Marketing plan for restaurant brand bo to quan moc

MARKETING MANAGEMENT
PROFESSIONAL IN SALES AND MARKETING
COURSE: 2015 - 2018

INTERNSHIP REPORT
“Marketing plan for restaurant brand “Bo To Quan Moc”
of Aladdin International Vision JSC.”

Student: PHAM THI HAN
Class

: Marketing 9

Tutor in University

Tutor in the Company

Mr. Nguyen Hoang

Ms Nguyen Thu Thao

Mr. La Tien Dung
Prof. Corinne Montoya
HANOI - 2018
1


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratutude to Aladdin company for enabling
me to complete this report on “Marketing plan for restaurant brand Bo To Quan Moc”.
Sucessfully completed any report requires help from a number of people. These people

have helped me a lot on the process of completing the report. I would like to express my greatest
gratitude to these people:
Ms Nguyen Thu Thao, Deputy Marketing Manager of Aladdin, the instructor of our
project.
Prof. Corinne Montoya of Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University.
Mr Nguyen Hoang, the tutor of the report.
Mr La Tien Dung, consultant of the report.
Only under the guidance of them that I can shape this report to be completed perfectly.
Finally, I would also like to thank the employees of the Marketing Department, the
restaurant manager as well as all staff of Bo To Quan Moc for helping me on the process of
making this report.

2


SUMMARY
With the name of my internship report as “Marketing plan for restaurant brand Bo To Quan
Moc”, the purpose of this report is to contribute some of my ideas to make a completed
marketing plan for Bo To Quan Moc in summer base on the experiences that I’ve acquired
during the period of internship at Aladdin International Vision Joint Stock Company.
The report will be divided into 3 different chapters. In the first chapters I will give a brief
introduction about Aladdin International Vision Joint Stock Company and restaurant brand Bo To
Quan Moc. The next chapter will be the detailed description about the work that I have
accomplished during my internship period in the company including some market research,
establishing Marketing strategies and the solutions that I have conducted to increase sales as well
as brand reputation of Bo To Quan Moc. The final chapter is about the avaluation of the
achievements of the report and the experiences that I have learnt in the time I have the honor to
work there.

3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

4


LIST OF TABLE

5


List of figure

6


Chapter 1: Company Overview
1.1

Company background
Aladdin is the company which owns restaurant brand system called Tan Luong Son Quan
and Bo To Quan Moc - Vietnamese-style restaurants with unique architecture and close to nature.
On 20/11/2017, Aladdin International Vision JSC. officially announced the first restaurant
of brand Bo To Quan Moc at 102 Thai Thinh Street.
Business name
Founded
Head office
Phone
Tax code

Business

Aladdin International Vision Joint Stock Company
02/03/2017
No. 16, Alley 145/49, Quan Nhan Street, Nhan Chinh Ward,
Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi
(+84) 97 955 5095
0107742477

industry

1.2

Food and Beverage

Aladdin capacity

1.2.1 Company vision and mission
1.1.1.1 Company vision
As the company develops the top of restaurant chains with unique culinary styles in
Vietnam, specializing in pure Vietnamese food from nature, mountains, and forests. Fast and
thoughtful service, consistent with the development trend of society together with the traditional
cooking methods, keep the flavor of dishes.
1.1.1.2 Company mission
For customers: Provide customers/diners organic food with pure Vietnamese taste, high
quality, reasonable price and professional service.
For partners: Bring leading profits and sustainable growth to partners.
For employees: It is an organization with a working environment of humanity, ensuring
material and spiritual conditions for laborers. Where employees are given every opportunity to
maximize their capacity.

For society, community: The company always carries out social responsibility, and
community-based volunteering activities.
1.2.2

Company’s Marketing financial ability and Structure

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The financial ability for Marketing: Recognizing the importance of marketing, Aladdin
pays great attention to investing in these activities. The company has a budget of 5% – 10% of
the monthly total revenue of Bo To Quan Moc for its marketing activities.
Company structure: The labor force in the company is divided into 2 parts: the office
employee and the restaurant staff. Marketing Department is the crowdest department in the
company with 7 employees.
During my internship time, I am assigned to focus on restaurant brand Bo To Quan Moc.
Besides cooperating with the others in Marketing Department to learn and accomplish all the
given tasks, I take the main responsibility for trade marketing activities at Bo To Quan Moc
restaurant.
Director

Restaurant

Office

Restaurant

Finance

General Manager

Accounting
Bo To Quan Moc Manager

Tan Luong Son Quan Man

Kitchen

Kitc

Administration & HR

Marketing
Table

Tab

Counter

Cou

Partner
Content

CRM
Digital Marketing

Trade Marketing

Figure 1. Aladdin International Vision JSC. Structure

1.3

Bo To Quan Moc restaurant brand

8


1.3.1

Restaurant concept
Bo To Quan Moc restaurant is located on Thai Thinh street - a bustling and vibrant street.
Bo To Quan Moc has built its reputation in a short time and is mouth advertised by its diners
because of the organic cow source and the perfect processing. The main ingredient of most
dishes is calf - a young bovine animal, especially a domestic cow or bull in its first year - brings
diners the taste of soft, delicious and fresh. In addition, the unique decoration is also one of the
factors that contribute to the attractiveness of Bo To Quan Moc restaurant. Decorated in the old
style, nostalgic, bringing customers back to the old town of years in the 80s, where can help each

1.3.2




1.3.3

person "touch the memory" of childhood
Scale: 3 floors - 500 seats
POD: The ingredient is calf (soft, delicious, fresh) | The old town space, 80s style (unique,
nostagic, joyful)

Goals
Bo To Quan Moc is now scouting more areas for expansion in Hanoi city (Thanh Xuan
District, Cau Giay District, Ba Dinh District,…) and in other cities in North Vietnam
Bo To Quan Moc restaurant is determined to be one of the top brands in the North of Vietnam,
which is prioritized in customer’s mind.
4 restaurants are opened in 2018
Achieve the total revenue of $1.7 million in 2018
Future strategy
Launching the Bo To Quan Moc restaurant franchise project in Hanoi urban area as well as
conducting market research to collect more data for this project.
Diversify the restaurant menu by adding the new dishes.
9


Recently, the marketing department and F&B production have researched and introducted
a new dish to customers - green bean soup with beef - cool and detoxify the body, suitable for
sunny summer days. This dish is received the positive feedback from diners, so we will probably
add the green bean soup with beef to the official menu of restaurant.

10


Chapter 2: Detailed desciption of internship responsibilities
2.1

Vietnam F&B market analysis
The food and beverage sector in Vietnam has shown strong growth in the last decade,
driven by not only foreign brands, but also local brands. According to a report by Euromonitor
International's market research group, in the period from 2016 - 2020, F&B market in Vietnam
will reach an average annual growth rate of 16.5%. Revenue in the "Food & Beverages" segment

amounts to US$90m in 2018.
In the last few years, numerous foreign brands have invested heavily in the market and are
predicted to continue to do so, largely driven by rapid urbanization, increased spending, and
growth of the middle-class population. Local brands offering Vietnamese cuisine and street food
are also emerging as a tough competitor to the global food chains. In fact, foreign fast food
chains in the last 2-3 years have underperformed and slowed down their expansion plans due to
consumer preferring the local taste and lower prices. It is the opportunity for the restaurant to
raise the awareness of target customers about Bo To Quan Moc brand.

Figure 2. The forecasted revenue development of F&B market from 2016 to 2022
(Source: Statista, April 2018)

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Consumer Profile
Out-of-home consumption
According to Decision Lab, a Ho Chi Minh City-based market research firm, the out-ofhome consumption for food and beverage, are divided into a number of segments, of which fullservice restaurants and quick service restaurants lead the group at 36 percent each. Street food
accounted for 11%, while convenience stores, canteens, bars, clubs, and hotels account for the
remaining share. The average basket size transactions for fine dining (full-service restaurant)
within out-of-home consumption is $11.7 while the average expense per person at Bo To Quan
Moc is from $7.5 to $11.2. It is an advantage for the restaurant.
Visiting hours
As per the study, in quarter 1 in 2017, there were 328.6 million visits to foodservice outlets
and breakfast accounted for almost a third of the visits at 30 percent. This has been attributed
mostly to the modernization of traditional Vietnamese cuisines, growing number of convenience
stores, and increasing number of urban office professionals.
Restaurant choice
Location has been highlighted as the main criteria for choosing a restaurant due to the
growing urban population and traffic. About 63 percent of the surveyed population highlights

location, followed by cleanliness, and food quality at 34 percent each as the top three criteria for
choosing a restaurant. All of these highlight criteria are the strength of Bo To Quan Moc.
Online ordering preference
With the growing internet and smartphone penetration, restaurants have also started
focusing on online ordering to increase their sales. Online ordering currently accounts for almost
half of all food delivery orders in the major cities. Bo To Quan Moc has been cooperating with
some partners to provide customers the platform to order food via the internet.

2.2
2.2.1

Micro environment
Company
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Bo To Quan Moc – 102 Thai Thinh Street is the first restaurant of this future Bo To Quan
Moc restaurant chain with the scale of 500 seats, and aim to raise up to 12 restaurants from now
to 2020.
Bo To Quan Moc has its own CIP (Corporation Identify Program), and it has been used
effectively. All of marketing activities including both trade marketing and online marketing are
easily recognized by customers because of the unified color, logo, staff's uniform,…
The restaurant has been cooperating with many partners aim to implement the most
effective marketing campaigns. For instance, the marketing department is not in charge of dishes
advertising videos, so we co-work with a media agency to filming dishes as well as restaurant
2.2.2

space. Besides, we have some partners are banks and travel companies/agents.
Supplier
To ensure the origin as well as the rigorous quality of the product, Bo To Quan Moc chose

the supply chain for the restaurant following the first model - purchased directly from the
manufacturer - for the main ingredients of the dishes (calf). Suppliers are calf farms in Ba Vi
pasture where is just 1 hour driving far from the restaurant.
Advantage: Get the original price when not through any intermediaries. Easy access to
quality and origin of food. This is one of the factors that help reduce production costs, offering
the best price for our customers.
In addition, the restaurant also selects the form of purchase from the distributor for other
ingredients of the dish and beverages.

2.2.3

Customer

The main customers of Bo To Quan Moc is the population who live in the urban area of
Hanoi and surrounding areas. Basically, it is office workers and households. The average
expense per person for a meal at Bo To Quan Moc is $9 – $11.5
Below is the customer portrait of Bo To Quan Moc, which is exploited to improve quality
and service of the restaurant as well as the basis to deploy marketing campaigns.

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Target customer

Group of
Office employees

Gender

Group of Friends

Both Male and Female

Age

22 - 40
Office employees:

22- 40
Freelance, labor,

Job

manager, deputy

employee,…

Social class
Income

Group of Family

manager, staff,…
Middle class

Middle class

$350 +
2 kms radius around the

$350 +

Hanoi urban area

24+
Employee,…

Upper class
Total family income:
$900 +
Apartment buildings

Working/living

restaurant: Thai Thinh

near the restaurant:

area

Street, Tay Son Street,

Mipec, Vinaconex

Dining behavior

Thai Ha Street,…
Lunch
Be loyal to a restaurant

Tower,…
Dinner

High requires about

Dinner
Appreciate the

they love
Chacteristics

Hobby

comfort and fun
quality and services
Joyful, romantic, nostagic
Depressed mood since
Comfortable, fun
Towards a convenient
working pressure
Friends gathering after

Friends gathering,

and comfortable life
Houseware,

work, travel, fashion,

acohol, signature

childrearing, children,

fast food, marriage,

food, childhood,

marriage, health,

business, technology,

career, technology,

business, insurance,

café, online

café,…

investment, nurtrure,

newspapers, online

pets,…

banking,…
Main difficuties
Transport

Work
Motorbike

Life difficuties:

Relationship inside

Money, relationship,

family, finance,

working,…

furture plan,..

Motorbike, car

Motorbike, car

Table 1. Bo To Quan Moc’s Customer Portrait

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For each group of customers, we build different content suitable for each target group.
2.2.4

Competitor
Vietnam generally and Hanoi, in particular, is as a dreamland for numerous large and small
restaurant. Therefore, severe competition is inevitable. In this report, I just mention the direct
competitors around the Bo To Quan Moc restaurant location.

Scale
Target

customer

Duc Troc Hotpot –

Luong Son Quan – Thai

Seafood world – Thai

Thai Thinh Street

Ha Street

Thinh Street

Large – 520 seats

4 floors – 450 seats

Small – 140 seats

All customer group,

Office workers around

Office workers and

mainly are people

the area, family group

family group in upper

indulge in alcohol

has middle income

class

Average
expense/

$5 - $9

$8.5 - $11

$17.7 - $20

person/meal

Concept

The pristine style,

Garden architecture,

Modern, luxury style,

suitable for gathering

influenced by Chinese

suits to entertain

friends
Specialize in hot pot,

Thuy Hu novel
Specialized in traditional

guests/partners
Specialize in seafood.

grub

mountain species dishes

Fresh seafood, selected
by customers, then

- Large, cheap price

- One of the first unique

processed
- Large, easy to find,

- Children playground,

decor restaurants,

private room, children

free parking

operating for years

playground.

- Free parking, food

- Fresh and high quality

delivery

food

Strength

- Good marketing team,

Weakness

Space is no highlights,

- Food hygiene and

professtional staff
High price, only seafood

tables are closely

safety scandal leaded to

lead to limit customer

spaced, not private

negative image

quantity.

- Unprofessional staff
Table 2. Bo To Quan Moc’s Competitor

2.3

SWOT analysis
Small business owners must create products and services the customer values, and produce
and deliver them in exceptional ways compared to the competition. To meet the challenge, Bo To
15


Quan Moc must define its current business and operational objectives and goals, while
considering factors that impact the same. The restaurant engages in structured brainstorming,
which can be supported by a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)
analysis.
O

T
1.

1. The
demand
for The enter of many
entertainment and eating of competitors
2. The requirements about
the people is increasing
2. Restaurant business market in restaurant on diners are
Vietnam develops faster and increasing
stronger
3. Customer

trend

is

now

seeking for the old values and
S
1. Good

quality

products,

nostalgia
SO
WO
good Enhance branding activities Invest

in

professional

service rely on highly skilled chef
to raise awareness about Bo training for staff and
2. Good business location in crowded To Quan Moc
manager
and bustling residential area
Perform sales promotion on Take
advantage
of
3. Unique restaurant decoration and special days, weekend to restaurant space and style
style
attract prospects
to attract new diners
4. Many promotion campaigns are
Remember the name and
conducted to attract customers
W
1. Slowly

change

when

favorite dishes of VIP
customers
ST
WT

more Beside serving dishes from Develop new tasty dishes

competitors appear, no new product calves,
consider
2. Not really effective in brand signature
dishes
marketing, not stand out restaurant mountains
brand yet

more for each season
from Re-take care of old

Not only serving the main
meal but also including light
snacks
Table 3. SWOT analysis

16

customers


2.4

Description of task given during the period of internship
Bo To Quan Moc is very focused on investing in marketing activities. The board of
directors found that 90% of the customer's sources are through the media as well as marketing
activities in restaurants, only 10% are visitors. It means that by somehow, they known about Bo
To Quan Moc restaurant before they come to have meals, and only a small number of visitors
reach the restaurant by chance.

As a marketing trainee and an informal assistant for Ms. Thu Thao at the same time Deputy Marketing Manager, I have the opportunity to attend all board meetings, as well as the
meeting with partners, support in planning, implementing, monitoring, analyzing and reporting
on restaurant marketing plans. That helped me have an overall view of the work of a marketing
department. In addition, I have experienced almost all the job descriptions in the marketing
department and was assigned to take the main responsibility for the trade marketing of Bo To
Quan Moc restaurant. Therefore, in this report, I will detail much more into this part that I have
spent most time and effort for it - Trade Marketing. In addition, I also have responsibilities in
digital marketing, customer relationship management, working with partners, and participating in

2.4.1

the Bo To Quan Moc franchise project. These are the things I will explain below.
Trade Marketing
Nowadays, the Vietnamese market is so familiar with the stories, "Why Trade Marketing is
more and more important?".
As we can know with many reports, 76% of purchase decisions are made at the point of
sale, 35% of shoppers are willing to change their choices as exposed to the elements in the store.
That leads to an indisputable fact: The Vietnamese market is now the time for Trade Marketing
to develop.

2.4.1.1 Current situation
At first period of my internship, the trade marketing activities of the restaurant were
limited to signboards at restaurants, staff uniforms, simple leaflets and loyalty programs as well
as the policy for customers in their birthday week to dine at the restaurant. As planned, Bo To
Quan Moc will mainly focus on the trade marketing to increase total revenue in the next 6
months and attract new customers in the context of many new competitors appear in the region.
The reasons why I was assigned this task as my first task in the internship time are:
Firstly, since the restaurant's plan is to focus on trade marketing, this will be the element
which is received the greatest interest and investment during this time, so I will be able to learn
how to plan and implement the marketing campaigns professionally.

Secondly, trade marketing requires the marketer to have the steady knowledge, the right
mindset. Therefore, it will be the chance to help me practice my marketing mindset as well as
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apply the theories I have learned at university into practice. In addition, trade marketers meet
customers and departmental restaurants regularly. This is an opportunity for me to understand my
customers, understand the operation of a restaurant, which is a prerequisite for me to build
effective marketing plans in the future.
2.4.1.2 Customer Development: Loyalty program
With the aim of increasing the number of customers returning simultaneously to serve the
measurement, customer service, the restaurant already has Loyalty Card program. Loyalty
program standcards are put at each table in the restaurant.
There are two types of cards: membership card (GOLD card) and VIP membership card
(DIAMOND card). Each type of card has different conditions and policies, the customer's card
will be accrued points and it is the basis for discounts for customers.
Cardholder benefits:
-

Gold Card:
Discount 10% on the total bill from Monday to Saturday.
Discount 15% on the total bill on Sunday.
Discount 10% on the total bill, decorate and give a birthday cake to customers their
birthday week.
Card issuance if customers come to eat at restaurants and require for membership card. The
card is valid 24 hours after registration.

-

Diamond Card:

Discount 15% on the total bill from Monday to Saturday.
Discount 15% on the total bill on Sunday.
Discount 15% on the total bill, decorate and give a birthday cake to customers their
birthday week.
Upgrade to Diamond card when customers have a GOLD card and accumulated 2,000
points equivalent to spending 20,000,000 VND within 1 year. (10,000 VND = 1 point)

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Loytalty program Standcard
Optimizing membership card enrollment process
The membership card registration process was quite complicated and the restaurant staff
had feedback that it is difficult to conduct. My task is to rebuild or optimize the membership card
process of the restaurant. Here are 6 steps that I have optimized:
Step 1. Register: Waiter/waitress invites customers to register membership card after a
meal, using the available form to collect information.
Step 2. Activate membership card: Cashier adds customer information into IPOS software.
Step 3. Accumulate point: Cashier applies incentives for cardmembers, accumulate points
from invoices to cards using IPOS software.
Step 4. Upgrade the member card: Daily check the customer's point, upgrade the card when
eligible.
Step 5. Measure: Customer service staff collects member card register paper at 17h each
Monday and bring to the office.
Consumer Engagement: The campaign to celebrate International Women's Day on
March 8th ,2018

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In order to honor the ladies on March 8th, I and the marketing department conducted some
activities in Bo To Quan Moc restaurant as follows:
-

Give flowers and greeting cards with gift voucher for all female customers to dine at the
restaurant.

-

Discount 30% on all dishes (excluding beverages) for all tables with at least one female
customer.
 The campaign has received a lot of positive feedback and compliments from customers.
Many customers took check-in photos at the restaurant and post them on their social networking
site. This increases brand awareness on the market, building positive image in the mind of the
customer.

2.4.1.3 Flyer Advertising Campaign
a. Objecttive
-

Raise the awareness of Bo To Quan Moc as well as its promotion discount 30% all dishes of the
bill on radius of 1.5 - 2kms around the restaurant.

-

Access and offer promotion for 20,000 customers in the area.

-

Attract the prospects and diners throught the activities at and near Bo To Quan Moc resrautant.

b. Target
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-

Office workers and the poputation in the area where Bo To Quan Moc restaurant is located. They
are in the age of 22 to 40.

-

Time: lunch time (from 11 AM – 13 AM) everyday in May. This time is the period of break of
office employees, they will go out for lunch. Therefore it is easier to assess our target customers
when they are having the need of finding the answer for the question “Eat what and where?”.

c. Conduction
Concept: “The 80s - civil groups do the media”
-

The Bo To fun dances to attract the attention of people who are moving through large crossroads
near Bo To Quan Moc restaurant.

-

The leaflet distribution people wear the old-fashioned fashions of the 80s. They distribute flyers
while restaurant's mascots are in charge of dancing to attract customer's attention as well as raise
the awareness about this campaign.

-

The loudspeaker will play the old songs and old radio pieces of the old days. This way is
effective because of reminding people of their beautiful childhood memories.

-

A voucher offers discount 30% off all the dishes in the bill is attached to the leaflets. It not only
increases the rate customers receive the flyers but also is a way to measure the effectiveness of
the campaign.

d. Result

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-

Accessed 20,000 people who was moving through the large crossroad and live in nearly
residential area.

-

The conversion rate is about 15% equivalent to approximately 3000 customers bring the flyers
include attached voucher to Bo To Quan Moc to have meals.

-

Increased the awareness about Bo To Quan Moc brand as well as the revenue and profit of the
restaurant.

-

Spreaded the positiove reputation of Bo To Quan Moc restaurant.

-

Increased a number of loyal customers and contributed to building customer database activities.

e. Evaluation
- On process of planning and conducting Flyer advertising campaign, I ordered some media
publications such as flyers, attched vouchers, standees. Because the company’s marketing
-

department is as an client, we don’t have enough human resource to did it by ourselves.
Difficulties: When flyers contricution is conducted, we meet some difficulties when customers
rejected to receive our flyers (about 10%), then we overcomed by telling them there was an

-

voucher which is attached to the flyers.
Besides, we also met the problem with human resource, they are all student, so their commitment
and profession is low, they had class, came late,… I overcomed it by changing the training
activity, the rules; and always having back-up to make sure all of our activities are implementing

2.4.2

as schedule.
Digital Marketing
There's no question that, in the modern landscape, a big part of your marketing strategy
is digital. Consumers and businesses alike are almost always online -- and you want to be able

to reach them and observe their behavior where they spend the most time.
How to Build a Comprehensive Digital Strategy:
Build your buyer personas.
For any marketing strategy -- offline or online -- you need to know who you’re marketing
to. The best digital marketing strategies are built upon detailed buyer personas, and your first
step is to create them.
Buyer personas represent your ideal customers and can be created by researching,
surveying, and interviewing your business’s target audience. It’s important to note that this
information should be based upon real data wherever possible, as making assumptions about
your audience can cause your marketing strategy to take the wrong direction.

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To get a rounded picture of your persona, your research pool should include a mixture of
customers, prospects, and people outside your contacts database who align with your target
audience.
But what kind of information should you gather for your own buyer persona(s) to inform
your digital marketing strategy? That depends on your businesses, and is likely to vary
depending on whether you’re B2B or B2C, or whether your product is high cost or low cost.
Here are some starting points, but you’ll want to fine-tune them, depending on your particular
business.
Quantitative (or Demographic) Information
Location: You can use web analytic tools like Google Analytics to easily identify what
location your website traffic is coming from.
Age: Depending on your business, this may or may not be relevant. It’s best to gather this
data by identifying trends in your existing prospect and customer database.
Income: It’s best to gather sensitive information like personal income in persona research
interviews, as people might be unwilling to share it via online forms.
Job Title: This is something you can get a rough idea of from your existing customer base,

and is most relevant for B2B companies.
Qualitative (or Psychographic) Information
Goals: Depending on the need your product or service was created to serve, you might
already have a good idea of what goals your persona is looking to achieve. However, it’s best to
cement your assumptions by speaking to customers, as well as internal sales and customer
service representatives.
Challenges: Again, speak to customers, sales and customer service representatives to get an
idea of the common problems your audience faces.
Hobbies and interests: Speak to customers and people who align with your target audience.
If you’re a fashion brand, for example, it’s helpful to know if large segments of your audience
are also interested in fitness and well-being, as that can help inform your future content creation
and partnerships.
Priorities: Speak to customers and people who align with your target audience to find out
what’s most important to them in relation to your business.
Take this information and create one or more rounded personas, like Marketing Molly
below, and ensure they’re at the core of your digital marketing strategy.
Identify your goals & the digital marketing tools you’ll need.
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Your marketing goals should always be tied back to the fundamental goals of the
business. For example, if your business’s goal is to increase online revenue by 20%, your goal
as a marketer might be to generate 50% more leads via the website than you did last year to
contribute towards that success.
Whatever your overarching goal is, you need to know how to measure it, and more
important, actually be able to measure it (e.g., have the right digital marketing tools in place to
do so). How you measure the effectiveness of your digital strategy will be different for each
business and dependent on your goal(s), but it’s vital to ensure you’re able to do so, as it’s
these metrics which will help you adjust your strategy in the future.

Evaluate your existing digital marketing channels and assets.
When considering your available digital marketing channels or assets to incorporate into
your strategy, it’s helpful to first consider the bigger picture to avoid getting overwhelmed. The
owned, earned, and paid media framework helps to categorize the digital ‘vehicles’, assets, or
channels that you’re already using.
Owned Media
This refers to the digital assets that your brand or company owns -- whether that’s your
website, social media profiles, blog content, or imagery, owned channels are the things your
business has complete control over. This can include some off-site content that you own, but
isn't hosted on your website, like a blog that you publish on Medium, for example.
Earned Media
Quite simply, earned media refers to the exposure you’ve earned through word-of-mouth.
Whether that’s content you've distributed on other websites (e.g., guest posts), PR work you’ve
been doing, or the customer experience you've delivered, earned media is the recognition you

24


receive as a result. You can earn media by getting press mentions, positive reviews, and by
other people sharing your content on social media, for instance.
Paid Media
Paid media is a bit self-explanatory in what its name suggests -- and refers to any vehicle
or channel that you spend money on to catch the attention of your buyer personas. This
includes things like Google AdWords, paid social media posts, native advertising (like
sponsored posts on other websites), and any other medium for which you directly pay in
exchange for visibility.
Gather what you have, and categorize each vehicle or asset in a spreadsheet, so you have
a clear picture of your existing owned, earned, and paid media.
Your digital marketing strategy might incorporate elements of all three channels, all
working together to help you reach your goal. For example, you might have an owned piece of

content on a landing page on your website that’s been created to help you generate leads. To
amplify the number of leads that content generates, you might have made a real effort to make
it shareable, meaning others are distributing it via their personal social media profiles,
increasing traffic to the landing page. That's the earned media component. To support the
content’s success, you might have posted about the content to your Facebook page and
have paid to have it seen by more people in your target audience.
Now you know what’s already being used, you can start to think about what to keep and
what to cut.
Audit and plan your owned media.
At the heart of digital marketing is your owned media, which pretty much always takes
the form of content. Every message your brand broadcasts can generally be classified as
content, whether it’s your ‘About Us’ page, your product descriptions, blog posts, ebooks,
infographics, or social media posts. Content helps convert your website visitors into leads and
customers, and helps to raise your brand’s profile online -- and when it's optimized, it can also
boost any efforts you have around search/organic traffic. Whatever your goal, you’re going to
need to use owned content to form your digital marketing strategy.
To build your digital marketing strategy, you need to decide what content is going to help
you reach your goals. If your goal is to generate 50% more leads via the website than you did
last year, it’s unlikely that your ‘About Us’ page is going to be included in your strategy -unless that page has somehow been a lead generation machine in the past.
It might more likely that an ebook gated by a form on your website drives far more leads,
and as a result, that might be something you want to do more of. Here’s a brief process to
follow to work out what ownedcontent you need to meet your digital marketing goals:
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