SmartCare is launching a new child care management software called SmartTrack. Their 2016 marketing communication plan includes 6 tactics: 1) Expanding their social media presence, 2) Creating valuable content, 3) Optimizing their website, 4) Attending conferences and trade shows, 5) Using direct response ads, and 6) Sponsoring charitable causes. Each tactic has goals and metrics for measurement, and an ROI analysis estimates returns from their marketing investments.

1. Running Head: SMARTCARE 1
Date: March 26, 2016
From: Monica Martinez, COM 630
To: Don Olson
Subject: 2016 SmartCare Marketing Communication Campaign for SmartTrack
Overview
SmartCare is a company that is new to the child care management software industry. The
company is committed to learning the pain points that child care professionals face. The
company has successfully identified areas within the child care development market segment that
can be improved through efficient and effective software. The company offers a wide range of
proprietary features that can be combined with new product enhancements.
This strategic marketing communication plan will first focus on SmartCare’s current position in
the child care software industry. Lastly, this plan will provide SmartCare with a creative
marketing strategy that includes measurement criteria and the expected ROI for each tactic.
Introduction
The child care management software industry is highly saturated and competitive. SmartCare is
one of the newest companies offering software that can provide a fast and easy way to track and
report child attendance. With any software company the goal is to provide customers with a tool
that can help them run their business at its best. With child care management software the
objective is more specific and is aimed at giving child care centers software that is both efficient
and saves time. Less time spent with inefficient computer systems or paper tracking systems
means less time spent with children. SmartCare will be launching its newest software product
called SmartTrack which will be modifiable to each center’s needs and is in accordance with
state reporting regulations, which is required for subsidized funded child care centers.
Background
SmartCare was founded on January 1, 2014 by CEO Andrew Goldberger and his development
team. By October of the same year SmartCare presented their product to the public for the first
time at the Kris Murray’s Child Care Success Summit in Las Vegas, NV. With a staff of 50
employees the company has established itself in two locations; Las Vegas, NV and Provo, Utah.
SmartCare has since branded its software to, “improve classroom ratios, easily process tuition
payments, payroll and attendance tracking.” SmartCare offers child care providers and child
care center owners the tools they need and want to make one of the toughest jobs in the world,
easier (SmartCare, 2015).
Situational Analysis
SmartCare falls within two industries; software and child care. The software industry is highly
competitive on both a national and international level and so is the child care industry.

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Fortunately, the child care industry is booming and a lot of centers and agencies are still utilizing
outdated manual systems, which is a great opportunity for SmartCare. However, the software
segment for child care management systems is growing rapidly and international competitors are
expected to enter the market. More women are entering the workforce, which is resulting in more
and more families needing child care services. Software based products that meet the desires and
needs of both full cost centers and agencies fits in with multiple societal trends including; going
paperless, real-time notifications, and the automation of repetitive tasks.
As mentioned SmartCare is new to the industry, but brings extremely innovative software that is
designed with cutting edge technology and can be utilized on the web, PC and on Apple
products. The company is adequately staffed with 50 employees and has positioned themselves
in two states, Utah and Nevada. The company takes advantage of multiple social media
platforms including; Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+.
As a company they have built strong affiliations to ensure they deliver the highest quality
products to their customers. Their partnerships include; Intuit, Care.com, ChildCareCRM, and
Child Care Marketing Solutions.
Target Market
There are four primary target markets for the subsidized child care industry. The primary target
markets include; government funded agencies, preschools, day cares, and school districts.
Government funded agencies are required to provide specific reporting by only approved
software. Preschools need the ability to track attendance and immunization records efficiently so
they can free up teacher time and give more time back to the children. Day cares and school
districts have also reported having to maintain numerous reporting logs that are time consuming
and even more time consuming to maintain. With this clear call for action, SmartCare’s
SmarTrack software will be customizable to accommodate each client’s unique set of needs.
Communication Objective
Communicate to prospective clients that SmartCare will be launching customizable software that
will cater to each client’s unique reporting needs and will now accommodate subsidized
reporting requirements. This objective will support the company’s overall goal of making child
reporting more efficient for all agency types.
Marketing/Communication Tactics
Tactic 1: Social Media
Establish a stronger social media presence through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram to
reach businesses that are using social media platforms to look for products and services.
Consumers are completing up to 57% of the purchase process before reaching out directly to
contact suppliers (“B2B Marketing Statistics For 2014”, 2014).

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Figure 1. Social Media Comparison Infographic. Retrieved from, https://leveragenewagemedia.com/blog/social-
media-infographic/
The social media channels chosen are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. Facebook has
been chosen because of its actively monthly users and affordable sponsorship ads. LinkedIn has
been chosen because it is viewed by business and has a strong reputable corporate brand. Lastly,
Twitter was selected because of its quantity of users and its high market penetration ratios.
Tactic 2: Content Marketing
Content marketing will be used as a strategic approach to distributing valuable, relevant and
consistent content to attract a clearly defined audience and ultimately lead to a profitable
customer. According to B2B Marketing Statistics (2014), “Content marketing costs 62% less
than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads.”
Tactic 3: Website Optimization
Creating an instantly visually stimulating webpage that is well optimized will not only attract
more visitors but will entice them to browse the website and products for longer periods of time.
Along with a well-designed website, we will also have a monthly journal publication that

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features how the new software is helping clients throughout the industry. The website will also
engage customers through the company’s blog.
Tactic 4: Conference & Trade Show
Conferences and tradeshows are the most important marketing tool for SmartCare and is the
opportunity to demonstrate SmartTrack software to industry specific clients. Conferences and
tradeshows will increase product awareness and desire. Useable takeaways such as, mugs,
magnets, and sticky pads will also be handed out. Additionally, conferences and tradeshows will
be used to generate leads for the sales team.
Tactic 5: Direct Response
Direct response marketing will be used to compel customers to seek out more information about
the SmartTrack software. We will target our specific audience with strong compelling messages
of interest for our product. The ads will aim to appeal to our targeted and segmented audience.
Tactic 6: Cause Marketing
SmartCare will get involved with charitable marketing and sponsor one low income child care
center per year. Charitable sponsorships will be leveraged as a partnership and potential future
clients. Research shows that industry relevant event sponsorship and charity involvement brings
profound recognition and visibility.
Measurement Criteria, Goals and Sources of Measurement
The tactics discussed above are strategies primarily aimed at growing the company’s brand
awareness, exposure, and sales. A well-defined marketing strategy is essential for SmartCare to
have, in order to achieve high-performance in their B2B marketing campaign. SmartCare’s
strategy is based around a customer-centric approach by isolating different target audiences and
creating powerful tactics to reach them. It is essential that SmartCare is able to measure the ROI
and ROO in all areas of marketing. Each tactic will be measured in the following manner:
Tactic 1: Social Media Measurement
The purpose of enhancing SmartCare’s social media marketing is to establish a stronger social
media presence through Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in order to reach businesses that are
using social media platforms to look for products and services. Once the social media platforms
have been optimized with sponsored ads and segmented target audiences have been identified the
company can assess its effectiveness through ongoing analytics to monitor and track activity.
Kissmetrics Analytics offers ongoing analytics that are necessary for keeping up with the overall
pulse of general conversation about your brand and company (Kissmetrics, 2016). Campaign-
focused metrics measure over a longer period of time and provides event specific analytics to
help the company monitor the impact of targeted marketing initiatives. To measure awareness,
the metrics will measure volume, reach exposure and amplification to determine how far a
message is spreading.

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Facebook insights will be used to measure the company’s page impressions and reach. This will
allow for determining the number of times a post from the page has been displayed, and the
reach will be determined by the number of people who received impressions of a page post
(Facebook, 2016). It is also important to measure paid reach, which is the total number of unique
people who were shown your post as a result of ads. This will be measured by Facebook insights.
Tactic 2: Content Marketing Measurement
The goal of content marketing will be achieved by a strategic approach to distributing valuable,
relevant and consistent content to attract a clearly defined audience and ultimately lead to a
profitable customer. To measure lead generation the company’s site will be optimized with a
lead form, which can be measure by how many people went to the lead form after consuming the
content. The company will also set browser cookies and track when someone fills out that lead
form after viewing certain content (Baer, 2015). It is also worth noting that knowing the
company’s lead metrics will also measure demand-generation goals.
Google Analytics will be utilized to compare multiple pieces of content to extract more
meaningful information. This will help determine which piece of content is performing better.
Google analytics will also be used to determine page views by source, by title, as well as identify
referral visits. Measuring referral visits will help the company measure the content pieces that
best resonated with others since they were willing to link to it.
Tactic 3: Website Optimization Measurement
The goal around website optimization is to increase website visitors, their duration of time spent
on the site, and the number of pages viewed. Measuring this information will help company
determine how fast the visitor leaves the page after what page they have viewed. Conversions
will also be measured to determine what target actions visitors are completing. The website will
consist of short software demos and a monthly newsletter that the company will need to know if
customers are interested enough to view and/or sign up for the newsletter. Lastly, the website
will seek to further engage customers through its blog page. The increased brand awareness and
customer engagement will be defined by a conversion rate and will indicate if the company’s
posts are increasing advocacy.
Tactic 4: Conference & Trade Show Measurement
The goal of interactive marketing through conferences and trade shows are for SmartCare to be
able to demonstrate SmartTrack software to industry specific clients. Attending such events will
help further establish the company within the industry and will provide a powerful platform for
meeting new customers and expanding brand penetration. Trade shows are a great opportunity to
learn the direction the industry is going. In order to determine the success of attending an event a
naming convention will be used to determine what leads and sales were generated as a result of
the company’s attendance at certain events. Competitive audits and surveys will be conducted at
the booth, as well as conducting post event focus groups. Lastly, Facebook and Instagram will be
used to boost event attendance and exposure and this will be measured using the platform’s
analytic tools.

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Tactic 5: Direct Response Measurement
Direct response ads will aim to appeal to our targeted and segmented audience. The purpose will
be to compel customers to seek out more information about the SmartTrack software. The direct
response strategy will be frequency, low involvement and a call to action derived from detail.
This approach will be tracked in a CRM system that will measure cost per response and cost per
sale/acquisition. Google Analytics and ClearSight Analyzer will be used to measure the direct
response ads real-time statistics, bounce charts, and report flows on single and multiple
segments.
Tactic 6: Cause Marketing Measurement
The goal of cause marketing is to form charitable sponsorships within the industry that will be
leveraged as a partnership and potential future clients. Cause marketing is difficult when it
comes to measuring ROI; therefore, the purpose of the company utilizing cause marketing will
be measured against ROO. This tactic is aimed at increasing brand awareness and the willingness
to recommend the company to new potential clients. This will be measured through customer
and client satisfaction surveys. The final objective is increase product knowledge, which will be
measured by the number of specific sponsorship landing page visits on the company’s website.
Table for Metrics & Goals
The below table provides a detailed outline of each tactic including its measurement goals and
sources of measurement.

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Tactic Measurement Conclusion
Business to business selling is greatly different from business to customer selling and therefore
requires a different marketing strategy approach. Traditional means of reaching business
customers such as catalogs, direct mail, and convention booths remain an important element of
marketing for many companies, and they will continue to be valuable tools (B2B Forum, 2016).
However, the business to business market has significantly changed and so has the way it’s
marketed too. Social media and the internet are the new hottest places to market. Using social
media platforms and content marketing to drive customers to your business is proving to have a
greater ROI. Use of the right measurement tools are essential for overall marketing campaign
success.

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ROI Analysis
Marketing is an investment to produce revenue. The marketing return on investment is the
incremental gain from business operations divided by its cost. Return on investment metrics are
essential but often tricky when it comes to tracking money spent on marking efforts and how it
relates to breaking-even or a profitable return. The following analysis will forecast and estimate
the costs of each of SmartCare’s marketing tactics and what they can expect to see as an
acceptable rate of return.
Tactic 1: Social Media ROI
The social media metrics will be tracked daily to ensure the right strategies are working. Each
social media campaign life cycle will be relatively short. SmartCare will be utilizing social
media to increase engagement, social reach, and followers. The company’s metrics will allow
them to track the entire customer life cycle. SmartCare will have a total social media marketing
campaign budget of $500 with an acceptable rate of return of greater than 1%. The discounted
cost for sponsorship ads is $5 per ad. SmartCare would like to run a total of 20 sponsored per
month. Dividing $100 into the total campaign cost of $500 will result of monthly return rate of
2%.
Tactic: Social Media Product Gross Margin Break-Even Unit(s)
$500 $5 2%
Tactic 2: Content Marketing ROI
Company research has shown that on average 200 leads yields 1 new client sale. Therefore, each
lead can be given a $200 value. The overall cost of the content marketing campaign will cost the
company $1000. The cost to create the content is $500; therefore, the break-even the company
will need to generate 2.5 leads within the fiscal year.
Tactic: Content Marketing Product Gross Margin Break-Even Unit(s)
$1,000 $500 2.5 leads
Tactic 3: Website Optimization ROI
The website optimization is primarily aimed at increasing site traffic and conversion by 5%
which ultimately decrease bounce rate and promote new web demo requests and newsletter
views per month. If the company invests $15,000 on website optimization and successfully
increases lead conversion to 1000 on a monthly basis the company’s monthly ROI will be 9%
and 105% annually. Resulting in the website overall value having increased from $25,000 to
$300,000.
Tactic: Website Optimization Product Gross Margin Break-Even Unit(s)
$15,000 5% 9%/mo. & 105%/yr.

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Tactic 4: Conference & Trade Show ROI
Without any level of sponsorship, the fee to attend one trade show costs the company $2500,
travel costs for the employee totals at $1500; therefore, total costs for attending one trade show
equals $4000. However, the software cost the company $50,000 for all development costs.
SmartCare has set aside a budget of $25,000 for the year, which will allow them to attend 6.25
trade shows. The average new client contract for the SmartTrack software is $22,000. Therefore,
if SmartCare is able to close three leads generated from a trade show with one year their return
on investment will be .82% or a gross margin of $12,000.
Tactic: Conference/Trade
Show
Product Gross Margin Break-Even Unit(s)
$25,000 $22,000 .82% or $12,000
Tactic 5: Direct Response ROI
SmartCare’s direct response campaign cost is $3000. SmartCare will spent $.60 per direct
response and has a return of 135 respondents with 31 buyers. The conversion rate is 23% of
responders will buy, which will generate a ROI of 4% or a profit of $105.
Tactic: Direct Response Product Gross Margin Break-Even Unit(s)
$3,000 23% 4% or $105
Tactic 6: Cause Marketing ROI
SmartCare’s cause marketing campaign will be the hardest for the track their RIO. For that
reason the company will take a more reserved approach. The company has allocated $3000 for
this campaign. The $3000 will be donated to three non-clients within the child care industry on
an annual basis in hopes to gain exposure, brand awareness and recommendation. This campaign
will be monitored over a 5 year period and can expect to see one new client contract. The
company’s break-even threshold will be with one new client, which will bring the company
$22,000. This will result in .68% ROI or a $7,000 profit for SmartCare’s cause marketing
campaign.
Tactic: Cause Marketing Product Gross Margin Break-Even Unit(s)
$3000 $22,000 .68% or $7,000
Final Conclusions & Recommendations
After extensive research it can be concluded that SmartCare has the ability to become a huge
player in its existing market and expanding into new markets. It will be achievable through
product enhancement and a strong marketing mix communication plan that will allow them to
reach market segments that would have otherwise been unachievable. Smart marketing tactics
that have a proven ROI will prove to be essential to the company.

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Based on SmartCare’s ROI analysis it is recommended that the company should continue to
pursue social media marketing, content marketing and direct response marketing to receive an
immediate return. It is also recommended that the company’s investment in website optimization
and the attendance of conference and trade shows will pose a great ROI in 1-3 years. It is also
worth noting that the website optimization will increase the overall website value for the
company. Lastly, the cause marketing tactic will have a conservative approach and will need to
be re-evaluated regularly because it is the hardest tactic to track ROI, but can payoff when the
cause is invested in correctly.

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References
B2B Forum (2016). Business-To-Business Marketing. Retrieved from,
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/small/Bo-Co/Business-to-Business-Marketing.html
B2B Marketing Statistics For 2014. (2014, June 29). Retrieved from,
http://www.ironpaper.com/webintel/articles/b2b-marketing-statistics-
2014/#.VSIP5DTF96g
Baer, J. (2015). Turning Your Content Marketing Upside Down. Retrieved from,
https://www.ceros.com/blog/4-types-content-metrics-matter/
Facebook (2016) About Insights: Help. Retrieved from,
https://www.facebook.com/help/336143376466063/
Kissmetrics (2016). 5 Easy Steps to Measure Your Social Media Campaigns. Retrieved from,
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-media-measurement/
SmartCare (2015) About Us. Retrieved from, http://smartcare.com/about/about/