Report on Digital Marketing for the Global Expansion of Dr Drone Company

Executive summary

Following a successful Digital Marketing campaign, Dr Drone has managed to capture 80% of the emergency medical delivery market in London. Expansion into the rest of the UK followed, reaching and exceeding all projected targets. Several international competitors, which includes Zipline, Matternet, Ehang and TU Delft are set to expand their operations globally which is why it is imperative for Dr Drone to establish a global presence, local operations and trust in key international markets. With an experienced Digital Marketing partner, we believe the time is now optimal to capitalise on your momentum and expand into a global service offering.

Benefits of global expansion

• Capture the market before competitors do

• The Dr Drone service offering is original and doing very well in the UK, but the business model quickly opens up to entrepreneurs who are looking to recreate success in their own markets. Expanding as soon as your business “owns” the industry in your local market helps to keep you there.

• Utilise experts and find cost savings or profit in other markets

Global talent finding is on the rise as cloud services make it easier to have employees or contractors abroad. It could make sense to tap into the product and market knowledge of offshore employees to help plan a strategy to enter their own local market.

Take advantage of the plethora of help for start-ups and SME businesses

There are accelerators, incubators, crowdfunding campaigns, innovation labs, investment competitions and grants galore at the moment. It’s a competitive time but it’s also a very smart time for start-ups to utilise the help available.

Expand and improve product offering

By solving problems for new customers in the country you’ve expanded into, meeting these customers’ needs should indicate how you tweak your product for them. Not only do you create a viable business targeted to this new audience but your brand itself grows as product offerings increase.

Drive revenue growth with economies of scale

When you increase your customer-base you generally grow revenue and what better way to increase your customer-base then expanding internationally.

Improve the global economy

An increase in trade and investment across international markets is proven to improve the overall world economic outlook. The need for global expansion is even more imperative now, with this current market uncertainty since the UK voted to opt out of the European Union.

Cost-to-profit ratio can be better in other markets

By relocating a selection of your current staff in order to set up a new branch while using cloud services for IT and customer service functions, you can drastically reduce overheads.

Take advantage of uncertainties in currencies

There may now be opportunities to move into new international markets, that may have previously been less viable for profitability.

Capitalise on bulk offerings

Large companies purchase or generate their products in bulk with lower unit costs in order to distribute marketing costs across larger sales. By growing internationally you can begin to lower your overheads per customer and increase ROI.

Generate new sales cycles based on the lifestyles of a new customer base

Certain service offerings might do better at different seasonal times of the year.

Key markets identified

When considering the first phase of global expansion, the main factors taken into consideration were:

• Target audience
• Traffic congestion
• World Health Organization statistics
• Political climate and local government legislations
• Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regulations around UAVs
• Language.

The following key markets have been identified to establish and expand the Dr Drone operations into a global service offering, initially targeting a strategic city in each of these countries: Paris, France According to the annual INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard, Paris is rated number 9 in terms of most congested city in the world. Driving around London may be slow and painful, but it is Paris that suffered what is regarded as the longest traffic jam of all time, stretching back 109 miles towards Lyon 34 years ago. The grand 19th-century boulevards around the Arc de Triomphe, charming no doubt when filled with horses and carts, are now 10 lanes of chaos. Congestion cost the city $11.7bn in 2013, compared with $8.5bn for London and $3.2bn for Stuttgart, according to data from the Centre for Economics and Business Research. The country’s political and financial climate is favourable and the use of drones are allowed after acquiring official authorization and adhering to certain restrictions / no fly zones. An article in The Local, recently stated that the City’s police have launched a tender for the purchase of surveillance drones in an effort to step up security. This indicates how local authorities are looking for new and innovative methods in solving real world problems with technology and will be eager to partner with Dr Drone in improving the everyday lives of their citizens.

According to the annual INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard, New York City is the third most congested city in the world in terms of traffic. As per the 2017 analysis, New York drivers averaged 91 peak hours stuck in traffic, second place for the most amount of hours spent in congestion. Additionally, New York drivers spent 13 percent of their time sitting in congestion, with 11 percent of that being attributed to daytime traffic. The country’s political and financial climate is favourable. The use of drones are restricted and regulated due to the busy airspace. After obtaining authorization the city would be eager to allow EMS drones as they are already experimenting with Firefighting drones as per a recent article in the New York Times.

Sydney has the unenviable title of Australasia’s most congested city after a report from a peak transport body revealed it features seven of the 10 slowest roads on both sides of the Tasman. And in a sign of the mounting pressures of a booming population, average speeds of 72.5 kilometres an hour on Sydney’s road network – which includes motorways such as the M7 and M2 – are even slower than New York and Los Angeles The country’s political and financial climate is favourable and the use of drones are allowed after acquiring official authorization and adhering to certain restrictions / no fly zones. Authorities in the country are extremely progressive in the quest to utilise Drones in emergency situations like landslides (DRONELIFE) and have expressed interest in other use cases for Drones to improve the quality of life for every Australian citizen.

Global tactics and strategies identified

The key to establishing a global presence is to increase Dr Drone brand awareness in strategic cities (Paris, New York & Sydney) facing the same challenges as London before expanding to other cities in these countries/regions. With 51% of the world population that have internet access, we need to focus our campaign to create and drive traffic to the Dr Drone Website(s) and Facebook Page(s). The content needs to be localised, relevant, engaging and informative with a CTA where users can register for free newsletters. Based on research conducted for the specific target audience we suggest implementing a layered marketing approach over a proposed campaign period of 59 days via 3 digital technologies :

• Social Media Marketing – Facebook Ads Manager
• Search Engine Marketing – Google Paid Ad campaigns
• Email Marketing – Mailchimp A central team will be established to oversee all territories with local teams focusing on their specific market(s). We will utilise a marketing office in London, England as our global Headquarters and also propose the establishment of local operational sites in each of the targeted countries/regions. The primary objectives of the central team will include:
• Conveying the high-level marketing intent based on our customer needs
• Collaborating with the local teams in each country and defining global branding standards
• Holistic quality control across all regions
• Drive synergies and economies of scale
• Set the framework and parameters within which local marketing operates
• Create, manage and maintain the global Facebook page.

• We propose creating a global Facebook page, with sub-pages for each of our local markets. This allows users to be redirected to the correct country page and in doing so, makes it simpler for prospects and customers. By creating a global Facebook page for Dr Drone we can incorporate the best of running individual national pages with the advantage of directing users to their local version of the page. For example, when searching for Dr Drone a user will get one result for the global page. When clicking through to the page the user will be redirected to the specific page for France, USA or Australia (country of residence). There is no need to create a page for every country in the world. People who live outside these countries where the local teams have created specific content for, will be diverted to the ‘Default page’.

Tactics and strategies localised

The key to success is a balanced approach. Not all marketing activities can or should be driven from the centre. It is important to localise our campaigns in order to avoid messages and content translated into other languages to lose their meaning, literally messages can get lost in translation. “In China, the color red symbolizes luck. In India, the same color symbolizes purity. In many Western countries, however, red symbolizes danger. In some countries, green is either a symbol of prosperity or of nature. Nothing with regard to brand acceptance is simply black and white.” – Emerging Business Online, Global Markets and the Power of B2B Internet Marketing. A local team will be established within each of these countries with their primary objectives as follows:

• Development, support and maintenance of the local Dr Drone Website & Facebook page with rich, relevant and localised content
• Create, manage and maintain the local marketing campaigns (email, search and social)
• Customer support (telephonic and via Website / Facebook)
• Understanding the local culture, customer pain points, awareness to cultural sensitivities and the sense of humour
• Search Engine Optimization and producing content that resonates with the local audience
• The imagery, colours and copy in local languages
• Executing the strategy around the proposition, the messaging and the meaning of the campaigns.

Social Media Marketing

Local Dr Drone Facebook pages or sub-pages will be created and maintained by the in-country support team. This will allow users to be redirected to the correct country page and in doing so will make it simpler and more relevant for prospects and customers.

Search Engine Marketing

With Google’s dominant hold on market share around the world, the tools and interfaces like Google AdWords, Google Analytics, and Google Webmaster Tools will assist in implementing campaigns in different countries Google does not translate ads for the users. Separate AdWords campaigns will be created by the local team in each country where they will track, expand, and refine keywords/ads in each local language/dialect individually. Google also provides location targeting to combine with language targeting to reach expatriates in their own language for example, English speakers who live in France. In this case, a user can set their country targeting to France and their language targeting to English. When Google detects an English speaker the ad can be shown. By setting up a separate campaign for each main location/country and selecting the relevant language for each campaign, our local marketing team will make it easier to manage the account and track each country’s return on investment (ROI). They will also create very customized and targeted campaigns by tailoring keywords and ad text to each individual market. The team will create the keyword list and ad text for each ad group in the same language to ensure ads appear in the same language as the keyword entered. The different time zones will be taken into consideration because Google sets the ad schedules based on the time zone where the account is set up, not the time zone of the country targeted with the campaign.

Email Marketing

The local support teams within each of these countries will be responsible for creating, managing and maintaining their respective email campaigns by making use of rich, relevant and localised content. Website A Dr Drone Website will be created, managed, maintained and hosted by the in-country team on local domains:

• France = .fr
• USA = .us
• Australia = .au

• The main benefits associated with local hosting are:

• Faster Website access
• Local technical support for each time zone
• Improved SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Rich, relevant and localised content Channels and platforms identified.

The strategic intent is to target people between the ages of 18 – 65 who lives in Paris (France), New York (USA) and Sydney (Australia) with specific interest and affiliation to the Medical Services field. Based on the identified target audience, research indicates that Social Media Marketing (Facebook), Search Engine Marketing (Google) and Email Marketing would be the most effective channels for reaching the majority of the target audience with optimal ROI within a proposed ad campaign budget of no more than €80 p/d for each country and channel. The primary goal is to generate exposure of the new Dr Drone brand by increasing the number of visitors to the Website(s) and Facebook page(s) within a campaign period of 2 months. The secondary goal is for at least 10% of visitors on the Dr Drone Website(s) and Facebook Page(s) to sign up for a free newsletter in order to build up a user database for marketing and engagement purposes going forward. The Website(s) content needs to be localised, relevant, engaging and informative with a clear CTA where users can register for free newsletters.

Search Engine Marketing – Google (Paid Search)

Most of the world’s population are online and 80% uses Search. The primary reason for Search marketing is visibility which then also leads to other benefits:

• Increases the potential to generate online conversions and revenue
• Reputation, credibility and market leadership status
• Clicks/visits from organic rankings do not incur a charge
• It never stops working on your behalf 24/7.

The marketing campaign(s) will specifically focus on Paid Search in order to drive traffic to the website. Paid Search listings are usually above or to the side of organic listings and tend to generate less traffic but also higher conversion rates. Organic search would also be available to drive traffic to the website and would not incur any additional costs but does require time and effort to ensure a higher/earlier ranking on the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages). A SEO Manager will oversee this ongoing requirement in each country.

Social Media Marketing – Facebook (Ads Manager)

As of 27 June 2017, Facebook recorded over 2 billion monthly active users and remains the fastest growing social platform. Over 26% of the population can be reached with minimal effort and everyone is a willing participant.

Email Marketing – Mailchimp

Along with Search, Email remains one of the most effective marketing channels with 91% off all internet users making use of email. It is one of the most cost-effective techniques for a company to reach prospects and customers with relevant, timely communications and for this reason cannot be overlooked within our marketing proposal. Mailchimp will be used to automate the welcome emails following a successful “opt in/sign up” from the Website(s) or Facebook page(s), and will aid in creating professional, responsive email newsletters. The free plan will suffice until such time as the registered user base grows to beyond 2000 subscribers.

Closing summery

“Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people” – Steve Jobs The Dr Drone brand is well established and respected across the UK and with an experienced Digital Marketing team with a proven track record, targeting major cities across the world facing the same challenges as London, Dr Drone can penetrate the market the same way it has done in the UK. Our team is confident in our ability to not only meet but once again exceed all expectations through our range of professional Digital Marketing services and look forward to playing a pivotal role in the global expansion of Dr Drone.