals, falling short behind the hope of her sister becoming cancer free. The second User Persona is a newlywed couple. Weddings would be the second most popular out of the four user personas.

Name: Hannah and Ryan Davis Current occupation: Hannah is an elementary school teacher. Ryan is also a teacher, but specializing in Social Science at the high-school level. Short Summary: Hannah and Ryan first met in college, both attending Doane. They are both from small towns. Hannah is from Fremont, where their wedding took place, and Ryan is from Blair. Hannah’s personality is very outgoing while Ryan has a relaxing personality. This makes for a good match between the two. Both are now living in a house together in Lincoln. Words that describe the user: Hannah: Outgoing, religious, and very busy. Ryan: Smart, Quiet, and good with children. Favorite Brands: Hannah: LOFT, J Crew, and Banana Republic. Ryan: Old Navy, Brooks, and Fossil. Problem Statement: Hannah and Ryan do not have enough money to hire a high top photographer. Fortunately, Molly will shoot 12 hours for the price of 8. She will not over charge if the wedding goes over time. Another problem Hannah has faced is that her mother died when she was just 9 years old. She has basically raised her two younger sisters on her own while her dad was busy providing for the family. Afflictions: Both Hannah and Ryan might struggle with being parental role models. Since Hannah’s mother passed away, she has only grown up with a father. Ryan’s parents got a divorce when he was young. So hopefully this is not the case, but Both Hannah and Ryan did not grow up with the perfect image parents. Affections: Raising a family in their house together in Lincoln would be what Hannah and Ryan would love to do. While building great teaching careers, they also want to stay close to their family members in Fremont and Blair. Hiring Molly would save them from an explanation of family troubles, because Molly has known the couple for a long time.

II. Digital Marketing Strategy Matrix Business Goal: Channels

SEARCH

REFERRAL

PAID

EMAIL

CONNECT

Keywords:

Networks:

Platforms:

Segments:

Senior pictures

Social media - FaceBook, Instagram

Advertise on FaceBook, Instagram

Word-of-mouth sharing

Be featured on highprofile Instagram page

Have a giveaway and enter through providing email (then email those people)

Content:

Share:

Retargeting:

Subject & Content:

Add url /wedding to love webpage

Share featured senior and wedding photos (one of each from ads, one of each from website)

Retarget seniors when marriage is approaching

Provide information about how to book a session and what to expect from each session

Share how Molly is fun, timely, worth the cost, wants to become a friend

Both of these can be accomplished through the use of email

Include discounts if the person refers another person who books a session

Goal:

Goal:

Goal:

Goal:

Completion of senior/wedding/other form

Book a photography session over direct message or on website

Completion of senior/wedding/other form

Have email subscribers fill out contract form

Wedding photographer Local photographer

CULTIVATE

Incorporate local aspect into webpage through use of location-based ad targeting

CONVERT

Retarget wedding people when their family grows

Email subscribers receive link to website and follow link to browse photographs on the site

Like/share page on social media

RETAIN

Ongoing:

Engage:

Repeat Purchase:

Open Rate:

Have consistent urls with keywords in Google search

Offer incentives to those who refer a certain number of people

Email reminders for upcoming life changes that people want to capture (family growth, marriage, graduating senior)

Send yearly emails to check in with subscribers and determine their interest level Offer option to re-subscribe and receive a discount on a photoshoot

III. Digital Marketing Objectives: SMART 1. Within the next year MECS photography will book at the minimum of 10 wedding sessions

2. MECS photography will gain instagram by 25 followers per week by increasing instagram activity related the photography 3. Implement Honeybook software on website with the month of January 2019 to have 100% papers less booking and payments by 2020 4. Utilize Hootsuite to plan all social media post and analyze analytics February 2019 5. Create a growing email list with 25 new potential clients per, and send out an email once a month to the list 6. Use facebook and instagram to increase senior and wedding shoots by 10% within the next season 7. Create one new blog post every other week, so website content is enriched.

IV. Digital Strategy Recommendation (Hannah) MECS Photography is a Omaha and Vermillion based photography business owned by Molly Schiermeyer. The company is focused on taking photos for different types of events, including senior sessions, weddings, and sporting events. On average, she currently books 25 senior sessions and 10 weddings per year. She utilizes word of mouth and social media for most of her advertising. She does not know much about the analytics side of her business, but wants to utilize them more to help grow her business. Within the next year, we hope the objectives set forth will help Molly increase her business by 25%. We first want to increase the online presence of the company drastically.. We also would like to book at least ten to fifteen wedding sessions throughout 2019. Increasing the number of followers/page likes/online traffic will help drive her business, as more people will see her work and then book her for their sessions. To do this we must increase the activity on the accounts, particularly through regular posts, instead of the irregular posts she currently does. We also want to implement software for analytics tracking. By implementing Honeybook software , we will increase the analytics available to Molly. We also want to begin utilizing Hootsuite to analyze social media traffic. Between these two pieces of software, we hope to see how and what people are using her site and social media and then target those customers in the best way possible. One thing that we recommend Molly should do is acquire both Honeybook and Hootsuite so she can more easily track the traffic on her website and her social media accounts. With these, Molly will be able to plan her social media posts so they become more regular and more curated towards the traffic on those sites. This will allow her to increase traffic and accomplish her goals of increasing followers and gaining more business through social media. A second thing we recommend Molly should do is increase her online presence. The analytics software will help with this, but she will also have to put more of an effort into her posts and emails in order to ensure that she is targeting the right customers. She wants to increase her Instagram followers by 25

accounts per week and make sure she sends out an email at least once per month. These will help her gain more business by increasing people’s awareness of her. The action items that Molly can take to improve her business are: ● Implement Honeybook ● Implement Hootsuite ● Send an email once per month ● Write a blog post twice per month ● Increase pricing to $700/hour V. Proposed Creative for Digital Marketing The social media platforms we use will determine how we promote MESC Photography to our different Market segmentations. Younger people are the next group that are starting to get married, and are searching for wedding photographers. We will instagram post and stories to reach the target market. We will draw on the emotions of a wedding, and try to use love and romance as a trigger. Parents of high school seniors are more likely to be using Facebook we will have a series of post that feature high school seniors, and encourage parents to book sessions to preserve the memories for their kids. For one of the emails for MESC, will can offer “model” opportunities for the different categories, and “models” would get a discounted session. This offer would also be posted on social media. This would help MESC Photography gain new clients. It would also help spread the word, because the “models” would want to share the their photos, so they would be promoting MESC to their friends and family. These people would become sort of a temporary ambassador for MESC Photography. The is currently portion of Molly’s website that is for blog post, but there are non available. She should try to create consistent blog post, so potential clients that visit her website can view some of her work that is not on social media. Molly can also use this section to let her clients get to know her. Posting experiences with past clients will let her tell a story about the photos she take, this would be another opportunity to book clients.

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IV. Conclusion Shampaign: It was interesting to have the experience of collaborating with a an actual business. This project was great way to learn about digital marketing, and get the experience of working with “co-workers” to present a deliverable for a client. An audit of the business’s current online presence was the most

helpful because we were able to determine how the SWOT analysis could help us set goals, and create a marketing plan which was my favorite part. I found a website to create the mock social media pots/ ads used a website called AdParlor which is a social media ad mockup generator. Learning to use tools like this will be helpful when generating online social media ideas for future clients. Thinking about how these ads or post can be strategically placed is dependent on a lot of factors. Using what we learned throughout the semester to figure out the best strategy was a good reflection of the semester. Molly: I absolutely love learning about digital marketing and different skills I can aquire to make my personal business even better!! I found this whole process to be enjoyable and fun. My group members did a good job of asking me questions as the business owner, and constructively criticizing my business. I never felt attacked and these girls had some great ideas for my business! I found that I was really missing a lot of key components for success when I was creating the Digital Marketing Audit. This information didn’t discourage me. It excited me! I felt like laying out all the issues with my website, social media, and emails helped me understand why I maybe wasn’t getting the business I had been expecting. I am excited to implement an analytics plan for my website, and schedule content for my social media posts. Creating an email list of past clients, social media giveaways, and actually working on my SEO are on my list of immediate goals! Hannah: I learned a lot about working with a real business through this project. It was interesting and exciting to be able to take the business’s current marketing practices and transform them in new and exciting ways to help MECS Photography become more prominent in the area. I found having to work through all of the steps, such as doing an audit, creating a user persona, making a SWOT analysis, and coming up with recommendations, to be very useful and helpful for our future careers. Having to take the objectives for the business, along with the analysis, user personas, and everything else, and turn them into real-life recommendations was very exciting. I enjoyed being able to come up with real solutions to real problems the company is facing. I am excited for MECS Photography to be able to implement the ideas and recommendations and see how the company does in the future. Emilee: During this project I learned more about the photography business that I had previously known. For example, I had not realized what some of the prices were for a standard photoshoot and how much it can vary by photographer, experience level, and location. I had assumed all of these aspects affected price charged, but I had not considered it in a marketing perspective. Because of Molly’s current locations of Vermillion and Omaha, she cannot expect the receive the same amount of business for the same price in Vermillion as she does in Omaha. Although we agreed lowering prices based on location was not the best way to solve this problem, we found that altering her social media presence and employing the use of email to her clients and potential clients could help bridge the gap. For example, she could host several giveaways on her social media sites to encourage her followers to refer to or share with others. Another way she can promote her business and expand her client base is to utilize email. Through this, she can offer discounts

for referrals or returning customers. Plus, she can add more individuals to her email list, and if those individuals convert to customers, she can easily track and manage that information. Overall, I learned various ways to assist a business in selecting and implementing the best digital marketing strategy for their specific needs. Courtney: I really enjoyed doing this project and working with my group members to find out how we can help a company better off their business. My group actually had a group member, Molly, who has her own business. It was really nice to have her in our group so we could really get to the bottom of different topics. Molly owns a photography business and I thought this was perfect because before this project I did not know that much about photography or digital marketing. Throughout this project, I learned a lot about how we can relate digital marketing to really any type of business. We sat down and looked at MECS Photography’s current numbers. Whether it be how many followers she has on social media, how much she charges for a senior/wedding shoot, or how many sessions she gets in a year, we took what we learned and know from digital marketing and figured out how we can make her company better and get those numbers up! Having us work in a group really felt like we were working with other co-workers. Also, it was nice having to come up with a deliverable as if we are presenting it to the business because this is something that definitely could happen in the real world.