Consider the following scenario:

A pair of siblings grew up in a household where their parents ran a successful catering business, and the siblings both decided to follow their parents’ example as they became adults. The brother started his own pastry shop and the sister opened her own sports bar. While the siblings shared many values and lessons learned from their parents, they had different ideas about certain aspects of how to run a business; marketing was by far the most contrasting viewpoint. The brother wanted nothing to do with marketing and thought the sign out front and the quality of his pastries was all he needed. The sister felt strongly about marketing her restaurant in her community and invested time to use a digital marketing platform that worked best for her. Although the brother struggled with sales and bringing in new customers for years, he was able to keep his business running. His sister, however, experienced an enormous amount of success in the same time period and was able to open two other locations.

Although this scenario may not represent the results of using a centralized digital marketing platform for all businesses, it highlights the ways in which employing these marketing tools and methods can benefit companies. Just because a business owner may ignore these aspects, as the brother did, that does not mean the business is certain to fail. But, by using a digital marketing platform, business owners can take more intentional steps to growth and profitability.

In this Discussion, you will identify a digital marketing platform and discuss the potential benefits or drawbacks for its use by business owners.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Review this week’s Learning Resources and identify at least one digital marketing platform that you would use or recommend.
• Review the Academic Writing Expectations for 2000/3000-Level Courses, provided in this week’s Learning Resources.

By Day 3

Post a description of and link to the digital marketing platform that you identified. In 150–225 words (2–3 paragraphs), provide an analysis of a digital marketing platform that addresses the following:

• Describe why you would use or recommend this platform, as well as its benefits and drawbacks.
• Describe what types of businesses or other organizations you think could most benefit from using this platform.
• Explain at least one strategy or action that businesses and organizations can incorporate from this platform to increase the success of their marketing.
• To support your response, be sure to reference at least one properly cited scholarly source.