Plan Direct Marketing Activities Assessment Answer

Reach Heights offer personalised career counselling services to individuals targeting, the high school students, TAFE and university graduates, people with some work experience who are targeting non-management and mid-tier organisational roles and also people with considerable work experience who are aiming to secure senior positions in a managerial and/or executive role. On the other hand, Digi Geek is full-service marketing agency and specialises in strategic thinking through innovative technologies, by marketing, and branding, and thereby providing interactive solutions, along with visual communication. The team manages the marketing projects from the inception to the finality, through website designing and development. Digi Geek assist their clients i.e. Reach Heights, to achieve business objectives with a measurable value. The client Reach Heights have incorporated digital marketing agency to help their customers build their business brand and in so doing they also assist in developing work efficiencies by the lead generation, with the development of application with the enabling graphic design.
 The service they provide are career counselling and coaching, with the approach of resume writing, cover letters and bios and the selection criteria responses, and provides help in LinkedIn profile writing, and helps in interview training and coaching, with the related job search coaching, along with the career development workshops, and provides psychometric testing, with the work-orientation workshops, an helps in developing professional presentation skills and also help to develop and deliver personal pitch, with the confidence needed in public speaking, through leadership and mentoring and also by re-entry to the workforce support. 
The company’s organisational structure enables the smooth operation nationwide and have gained access to locations including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, and Brisbane by offering its products and services not only to the individual but also to the group of clients in in such areas which can be availed at a walking distance or through public transport for the maintain the convenience for visitors.
The company uses seminar series, online display ads, flyers, cold calling, and pay-per-click (PPC) as channels for generating traffic to the website and after sourcing the prospective clients, they get directed to the website for showcased products and services. When prospect opt for proceeding further the website allows them for filling the form for capturing their personal information and in so doing the company maintains the client database for future sales opportunities for getting contacted by a member of the sales team for closing the sales process. Again, the mandatory requirement in the form, is also the way by which the marketing team become capable of keeping track of the performance of each channel. As the company Reach Heights has a reputable brand image and the company has successfully assisted many clients in achieving their career goals so, the company’s overall performance in the current financial year, is measured with potential yet to be delivered in the financial year, for achieving a higher annual revenue, with a significant growth of the client base, by increasing long-term customer value, through diversified client experience and in so doing moving away from low-loyalty & high-cost structure to a high-loyalty & low-cost structure, with a targeted budget being set at $200K.
The company utilised the online channels by providing static company website, PPC, and online display ads and also offline channels by cold calling, flyer distribution, and seminar series for communicating its brand message to clients and prospects, and have achieved 46.9 % of the Revenue. 

The marketing efforts and recommended corrective actions

The organization's hierarchical structure empowers the smooth task across the country and have accessed areas including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, and Brisbane by offering its items and administrations to a single person as well as to the gathering of customers in such zones which can be profited at a mobile separation or through open transport for the keep up the accommodation for guests. The organization utilizes course arrangement, online show promotions, flyers, cold calling, and pay-per-click (PPC) as channels for creating activity to the site and in the wake of sourcing the planned customers, they get coordinated to the site for displayed items and administrations. At the point when prospect choose continuing further the site permits them for filling the shape for catching their own data and in this manner the organization keeps up the customer database for future deals open doors for getting reached by an individual from the business group for bringing the deals to a close procedure. Once more, the compulsory necessity in the shape, is additionally the path by which the advertising group wind up plainly fit for monitoring the execution of each channel. As the organization Reach Heights has a trustworthy brand picture and the organization has effectively helped numerous customers in accomplishing their vocation objectives along these lines, the organization's general execution in the current money related year, is estimated with potential yet to be conveyed in the budgetary year, for accomplishing a higher yearly income, with a critical development of the customer base, by expanding long haul client esteem, through broadened customer encounter and in this manner moving far from low-devotion and high-cost structure to a high-steadfastness and minimal effort structure, with a focused on spending plan being set at $200K. The organization used the online channels by giving static organization site, PPC, and online show advertisements and furthermore disconnected channels by cool calling, flyer circulation, and workshop arrangement for conveying its image message to customers and prospects, and have accomplished 46.9 % of the Revenue. 
Under general circumstances, there are three corrective actions, and that include the normal mode which is to go in a routine manner, with no fixed target, secondly, the crash mode resolves the instant problem and then again, the pre- planned crisis mode, will help in lowering the response time but, will help to achieve the capacity of handling strategic contingencies. So, based on this, the recommendation based on the situation for going forward and to minimize the gap, of $0.6 million in the YTD, when compared to $1.2 million of LYTD and also for meeting the budget is that to identify that particular person who is responsible in taking necessary actions and in so doing a target date can be set to get the work done, and to achieve this a meeting plan must be developed, so that the objective can be assorted and the review of the performance of the sales people is also desirous, since then if the sales people are given a quota to fulfil with a strict deadline, then things will possibly turnaround. Again, if all the salespeople offer accessories to all purchasers and not any targeted group, then, there will be an increase in the average sale amount.    

The regulatory context

The legal requirements related to the client’s direct marketing activities, involves certain Act or Legislations, they are   (Privacy Act- Federal Register of Legislation, 1988),   (Spam Act - Federal Register of Legislation, 2003) ,  (Freedom of Information Act - Federal Register of Legislation, 1982),  (Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Bill- Federal Register of Legislation, 2012), and also the (Do Not Call Register Act- Federal Register of Legislation, 2006). The industry association and the code for direct marketing is the Australian eMarketing Code of Practice, 2005 (Australian eMarketing Code of Practice- Australian Government, 2005) and is also governed by the (Australian Privacy Principles- Australian Information Commissioner - Australian Government - Office of the Australian 
Information Commissioner).
The (Spam Act - Federal Register of Legislation, 2003), restricts sending those messages which are unsolicited and also commercial electronic messages, commonly referred a spam and includes email communication, text messages, SMS and MMS. Any organisation who are in to direct marketing activities, collects the personal information, which can at times be also sensitive, and hence are subject to National Privacy Principles (Australian Privacy Principles- Australian Information Commissioner - Australian Government - Office of the Australian Information Commissioner)and are covered by the (Privacy Act- Federal Register of Legislation, 1988), which elaborates the process of storing, collecting and disclosing and also destroying the information so collected. Again, an agency must be the one and comply with the prerequisites of APP and in so doing must be enlisted under Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the (Freedom of Information Act - Federal Register of Legislation, 1982).

Develop Direct Marketing Objectives and Strategies

Direct marketing objectives and purpose

A direct marketing objective for customer acquisition is in increasing the number of people who will be engaged in reading those emails send by the client Reach Heights, and this must be focussed on the targeted marketing segments, which will then help in target those who have previously failed to read the mail. It is also equally important to increase the traffic by also increasing the existing content, so that people will have the tendency to download more. 
A direct marketing objective for customer retention, is to have a strong focus, and this can be achieved by giving the brand for free, and in so doing if Reach Heights provide the service of psychometric testing for free or if they provide the product of e- book for all services, at free of cost and this process of free sharing will help in building the trust and confidence among the customer, which will then help in retaining them. 
A direct marketing objective for customer loyalty, is to offer them a loyalty, or in other words, the customer of the Reach Heights can be offered a unique incentive, which will help in building an interactive environment with the customer, and this can be initiated by offering the customers a membership options or mailing the customers with their birthdays or anniversary card, and this approach will help in building the satisfied customers.

Customer acquisition strategies

Reach Heights being the marketers can create and build a customer acquisition layer by simultaneous and also consecutive testing, by conducting trial campaigns through media, which will help in measuring the results. The investment in various strategies must be evenly distributed, so email marketing combined by blogging or by the way of Tweeting, or posting News Feeds on Facebook is the best ways to attract and also inform people towards company, and in so doing an omni-channel customer acquisition strategy will suit and serve the purpose, which in other words mean that, a strategy must be implemented which will help connecting the customers both online through social media and innovation and also by offline strategy by the use of flyers or handouts. E-consultancy, will help the company Reach Heights reach to maximum prospective and potential customers and is considered very important since, the businesses can then join customers through both online and offline activities. So, in order to stand out and gain a place in the competitive market, acquiring new customers is very crucial, and so data which will be collected from the clients must be done efficiently from multiple channels based on the relevancy. Thus, to attract new customers in a cost-effective manner requires effective engagement and communication to create the customer acquisition in a perpetual cycle. 

Customer retention strategies

When the focal point is on the acquisition, i.e. securing new clients, the focus must be on client maintenance or retention, for sustaining the association with current clients’ base, so that they will keep on using the products and the services the organisation is putting forth through offering. Here, Reach Heights must find a way to guarantee that the good old clients return back for each and every change in their career or for career counselling and coaching and also training. This implies that the client retention strategies need to be centred around client benefit, through conveyance of or delivery of best quality of products and services, and furthermore by making a client amicable condition, with assortments of dependability programs and different procedures that urge clients to keep utilising Reach Heights, than some other organisation's offering. Offering the clients with the presents by way of discounts or through rebates when they aren't expecting it is one of the approaches to gain client expectation, but, being straightforward when making a guarantee is a significant incredible activity. Again, automation is enabling a portion of the schedules or a routine work to be dealt with by a software and this can be achieved by way of is advertising or marketing through automation, since monitoring the clients is often a tedious and time-consuming task to do, due to the fact that significant number of procedures need to be repeated on a daily basis, with a specific end goal to keep the brand image afresh in the mind of the client, Reach Heights is focused on it. 

Customer loyalty strategies

A client loyalty offers advantages to frequent and also for the regular clients and is considered as the gravitational force Reach Heights can have on its client. The advantages might be as rebates, or by offering discounts, or at times can be free items, or different advancements or can also be through bond or connection a client have subsequently developed for an organisation through its brand. A viable client reliability can compensate client who purchase from a business all the time, including engagement by them by the way of deals, through salesmen, for developing better customer service, by both immediate and also through indirect advertising. The marketing team can complete an extraordinary arrangement to shape and enhance client dedication for the Reach Heights, by urging the client to return much of the time. Client Loyalty have a few objectives, and it helps in expanding the business, by enhancing the deals, thereby fortifying the connection between the client and the business, and hold the client returning all the time. Generally, once a client opted to buy a product or service, the obligation of holding the client comes down to sales activities and acquisition, but, the imperative component of meeting is guaranteeing that the product or the services has an advantage to the client. So, for Reach Heights to gain client reliability, there are numerous options to impact clients' future purchasing conduct and this can be achieved through content marketing by way of discounts to the frequent and regular customers.   

Plan Direct Marketing Activities

The types of direct marketing activities

The type of direct marketing activities in accordance to the organisational procedures conducted by Reach Heights are, seminar series, online display ads, flyers, cold calling, and pay-per-click (PPC) as channels to generate traffic to the website. 

Advantages
The advantages of direct marketing activities, have the benefit to target those customers who can be reached in a cost- effective way. Online sales get increased in this process, by uplifting the brand loyalty. Direct marketing activities through social media creates openness and the web analytics tools helps in determining the use a customer makes in the website. 

Disadvantages
There are also disadvantages of direct marketing, and the major disadvantage is the intrusion to the privacy of the customer. Often the customer has the tendency to transfer the mass communication to the junk folder, due to the fact that they receive it on daily basis, and thus loses the importance. 

Direct marketing activities

The type of direct marketing activities in accordance to the organisational procedures conducted by Reach Heights are many, but three of them are, online display ads, flyers, and cold calls. The online display Ads are quite appealing and also support the brand by providing usable data and this support in retargeting the previous customers. But, are often ignored, or blocked by the user to it, since, they cannot get enough information within a short period of time on an animated screen, and furthermore, if they at all can collect information, then it becomes the one based on the click provided by the previous user. 

Direct marketing budget

Monitoring of direct marketing activities 

References

Australian eMarketing Code of Practice- Australian Government. (2005). Australian eMarketing Code of Practice. Retrieved from https://www.acma.gov.au/-/media/Unsolicited-Communications-Compliance/Regulation/pdf/Australian-EMarketing-Code-of-Practice.pdf
Australian Law Reform Commission. (n.d.). Problems with the Privacy Act- Australian Privacy Law and Practice (ALRC Report 108) » 70. Third Party Representatives. Retrieved from https://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/70.%20Third%20Party%20Representatives/problems-privacy-act#_ftn20
Australian Privacy Principles- Australian Information Commissioner - Australian Government - Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. (n.d.). Australian Privacy Principles. Retrieved from https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy-law/privacy-act/australian-privacy-principles
Do Not Call Register Act- Federal Register of Legislation. (2006). Do Not Call Register Act. Retrieved from https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016C00771
Freedom of Information Act - Federal Register of Legislation. (1982). Freedom of Information Act. Retrieved from https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018C00016
Privacy Act- Federal Register of Legislation. (1988). Privacy Act. Retrieved from https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2013C00231
Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Bill- Federal Register of Legislation. (2012). Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Bill . Retrieved from https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2012B00077
Spam Act - Federal Register of Legislation. (2003). Spam Act . Retrieved from https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016C00614