BUSI 436 Week 6 Internet Marketing Plan Outcome Paper 3 Example

Internet Marketing Plan, Part 3: Tactics, Budget and Measurement for Harbor Leaf Tea Company

Purpose

The first outcome paper set five objectives for Harbor Leaf Tea Company's online business, from more than doubling website visits to raising repeat purchases, and the second defined three target segments, personas for each and a positioning built on expertise. This third paper sets out the tactics that will carry that strategy into action, the budget that funds them and the metrics that will reveal which of them are paying off. Roberts and Zahay (2018) emphasize that tactics must follow strategy and that every activity in an Internet marketing plan should be measurable, and both principles guide what follows.

Tactics

Website and Content

The website will be rebuilt around the positioning: every product page will carry staff tasting notes, brewing instructions and reviews. A tea finder quiz will recommend three teas based on flavor, caffeine and brewing method, serving enthusiasts and helping casual drinkers like Priya choose. A content library of short brewing guides, origin stories and seasonal pieces will be published twice a month. This content serves the enthusiast persona directly and supports organic search for all three.

Search and Local Listings

The company will optimize product and guide pages for the specific tea names and category phrases enthusiasts and gift buyers search, and will complete and maintain map listings for both shops with photos, hours and reviews, since mobile gift buyers favor nearby results. Paid search will focus on category and gift keywords where the company already ranks organically, not on its brand name, and positions will be tested for cost per order.

Email and Automatic Reorders

Email is the most important tactic for the repeat purchase objective. A welcome series will introduce new subscribers to the shops' specialists and offer a sample with the first order; a monthly new-arrivals email will serve enthusiasts; a gift reminder will go to past gift buyers before major holidays; and a reorder reminder, timed to when a customer's tea is likely to run low, will serve wellness drinkers. Customers will also be able to set up automatic reorders.

Research supports investing in personalized email. Sahni et al. (2018) ran field experiments and found that adding the recipient's name to an email's subject line increased the probability of opening, led to more inquiries and reduced unsubscribes, even though the name added no information. Ansari and Mela (2003) found that customizing the content of emails to each recipient's interests substantially increased click-through. If simply using a customer's name changes behavior, sending each customer the teas that match their past orders should matter even more. Harbor Leaf's emails will use first names and recommend teas based on each customer's purchases.

Social Media and Creators

Instagram will carry brewing tips, staff tasting moments and calm-evening routines, posted three times a week, aimed mainly at engaging existing customers. A small creator program will send teas to five regional food and wellness creators whose followers match the wellness persona, with clear disclosure of every gift or payment.

Integration With the Shops

The tactics above are designed to work with the two shops rather than apart from them. Receipts in the shops will carry a code for a first online order, staff will invite customers to join the email list at checkout, and a tablet at each counter will let customers take the tea finder quiz and save their results. Online customers will be able to choose in-store pickup, which brings them into the shops, where staff can introduce them to teas they might not find online. Shop specialists will write the tasting notes and brewing guides, so the online voice is the same voice customers hear in person. Roberts and Zahay (2018) stress that the strongest Internet marketing integrates online and offline strategies, and for a business whose advantage is personal expertise, the shops are the source of the content that makes the website worth visiting.

Responsibilities

The owner will approve the content calendar, the budget and any changes to pricing or offers. A part-time marketing coordinator, drawn from the shop staff, will manage email, social media, listings and reporting for about fifteen hours a week. Two shop specialists will each write one guide or set of tasting notes a month. A web contractor will rebuild the site and quiz in the first two months and provide maintenance afterward. Assigning each task to a named role keeps the plan from becoming one more good idea that the busy owners admire but never put into practice.

Budget

The website rebuild is the largest item because every other tactic sends customers there. The total is about 3 percent of current sales, a level the owners consider affordable, and roughly a third of the additional online revenue the objectives target.

Measurement Plan

The owners will review a one-page dashboard monthly and hold a quarterly planning session to shift budget toward tactics that perform. Each paid campaign will be tested, for example by pausing paid search in one month and comparing orders, so that spending follows evidence.

Testing and Adjustment

No plan gets every tactic right at the start, so the program builds in tests. Paid search positions will be compared for cost per order during the spring, and a month with paid search paused will show how many orders it adds beyond organic search. Email subject lines will be tested in pairs, with the winner used for the rest of the list. Creator partnerships will be judged by tracked codes and new subscribers rather than likes. At each quarterly review, the owners will move money from tactics that underperform to those that exceed their targets, and they will record what they learned giving the following year's plan a record of results to build on. This approach treats the budget as a series of small experiments, which is how a small business can compete with larger rivals that can afford to waste money.

Expected Results

If traffic reaches 14,000 visits a month at a 2.2 percent conversion rate and an average order of about $55, the website would produce roughly 310 orders and $17,000 in sales a month by the end of the year, compared with about 96 orders and $5,300 a month today. Repeat purchases and email-driven orders would add to that figure. These results would bring online sales to about 15 percent of total sales, meeting the plan's central objective.

Next Step

The Final Project in Week 8 will combine this paper with the situation analysis and strategy papers, adding an implementation timeline, a risk section and a conclusion to create the complete Internet Marketing Plan.

References

Ansari, A., & Mela, C. F. (2003). E-customization. Journal of Marketing Research, 40(2), 131-145. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.40.2.131.19224

Roberts, M. L., & Zahay, D. (2018). Internet marketing: Integrating online and offline strategies (4th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Sahni, N. S., Wheeler, S. C., & Chintagunta, P. (2018). Personalization in email marketing: The role of noninformative advertising content. Marketing Science, 37(2), 236-258. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2017.1066