Major Project - Part 1

Assignment Description & Guidance

Your task as a Digital Marketing Specialist for this course will occur over several parts of the assignment: one part today, one part on Day 8, one part on Day 9, and a final presentation on Day 10 of the course.

As a Digital Marketing Specialist, you have decided to open up your own online eCommerce store. After doing market research, you have found that the following industries would be profitable to invest in:

• Men or women's clothing
• Modern furniture
• Women's jewelry

As designing a store from scratch involves many moving parts in the areas of digital marketing, you understand that your first goal will be to research 2-3 website development platforms that exist on the market and analyze their respective pros and cons.

Once you have conducted an analysis of the various platforms, find which one best aligns with your store and company objectives.

Time to start developing your online store design!

Assignment Steps

1. Select an industry (as listed above), in which you will set up shop. Explain why you have chosen this industry (ex. online shopping in the electronics industry has increased by 100% over the past two years).
2. Research 2-3 website development platforms (must include eCommerce functionality) and develop a list of two pros and two cons for each platform.
3. In detail, explain your strategy and web planning process for setting up this website/eCommerce store. Additionally, what goals do you hope to achieve by investing in a website?
4. While disregarding branding for this part of the assignment, begin to develop your website and storefront. Also, start to source products from suppliers such as Oberlo, or through any source you deem fit. Integrate your products into the platform.

 

Major Project - Part 2

Assignment Description & Guidance

Recall from Part 1 of this assignment that you, as a Digital Marketing Specialist, had opened up your own online eCommerce store, selected your industry niche and your desired web platform.

As you now know, media integration in the form of blogging is something that cannot be overlooked. With that understanding, you have decided to integrate blogging into your digital marketing initiatives and developed the following to-do list:

1. Develop a content strategy surrounding blogging to market your website and your products in your selected niche.
2. After the content strategy is developed, you are to proceed to developing the actual content. At least one (1) blog post is to be developed.
3. Once the strategy and blog post are developed, you are to implement and upload the blog post to your website, positioned in an inviting and professional manner.

Assignment Steps

1. Develop a content strategy surrounding blogging to market your website and your products in your selected niche. Be sure to detail and explain your reasoning behind the content strategy.
2. Blog content should be developed according to your content strategy plan; one (1) blog post minimum. Explain your development behind the post.
3. Implement and upload the blog post to your website in an inviting and professional manner.

 

 

Major Project - Parts 3 & 4

Assignment Description & Guidance

If you'll recall from the previous two parts of this project, you (as a Digital Marketing Specialist) have opened up your own online eCommerce store, selected your industry niche, and chosen your desired web platform. Next, you have developed a content strategy framework for your industry and niche, developed content based on that strategy, and successfully integrated into your website.

Now, you are ready for the final step: media integration. Media integration does not stop at just aspects such as blogging. Without an inbound/outbound marketing approach, your efforts may run dry.

After doing some research regarding the benefits of social media marketing, you should understand that integrating it is critical for the success of your business.

Liis Hainla (2018) says that "Social media just keeps growing and growing. At the end of 2018, Facebook had 2.32 billion monthly active users. And most of the other social networking platforms and apps also continued to grow past 2018 levels."

Image transcription text

Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites MILLIONS 200 400 600 800 1 000 1 200 1 400 1 600 1 800 2 000 2 200
Facebook YouTube Instagram Qzone - Weibo Twitter Reddit Pinterest Ask. fm Tumblr Flickr Google+ LinkedIn VK Odnoklassniki
Meetup Updated: July 2018 DreamGROW

Online adults aged 18-24 are most likely to follow a brand via social networking (95%). (Source)

Think about your audience and see where they are most likely to follow your brand.

Assignment Steps

Part 3

1. Develop a detailed social media strategy to market your website and your products in your selected niche. Be sure to elaborate on aspects such as why you selected various social media platforms.
2. Create the respective social media accounts as outlined in your strategy. Explain why you selected those social media platforms.
3. Design and develop the actual content as outlined in your plan. The use of Canva is welcome and encouraged. Explain the process behind your development.
4. Develop a content calendar for the next 2-3 weeks. Explain why you chose your frequency and days to post.
5. Using Hootsuite, schedule your content according to your content calendar plan.
    

Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites MILLIONS 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2.000 2200 Facebook YouTube Instagram Qzone Weibo Twitter Reddit Pinterest Ask.fm Tumblr Flickr Google+ Linkedin Odnoklassniki VK Meetup Updated: July 2018 DreamGROW