Internship_Report DIGITAL MARKETING ACTIVITIES AT ESOS COMPANY

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIONS  INTERNSHIP REPORT Major: Marketing DIGITAL MARKETING ACTIVITIES AT ESOS COMPANY Student’s name: Nguyen Phi Yen ID Number: 14DH490060 Class: KM1404 Course: 2014 Instructor: Nguyen Vo Hoang Trang HCMC, 06/2018 This page is used for acknowledgement This page is used for advisor’s comment This page is used for abstract This page is used for “Nhận xét đơn vị thực tập” (theo mẫu) This page is used for “Phiếu báo cáo công việc” (theo mẫu) TABLES OF CONTENT LISTS OF ABBREVIATION LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES ABSTRACT Chapter 1: Overview about ESOS COMPANY 1.1 ESOS COMPANY introduction 1.1.1 The process of formatting & developing 1.1.3 The market, services and competitors of ESOS COMPANY 1.2 Functions, missions and organizational structure 1.3 Business Operation Results at ESOS COMPANY in the period 2016 – 2017 1.4 The importance of digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY Summary Chapter Chapter 2: Current status of digital marketing activities in Vietnam 2.1 Overview of digital marketing activities in Vietnam 2.1.1 Basic information about digital marketing 2.1.2 The current status of digital marketing in Vietnam 2.1.3 The current status of digital marketing in law industry 2.2 Current status of digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2015 – 2017 2.2.1 Digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY through channels 2.2.2 Factors influence on digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY 2.3 The evaluation of digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY 2.3.1 Achievement 2.3.2 Limitation Summary chapter Chapter 3: Solution to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 3.1 The perspective, objectives and orientations to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 3.1.1 The perspective to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 3.1.2 The objectives to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 3.1.3 The orientations to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 3.2 The opportunities and challenges to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 3.2.1 Opportunities 3.2.2 Challenges 3.3 The basis and objectives to suggest solution 3.3.1 The basis to suggest solution 3.3.2 The objectives of solution 3.4 Solution to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 3.4.1 Design 3.4.2 Content 3.4.3 Engagement on Facebook page 3.4.4 Timing Summary chapter CONCLUSION REFERENCE LIST APPENDIX This page is used for list of abbreviation This page is used for list of table & figures 10 public) turning the public into a part of the ad campaign and brings the experience of product or service to target customer instead of just focus on making impress on them The period from 2016 to 2017 is probably the time that the publics can witness the remakable stage of digital marketing: hundreds of digital campaigns are created, dozens of the campaign received positive feedback from the public, which bring incredible return on investment to businesses Typically, it's impossible to not mention the viral clip “Di de tro ve” – highlighting the spectacular return of national brand Bitis's with Bitis Hunter, which is a sneaker line for Vietnam’s young generation It attracted many concerns from community from a small video release in the Tet holiday with Soobin Hoang Son serve as main KOLs & content is the trip back home with the parents of character to gather for Tet holiday on the music of “Di de tro ve” song written by Tien Tien Dien may Xanh with viral clip named “Ban muon mua TV, den Dien may Xanh” – a clip with some blue characters sing a funny song had the same name with video – has helped this new brand successfully entered the in the retail market of smart machinery & equipment, directly competing with many brands have existed on the market, etc These events have proven that digital marketing has become an indispensable marketing channel beside the current traditional marketing channels – plays an important role in making the connection between the business and with community & target customer However, digital marketing also poses significant challenges for business in Vietnam, requires the understanding and learning of marketer to respond to changes and trends in the market 2.1.3 The current status of digital marketing in law industry Do not stand apart from the development of digital marketing, the companies provide services about HR solutions, legislation and the law also have the appropriate digital marketing activities However, the response is still low in average, most companies still use traditional channels such as leaflet, tele-sale and pitching, among them, email marketing and SEO are the activity most frequently used though the efficiency is not as expect for some reason such as: the problems related to the law are still unfamiliar with 18 the community, target customers most enterprises in the form of business to business (B2B), difficulty in finding appropriate media channels for marketing activities… As a result, ESOS company became one of the early birds that conducted digital marketing activities on the market, contributes to bring law to the community or beyond is to build a fairly business environment 2.2 Current status of digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2015 – 2017 2.2.1 Digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY through channels As mentioned above, the digital marketing activities have been done right from the early days of the ESOS was established, under the direction & guidance from the Operations Manager After one period of constantly testing the communication channel, at present, the ESOS currently use 4-channel digital marketing: email marketing (using MailChimp as third party), social media - LinkedIn, Facebook and official website of the company  Email marketing – MailChimp In theory, email marketing is the cheapest way to reach to target customer & also the most effective way to attract audience Because there’re so many platforms that provide free packages for business to email marketing up till now – Mailchimp, for example All company have to is create an account, import database of customer, design an interesting email, then send it to available contacts At the end of each campaign, Mailchimp will give you a report about efficiency of campaign through detail data – open rated, click rated, etc In particular, with the email marketing channel, ESOS are currently has more than 700 email addresses of potential customers, in which, 80% of email data is acquired from the customer file of competitors collected by ESOS’s marketing manager, 20% are selfcollected data through sign up form on company’s official website Within year of operation, the company has deployed 24 campaign email marketing to potential clients and get general results like the image below (figure 2.1) Figure 2.1: The overview email marketing result of ESOS 19 Sourcing: Mailchimp of ESOS 2016 – 2017 Most of emails are sent by ESOS are achieved low to medium open rates, eventually it intend to reduce Similarly, interaction rate is also low, there’re some email that not received any interaction from recipients In detail, take a look at two campaign of ESOS, which is “Luong Co So 2017” (figure 2.2) and “Social Insurance” (figure 2.3) Figure 2.2: The result of “Luong Co So 2017” campaign on Mailchimp Sourcing: Report on Mailchimp of ESOS 2017 20 First, look at the report of a "Luong Co So 2017", the number of emails opened reach 25%, equivalent to 1/4 the amount of mail sent and the amount of interaction (clicked rate) is 7.5% This is one of the most effective campaign of the ESOS in 2017 Therefore, obviously, this campaign had effectiveness in attracting the target customers, promote the recipient to open the mail and interact with e-mail by clicking on the link to read more information at ESOS’s official website with content about urgency problem - notification of the base salary changing in 2017 - solve common concerns of employees as well as employers As a result, the campaign received a lot of attention & engagement of the recipient, succeeded in increasing the level of brand awareness for the ESOS Figure 2.3: The result of “Social Insurance” campaign on Mailchimp Sourcing: Report on Mailchimp of ESOS 2017 Conversely, for the campaign '' Social Insurance "- one of the most ineffective campaign of the ESOS This campaign is not getting any open rated & clicked rate as well One of the reasons that may be mentioned are because the client’s databases has not been cleaned & verify carefully - some email addresses are no longer exists, email title fail to attract the recipient or some problem in internet connection Overall, the implementation of email marketing campaigns via MailChimp of ESOS has also achieved some success - attracting targeted customers to open email and interact 21 with email through click in the link, message content is necessary & interesting, caring & updating the latest information for ESOS’s current client Thereby, increasing brand awareness, caring current clients and generate revenues through the new sales contract However, email marketing activities of ESOS should be improved & enhanced many aspects such as: improving communication publications, increasing content quality campaign, filter database of target customers carefully  Facebook Besides email marketing via Mailchimp, ESOS also uses Facebook as a second platform  to reach target audiences – with more than 160 followers and 100 posts from the early  day till now. The two most typical post may be mentioned are: “Quan li luong khong don gian nhu ban tuong” (figure 2.4) and “Cham luong! Noi am anh kinh hoang” (figure 2.5) Figure 2.4: Report of “Quan li luong khong don gian nhu ban tuong” on ESOS fanpage Sourcing: ESOS’s Facebook page 2017 22 This is one of post that gains the most positive reaction from audience during the  operation of the fanpage. Content of the post primarily gives the reader the basic  knowledge of payroll, the difficulties encountered when implementing payroll activities However, the level of engagement in this post still low – 11 likes, 0 comment and 2  shares Figure 2.5: Report on “Cham luong” post of ESOS 2017 Sourcing: ESOS’s fanpage 2017 This post just reaches 40 people, gain 6 likes, 0 comments and 0 share In general, for the B2B business as ESOS, Facebook is not an appropriate and effective  channel. Business customers will not feel confident when reading professional  information in Facebook. However, from the angle of entertainment, Facebook would be  the appropriate place to develop a comprehensive content such as “1001 things you don't  know about the ESOS staff”, “The difference between the new employees to work and  employees work in ESOS”  LinkedIn 23 As you may know, LinkedIn is a popular site for business and workforce. With the  characteristics and specific algorithms, it also requires a smart & efficiency marketing  strategy. At LinkedIn, the business must regularly update the situation, achievements and  activities to provide information for customers. Besides, LinkedIn also has ties closely  with Google on arrays brand identity ­ most of the post & activity on LinkedIn will be  read & tracked by Google, businesses often provide information for community through  the post will achieve high levels of brand recognition by Google.  ESOS is no exception, the marketing manager at the ESOS has established a separate  account for ESOS very early to get all of the benefits (figure 2.6) Figure 2.6: ESOS’s profile on LinkedIn 24 Sourcing: ESOS Payroll Vietnam on LinkedIn 2017 Moreover, LinkedIn also has a utility called Slideshare – where the information that  businesses want to give for audiences will be brief & simplified in the form of  PowerPoint slides, enabling the download & refer to the user (figure 2.7)  Figure 2.7: Slideshare of ESOS on LinkedIn 25 Sourcing: LinkedIn of ESOS 2017 Though, LinkedIn also has some limitations: no measurable downloads, views, feedback  from users, limiting most of the features of the free package for advertising, advertising  costs are higher than other social networks like Facebook, Instagram.  Therefore, LinkedIn is seen as a push­marketing approach, where businesses push  information to the user, accepting one­way flow of information  Website Website has been known for providing information Here, all the activities and posts will be fully updated Website ESOS was also established with the same purpose (figure 2.8), all the information about company, service processes, as well as updates are posted on the website, create favorable conditions for customers to contact Differentiated from other platforms, ESOS website are created by third party named 26 Haravan So, ESOS can’t measuring the traffic on website, the reading rates from website but from other channels such as Mailchimp (via click rated) Figure 2.8: ESOS’s officially website Sourcing: ESOS’s official website 2.2.2 Factors influence on digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY After doing the research and overview of digital channels, some factors that influence the digital marketing activities are:  Service processes of the company – marketer have to understanding about services process, customer behavior & insight of customer through process to attract them  The goals of company Based on the goal of the company, marketer will choose suitable channels to achieve the goal as soon as possible  High technology equipment for designing publications – technology & capabilities is the most essential factors to ensuring the quality of publications 2.3 The evaluation of digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY 2.3.1 Achievement Some highlight achievement of ESOS on digital marketing activities are: 27  Finding the effective channels for digital marketing activity after testing on all available digital marketing channels  Gaining about 5% brand awareness from the community (according to reports of all campaign)  Gaining their own customer database through sign up form embed on official website & from database of competitors  Building an official website for owned media by managers via third party – Haravan 2.3.2 Limitation The limitation ESOS have to face with:  Not have a digital marketing strategy to maintain activities  The interaction on each activity is still low  Some measurement for digital marketing activities is not available Summary chapter In summary, each digital channels brought different aspects of the marketing process for ESOS Website as providing information, LinkedIn updates, simplifies information into a powerpoint slide so that customers can download, Facebook serves to spread and increase the recognition for the brand, email marketing follow current client as well as attract potential customers Each channel has its own achievements and limitations, but still plays an important role in the marketing of the ESOS Chapter 3: Solution to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 3.1 The perspective, objectives and orientations to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 3.1.1 The objectives to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 Today, when the wave of e-commerce is booming, lead to the appearance and development of the digital marketing channels (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, ) as well as the decline of traditional marketing channels (TV commercial, banner ads, 28 outdoor billboards, leaflet, flyer ) Previously, every person received more than 500 advertisements from television commercials, books, magazines or even to a box of pasteurized milk The public seems to have reached the threshold (maximum level) to percept advertising and tend to appear negative feelings about the brand in any ads they may notice This situation makes businesses be worried in finding solutions to attract & impress their target audience In this context, the digital marketing channels appear, bring opportunities as well as new challenges for enterprises with completely new features, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, requiring in-depth knowledge & expertise of marketers – how can the voice and image of business expressed through advertising impress target audience in this enormous volume of information? Specifically, in the case of the ESOS, a company that provides the service, with the target customers are businesses (B2B), digital marketing activity is definitely a tough problem Because beyond the common perception of consumers, the form of B2B business requires specialized knowledge - not everyone can understand and interesting, not every digital marketing channel can reach target customer Therefore, setting a specific objective in improving marketing activities in ESOS is so essential to ensure the marketing activities on track, avoid breaking goodwill of ESOS in the perceptions of target customers, choose effective marketing channels thereby optimizing costs According to the board of directors, based on the product life cycle of the ESOS at this moment - lie at introduction stage - the main objective of marketing activities in this phase is to increase brand awareness for target customers and the public Therefore, the objective of the marketing department in the period 2018-2019 are: in the first months, increasing brand recognition by 5% / total population, going to sign the contract with at least new clients In the last months, focus in increasing brand recognition to 8% / total population and gained 10 new contracts To achieve these objective, all the department in the ESOS general and marketing department in particular, should have strong efforts, take advantage of available resources and cooperate well with each other 29 to find solutions to the most optimal, which will be presented in detail in the following section 3.1.2 The orientations to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 Based on the objectives above, to implement and complete all that objectives smoothly and successfully, the marketing activities in the ESOS should be oriented properly and timely in many respects First, in terms of budget, ESOS are still operating with the budget of 0VND, required to take full advantage of free advertising packages, exploit free information resources & data reports after each campaign There’s no chance for any marketing fee Second, in terms of tools, ESOS currently using digital marketing tools 4: Facebook, Website, LinkedIn and Email In particular, for the channels that customers can directly interact like Facebook and Email, focusing on implement pull marketing activities in order to attract customers, provide information for business Conversely, for the channel provides one-way communication, such as Websites and LinkedIn, focus on the deployment push marketing activities, building good brand image for the public Finally, for the content & design in all publications, focus on analyzing the data returned from the campaign, the interaction of customers to timely adjust and improve quality Besides, constantly learn & study the behavior of target customer, determine insight, thereby making the marketing strategy accordingly This general orientation will keep all the marketing activities of ESOS on track, ensuring the acquiring of objectives 3.2 The opportunities and challenges to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 3.2.1 Opportunities + More & more workers want to learn about the rights & benefits while working at an organization/company, one of the evidence is the post including the rights of the workers received a lot of attention from community 30 + Direct competitors – FOSCO – not pay attention to invest in digital marketing activity + Many foreign-invested company establish in Vietnam – the needs of solving & processing paperwork from the representative offices as well as the demand for working permits for foreigners increased, facilitating for the development of the ESOS 3.2.2 Challenges + Indirect competitors have many activities on digital marketing channels such as Talentnet, HR2B There are many posts on the websites of these two enterprises, while the pop-ups advertising also regularly appears on the business forum + The budget for marketing activities at ESOS are limited + Employees in charge of marketing is low – there’s persons that are responsible for marketing activities 3.3 Solution to enhance digital marketing activities at ESOS COMPANY in the period of 2018 – 2019 3.3.1 Strategy + Recruiting high quality & experienced marketing manager, their experience and expertise will contribute to promoting the development of the company + Improving the corporation between design & content parts, ensuring the consistency of publications 3.3.2 Design + Investing in high technology equipment to ensure publication quality (Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier Pro…) + Recruiting experienced & suitable employees in design + Updating the latest trend about design, make sure that all the publications is on trend & catching the eyes of customer 3.3.3 Content + Recruiting copywriter to write content for ESOS, from there, improving quality of each post on digital marketing channels, attracting target customer + Summarizing the content of each posts, avoid lengthy rambling 31 Summary chapter In this chapter, there’s some recommendation for the development of ESOS based on what board of director want, monthly objective and current situation of ESOS For a small company like ESOS, stable investments on marketing activities is purely a strength in this era of information technology today 32