Digital Marketing Strategy Formulation to Increase Engagement in Course and Training Institution Industry (Case Study: PT Karisma Garuda Mulia)

Abstract

PT Karisma Garuda Mulia is a course and training institution located in Malang City, East Java. The training programs created by PT Karisma Garuda Mulia are centered on developing IT and digital technology skills which include courses in Microsoft Office Professional, graphic design and multimedia, web development, digital architecture, civil engineering application, and digital marketing. Along with the emergence of online e-learning platforms, the business started to experience some difficulties. The problem faced by PT Karisma Garuda Mulia is the low engagement and lack of digital marketing strategy to help its business generate sales. The purpose of this research is to create an appropriate digital marketing strategy to increase the engagement to help smooth the customer journey. This research is conducted by identifying problems internally and externally using STP Analysis, Marketing Mix (7Ps), PESTEL analysis, Porter’s Five Forces and competitor analysis. After doing those analysis, researchers also analyze the PT Karisma Garuda Mulia’s digital marketing efforts by incorporating the Hierarchy of Effects model. This research is conducted using qualitative method. The researchers conduct an in-depth interview with several employees of the company to gain insights about the company’s digital marketing efforts. The result of the interviews indicates that there is a lack of appropriate digital marketing strategy used by the company. Using the interview insights, the researchers construct a digital marketing strategy using a RACE planning framework. The result of this research is that the company needs an appropriate digital marketing strategy with a clear marketing channel in each stage of the RACE planning framework. The marketing channels used are search engine marketing and content marketing in reach stage, website and demo classes in act stage, email marketing and customer service support in convert stage, and lastly community building and feedback surveys in engage stage.