How to Make the Best Holiday Unboxing Video

28Oct

Gifts don’t just go under the tree anymore! Unboxing videos have taken the world by storm, with over one-third of millennials watching. Something about seeing a product opened for the very first time gets customers excited, and it makes it easier for them to imagine purchasing from you!

Once you’ve decided that an unboxing video is right for your organization, you’ll have two options for executing it: in-house or through a brand ambassador. Whichever you choose, you’re going to find some common pitfalls that you’ll want to avoid. That’s why I’m going to look at common pitfalls for both means of production.

Producing In-House:
You’ve decided that you want complete creative control over this project and you’re confident that you can create a high-quality video. That’s a great start, but before you break out the ring lights, you might want to consider how much production needs to go into this.

Part of the appeal of an unboxing video is the intimate, relaxed feel, so the worst thing you could do is overproduce it with complicated editing and unnecessary effects. Instead, stick with the basics: clear, simple lighting and a good camera will go a long way. When writing your script, do it as though you’re talking to a friend about your product, not like you’re trying to sell audiences on features and benefits.

Ironically, the best thing for your video is probably to not put too much effort into it. If you’re spending a fortune on recording equipment or driving yourself crazy with editing the video, then take a step back. Little imperfections will only humanize your brand, and your audience is going to respond to that even more strongly during the holiday season.

As effective as unboxing videos are, they’re not commercials airing on primetime TV. Keep the tone casual, speak like a human, and don’t overthink it!

Working With a Brand Ambassador:
You prefer a hands-off approach and see the benefits of working with a creator who already has a loyal following. This is a popular avenue to take! It’s important to bear in mind, however, that you’re not going to be able to control exactly what the personality says. And while there’s something to be said for a natural response, some clear guidelines never hurt anyone.

Make it clear to your brand ambassador exactly what you want to be in the video. Are there any features they should mention? Holiday sales they can tell their audience about? While part of the beauty of a personality is that they have their own distinct voice, it’s important that this unboxing video is still working toward your brand’s goals.

For example, if you’re working with a brand ambassador to create an unboxing video of your headphones, the video has to stay in-line with your other content. You’re marketing them as “sleek” and “innovative,” so it’s safe to say you don’t want the personality to call them “cute” or “classic.”

Communicate your brand’s must-haves for the video, then let your brand ambassador handle the nitty-gritty! They’ve amassed fans because they know how to engage their audience, so with some clear guidelines, they should be set to contribute to your holiday marketing campaign!

Get Moving!
Unboxing videos are one of the hottest ways you can break up the content mix this holiday season, so don’t hesitate to get started now! Remember that opening presents is one of the best things about the season, and you have the opportunity to share that feeling with your audience. Use this information to guide you down whichever production path is right for you, and look forward to having an engaging final product!

Feel like your holiday marketing strategy could use some professional help? Schedule a free consultation with the Go! Agency to get some guidance!

How to Get More for Less With Your Holiday Ad Spend

By Christopher Tompkins

14Oct

Advertising, Marketing

Without fail, social media ad spend skyrockets during the holiday season. So, why do marketers throw their hats into that ring every year?

Because people are buying.

Sadly, knowing that people are spending money doesn’t magically increase your advertising budget.

That’s why I’m here! I’m going to show you how to stretch your holiday ad spend dollar whether you’re a nationally-known business or a local store.

Timing Is Everything for Online Advertising

When you’re marketing on the day of a holiday, your cost-per-click (CPC) goes up dramatically. Why? Because everyone is bidding for the same virtual ad space.

While on any given Tuesday it might be just you and a (comparatively) small handful of other businesses, online advertising on Black Friday is going to pit you against retailers like Walmart and Target. By the time you finally win a bid, you’ll likely spend more on ads than you’ll ever see in ROI.

So, what do you do?

For National Brands:

If your organization is big enough, you may actually stand a chance at competing with larger companies for ad space on a major holiday. Still, it’s worth considering whether or not this is the best move for you. Take into account how many of your clicks regularly turn into leads, then how many of those leads turn into conversions.

From there, you can work out how much money each of those ad clicks is going to earn in your customer’s lifetime. When running these calculations, remember that holiday shoppers are less likely to become lifelong customers.

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Once you’ve got your number for how much profit each click will generate for you, based on past experience, find a margin that works for you. How much can you pay for clicks and still get an exciting ROI? Find that number, and don’t bid a penny over it. It’s unfortunate if you can’t get holiday ad space, but it’ll be worse to lose money on those same ads because of increased holiday ad spend.

For Local Businesses:

Don’t even think about throwing your hat into that ring. The amount of traffic your local business is going to get is almost certainly not going to cover how much you’ll end up sending on clicks. Unless you’re the one local business in the world with an ad budget to rival a worldwide retailer, don’t waste your time bidding on ad space that you can’t afford to support. You might look at holiday content marketing or other strategies, instead.

For Both:

If you find that it just isn’t feasible for you to run ads on a holiday, that’s completely fine! You can still get your share of holiday revenue. Just pick a day around the holiday to target.

You probably don’t want to skip Cyber Monday just to do the day before, where the bidding landscape will be almost identical. But what about the day after? In many ways, the day following a holiday is an overlooked hotbed of potential sales.

Immediately after a major retail holiday is exactly when all the bargain hunters come out. This is where you can shine! The ad spend market won’t be nearly as saturated with bids, and there will still be plenty of online shoppers for you to draw in.

Place your lower bids, and watch as you get prime ad space for a fraction of what it would’ve cost you 24 hours earlier.

Spend Wisely

You’re working with a limited ad budget in a competitive market, so choose your investments carefully! Take this information and make a name for your brand without spending every last penny on holiday ad space.

Does your holiday marketing plan still need some work? Set up your free consultation with The Go! Agency!

Editor’s Note: This blog has been updated and republished to reflect current information. The article was cleaned up, recommendations were reassessed, and references refreshed.

How to Tie the Holidays Into Your Social Media Posts

By Christopher Tompkins

7Oct

Business, Content Creation

You know the holiday season is right around the corner, but what does that actually mean for your social media strategy?

Well, I could tell you to do steps X, Y, and Z to update your social media plans and all your woes will vanish! Christmas shoppers will rush to your website and the garland around your tree will be made of shredded $100 bills!

But that isn’t how this works.

I can’t tell you what’s going to work perfectly for your business in your unique situation. What I can tell you, though, is that Marketing Dive found that 80% of shoppers are planning to spend at least as much on holiday shopping as they did last year. The holidays are simply too lucrative not to plan for them.

So how do you learn what you need to do? You study the best. I’m going to show you some of the most successful holiday campaigns, explain exactly what made them such hits with their audiences, and give you some tips on how you can replicate those results.

1. STARBUCKS
Starbucks’ holiday cups have earned them a lot of attention over the years, and the 2017 holiday season was no different. The face of coffee let their customers design their own holiday cups and have a chance for their work to be shared by Starbucks by using the #GiveGood hashtag.

What’s their secret?
Starbucks has a huge fanbase of active, loyal customers. When they were given the chance to create content for a company they love, there was no hesitation. This influx of user-generated content (UGC) got Starbucks a lot of positive attention and plenty of fresh content for advertising, all without paying a dime!

#GiveGood was also a key part of their success. It showed users that Starbucks wasn’t thinking about themselves, but was instead focusing on the spirit of giving. That brought in a human element for customers to relate to, so suddenly they were getting into the holiday spirit and not just buying coffee from one of the largest corporations in the world.

What’s the lesson?
UGC is almost always going to endear you in the eyes of your audience. It’s also important to remember that, as the holidays come closer, you can’t beg your customers to buy from you. Show them your human side and let them be naturally excited about your brand.

2. UPS
UPS started a #WishesDelivered campaign to share real, touching stories from their customers of how UPS made a difference in their lives. Every time users shared or submitted stories with the hashtag, UPS donated a dollar to one of three charities.

What’s their secret?
The short version: people love stories. Everyone wants to feel good, and #WishesDelivered gave people a reason to spread the word about what a difference UPS was making. Combining easy charity donations with the chance to spread positive, holiday-themed news made this campaign an instant success.

What’s the lesson?
Tell your customers how you’re helping them! Even if you can’t afford a huge donation to charity right now, let your customers interact with your brand by telling stories of how you did right by them. Hashtag campaigns can work wonders for spreading your message.

3. HOTELTONIGHT
Nobody said the holidays were all exchanging gifts and kissing reindeer. HotelTonight’s holiday campaign acknowledged that sometimes the holidays just suck, especially when family is involved! They posted jarring (in a good way) caricatures of unpleasant family members, and encouraged users to share their worst stories of staying with relatives.

What’s their secret?
HotelTonight was simultaneously funny and reminded its customers why they needed to book hotels over the holidays. It’s hard to say “I’ll just bunk with mom” when you’re thinking about your great-aunt Muriel’s Scrabble tournament!

What’s the lesson?
Holiday marketing doesn’t have to be happy. If your brand’s personality isn’t one that cares about Santa and eggnog, that’s fine! This is also a lesson that you should be establishing empathy with your customers wherever you can. Show them that you know what they’re going through, and they’ll flock to you!

You don’t want to copy these brands, but you should take the ideas behind each success story and make them your own! The holidays are a chance for your business to score some big victories, so don’t waste this opportunity with tired marketing strategies! Now get out there and show your customers why they need you this holiday season!

Did you find this advice helpful and want to see how else you can improve your marketing strategy? Reach out to The Go! Agency today for a free consultation!

You Can’t Do It Alone: Building the Ideal Team

By Christopher Tompkins

8Jul

Business

When it comes to sorting out your social media marketing campaign, working with a knowledgable marketing strategist is an absolute must. They should be experienced and well-versed enough to provide you with the inside track on what you need to be doing, so that you can efficiently execute your plans and quickly achieve your goals.

Or will you?

One of the downsides of getting a robust and forward-thinking plan from an expert is that you still need a certain level of skill in order to execute that plan. I know, it seems like a catch-22: you get a plan from an expert because you are not an expert, but expert plans are best executed by experts. Even with the perfect plan there are hundreds of pitfalls that need to be avoided.

In my experience, I find companies that use a team to execute their social media marketing strategies tend to be the most successful. I have trained teams ranging from 100 to 2, and the common factor to success is simple: each team member knows the roles and knows who will be in charge of that role’s duties.

Don’t worry about getting new staff for each role: one person can be in charge of multiple roles, as long as that one person is skilled in each. Not everything is trainable, especially on the fly. Social media marketing is an investment into your online future, so you want to make sure that you trust the leaders of your team. Your reputation will be on the line. Here are the six main roles that you should be thinking about when you are getting ready to execute your social media marketing strategy.

Project Manager: This person is key, as they will be in charge of, well, managing the project itself. Project Managers ensure that team members meet all objectives and hold everyone accountable to deadlines and budgets.
Copywriter: What is social media all about? Content! If you do not have the time or the skills to create quality content, you need to enlist a copywriter. Grammar, punctuation, and attention to detail are a must.
Graphic Designer: How do you make sure that your brand looks consistent across the board? Visuals, my friend. Whether your visuals consist of images, videos, slideshows, or channel branding, you’ll need a pro (if only to ensure that your graphics don’t look like they were designed by an intern).
Advertising Specialist: Do you know how to utilize social media advertising platforms? If you don’t then you need to hire someone who does. Of course, you could always wing it and risk losing tons of time and money with little to no results.
Analytics Specialist: Are you successful? What is working for your brand and what isn’t? If you have no idea, then you need someone who revels in tracking data. This role should extend beyond social media and into your website itself!
Website Designer: If you hired a website designer to create the perfect website (perhaps at a substantial investment) without making arrangements for ongoing maintenance, you’ve made a mistake. Having a support person on hand is necessary in today’s digitally-driven world! This is especially true if your objectives are sales, conversions, email signups, and similar goals via your company website. If your website isn’t working, then neither will your marketing efforts on social media, or anywhere else, for that matter.

So there you go! These roles will form the basis of a nice, well-rounded team. Although I have seen all of these roles filled by as few as two people, most teams will need more. This goes back to what I said earlier: you must make sure that anyone filling any of these roles–especially employees who fill two or more roles–is qualified, professional, and actually has the time! Remember: you are only as strong as your team!

Amazon Holiday Marketing Strategies to Avoid

By Christopher Tompkins

24Oct

Business

The time of seasonal sales is fast approaching! For many marketers, you’ll be promoting your products on Amazon this year, and you want to get the word out. And you should! American online shoppers reported that 76% would use Amazon for most of their holiday shopping.

It’s fair to market your Amazon products, but sometimes the moves you don’t make are as important as the ones you do. The internet is chock full of bad marketing advice to boost your holiday sales via Amazon, and you need to know what to avoid.

Read on for the worst Amazon holiday marketing advice you’ll hear and why you don’t want to follow it.

Buying Amazon Reviews

The lie:
Paying for reviews is a harmless way to make sure your products are ranking higher on Amazon searches! It’s completely untraceable, and your store will get a convenient boost right before the holidays!

The truth:
Some marketing strategies are just bad news all around, and buying Amazon reviews is one of them. Ignoring the ethical issues of paying nameless internet faces to write positive reviews in exchange for money or free products, there are a lot of practical reasons to skip this can of worms.

When Amazon finds out that you’ve been purchasing reviews (and they’re Amazon, so they’ll find out), your store account will be in serious jeopardy. If you’re lucky, every single review will be deleted from your page. Yes, even the real ones. You’ll have paid for all that work and have nothing to show for it.

If you’re not lucky, your seller’s account could be closed, and suddenly you’re barred from the largest e-commerce site in the world.

Save yourself the hassle and wasted resources. You may be tempted to boost your holiday sales with some timely positive reviews, but don’t fall for that trap. Earning real reviews will better serve your business in the long run.

Sending Direct Traffic to Your Amazon Products

The lie:
Sending ad traffic straight to your Amazon store can only benefit you. Consumers who click on your ad are shown immediately how to buy from you, and you’ll generate tons of sales this way!

The truth:
Sending traffic to your Amazon page is ridiculously unlikely to be a lucrative venture. Why? Well, let’s say you put an ad on Facebook for your target demographic, and the ad takes users straight to one of your products on Amazon’s website.

What percentage of people who click on your ad are going to complete a purchase? One optimistic study puts that number at 26 percent. That’s a great number, but you’re still paying for the clicks of the other 74 percent who looked at your product and decided not to buy.

More concerning is what these users do to your Amazon ranking when they don’t make purchases. Every time someone clicks on your Amazon ad and leaves without buying, your Amazon ranking goes down. After enough clicks that don’t end in conversions, you may find your product sinking to the third, fourth, then fifth page of results, where users are unlikely to ever see it.

Ads can be a great way to make sales, but you shouldn’t put your Amazon ranking on the line. Link back to your own website or another e-commerce platform that isn’t tracking clicks and applying them to your rank. Of all the great ways to build your name on Amazon for the holidays, this isn’t one of them.

Dodge the Pitfalls

Like with many other topics on the internet, holiday marketing on Amazon is full of bad information. Don’t risk your livelihood by following poorly-thought-out advice. Now that you know what strategies won’t work, you can redouble your efforts in more reliable areas!

You know what not to do, but are you sure what the next best steps are for your business? Schedule your free consultation with The Go! Agency to make sure!

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3 Ways to Get Your Shopify Store Holiday-Ready

By Christopher Tompkins

22Oct

Business

You’ve put a lot of work into your e-commerce platform throughout the year, but have you thought about what you’ll do for the holidays?

It isn’t enough to quietly lower your prices. There are a lot of Shopify stores out there, and you need to stand out! Thankfully, there are some simple steps to ensure you’re making the most of of the holidays.

Let’s talk about how you should customize your Shopify store for the winter sale season!

1. Start a Holiday Sale
This one is a no-brainer. Holiday sales are inseparable from the winter shopping experience, and frankly, most shoppers won’t consider your Shopify store if you’re not running a seasonal sale.

To set sale prices, you’ll click on the individual product you want to discount, and you’ll have two options, “price” and “compare at price.” The “price” box will be the sale price, and the other box will be its price outside of the sale. This is a classic marketing strategy. When interested shoppers see how much they’re saving with your sale, they’re more likely to jump on the chance to get your products at a lower rate!

Once you’ve set up your sale dates and prices, don’t stop there! For loyal customers on your email list or new shoppers who sign up for it, why not show them a little extra love with some coupon codes?

2. Prepare Coupon Codes
Special discounts give people that extra push to give your store a try. After all, what do online shoppers love more than a bargain?

You can create coupons for a specific dollar amount, a percentage off an order, or free shipping. Your Shopify discounts will also have a programmable range of dates when the codes can be used, the number of coupons you’ll accept per order, and any order minimums for your discounts.

A word to the wise: Test your coupon codes! If your customers go to checkout and their coupon codes won’t apply, they’ll be so frustrated that they’ll never spend a dime at your store.

Before sharing the coupons, create a buyer’s Shopify account and try to make a purchase from your store. If the code works, then full steam ahead! If you’re getting an error message, you may need to reach out to Shopify’s support team for help.

3. Limit Your Coupons
Remember how I said you can limit the number of coupon codes for each order? Yeah, you’ll want to make that a priority.

Let’s say you’re offering 3 different coupons: 15% off the order, $10 off all orders over $50, and free shipping. Individually, each of those coupons is an incentive for your customer to spend more money at your store. But together? Their $60 order is only costing them $41, and you’re left on the hook for shipping.

By programming your Shopify checkout to only accept one coupon at a time, though, your customers can choose which discount best suits their needs without completely draining the transaction of any profit.

Deck the Digital Halls

It’s a lot of work to get your Shopify store ready for the shopping season, but it’ll be worth it. Apply these tips to your e-commerce shop and you’ll be set to enjoy a holly jolly sleigh ride straight to the bank!

Do you have some lingering questions about optimizing your store for the holidays? Talk it out with the experts at The Go! Agency!

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Senior Care: Make the Most of Social Media During the Holidays

By Christopher Tompkins

100318 Senior Care_ Make the Most of Your Social Media During the Holidays

3Oct

Business, Content Creation, Local Marketing

Yuletide is all but upon us and for a lot of people, that means thinking about their families. When people consider holidays in assisted living or with a home health company, it’s common to imagine frigid nursing homes with poorly-lit trees and public domain Christmas carols playing in the background.

Obviously, that is not a good look for your brand! This holiday season, you need to be showing how well-cared-for your residents and care recipients are, and I have some ideas that can help!

Below is a checklist of content that you should be publishing throughout the holiday season. Nothing gets more attention than real caregiving photos and stories, so get that camera ready!

Must-Have Senior Care Posts This Holiday Season

Decorations: Your staff probably spent a lot of time decorating the community, so show it off! Families want to see how their loved one can feel at-home during the holidays. Start with photos of your team members hanging up lights and decorating trees, then show what those decorations look like when they’re finished and seniors are enjoying them.

Food: This time of year, you’ve probably already planned to have at least one (if not several) holiday-themed meals. Quality of food can be a big concern for people looking at your community, so promote the delicious meals that your residents get to enjoy!

Activities: The most important thing for people to know is that their loved one is going to be happy in your community. Showing real seniors engaged in holiday activities tells families that they’re being cared for on a personal level. Some easy go-tos are showing seniors singing Christmas carols, decorating cookies, or otherwise taking part in some seasonal merriment!

Visitors: Organize a visit from a local school! A choir class would love to visit and perform for some seniors, and a video like that would go a long way toward building a connection with your audience!

Presents: We all want the holidays to focus on love and positivity, but it’s at least 50 percent about gifts! Show your seniors opening their presents! Family members who can’t be there in person will appreciate you catching their loved one’s surprise on Christmas morning!

Personal Stories: People love a personal connection! With the approval of the senior and their family, post a photo of them along with one of their favorite holiday stories. This shows that you’re taking an interest in the lives of your seniors, which will make people more sympathetic toward your business.

Family Time: Undoubtedly, some of your seniors will have family visiting for the holidays. Get everyone’s permission, then snap a photo of them all huddled together in front of the tree. Your audience will see how happy that family is, and they’ll want that kind of happiness for themselves! No ad campaign will be more effective than showing a family and their overjoyed senior!

Winter Wonderland: No matter where your seniors are located, you can get some holiday-appropriate photos of them outdoors! In colder climates, photos of seniors bundled up and enjoying a white Christmas are nothing short of social media gold. If it’s warmer, don’t hesitate to brag about how your seniors don’t need coats in the winter. Take the environment you have and make it a feature!

And that is how you seamlessly work the holidays into your assisted living or home care social media posts! Take the strategies that work for you the rest of the year and adapt them into something new and charming for the holiday season. Follow this checklist to make sure your audience is attentive and engaged during the most wonderful time of the year!

Do you need a hand with managing your social media this holiday season? The Go! Agency has the expertise to help! Contact us today for a free consultation!

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Your Metrics System: How to Track Results

By Christopher Tompkins

26Sep

Advertising, Social Media

You’ve done it! You created and survived your holiday marketing campaign! While it would be nice to revel in the feeling of accomplishment, you’re not done yet.

“But the campaign was a success!” You say, “we earned so much money! What’s left to do?”

Nothing much . . . only determining if your campaign was actually worth the time, money, and energy you spent on it.

I hear this sentiment all the time from business owners. After they’ve dipped their toes in the marketing world for the holiday season, they decide to leave the pool until the next fall.

“Why would I ever need to know all those marketing stats?” They ask.

This attitude will doom your chances of long-term success. These metrics affect your business, your brand, and your bottom line.

Those “marketing stats” will help you in a myriad of ways. They

are necessary for calculating your return on investment (ROI);
give you valuable demographic information;
help you determine your upcoming budget; and
give you insight into and ideas for your future marketing initiatives.

Here are a few metrics you should consider measuring at the end of your holiday marketing campaign.

Impressions are the number of times an individual person sees a piece of content (ads, tweets, updates, blogs, etc.). This is an awareness metric. Although impressions are important, it can be a vanity metric. Focus on the quality or the effect of the impressions. How many times did a person see your ad before taking an action?

Reach refers to the number of people who saw your ad. I’ve already discussed how important it is to target the right audience, and this metric lets you see if you hit your target! Did the social media network, website, and/or publication you chose for ads live up to your hopes? Did you get the customers you expected, or did you see a boost in traffic from an unexpected demographic? For instance, video games are marketed to teenagers, but parents are usually the people who actually buy them.

Engagement is, essentially, interaction. It shows that your audience actively participated in your content. Likes, clicks, shares, comments–all of these are ways your audience engages with your brand. Think of engagement as the active result of reach and impressions!

Click Through Rate (also known as CTR) is found by dividing the number of individuals who clicked a link or ad on your webpage by the total number of users who viewed the page. If your page was viewed by 380 people, and 7 of those people clicked the link to your storefront, then the click through rate would be 1.84 percent. That CTR isn’t horribly low, by the way. According to Hubspot, search ads average a CTR of 1.91 percent and display ads have around .35 percent.

Conversions are actions taken by visitors. These actions can include completing a purchase, filling out a survey, or subscribing to an email newsletter. Tracking conversions enables you to retarget consumers. In retargeting, you present ads to consumers who visited your page but did not complete an action (e.g., added items to the digital shopping cart, but never paid).

All of these metrics will vary according to your goals. Too many novice marketers make the mistake of only analyzing these metrics after the holidays or another big campaign, but that is asking for trouble. You need to do this throughout the year! Take stock of where you are so that you can get to where you want to go!

Voilà! I’ve told you everything you need to know about running your holiday marketing campaign! If you have additional tips (or cautionary tales), share with us in the comments below. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions about digital marketing, seasonal campaigns, or one of my many Christmas cookie recipes!

Do you need more help with your holiday marketing campaign? Don’t wait for a Festivus miracle! Contact The Go! Agency today for your free consultation!

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Creating Your Timeline for Holiday Marketing

By Christopher Tompkins

24Sep

Business, Facebook Advertising, Local Marketing, Marketing

The holiday season is just a few weeks away! So far, I’ve told you what you need for your holiday campaign, how to target your audience, and where you should focus your budget, among other tips from my years as a marketer. Now I want to address the schedule.

Your holiday marketing campaign isn’t a high school project: you can’t expect to reach your goals if put everything off until the last minute. You need deadlines! I’ve found that there are three pillars for a good deadline. Good deadlines must be . . .

1. Good for Your Budget: The deadline must fit within the confines of your budget. Will you have enough money to run ads for a given amount of time? Will you have enough in the budget to cover your personnel needs until a specified date? These are the questions you’ll need to consider.

2. Good for Your Bandwidth: Speaking of personnel, you must give your team deadlines that are reasonable. Don’t assume that your staff will be able to pull off a Christmas miracle! Factor in human error and human nature by giving yourself and your staff a buffer. Never set deadlines at the last possible minute!

3. Good for Your Campaign’s Effectiveness: Will this deadline further your goals? In other words, are you spinning your wheels? Determine which actions are priorities, and which actions can be postponed.

Let’s start with a list of everything you need to accomplish or complete for your campaign. You’ll notice that some of these lead into the next item (i.e., you cannot complete Y until X is done). Generally, holiday campaigns include:

Final Strategy: When will you have your final plan? This is the blueprint that you’ll be sticking to for the entire campaign; so while you can (and should) be flexible, your campaign plan should be complete.
Budget: When will you have your budget ready? Do you need to hire any contractors or agencies to take on extra work of the campaign? It might sound silly to include deadlines for strategy and budget, but it will help you keep an analytical perspective toward your campaign.
Creative/Visuals: When do you need your final designs? This aspect includes layouts for ads and any new website or landing page visuals. Do you use a contractor for design work? Remember that contractors might book up quickly for the holiday rush!
Copy: When do you need all of your campaign’s written content? This should include landing page copy along with advertisements, posts, and blogs. You’ll need to account for editing content in addition to the approval process for ads.
Advertising: There are a few aspects to keep in mind here. The first is practical: what is the deadline for submitting ads for a given publication, website, or platform? The second aspect to consider is when will your ads have the greatest impact? For example, you can’t expect a lot of engagement from a Cyber Monday sale ad if won’t be approved until Tuesday morning.
Website Landing Page: You could generalize this to your entire website, but focus on the landing page for your holiday promotion or campaign. When will you need to have it up and running? If you use a contractor or another third party entity for your web design, what is their turn-around time? Will the holidays affect their schedule and availability?

Finally, you should consider the timing of your overall campaign. The timeline for a campaign that peaks on Black Friday is drastically different from a timeline for a campaign that peaks during the week of Christmas.

Armed with my advice, creating your campaign timeline should be a breeze! I mentioned this already, but it’s important enough to repeat: keep your plans firm, but allow for some wiggle room! Life happens. You realize that your copywriter will be out of town for Hanukkah. Your social media manager is hosting a horde of relatives and cannot work any overtime. Your IT guru will be on PTO all of Thanksgiving weekend–and you approved her request back in March.

This guide should help you create the optimal timeline for your holiday marketing campaign! Now let’s go!

The holidays are coming in fast–is your marketing strategy ready? The Go! Agency can help you get results! For a free consultation, contact us today!

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GoTV Episode 3

By Christopher Tompkins

21Sep

GoTV, Marketing, Social Media

Thanks for stopping by Go! TV! We’re glad to have you for our exploration of the biggest news throughout the world of social media.

Facebook

Facebook is fact-checking images and videos.
Facebook has been using fact-checkers for articles since 2016, but that service is being expanded to images and videos. This comes in response to users sharing emotionally-charged content that lacks the factual backing to be considered “news.” Since Facebook’s News Feed algorithm places a high value on engagement (and inflammatory stories usually receive more attention than their milder counterparts) the change is expected to have a major impact on how content ranks.

Facebook Newsroom
Social Media Today

Facebook unveils new ad options for the holidays.
As the holiday season approaches, Facebook is rolling out new options to improve ad performance. Collection ads will feature the option to redirect users from the ad to a new Instant Storefront template, which will allow advertisers to customize their ad content and improve conversion rates. Advertisers can also skip creating their own videos for collection ads, as the updated Instant Storefront will offer a video based on previously-uploaded images.

The social media giant will also be expanding its ad overlays to include holiday-specific frames. These will help advertisers build a more dynamic image that feels appropriate for the occasion. Additionally, Facebook’s video creation kit will feature holiday-themed templates to help brand the seasonal advertisements

Facebook Business
Social Media Today

YouTube

YouTube offers new vertical ad space.
YouTube’s latest update makes the platform more vertical-video-friendly. According to Social Media Today, mobile videos will now be optimized for vertical viewing and better fill the user’s screen. The Drum reports that YouTube will also allow brands to purchase ad space in a user’s home feed. This will place individualized ads with Youtube’s Recommended Videos section, an area which generates substantial viewership for the platform.

The Drum
Social Media Today

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