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The Digital Marketing Research: Building Small Business Resilience (BSBR) Training Program is a shared research initiative by Sheridan’s Pilon School of Business and EDGE, and is funded by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre.
The first two stages of the project are now complete: Program Design and Program Development.
Program Design aims to investigate the needs and challenges of underrepresented small business owners to help them pivot and grow their businesses online. The findings from this stage will inform the development of the BSBR Digital Marketing Training Prototype in the Stage 2 of the project.
Over 150 small business owners completed the online survey. Around 50 owners were invited to participate in the online focus group discussion and 26 were chosen to join the first round of our training program.
Here is the summary of our findings.
During the Program Design stage, we conducted three data collection points: online survey, online discussion board and focus group discussion to gain an understanding of our target market so we can develop a training program that is responsive to their needs.
Our target market is underrepresented small business owners whose businesses have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are looking to develop their digital marketing skills.
Our research findings revealed the majority of participants identified themselves as women, immigrant and racialized peoples whose employees are also women, immigrant and racialized peoples. Their median age is 43 years old. English is their first language. They are highly educated with 58% having a bachelor’s degree or higher, and 19% having a diploma. They also have high computer literacy with 81% rating themselves as intermediate or advanced level in Microsoft Office.
Almost all of the businesses (97%) are based in Ontario and the majority are from Arts; Educational Services; Health Care and Social Assistance; Professional, Scientific and Technical Services; and Retail industry sectors. Their current customers are based locally or in the same province, but they are looking to expand their customer base nationally and internationally.
Their revenue has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 77% of the businesses experienced a negative growth in their annual revenue with an average of 58% reduction. The rest had a positive revenue growth of around 162%.
The research shows our participants are relatively new to digital marketing. On average, they have been operating a business website for 3.5 years, a blog for 0.8 year and an e-commerce site for 1 year. Regarding social media, they have been active on Facebook for 2.6 years, Instagram for 2.4 years, Twitter for 1.4 years, LinkedIn for 1.7 years, YouTube for 0.8 year and email marketing for 2.3 years.
They have a low level of online activities with an average of 2 updates per month. Most frequent updates are on Instagram 6.9 times and Facebook 4.6 times a month. Consequently, their online reach is low with an average 1,126 pageviews, 1,257 Instagram followers, and 427 email subscribers.
38% did not engage in any forms of online advertising. For those who did, Facebook and Instagram advertising were preferred (25%) followed by Google advertising (12%). For non-digital promotion activities, word of mouth was the most popular (65%), followed by store signage (16%), flyers (14%), and direct mail (11%).
From the online survey, participants ranked social media marketing as knowledge and skills most important for their business, followed by content marketing, and digital strategy. They ranked influencer marketing and graphic design as least important.
Participants rated themselves mostly as beginners in all aspects of digital marketing with more intermediate skills and knowledge in social media marketing and content marketing.
In the focus group discussion, we asked participants to further identify the knowledge and skills needed in their business and perceived gaps in their current skill set. Participants’ feedback was tagged and grouped into learning paths, topics and elements, which will form the learning outcomes of the training program.
The topics that are emerged as priorities with the most comments are:
From the online survey, participants preferred the training program to be delivered online (65%) over hybrid (20%) and face-to-face (15%) with the recommended class length to be 2.1 hours and the proposed frequency of 2.6 classes per week.
From the online discussion board and focus group discussion, participants voted for 1.5 to 2 hours, twice a week as their preferred class length and frequency. Weekday morning sessions (39%) are preferred over lunch (19%), evenings (17%) and Saturdays (12%) or Sundays (13%).
To give them the best chance to succeed, participants suggested the program should:
For more information, you can read the full report.
The goal of the second stage of the research, Program Development, aims to design and develop a 12-week training program specifically for underrepresented small business owners to support them to pivot and grow their businesses online.
We used the findings from the first stage which included online surveys, online discussion boards, and focus group discussions to understand our participants and their needs to develop a customised training program that is relevant and responsive to their businesses.
Here is the summary of our development plan.
Participant Persona
After 3 years of operation with proven revenue generation, Hamilton Stitches has survived the concept stage and demonstrated that it is a viable business entity. Zara has successfully built a customer base using her brick-and-mortar store presence and traditional word of mouth recommendations. Her customer base is confined within her local community.
The pandemic forced Zara to adopt e-commerce very quickly without having the necessary skills and resources to navigate and capitalize the online market. As a solo entrepreneur, she wears many hats with endless to-do lists, and always runs behind schedule. Zara always searches for new ideas. She improvises and makes up her plans as she goes. She tries out different ideas but is never quite sure which one works. As a result, her online marketing attempts are sporadic and uncoordinated. She would like help planning a cohesive, long-term strategy as well as executing day-to-day tactics with a strong ROI to justify her marketing efforts.
To determine the content of the training program, we use the backward design approach [3], which is a goal-based framework for curriculum development.
2.1 Identify learning outcomes
The first step in the backward design process is to determine the desired goals or learning outcomes, which are the knowledge and skills learners should have acquired when they finish the program.
Our short-term goal at the end of the training program is for Zara to develop (THINK) and execute (DO) a digital marketing campaign plan that is applicable to her own businesses and customer bases; identify elements of success and failures (MEASURE); and make necessary changes (ADAPT) to optimize results. Our long-term goal is for Zara to successfully apply the knowledge and skills to increase her revenues and become resilient against any future economic disruptions.
The big idea is for Zara to become self-reliant in digital marketing by teaching her DIY (do-it-yourself) skills so she can continue to plan and execute digital marketing activities, and improve the results by herself.
Once she masters these skills, she can keep experimenting and adapting her marketing efforts to grow her business. Ultimately, her adaptability will protect her business against any future disruption.
We break down the goal into 4 learning outcomes (LO) following the sequence of a marketing process:
LO#1 – THINK: Strategy and Planning
Develop marketing strategy and create a cohesive plan
LO#2 – DO: Implementation and Tactics
Execute the plan using suitable digital tactics
LO#3 – MESAURE: Evaluation and Analytics
Assess the performance using data
LO#4 – ADAPT: Experimenting and Optimizing
Learn from past results to keep improving We chose to adopt a marketing campaign as the learning conduit as it covers critical marketing concepts and offers an opportunity to practice the whole marketing process within a short timeframe.
For information about the Program’s specific learning outcome, learning paths and topics learning elements, please see the Report.
2.2 Determine evidence of learning
We plan to evaluate if Zara has achieved the Big Idea’s learning outcomes by asking her to perform tasks, analyze the results and make recommendations for improvement. She then will be asked to adjust her work, and analyze the results again. This learning experience will guide her through the full cycle of the DIY Continuous Improvement Process. The evaluation will be done by instructors and participants (peer-reviewed).
For information about the Program’s specific performance tasks and evidence of learning, please see the Report.
2.3 Plan learning experience
We plan a variety of learning events and activities for Zara including:
The BSBR training program is designed following the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines, underpinned by the adult learning principles and the experiential learning approach.
The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines [4] [5] is a framework to optimize learning experience for all learners by identifying design elements that provide the greatest access for the range of learners in any setting. Its premise is that when we design for particular accessibility needs, all learners benefit. The UDL Guidelines advocate that learners should be provided with multiple means of engagement (the why of learning), multiple means of representation (the what of learning), and multiple means of action and expression (the how of learning).
Adult learning principles [6] recommend that adult learners who are self-directed, should be encouraged to take charge of the content and process of their learning. Their prior knowledge and life experience should be capitalized and built upon with the learning of new concepts. Adult learners are intrinsically motivated by practical, problem-solving content that is directly relevant and applicable to their work or life. They are also result-oriented, so they tend to move quickly from theory to application.
According to Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model (ELM) [7], to develop new knowledge and skills, learners must learn by immersing themselves in an active, hands-on experience; reflecting on that experience; concluding and conceptualizing the experience; and then engaging in experimentation by trying out the newly gained knowledge and skills.
The BSBR Digital Training Program will be delivered online over 12 weeks. The online mode is chosen not only to comply with the COVID-19 health regulations, but also to accommodate participants’ busy schedules. The main advantages of online learning are flexibility and convenience. Participants can join the class in the convenience of their own space with no travel time. However, it is harder to focus and engage with instructors and other learners virtually, which could leave learners to feel isolated and unmotivated. Therefore, the program is designed with frequent touchpoints, offering multiple contact opportunities and channels for participants to engage with instructors, support staff and each other.
Each week, there will be two lecture sessions and one workshop session with ongoing support throughout the program period.
3.1 Lectures
There will be two lecture sessions per week. Some of the sessions will be elective, allowing participants to choose the sessions that are relevant to their businesses. The mandatory sessions provide crucial learning components, which will be scaffolded to create a learning path to achieve the desired learning outcomes.
Each session could consist of 1.5 hours, which could be divided to:
Experimentation is strongly encouraged. Rather than using their own digital platforms which have real customers and audience, participants can use Program’s digital channels to experiment and test their ideas. Mistakes and mishaps are considered crucial learning activities.
BSBR Program’s digital channels are a dedicated learning platform where participants can practise their digital marketing activities. These channels include:
3.2 Workshops
There will be one Instructor-led workshop per week. This optional session is designed to assist participant with their assignments. Participants can choose to attend to ask questions and assistance on how to apply digital marketing concepts to their businesses. The workshop session will be group-based so participants can learn from one another. Participants can share their problems with the group and instructors will guide the discussion for possible solutions. The workshop sessions will not be recorded.
3.3 Support
The second stage of the research project, Program Development, is complete. We are ready to progress to the next stage, Alpha Testing, which is the launch of the first training prototype in September 2021.
The application for the Alpha Group Training Program, which will commence in September 2021, is temporarily closed for now. However, space could become available. Please check back in September for further updates.
The January 2022 Beta Group Training Program is fully open for applications. Apply Now.