Gobstopper’s Online Job Search and Coaching Services: A Promising Venture with Low Overhead Costs

A representative from Gobstopper prepares a unique resume that highlights clients' strengths and provides the best match for industry specific * Job Search and Apply- A representative searches and applies for requirements. Lobs and career options for the client. Rather than the client having to prepare and complete applications a representative will provide this service based on the requested packet. * Career Job Coach-Gobstopper offers a coaching service to help clients prepare for interviews and practice job interviewing skills.

Viability The online viability of this service is excellent. Not only will the expansion of these services to an online format Increase the market to which this business Is available. There is a potential to significantly decrease the overhead, marketing, and overall business costs associated with this business. Further considering the nations' current unemployment rate it is projected that the number of Job seekers and changers in the market support an expansion of an online presence. Moreover, the comprehensive services that Job stop shop offers lends Itself to a lofty clientele.

An online presence for this particular service is very promising. Especially since each of the services provided can be done virtually. This means that the company can Increase Its clientele without the expansion of the work site. Moreover, If the online clientele Is Increased significantly It could also mean that employees can also work In a remote/virtual capacity. Revenues can increase through this medium, while the costs associated with a physical location can remain at their current levels.

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There are several reasons this service would do well In the online environment. First, the market potential would expand tremendously. Secondly, the functions required for this service can all be established relatively easily in an online environment. As illustrated in the image below the market of potential clientele will increase substantially. The market for this type of service is particularly promising for the online environment because In today's workforce about 85% of Job seekers are now required to look for jobs online.

Adding an online presence to the service will put the business at the fingertips of many users at the same time they are looking for a Job or job related services as offered by Gobstopper. Competition 1 OFF Each of the competitors offered a slightly different service than GOBSTOPPER. Company A offered a template based resume service which means users had to do it themselves. Customers went through a series of resume shells and selected the one best served their needs. This is a weakness in comparison to our service because this does not provide the professional editing and preparation that our services offer.

One of the strengths for Company A is that it can run without much input from live resources. Another weakness for Company A is the service they provide can be retrieved through any major word processing software. In fact Microsoft office offers these services at no additional charge so it does not seem that offering a template based resume service would be lucrative. Their website was a bit generic and this could hurt their reputability. Company B offered Job Coaching Services. One of the strengths of this company is they specialized in Job coaching.

They were well versed in best practices of coaching and they had coaches across career fields which could be very beneficial for potential clients. One of the weaknesses I noted was the cost of the service. It was very pricey which could hurt their business in the long run, specially for those clients that are not currently working or underemployed. Their web presence was very welcoming. I could easily find the credentials of each of the coaches and was able to easily locate references this was a definite strength for this business.

Company C is very similar to Job Stop Shop's resume writing service, however, their prices are much higher which can be seen as a competitive weakness. A strength that they have is they offer same day turnaround time for their resume service and Gobstopper offers 24-48 hour service depending on the clients need so this could be considered a strength for Company C. There website is aesthetically pleasing and this could draw clients to their service because it looks very professional.

Online competition is very distinct, upon the initial assessments it was determined that Gobstopper is very unique in its services. Each of the competitors assessed offered single services, but not as a comprehensive package as Gobstopper. Services ranged from resume writing to Job coaching but none offered both of these services in conjunction. After doing a price analysis it was determined that Job Stop Shop has prices that are significantly lower than their competitors who loud promote a higher clientele and residual customer base.

Company I Resume Writing I Search & Apply I Job Coaching I Price I Company A I X (template) I Company B I I XSL $250 | Company c I XSL I | $125 | Job Stop Shop I XSL XSL XSL $ Various based on services I *Each of the services provided by Gobstopper priced significantly lower than the competitors and is sold individually and in packets. Search Engine Considerations and Optimization Strategies Gobstopper will use yahoo and Google advertising to initiate its search engine campaign. The first strategy used for this service will be Pay per Click marketing (PC).

According to Stokes (2010) PC advertising is achieved only when someone advertisement highlighting the company's products or services, setting a budget on various keywords based on how many times they are clicked. The key in PC is bidding on words based on key performance terms and bidding higher than your competition so that the advertisement gains better placement during searchers. The following terms will be used for clients as they conduct their search on the yahoo ; Google networks and their subsidiaries (resume writing, career coach, Job coach, resume professional, resume writer, resume services, resume editor, resume

Pro, and resume specialist). When using PC the advertiser bids on key words and phrases and the amount of their bid dictates where their ad will appear in relation to other advertisers. Those with larger budgets will most likely be better positioned in terms of how their AD appears. Key Word (Yahoo Network)l Bid Range (Per Click) I Job Stop Shop Bids I Resume Writing | . 82- 1. 35 | $1. 00 | career coach | . 35-. 83 | $. 55 | job coach | . 25-. 75 | $. 65 | Resume Professional | 1. 03-1. 50 | $1. 50 | Resume writer | 1. 45-2. 10 | $1. 50 | Resume services | 1. 00-1. 26 | $. 95 | Resume Editor | . 85-1. | $1. 00 | Resume pro | . 25-. 40 | $. 50 | Resume specialist | . 85-1. 44 | $1. 00 | Optimization Strategies SEE will be key for establishing an online presence, during this process the main strategies used for SEE marketing is keyword research. Earlier I discussed PC marketing, through PC marketing I plan to gain insight on which key phrases and words generally perform the best so that I can ensure that I use those phrases that tend to attract online traffic throughout my website. My title tag and Meta description will contain the word "resume" to ensure that my website is picked up by search engines.

I will include each of the key phrases in the Meta Tags so that search engines can easily locate my website. Most importantly the content throughout my page will focus on my target key phrases, which are: (resume writing, career coach, job coach, resume professional, resume writer, resume services, resume editor, and resume Pro, resume specialist). Online Marketing Strategies The first marketing strategy will be to use email marketing campaigns through Constant Contact. Constant Contact is a small business online marketing firm that assists business in carrying out email campaigns.

Constant Contact will be used to develop newsletters, keep clients updated on service offerings, and provide discounted rates of service. Through Constant Contact Gobstopper will be able to segment the user database based on service interests and target market to customers based on selected service, furthermore clients will be able to easily forward newsletter to friends who may also be interested in the services that this business provides. Gobstopper will gain email marketing prospects in two ways. First clients can Join the email list directly through the website by providing their name and email address.

Secondly, Job Stop shop will enlist the services of a market as (unemployed, college students, and potential career changers). During these email campaigns there will be two types of email strategies used: (1) Promotional e-mails- "These are more direct and geared at enticing the user to take an immediate action, they always feature a call to action and are designed around a specific goal". (Stokes, 2010). Secondly, retention based emails-using this format newsletters will be developed and to focus will be on developing relationships with the client.

Gobstopper will do marketing through affiliate marketing through Group. Group markets a variety of products and services through its website and provides daily emails to its subscribers. Group offers products and services at a reduced rate making their offering more intriguing to their customer base. Gobstopper plans to discount it services by 10% as an incentive for those Group subscribers who enlist the services of Gobstopper. Group features a number of deals throughout the country. Gobstopper will benefit from using Group because of their presence online.

Currently Group is on Backbone, Linked, Twitter, Google Finance, Blackberry, and Phone APS, and Crunches. Using this marketing strategy will allow Gobstopper to expand its online presence with a fraction of the costs of direct online marketing. With Group Gobstopper will participate in revenue share. The way it works is clients who purchase services will pay Group directly for the services. In turn group will keep 25% of the proceeds and deposit the rest of the funds to Gobstopper. Social Media Integration Job Stop will use social media to market its services (Backbone).

First Gobstopper will create a customer page on Backbone that will serve as an online presence for the company in a Social Media Network. It will provide the company background, services, and have continuous blobs as to how the services can be utilized and how they are beneficial to potential clients. A company AD will also be placed on Backbone to drive potential clients to the full website, this will be achieved on Backbone by selecting various keywords and a budget that will target various demographics and interest groups on the Backbone network.

Users that visit the website will have the option to post a link of Gobstopper to their Backbone, twitter, Google, and Linked accounts (see image below). To begin an AD will only be purchased for Backbone due o budgetary purposes as the company grows its online presence purchased Ads will continue on other social media websites outside of Backbone. Online Customer Relationship Management To increase the long-term relationship Constant Contact will be used as both a marketing tool and a customer relationship system.

Constant Contact allows both the collection of data pertaining to contact information of each customer, but it also provides analytics as to what pages on the business website that has be visited, time of visit, and a complete history of customer involvement has Representatives will end updates, newsletters, and customer incentives based on both email marketing lists ; actual client lists. This will provide resume tips, career coaching strategies, and how Gobstopper services can best be utilized. Constant contact maps which aspects of the website the user has most accessed.

Using this information Gobstopper will send continuous updates on products and services, incentives for website analytics it is also the goal to determine which website are most widely researched to increase offering in those sections and expand the degree to which those services are offered. Commerce/ProJected Web Development Costs The website will be supported through Bouzoukis. Bouzoukis is a template based hosting site that supports E-commerce as an add on service. Both the website hosting and E-commerce site will be managed by Bouzoukis. An online store will be built to support E-commerce.

The E-commerce capacity will be built into the website as an electronic form that collects data. The form will request the following data to process an order (First name, Last Name, Email, Address, City, State, Zip Code, Service Selector, Credit Card Information, and Submission Form). *Above is the form created to take orders from customers on the front-end. This is the data Gobstopper representatives would see on the backbend to process the order taken. In this online store users can find the pricing for services. Services will be offered singularly or as a bundle service.

Services can be selected and purchased through the website via drown menu. The services offered will be a resume with free cover letter for $65, Cover letter packet of (3) for $45, Search and Apply -20 applications for $75, Search and apply -40 applications for $135, Coach minutes for $60, Resume and Coach 30 minutes $100, Resume and Search Apply for $120. Users will have a chance to select the service they would like to have, all this data is transferred to an excel spreadsheet for easy retrieval, an email is sent to the Gobstopper representative alerting them that an order has been placed and the credit card needs to be ran.

Once the representative receives this information the credit card will be processed through a vendor called (Innovative Merchant Solutions). Once the credit card is processed services will commence. *Breakdown of Costs-The development costs for the design of this website is $0. This particular hosting site is a template based website. Therefore all the costs associated with its development are embedded in the hosting and initial processing fee. With a template based website the shell of the website is already created and the material can be added to that shell, similar to a Powering presentation.

Although, services, it is not the intention of Gobstopper to market to this demographic although services may be extended to those particular clients who contact Gobstopper that speak English. A note will be posted on the website advising that services are currently available in the US and English speaking clients. Marketing will be focused on the National level. This will be achieved by launching a national marketing campaign. Through PC advertising it is possible for advertisers to select he areas in which marketing will commence.

Gobstopper will only select the USA as it main targets for marketing to begin. What this does is limits the Ads on Yahoo and Google to the US market. Additionally, when conducting the email campaign I plan to only invest in emails that belong to US users. As mentioned previously, I will service clients that come across my website and want to purchase services if they speak English, however, my efforts for marketing will be focused on the US. I plan to focus on the US markets for 12 months and then consider expanding my actual marketing efforts globally. The US market will serve as my test market.

When I convert to international markets I will use the software castrations to translate my website into various languages. At that time I will consider employment for multi-lingual representatives who are in charge of selected international markets. The goal is to expand into various markets based on a paced schedule. Should the national market prove a success than international marketing will be considered on a wider scale. Site Map Web Pages References Stokes, R. (2010). Marketing: The Essential Guide to Online Marketing. Online: Flat World Knowledge Inc.

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