Essay Sample on Grow Your Business: How StuffDOT Used Digital Marketing to Increase Customers & Sales

Introduction

Digital marketing is among the business aspects that are growing tremendously. Through technological innovations, businesses have embraced digital tools to market their produces. Companies such as the StuffDOT have increased their customers and sales by marketing their products through technology. StuffDOT is an all in one online shopping and sharing site that rewards its customers for their participation in the development of the organization (StuffDOT, 2012). The company experienced challenges in enhancing the user-friendliness of the site for the users to use the site successfully. In a bid to solve the problem, the company needs to create a buzz, grow user base, analyze the competitors, and change the social media and website features.

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Create a Buzz and Grow Use Base

A buzz in digital marketing refers to the process of consumer and user interaction, which alters or amplifies the original marketing message. The technique is used to maximize the interaction between the consumers on a variety of discussions on social media platforms (Farook, 2016). In a bid to create a buzz, the StuffDOT marketing team should ensure they focus more on the users rather than the site. Therefore, they should seek to reward more users for dotting their products. StuffDOT should also include trendy products on its site. Such products attract more customers since they will want to show off in fashionable goods (Maecker et al., 2016). As a result, the products will be highly dotted, thus increasing their popularity. Another step towards creating a buzz for the stuffDOT is the increase in transparency in rewarding the customers. The customers earn commission by dotting a product, which then attracts people to purchase it (Kerin & Hartley, 2017). If the dotted product bought or shared, the user receives a commission. Therefore, the company should increase transparency to ensure all the users are rewarded according to their participation in the purchase of the product.

Growing the user base is another remarkable aspect that will contribute to the growth and success of the StuffDOT online site. The user base refers to the number of people that use a particular product or service. In this case, the company's marketing team seeks to increase the number of people that use the site to earn commission and buy products. One of the ways to grow the user base is to have all the users to embrace the other company's platforms of marketing (Baumol et al., 2016). Therefore, the StuffDOT site should encourage its users to adopt different platforms, such as the company's social media avenues. Additionally, the marketing staff should ensure they utilize the platforms to the maximum, thus attracting more users (Ezeife, 2017). The StuffDOT should also have products of the customer's taste and preferences. For instance, they should have trendy products that will help them attract more users to buying and sharing. Consequently, the site's user base grows successfully.

Analysis of the Major Competitors

The StuffDOT site faces competition from other platforms that offer the same services and products in the world. The competition spreads to revenue and the number of employees. StuffDOT's primary competitors are the Addshoppers, Shopalize, and Bluecore (Owler, n.d). These sites pose a competitive challenge to the StuffDot, with some having a higher competitive advantage in revenues and employees.

The Addshoppers is the major competitor for StuffDOT, which has its headquarters in North Carolina. The company offers support services where customers share or purchase products from the site. The organization generates $11.3 revenue, which is lesser than the amount StuffDOT makes (Owler, n.d). However, the Addshopper site has a broader market share than StuffDOT. Shopalize, on the other hand, is a top competitor for StuffDOT. The organization has a higher market share than Stuffdot but has 31 fewer employees. Bluecore is the third rival of the StuffDOT organization. The company has 170% of the StuffDOT revenue. Therefore, Bluecore is richer StuffDot despite its low market share.

Recommended Social Media and Website Changes

In a bid to improve the competitive advantage, the StuffDOT should make some changes to the social media and website platforms. For instance, StuffDOT should enhance the image and the appearance of the website to capture all the operations within site. The appearance of a website determines if a consumer will join the platform (StuffDot, n.d). Therefore, by clearly indicating the operations of the platform, the site will attract more users. Additionally, the website should show how people users get rewarded for their contribution to the platform. This information is likely to attract more consumers, thus increasing the platform's user base.

On social media platforms, StuffDOT should implement some changes to attract more users across the world. For instance, the organization should frequently update their social media platforms as they do for the site. Through this strategy, the company will keep its social media customers updated, thus enhancing the relationship between the marketing team and the consumers (Voorveld et al., 2018). Additionally, the organization should ensure they post trendy products on social media platforms. By implementing this change, the organization is likely to increase its popularity across the globe.

Conclusion

Digital marketing is a significant factor that contributes to the development and growth of a company. In a bid to increase the friendliness between the consumer and the organization, StuffDOT needs to create buzz and enhance its user base. Therefore, the organization should have the trendy products and make various changes in their social media and website platforms to increase the user base and create a marketing buzz. From the competitor's analysis, StuffDOT stands a better chance to increase its competitive advantage. Primarily, the effective use of digital marketing platforms enhances the competitive advantage of the StuffDOT site.

References

Baumol, U., Hollebeek, L., & Hung, R. (2016). Dynamics of customer interaction on social media platforms. Electronic Markets.26(1), 199-202. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12525-016-0227-0

Ezeife, L. (2017). Social media strategies for increasing sales. Walden University. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5385&context=dissertations

Farook, F., & Abeysekara, N. (2016). Influence of social media marketing on customer engagement. International Journal of Business and Management Invention. 5(12), 115-125. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311901110_Influence_of_Social_Media_Marketing_on_Customer_Engagement/link/5860b63608ae8fce490318ca/download

Kerin, R., & Hartley, S. (2017). Marketing. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Maecker, O., Barrot, C., & Becker, J. (2016). The effect of social media interactions on customer relationship management. Business Research. 9(1), 133-155. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40685-016-0027-6

Owler (n.d). Stuffdot competitors, revenue, number of employees, funding, and acquisitions. Owler. https://www.owler.com/company/stuffdot

StuffDOT (2012). StuffDOT online site. Minneapolis, Minnesota. https://stuffdot.com/StuffDOT (n.d). The StuffDOT Idea. Viddler. https://www.viddler.com/embed/8e581e11

Voorved, H., Noort, G., Muntinga, D., & Bronner, F. (2018). Engagement with social media and social media advertising: The differentiating role of platform type. Journal of Advertising. 47(1). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00913367.2017.1405754#