Assignment/Synopsis

This is our last week’s assignment for the Multi-media Communications class I’m currently enrolled. We’ve studied Integrated Marketing Communications, what it means and how it is executed by brands big and small. This final post is going to take us through a post mortem analytic review for a company labeled XYZ. Please note; this blog post is for academic purposes only.

 XYZ is a heating and cooling company (HVAC) located in Western Massachusetts. This recently launched small business provides installations, maintenance, and repair to their customers. Currently XYZ utilizes the following platforms for advertising; website, Twitter, Yelp, Google+, Facebook and direct mail. The stats we will be examining below are from Facebook.

To date XYZ has 489 likes on their fan page.  This means we have lots of room to grow the XYZ’s audience and followers.

Key Findings

Analytics like Research can be interpreted in a variety of ways. A lot of times Research can mean one thing to one person and something totally different to another. The same goes for how the research is translated and spun. With this in mind, here are some of my key findings for XYZ.

• XYZ’s fans are online in the highest concentration at 12pm, 3pm and 6-8:30pm.
• XYZ’s fans demographics are split with women taking 57% of the pie and men 43%.
• Women are the dominant fan mix in every age range except 25-34.
• The majority of XYZ’s likers are from Massachusetts or Connecticut.
• For those that have commented, liked or shared XYZ’s posts in the last 28 days, the men demographic take the lead with a 65% engagement over 35% women.

Campaign Improvements

Yelp is a great way to earn the trust of new customers.  If you have great reviews, people are more likely to try your company over one that doesn’t have good things being said about their service.  First off, XYZ could enhance and increase their reviewers on Yelp. (see Future Campaigns for additional details) Secondly, Twitter could be leveraged as a weather service update provider for Massachusetts area, service messages, or any cute type of heating/cooling related promotional tout that comes to XYZ’s mind.  Leveraging SEO and tags within posts will improve overall awareness of the XYZ brand and their services.

Social Amplification

The definition of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) according to Wikipedia is the application of consistent brand messaging across both traditional and non-traditional marketing channels and using different promotional methods to reinforce each other. XZY has a presence on their own website, Twitter, Yelp and Google+ pages. Having multiple social channels, promotions can easily be shared among the different channels to cross promote the overall brand promise of XYZ, but also any and all promotions that they may have to offer. What is great about sharing on other social media channels is that it is free to share to your current followers, and you have the opportunity to purchase or boost any content that you wish.

Future Campaigns / Promotional Ideation

HVAC is a seasonal business, and their marketing should be strategic and targeted.  As we learned a few weeks ago, email marketing is not dead.  Email marketing is very much alive, and XYZ should work on growing their audience’s data base in order to keep constant communication with their clients.  Yelp and Google+ are two social channels that can be leveraged heavily to promote the brand and really provide a deep social footprint for the company.

1. Email Marketing – Build Database
   • As customers start using XYZ’s services, they should start creating and building their email database.  By doing this they will be able to send out reminders to their customers since their business is seasonally driven.  Email marketing helps push consumers to make the call or purchase sooner especially if they have been thinking about a certain product or service.
2. Yelp – Increase Reviews
   • Sometimes you have to give a little in order to build your brand and company.  XYZ should invest in a Yelp promotion that would give consumers $100 credit towards heating and cooling repairs or maintenance after they have left a review. This would build reviews on their site, and promote repeat customers. Win, Win!
3. Google+ – Locate XYZ
   • Building out the company’s social footprint is beneficial to the brand.  It makes it easier for consumers to find information about the company easier than if information is only in one place.