Target market

SYRBazaar is an online marketplace similar to Etsy that exclusively features products developed by Syracuse University student and alumni designers. Currently, the website targets college students and SU alumni who look to purchase beautiful and unique items.

Persona A would be the Syracuse University student who is female, 18-25, keeps up with all the trends, and values uniqueness.  She may already shop on Etsy and often uses Pinterest in order to find one of a kind items or DIY crafts.

Persona B is the alumni, most likely female, ages 26-32 who loves supporting Syracuse University in any way possible.  She may have graduated out of the VPA program and also shops on Etsy to find one of a kind items.

To effectively target this market we have developed the following market plan

Social Media

The use of social media will be very effective in capturing both Persona A and B.  Both personas actively use social media and do so to keep up with trends and follow brands online.  Utilizing social media is very low cost and will increase visibility and brand awareness in order to ultimately drive traffic back to the website.  SYRBazaar would be extremely effective in turning “likes” into sales by following Express’s example by providing video from photo-shoots of the items they sell and interviews with the student/alumni designers to create lively interactions with their customers via social media.

SEO Strategy

In order for SYRBazaar to have a successful online marketing plan, it must implement a thorough search engine optimization strategy.   An organic search strategy is SYRBazaar’s best method to acquiring the most traffic on their website.  This search engine marketing technique is cheaper than pay-per-click advertising. This search strategy will present a more long-term marketing solution, because brand recognition and loyalty is developed organically. The key in developing a successful SEO lies within the strength of the websites keywords.  All of the websites keywords should relate to the sites objective, which is to promote and sell Syracuse University related art. Some of the keywords to include should be “Syracuse University jewelry,” “Syracuse University fine art,” “Syracuse University prints,” “Syracuse University furniture,” “Syracuse University ceramics,” “Syracuse University designers,” “Syracuse University trends” and “Syracuse University fashion.” Because Syracuse’s VPA students often create these products, VPA should be interchangeable with “Syracuse University” when establishing these keywords.  The keywords generated should also include any subcategories of these words, for example Syracuse University skirts, which provides a more specific focus than fashion.  Another important factor to a successful SEO strategy, which SYRBazaar needs to include, are links to the company’s site and from other related popular sites, both inbound and outbound.  SYRBazaar should offer links to other fashion blogs and fashion related sites that present similar material.  Links to the online fashion blogs Style Mode Magazine, Fashion Indie, and the Chriselle Factor will improve the sites “cool” image and increase awareness and ultimately lead to more customer traffic. This will increase the Alexa.com ranking of the website and make it more desirable to place advertisements on and dramatically increase the credibility and search engine ranking of the site.

Logo Recreation

The Logo needs to be redone with the customer kept in mind. The main problem with the current logo is that it is not memorable and does not create a memorable impression for the target customer. Fashion is a creative and expressive subject the logo should reflect those concepts. We would like the graphics designer to develop a logo with pastel colors (the kind of graphics that were common during the inception of Web 2.0) that will draw the eyes of the customer and give them idea that SYRBazaar prides itself on creativity and attention to detail.

Keyword Bidding

Targeted display advertising on relevant websites. After all free marketing tactics have been exhausted paid search and SEM tactics should be applied. Higher level keywords will be targeted as the site gains credibility as it grows and matures. An example shown below is Homemade Fashion Products could be targeted.

Heat map Analysis

Move the twitter, Facebook, call to actions to higher placement on the page (heat map). The current spots they are in are the least viewed placement on a website. The contrast is gray on black which is not prime to grab the attention of users. The newly designed are hand drawn which goes with the creative nature of the website and should be a similar design as the new logo.

Meta Tags

The description in the Meta tags needs to be-reworked to inform customers of the nature of the website. It should say something along the lines of: “We are an online fashion boutique located in Syracuse. We custom make all our products for all your fashion needs!”  This will make the website look more professional in the search engines, increase site stickiness and increase the SEO ranking by informing search engines what the purpose of the site is.

Reward System

Offer a reward system for submitting designs. A monthly contest should be held and the best design gets free products and publicity on the website. This will increase customer loyalty, engage customers with the site and increase stickiness. This will also drive new products for development for the website and give customers their own equity in the site.

Email Blast

The Email blast will be utilized on holidays to best reach the target audience. The blast is entitled SYRBazaar 40% off Holiday Sale. This blast is for any general holiday but the graphics can be customized based on the target persona. The stars and social media icons appear to be hand drawn which is consistent with the company image of being a creative company that makes its own products. The text on the blast is consistent with the accepted principles for communicating with your customer via email. This includes the company name, a custom message to the customer, a % off that is reasonable, and multiple calls to action on the email.