Online Marketing Case Study for AIC - HES-SO Genève

93 Pages·2012·2.87 MB·English

Online Marketing Case
Study for AIC

Bachelor work carried out in order to obtain the Bachelor of Science in
Information Systems
by :
Lester Marc DIZON

Bachelor’s work advisor :
Peter DAEHNE, HES Professor

Geneva, November 5 2012
Geneva School of Business Administration (HEG-GE)
Business Computer Science
Declaration
This Bachelor work is done in the context of the final exam of the Geneva school of
business administration, in order to obtain an HES bachelor degree in Business
computer sciences. The student accepts, if applicable, the privacy statement. The use
of the conclusions and recommendations written down in this report, without foreseeing
their value, do not commit either the responsibility of the author, or that of the Bachelor
work adviser, the member of the jury and the Geneva school of business
administration.
« I certify having worked alone for the present work, without having used other sources
than those quoted into the webography. »

Geneva, 5th of November 2012
Lester Marc DIZON

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DIZON, Lester Marc ii
Acknowledgements
The development of this work would not have been possible without the help of several
people. I want to thank those who were able to advise me in my work.
First of all, I am grateful to Peter Daehne, professor at HES for accepting to be my
work advisor even though he had already many students to supervise. From the
beginning, he has given me good methodological advice which pointed me in the right
direction. He also shared his experiences to find examples relevant to this work.
Also, I would like to thank Kirsten Stromstad, executive director at AIC for providing me
an internship for my bachelor thesis. Besides that, she was open to my propositions
and greatly appreciated my work.
Finally, I would like to thank all those who participated directly or indirectly towards the
success of this work.

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Summary
This work serves to document the different online marketing solutions that I have
proposed as an intern to the AIC.
I have organized this Bachelor work in four chapters:
1. Work Environment: The description of my work and the Club
2. Online Marketing Projects: Online marketing projects definition and analysis
3. Projects Implementation: List of tasks to execute online marketing projects
4. Conclusion/Analysis of Results: Brief conclusion of each project

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Table of contents

Declaration ....................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ iii
Summary ......................................................................................................... iv
Table of contents ............................................................................................. 5
List of Tables .................................................................................................... 7
List of Figures .................................................................................................. 7
Introduction ...................................................................................................... 8
1. Work Environment ....................................................................................... 9
1.1 Description of my work .................................................................................... 9
1.2 About the American International Club of Geneva (AIC) ........................... 10
2. Online Marketing Projects ......................................................................... 11
2.1 Email Newsletter Marketing ........................................................................... 11
2.1.1 Context Description ............................................................................ 12
2.1.2 Actual email marketing service – Sarbacane ..................................... 13
2.1.3 Project objectives................................................................................ 14
2.1.4 List of potential Email Marketing services .......................................... 15
2.1.5 Email Marketing Service Comparison ................................................ 25
2.1.6 Overall Comments .............................................................................. 32
2.2 Search Engine Optimization (SEO)............................................................... 33
2.2.1 Context Description ............................................................................ 33
2.2.2 Project objectives................................................................................ 36
2.3 Social Media Marketing .................................................................................. 37
2.3.1 Context Description ............................................................................ 37
2.3.2 Project objectives................................................................................ 37
2.3.3 Top 5 Social Media Sites .................................................................... 37
2.3.4 Other Specialized Social Media, Forums and Blogs.......................... 39
2.3.5 Types of Social Media Users .............................................................. 40
2.4 Paid Online Advertising ................................................................................. 42
2.4.1 Context Description ............................................................................ 42
2.4.2 Project objectives................................................................................ 42
2.4.3 Main Sources of Internet Traffic ......................................................... 42
2.4.4 Comments........................................................................................... 44
3. Projects Implementation ........................................................................... 45
3.1 Email Newsletter Marketing ........................................................................... 45
3.1.1 Email Marketing Service Selection ..................................................... 45
3.1.2 Signup for a Non-Profit Account ......................................................... 45
3.1.3 Getting Started with GraphicMail........................................................ 46
3.1.4 AIC Newsletter Templates .................................................................. 47
3.1.5 Subscription Form............................................................................... 50
3.1.5 Reports Section .................................................................................. 52
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3.2 Search Engine Optimization .......................................................................... 53
3.2.1 Google Webmaster Tools ................................................................... 53
3.2.2 Setting up a Google Webmaster Tools account ................................ 53
3.2.3 Major settings to Update..................................................................... 54
3.2.4 Minor Settings to Update .................................................................... 58
3.3 Social Media .................................................................................................... 61
3.3.1 Create buzz......................................................................................... 61
3.3.2 Improve “Likes” on Facebook ............................................................. 62
3.3.3 Precautions to Take ............................................................................ 67
3.3.4 Comments........................................................................................... 67
3.4 Paid Online Advertising ................................................................................. 68
3.4.1 Google AdWords ................................................................................ 68
3.4.3 Google AdSense ................................................................................. 69
3.4.3 Facebook Ads ..................................................................................... 70
4. Conclusion/Analysis of Results ................................................................ 76
4.1 Email Newsletter Marketing ........................................................................... 76
4.2 Search Engine Optimization .......................................................................... 76
4.3 Social Media Marketing .................................................................................. 77
4.4 Paid Online Advertising ................................................................................. 77
Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 78
Webography ................................................................................................... 79
Appendix 1………………………………………………….……………………..…………81

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List of Tables
Table 1: Sarbacane Features ................................................................................................ 13
Table 2: MailChimp Features ................................................................................................. 16
Table 3: GraphicMail Features .............................................................................................. 18
Table 4: Constant Contact Features ..................................................................................... 20
Table 5: iContact Features ..................................................................................................... 22
Table 6: Features Comparison .............................................................................................. 25
Table 7: Price Comparison ..................................................................................................... 27
Table 8: Multi-Criteria Decision ............................................................................................. 30
Figures
Figure 1: AIC Website January 1998 .................................................................................... 34
Figure 2: AIC Website May 2001 .......................................................................................... 34
Figure 3: AIC Website August 2007...................................................................................... 35
Figure 4: AIC Website October 2012 .................................................................................... 35
Figure 5: Google Ads Example .............................................................................................. 43
Figure 6: E-News Template - first part .................................................................................. 48
Figure 7: E-News Template - second part ........................................................................... 49
Figure 8: Upcoming Event Template .................................................................................... 50
Figure 9: Subscription Form ................................................................................................... 51
Figure 10: AIC Sitemap .......................................................................................................... 55
Figure 11: HTML Tag Title Example ..................................................................................... 59
Figure 12: About AIC Google Search ................................................................................... 59
Figure 13: Facebook Like for AIC ......................................................................................... 62
Figure 14: Fan-gating example - Non-Fan View ................................................................. 64
Figure 15: Fan-gating Example - Fan View ......................................................................... 65
Figure 16: Facebook AIC Subscription Tab ......................................................................... 66
Figure 17: Set-up Facebook Ad............................................................................................. 70
Figure 18: Facebook Ad Preview for AIC Example ............................................................ 71
Figure 19: Set-up Facebook Ad to promote an AIC post ................................................... 71
Figure 20: Facebook Ad Preview for AIC Post Promotion Example ................................ 72
Figure 21: Facebook Ads - Advanced Options .................................................................... 72
Figure 22: AIC News Feed Story Sample ............................................................................ 72
Figure 23: Facebook Calculated Audience .......................................................................... 73
Figure 24: Facebook Calculated Audience – Filtered with tags ........................................ 74
Figure 25: Facebok Campaign, Pricing andSchedule Settings ......................................... 75
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Introduction
Today, most people have internet access at their home. A huge number of individuals
can have ongoing conversations with each other at the same time. We listen to the
views of others reading the blog, we chat on social networks like Facebook, we share
content in sharing sites like YouTube, we operate in the forums, we share in our emails
and more. Because of this opportunity to communicate, online marketing has emerged
through internet.
Traditional advertising methods include television commercials, posters, radio ads,
posters. Each of these advertising methods is expensive and a required budget for it
may not be possible for a non-profit organization. The internet has changed the way
people use advertising and it seems that online marketing is more effective than
traditional advertising.
Hopefully, for the American International Club of Geneva (AIC), a computer with an
internet access is sufficient to create an online marketing campaign – it does not need
additional budget. However, implementing online marketing campaigns is not easy and
time-consuming. Confidently, I may say that this Bachelor work will provide AIC a guide
through online marketing.

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1. Work Environment
1.1 Description of my work
As part of my Bachelor work at the Haute Ecole de Gestion (HEG). I started an
internship with the American International Club of Geneva from July 16 to July 27,
2012. I had to postpone it for a few weeks for my vacation but continued working on it
from August 27 to September 28, 2012. I worked full-time during school vacation and
from September 17 until the end of my internship I had to work at half-time (50%).
Since the Bachelor work is to be submitted on November 5, 2012, I had another month
from October, to work for this Bachelor thesis. Thus, with my education advisor (Peter
Daehne) and my internship supervisor (Kirsten Stromstad), we decided that I will focus
on the main tasks during my internship. At the end of my internship, I focused on the
Bachelor thesis.
As an intern, I was in charge of helping to increase awareness about the AIC, i.e.
identify the best email-marketing service, drive internet traffic, and increase activity
through the use of social media and other networking tools.
As I was working with persons with no technical knowledge in IT or in online marketing,
I was in-charge of proposing online marketing tools and methods to the AIC. Although
they had an idea of what online marketing is, it was not clear for them. So in this work, I
have separated and organized four different projects:
 Email Marketing
 Search Engine Optimization
 Social Media
 Paid Online Advertisements
It was the advice of my internship supervisor to focus on the Email Marketing project as
my main priority. So during the internship I focused on this and have succeeded. The
other three projects have been successful even though their main purposes was not to
implement the marketing tasks but only for analysis purposes and as a guide to provide
what has to be done in order to execute the online marketing jobs.

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1.2 About the American International Club of Geneva (AIC)
The American International Club is a community of English-speaking people living
around Geneva who are enriched by diverse backgrounds and interests, and
connected by a common language. Originating over sixty years ago, the AIC has
evolved into a rich multicultural organization with members representing 55 countries.
Whether you are new to the area or a lifetime local, make business connections,
strengthen your backhand, groove your swing, and participate in charity. Explore new
ideas and embrace familiar traditions. There is something for everyone.
The purpose of the Club is:
 to foster friendly relationships among Club members,
 to develop and participate in events, meetings and other activities of topical,
educational, cultural, benevolent or diversionary interests to the membership,
and
 to promote friendly relations among the American, international and local
communities present in the Geneva region.

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