- What is the definition of a digital marketing plan?
A digital marketing plan is essential for businesses since it provides them with a structured method of utilizing online media. In today’s digital environment, when clients rely so heavily on the internet, having a well-defined plan is crucial to reaching your intended audience, staying within your budget, and producing measurable results. It helps businesses generate leads, interact with their audience, and build brand awareness in an ever-changing online environment.
- How does McDonald’s organize a plan?
McDonald’s digital marketing strategy was considered to achieve its objectives, but how did McDonald’s structure its strategic plan effectively?
- First, McDonald’s has defined its Target Audience
McDonald’s customers include families with children, young adults, busy professionals, students, tourists and coffee lovers. To meet the varied preferences and needs of consumers while offering fast, affordable and familiar meals globally, the focus is on variety.
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- Creating buyer personas.
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- But Why would one want to develop a buyer persona?
By facilitating focused marketing, better product development, tailored communication, effective resource allocation, higher conversion rates, improved customer experience, and fostering brand loyalty, the creation of buyer personas benefits organizations.
- Online Targeted Advertising
McDonald’s marketing strategy includes investing in online and offline marketing methods that deliver clear, brand-centric messaging to a broad audience and the use of other channels, such as its dedicated mobile app to reach and retain customers.
Thus, digital marketing strategies are used to send relevant information to people who are not likely to see or hear advertisements.
Online advertising helps brands achieve their goals of growing demand and growing brand awareness.
The information used online resembles that used on a billboard or in a McDonald’s television commercial. However, the language and graphics are designed to work best on the social media platforms used, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. McDonald’s takes advantage of the growing trend of food photography by asking customers to post photos of their meals on the Internet. Between September 2018 and February 2019, 4.9 million McDonald’s logos were posted on Twitter around the world. This made McDonald’s the second most photographed brand.
McDonald’s digital marketing strategy includes interacting with customers via social networks such as Facebook and Instagram. Customers interact with the brand and with each other on social media. During the recession of the 2000s, McDonald’s was one of the few successful businesses. The reason for success is that the company informs customers of its strategy.
By bringing together very different audiences and diverse origins around a simple product: the hamburger, McDonald’s has managed to conquer very different audiences. McDonald’s has spent more than 2 billion euros on advertising, half of its annual profits, on advertising campaigns. McDonald transmits its values and image through its communication media.
McDonald’s YouTube page contains various advertisements, such as micro product presentation videos, original promotional advertisements (Hands Full, Search It, #GoodToKnow..), thank you videos and customer interviews. McDonald’s YouTube channel, which has 395,170 subscribers, has become an essential digital tool for its communication. TV ads are broadcast on the YouTube channel to anchor the brand in the minds of customers.
In 2015, McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets asked Raphaël Gomes, a famous YouTuber, to produce a video in partnership with the brand. To date, 176,683 people have seen the video.
In addition, the brand communicates with its customers through contests, challenges, events, tweets and ads.
- influence marketing
- Collaboration with influential figures
McDonald’s works with social media influencers to reach a wider and diverse audience. For example, the famous American YouTuber David Dobrik participated in advertising campaigns for McDonald’s, sharing moments related to the brand with his audience.
an alternative trisha paytas, Trisha Paytas, an American social media personality, also collaborated with McDonald’s, sharing her food preferences and experiences with the chain.
These partnerships allow the brand to use the expertise and credibility of influencers to promote its unique products and offers. McDonald’s was able to attract new customers and increase its online presence thanks to this strategy.
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- Powerful branding tactics
Christmas sweaters, notepads, umbrellas, and other goods have the Golden Arches embellishing its picture with extra fun. McDonald’s provides its consumers with a permanent internet store called Golden Arches Unlimited where they may buy its branded goods as the holidays get near.
McDonald’s has traditionally produced goods in collaboration with fashion companies on occasion since the 1980s, according to the corporation. The fast-food restaurant franchise debuted a limited-edition product range through the McDelivery Collection in 2017.
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- Use a Unique Crafting
Unlike other businesses that only utilize their regular logo and an arrow to point customers in the right direction, McDonald’s has taken a more inventive approach with their latest campaign.
The brand’s inventive campaign to transform traffic signs into works of art is created by TBWA/Paris. In a series of straightforward, vividly colored posters, the campaign transforms McDonald’s well-known fries into traffic-directing arrows. The classic 21st-century art trend, minimalism, served as the inspiration for these advertisements. The administration claims that eight vibrantly colored posters may be combined in 64 distinct ways. Camille Roulant and Emile Chiumino spearheaded the effort.
Almost half of the McDonald’s restaurants in the United States are situated three minutes apart. McDonald’s provides a particular degree of contentment and pleasure to its patrons. It provides a value position according to the requirements of the customer.
- Digital Loyalty Programs
Mcdonald’s collects valuable customer data through the launch of its application, allowing it to know its habits and preferences in order to offer targeted promotions and improve customer relationship management.
Today the satisfaction rate at the exit of a brand restaurant is over 80%. Thanks to digitalization, it is possible to retain customers and attract new customers, especially those who are not yet customers.
This data will be used in future marketing campaigns to reach a wider audience and improve the brand’s online reputation.
The brand also maintains an excellent reputation on social networks. The channel has a strong presence on Facebook. The brand responds very quickly to customer feedback, which reinforces interactions and proximity with customers.
- SEO (search engine optimization)
The company also works on search engine optimization (SEO), but its «organic» SEO method works better than «sponsored» promotion. In December 2019, 90.7% of search traffic on McDonald’s. com came from natural search results, while 9.3% came from sponsored keywords.
- Performance monitoring
To assess the performance of their digital marketing strategy, McDonald’s and other large companies use a variety of tools and platforms. Although the details may differ, here are some types of tools that can be used:
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- Google Analytics: to track McDonald’s website traffic, analyze user behavior and measure online conversions.
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- Google Ads and other advertising platforms: to measure click-through rates, impressions, and conversion rates of online advertising campaigns.
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- Marketing Campaign Management Devices: Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Buffer are digital marketing platforms that specialize in campaign planning, execution and tracking.
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- Customer relationship management (CRM): CRM systems track customer interactions with the brand, how they purchase, and how they respond to communications.
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- Online surveys and customer feedback tools: Customer feedback and opinions can be collected using platforms like SurveyMonkey or Typeform.
McDonald’s plan is summarized as follows:
McDonald’s digital marketing strategy aims to improve customer satisfaction through the use of technology strategically. In order to increase its online presence, the organization focuses on projects such as self-order kiosks, mobile applications, and customized products. McDonald’s wants to boost customer retention by using consumer data to offer personalized incentives and loyalty programs. In addition, the business uses social media to engage with clients and offer interactive product promotion. In conclusion, McDonald’s digital marketing seeks to enhance the brand’s online presence, customize the dining experience for customers, and streamline ordering procedures using technology.
- Conclusion
To sum up, in today’s changing environment, creating a well-structured digital marketing plan is crucial for success. Companies may engage with their target audience and successfully manage the complexity of the digital world by adhering to a clear framework. Furthermore, according to McDonald’s, a solid digital marketing strategy should start with a thorough understanding of the target demographic, a thoughtful selection of online platforms, In addition to influencer marketing and targeted internet advertising, McDonald’s also prioritizes digital loyalty programs as part of a communication strategy to comprehend client preferences and problems, using social media platforms, putting into practice efficient SEO techniques, and continuously tracking and evaluating key performance indicators (KPIs). Sustainable success in the dynamic world of digital marketing will depend on reevaluating the strategy on a regular basis and modifying techniques in light of new trends and customer behavior. In the end, an organized digital marketing plan acts as a road map, pointing businesses in the direction of greater brand awareness, customer interaction, and, eventually, business expansion in the digital sphere.
McDonald’s : Médias sociaux et interaction client (mcdonald’s journey.com)
McDonald’s : Etudes, analyses Marketing et Communication de McDonald’s (marketing-etudiant.fr)
Le secret de la réussite de McDonald’s en marketing digital (imperial-media.fr)
