Paper Example on Implementation of the Digital Marketing Strategy to Deliver an Improvement in CRO

Executive Summary

Apple Inc is a renowned multinational corporation in the United States and one of the greatest companies in the world that specializes in the design and manufacture of computer software and electronics. The company values its customers and it has been working to enhance its CRO to improve its user experience. For instance, Apple understands how to turn customer wants into needs by reaching out to their emotions through good images and the right language Apple also has a proactive support team for its customers. It has consistency in simplicity of its site and focuses on the value rather than the prices of the products. Regardless of competition from Smasung, Apple has remained to be the giant in the industry. Therefore, the report provides an analysis of Apple's digital marketing strategy, its marketing objectives focused on CRO and the digital marketing implementation plan that entails recommendations for the management of the digital marketing mix, resources and a program of Multivariate testing of the key metrics.

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A Report on the Organisation's Current Approach to CRO

Background Information on the Organization

Apple Inc is a renowned multinational corporation in the United States, established on 1st April 1976 in Cupertino and one of the greatest companies in the world that specializes in the design and manufacture of computer software and electronics (Ouyangshaoxia, 2019). Some of the common hardware products produced by the company are Macintosh computers, iPhone, iPod, iTunes Mac OS X among other creative software. By the end of 2018 fiscal year, the company had approximately 132,000 employees with the highest turnover of 265.6 million, which was an improvement from the previous year, which had about 229.23 billion dollars (Franek, 2019). The company has a loyal customer base that has been devoted to Apple's brand, especially in the United States. According to Fortune's report in 2009, Apple has been an admired company in the United States due to its unique marketing digital strategy that facilitated its CRO (Ouyangshaoxia, 2019). The company is a B2C since consumers buy most of the products for their personal use, and at the same time it is a B2B brand as it sells its products to other companies. Their main competitors in 2018 are Samsung Electronics and Microsoft (Finkle &Mallin, 2010). Samsung Electronics also produces high-end smartphones that are almost at the same level as the Apple smartphones while Microsoft computers are widely used since they are comparatively cheaper than Apple MacBook.

Evaluation of the Approach to CRO Employed by Apple Inc.

Apple has been successful in the manufacture and marketing of the goods and services that consumers really love. Despite its products and services that have an established brand in the market, Apple's digital marketing strategy has been the leading factor to its success over the years. The company has kept its customers on their marketing sites through its consistency in simplicity. Apple products always speak for themselves and the company has maintained simplicity in the visuals and messages it presents on their marketing websites (The Daily Egg, 2017). Their marketing lacks things like prices, a list of features and other expensive decorative special effects that enhance the outlook of the advertisements. Their logo is also simplified with no clever words or visuals accompanying it (The Daily Egg, 2017). As illustrated by CEB, the best and most effective way to reach consumers is not through flashy websites, hyper-inflated or complicated advertisements. Advertisements should instead simplify the decisions of the consumers.

Apple also understands how to turn customer wants into needs by reaching out to their emotions through good images and the right language (Lemon &Verhoef, 2016). The company understands its consumers and reaches out to them based on their habits, their language and their likes and dislikes among others which creates a lasting connection with its customers. There are no explanations or jargons that may be confusing to those visiting their website. For instance, they show an advert with happy people enjoying their moment with their iPads. The ads indicate that Apple sells the emotion of happiness that arises from ownership of an Apple product which prompts those visiting the website into purchasing the product.

Apple also optimizes its conversion rates through its strategy of focusing on the unique value of their products rather than prices (Gallo, 2012). The company knows its position in the market and it never competes on price. It focuses on the entire product displaying its top features and specifications on their website. Most of Apple products are expensive but the company keeps attracting more customers due to the unique features of their products. The strategy has been working effectively and attracting more buyers.

Conversely, Apple has a proactive support team for its customers (Lemon &Verhoef, 2016). The website has a contact page with a full list of contact information that can be easily accessed in case of technical support, advice or any other form of expert information from the company. Telephone number, corporate address, an option to leave feedback and a list of the frequent information search. The well-designed support site provides any form of help to its consumers (Gallo, 2012).

An Analysis of Apple Inc.'s Approach to CRO in Comparison with its Main Competitor

The Smartphone industry has been experiencing high competition as companies venture into the advancing technology. Apple Inc. has been dominant in the market with its main competitor being Samsung Electronics Limited, another giant in the industry. The marketing strategies applied by the two companies relate and contradict in various ways which have led them to remain competitors over the years. For instance, while Apple focuses on product value as its main strategy for reaching out to a wider market, Samsung produces cheaper products that are sleek and appealing to its customers. Most of Apple products are more expensive compared to those of Samsung due to the latter's competitive pricing strategy which is not employed by Apple.

Samsung uses a psychographic approach to appeal to those visiting their websites into purchasing their products (Bajaj, 2017). The company caters for all the customers purchasing their products as it provides products that satisfy any lifestyle and gender. For instance, the company offers phones as cheap as between $120 to $200 while others cost up to $400. The higher price tag on the website is between $500 and $800 which enables any customer visiting its website, the low, middle and high class, to choose mobile phones that best suit their budget and lifestyle (Kateliev, 2018). Nevertheless, although Apple has always been ahead of Samsung, the prices of their products have never been a priority in their digital marketing as their iPhones among other products are very costly, going for approximately $1000 and most affordable for the high class only (Kateliev, 2018). Therefore, not everyone visiting their website will be in a position to purchase their products. However, unlike Samsung that produces versions of its competitor's products, Apple produces original and high-quality products, which is what has kept a majority of the consumers visiting their websites into purchasing its products.

Samsung's advertisements on social media and the website are all about creating awareness of their products. Unlike Apple, they do not appeal to the emotions of their consumers. Although both companies display high-quality visual images, Samsung just shows off the products and a list of their features. Nevertheless, Apple's advertisements are all about their consumers. Instead of merely showing the product, Apple shows an image of a consumer using the product. Apple's advertisement indicates that one can do extraordinary things with products such as the iPhone leaving the consumers with a call to action. The strategy used by Samsung assumes that the consumer already knows what to do with the features they display in the advertisements, which is the reason why Apple has remained ahead of it with a much higher CRO (Pulizzi, 2014).

Samsung applies onsite retardation campaign to convert the potential customers who leave their website without converting (Pal, 2018). For instance, the company sends a message written "save cart" to all of its visitors to enable them easily complete their orders before leaving the site. They also offer to send the contents of the cart through the email address to save a potential customer and also a build an email list which can be used to remind the potential consumers of the available offers. The company also uses a redirection popup that directs all its visitors into providing feedback before leaving the website which is a good strategy of understanding why they might be leaving their cart. Apple also uses the onsite retardation approach to reach out to its consumers although it does not take it a seriously as Samsung does. On Apple's website, there is a highlighted section of gift messages and gift wrapping and customers can also create greeting cards on the cart page before checking out (Pal, 2018). However, the company fails to collect their potential customers' emails, which makes it hard to reach out to their cart abandoners.

Additionally, Samsung has a strong social media presence and the company does a lot of social listening on what the customers like or dislike in order to come up with products that satisfy their needs and wants (Iblasi et al., 2016). Samsung has set social engagement as its key to its digital marketing which helps it reach out to more people and create relationships with them (Kadim, 2019). The bond created on social platform forms the foundation of web traffic and product purchasing since the company listens and understands what their consumers like and dislike. Nevertheless, Apple makes minimal social media appearances as it prefers their supporters and fans to make the buzz themselves while it remains silent (Kadim, 2019). However, the company recently developed a twitter account where the support team responds to all their customers' queries and builds relationships and trust among them. The strategy not only markets the products but also provides feedback for the company on the expectations of its consumers, their likes and dislikes helping it to design products that satisfy their needs.