Research Practicum, group 1, eSpatial, 01 September 2014

eSpatial Educators
Programme
A Research and Consulting Practicum
Graduate Certificate in Management (Digital Marketing) 2014
Claire Moore, Seosamh Ó Conghaile, Thantap Pankhao, Peter Scott and Judith Uhuegbu

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ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION
Student Names: Claire Moore, Seosamh Ó Conghaile, Thantap Pankhao, Peter Scott and Judith Uhuegbu
ID Numbers: 14101068, 14101564, 14101858, 14101661 and 14101629
Programme: GCM Digital Marketing
Module: HR5003 – Research and Consulting Project (MG5000A)
Practicum Title: “eSpatial Educators Programme: A Research and Consulting Practicum”
Faculty / School: DCU Business School
Supervisor: Dr. Theo Lynn
Submitted by: 01 September 2014

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DISCLAIMER
“I hereby certify that this material, which I submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the
award of Graduate Certificate in Management is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of
others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work.”
Signed: ____________________________ Student ID: ___________ Date: ________

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary................................................................................................................................................ 7
1. Overview of eSpatial ...................................................................................................................................... 9
2. Competitor Analysis......................................................................................................................................... 10
2.1 Competitor #1: Tableau.............................................................................................................................. 10
2.2 Competitor #2: SAS ................................................................................................................................... 10
2.3 Competitor #3: ESRI.................................................................................................................................. 11
2.4 SWOT Analysis of Competitors................................................................................................................. 12
3. Objectives of the Practicum.............................................................................................................................. 13
4. Primary Research.............................................................................................................................................. 14
4.1 Research Question...................................................................................................................................... 14
4.2 Research Subjects....................................................................................................................................... 14
4.3 Research Method........................................................................................................................................ 14
4.4 Research Methodology............................................................................................................................... 16
4.4.1 Selecting Interview Candidates ........................................................................................................... 16
4.4.2 Emailing the Candidates...................................................................................................................... 17
4.4.3 Contact Made With Perspective Candidates ....................................................................................... 17
4.5 Findings from the Research........................................................................................................................ 19
5. Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning......................................................................................................... 21
5.1 Segmenting the Market............................................................................................................................... 21
5.1.1 Demographic Segmentation ................................................................................................................ 21
5.1.2 Geographic Segmentation ................................................................................................................... 21

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5.1.3 Behavioural Segmentation................................................................................................................... 21
5.1.4 Segmented Market Size....................................................................................................................... 22
5.2 Targeting the Market .................................................................................................................................. 23
5.2.1 Buyer Personas .................................................................................................................................... 24
5.3 Positioning the Educational Resources ...................................................................................................... 26
6. Application of the Findings.............................................................................................................................. 27
6.1 Company Website – eSpatial.com.............................................................................................................. 27
6.1.1 Website Usability Testing ................................................................................................................... 28
7. Constructing the Educational Resources.......................................................................................................... 30
7.1 eSEE: eSpatial Educators eBook................................................................................................................ 30
7.2 Educator Pack............................................................................................................................................. 32
8. Marketing the Educational Resources.............................................................................................................. 33
8.1 The Sales Funnel ........................................................................................................................................ 33
8.1.1 TOFU Content - eSee and the Landing Page ...................................................................................... 33
8.1.2 MOFU Content - Educator Pack and the Landing Page...................................................................... 33
8.1.3 BOFU Content – Closing Leads.......................................................................................................... 34
8.2 Email Marketing......................................................................................................................................... 34
8.2.1 Outbound Email and Brand Implications............................................................................................ 34
8.2.2 Personalisation..................................................................................................................................... 35
8.2.3 Legal Considerations........................................................................................................................... 35
8.2.4 Locating Prospects for Marketing ....................................................................................................... 35

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8.2.5 The Benefits of Email Marketing........................................................................................................ 35
8.2.6 Creating Trust...................................................................................................................................... 36
8.2.7 Relevancy via Personalised Content ................................................................................................... 36
8.2.8 Creating Engagement .......................................................................................................................... 37
8.2.8 Using Email Marketing to Complement Social Media ....................................................................... 37
8.3.9 Strategy and Measurement .................................................................................................................. 37
8.3 Social Media Marketing ............................................................................................................................. 37
8.3.1 New or Existing Social Media Accounts............................................................................................. 38
8.4 SEO and Blogging...................................................................................................................................... 38
9. Key Performance Indicators............................................................................................................................. 40
10. Budget............................................................................................................................................................. 41
11. Recommendations .......................................................................................................................................... 42
12. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................... 44
Bibliography......................................................................................................................................................... 45
Appendices ........................................................................................................................................................... 49
Appendix A: Research Interviews.................................................................................................................... 50
A-1 – Interview Script.................................................................................................................................. 50
A-2 - Interview with Graham Hunt (Lecturer at DCU and NUI)................................................................. 52
A-3 – Interview with Frank Donnelly (Lecturer at the City University of New York) ............................... 57
A-4 – Interview with David Skiles (Instructor at Front Range Community College, Colorado) ................ 61
Appendix B: Research Methodology ............................................................................................................... 66

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B-1 – Screenshot of eSpatial case studies .................................................................................................... 66
B-2 – Screenshots of Data Mapping modules .............................................................................................. 66
B-3 – Emails drafted for A/B testing............................................................................................................ 67
B-4 – Detailed findings from participants on research areas ....................................................................... 68
Appendix C: The Sales Funnel and Marketing ................................................................................................ 72
C-1 – Recommendations: Sales Funnel........................................................................................................ 72
C-2 – Recommendations: Outbound Email Marketing................................................................................ 72
C-3 – Creating engaging email content........................................................................................................ 72
C-4 – Recommendations: Inbound Social Media Campaign ....................................................................... 73
C-5 – Guide On How To Gather Contact Information On Prospects........................................................... 73
C-6 – Marketing Options.............................................................................................................................. 74
C-7 – Email content for MOFU prospects (a.k.a. ‘Business Betty’)............................................................ 75
C-8 – Creating Educator Packs for educators of other disciplines............................................................... 76
C-9 – Recommendations: SEO and Blogging.............................................................................................. 76
C-10 – Using Google Analytics to measure the success of marketing strategies ........................................ 77
Appendix D: Website Modifications to eSpatial.com...................................................................................... 78
Appendix E: Educator Pack.............................................................................................................................. 82
Appendix F: Interview Recordings .................................................................................................................. 86

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this research report was to gain insights and understand the needs of third level educators in the
USA, UK and Ireland who use data mapping software and to use these insights to create an educator
programme for third level institutions that will be their number one educator programme of choice.
After a competitor analysis was completed, it became clear that the main eSpatial competitors in the market
were offering software tools and support to third level institutions which is an area eSpatial is overlooking. This
market research revealed three core areas that were fundamental in delivering a successful educational
programme for third level institutions:
 full range of supporting materials for students and educators;
 free software for universities; and
 free comprehensive data sets
Qualitative research methods were employed to gather more detailed information on what third level educators
need and want from data mapping software and the reasons they choose, or would choose, one brand over
another. There were seven third level educators interviewed in total from the USA, UK and Ireland. The
fieldwork was conducted from 10th
July to 19th
August 2014. Interview questions were based on the
respondent’s experience of different types of data mapping vendors and their attitudes towards using data
mapping software to teach their students in classes and workshops. The research objectives were:
 to analyse the use of data mapping software in the classroom environment
 understand previous experiences dealing with software vendors and suggestions for improvement
 experiences of locating sets of data

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This primary research revealed the following core insights which were used to create an eSpatial Educator
Programme targeting third level educators in the three regions:
 currently our target market are using a competitors software
 providing relevant content examples for the educators academic field is not being provided by their
current data mapping provider
 free software that is easy to access and quick to sign-up to is important to them
Based on the research insights, a 14 page eBook was designed for educators as a tool to provide them with
information about this programme and the benefits of choosing eSpatial’s data mapping software. It provides
information on the practical uses and advantages of using eSpatial data mapping software in third level
institutions. Additional supports produced for educators include the Educator Pack, which was created to
differentiate the eSpatial brand from that of its key competitors. It is a tool designed for educators to help them
teach students and it also shows them how to use eSpatials software for their particular field of study.
Targeting third level educators with this content will increase brand awareness, promote brand differentiation
and strengthen eSpatials search engine optimisation.
A number of marketing methods are to be found in this report as suggestions on how to promote and
communicate eSpatial’s Educators Programme. These marketing channels are both outbound and inbound and a
list of recommendations and considerations has been created for eSpatial to use these channels.

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1. OVERVIEW OF ESPATIAL
eSpatial Solutions Limited was founded in Ireland in 1997. The headquarters is located in Eastpoint
Business Park in Dublin and it has offices based in the USA to provide geographic information systems
(GIS) services to small and large companies, governments and consultancies. eSpatial helps organisations
better understand their geographical data. It does so by enabling its users to configure spreadsheet data into
maps. This data mapping provides immediate insights into market trends and challenges.
Following its first commercial success with GIS application product, iSMART, the company decided to
take their mapping software online and enter the world of cloud computing in 2010 with a new product
called eSpatial OnDemand GIS. The product enables customers to realise the potential of online data
mapping and location applications that support and integrate with real-world internal and external business
systems. This move completely transformed the business.
Today, eSpatial is a results-driven provider of data mapping software with a proven track record in
delivering geographic solutions for over a decade. The company has a global partner and customer-base that
is growing rapidly. At this point in time it enjoys an international reputation for innovation, trustworthiness,
and efficiency across a wide variety of industries. However, it is aware that there is still scope for expansion
into some sectors – particularly the third level education sector in the USA.
A number of factors underpin this strategic goal. Firstly, commercial associations with well-known
reputable third level institutes would give increased status to eSpatial. Secondly, students attending these
colleges and universities would be more than mere users of the brand; they would also act as active
ambassadors for it. Thirdly, the educators would be key gatekeepers in gaining entry to this market and it is
likely that they prefer the availability of a full suite of educational tools to be provided by the sole vendor.
The goal for eSpatial would therefore be to provide all the elements the educators require to make the
decision to adopt the product as easy as possible.

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2. COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
This chapter discusses three competitor companies of eSpatial, outlining the product and services provided by
each to third level institutes. They provide a benchmark, the industry standard and what options are available to
educators. The companies offer business intelligence, advanced analytics and GIS.
2.1 Competitor #1: Tableau
Tableau Software is a computer software company based in Seattle, Washington. It offers a wide range of
sophisticated data visualisation software products relating to business intelligence (Murphy, 2013). Some of
these products include Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server and Tableau Online.
As part of its academic programmes, educators and students sign up for a one-year license to Tableau Desktop.
The ‘Tableau for Teaching’ programme enables educators from a range of subjects to analyse data. For
educators, Tableau provides free software for themselves and their students; guest tutorials on data
visualisation; assistance with course curricula; and sample materials. The ‘Tableau for Students’ programme
offers a free Tableau Desktop license to students to explore the data as well as a library of case studies which
show the benefits of Tableau. Students can also upload and distribute their own data using the Tableau public
server.
Tableau is positioned as a user-friendly product that produces high-quality reports and accommodates various
data sources e.g. databases, cloud-based data and big data. Tableau can also combine data from many sources to
facilitate data-driven decisions such as a company’s domain-specific language and an Excel spreadsheet.
2.2 Competitor #2: SAS
Statistical Analysis System (SAS) is software used for advanced analytics, business intelligence and data
management. The company holds the largest market share for advanced analytics. The SAS software processes
data from a variety of data sources. The product has multifaceted functions, including website monitoring,
social media analysis and customer profiling.

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The ‘SAS Global Academic’ programme offers free software and a mixture of learning tools to educators and
students. Although SAS can be difficult to learn for scholars (Acock, 2005), it also has a programme for high
schools. Similar to Tableau, SAS provides presentation slides, teaching materials and software to educators as
well as a full set of teaching requirements. Students can get free tutorials, book discounts, datasets to facilitate
learning, and user groups to chat to other students in the SAS community. They also have the chance to present
at SAS regional user groups and at SAS Analytical Conferences.
SAS delivers a wide range of courses, including visual analytics, as well as workshops for educators to help
facilitate the training of its software to their students. Its Visual Analytics software provides students with
various examples to illustrate how SAS performs different industries. Furthermore, several affiliate USA
universities offer joint certifications with SAS.
2.3 Competitor #3: ESRI
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ERSI) is an international supplier for GIS software. They also
provide web GIS. Its successful ArcGIS product offers data manipulation and analysis (Ormsby et al, 2001).
Educational licenses are required at cost for ArcGIS for third level institutes. The license agreements restrict
certain commercial application of the product. ERSI offers free software such as ArcGIS Explorer. ArcGIS
educational maps are available for free.
The campus wide ERSI product has a reduced fee for third level institutes. There is an ERSI community and
blog available to students. Furthermore, there are a number of case studies available covering a wide range of
industries and sectors. The case studies have clear and easy to follow instructions on how to use the software
for students and educators.

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2.4 SWOT Analysis of Competitors
The main elements of a SWOT analysis are an organisations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It
is considered a powerful management tool (Kearns 1992).
•Rapidly changing
technology
•New entrants
•Growth in cloud
computing
•Big data
•New Markets
•Slow decision
making
•Responsibilities
to shareholders
•Market Share
•Branding
•Management
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
THREATSOPPORTUNITIES

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3. OBJECTIVES OF THE PRACTICUM
1. Improve search engine optimisation (SEO) through backlinks
The eSpatial Educators Programme was designed with this objective in mind. The goal was to create and offer a
free educational tool for third levels that educators will use to teach their students data mapping solutions. In
the first 12 months of this programme being launched, it is expected that there will be 400 educator sign-ups in
the USA, 150 in the UK and 50 in Ireland. Once an educator signs up for this programme, they receive a link
they can publish on their university website for their students to access their free licences. As most third level
institutions have high domain authority, this is a valuable link for improving SEO.
Another benefit of the eSpatial Educators Programme is that it will allow students to publish and share the
portfolios they build using eSpatial’s data mapping software. Once students complete their portfolio there are
facilities to publish and share links to this via the eSpatial website and social networks.
2. Build brand awareness through inbound and outbound marketing
An inbound and outbound digital marketing campaign was planned to build brand awareness, create brand
differentiation and generate sign ups to the programme. The inbound campaign is supported by a new
Academic section on the eSpatial website. A free eBook is a key element of the inbound campaign to pull
educators into the top of the sales funnel. An email campaign targeting third level educators will promote this
eBook.
A free eSpatial Educator Pack was created based on competitor benchmarking and primary research to help the
inbound marketing strategy through sales funnel targeting. The pack consists of teaching notes and a
presentation to support the educators who are interested in the programme and has an an associated landing
page and personalised email to promote the pack. All of this marketing will ensure that year one sign-up
numbers are achieved and it is expected that these figures will increase by 20% in year two as more educators
will be aware of the brand to consider it as a teaching option.

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4. PRIMARY RESEARCH
4.1 Research Question
The purpose of this research was to explore teaching techniques of data mapping software among educators in
third level institutes, and to identify the types of tools and support they require in order to provide this service
to their students.
4.2 Research Subjects
Respondents in this research include educators in the USA (85% of the target market), UK (10% of the target
market) and Ireland (5% of the target market) who teach business analytics, journalism and humanities to
student classes and workshops.
4.3 Research Method
This section explains the research method used for this project, the reasons for choosing this method, sampling
techniques for the research and limitations of using such research methods and sampling. To answer the
research question, it was necessary to learn about the social norms among educators as well as to identify the
teaching behaviours and opinions between them and their students (Mack et al, 2005).
Qualitative research was employed so that respondents could voice their individual experiences. The flexibility
of the research approach also gave the team the opportunity to describe and explain the relationship between the
educators and data mapping software vendors as well as their students.
Using a qualitative approach, the team devised open-ended questions to allow for a more conversational-style
research approach. Research questions were adapted by the team depending on how open the educators were
about their first-hand experiences using data mapping software in their curricula. This semi-structured style of
questioning is not possible using a quantitative research method.

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It is important to note that qualitative research is subjective, lacks transparency and can be difficult to replicate.
To help reduce the impact of these drawbacks, a guide was scripted so that the questions and process could be
replicated for each respondent. In turn, each interview was recorded for transparency [Appendix A-1].
The three most common qualitative methods are participant observation, focus groups and in-depth interviews.
Given the diverse locations, time differences and time of year, observation and focus groups were dismissed as
a viable research method. The chosen qualitative method was semi-structured interviews. To gain meaningful
marketing insights, interviews encouraged the respondents to think more about the topic and to provide
opportunities for more detailed personal responses.
It was unfeasible to interview the total market, so the research team used the judgement sampling technique to
select the most productive representative sample of the market to answer the questions (Marshall, 1996). Due to
extensive research on this topic, the research team initially selected candidates based on demographic and
geographical factors who had the relevant experience teaching data mapping.
However, two factors impacted on the sampling: (1) the strict time constraints for the research made it difficult
for the research team to build a lengthy list of interview candidates and (2) the time of year meant that many of
the candidates were unavailable for interviewing as third level institutes’ break during the summer months. To
combat this, convenience sampling techniques were also used.
Research shows that sample size is subjective as different respondents can have different opinions. While some
authors (Creswell, 1998; and Morse, 1994) provide guidance on sample size, it is difficult to find the rationale
for choosing these numbers. Ideally, the samples in qualitative research will be big enough to capture the
insights without saturation. To this end, the research team aimed to conduct ten interviews, but completed
seven.
The main factor impacting the sample size was the project time-frame. Qualitative research is labour intensive,
with much time focussed on analysing interviews. Therefore, the research team deemed it impractical to

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analyse a larger sample. Jette, Grover and Keck (2003) advocate that expertise of the respondents in the chosen
research topic can decrease the number of respondents needed in a study, as was the case in this research.
4.4 Research Methodology
Ryan (2006) states that qualitative research cannot be left in the form it was collected; recordings and
transcripts cannot speak for themselves. The following section reflects on the research process in which the
research team gathered the raw data and collated it so as to gain key insights to meet the objectives –
particularly concerning the buyer personas, content concepts and marketing strategies.
4.4.1 Selecting Interview Candidates
eSpatial software and available case studies on its website [Appendix B-1] were explored as well as the use of
data mapping software in third level institutes in the USA, UK and Ireland. The research team found that data
mapping was often taught as a completed module or as part of a module in undergraduate and postgraduate
programmes, including Information Systems, Operational Management, and Supply and Logistics Management
[Appendix B-2]. Therefore, interview candidates who were teaching within business faculties were selected.
Following the insights gained from a pilot interview with Graham Hunt, Data Visualisation lecturer from
Dublin City University (DCU) and the National University of Ireland (NUI) in Maynooth, interview candidates
teaching within both business and humanities faculties were identified and used as the market sample.
Google search engine was used to source the credentials and contact details of suitable candidates. This data
was input onto an Excel spreadsheet and saved onto Google Drive so that the members of the research team
could share and update it. This spreadsheet included details of a wide range of details including their
professional titles, full names, phone numbers, email addresses, third level institutes, faculty or department and
the URL that the information was located on.

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4.4.2 Emailing the Candidates
The Information Technology (IT) department in DCU set up a specific email account for the purposes of this
research, postgraduateresearch@dcu.ie. This email account was set up to give the research team communal
access to the mailbox and also it was expected that it would be perceived by the recipients as more professional
than a personal email account.
Two draft emails were constructed to perform A/B testing (Zarella, 2014) – one referring to the research team
as students and the other research assistants [Appendix B-3]. Adopting the ‘What’s In It For Me’ (WIIFM)
marketing principle the emails stated value to the recipient by stating the research team’s aim was to create data
mapping educational materials on behalf of eSpatial (Skelly 2005). If the candidates saw the potential to receive
a new and useful teaching resource, they may be more inclined to agree to an interview (Cialdini, 1993).
Increased personalisation of email content is proven to increase conversions – a conversion in this case being a
response and a completed interview (Edrion, 2012). The emails were personalised using the data from the
spreadsheet, including the names of the educators and the third level institutes they worked in. Introducing
exclusivity is also shown to increase conversion, so the emails stated that they each were chosen as a candidate
based on the quality of their respective colleges or universities (Edrion 2012).
4.4.3 Contact Made With Perspective Candidates
34 emails in total were sent – 18 to educators in the USA; 12 to educators in the UK and four to educators in
Ireland. The emails were sent based on the size of the potential market and to get as many perspective interview
candidates from each market as possible. Because the emails notified each candidate of the day and local time
to expect a call for an interview, each team member was assigned a particular time to make calls. These calls
were made hourly to give breaks in between interviews.
The pilot interview with Graham Hunt ran for 23 minutes, so the research team allocated 40 minutes per
subsequent interview. Should an interview be more than one hour there was a system in place, so that another
person would be available if the person doing the interview had a concurrent scheduled interview.

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There were five responses – two of the recipients declined to be interviewed and the remaining three were
automated ‘out of office’ emails. Skype was used to make the calls regardless of the response at the time stated
in the emails. The research team conducted one interview out of the 34 calls made. This was with Andrew Pope
from University College Cork (UCC). A few days later, Shawn Day from Queen’s University Belfast emailed
back to participate in an interview.
Following this obstacle, the research team opted for cold-calling instead of sending out further emails, aiming
to gain more interviews. Lists were compiled of as many contacts as possible and each contact on this list was
telephoned, resulting in two more interviews. However, many of the calls either went unanswered or,
occasionally, led to an administrator at the third level institute informing the researcher that the educators
generally return to campus as from Monday, 18th
August.
With this information, it was decided to complete the interviews the following Tuesday. Again, a large volume
of calls were made with the vast majority going answered. Nonetheless, a further three interviews were
completed. At this point the research team met to review the insights that had been gained from the seven
interviews and to discuss the time constraints. It was decided that the interview process did not need to be
continued as the research completed and the insights gained were sufficient to meet the objectives.
The seven interview respondents for this research practicum included:
1. Paul Clay: Assistant Professor in Management and Information Systems at Fort Lewis College,
Colorado.
2. Shawn Day: Lecturer in Digital Humanities; and Social Computing in Queen’s University Belfast;
Trinity College Dublin; and UCC.
3. Frank Donnelly: Geospatial Data Librarian and Lecturer in Data Visualisation at the City University of
New York.
4. Eric Huggins: Professor of Management in Fort Lewis College, Colorado.
5. Graham Hunt: Lecturer in Cloud Strategy; Data Analytics; and Data Visualisation at DCU and NUI.

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6. Andrew Pope: Lecturer in Information Systems in the Business and Law faculty at UCC.
7. David Skiles: Instructor in GIS at Front Range Community College, Colorado.
4.5 Findings from the Research
This section gives a synopsis of the detailed research findings [Appendix B-4]. Many of the interviewees were
at different stages of the buyers journey or purchase funnel. They were either at the researching phase, using the
products provided by key competitors or using open source products:
 Currently researching data mapping software for the classroom: 1
 Currently using data mapping software in the classroom: 6
 Not using data mapping software in the classroom: 1 (Teaches about data mapping software but does
not use the tool).
Interviewees stated that they sourced GIS software from vendors and through open source.
Interviewees were from two different academic disciplines, humanities and business. Six were from business
schools and two from humanities schools. There was a wide range of subjects within these academic disciplines
including; Information Systems, Data Visualisation, Digital Humanities, Social Computing, Business
Management, Data Analytics, GIS and Bachelors of Applied Science in Geospatial Sciences.
Six of the interviewees use both workshops which are mostly in computer labs, and lectures halls to teach
Geospatial Visualisation. Only one interviewee did not use lectures, he taught daylong workshops.
Four interviewees currently use ArcGIS software, three use Tableau software and three use Open Source
software. The three that use open source encourage their students to locate their own software.
The types of content that each interviewee would like to be provided with were quite similar. However, two of
the interviewees would view any such content with scepticism based on previous content and work examples
provided by other vendors.

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One interesting insight was that often lecturers have little commercial experiences so the content provided will
be content illustrating commercial problems and solutions.
 Specific examples relating to their academic field: 5
 Whitepapers from an academic perspective: 1
 Webinars: 1
 Free Software: 1
 Easy Sign Up Process: 2
The opinion on a certification being provided by a data mapping software company was quite positive with six
out of seven saying they would welcome it. However, the motivating factors were mostly based on how a
certification would be viewed by an employer, not the academic value of a certification. One interviewee said
that if the certification met with the academic goals of the module then he might consider incorporating it in
academic assessment.
Three of the respondents want to be provided with data sets but are sceptical about the quality of the data. The
scepticisms were based on the relevance of the data to their location and what they were teaching. Two
respondents said that part of the learning process was getting students to locate their own data.
Four of the interviewees were very positive about the eSpatial Educators Programme and enquired when it
would be launched.
Three of the respondents would or do encourage students to publish their work online providing the data is not
copyright restricted. Three of the respondents thought that it would be a good idea for their students to publish
maps for their professional portfolios but were wary of publishing these online with public access.

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5. SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND POSITIONING
Over the years, companies have increasingly acknowledged the buying power of the customers and dedicate
much marketing efforts to understanding them (Shamma and Hassan, 2013). Today, the segmentation, targeting
and positioning approach is customary and expected strategic practice in marketing.
5.1 Segmenting the Market
The total market for the geospatial learning tools were identified through (1) discussions with the CEO and
Marketing Manager of eSpatial; (2) deliberations with the programme supervising team at DCU; and (3) an
independent analysis of the current market by conducting a competitor analysis. The target market is third level
institutions.
Kotler and Armstrong (2012) explain that companies can divide the total market into smaller segments in order
to reach their target markets more efficiently and effectively with products and services that match their distinct
requirements. As such, the total market was segmented by demographic, geographic and behavioural variables.
5.1.1 Demographic Segmentation
The total market was initially segmented based on demographic criteria. More specifically, the potential
consumers were divided according to their common occupation and employment status i.e. educators
(regardless of faculty ranks) currently teaching students.
5.1.2 Geographic Segmentation
Similarly, the prospective consumer-base was split in to the three main countries in which eSpatial already
acquires much of its business i.e. the USA, UK and Ireland.
5.1.3 Behavioural Segmentation
In turn, the potential consumers were further divided based on their readiness stage in the sales funnel. In other
words, whether they are at the top of the sales funnel (ToFu), middle of it (MoFu) or bottom of it (BoFu) i.e.
aware, evaluating or ready to sign up for the new data mapping educational programme and materials and apply

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those resources into their teaching curricula (Linnemanstons, 2013). This sales funnel concept is discussed
further in Chapter 8.
In conclusion, segmenting the overall market found the marketing opportunity for eSpatial educational
materials is among educators currently teaching students in third level institutes across the USA, UK and
Ireland. The research team established three target market segment based on the sales funnel.
5.1.4 Segmented Market Size
5.1.4.1 United States of America
The following employment figures were sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the USA. The estimates
for specific educational occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations which are
not shown separately. These estimates do not include self-employed workers. In turn, the relative standard error
(RSE) is a measure of the reliability of a survey statistic – the smaller the RSE, the more precise the estimate.
According to the latest records, as of May 2013, an average total of 1,189,420 post-secondary educators work
specifically within colleges, universities and professional institutes (including private, state, and local
government). This figure includes both educators mostly engaged in teaching and those who do a mixture of
teaching and research.
Out of that figure, an estimated total of 60,980 [RSE 2.5%] employed educators teach in business
administration and management-related programmes, including accounting, finance, human resources, labour
and industrial relations, marketing, and operations research.
Likewise, an estimated total of 20,970 [RSE 2.2%] employed educators teach in communications-related
programmes, organisational communications, public relations, radio/television broadcasting, and journalism.
Based on these figures, there is an estimated 81,950 educators that make up the USA target market size (i.e.
total business and management educators + total communications educators) for the eSpatial Educators

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Programme. This estimation is 6.89% of the total market in the USA – 5.13% (business/management educators)
and 1.76% (communications educators).
5.1.4.2 United Kingdom
The following employment figures were sourced from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in the UK.
According to latest census records in 2011, an average total of 12,766 educators work in universities, Institutes
of Technology and higher education. Out of this figure, 12,483 educators are employees.
5.1.4.3 Ireland
The following employment figures were sourced from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in Ireland. According
to latest records in 2014, an average total of 155,000 educators work as higher education teaching professionals.
5.2 Targeting the Market
A differentiated marketing approach was applied in order to target different market segments and design
separate offers for each (Kotler and Armstrong, 2012). For more effective targeting, a buyer persona was
created to represent each of the three market segments. By doing this, it was clearer to see the problems the
customers wish to solve, their main needs, and what information they were looking for as well as their stage of
the buying cycle (Goliger, 2014). The facets of these personas were based on the research findings.

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5.2.1 Buyer Personas

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5.3 Positioning the Educational Resources
Insights gained from the interviews determined the positioning of the eSpatial Educators eBook (eSEE) and
Educator Pack as well as guiding their creation.
The deliveries include (1) an eBook and (2) an Educator Pack which includes presentation slides and instruction
notes. The Educators Pack is positioned as a free educational resource that educators can effortlessly
incorporate in to their business or humanities-based lectures alongside easy-to-use software in order to teach
students about data mapping in their given industry. Furthermore, the educational resources provide an
induction to the brand. The students who are introduced to the product by their educators may be more likely to
use it early on in their career, therefore, creating a new market for eSpatial in the near future.
The aim of the Educator Pack is to make data mapping accessible and relevant to educators and their students.
This relevancy predominately comes from the programme subject matter and incorporating the associated
professional industries into the content to make it more applicable.

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6. APPLICATION OF THE FINDINGS
6.1 Company Website – eSpatial.com
The formula for any good commercial website is Inform + Interact = Extract (Donnelly, 2014). The goal of the
eSpatial Educators Programme is to inform the target market of the value proposition of this programme.
Interact with the target market by getting the educators to adding their information to landing pages that sign
them up for an eBook or for free software for their programme module in the form of the Educator Pack. The
extract goal is for the educators or professors to download an eBook, Educator Pack or sign-up for the data
mapping licences.
According to Shneiderman (2004), there are eight golden rules of interface design. These points will be
discussed as they are important for the eSpatial Educators Programme platform.
1. Strive for consistency: The design of the eSpatial Educators Programme will be consistent with the
original design of the eSpatial website. The same fonts and colours will be used.
2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts: Once users have submitted their information to the academic
landing page and received their login details, they will be able to use the eSpatial software.
3. Offer informative feedback: There will be feedback through clicks to let the user know they have clicked
an icon and there will be feedback when a user has completed a landing page.
4. Design dialogue to yield close: The process of signing up for the eBook, Educator Pack or the software
will be straight forward and when a process is completed the user will be notified.
5. Offer simple error free handling: A usability test is recommended before launching the academic landing
page as this will make the process error free. The design of eSpatial Educators Programme will be simple.
6. Permit easy reversal of actions: Testing will enable users to reverse their actions on the eSpatial
Academic section of the website.

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7. Support internal locus of control: The design of eSpatial Educators Programme will be easy to use and
will give the users the impression they are in control.
8. Reduce short term memory load: Users will require little memory for using the eSpatial Educators
Programme. The aim is to have the process registering for this programme or receiving the eBook and
Educator Pack to be completed in five clicks.
6.1.1 Website Usability Testing
Nielsen (2003) describes usability as “a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use”. The
usability of the academic pages of the eSpatial website will be very important to the programme’s success.
Good customer experiences depend on good usability. If users cannot use eSpatial Educators Programme, there
will be ultimate implications for the company due to the time invested in rolling out the platform and the
potential loss of business.
If possible, it is recommended that a usability expert reviews the platform before rollout. After the expert
reviews the platform, it is suggested that a usability test is completed. As the target market consists of
educators, it is possible to do remote testing using Morae software. This allows for observing and measuring
how educators and their students interact with the website. It is preferable to have this built into the project plan
timeline for the rollout of the eSpatial Educators Programme. Running a usability test will reduce future costs
and help increase future sales for eSpatial.
A heuristic evaluation by a usability expert will allow the company to evaluate problems such as navigation,
fonts and errors. It is relatively cheaper than a usability study. Once the larger errors have been taken care of, a
usability test will be run to iron out minor errors that the expert may have been missed. A number of usability
tests will need to be completed.
The main benefit of a usability test is that it identifies problems that will plague actual users of the application
(Jeffries and Desurvire 1992). The personas identified earlier will enable a usability testing team to identify
participants for tests that would be actual users of the website.

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The usability test will identify any issues that users have trying to download the eBook or Educator Pack. It will
also identify problems that educators or students might incur when they try access the website to register for the
eSpatial Educators Programme.

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7. CONSTRUCTING THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
7.1 eSEE: eSpatial Educators eBook
An eBook is an electronic version of a book that is downloaded for reading across multiple platforms and
devices including tablets, mobile, PC’s, or laptops and is gaining ground as a leading form of media
consumption (Brown, pg. 391). Today everyone can be an author and write an eBook without writing and
publishing a printed book.
The basis for this project is to create an educational programme for eSpatial and drive it in to third level
institutes across the USA, UK and Ireland. To promote this programme, an eBook was created as a reference
material to assist and support our target market. Several key factors influenced the decision to produce an
eBook to support the eSpatial Educators Programme. These include demographic characteristics of the users,
the properties of an eBook, the communication channel and social systems available and the impact of time on
distribution and the flexibility time gives the user to adopt it (Williams et al).
According to the 2009 JISC national eBooks observatory project, approximately 65% of students and teaching
staff use eBooks to support their work or study. Their research shows that course text eBooks are used
primarily for convenience and the advantages they offer.
Benefits of using an eBook to promote this programme in third level institutes include:
 They do not take up much physical space
 They are quick and easy to access/ download
 They are a cheap and even free source of content
 They are easily portable
 They are flexible and convenient
 Multimedia services can be added to the eBook such as hyperlinks, customisable fonts and design, full-
text searching

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 There is high awareness of eBooks in third level institutes
Research has shown that a key barrier to the accessibility and success of eBooks has been technological and
include internet access, download speeds, access to platforms such as tablets and PCs (Williams and Okafor,
2013). However, further research shows that these are not barriers to our target market. Technological advances
in developed countries in the last decade has revolutionised people’s reading experiences. In 2012, the USA
recorded 89.7% of householders with broadband. In 2013, Great Britain had 83% of households with broadband
internet access. In 2012, 81% of Irish households accessed the internet at home. All three countries have seen a
year on year increase in their population’s use of and access to the internet. With more and more third level
institutes offering distance and online learning to students, it is reasonable to conclude that these institutions
provide their faculty members with internet access and online platforms.
It is recommended that, on the eSpatial website a unique landing page is created for this new academic strategy.
It is expected that the people who perceive themselves as having more needs and require more specific
information, will show a higher interest and therefore have a greater intention to download the eBook (Jung et
al). Once downloaded, the eBook is short in length, concise and reader friendly to avoid eye fatigue among
readers. The content is informative and allows for skimming. It draws on eSpatial’s expertise in this industry
making the eBook practical and useful for the target audience.

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7.2 Educator Pack
The Educator pack was created for three primary reasons. Firstly, based on the competitor analysis, all three
competitors provide teaching materials that can be used by educators in the learning environment. Primary
research findings concluded that six of the seven interviewees would like the content provided to have
examples specific to their academic field. Marketing and target market analysis show that it was necessary to
create content for prospects that were in the MoFo section of the sales funnel. MoFu stage content is viewed as
the most complicated funnel stage because of the broad diversity of interested leads. The content will continue
the educational process from the ToFu section but will provide specific solutions to the prospect’s challenges
(Isca 2013). The Educator Pack contains a presentation that can be used in a lecture or computer laboratory and
detailed lecture notes to help an educator teach the presentation. The research found that six of the seven
candidates interviewed used computer laboratories in their teaching. The presentation can be uploaded by
educators to university eLearning software such as Moodle or Blackboard for use in computer laboratories. This
will help achieve one of the key objectives of this project, to improve SEO through inbound links. The Educator
Pack is intended specifically for the persona Business Betty a lecturer in Business Management, who is in the
MoFu stage of the sales funnel. It is downloaded from a landing page, and intended to draw the recipient into
the BoFu section of the sales funnel. eSpatial may be concerned that replicating the pack for a wide range of
professionals is time consuming. However, eSpatial have been furnished with a detailed guide on how the
Educator Pack was created and on how similar content can be created for any educator using eSpatial’s data
mapping software [Appendix C-8]. The practical work undertaken to create the pack, including proof reading
the content, was four hours and the design element took three hours. The design template created can also be
reused by eSpatial to create further Educator Packs. The Educator Pack resources including; presentation,
teaching notes, landing page and an associated email are located in the appendices (Appendices C-7,D & E).
The Educator Pack requires data sets; these can be provided by eSpatial or sourced by the educators themselves.

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8. MARKETING THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
8.1 The Sales Funnel
Based on the research findings and constructed personas, some of the prospects are at different stages of the
buyer’s journey. Inbound marketing is the art of qualified lead attraction. Prospects are drawn into the sales
funnel, which is made up of the top section (ToFu), the middle section (MoFu) and the bottom section (BoFu),
where prospects become leads (Linnemanstons, 2013). Once the personas sales funnel ranking was identified,
specific content was created and geared towards particular personas.
8.1.1 TOFU Content - eSee and the Landing Page
One of the interviewees was at the ToFu stage. This interviewee had realised they wanted to use data mapping
software in their university teaching but were unaware of the existence of eSpatial or many of its key
competitors. People at the ToFu stage of the sales funnel want to be informed what the company does and how
it can help them (Wilson 2012). Communications sent to draw prospects into the sales funnel will be
informational and not be sales based. Marketing communications for ToFu prospects are designed to draw them
to a landing page that contains a call to action. This landing page is ideal for gaining information further
information about prospects through making them an offer and drawing them into the MoFu section of the sales
funnel.
8.1.2 MOFU Content - Educator Pack and the Landing Page
When a prospect is at the MoFu stage of the sales funnel they will be informed of specific solutions to their
current issue (Devaney 2014). MoFu offerings are arguably the most critical part of the sales funnel because
they turn prospects into leads (Booth 2014). The MoFu offering will draw leads into the BoFu stage of the
sales funnel where they will be targeted with BoFu marketing communications and offerings.

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8.1.3 BOFU Content – Closing Leads
By the time a lead reaches the bottom of the funnel, they are considered ready to convert however they may still
be thinking of choosing from a competitor. These leads are the "low hanging fruit" of the sales funnel. Often
times, leads at the bottom of the funnel just need a gentle nudge to get them to take action (Booth, 2014)
8.2 Email Marketing
Outbound marketing campaigns are where your target market or created personas are identified and sent
marketing materials without them contacting you first. Some examples of outbound or push marketing are
purchased advertisements or purchased/ sourced email lists. Although there is some debate on the issue, email
marketing is generally thought of as outbound marketing, when the person receiving the email is not expecting
it or has not requested it (Mirman 2010).
8.2.1 Outbound Email and Brand Implications
Although outbound email marketing is still widely practiced it is often associated with spam if the recipient is
not expecting to receive it. Before commencing with an outbound email marketing campaign a company needs
to consider if they want their brand to be associated with spam (Isca, 2014). It is not possible to tell if an
outbound email will go directly to a spam folder. The free email marketing tool MailChimp advises if an email
is hypothetically considered spam by common spam filters and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) (Anon, 2014).
MailChimp will not be able to tell if the recipient views the email as spam and if the recipient subsequently
associates the sender’s brand with spam.
The advent of the internet has changed marketing toward the use of inbound marketing tactics over
conventional push marketing tactics. Nonetheless, traditional marketing tactics are still highly important.
Conventional marketing tactics that should still practiced include Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
(STP) and Brand Equity. Brand Equity is defined by Kotler and Keller (2006) as ‘a name, term, sign, symbol or
design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods or service of one seller or group of sellers and

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to differentiate them from those of competitors. It is important to consider the effects on the brand and the
association of the brand within both traditional push marketing and inbound marketing campaigns.
eSpatial need to familiarise themselves with possible brand implications [Appendix C-2].
8.2.2 Personalisation
The more personalised the emails are the less likely they are to be viewed as spam (Isca 2014). Personalisation
includes details gathered on leads through the use of landing pages and market research.
Personalisation recommendations for eSpatial are included in Appendix C-2.
8.2.3 Legal Considerations
Before commencing with an outbound email campaign the legality of sending emails to each country where
their target markets are located must be considered. A law called the CAN-Spam Act of 2003 currently
regulates email marketing in the U.S. The Can-Spam law allows emails to be sent to an account without prior
permissions without prior consent however emails must contain an option for the recipient to opt-out (Mayer
2014).
Legal considerations for eSpatial are highlighted in Appendix C-2.
8.2.4 Locating Prospects for Marketing
The process of gathering contact information for leads in outbound marketing begins with knowing the target
market and how to locate their contact information. A guide has been created showing eSpatial how to gather
contact information on prospects for an outbound email marketing campaign [Appendix C-5].
8.2.5 The Benefits of Email Marketing
Email marketing campaigns generally provides a positive ROI. Email generates nearly twice the return
compared to other channels. According to figures compiled by the DMA in the UK, for every Pound Sterling
spent on email marketing in 2013, there was a £24.93 return. The same report indicated that the success of

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email campaigns was largely attributed to the use of segmentation techniques, like creating personalised
content, and the integration of email marketing with social media (DMA 2014).
For email marketing campaigns to be successful they need to provide engaging content. Academic research
suggests that consumers may be immune to outbound marketing messages due to over exposure to marketing
messages (Smith 2011). Also, the ability to block unwanted emails has been greatly improved so if the content
is not engaging the prospect has the ability to block any further emails (Miller 2012). Jon Miller (2014) of
Marketo states that engaging email content is made up of five key components; trust, relevancy, conversational
and not campaign based coordinated across channels and strategic (Miller 2012).
8.2.6 Creating Trust
Recipients are often suspicious of emails they do not expect and are likely to view them as spam. In terms of
inbound email campaigns trust is also relevant as some people sign-up for email updates but then change their
mind (Miller 2012).
Tactics for eSpatial on gaining trust through the content that they send are available in Appendix C-3.
8.2.7 Relevancy via Personalised Content
Email marketing communications need to be created with the target market; personas and sales funnel position
in mind. The logic behind targeting specific personas or market segments in the context of the purchase funnel
location is that they are being provided with content that suits their needs. Email marketers estimate 30% of
email revenue derives from targeting to specific segments (DMA 2014).
Relevancy also entails how the emails are being read and specifically on which type of device mobile or
desktop. Email Marketers must endeavour to monitor which devices their marketing communications are being
read on. Creating mobile optimised content does not affect the recipients experience if they are on a desktop. It
is also worth noting that 81% of people read their emails on mobile devices, and 41% of commercial emails
were opened on devices in the second half of 2012. This is up from 27% a year earlier, and from 13% at the end
of 2010. The numbers for 2013 and beyond are sure to be even higher (Miller 2012).

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In order for eSpatial to create marketing messages they ought to familiarise themselves with the marketing
team’s tactics on relevancy [Appendix C-3].
8.2.8 Creating Engagement
Email Blasts is a term used to describe a large amount of similar emails sent to recipients who are not expecting
to receive an email. This method however is outdated; emails now need to be relevant, personalised and
engaging. The sender must be prepared to engage with the recipient and the content of the email should make
this clear (Miller 2012). Tactics on how eSpatial can create engaging content are available in Appendix C-3.
8.2.8 Using Email Marketing to Complement Social Media
Social Connecting is based on the theory that you use your email marketing to increase your social media
followers. This can be achieved through the use of social media sharing icons in the body of the email.
Marketing communications need to include reasons to follow a company’s social media accounts (Miller 2012).
Social Promoting is about driving traffic from the social media campaign toward the email marketing
campaign. It makes non-subscribers aware of the advantages of subscribing, and lets current subscribers know
to be on the lookout for your latest email message (Miller 2012).
8.3.9 Strategy and Measurement
The email marketing campaign must be strategic and metric based. Before commencing an email marketing
campaign the company needs to decide how the success will be measured, is it CTR or acquisitions and identify
a strategy for measuring the results. A guide for eSpatial on measuring campaigns based on the set of Google
Analytics and MailChimp is available in Appendix C- 10.
8.3 Social Media Marketing
Attracting potential clients to content via social network accounts is vital due to the amount of people that use
social media worldwide. Facebook has 1,280 million active users; LinkedIn 300 million active users and
Twitter 255 million active users (The Statistics Portal 2014). Social media marketing campaigns complement

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other inbound marketing campaigns such as email, blogging and SEO. Social media marketing messages like
email marketing messages need to be created based on market research and directed at personas based on where
they are located on the sales funnel.
Social networking is also ideal for monitoring feedback and engaging in online conversations. Good social
media campaigns involve engagement. Marketers need to be aware of what social media accounts their
personas use and where they converse.
Recommendations and considerations for eSpatial on how to engage with their target market and monitor the
success of an inbound marketing campaign are available in Appendix C-4.
8.3.1 New or Existing Social Media Accounts
If a company is launching an entirely new product they must consider whether using new social media accounts
is necessary. Using existing social media accounts may dilute the marketing capabilities of existing products.
Creating new accounts allows a company to target new audiences but if the new product or service fails then
the new social media audience may have a negative image of the brand.
A set of considerations that eSpatial need to review before opening new social media accounts or keeping
existing accounts are available in Appendix C-4.
8.4 SEO and Blogging
Regardless of the intrinsic merits of professional communicators’ web content, its visibility to prospective
audiences often depends on how well the web page or site ranks in a search engine’s results pages, a seemingly
enigmatic arbiter of popularity (Killoran 2013). 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. 70% of
the links users clicks on are organic. SEO as an inbound strategy that is difficult to ignore (Siu 2012). Blogging
is used to supplement an SEO strategy by providing content relevant to the target audience that is easily located
on a search engine. Blogging also supplements email marketing and social media marketing strategies.

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Research by HubSpot indicates that companies that blog get 55% more website traffic than those who do not
(Booth 2014).
eSpatial have been provided with a brief set of guidelines on implementing Blogging and SEO tactics for the
eSpatial Educators Programme [Appendix C-9].

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9. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
eSpatial need to begin by identifying the goals and objectives of the eSpatial Educators Programme and it is
recommended that Google Analytics is used to measure the tangible goals. Google Analytics measures how
affective each marketing tactic is at achieving each assigned goal. This will enable eSpatial to identify which
tactics are working best and then to reallocate resources accordingly. A value needs to be assigned to each goal
and then measured using Google Analytics. This will ascertain how much the marketing tactics cost per goals.
It is recommended that Google Analytics is used to measure the success of the inbound and outbound strategies.
To achieve this, use tagging on all the marketing messages sent and analyse when each piece of content has
been downloaded. They can also monitor when a lead has completed the acquisition process of signing up for
the eSpatial Educators Programme. Google Analytics will allow eSpatial to monitor where in the purchase
funnel prospects are and they will know what content needs to be sent to each prospect.
It is recommended that specific campaigns are set up within Google Analytics such as one for the inbound
email marketing campaign and one for the inbound social media campaign. Then compare the success of each
campaign and deploy resources accordingly. Google Analytics will monitor where in the purchase funnel
prospects are being lost and thus they can look at changing marketing material that might not be helping turn
prospects into acquisitions (Mangold 2009). It is also important to analyse what time of the year the campaigns
are most successful.
eSpatial can also use Google Analytics to monitor which type of device their marketing message are being read
on, mobile or desktop.

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11. RECOMMENDATIONS
This section contains the broad categories of recommendations that have been made for eSpatial. These
recommendations are categorised as Marketing and Communication Recommendations, and Content
Recommendations. There have been a number of detailed recommendations made for eSpatial and these are
located in the Appendices.
1. Marketing and Communication Recommendations
The marketing team has created a number of recommended marketing campaigns for eSpatial, including
inbound and outbound campaigns. eSpatial needs to analyse each campaign and the associated
recommendations and chose which the one that will work best [Appendix C-6].
It is suggested that eSpatial staff be familiar with the sales funnel concept and to be familiar with the type of
marketing content that is being sent to people based on where they are in the sales funnel. The eBook is
designed for those at the ToFu stage, the Educator Pack is MoFu stage content and there is a sample email
designed for those at the BoFu or decision stage of the sales funnel.
There are several considerations to be taken into account if eSpatial choose to use outbound email marketing as
part of their marketing mix. Brand and legal considerations associated with spam and if they have the staff and
software to run and measure each campaign (Appendix C-2).
Before commencing with an outbound email campaign eSpatial need to review the detailed guide on how to
gather contact information for prospects within universities (Appendix C-5).
If eSpatial run a social media campaign, their social media accounts must be used to monitor feedback on the
eSpatial Educators Programme. They must also consider the detailed recommendations created regarding
opening new accounts for eSpatial Educators Programme or using their existing accounts (Appendix C-4).

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2. Content Recommendations
Before creating marketing communications eSpatial will need to familiarise themselves with the four following
principles; building trust, creating relevant content, nurturing engagement and ensuring that whenever possible
their marketing campaigns compliment and improve each other (Appendix C-3).
Three different sample marketing communications have been created for eSpatial. These have been created for
the personas based on where they are in the sales funnel. It is important eSpatial reviews the content and the
accompanying explanations of how each sample communications was written (Appendix C-7).
It is recommended that eSpatial consider providing free whitepapers to download for lecturers and students.
eSpatial need to analyse the guide provided showing how the Educator Pack was created, for a lecturer in
Business Management, this guide includes a guide on how this pack is easily replicated to suit lecturers in other
third level humanities and business institutions (Appendix C-8).
3. Measurement Recommendations
It is suggested that eSpatial review the Google Analytics guide to understand how to use this tool to measure
the success of each marketing campaign run for eSpatial Educators Programme (Appendix C-10).
4. Publishing Recommendations
eSpatial need to review the detailed recommendations pertaining to publishing. These recommendations include
the creation of a library to house maps students have created. From this library people will be able to access and
share the maps that have been created (Appendix 3 -L).
It is recommended that eSpatial run a competition whereby they select the top five student portfolios each
month and users vote for their favourite portfolio by using the sharing icons to share links to their preferred
portfolio. This will encourage students to publish their mapping content and share links (Appendix 3-N).

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12. CONCLUSION
Our research has shown that there is a market for a data mapping software programme targeting third level
institutions in the USA, UK and Irish markets. Having carefully reviewed the insights from the interviews, it is
clear that support materials such as the eBook are an important informational element in promoting this
programme.
Research insights also prove that this programme will provide third level educators and their students with
mapping software that they will use and publish in order to share their work via the eSpatial website. This will
strengthen SEO for eSpatial. It is worth noting that the content of the educational materials can be updated on
the website. Adding fresh and relevant content to a website is favoured with search engines and this is expected
to help with SEO also.
The programme materials and an easy sign-up process are key differentiators between eSpatial and their
competitors. These are delivered to the target market through a new Academic website page on eSpatial’s
website. It is strongly recommended that the website is tested prior to launching this programme. Research has
shown that, an expert review followed by a usability test is the best way to successfully test a website before
launch. Without proper testing, it is possible for users to easily change to a competitor website and this will
result in the eSpatial website having a high bounce rate. The cost both in financial terms and time needs to be
taken into account in the planning stage.
The eSpatial Educators Programme meets both the objectives set out in this report. This report details the
requirements and process to successfully create and deliver this programme. It has presented quality content
and materials to use in order to deliver this programme effectively and gain the desired outcome.

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Appendix A: Research Interviews
A-1 – Interview Script
Intro Script:
This is a guideline for those conducting the interviews and should be adapted accordingly depending on the
interviewee’s responses.
Hello
My name is ______________ and I am calling from Dublin City University (DCU). I am studying a Graduate
Certificate in Management (Digital Marketing). As part of this programme, my team and I are working on a
practicum research project in the area of data mapping software.
At an earlier time you indicated that you would be willing to participate in research about how your university
and students use or might use data mapping software.
The interview will last about 60 minutes, and I appreciate you giving your time to answer our research
questions.
I wish to remind you that, involvement in this interview is entirely voluntary. You may terminate the interview at
any time. All information you provide will be confidential.
The purpose of the study is to gain insights into the uses of data mapping software in universities among its
faculty and students. The data collected will be used as part of our internal assignment and presented to our
lecturer and fellow students.
Interview Questions:
1. What areas of study do you teach/lecture?
2. How many students do you teach each semester?
 First year
 Undergraduate /postgraduate
3. At what level do you teach each subject?
 (undergraduate / postgraduate)
 Specifically, what level for each subject
4. In your opinion, what subjects/courses would be best suited to use mapping software in your
university?
5. Please tell us more about this subject?
6. How many hours do you spend teaching the subject best suited for mapping software (i.e. data
visualisation) to your students per class/ per semester?
 How many hours of support are required to deliver mapping software lectures to students i.e.1 or 2
hours
 Do you provide your own datasets? i.e. working with private sector companies as part of a project

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7. Where are the lecturers delivered?
 Lecture theatres
 Online/ distance learning
 Webinars
 Workshops
8. Are they hands-on workshops?
9. Who delivers the lecturers/workshops?
 Teaching assistant/Tutor/Vendors
10. Would Teaching Assistants and Tutors consider delivering lectures and workshops on mapping
software to students?
11. Do you use mapping software/data visualisation/business enterprise tools?
 Specifically what products do you use?
 What are the reasons you choose this product over other products on the market?
12. What materials did you get from the vendor?
 What did you like/not like about the learning materials (i.e. slides, webinar, books, certification etc.)
 What is the cost involved? Time to evaluate products offerings?
 Is there a limit on the usage or license for use? 1 year?
 Are there any conditions for using the products?
13. In an ideal world, what materials, resources, training etc. would you like?
 Can you give me any examples of this? Links to webinars, slides, lecture notes, data sets
 What training support would be most beneficial to you? E.g. Vendor providing workshops and guest
speakers
 What resources do you feel you are missing? MOOC, eBook, presentations, video, slides
14. If certification was provided to students, would it be encouragement to use data mapping software?
15. Do you think students would be interested in publishing their work on the web via eSpatial public
server/ through a college server/through social media
 a free service that hosts your work when you tweet, blog or post
 Gives student code to embed online
 Data stays live and can be used and shared by visitors
Generic probes that may assist he team throughout the interview:
 “You mentioned __________ , tell me more about that.”
 “You mentioned __________ , what was that like for you?”
 “You talked about ___________ , describe that experience in as much detail as possible.”
 “What else happened?”
 “What were your feelings about that?”
 “It sounds like you’re saying . . . .”

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Conclusion Script:
Thank you very much for your time.
Is there is anything you would like to add that you feel hasn’t been covered?
If you have any questions regarding this study, please feel free to contact us. My telephone number is +353 85
158 7816. Email: postgraduateresearch@dcu.ie.
I would like to advise you that I may need to contact you again if I need clarity on information or to ask
additional questions. Is that OK with you?
………………………………………………………………….
NB: The following appendices contain three transcribed interviews. The aural recordings found in the attached
disc contain of all seven interviews.
A-2 - Interview with Graham Hunt (Lecturer at DCU and NUI)
Peter: If it is ok with you we would like to run through the questions because stuff will pop up that we haven’t
really thought about.
Graham: Yes
Peter: And then we would like to ask you a few questions about what you think might be good in terms of
content for an educational book.
Graham: First of all, please give me an overview of the product and what it is and what it’s meant to do.
Peter: The product, is cloud based mapping software, so what you might use it for if I could give you a simple
example, say the sales manager has a sales team, he/she can put up the figures for the sales team and design
specific sales areas redesigned to make them optimised.
Graham: So when you say mapping - you are referring specifically to geographical mapping software.
Peter: Yes similar to a map you might find on Google Maps and you would then place the data on such a map,
and you can use census data, demographics, average wages, they already have such data for Ireland, the USA,
UK and Australia.
Seosamh: And obviously you can upload your own data such as sales figures. They have some data and then
you can add your own.
Peter: Yes once your data has address data in it, then they can upload and it is very easy to use. Only takes
about 5-10 minutes to get used to it. It’s a niche product as well, there is no one really competing against them.
That is there USP.
Seosamh: Slightly different to SAS and Tableau.
Graham: Have they developed it yet?
Peter: Yes it’s up and running and very successful. It’s rolled out in the USA and also they are doing quite a lot
of business in the UK and a little bit in Ireland. They are based in East Point Business Park in Dublin.
Seosamh: They actually have some big clients over in the states, some big charities.
Peter: What Theo would like us to do is, promote it in colleges. They will get the students using it with maps,
uploading maps so they can get backlinks for SEO. So when they leave the college then they will know about
the product and the software.

Page | 53
Graham: Yes that’s what we are doing with Tableau at the moment. We had Tableau in this semester doing a
workshop, on their product. How to use it
Seosamh: And was it something similar you wanted to put in place for Tableau that we are trying to put in
place for eSpatial?
Graham: For us it was about; get the number 1 Data Visualisation product on the market. It was about giving
students the opportunity to understand it and to be able to use it. Tableau was quite interested as they want as
many students as possible to use it. They have changed and now have license agreements with the colleges, it’s
an easy process. So say I sign up what classes I’m going to be teaching, the first week in September they will
send me a bulk of licenses that I can pass out to teach.
Seosamh: So similar to what Moz provide us, a 60 day trial for us provided from Theo.
Graham: Yes
Peter: OK we will run through the questions because you are kind of answering them already.
Graham: So what is the purpose of your interview guide?
Peter: We want to find out specifically what you are teaching, how many students you have, So if the product
is rolled out, we will know that there is X amount of students in this college, that’ll be using the product so
when they finish up we will have an idea of where the market is.
Seosamh: Also when targeting universities we will be able to tell them this product is excellent when teaching
these classes and this is why.
Peter: So we will start off with question 1. If you think of any other questions or if you believe a question not
to be relevant please let us know.
Graham: I will have a look at your research questions after and see if I can change anything if you want.
Seosamh: Yes that would be excellent, thanks.
Peter: So what areas of study do you teach?
Graham: Cloud Strategy, Data Analytics and Data Visualisation.
Peter: And which do you think would be best suited for mapping software in universities?
Graham: So which Subjects?
Peter: Yeah so Data Analytics?
Graham: No the visualisation, also what I will be teaching next year is Data Journalism. They are looking on
bringing a tool like this on board as well, to start teaching the journalist students. What they want is a new form
of interactive map, so like an infographic so it would be applicable to those students/lecturers as well.
Seosamh: So is that part of a module, the data visualisation in particular?
Graham: So for the module I do with Theo an element of it is visualisation. We will have a Visualisation
Workshop, that will start with the basics along with Excel, and then the more advanced stuff would be based
around using specific tools. The one I chose was Tableau, I find it to be the best, and if you look at the Gardner
reports it is the market leader. The reason is because it is easy to use.
Peter: Specifically what students do you teach, is it undergrads or..
Graham: So, Business analytics in Maynooth, they would be business undergrads. In DCU, cloud computing,
digital marketing and they are both Masters and the cert in Digital Marketing as well. Colm and Terry here

Page | 54
teach the same module. Its split this year due to the amount of people that takes it. So that will be business
management and strategy module.
Seosamh: Is it the same amount of teaching required with the undergrads as the postgrads for the software or
quite similar?
Graham: No it’s the same, if not easier with the undergrads.
Peter: And how long do you spend teaching the visualisation?
Graham: 2 week period one week of basic (Excel) and the do’s and don’ts and best practice around that. Then
another week on using one of the tools.
Seosamh: And at the end of the semester is there a project where part of the assessment is showing data using
one of the tools?
Graham: Yes so there assignment, they were given an individual data set.
Peter: Was that provided by you or Tableau?
Graham: No it was provided by me and it was a pain to put it together.
I provided them with the output of Google Analytics data for different websites, because it was primarily digital
marketing focused, or they had the choice then of email marketing campaign data. So email marketing or web
traffic.
They needed to show the skills they learned in visualisation and also what they had learned through Tableau.
So they would have then been asked to map where traffic was coming from to a particular website.
Or where emails were going.
Peter: And how many students for different classes do you have?
Graham: So Analytics and Visualisation, around 50, then the other that Colm and terry take around 60, cloud
strategy around four this year, and Maynooth 12.
Peter: So you deliver lectures in Maynooth and DCU. Do you do online learning, or eLearning or webinars?
Graham: Yes I would do online webinars for mainly statistics, because it’s harder for them to grasp. As part of
that module we would also have R-Tutorials (open source tutorials), this year they were delivered by one of the
guys in UCC. But looking forward, next year we are looking at having Excel and visualisation stuff online in
the form of online tutorials.
It’s really helpful if the software vendors have predefined tutorials online. So you can just tell the students to go
and look at those. Supply the link, if it’s there software they should be providing it.
Seosamh: If it’s provided to the lecturer, we were thinking of providing an online/video tutorial and some
slides.
Graham: So if you look at most of the content, you will get a lecturing pack for it so you will get associated
slides, teaching notes, which will explain everything. If needs be then if they are going to do tutorials, provide
the links. Sometimes they post them on their website, like they have a learning section on their website. (11 min
54 Secs)
If not if they don’t have it on their website, then they should be providing it to the lecturers.
Seosamh: We saw a ‘For Lecturers’ section on the Tableau website.

Research Practicum, group 1, eSpatial, 01 September 2014

Research Practicum, group 1, eSpatial, 01 September 2014

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