Executive Summary
The internet economy is proximally replacing the block-and-mortar market system. The positional development for developing business systems establishes a new business to create its social media existence. Social media in itself as a market segment in its versatility continues to grow with over a billion subscribers and average use of 94% daily. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, etc., remain vibrant in influencing the existing enterprises, large and small, into their subscription hence shortening the distance between business and their clients. The platforms adopting influencer advertisement have compelled businesses to reach their maxima recently.
This report focused on Tsuki restaurant, a Japanese-oriented SME in Sheffield, UK. The SMEs were discussed with an obsessive focus on the digital marketing strategies employed. As a small enterprise, the restaurant has an online presence with an operative website where customers can place their orders, view the menu and book their reservations from the online portal. However, the company lack advanced website AI technologies such as Chatbot, hence complex navigation and reduced consumer experiences. As an SME operating in the digital market era, expectations are higher with the recent transformation into internet eCommerce fastened by the dawn of Covid19. The restaurant lags in its digital technologies, with only Facebook and Instagram as the only social media normative tools. Hence prompted, this report analyzes this digital marketing system, after which deliberative recommendations are suggested to enhance Tsuki’s digital environment space presence.
Introduction
The e-commerce integration and digital internet transformation continue to integrate the online marketing space—Internet marketing compounds various facets that have compelled the various business environments. The current enterprises integrate and adopt the e-commerce space furthering the need for digital marketing completions(Saura et al. 2019, pp.86-103). Social media elements have connected and shortened the distance between businesses and their consumers. The growth of the internet economy with its larger demographic space also continues to attract and complement the needs and the adaptability of the digital economy in the digital economy(Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019).
The availability of an enterprise in the digital space, where consumers can access the variables of one’s businesses, establishes the brand’s popularity. Consumers became loyal and frequent business users if they could access their needs virtually. With the rise and resumption after the Covid19, the business environment witnessed a maximal transformation and adoption of complete online shopping that has furthered the normative virtual market growth, calling for digital marketing.
This study report will reflect on Sheffield UK- SMEs Tsuki. Tsuki is a restaurant service provider of daily food and beverages. Through its website (tsukirestaurant.co.uk), the restaurant has integrated digital marketing, allowing its consumers access to their services at their convenience. The restaurant also operates in a diversified environment, attracting explorers and ordinary consumers in Sheffield. Tsuki is a stand-alone restaurant with Japanese and UK cuisine backgrounds with an average rating of 213 out of 1041 restaurants in Sheffield, highly positioned in its niche. Therefore, this article will first critique applied Tsuki’s digital marketing strategies. The study will establish various recommendations for improvements in its digital marketing strategies.
A Critique of Current Digital Marketing Strategies
Tsuki Website:
The company’s website is mobile-friendly. The indications on the restaurant’s products are implemented with the list menu, location, and operation hours between (Mon-Sat 12:00-23:00 and Sun 12:00-22:00), contact details its privacy policy details. This is mobile-friendly as it enhances and allows online users to operate in a comprehensive designation. According to Restaurant Guru (2022), during the covid19, Tsuki restaurants adopted online ordering and physical deliveries. These are the development implications of a simplified-fashioned website design structure. A simple website’s proximity enabled enhanced navigation, attracting more ratings in its Sheffield niche. The website is visually appealing and easy to navigate, enhancing user experiences(Mehralian,2022). It is also incorporated with responsiveness as it is optimized for usability in various mobile and laptops; with quality displays of Tsuki services, it remains more attractive considering the procedural updates on the thematic dish and service offered periodically. Further, the availability of contacts and purchasing buttons(Book Now) enhance the customer’s call to action as purchases are highly optimized. However, the website lacks google search engine optimization, as it calls for one to know the name “Tsuki” for customers to enjoy the variety of the Japanese taste on their menu.
The company is also vibrant in using social media platforms of Facebook and Instagram as advertisement sites and mobilization to attract more customers to its website. According to Ketter and Avraham (2021), the Instagram and Facebook platforms have become intuitive advertisement sites. However, their integration with other sites develops quickly. The company only indicates Facebook and Instagram in utilizing social media platforms, despite other new social media platforms, such as Twitter and TikTok. The down of Covid19 brought with it various platform deliverables, and the rise of TikTok in the space remains imaginable. With a subscriber base of over one billion globally, the restaurant’s contact should also consider the exploitation of the space in the quest to conquer the digital markets. The company’s utilization of social media platforms is still dependent on the old formalities. According to Vieira et al.(2019, pp.1085-1108), the current market depends on the interactive advertisement, and the use of social media influencers to advertise a company’s product is highly recognized as the genZ demographics appreciate these influencers and trust their taste. Tsuki must hence consider such integration to induce further and attract this vibrant segment of the market. Tsuki’s Facebook and Instagram platforms could be more extensive; diversity is necessary because consumers have differentiated tastes. The company must propose to meet these tastes and preferences through an advert on all the possible platforms. Therefore, the website should display Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat besides Facebook and Instagram environments.
The implication of social media transformation for businesses remains incrementally significant. According to consumer behaviour theory, competitors’ work against the consumer’s preferred choice is prime. Creating registered ad-verified enterprise accounts in social media establishes their superiority in consumers’ minds. Hence by the consumer theory, the behaviours enable the enterprise to understand the demands of its customers and determine the level of competition. Tsuki needs an appropriate feedback mechanism for customers to review its products and services. According to The Star (2019), Sheffield’s Tsuki Japanese restaurant jittered many reviews on their dishes and the region’s food hygiene level. Such reviews are critical for the business to understand its efforts and customer appreciation to maximize its competitive advantage. However, for Tsuki, the immediate feedback or review system is lacking in its website as a digital marketing tool and environment.
Another position of concern that Tsuki seems to lag on is its position among competitors. With consumer behaviour theories in mind, the aversive implication is that enterprises remain at the tower to understand and determine the elements aligning with consumer choices. The differentiation of consumers’ tastes and preferences is described and influenced by several factors. Tsuki’s google rating stands at 4.5 average stars. As a developing SME in the online space, this should sound alarming because the valuations customers place on the business influence the output and revenues of the business. Tsuki is reluctant to the consumer’s views on its services, which seems more typical with the non-existence of a review tool on the company’s website. Consumers’ implication of enterprise products and services is critical for the enterprise to understand the preference and tastes of their products. This points the business in the direction it should take to reach the highest level of consumer satisfaction. For an enterprise with goals of further expansion, for instance, more than the average is needed. With the versatility of consumers to retain them, the quality offered has to remain unique and particulate in meeting their demands(Mehralian,2022). For Tsuki, the analysis and consideration of consumers’ evaluation of their products are taking a silent possibility, especially in the design lack of direct feedback or a review mechanism. These reviews are strategic in attracting new markets and consumers, especially if they remain positionally impressive.
The restaurant has also remained effluent in its display system. The restaurant’s menu is characterized by describing the dish to serve. The approach is significant in targeting authentic consumers, individuals with heritage tastes. The display system of describing a dish and its features attracts and jitters the reactions of authenticity ad originality of Tsuki’s dish. With Japanese origins’ explorative consumers, for instance, will be attracted to the restaurant just by the description of a dish(Saura et al.2021, pp.161-178). That will influence the design consumption system because the defining features target to cloud the choice and influence the decision-making as they purchase. However, there is no rating and valuation schema for every displayed dish on the menu. This is limiting, especially when the restaurant wants to introduce a new service or would require the insights of customers on places of improvement. Consumers often will appreciate the existence of interactive systems on the website, be it short videos on quick, simple surveys concorded with appreciation from the enterprise (Tien et al.2020, pp.1-5. ); it posits the consumers’ importance to the enterprise and hence when these after-sales services are lacking the possibilities of replacement are higher.
The digital marketing environment has seen the implementation of AI and Internet of Things solutions in business environments. However, these solutions are limited to postulation and the position of Tsuki restaurant. Currently, businesses are providing Chabot AI systems with optimized analytical systems that attract users towards the business. The Chatbot systems are elemental in directing new users to navigate the website easily. Features such as Frequently Asked Questions, Feedback mechanism and contact informatics are incorporated into the Chatbot. The system is influential in attracting reviews because their satisfaction level is enhanced for new consumers who find the system interactive.
In addition, the restaurant also has no particulate email marketing either. People can no longer enter their email addresses on the website to choose whether they want to receive real-time activity emails from Tsuk. Tsuki needs to include the actions of email marketing. Email marketing enables an enterprise to send synchronized appreciation and daily active events to consumers silently. In their events of making decisions, the mailing systems are strategic in the development of loyalty and relationship between business and its consumers. However, the unavailability of this digital marketing system establishes that Tsuki restaurant needs an essential consumer retention system.
Tsuki Website Traffic Analysis
In understanding the efficiency of Tsuki’s website in its operations,’ this focuses on website traffic SWOT analysis. According to Ellen Beadmore of The Star newspaper (2019), the restaurant targeted to restore and bring the “London Vibe” to Sheffield city with its bottomless sushi and hi-tech tablet ordering. This followed a transformation of the preexisting U buffet site with the incorporation of modernized features and seating arrangement’s where customers witness the preparation of their delicacies. This hence has mobilized the proximities of interacting with the online website through mobile orders and cross-counter servicing.
Strengths:
With the adjustment of the U buffet systems and incorporation of the modern appearance, the restaurant witnessed a high traffic volume with a strong engagement rate that attracted higher sales and led to the Japanese cuisine distribution among its major competitors. The company also experienced higher sales during the Covid19 period as it adopted the order and delivery systems, further establishing a high bounce rate with a current low rate.
Weakness:
The company risks low traffic volume with growing competition among SMEs and restaurant service providers in Sheffield(Restaurant Guru, 2022). The company’s inadequacy in engaging the customers also spells the possibility of higher exit rates leading to low and weak conversion rates on the restaurant’s sales. Tsuki’s competitive position map can be seen just slightly above its competitor.
Opportunity:
The restaurant website still requires much improvement to encompass user experience, especially with the need for mailing advertisements and AI systems such as the Chatbot system. The restaurant must also utilize other social media platforms and consider engaging the service of social media influencers to attract a new customer base(just). The restaurant must engage other existing marketing strategies to increase traffic to its web portal.
Threats:
The intense competition from other Japanese-oriented restaurants limits Tsuki’s sales volume. The inadequate change in search engines with the developing technologies also requires that Tsuki remain updated on its website; hence proper monitoring is necessary for the business. Economic insurgencies such as the Covid19 also put the business at risk of total closer.
Proposed Digital Marketing Strategy
The Influencer Digital Marketing Strategy
According to the influencerMarketHub(2022), 62% of companies increased their influencer marketing budget in the fiscal year 2020, with an additional 20% committed to maintaining similar percentages in 2021. According to this research, Tsuki must employ and promulgate the Influencer budget in their digital marketing operations. The online and digital market is proximally an integrated market sight. The demographic also depends on modern consumption systems (Saura et al. pp.1-36); therefore, adopting an influencer and incorporating an influencer budget in the restaurant is significantly transformative and adaptive to the current market operations. According to InfluencerMarketHub research(2022), their data indicated that of the companies taking part in the server, 49% of them considered keeping their influencer marking budgets at the normative levels of $10k and below, other 23% spending upto 50k annually, with 9% considering an expenditure of over $500 annually. These expenditure comparisons establish the importance of an influencer in the digital market. Instagram, YouTube, Tiktok, Twitter and Facebook have integrative demographic systems. TikTok comes first as the most recent transformative digital marketing platform, highly competing Instagram. Graph 2 below indicates an average 2020 influencer market expenditure.
A further look at the influencer pricings per platform can also remain indicative and propulsive for Tsuki to see the need and adopt an influencer marketing approach. Instagram that as of 2020, stood the leader in influencer marketing platforms; a proportionate budgetary system stood as follows.
An influencer’s popularity determines the price gap, and the rates are manageable, especially with the demand for improvement and subscriber base. The variability of Instagram in marketing is also just not standardized from the followers as different packages exist for giveaways, takeovers, photos and story mentions. TikTok also has a similar pricing strategy with mentions and photos, and depending on the time limit of the video, the amount paid varies. The above chart implies that digital advertisement is changing, and with time, businesses are identifying their brand ambassadors, and they remain influencers in their niche.
Recommendation: I think Tsuki restaurant needs to include the outreach of its potential market by adopting an influencer. Instagram has an average of 68% relative posting frequency over other social media platforms, and the implication of the platform is hence that from a post of an influencer with an average of 1 million followers, the product must have reached ¾ of the total followers globally(Crowd.com, 2022). Tsuki must incorporate the social media influencer budget and invest in influencer marketing as a digital tool. The company should consider hiring a Sheffield-based influencer, as they understand the content their followers appreciate. Hence, the restaurant will increase website traffic and market acknowledgement with Tsuki’s products and services.
Digital Market Presence Engagement:
With the underlying conditions, an improved customer engagement system is necessary. A focus on Tsuki’s website in the campaign for awareness creation, interest rejuvenation, loyalty, and purchase improvement needs to catch up. The average search rating of the restaurant in google searches stands at 4.5 ratings. However, restaurants thrive at five-star ratings; therefore, the application and the implementation of a feedback system are requisite for the design to complement the restaurant’s performance. According to Darma and Noviana (2020, pp.2257-2262), customers will realize what problems they need the company to help them solve from the list of a company’s services offered. Also, customers are perineal to constant changes in a purchase decision depending on their financial strength. For example, the products or services the company provides are automatically judged by the pricing strategy; hence, matching products with the display prices establish the perceptive quality. In search for alternatives, a consumer with engage the optimized search engines and consult the company’s website, hence the necessity of Tsuki to advance and make their website integrative. Therefore, customers will try to find out what they want to know. The website should be simple but comprehensive, and unlike the Tsuki, the design structure is that the website is made simple but non-comprehensive.
Recommendation: Therefore, Tsuki needs to spend much time operating its website software, such as posting pictures of its restaurant environment and food. The website is positional as a significant awareness and interest activation platform. The website must be serviced with matching information about their menu and prices for whoever requires information about the restaurant. The website only describes the various dishes with concealing their prices. As a developmental strategy, the restaurant should motivate customers to priory budget for the rewards they will gain from their expenditure. The website should incorporate feedback systems in its improvement. With a proper channel of feedback and mediational abilities Within Tsuki’s website, high traffic, as earlier established, can be experienced. The adoption of Chatbot AI technologies has reminded transformative and has bolstered the professional relationship between businesses and their clients. Tsuki’s website has to provide the chatbot system with an input and output framework, where they can ask questions, receive immediate responses, and air their valuation of the services offered; this is significant in enhancing loyalty and propagating purchasing interests.
Adaptive Social Media Presence:
In the Website traffic SWOT analysis, the report established the necessity for adaptive social media accounts. The restaurant must advance its social media presence to enhance its consumer experience.
Recommendation: Tsuki should adopt interactive social media systems to enable feedback and improve reviews. Tsuki restaurant’s need for attendance of customer reviews posit the restaurant to reduce sales volume. The necessity of the enterprises to listen to customers indicates the inclusivity systems of the company to its clients; hence the vast majority of consumers will trust and pay attention to reviews about companies because people think that they can know about a company through other people’s comments and thoughts about the company. When people want to try a business, when they open reviews related to the business, they usually look for negative reviews about the business first. So, based on the bad reviews, you can decide whether you still want to buy or try. The google ratings are, however, universal and non-individualized, therefore insignificant when in a quest for quality attributes. The email marketing system is, however, the perfect fit for the restaurant as its consumers can have reviews sent to their inboxes or accessed immediately at the entrance of their website(Zhu and Gao, 2019, pp.33-37). Therefore, Tsuki needs to pay attention to people’s evaluations of himself and try to improve people’s evaluations of him.
Conclusion
The internet space is quickly transforming modes of business operation. The digital economy through the internet is hence advancing and calls for various developing businesses to understand and incorporate digital marketing strategies for their business developments. In the post Covid19 period, SMEs have also established an upscaled adoption of the digital economies as the internet economy remains effluent to engine these transformations. SMEs’ necessity to establish their influence and effects in the digital space is maximal as the market segments transform into the virtual environment. As an SME with a virtual space, Tsuki must develop its social media environments to enhance and position itself firmly in the market.
Reference
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing: strategy, implementation & practice. Pearson Uk.
Crowd.com, 2022. TikTok Vs Instagram: analysis of World’s Most Popular Visual Channel. https://news.thisiscrowd.com/tiktok-vs.-instagram-analysing-worlds-most-popular-visual-channels#:~:text=In%20an%20analysis%20of%20TikTok,total%20Reach%20[January,20th , 2023]
Darma, G.S. and Noviana, I.P.T., 2020. Exploring Digital Marketing Strategies during the New Normal Era in Enhancing the Use of Digital Payment. Jurnal Mantik, 4(3), pp.2257-2262.
InfluencerMarketingHub Research, 2022. Influencer Marketing Costs(2023); https://www.businessofapps.com/marketplace/influencer-marketing/research/influencer-marketing-costs/:[ January,20th , 2023]
Ketter, E. and Avraham, E., 2021. # StayHome today so we can# TravelTomorrow: tourism destinations’ digital marketing strategies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 38(8), pp.819-832.
Mehralian, M.M., 2022. Identifying and Explaining the Effective Factors of Digital Marketing Strategies in Consumers’ Emotional States and Sales Rates: A Mixed Methods Research. In 20th International Conference of the Business and Strategic Management.
Restaurant Guru, 2022. Tsuki. https://restaurantguru.com/Tsuki-Sheffield
Saura, J.R., Palacios-Marqués, D. and Ribeiro-Soriano, D., 2021. Digital marketing in SMEs via data-driven strategies: Reviewing the current state of research. Journal of Small Business Management, pp.1-36.
Saura, J.R., Palos-Sanchez, P.R. and Correia, M.B., 2019. Digital marketing strategies based on the e-business model: Literature review and future directions. Organizational transformation and managing innovation in the fourth industrial revolution, pp.86-103.
Saura, J.R., Ribeiro-Soriano, D. and Palacios-Marqués, D., 2021. Setting B2B digital marketing in artificial intelligence-based CRMs: A review and directions for future research. Industrial Marketing Management, 98, pp.161-178.
The Star.com, 2019, October. We tried Sheffield’s new Japanese restaurant Tsuki, and this is what we thought. https://www.thestar.co.uk/lifestyle/food-and-drink/we-tried-sheffields-new-japanese-restaurant-tsuki-and-what-we-thought-649174[accessed:[ January,20th , 2023]
Tien, N.H., Jose, R.J.S., Mai, N.P., Dung, H.T., Oanh, N.T.H. and Phuoc, N.H., 2020. Digital marketing strategy of GUMAC and HNOSS in the Vietnam fashion market. International journal of multidisciplinary education and research, 5(4), pp.1-5.
Vieira, V.A., de Almeida, M.I.S., Agnihotri, R., da Silva, N.S.D.A.C. and Arunachalam, S., 2019. In pursuit of an effective B2B digital marketing strategy in an emerging market. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(6), pp.1085-1108.
Zhu, G. and Gao, X., 2019. Precision retail marketing strategy based on digital marketing model. Science Journal of Business and Management, 7(1), pp.33-37.
write