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MARKETING RESEARCH

ANALYSE AND PRESENT RESEARCH

INFORMATION
BSBRES411
PAULA MARTINEZ HERRERA
52042
PROJECT
 MARKETING RESEARCH

INTRODUCTION

MARKETING RESEARCH

Rhodes College located on 118 Queen St,

Melbourne Victoria, offers a variety of
courses for both local and overseas
students such as: Work Health and Safety,
Business, Leadership and Management,
Human Resources.

Rhodes College wishes to extend its use of

Social Media to interact more effectively
and efficiently with both current and future
students. In particular, the Marketing
Manager wishes to increase the number of
enrolments in current courses which cater
for students in the 18-35 year old group.
Potential students living in both Australia
and overseas.

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Assessment task one: Research report

1. Research of social media trends

Û Objectives:

Interact more effectively and efficiently with both current and future students, providing
new marketing strategies to facilitate Rhodes College the implementation of easier
enrolment processes and the way how the reach their market niche in both local and
overseas students.

Û Social media tools:

Rhodes College will focus on 3 (three) principal social media tools to reach their objective.
Social media platforms use will be:

• Facebook: Facebook is a popular free social networking website that allows

registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and
keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. Facebook is considered as
a social media because you can be social with your friends, family and anyone.
But across the years, it has become an important platform to promote and increase
traffic and knowledge about business.
It also possible to build communities and gather people with the same interests in
a single space.
Businesses can start marketing by building their fan-base on Facebook or
attracting target customers.

• Instagram: Instagram started as a platform to share photos of yourself with

captions describing what’s on the picture but for the past years became one of the
biggest social media platforms with a huge growth. From personal accounts to
corporate brands, it connects more immediately and deeply with people than
another platform.

• Google My Business: “Social profiles for local business” Google gathers

business information from a variety of resources and may include it to give
customers a more detail overview of the business.

Û Functionality of every social media tool:

• Facebook
Facebook can be one of the most valuable tools when it comes to building an
online brand. This social media platform gives you a level of access to potential
customers that is hard to find elsewhere.
Facebook has become a platform where you can market your content and not only
it is free but also it is easily accessible and quite flexible.

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Individual Users Personal engagement in an online space is the core purpose of
Facebook. It serves to allow individual users to connect with friends in a simple,
shorthanded manner, sharing thoughts, news and multimedia content with them.
Facebook allows users to connect with many of their friends at once through posts
that go out to a set list of individuals; it allows them to keep up with their friends
and connect directly with individuals through direct messaging. It also lets
individuals connect with public figures and businesses.

Facebook for Marketing Facebook allows businesses, organizations and public

figures to connect with customers, fans and constituents through the website.
Businesses and other brands create pages where they can post content, provide
organizational news, offer deals, introduce products and manage customer service
relationships. They also can reach a large number of people with targeted
advertising, creating ads specifically for Facebook that are tailored to appear on
the pages of specific groups of people they hope to reach.1

• Instagram
Instagram offers a variety of resources when it comes to promote business and
increase benefit for it.
With recent updates, Instagram offers new features like:
_Video features: With a video post of up to 60 seconds long and with the facility
of add filter, captions and location, not only provide a better overview of your
objective but also generate more user engagement than the pictures.
_Live video: Followers can see what is happening in real time, it builds brand
transparency and authenticity.
_Stories features: Promote specific content for up to 24 h, where followers can
see what the business is doing on daily basis.
_Geo-tagged content: Makes easier for customer to remember the location of the
business or places around it.
_Multiple Instagram accounts: Jump from one account to another if your
business it is focusing on different markets or segments.
_Hashtags: Another way to get your followers to engage with other accounts or
branded hashtags that only the company use.

• Google My Business
“The New Google My Business features giving power back to local business”

_Preferred profile cover: This feature makes it easier for business to control
which image shows in local results, potentially bringing with it the possibility of
changes in line with new stock and promotions.
_Logo display: Listings that include core information (such as opening times and
phone numbers) will show the business’s logo in the top-right of the profile.
_Photo display: A new ‘photo display’ module will show images uploaded by the
business quickly and prominently. Google has also said that captions are also
coming soon, meaning that businesses will be able to add context to images.
Together, these could be useful for local businesses to promote products and

1 https://www.techwalla.com/articles/the-purpose-of-facebook

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services, as well as to easily let searchers understand what to expect from their
business.2
_Welcome offers: Welcome offers will allow businesses to share offers with new
customers. Once a consumer follows the business, they can receive automatic
offers that get saved in the Offers Folder.
This feature could be great for local businesses, with incentives to encourage
consumers to follow the business (and receive promotions and offers in posts
directly), as well as to claim offers if they choose to purchase. And, with consumers
receiving a code that can be used offline, it could become easier for local
businesses to track conversions from Google My Business through to purchase.
_Reviews: People can post reviews on based on their own experiences and when
other people start to look it up for the business can get an expectation of the place/
company/ service they are searching for.

Û Market segments each tool is suited to

• Facebook
_Type of segmentation
Geographic
Region: International
Density: Urban and rural

Demographic
Age: 13 and upwards
Gender: Males and females
Occupation: Students, employees, professionals

Psychographic
Social class: All
Lifestyle: Mainstreamer, aspirer explorer

Behavioural
Benefits sought: Communication, sense of belonging, recreation
Personality: Easy-going, determined and ambitious

• Instagram
_Type of segmentation
Geographic
Region: International
Density: Urban and rural

Demographic
Age: 13- 40
Gender: Males and females
Occupation: Students, employees, professionals

Psychographic
Social class: All
Lifestyle: Aspirer, reformer, succeeder

2 https://www.brightlocal.com/blog/new-google-my-business-features-june-2019/

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Behavioural
Benefits sought: Communication, sense of belonging, recreation
Personality: Determined and ambitious

• Google My Business

_Type of segmentation
Geographic
Region: International
Density: Urban and rural

Demographic
Age: 25-50+
Gender: Males and females
Occupation: Employees, professionals, business

Psychographic
Social class: Working class (Low, middle, upper)
Lifestyle: Succeeder, explorer, reformer

Behavioural
Benefits sought: Communication, staying updated, finding information, efficiency
Personality: Determined and ambitious

Û Growth or decline over the past 5 years

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• Facebook
Facebook has more than 2.2 billion users globally. Facebook has an estimated 15
million fewer US users today than it did in 2017.

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• Instagram
In June 2018, Instagram had reached one billion monthly active users, up from
800 million in September 2017. The app is one of the most popular social
networks worldwide.3

From 2013 to 2019, the number of monthly Instagram users went from 90
million of users per month in January 2013 to 1.000 million per month in June
2018.

3 https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users/

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• Google My Business

Google has almost become a synonym for the internet. Everyone here is a Google
customer in some way or another. Every internet marketer loves Google as well.
These statements are no exaggeration, considering Google has over a billion
people using each of its products and services.

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The data is taken from a 2018 survey. The volume of devices in 2013 was 1 billion,
while in 2016, it reached 2 billion. Impressive growth, no matter how you look at it.
4

Google My Business posts have been around since mid-2017. They seem to have
caught on – more than many of Google’s “local business” features have – mostly
because the payoff is clear: GMB posts stick out in your brand-name search results
and can nudge people toward the next step you’d like them to take.

Statistics have shown that in 2017, around 17% of the business were using Google
my Business to promote their goods and services around Google platform, since
not many people have been using the service is unclear to know the real numbers
but from 2000 businesses using Google Maps, around 100 of them of local
business have been using the service.

Most businesses don’t keep up with Google my Business promotion and posts.

Û Additional features
• Facebook
_New placement controls for advertisers: Brand safety control issues to avoid
material containing hate speech or violence.
_Limits ads on pages: Limitation of number of ads any give page can run within
a limit of time.
_’Multiple text’ optimisation: Makes easier for advertisers to create, test and
optimise several different options for the headlines, ads and products descriptions.
_Dynamic ad creation: Deliver more personalised ads at a scalable level.
_New fundraising tools: Branding reputation and tools (“donate’ button and
stickers) for non-profit organisations.

• Instagram
_Dark mood: Dark version of the social app.
_Instagram email checker: To avoid scams and stolen accounts, Instagram is
providing a tool to confirm if they have sent any verification email related to the
account.
_Anti-bullying profile restrictions: Instagram has introduced a new feature
called “Restrict” that allow users to block interactions from users that are likely to
spread hate, bully, or are unwanted for any other reason.
_Hashtag insights: This new Instagram update will make it exponentially easier
to determine which hashtags are working and which ones aren’t.
_Post to multiple accounts: This feature allows you to publish to multiple
accounts at the same time which can make it easier for business to share the
same message without having to recreate the wheel.
_Alt text: Alt text is enabled on your images to help people with visual impairments
to enjoy the platform.
_Top posts: Instagram recent update doesn’t limit to 10 posts and displays the
same images; this will help to increase engagement and followers.

4 https://techjury.net/stats-about/google/#gref

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• Google My Business
Google My Business is a free tool that helps small businesses create and manage
their Google listings, which appear when customers find businesses on Google
Search and Maps. It helps business attract new customers and share information
about what makes them special.

Google My Business helps businesses attract more customers. Specifically, it can

help businesses:

i. Stand out by sharing latest and useful information: Customers search online to look
for specific information e.g., directions, opening hours, photos and offers and compare
businesses. By sharing the latest information, photos and offers you can use Google My
Business to tell customers what makes your business special.

ii. Engage with customers: Customers share stories,

leave reviews, and reach out to small businesses right from their phones. Google My
Business lets you join the conversation about your business. Respond to reviews, answer
messages and questions, and get more calls from interested customers

iii. Set up a free mobile optimized website in less than 10 minutes: With Google My
Business, you can build a free website that looks great. The free website builder makes
it easy to create and edit your site from your computer and phone It also gives you
information about which photos get noticed, and where your customers come from

iv. Discover how customers find you: Google My Business gives you important
information about how customers find you and interact with your listing. You can track
information about the number of searches for your business, incoming phone calls and
requests for directions. It also gives you information about which photos get noticed, and
where your customers come from.

Û Best social media tool

After an extensive research and knowing that more and more consumers are using social
media platforms and tools for business, this marketing research have shown that the best
social media tool for RHODES COLLEGE and their objective and mission of the
upcoming marketing campaign is FACEBOOK.

Facebook is one of the best social media platforms for businesses to use to reach their
target market with nearly 2.41 million monthly active users, not only is the largest but also
with the most diverse audience.

Facebook also provides the best features for businesses because it focuses on digital
advertising and ecommerce integrations.
Facebook has allowed brands to interact with customers through Facebook Messenger
so people can keep up to date about any changes, opportunities, notifications about their
favourite brands/ goods/ services.

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2. What is search engine optimisation (SEO)

Û Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) it is the process of actions to get better positioning of
a website during the searching procedure on Search Engine operators like Google, Bing
and another one.
SEO works with technical aspects like structure optimisation and information of the
website but also it can be applied to the content of the page to make it more relevant
and useful for the users.

Û Search Engine Optimisation provider (Budget)

Having $500 budget to spend monthly providing more visibility to the college website is a
good idea since the internet is one of the most powerful and true tools when it comes to
finding and using businesses, services and products.
The fact that the college page appears as one of the first suggestions in the search
engine, will make possible students have more curiosity to know about the courses
offered and what are the facilities that the school has structurally and financially; Thus,
the objective of the marketing study would be evidenced and promoted to the levels
expected to achieve the expected objectives.

Û Achieving outcomes

If you want to use different tools to meet the objective of the marketing study, the $500
can be invested in training personnel to visit different educational agencies and
workshops every month where they can provide accurate and more personalized
information to potential students about the courses offered and the experiences they can
live on campus and the facilities that the tutors can offer them regarding their studies.

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References

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/the-purpose-of-facebook

https://www.brightlocal.com/blog/new-google-my-business-features-june-2019/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users/

https://techjury.net/stats-about/google/#gref

https://wearesocial.com/global-digital-report-2019

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