Reflection For The Individual Project

This content would reflect upon my experience that I have learned from my individual project for the digital marketing module. complete my reflection, I have chosen Gibbs’ model of reflection (1988) to guide my reflective process.

The topic for my Individual Project is a website about minimalism, also known as The Minimal Millennial. I chose this subject because this lifestyle has resonated with me and helped me learn to value important things and made my life more meaningful. Therefore, I would love to spread the positivity, sustainability and knowledge about this lifestyle. SMART model has been implemented for my project objective. My specific targeted audiences are mainly millennials, around 20-30, who are ethnically diverse, loves to try out new experience (Forbes, 2016) and care about sustainability (Social Media Today, 2018).

Figure 1: The seven key values that seem to matter most to millennials (Social Media Today, 2018)

The measurable target is increasing awareness with a total of 200 website visits with 100 followers on social media channels. The website is promoted through Facebook and Instagram, the two channels most used by the targeted audience (Statista, 2020). This can be achievable and realistic with my digital marketing GANTT chart. The blog is launched on 9th March 2020 and has one month to reach the objective.

Figure 2: The GANTT Chart for The Minimal Millennial (Doan, 2020)

Figure 3: The content planning (Doan, 2020)

I spent two weeks to create the site maps, branding colour aligned with the theme because becoming memorable and standing out from the crowd is important for the website (Stolle, 2020). I divided the content into three categories (minimalism, lifestyle and sustainability). Different types of mindful content have been used in blog posts such as quotes, videos and images that can engage the audience more (WARC,2020). On social media channels, hashtags, as well as interactive stories, are used as much as possible. Promotion posts are uploaded 2-3 times per week with trendy hashtags related to minimalism. The first two weeks of creating content is trials for my content creation. Then I created some interaction with my audience through Instagram and Facebook to know their preferences. The last weeks I adjusted my content and analyzed the traffic.

After the first 2 weeks promoting, I notice that the visits coming from Instagram is high and most people viewing my blog through mobile so I did some maintenance and utilize user experience on mobile, which I neglected in the first two weeks. Mobile is such a crucial element of consumer behaviour (WARC, 2016) that I need to take it seriously.

Figure 4: Website traffic of The Minimal Millennial by device

Figure 5: Website traffic of The Minimal Millennial throughout 4 weeks

The number of visitors mainly comes from Facebook and Instagram, which means that my social media strategy if working effectively.

Figure 6: Website traffic of The Minimal Millennial by source

The traffic for the website is promising, however, the bounce rate is quite high, my audiences are not willing to engage with my blog site, 74% get access to the site and then leave afterwards, which can be explained by my content.

Figure 7: Traffic of The Minimal Millennial

The challenge I dealt with when promoting on Instagram is that there is no directly clickable link to the blog (Instagram, 2017). I had to update the link in the biography section every time I posted a new blog. On the other hand, getting people to take action outside the Facebook ecosystem was difficult. The comments and likes on Facebook are not as responsive and effective as Instagram but the online sources directing visitors to my site is higher, which can be explained by the fact that I promoted the blog through my personal Facebook account. My promotion post on Facebook is not diverse enough, which is mainly photos. Furthermore, the content for minimalism is valuable but it is still too abstract and requires reflection about the style of living, therefore the audiences seem to lose interest at the end of the project.

In conclusion, the opportunity from creating my website has allowed me to push myself to learn new sets of skills and improve my knowledge in digital marketing. I have learned about content writing as the content is king and it plays an integral part in creating a website. I also allowed myself to learn new skills like video editing and creating consistency for my project. I will continue this project and I am truly looking forward to creating more useful contents in the future.

Reference

Doan, A., (2020) Self planning for website images. [Image].

Forbes (2016) Millennials Go Minimal: The Decluttering Lifestyle Trend That Is Taking Over. Available from https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahweinswig/2016/09/07/millennials-go-minimal-the-decluttering-lifestyle-trend-that-is-taking-over/#2e8e687e3755 [accessed 7 March 2020].

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods. Oxford: Oxford Polytechnic, Further Education Unit.

Instagram (2017) Term of Use. Available from https://help.instagram.com/1188470931252371 [accessed 7 March 2020].

The Minimal Millennial (2020) Official Facebook page of The Minimal Millennial [Facebook]. Available from https://www.facebook.com/theminimalmillennialvn [accessed 7 March 2020].

Simon, K. (2019) Digital marketing strategy: an integrated approach to online marketing. London: Kogan Page.

Social Media Today (2018) Marketing to Millennials: What You Need to Know About This Prized Market Segment. Available from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/marketing-to-millennials-what-you-need-to-know-about-this-prized-market-se/542034/ [accessed 7 March 2020].

Statista (2020) Main social networking site preference in the United Kingdom (UK) 2018, by age. Available from https://www.statista.com/statistics/308712/main-social-networking-site-preference-in-the-uk-by-age/ [accessed 7 March 2020].

Stolle, M. (2020) Website design, refresh and redesign — should you DIY or outsource to an expert? Available from https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/login.aspx?direct=true&db=fsr&AN=141550924&site=ehost-live [accessed 7 March 2020].

WARC (2016) How to plan an effective content marketing strategy. Available from https://www-warc-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/content/article/bestprac/how-to-plan-an-effective-content-marketing-strategy/109324 [accessed 7 March 2020].

WARC (2020) What we know about marketing on Facebook. Available from https://www-warc-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/content/article/bestprac/what-we-know-about-marketing-on-facebook/110336 [accessed 7 March 2020].