Group Members First & Last Names: Courtney Stodola, Emilee Shostrom, Hannah Person, Shampaign

Fields, Molly Schiermeyer

Business Name: MECS Photography
Date Last Updated: 11/19/18

I. Digital Marketing Audit

Business Mission Statement: ​Molly will candidly capture a moment in time whether it’s a wedding,
sporting event, or senior photo session.

Business Goals:
30 day goal: develop more engaging social media posts by increasing the number of reaches by 10%.
60 day goal: increase accounts reached to 1,000 per week.
90 day goal: set up her HoneyBook account and create pricing guides for potential clients.
12 months: Increase prices by $300 per session.

Catalyst for Audit:​ Work with the company to outline their interest in completing this project with the
students from Beacom and what they hope to get out of it.

Channels Activity & Schedule Current Effectiveness Rating

(1-5)

Search Molly has no analytics set up for 1

her website. Her keywords are
her four target markets. Sports,
Love, Seniors, and Family. She
had never heard of a long tail
strategy before this course. She
really doesn’t have much going
on for offsite or onsite SEO. Her
website is kind of sad on the
SEO side of things. She wants to
link up analytics to her site, but
just needs to find time. Her
main keywords are love,
seniors, family, sports,
weddings, and Nebraska
photographer.

Referral Molly posts irregularly on 3

 Facebook and Instagram which
are her only two social media
outlets. All of her posts include
images whether they are ads,
photos from the most recent
shoots, or updates about her
life on her Instagram story. She
also creates Facebook albums of
each senior and wedding, and
creates highlights from her
stories on Instagram. Her
photos have been featured on
GoYotes.com​, and in The
Volante for sports photography.
She doesn’t have any scheduled
postings but would love to start!

Paid MECS Photography has done 3

four paid Instagram campaigns,
and two paid ads on Facebook
over the past year. Overall, she
spent $51 on Instagram and $21
on Facebook. Her most
successful Instagram campaigns
gained 53 and 83 promotional
clicks, creating 76 and 139 new
profile visits. The campaigns
usually target women ages
12-24. A majority of her
Instagram campaigns were
based around wedding
photography. On Facebook, she
highlighted her sport
photography talents. Her largest
Facebook paid campaign had
439 engagements and reached
2,974 accounts.

Email She does absolutely nothing 0

with emails.

Graphics / Brand
Top Engagement Example on Social Media Post, Paid Media, Email
Her target market engaged with this because it highlighted beautiful midwestern wedding photography.
MECS Photography’s target market is usually women from ages 18-35, who live in the midwest. This
photo is super fun because a sort-of drunk groom grabbed his brides butt, and did not get away with it.
She tries to target fun-loving people, who want to have a good time and become her friend in the
future. The caption has silly verbiage and talks about how gorgeous farmland in Iowa can be.

SWOT Analysis for Company

Strengths Weaknesses
Solid website Not well known
Easy to work with Still in school
Willing to travel Lack of time
More relatable / trendy No utilization of web analytics

Opportunities Threats
Implement web analytics Well-known photographers
Photo workshops Prices
Referrals More experienced competitors
Social media giveaways Location change

Audit Summary (everyone)

 MECS Photography is an up-and-coming business lacking a strong social media presence, but
excelling in word of mouth recognition. Molly’s goals align with most popular photographers - she wants
to be trendy, become friends with clients, and the ultimate goal is to keep them as repeat customers -
photographing their senior, wedding, newborn and family photos. Molly has gone to many photography
workshops by bigger and more experienced photographers to make herself more marketable to
potential clients. She is willing to put in the work to make her business better!
Molly is open to many ideas, she just didn’t know where to begin improving her digital presence.
She recently created a fabulous new website that’s geared toward her target markets. Although her site
is nice, she doesn’t have any analytics set up to track those target markets. Her social media posts are
pretty close to being fantastic. Her content is strong but she doesn’t post regularly, and we believe that
a content calendar with scheduled posts could increase her engagement tenfold. Another step to
increasing engagement could be to do a photo session giveaway! These are super popular on trendy
fashion and photographer instagrams. Doing a giveaway will increase new followers, have her instagram
pop up on the discover page, and create more exposure for her business.
Everything she has done so far is on the right track to success! Molly has been just dipping her
toe, and her business needs her to dive in to make more money and build a bigger brand. The risks of
charging higher prices to make more money, would be losing clients to cheaper photographers. But this
can be fixed by explaining the VALUE clients will receive by choosing MECS Photography. Molly is also in
the “toddler” stage of having a business, MECS Photography is only three years old. She needs to build
brand recognition by keeping her editing style the same on almost all images - and making sure her
social posts look cohesive.
Molly has a great website to help curate her business! When potential clients look at her
website, they see the quality work Molly does for her clientele. It showcases everything Molly offers,
from weddings, to senior shoots, to sporting events. With Molly looking to book at least ten wedding
sessions and twenty-five senior shoots, she could potentially improve by featuring more of those types
of pictures on the website. She could also add more sports photos to show how she wants to work more
with that type of photography. By keeping her website updated, she will be able to display her best
photos. This will help draw in more customers.
Molly has the potential for more business once she graduates college. Although she may be at a
slight disadvantage because she is still in school, she has shown that her dedication to her clients and
improving her business is unwavering. One way Molly can improve her business and outreach to
potential clients while still in school is through email. A suggestion we have for MECS Photography is
checking in with previous clients around times they could be experiencing life changes (marriage,
children, holidays, etc.). Then if they book another session with Molly, she could offer them a discount
on their shoot. We also suggest she offer referral discounts because spreading her business through
word-of-mouth and shares on social media could significantly grow her client base.
Another area where MECS Photography is excelling is that she can shoot in more than one
location. Because Molly goes to school at the University of South Dakota, she can shoot
seniors/weddings/sporting events in and around the South Dakota area. Molly also is from Nebraska,
which she frequently goes back to. Having more than one location to shoot in helps her business
because she has more people to target! Even though this sounds awesome for MECS Photography, there
is a downside. The South Dakota area, especially Vermillion, is on the poorer side compared to Omaha,
Nebraska. If she keeps the same price that she charges in Omaha as she does in Vermillion she might
lack clients who will not be able to afford the price. If Molly lowers her prices in Vermillion, a client in
Omaha might find out and be upset. So, even though it is awesome Molly has two different areas that
she can shoot, it does come with a difficult decision to make regarding prices and the number of people
she shoots.
Molly’s business is still fairly new, so she is working of getting the clientele that she wants.
Increasing the social media presence on Instagram and Facebook will be the most effective way of
getting the name of MESC Photography circulating. Her long-term goal would be to shoot athletic
photography for a D1 university. She is on the right track to reach her goals. It would be a good Ideas get
some experience shoot action shots. She might be able to use the connections at the University of South
Dakota to gain some more experience. The Vermillion high school may also be a possible new market.

II. User Personas

MECS photography has four target marks. Seniors, Sports, Weddings, and Families are all user personas
that the owner, Molly, focuses on capturing.
The first graphic is of a Senior. Seniors are the most popular out of the four user personas.

Name: Lexi
Current occupation: Full time student. No part time employment.
Short Summary: Lexi is from Fremont, Nebraska. She is an athlete who wants to pursue volleyball in
college. She is hoping to get into a medical program. She is a homebody who would like to stay around
Nebraska for college.
Words that describe the user: Smart, very shy, blunt, and athletic.
Favorite Brands: Nike, Converse, American Eagle, and Adidas.
Problem Statement: Lexi’s little sister has been diagnosed with leukemia and lymphoma. Unfortunately,
things are not looking so good for her little sister. Bills have been piling up for her family so Lexi was not
wanting to spend a lot of money on her senior pictures.
Afflictions: Warming up to new people is not a priority for Lexi. She is also financially struggling because
of her sisters cancer. One could tell by interacting with her that she has been affected by her sisters
diagnosis. Her mother is always busy working at the local school, so Lexi has had to spend most of her
time watching and caring over her younger sister.
Affections: Becoming a student athlete is one of Lexi’s main goals, falling short behind the hope of her
sister becoming cancer free.

The second User Persona is a newlywed couple. Weddings would be the second most popular out of the
four user personas.

Name: Hannah and Ryan Davis

Current occupation: Hannah is an elementary school teacher. Ryan is also a teacher, but specializing in
Social Science at the high-school level.
Short Summary: Hannah and Ryan first met in college, both attending Doane. They are both from small
towns. Hannah is from Fremont, where their wedding took place, and Ryan is from Blair. Hannah’s
personality is very outgoing while Ryan has a relaxing personality. This makes for a good match between
the two. Both are now living in a house together in Lincoln.
Words that describe the user: Hannah: Outgoing, religious, and very busy. Ryan: Smart, Quiet, and good
with children.
Favorite Brands: Hannah: LOFT, J Crew, and Banana Republic. Ryan: Old Navy, Brooks, and Fossil.
Problem Statement: Hannah and Ryan do not have enough money to hire a high top photographer.
Fortunately, Molly will shoot 12 hours for the price of 8. She will not over charge if the wedding goes
over time. Another problem Hannah has faced is that her mother died when she was just 9 years old.
She has basically raised her two younger sisters on her own while her dad was busy providing for the
family.
Afflictions: Both Hannah and Ryan might struggle with being parental role models. Since Hannah’s
mother passed away, she has only grown up with a father. Ryan’s parents got a divorce when he was
young. So hopefully this is not the case, but Both Hannah and Ryan did not grow up with the perfect
image parents.
Affections: Raising a family in their house together in Lincoln would be what Hannah and Ryan would
love to do. While building great teaching careers, they also want to stay close to their family members in
Fremont and Blair. Hiring Molly would save them from an explanation of family troubles, because Molly
has known the couple for a long time.
II. Digital Marketing Strategy Matrix

Business Goal:

Channels SEARCH REFERRAL PAID EMAIL

CONNECT Keywords: Networks: Platforms: Segments:

Senior pictures Social media - FaceBook, Advertise on FaceBook, Have a giveaway and
Instagram Instagram enter through providing
Wedding photographer email (then email those
Word-of-mouth sharing Be featured on high- people)
Local photographer profile Instagram page

CULTIVATE Content: Share: Retargeting: Subject & Content:

Add url /wedding to love Share featured senior Retarget seniors when Provide information
webpage and wedding photos marriage is approaching about how to book a
(one of each from ads, session and what to
Incorporate local aspect one of each from Retarget wedding people expect from each session
into webpage through website) when their family grows
use of location-based ad Include discounts if the
targeting Share how Molly is fun, Both of these can be person refers another
timely, worth the cost, accomplished through person who books a
wants to become a the use of email session
friend

CONVERT Goal: Goal: Goal: Goal:

Completion of Book a photography Completion of Have email subscribers

senior/wedding/other session over direct senior/wedding/other fill out contract form
form message or on website form
Email subscribers receive
Like/share page on social link to website and
media follow link to browse
photographs on the site

RETAIN Ongoing: Engage: Repeat Purchase: Open Rate:

Have consistent urls with Offer incentives to those Email reminders for Send yearly emails to
keywords in Google who refer a certain upcoming life changes check in with subscribers
search number of people that people want to and determine their
capture (family growth, interest level
marriage, graduating
senior) Offer option to
re-subscribe and receive
a discount on a
photoshoot

III. Digital Marketing Objectives: SMART

1. Within the next year MECS photography will book at the minimum of 10 wedding sessions
 2. MECS photography will gain instagram by 25 followers per week by increasing instagram activity
related the photography
3. Implement Honeybook software on website with the month of January 2019 to have 100%
papers less booking and payments by 2020
4. Utilize Hootsuite to plan all social media post and analyze analytics February 2019
5. Create a growing email list with 25 new potential clients per, and send out an email once a
month to the list
6. Use facebook and instagram to increase senior and wedding shoots by 10% within the next
season
7. Create one new blog post every other week, so website content is enriched.

IV. Digital Strategy Recommendation (Hannah)

MECS Photography is a Omaha and Vermillion based photography business owned by Molly
Schiermeyer. The company is focused on taking photos for different types of events, including senior
sessions, weddings, and sporting events. On average, she currently books 25 senior sessions and 10
weddings per year. She utilizes word of mouth and social media for most of her advertising. She does
not know much about the analytics side of her business, but wants to utilize them more to help grow
her business.

Within the next year, we hope the objectives set forth will help Molly increase her business by 25%. We
first want to increase the online presence of the company drastically.. We also would like to book at
least ten to fifteen wedding sessions throughout 2019. Increasing the number of followers/page
likes/online traffic will help drive her business, as more people will see her work and then book her for
their sessions. To do this we must increase the activity on the accounts, particularly through regular
posts, instead of the irregular posts she currently does.

We also want to implement software for analytics tracking. By implementing Honeybook software , we
will increase the analytics available to Molly. We also want to begin utilizing Hootsuite to analyze social
media traffic. Between these two pieces of software, we hope to see how and what people are using her
site and social media and then target those customers in the best way possible.

One thing that we recommend Molly should do is acquire both Honeybook and Hootsuite so she can
more easily track the traffic on her website and her social media accounts. With these, Molly will be able
to plan her social media posts so they become more regular and more curated towards the traffic on
those sites. This will allow her to increase traffic and accomplish her goals of increasing followers and
gaining more business through social media.

A second thing we recommend Molly should do is increase her online presence. The analytics software
will help with this, but she will also have to put more of an effort into her posts and emails in order to
ensure that she is targeting the right customers. She wants to increase her Instagram followers by 25
accounts per week and make sure she sends out an email at least once per month. These will help her
gain more business by increasing people’s awareness of her.

The action items that Molly can take to improve her business are:
● Implement Honeybook
● Implement Hootsuite
● Send an email once per month
● Write a blog post twice per month
● Increase pricing to $700/hour

V. Proposed Creative for Digital Marketing

The social media platforms we use will determine how we promote MESC Photography to our different
Market segmentations. Younger people are the next group that are starting to get married, and are
searching for wedding photographers. We will instagram post and stories to reach the target market.
We will draw on the emotions of a wedding, and try to use love and romance as a trigger. Parents of
high school seniors are more likely to be using Facebook we will have a series of post that feature high
school seniors, and encourage parents to book sessions to preserve the memories for their kids.
For one of the emails for MESC, will can offer “model” opportunities for the different categories,
and “models” would get a discounted session. This offer would also be posted on social media. This
would help MESC Photography gain new clients. It would also help spread the word, because the
“models” would want to share the their photos, so they would be promoting MESC to their friends and
family. These people would become sort of a temporary ambassador for MESC Photography.
The is currently portion of Molly’s website that is for blog post, but there are non available. She
should try to create consistent blog post, so potential clients that visit her website can view some of her
work that is not on social media. Molly can also use this section to let her clients get to know her.
Posting experiences with past clients will let her tell a story about the photos she take, this would be
another opportunity to book clients.
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IV. Conclusion
Shampaign:
It was interesting to have the experience of collaborating with a an actual business. This project
was great way to learn about digital marketing, and get the experience of working with “co-workers” to
present a deliverable for a client. An audit of the business’s current online presence was the most
helpful because we were able to determine how the SWOT analysis could help us set goals, and create a
marketing plan which was my favorite part.
I found a website to create the mock social media pots/ ads used a website called AdParlor
which is a social media ad mockup generator. Learning to use tools like this will be helpful when
generating online social media ideas for future clients. Thinking about how these ads or post can be
strategically placed is dependent on a lot of factors. Using what we learned throughout the semester to
figure out the best strategy was a good reflection of the semester.

Molly:
I absolutely love learning about digital marketing and different skills I can aquire to make my
personal business even better!! I found this whole process to be enjoyable and fun. My group members
did a good job of asking me questions as the business owner, and constructively criticizing my business. I
never felt attacked and these girls had some great ideas for my business!
I found that I was really missing a lot of key components for success when I was creating the
Digital Marketing Audit. This information didn’t discourage me. It excited me! I felt like laying out all the
issues with my website, social media, and emails helped me understand why I maybe wasn’t getting the
business I had been expecting. I am excited to implement an analytics plan for my website, and schedule
content for my social media posts. Creating an email list of past clients, social media giveaways, and
actually working on my SEO are on my list of immediate goals!

Hannah:
I learned a lot about working with a real business through this project. It was interesting and
exciting to be able to take the business’s current marketing practices and transform them in new and
exciting ways to help MECS Photography become more prominent in the area. I found having to work
through all of the steps, such as doing an audit, creating a user persona, making a SWOT analysis, and
coming up with recommendations, to be very useful and helpful for our future careers.
Having to take the objectives for the business, along with the analysis, user personas, and
everything else, and turn them into real-life recommendations was very exciting. I enjoyed being able to
come up with real solutions to real problems the company is facing. I am excited for MECS Photography
to be able to implement the ideas and recommendations and see how the company does in the future.

Emilee:
During this project I learned more about the photography business that I had previously known.
For example, I had not realized what some of the prices were for a standard photoshoot and how much
it can vary by photographer, experience level, and location. I had assumed all of these aspects affected
price charged, but I had not considered it in a marketing perspective. Because of Molly’s current
locations of Vermillion and Omaha, she cannot expect the receive the same amount of business for the
same price in Vermillion as she does in Omaha.
Although we agreed lowering prices based on location was not the best way to solve this
problem, we found that altering her social media presence and employing the use of email to her clients
and potential clients could help bridge the gap. For example, she could host several giveaways on her
social media sites to encourage her followers to refer to or share with others. Another way she can
promote her business and expand her client base is to utilize email. Through this, she can offer discounts
for referrals or returning customers. Plus, she can add more individuals to her email list, and if those
individuals convert to customers, she can easily track and manage that information. Overall, I learned
various ways to assist a business in selecting and implementing the best digital marketing strategy for
their specific needs.

Courtney:
I really enjoyed doing this project and working with my group members to find out how we can help a
company better off their business. My group actually had a group member, Molly, who has her own
business. It was really nice to have her in our group so we could really get to the bottom of different
topics. Molly owns a photography business and I thought this was perfect because before this project I
did not know that much about photography or digital marketing. Throughout this project, I learned a lot
about how we can relate digital marketing to really any type of business.

We sat down and looked at MECS Photography’s current numbers. Whether it be how many followers
she has on social media, how much she charges for a senior/wedding shoot, or how many sessions she
gets in a year, we took what we learned and know from digital marketing and figured out how we can
make her company better and get those numbers up! Having us work in a group really felt like we were
working with other co-workers. Also, it was nice having to come up with a deliverable as if we are
presenting it to the business because this is something that definitely could happen in the real world.