Data Mining

VINEET VERMA
 What Is Data Mining?

 Data mining is a process used by companies to

turn raw data into useful information.
 By using software to look for patterns in large
batches of data, businesses can learn more about
their customers to develop more effective
marketing strategies, increase sales and decrease
costs.
 Data mining depends on effective data collection,
warehousing, and computer processing.
 How Data Mining Works?

 Data mining involves exploring and analyzing large blocks of

information to collect meaningful patterns and trends.
 It can be used in a variety of ways, such as database marketing, fraud
detection, spam Email filtering, or even to separate the sentiment or
opinion of users.
 The data mining process breaks down into five steps.
 First, organizations collect data and load it into their data warehouses.
 Next, they store and manage the data, either on in-house servers or the
cloud. Business analysts, management teams, and information
technology professionals access the data and determine how they want
to organize it.
 Then, application software sorts the data based on the user's results.
 Finally, the end-user presents the data in an easy-to-share format, such
as a graph or table.
 The Data Mining Process

 To be most effective, data analysts generally follow a certain flow of

tasks along the data mining process. Without this structure, an
analyst may encounter an issue in the middle of their analysis that
could have easily been prevented had they prepared for it earlier.
 The data mining process is usually broken into the following steps.
Step 1: Understand the Business
 Before any data is touched, extracted, cleaned, or analyzed, it is
important to understand the underlying entity and the project at
hand. What are the goals the company is trying to achieve by mining
data? What is their current business situation? What are the
findings of a SWOT analysis? Before looking at any data, the mining
process starts by understanding what will define success at the end
of the process.
 The Data Mining Process

Step 2: Understand the Data

 Once the business problem has been clearly defined, it's time to
start thinking about data. This includes what sources are available,
how it will be secured stored, how information will be gathered, and
what the final outcome or analysis may look like. This step also
critically thinks about what limits their are to data, storage, security,
and collection and assesses how these constraints will impact the
data mining process.
Step 3: Prepare the Data
 It's now time to get our hands on information. Data is gathered,
uploaded, extracted, or calculated. It is then cleaned, standardized,
assessed for mistakes, and checked for reasonableness. During this
stage of data mining, the data may also be checked for size as an
overbearing collection of information may unnecessarily slow
computations and analysis.
 The Data Mining Process

Step 4: Build the Model

 With our clean data set in hand, it's time to crunch the
numbers. Data scientists use the types of data mining above to
search for relationships, trends, associations, or sequential
patterns. The data may also be fed into predictive models to
assess how previous bits of information may translate into
future outcomes.
Step 5: Evaluate the Results
 The data-centered aspect of data mining concludes by
assessing the findings of the data model(s). The outcomes
from the analysis may be aggregated, interpreted, and
presented to decision-makers that have largely be excluded
from the data mining process to this point. In this step,
organizations can choose to make decisions based on the
findings.
 The Data Mining Process

Step 6: Implement Change and Monitor

 The data mining process concludes with
management taking steps in response to the findings
of the analysis. The company may decide the
information was not strong enough or the findings
were not relevant to change course. Alternatively, the
company may strategically pivot based on findings.
In either case, management reviews the ultimate
impacts of the business and re-creates future data
mining loops by identifying new business problems
or opportunities.
 Benefits of Data Mining

 Data mining ensures a company is collecting and

analyzing reliable data.
 It is often a more rigid, structured process that formally
identifies a problem, gathers data related to the problem,
and strives to formulate a solution. Therefore, data
mining helps a business become more profitable,
efficient, or operationally stronger.
 Data mining can look very different across applications,
but the overall process can be used with almost any new
or legacy application.
 Essentially any type of data can be gathered and
analyzed, and almost every business problem that relies
on qualifiable evidence can be tackled using data mining.
 Limitations of Data Mining

 This complexity of data mining is one of the largest

disadvantages to the process.
 Data analytics often requires technical skillsets and
certain software tools. Some smaller companies may find
this to be a barrier of entry too difficult to overcome.
 Data mining doesn't always guarantee results. A
company may perform statistical analysis, make
conclusions based on strong data, implement changes,
and not gain any benefits.
 Through inaccurate findings, market changes, model
errors, or inappropriate data populations, data mining
can only guide decisions and not ensure outcomes.
 Controversy

Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Scandal

 The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
During the 2010s, the British consulting firm
Cambridge Analytical collected personal data belong
to millions of Facebook users. This information was
later analyzed to assist the 2016 presidential
campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. It is also
suspected that Cambridge Analytica interfered with
other notable events such as the Brexit referendum.
 Google Analytics

 E-commerce sites use digital marketing to promote

their services, increase sales, and improve
ROI(Return on Investment). For online companies,
it’s essential to extract their website data and analyze
it for future growth.
 Google Analytics plays a very vital role in data
analysis of websites. It gives a free platform for
companies to analyze their current situation and
implement tactics to grow further.
 What is Google Analytics?
 Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that
measures website traffic and creates analysis reports.
 Google Analytics service comes under Google Marketing Platform
brand. Google launched Google Analytics on November 14, 2005.
 Google Analytics is used to track website activity, such as the
duration of each session, pages reached per session, the bounce rate
of individuals using the site, and the source of the traffic.
 Google Analytics is a primarily used free web analytics tool. It
provides in-depth insight into your website and business’s online
performance.
 It can be integrated with Google Ads to launch online campaigns to
promote and sell their products and increase traffic on your website.
 It offers a wealth of data that companies can use to evaluate their
website performance. It helps them plan for an effective digital
marketing strategy and change tactics to achieve the best results.
 Google Analytics can be used for both websites and mobile apps. It
analyzes website data and creates customized reports as per
business needs.
 Features of Google Analytics

The main features of Google

Analytics are:
 Traffic Measurement -
Traffic measurement is the
primary and most common
report generated by Google
Analytics. It shows the number
of people visiting your site
every day. It shows in detail, it
also shows peak hours, which
helps analyze trends over time
and seasons, which ultimately
helps in making digital
marketing decisions
 Features of Google Analytics

User Activity and Conversion

 User activity, like the page most visited by users, can
be tracked easily with Google Analytics. It also helps
in tracking the conversion ratio of the users. Like
how many filled out the contact forms or
subscription forms and bought products online
 Features of Google Analytics

Audience Reports
 Audience reports show a fascinating picture of users,
like their geographic location, gender, and critical
browsing behaviors. User reports also show users’
interests in different product categories. Business
owners can use it to attract new and old users for
more purchases.
 Features of Google Analytics

 Flow Visualization Reports

Flow visualization report tracks every user step. From the
starting page to how users explore your website and backtrack.
It helps analyze which interests the users most and where
exactly they are losing their interest in your website. There are
many types of Flow Visualization Reports generated by Google
Analytics, and one of them is a behavior tracking report.
 Custom Reports
As cleared from naming, these are customized reports created
according to business needs. Google Analytics offers many
templates to create custom reports. It saves lots of time with
already made insight reports on mobile performance, page
timing, keyword analysis, etc.
E-Commerce

VINEET VERMA
 E-commerce

 Internet has revolutionized all aspects of our

existence. If one has access to an internet enabled
digital device such as a desktop, laptop, tablet or a
smartphone, then world seems to be such a small
place.
 This easy access to various kinds of information,
services, and product, which is now just a click away,
has particularly influenced the way the businesses
are transacted using Internet.
 E-commerce

 Businesses, also called ‘commerce’, is

fundamentally a cost-effective movement involving
buying and selling of goods between a buyer and a
seller.
 For example, in a traditional format, a buyer would
enter a shop, examine the product, select a
particular product and pay for it.
 E-commerce

 The term e-commerce is an abbreviated term for

‘electronic commerce’, which refers to the process of
undertaking business transactions over internet.
 Almost anything - ranging from basic items such as
breads or soaps, to high end expensive products such
as computers or cars and even highly specialized
services such as sale of second-hand products to
purchase of property, are all available on the related
e-commerce web-portals.
 E-commerce

 Depending on the products and services available, e-

commerce web-portals could be understood to be
‘Generic’ and ‘Specific’. Examples of generic
ecommerce portals are ‘FlipCart’, ‘Amazon’, where
one could buy any product, ranging from furniture to
flowers.
 On the other hand ‘Big Basket’ could be termed as a
specific e-commerce web portal as the customer can
order for only grocery related products on this web
portal.
 E-commerce

 E-commerce enables buyers to undertake all steps of

a purchase decision with the support of various
features provided by an e-commerce software.
 Majority of the business steps are undertaken
electronically and not physically.
 No (or negligible) paperwork is required, nor is any
physical contact necessary.
 Such revolutionary characteristics of ecommerce
have made it extremely popular, particularly in
present pandemic times.
 E-Commerce Web Portal

 A web portal, also referred only as a ‘portal’, is an integrated

collection of webpages on a particular theme and serves as a
single-stop window for that theme.
 Unlike a website, a portal provides not just the desired
information at a single point but also provides other facilities
such as an internal search engine, personalized logins
and emails to its regular visitors, online forums and
much more.
 A web-portal that is specially designed to host the products
and services details is called an ‘e-commerce web-portal’.
 It is only through a well-designed web-portal that sellers can
provide its buyers with a wide set of option of products, price-
choices, and related services that they offer, using it as an
online shopping arena.
 WHY E-COMMERCE

 At present, if we look around us, the books we read, the dresses we

wear, the grocery we consume , the new furniture additions we have
at our homes / offices, have been primarily bought from e-
commerce web portals .
 Undoubtedly, e-commerce is emerging as a key field for business
expansion as it is economical, accessible, and easy to use.
 It provides choices and improved service delivery options to the
buyers.
 Buyers do not have to invest in travelling to various shops to
compare and buy the ‘best’ product.
 Similarly, a seller does not have to establish a ‘brick and mortar’-
physical infrastructure for selling any product/ service and can also
access more buyers at a much lesser cost.
 In fact, both buyers and sellers can transact on e-commerce portal,
inconsequential of their location or size of the transaction.
 EVOLUTION OF E-COMMERCE

 It was in the year 1991 that the ease of use of Internet

was established by the design of World Wide Web.
 In the year 1994, Pizza Hut was the first company to
offer its Pizza online on its own site and almost after
a gap of a year eBay was found.
 From the year 1995 onwards, rise of e-commerce,
earlier known as “web commerce” became more
prominent. This primarily happened due to the
global use and adoption of Internet.
 In the late 1990s (1999), the dot.com bubble burst
thereafter. More particularly, by the year 2005, the
increase in online purchases on certain days
 TYPES OF E-COMMERCE

 Many different models of electronic transactions

exist in the world of e commerce today.
 Generally, these are classified as-B2B(Business to
Business), B2C (Business-to-Consumer), C2C
(Consumer to Consumer), C2B (Consumer-to-
Business), B2G( Business to
Government/Administration), C2A (Consumer-to
Administration), Direct to consumer (D2C).
 TYPES OF E-COMMERCE

● B2B (Business-to-Business): This form of E-Commerce is

understood to be of the kind that takes place between
companies. In the Business-to Business type of E-Commerce
system, the companies involved come together to conduct
business with each other.
● B2C (Business-to-Consumer): This model of E-Commerce is
understood to be the process where a company or business sells
their goods, services and products directly to the consumer via
the internet.
● C2A (Consumer-to-Administration): The model refers to the
Ecommerce process followed by the consumers when
interacting directly with the government agencies.
● C2B (Consumer-to-Business):It is a type of commerce where a
consumer provides goods, services and products to an
organization or business.
 TYPES OF E-COMMERCE

● C2C (Consumer-to-Consumer): This form of E-

Commerce is understood to be a model where
consumers sell goods, services and products to another
consumer via web technologies and the internet.
● D2C (Direct-to-Consumer): The D2C e-commerce
model quite literally “cuts out” the middleman. D2C e-
commerce is when the manufacturer/ producer sells
its products/produce directly to consumers from their
web store.
 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF E-COMMERCE

Advantages Disadvantages
The e-shop is open 24 hours a day, 7 When ordering a product online, it
days a week. often takes longer delivery time and
more shipping charges.
Customers don’t need to stand in Repaying your online purchase may be
queues of stores. more difficult than buying a traditional
store.
Larger product selection. Online shopping will not be able to
measure goods.
Possibility to shop from anywhere Money security of the customers
depend on their own vigilance.
Attractive discounts are offered. Lack of privacy
Vineet Verma
 What is monetization?

•“To utilize (something of value) as a source
of profit.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
 Social Media ROI

 The likes might be piling up on your social media accounts, but
that doesn’t always tell the whole story. We don’t know about
you, but we haven't seen many businesses last without making
a profit.
 That’s why it's critical to compare your expenses and revenue
to see if your digital marketing efforts are bringing in the cash
or if they’re going to waste.
 When it comes to your social media campaigns, your return on
investment, or ROI, is the best way to ensure you’re getting
worthy results.
 Examining ROI can show you what messaging or content types
are resonating with your audience, what actions they’re taking
on your website or ecommerce store, and what effect social
media is having on your bottom-line.
 What is Social Media ROI?

 Your social media ROI, or return on investment, is a
measure of how effective social media is in generating
profits for your business.
 Since organic social media can reach a large audience at a
low cost, social media managers need to track the ROI of
their social media campaigns and ensure they are getting
a good return on their investment.
 While quantitative or tangible returns like increased sales
or a higher volume of website traffic are nice to see, don’t
ignore the returns that aren’t directly associated with a
monetary value, such as brand awareness and customer
service.
 What is Social Media ROI?

 The equation for ROI is given as:
 ROI

 Return on Investment or ROI is an often misused
term, and is loosely used to characterize more
abstract inputs and outputs.
 Investopedia describes ROI as the following: “A
performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency
of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a
number of different investments.
 ROI Metrics

 Metrics can be grouped into two broad categories,
Evaluative and Navigational. Their definitions are
as follows:
 Evaluative metrics: “Evaluative metrics can measure
profitability; they can identify increased revenue or
decreased costs that resulted from your program.
That is to say, they can put a dollar value on your
program.” Such metrics result in accurate figures
that can be used across the business, and can be
included in accounting systems.
 ROI Metrics

 Navigational Metrics: “Navigational metrics cannot,
by themselves, measure profitability. However, they
can help you direct your program toward higher
profitability. That is to say, they can help you adjust
your program so as to more effectively gain the
prospect's awareness, engagement, understanding,
belief and favor, which generally will result in higher
ROI (which you may or may not be measuring).”
 Measuring Social Media ROI

 There are a handful of ways to calculate social media
ROI. Some businesses simply compare the amount of
money they’ve spent on social media campaigns to
the amount of revenue generated.
 Others use more complex formulas that account for
things like website traffic, leads generated, and
customer engagement.
 How Social Media ROI Tools Can
Simplify Your Life

Customer demographics (e.g. age range,
location, gender, etc.)
Engagement rates
Conversion rates
Website or landing page traffic
Lead generation
 What Are Social Media ROI Tools?

 Social media ROI tools are software applications that help
business owners measure the ROI of their social media
marketing efforts.
 Most tools used to calculate social media ROI are
analytics tools. Social media analytics are an essential
aspect of any content marketing strategy because they
help collect data on important metrics like brand
awareness, engagement, clicks, and sales. In marketing
speak, these metrics are also known as key performance
indicators, or KPIs.
 While talk of analytics and KPIs might make your eyes
glaze over, they’re an essential part of social media
marketing. They show you what’s working well, what's
not, and where you can improve.
 Social Media ROI Tools
Google Analytics

 With relevant quantitative data, Google Analytics is one of the most
powerful tools to measure the ROI of your social media campaigns. It
helps you quickly identify which social media platforms drive the
most traffic and which content is getting the most traction.
 By tracking results such as website visits, page views, and conversions,
you can see which campaigns are attracting and converting visitors.
There are a few different ways to calculate social media ROI using
Google Analytics.
 The first is to look at the total number of website visits generated from
social media platforms.
 To do this, go to Acquisition > Social > Network Referrals. This report
will show you how many website visits were referred by each social
media platform. You can also track conversions from your social ads to
calculate social media ROI. To do this, go to Conversions > Goals >
Overview. This report will show how many conversions were referred
from each social platform. By tracking these metrics, you can see
which socials are providing the best ROI and focus your efforts on
content creation for those platforms.
 Social Media ROI Tools

Hootsuite Social ROI Calculator
 In the world of social media, there are all sorts of opinions
about how to best calculate social media ROI. Navigating the
online noise can be a bit of a challenge, but Hootsuite’s social
ROI calculator gets the math done quickly and effectively.
 Simply input your expenses (like total ad spend) and compare
them with relevant metrics like conversions, website traffic,
brand awareness, or audience engagement.
 This information can aid you in making better decisions about
where to allocate your marketing dollars in the future. To
effectively use a tool like the Hootsuite Social ROI Calculator,
it’s crucial to set social media marketing goals.
 Without clear goals and objectives, you’ll find yourself
monitoring vanity metrics like likes and followers, which don’t
always accurately reflect ROI.
 Social Media ROI Tools

Facebook Pixel
 If you aren’t familiar, the Facebook Pixel is a piece of code for your
website that monitors insights from Facebook ad campaigns.
 To start measuring conversions more accurately, you must first
install the Facebook Pixel on your website. Next, install your
conversion events (i.e. the end goal you want your customers to
take), insert the code into your website, and input any necessary
information.
 Under the Results tab, you’ll see a list of all the conversion events
you have set up. For each event, you can view how many
conversions occurred as well as the total value of those
conversions.
 These Facebook insights can help you determine your social media
marketing ROI and adjust as needed. For example, if you notice
that a particular campaign isn’t generating many conversions, you
can adjust your targeting or budget for that campaign or scrap it
altogether.
 Why measure ROI on social media

Survival

 As discussed previously, social media usage is growing and shows
no sign of warning. The repercussions of this, is that it is
fundamentally changing the way in which people discover and
consume content on the internet.
 Let us take the example of an online Publisher, such a newspaper.
Online newspapers monetize their websites by either displaying
adverts on their website (this would include native advertising),
selling paid subscriptions, or a combination of both.
 Just a few years ago, such a company could expect the vast
majority of visitors to their website, i.e. traffic, to originate either
organically from a search engine, or directly, where a user would
type the URL of the website directly into the address bar of their
internet browser. A small amount of traffic would originate from
referrals from other websites.
 Fast forward to today, where media publisher websites can expect
anywhere between 10% to 52% of all website traffic to originate
from social networks.
 Why measure ROI on social media

Internal Pressures

 All companies that exist in a free-market system
(with the exception of non-profits and government
owned services) are all structured around the pursuit
of maximizing revenue and minimizing costs where
possible.
 Whenever a company invests in a campaign,
program, or system, there is always a cost benefit
analysis that is applied either consciously or
subconsciously, where the cost of taking an action is
weighed against the short and long term profits of
taking the action.
 If the action is profitable, it is usually taken.
 Conclusion

 Social media marketing is no walk in the park. It
takes consistency, ambition, and a lot of hard work.
 Don’t let that hard work go to waste and show your
clients a clear ROI that demonstrates the payoff for
their business.
 Calculating ROI doesn’t have to be challenging.
Nowadays, you can leverage some amazing tools to
streamline your process. With a tool that offers
detailed analytics and reporting, you’ll blow your
clients away in no time with just how impressive
your social media skills are.
 SOCIAL MEDIA &
MARKET RESEARCH
VINEET VERMA
 WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKET
RESEARCH?
• Social media market research is the practice of gathering
historical and real-time data from social media channels to
better understand your brand’s target market.
• Social media market research focuses on gathering
information about specific audiences via online social
channels. Whilst it’s easy to focus on social media platforms,
such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, there are other
places where people interact. For example, Reddit, Quora
and specialised forums, as well as customer reviews sites and
blogs. These are valuable sources of social data.
• By analyzing how people interact on these social channels,
you can gain more insight into your audience: how they
speak, their likes and dislikes, etc. Combining this with other
market research methods, such as surveys and focus groups,
helps build a much clearer picture of your customers and how
they use your services.
 WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKET
RESEARCH?
Social media market research is also:
• Affordable- Social media is much cheaper than surveys
or focus groups, which can cost thousands of dollars
depending on the size and complexity of your research
panel.
• Quick- While traditional market research methods can
take time, social media is always updating in real-time
and you can pull existing social data for immediate
results.
• Comprehensive- With over 3.6 billion social users in 2020,
there’s no shortage of data on social media and tools
like social listening make it easy to analyze conversations
and trends around your entire industry, not just your
brand.
 ADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL
MEDIA FOR MARKET RESEARCH
• Unlike other methods of market research, which take place in
controlled settings, people tend to be more open online.
Without the feeling of being observed, they’re likely to share
their opinions more freely, providing more organic insight.
• You can also gain insight faster. By continuously monitoring
social channels and tracking mentions of certain words or
topics, you can quickly assess their importance and adjust
your strategy accordingly. More traditional methods, which
require time and planning, often only capture one moment in
time. This can limit its usefulness when you’re looking to learn
and progress quickly.
• Social data can also answer questions you might not know
needed asking. Monitoring people’s behavior on social media
provides a lot of data.
• With this, you can begin to see trends and patterns that you
might miss with more targeted forms of market research. This
can feed into your overall business strategy. It might even help
you to identify a completely new audience.
CHALLENGES AROUND ANALYSING SOCIAL
DATA

• The same benefits of social media can also throw up a

number of challenges. Although you can gain more organic
insight away from a controlled environment, it’s not
uncommon for people to have a different persona on social
media, especially on certain platforms. So, what they say and
how they act online isn’t always reflective of their behaviours
in the real world.
• And, although social media provides a lot of data, it’s only
valuable if you can extract insight from it. When you’re
working with big data, you need to know how to ask the right
questions. This can require someone with a specialist skill set to
be able to analyse the data properly.
• There are a number of tools that can help you to make sense
of the data, but it’s important to understand their limitations.
There are many nuances in language that can affect how
something is interpreted. Whilst Web analytics tools help to
filter through large amounts of information, it’s important to
incorporate human interpretation to get the most accurate
results.
 EXAMPLES

• There are many use cases for social media based research,
from identifying popular hashtags to increase the reach of
your marketing campaigns, to measuring the success of a
new product launch.
• One great real-world case study comes from specialist
equipment manufacturer, 3M. As one of the biggest providers
of ventilators and medical grade personal protective
equipment (PPE), their role during the early stages of COVID-
19 pandemic was essential. They analyzed social data to track
mentions coming from frontline workers around the shortage
of PPE. This information fed into the communications strategy,
ensuring they could keep people informed around future
availability in a clear and timely manner.
• Another great example comes from Walmart. Again, during
the pandemic, the retailer extracted all kinds of insight from
social media conversations, including supply issues and
problems with online shopping. These insights fed into all areas
of the business. By being able to track customers’ concerns in
real-time, Walmart could meet their needs much more quickly
 “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch
drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”
 If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, you
probably know this statement by Theodore
Levitt, Marketing Professor at Harvard.
 The idea behind it is that successful businesses,
products, and services are those capable of
solving a problem.
 Finding the answer to a problem is a key step
when creating a startup, however, it’s just the
beginning.
 The next challenge after identifying the
problem is coming up with an innovative
solution for it. Uber has created an app as a
transport alternative and Airbnb a platform
that replaces hotels.
 The ideation process is exactly what every
entrepreneur needs when looking for ideas.
 It’s the keystone for innovative businesses
and ideas that actually reshape the market.
 Ideation is a part of the design thinking process
that was brought to the startup universe.
 According to Manuel Tanger, Co-Founder &
Head of Open Innovation at Beta-i, ideation is
about having countless ideas until you get to
some reasonable ones:
“Ideation, well it’s really simple, it’s having ideas.
Sounds easy, right? It’s not. Why? The reason is
that most of our ideas—yours, mine, ours—they’re
crap. Really. Like 90% of them are not that
interesting, so, you need a lot of them until you
can work on the 10% that are reasonable.”
 Ideation is all about generating ideas, but there are some rules to
follow if you want to get something worthwhile out of the process.
 The first, and arguably most important, is to have a judgment-free
zone where everyone can come up with ideas. The main goal is to
think outside the box and explore new angles, so it’s important to
create an environment favorable to developing ideas.
 Presenting the problem is an important step when having an
ideation session with your startup team; it helps to get everyone
on the same page to start thinking about solutions. Don’t forget
that in this case, the motto is quantity over quality.
 At this stage, there are no bad ideas. You can get as crazy as you
want as long as you take notes and markers to capture everything
that happens in the room.
 The ideation process is crucial for entrepreneurs to question the
obvious, challenge the norm, and come up with new ideas.
 Planning is often seen as the antithesis to growth in start-up
circles.
 What is often mistaken though is the essentiality of strategic
planning in the long term success of any venture.
What is the need of Strategic Start-up Planning?
 A strategic plan is defined as a number of steps or strategies that a
company must identify and employ to meet its set objectives.
 Often new start-ups are able to increase sales rapidly and climb
the growth curve but reach a point of inactivity.
 Strategic planning serves exactly this purpose, to maintain as well
as continue this growth by defining a path and evaluating its
success in specific intervals.
 It is critical in prioritizing resources to increase the return on
investment. Also its seen as a plus point by VCs during the funding
process as it indicates clarity of goals. Lastly it serves as a great
source of motivation for all members of a start-up.
Difference between Strategic Plans and Business Plans
 Despite being a type of business plan, strategic plans have
many dissimilarities. While the business plan of a start-up
is a written plan of the business model, detailing every
aspect of the business and is usually created in the initial
days of the venture.
 In contrast a strategic plan is primarily used for providing
strategic direction for an existing organization. These
plans are usually created in more established ventures.
The larger a venture gets the more severe the need for
strategic plans gets.
 Another common misconception that planning is a static
activity exists whereas in reality for successful
optimization strategic plans need to be seen as fluid
documents.
 Vision: The vision of a company is what it wants to become or achieve in the
future. It is the driving force of the business. Key questions like these will help you
understand your vision better – Who is the customer? What business are you in?
How do you want to grow? What is your Competitive Advantage?
 Values: The company’s values are nothing but the beliefs and principles it wants
to promote and espouse. Values are seen as guiding principles that never change.
It may be useful to type out a core value statement.
 Mission Statement: A mission statement states the underlying incentive for
firms to do business. It is not a part of strategic planning, rather creates the base
for strategic objectives to be made from. The difference between this and the
vision is that the mission statement does not project a goal for the future.
 Goals: These are the desired results of the effort put in. Start-up coach Cate
Costa describes the best goals as, “SMART goals – that is, they should be
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.” So rather than
saying you want to increase your sales drastically, say you want to increase your
sales by 25% in the next 12 months. Further divisions should be made to a
ventures goals, namely-
>Short term goals – 6 months to 1 year
>Long term goals – 1 year to 5 year
 Competencies: Each venture would have some process that they
specialize in, while some which can be done better by others.
These activities that the firm is exceptional at are called its core
competencies. This step helps in achieving goals by providing a
point to start on. For maximum effectiveness a start-up should do
an honest assessment of its capabilities and skills.
 Evaluation: This forms the last step of strategic planning where all
the steps and methods of evaluating goals is stated. Performance
indicators like KPIs (key performance indicators) which evaluate
the success of an organization or of a particular activity in which it
engages can be used. This step ends with the evaluations leading
to adjusting and creating new goals for the venture and the cycle
continues.
Vineet Verma
• Viral marketing in its essence is a marketing message
engineered for the purpose of spread from one person to
the next. This is done by encouraging or rewarding people
who comply by sharing it with their peers.
• Viral marketing seeks to spread information about a
product or service from person to person by word of
mouth or sharing via the internet or email.
• The goal of viral marketing is to inspire individuals to
share a marketing message to friends, family, and other
individuals to create exponential growth in the number of
its recipients.
• Throughout the years of development that viral marketing has
seen, people have chosen to define the concept in a few
different ways.
• One view is that viral marketing is the promotion of an
organization or its products and services through a compelling
message engineered to spread, typically online, from person to
person.
• One can also describe it as an electronic way to utilize word-
of-mouth. This means that a message is compelling or
entertaining enough to incentivize people to pass it on to others,
spreading much like a virus at no cost of the creator.
• This creates a kind of exponential growth in its spread since
each person reached will typically spread it to multiple others.
Dove Real Beauty Sketches Campaign
• Dove came up with the Real Beauty Sketch campaign. The purpose of
the campaign was to let women know that they're more beautiful than
they think.
• The video went viral globally by spreading the brand message and
belief in confidence.
• Dove conducted a study and analyzed that only 2% of women
considered themselves beautiful. So, they conceived the idea of using
real women rather than models for their ad. The marketers tried to
deeply touch the emotions of the people through this campaign. It
reached a high point in 2013 which was watched over 114 million
times within a month. The third most successful shared ad of all time!
• Not only does the viral marketing message itself incentivise
sharing but the way contemporary social media works also
promotes it through various built in features such as the share
button that is now present on almost every social media
platform out there.
• Facebook has even gone so far as to share posts that you like,
comment on or get tagged in with your friends .
• This may result in people seeing posts on their feed from people
or pages that they themselves have not chosen to follow, further
increasing the potential of spreading content on Facebook.
There are essentially two different types of viral marketing, passive
and active.
 Passive viral marketing is, in its essence, broadcasting your brand
through some type of media without it being the focus of the content
This can be equated to something like adding a watermark to a viral
video. Many Facebook-pages have adopted this method.
• This results in a vast amount of people seeing the watermark even
though the subject of interest is in fact what is happening in the video.
 Active viral marketing works slightly different. In order for it to be
considered active, there needs to be some kind of call to action and
participation from the recipient.
• A good example of this would be any kind of contest on social media
where any contestant is required to like, share or comment on a
particular social media page to enter, resulting in it spreading like
wildfire.
• One of the largest advantages of viral marketing is
that, compared to advertising made through
traditional media such as television or print ads, it is
very inexpensive. There is no need to pay large sums
of money in order to get airtime, no need to pay for
printing or even for distribution.
• It is the design of viral marketing that makes this
possible and it is therefore more effective than
traditional forms of advertising media.
• Studies have shown that the generation most active on
social media are millennials and this generation is also
the one with the lowest trust for traditional advertising.
• Millennials are shown to be more affected by
influencer advertising than advertising made
independently by companies. The reason behind this is
both that they have more trust for their favourite
internet personalities than companies and that they
are more inclined to watch ads that will help support
content creators .
• Another highly effective way to use virality in advertising is
through stealth marketing.
• Stealth marketing, or buzz marketing, is an indirect
advertising technique where a company creates a marketing
campaign that isn't obviously a company sponsorship meant
to sell products.
• It involves strategically planning ways to create conversation
and excitement about a brand through outside sources that
aren't directly connected to the company.
• Stealth marketing is the concept of using influencers to
promote a product.
• The largest drawback of viral marketing methods is
the lack of control that comes as a byproduct with
nearly every single instance of this type of
advertisement.
• Once it spreads to enough people, the creators of the
advert no longer possess control over its distribution
and use. This means that any mistake or error in the ad
that people may find and take offense to will be
exceedingly difficult to correct. This could result in a
negative impact on a company’s brand image.
• Another major risk that a viral marketing campaign
may introduce is the power of association.
Companies cannot control who receives and who
shares their message so once people and groups start
sharing the content there is no longer any control over
who shares it.
• There may arise situations where someone spreading a
company’s message is someone they would rather not
be associated with.
• LG Ultra Reality Meteor Prank In 2013, Chilean LG posted an ad that
showed them setting up a fake job interview with hidden cameras and an
actor posing as an interviewer.
• The point of this campaign was that they had fixed an 84-inch LG monitor
in place where a window was supposed to be.
• During these fake interviews, the monitor posing as a ‘window’ showed a
meteor heading towards and striking earth in the city close to where the
interview was being held. Naturally the interviewees freaked out and got
really scared.
• Once the would-be shockwave from the meteor hit the ‘window’ the room
went dark. After a few seconds the light came on and the team behind the
stunt came in to tell them what had happened. The reactions of the victims of
this prank were quite different with some feeling relief and happiness while
others got really angry.
• The reactions for this ad on the internet, however, were hugely positive and
the video spread like wildfire across the web with over eight million views in
its first week (Digital Synopsis, 2013). It has to this day generated over 20
million views.
• When considering a definition for email marketing, there are a
number of ways to define it from the broad to the specific.
• Essentially, email marketing is the act of sending out emails to
customers, both current and prospective.
Some key components to what a successful email marketing
campaign does:
• Direct Email - Emails are sent directly to current and potential
customers
• Retention Email - Frequent and regular emails are sent to
current customers
• Email Placed Ads - Marketing ads are placed within emails
sent by others
Direct Emails
• Receiving direct emails is like receiving a flyer from a local business.
In both instances, the business may be providing an announcement for
something, like a special deal going on for a limited time or a coupon
for one of their products or services.
• The difference between the two is that with email, you are not
confined to receiving mail solely from local businesses. The Internet is
a place where the market and competition has become global, and
everybody wants to compete for you.
• The distinctive element of direct email is that it is a call to action on
the part of the customer.
• The purpose of direct emails is to be promotional. They might offer
you a product or service, or they ask you to sign up for something.
Potential customers are more likely to get these types of emails.
Retention Emails
• Retention emails are the equivalent of printed newsletters.
• While still promotional in nature, retention emails attempt to
retain customer loyalty by offering the customer something.
• This could range anywhere from coupons to up-to-date news on
the latest products.
• These types of emails are sent out on a regular basis. It could
be a weekly or monthly basis, but usually the business tries to
send out emails weekly (or even more frequently) to retain
customer interest.
Email Placed Ads
• Another way to advertise via email is to get some advertisement
space within another email.
• Many times, businesses that send out retention emails (newsletters)
reserve space for other businesses to place their advertisements.
• This can be beneficial for you as a business, especially if you have
studied the demographic that you are marketing to and the potential
customers you could gain.
• Knowing what other types of businesses your potential customers go
to and listen to is a great advantage because it allows you to
strategically place your ads in emails likely to get clicks.
• It is also a benefit for the business with which you have an ad placed
because they will know that their emails are being read and they can
also do a bit of analytics work to determine where their customers
are clicking.
• Simply put, yes, email marketing works. Of course, there is the stigma
of SPAM that keeps people wondering whether or not email
marketing is still effective.
• Here are a few statistics to show that email marketing does, in fact,
work
• In a survey by Econsultancy in 2011, 72% of respondents said that
email’s ROI (Return On Investment) was good or excellent.
• In a survey of more than 8,000 local US business owners by
MerchantCircle, email marketing was one of the Top 3 effective
marketing strategies cited by 35.8% of respondents. Social media
and search engine marketing scored higher.
• Forbes Media conducted the Ad Effectiveness Survey in
February/March 2009, revealing that emails and e-newsletters are
considered the second most effective tool for conversion generation,
right behind SEO.
• Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) is a term coined by Jim Lecinski
(Vice President of Sales for Google) that describes the change
in the consumer’s buying decision journey following the advent
of digital media. Lecinski contends that digital media stimulates
the consumer to start a research process.
• AN OFFICE MANAGER AT HER DESK, comparing laser printer
prices and ink cartridge costs before heading to the office
supply store.
• A STUDENT IN A CAFE, scanning user ratings and reviews while
looking for a cheap hotel in Barcelona.
• A WINTER SPORTS FAN IN A SKI STORE, pulling out a mobile
phone to look at video reviews of the latest snowboards.
ZMOT is that moment when you grab your laptop,
mobile phone or some other wired device and start
learning about a product or service (or potential
boyfriend) you’re thinking about trying or buying.
Why is it important?
• ZMOT is a tool. It's a tool to shape the way we
provide information about products online.
• The bottom line is that the more information you can
provide to your customers, hiding or placing product
information behind a barrier will only frustrate and
turn away an interested buyer.
We consider ZMOT in relation to the type of information that
should be available on your website. If this information is not
available, then you may not be placed into consideration.
• Consumers want to: Have information to compare your product
to alternatives
• See that social proof that people have used the product and
recommend it
• Understand specific applications and examples of the product
in use
• These characteristics are amplified in ecommerce websites.