WORLDWIDE E-BIKES

Executive Summary

The marketing director at Worldwide e-Bikes engaged consultants to develop a report on the companys digital marketing strategy in light of a plan to expand into the Australian market. The report provides crucial insights to the board of directors on the digital marketing opportunity in Australia, persona research, strategies for short-term market impact, and KPIs for fiscal oversight. The research conducted concludes that the Australian market provides a viable opportunity for digital marketing given the high levels of internet penetration, internet usage, and access to mobile devices such as smartphones. To counter the high intra-industry competition, the company could differentiate itself by providing additional aftersales services in line with customer needs, offering personalized customer experience, and selling through established ecommerce businesses such as Woolworths.com.au, apple.com, and coles.com.au to reach more customers online. To effectively develop its personas, the company could use a combination of research strategies, including focus group discussions, website analytics, interviews, and online surveys. These would provide an adequate understanding of customers needs, expectations, and profiles. To realize short-term market impact, the report advises that the company employs per-per-click advertising and geofencing marketing, and then uses KPIs to measure the effectiveness of the selected marketing tactics. The most appropriate KPIs would be the click-through rate, goal completion rate, average time on page metric, and the return on Ad measure.

Digital Marketing Strategy

Digital Market Opportunity

The Australian market presents a promising market opportunity for e-Bikes. First, Australia offers a flourishing e-bike market that has not been exhaustively exploited. The use of e-bikes only began to take off in Australia in 2017, when the country harmonized e-bike regulations and adopted the Pedelec safety standards used in Europe to govern the construction and design of e-bikes (We Ride Australia, 2021). These measures helped reduce the number of accidents involving e-bikes. These, together with the increased focus on healthy lifestyles and environmental conservation efforts have resulted in a consistently flourishing cycling interest that the company could exploit. E-bike sales in the Australian market have grown by over 500 per cent since 2017, with sales nearly doubling every year since then (We Ride Australia, 2021). The demand has increased substantially since the start of the Covid19 pandemic in 2020. This is due to increased reliance on e-bike riders for on-demand food delivery programs and the fact that bikes allowed one to move around while still maintaining social distance. Projections indicate that e-bike sales in Australia will increase dramatically over the next decade, from 100,000 units in 2025 to 500,000 units in 2035 (Institute for Sensible Transport, 2019). This projected growth presents a viable business opportunity for Worldwide e-Bikes Co.

The company has indicated that it intends to sell bikes through its ecommerce platform and retail partners should it decide to venture into the Australian market. The Australian market also presents a flourishing opportunity for digital marketing. Ninety-nine per cent of the countrys population has internet access, with 91 per cent having access to home internet and 75 per cent having access to the national broadband network NBN (Australian Communications and Media Authority, 2021). Furthermore, 94 per cent of Australian adults have access to a mobile phone or mobile device that they use to access the internet (Australian Communications and Media Authority, 2021). In 2021, almost half (45 per cent) of adults worked online from home, 32 per cent studied online, and 41 per cent accessed tele-health services on their devices (Australian Communications and Media Authority, 2021). Australian customers are also firmly established in ecommerce in 2021, 37 per cent of adults sold items online, and 85 per cent bought items online (Australian Communications and Media Authority, 2021). The high levels of internet access and high ecommerce usage rates make the Australian market a viable option for digital marketing.

The bike dealer industry in Australia is fragmented and characterized by high levels of intra-industry competition, with over 600 motorcycle retailers (IBIS World, 2021). Motorcycle Holdings Group takes the lead market position, although its control is not sufficient to influence the market in a specific direction (IBIS world, 2021). None of the companies is big enough to influence industry dynamics. Further, the fragmented nature of the market implies that there are minimal barriers to entry, better opportunities to stand out through differentiated offerings, and ease of reaching target customers (IBIS World, 2021). Given the similarities in brand offerings, Worldwide e-Bikes could differentiate itself from other companies by providing personalized customer experience and additional aftersales services in line with customer needs. The company could also invent in digital marketing platforms or sell through established ecommerce businesses such as Woolworths.com.au, apple.com, and coles.com.au to reach more customers online.

Persona Research

A persona is a fictional representation of who a companys customers are, how they buy, how they make purchase decisions, and what their goals are (Hannerberg, 2016). Marketers will often generate personas by conducting research on customer behaviour (Hannerberg, 2016). Research helps to strengthen the foundation for the persona developed (Hannerberg, 2016). The organization could use several research methods to research the persona of bike customers in the Australian market. The methods selected depend on the specific features of the target customers, the nature of the market, and resources available.

To research the personas for their bike customers, Worldwide e-Bikes could use a combination of methods including focus group discussions, in-person interviews, online surveys, and website analytics. Given the high level of competition in the industry, it may be important for the company to use a combination of methods to ensure that it collects sufficient data on the needs of the target customers.

Since the company will mainly be using digital platforms for its marketing activities, it may be vital to administer an online survey with questions seeking to understand the profile of potential customers. To ensure a wider reach, the researchers could share the link to the survey on their corporate website and on social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. They could encourage their followers to share the link with their friends and family on social media sites to create a snowballing effect and ensure that they collect as many responses as possible from diverse customers. The survey will require the respondents to provide information on whom they are, their demographic profile, their...…= 10% . A CTR of 10 per cent is an indication that the ad, with its current design, has a 10 per cent likelihood of reaching the target population. The higher the click-through rate, the more likely it is that the ad has an effective design, uses relevant key words, and reaches the target population.

Average Time on Page

Target: users spend at least 2 minutes on the companys website. The average time on page measure assesses the average amount of time users spend on the companys page (Pride & Ferrell, 2021). The measure is a crucial indicator of whether the target audience are reading and resonating with the message on the advertisement (Pride and Ferrell, 2021). On average, users will spend one minute on a page, and may stay longer if they resonate with the message therein. Worldwide e-Bike could use this measure to assess how well the message they use in their Google Ads catches the attention of the target group. A longer average time on page measure is an indicator that the message is effective and resonates effectively with users. A low average on time measure, on the other hand, indicates that the message does not resonate with users and there may be a need to refine it. The average time on page goes hand-in-hand with the bounce rate, which is a measure of the percentage of users who clicked on the page, but exited without completing any activity (Pride and Ferrell, 2021). A high bounce rate translates into a low average time on page.

Goal Completion Rate

Target: 25 per cent of viewers place an order on the companys ecommerce website. The goal completion rate measures the number of users who actually complete a business or marketing goal (Pride and Ferrell, 2021). It is obtained by dividing the actual number of customers who complete the goal by the total number of visits (Pride and Ferrell, 2021). For its Google Ads, Worldwide e-Bikes could measure the conversion rate by taking the number of users who end up placing an order on the companys website as a proportion of all users redirected from the Google search engine page. For its geofence advertising, the company could measure the completion rate by comparing the number of users who receive ads on their device with the number of those who end up placing an order on the corporate website. A high goal completion rate indicates that the advertisement reaches the target group and resonates effectively with them. Conversely, a low conversion rate indicates that the ad fails to convince users to convert. This could be due to several reasons including wrong key words, poor targeting, and a wrong landing platform.

Return on Ad Spent

Target: the company earns an average return of $5 for every $1 spent in advertising. The return on ad spent measures the revenue earned (in dollars) against what is spent in advertising (Pride and Ferrell, 2021). It seeks to show whether the company is making gains from advertising. For instance, e-Bikes may wish to know how much return it generates for every $1 spent on the Google Search network or each dollar spent in…