McDonald's Digital Strategy

1. McDonald’s Digital
Strategy
Luke Farrell

2. About the Business
• McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of fast food
restaurants and has 31,000 restaurants in 119 countries worldwide
and counting
• McDonald’s was founded in 1940 by brothers Dick and Mac
McDonald in San Bernardino, California
• McDonalds has such a strong global presence, it opens a store
every 14.5 hours
• McDonald's feeds an average of 68 million people per day
• McDonald's is the worlds largest distributor of toys

3. Key Performance Indicators(KPI’s)
Examples of different metrics (KPI’s) that
McDonald’s could measure:
• How many individuals access’s McDonalds'’ mobile application daily
• What food products are searched for or clicked on most often
• How many individuals searching fast food click on McDonalds over other competitors
• What keywords in McDonalds' search engine optimization selection are chosen and how
often are they clicked on.
• Once customers are on the McDonalds site, what do they click on and what
categories/subcategories are most popular.
• They can measure how effective their ads and subscriptions on their website are by
getting data on how many people subscribe to their email list.
• They can also collect data on how many people use their app and possibly how many
people actually use the deals on their products with the mobile application

4. Target Market
• McDonald’s target market to be broad is the average fast food consuming
American
• To be more precise I think that the audience that is McDonald’s main target is
younger adults such as teenagers and young adults in their 20’s.
• This is their main target because McDonald’s does a major amount of
advertising through social media platforms and this is the age group that
mainly accesses social media.
• McDonald’s does a good job relating to younger adults by creating posts
that are relevant to pop culture and interests of their target market
• For example, McDonald’s will make posts or create deals on their products
based on new technology such as video games, popular clothing, etc.

5. Social Media
• Social Media Platforms that McDonald’s utilzes: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
Pinterest, Google+, etc.
• McDonald’s currently has 2.6 million Instagram followers which is a big and diverse range
of potential customers
• McDonalds also has a strong social media presence when it comes to Facebook and has 73
million followers
• McDonald’s uses their social media platforms to inform their followers about
their latest and upcoming deals on their products.
• McDonalds does a good job staying consistent with its brand persona across
different social media platforms
• An example of how McDonald’s uses its social media in a way to help people in
need:
• Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) Facebook page

6. Website
• McDonald’s website goal is to inform customers about their brand
• McDonald’s website consists of:
• What products they offer
• What the products they offer consist of
• To get customers to subscribe to their email and download their mobile application
for product deals.
• McDonald’s is a company that uses search engine optimization.
• They do this by using relevant and keyword selection with words like McDonalds,
McMuffin, McNuggets, etc.
• McDonald’s also uses on site optimization which uses keywords inside the company’s
website to take the customer directly to what they are looking for.
• For example, some categories that are direct links to the website that make it
easier for the customer to access are categories such as menu, coupons and deals,
careers, and McCafe

7. Online Advertising
• The third party websites that McDonald's should select to place advertisements in are Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
• These websites could be effective for display advertising because McDonalds target market is young adults
• Some non-social media sites that I would choose to place advertisements would be Spotify, Rue21, Walmart, GameStop,
etc.
• these websites are most likely to be used by individuals of younger generations so McDonalds can advertise to their target market.
• Facebook:
• Facebook, like McDonald’s, has a huge global presence and is connected with billions of people across the world. For Facebook I would
suggest that McDonald’s advertises using page promotion, post promotion, page like promotions, etc.
• These advertisements could be paid for on a pay for click basis.
• Twitter:
• McDonalds should use a click to engage advertisement which would promote one of the corporations’ tweets.
• This tweet for example, could have information about a limited time product deal.
• Instagram:
• Instagram is a widely used social media platform and is becoming more and more popular.
• McDonalds can pay for sponsored post and videos
• They can also access user information to help advertise to their target audience.
• The content for these advertisements could contain information about upcoming deals or good news about the company
and their positive global impact.

8. Inbound Marketing
• The audience persona is a very important aspect of marketing and includes important customer
information that assists companies in their marketing decision making.
• A company’s buyer or audience persona include information about a potential customer. Examples of what this information entails
includes:
• customer demographics, behavior patterns, customer motivation, customer goals, etc.
• This persona affects the company’s content marketing because it will help the company decide who they should market to, and
what content should they market.
• Email marketing is a big part of content marketing and can be very effectively if this technique is
done correctly. A company must first look at their goals when establishing email marketing and what
they want to get out of it.
• McDonalds goals for example should be:
• To gain customer attraction and to improve the company’s persona
• Next the company must make a decision on what their target market is and who they want to send
their emails to
• McDonalds for example, should make an email list based on their target market which I believe is teenagers and young adults.
• They can also email anyone who has subscribed to their company’s email list.
• Finally, McDonald's should decide what marketing campaign they should choose.

9. Mobile
• McDonalds has created a mobile application for its company that you can download from the app store.
• McDonalds makes the app very easy and accessible for the user to use and navigate through.
• It is very easy for an individual to register for the application
• There are 4 different features or categories in the application:
• (Order, Deals, Locations, and Nutrition).
• The application has a mobile order and pay feature that allows the customer to create an order using the
app.
• The customer can choose any product off the menu and can pay for their order using their debit or credit card, and can
choose what time they want to pick it up.
• McDonald’s website is very accessible on your smartphone device.
• The company’s website properties are adapted to the screen of your mobile device and looks very professional.
• There are 4 main sub-categories on the mobile website:
• and these categories are named our menu, about our food, deals, and trending now.
• To make the web experience more engaging and special for the individual, McDonalds created many different
user interfaces that are very accessible and easy to use.
• An example of an interface that is user-friendly is located at the top of the company’s website, and has a
subscribe link that allows the individual to subscribe to the company’s email list.

10. Important Improvements/Recommendations
• I think that McDonalds couple improve their search engine optimization strategy by changing the keywords or adding
keywords
• I think they should add keywords that relate to the type of business they are such as “fast food”
• Some more examples of words they could use are “burgers”, “fries”, “pop/soda”, etc.
• Also, I would change the subcategories in the search engine McDonalds has chosen to optimize
• For example, I would use a category such as “subscribe” to make it easier for customers to subscribe to the company’s email list
• McDonalds could choose to send out informational emails about how much healthier and improved their products
are. They could also include the slogan “the simpler the better”
• Some different recommendations that I would like to make to McDonalds to make their mobile website and app more
effective and user friendly are:
• To improve the company’s app is to create an interface to allow user to be able to purchase company related
merchandise
• To add information about how the company is helping people and communities in need
• Create an interface that allows people to donate money to these communities/individuals.
• A recommendation I have for the company’s mobile website is to create an interface that allows customers to
estimate their wait time in the drive thru line and inside the restaurant with the corresponding restaurant they are
located near