Amazon Holiday Marketing Strategies to Avoid

24Oct

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!

Click Here to Subscribe

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!

Click Here to Subscribe

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!

Click Here to Subscribe

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!

Click Here to Subscribe

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!

Click Here to Subscribe

Contests, Promos, & Giveaways: What You Should Know

By Christopher Tompkins

19Sep

Business, Facebook Advertising, Local Marketing, Marketing

Whether your business centers on a product or a service, the holiday season is filled with opportunities. But how can your marketing compete when all of your competitors are pushing for the same clients? Why not incentivize your customer with a contest, promo, or giveaway?

In my years as a marketing expert, I’ve noticed that companies fall into one of two camps when it comes to incentives. The first camp consists of the anti-incentives crowd. These brands might feel that giving a free incentive would denigrate their product or service. They believe that such promotions (or even discounts) could damage the brand even if they attract new customers. Antis see incentives as pandering to their consumers. The second camp is filled with pro-incentives people. Such brands believe that people love free stuff, therefore free stuff will attract customers. This group is all about giving away promotional materials, too. (Coincidentally, brands like these are the reason we have unique, quirky, and just plain weird marketing swag.)

Both sides make fair points. You don’t want your brand to appear aloof, but you don’t want customers to take you for granted, either. There’s a way to balance both. Let’s discuss contests, promos, and giveaways, along with incentives!

Contests are events in which individuals (or teams) compete for a prize. They are a great way to get user-generated content (UGC). Often, brands will ask customers to post pictures or create videos that meet certain requirements.

Tagline: “Send us your best pic, and the winner will receive an all-expenses-paid cruise!”

Promos (short for promotions) are limited-time offers or events that are held to encourage consumer engagement. Brands want to attract new customers, so they’ll offer free shipping for a given time period. Some companies offer discounts to new users or members. In several U.S. states, the school year is preceded by a “tax-free weekend,” in which the government forgoes sales taxes in an effort to increase back-to-school shopping at local establishments.

Tagline: “Buy-one-get-one-free sale on pens this weekend only!”

Giveaways are when a brand gives an item or provides a service free of charge to consumers for promotional reasons. These can range from a free gift with purchase to giving out promotional swag to passersby.

Tagline: “Free gift with every purchase!”

As you decide what you want to do, you need to think about the following points.

1. Competition
This point could just as well be labeled “research.” Find out what your competitors are doing. While you want to stand out from the crowd, knowing industry norms will keep you from looking reckless or foolish. For example, a Porsche dealership wouldn’t hold a buy-one-get-one (BOGO) for free deal on cars, but they might throw in free oil changes and other maintenance for the lifetime of the vehicle.

2. Incentives
There are actually two types of incentives. The incentive could be a reward, i.e., something that could be considered a bonus. With the above example, a reward might be the inclusion of an official Porsche crest keyring. The incentive could be a motivator, i.e., something that would push your audience through the decision process faster. In the previous example, the free maintenance acts as a motivator. The great thing about the types is that you can combine them or use them concurrently. One final note on incentives: it should be something complimentary to your service or product. An insurance company might give out a free umbrella to new clients, for instance.

I personally believe that incentives can be great for your brand’s sales and reputation. I’ll leave you with a story that, to me, proves the value of an incentive.

The Go! Agency handles the marketing for a franchise of assisted living facilities. One challenge they faced was that caregivers of potential residents who toured their properties would love what they saw, but choose another home for their loved one. These decisions were often based on price and other factors that our client could not control. We decided to add value to the tours by creating an ebook that explained what you should ask about a potential assisted living facility. At the end of each tour, the guide would say, “I know that you’ll probably continue looking around and researching your options. We totally understand–you want to find what’s best for your family! Anyway, the website has a link to an ebook we’ve written. The book gives you some questions that we’ve had people ask time and time again. We’ve chosen the most important ones, so it should be useful if you tour another residence.”

BOOM

By sharing knowledge, our client is now an expert.

BOOM

By trying to help out caregivers, our client is now a resource.

BOOM

By emphasizing that they understand, our client has now endeared themselves to that family.

All because of an incentive.

Contests, promos, and giveaways are great for encouraging engagement from your audience and drawing attention to your brand. You can do so much with these events, both in terms of money made and buzz generated.

Do you need help with with an event, or your overall marketing strategy? Discover what my team of marketing experts can do for your brand! Contact me today for a free consultation!

Click Here to Subscribe

7 Questions to Answer When Creating a Holiday Sale

By Christopher Tompkins

17Sep

Business, Facebook Advertising, Local Marketing, Marketing

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday . . . . We’re about to enter the holiday sales season!

I have seen so many brands crash and burn when it comes to holiday sales. Either they do no promotion at all or they go overboard and spend a fortune promoting the sale. You don’t want to do either! Sales should be organized, promoted, and measured. Never wait until the last minute to plan your sale! And remember that you have to budget for the whole season: you should never throw all of your holiday budget into promoting your Black Friday sale, for example.

I’ll let you in on a secret: you can learn a lot from your competitors! What are their promotions like? How far in advance did they begin promoting the sale? What discounts are they offering? Do some research and see what the norms are for your industry.

On to the nitty-gritty! Here are seven big questions you should answer.

1. What is Your Goal?
What are your desired results from this sale? Do you want to reach new customers or gain exposure? Do you want to make room for new inventory? Do you want to make money? This will affect the details of your sale, like prices and discounts.

2. Does Your Sale Revolve Around the Price or the Product?
“But wait,” you say. “Don’t sales involve both?” I’m talking about discounts versus bundles here. Are you offering your merchandise at a blanket discount (“20% off the whole store!”) or are you grouping products/services into bundles (“Buy One, Get One half price!”)?

3. How Will You Measure Success?
Determine what metrics you will use to gauge your success. One thing you should absolutely find out is the total amount grossed from the sale, minus the total amount spent on promoting the sale. Other metrics might include counting unique website visitors, new email marketing subscribers, or social media engagements.

4. Where Are You Going to Promote It?
You should definitely advertise your sale on social media, but how do you choose which platform? The obvious answer would be: the platform which is most frequently used by your target audience. Boosted or sponsored posts on the right platforms are crucial!

5. What is Your Promotional Budget?
Speaking of sponsored posts, you’ll need to determine your promotional budget. What will you spend on ads and boosted posts? For online merchants who also have brick and mortar stores, will you be making any physical materials like flyers or signs? Keep in mind that this might not be the only sale you will have during the holiday season–budget accordingly!

6. What is Your Timeline?
This not only includes the time of the sale itself, but the lead-up to the sale. How long will the sale itself last–a few days, one day, a few hours? A good timeline is thorough! You should include deadlines for writing ad copy, designing visuals, and placing advertisements; additionally, you need a deadline for sending your website or IT team the necessary codes and information for the website! As I mentioned above, you should look at your competitors and other companies in your industry to determine discounts, duration, and other specifics.

7. Is Your Website Ready?
The doomsday scenario for every online merchant is a website crash on the day of a major sale! Don’t let this happen to you! Consult with your website design team to double check that your online store is stable and ready for an influx of customers. Contact your web host to ensure that their servers can handle the anticipated above-average volume of traffic. If possible, ask your IT person to be on standby during the sale–especially for weekends or holidays, but expect to pay for their time–in case of emergency issues.

There you have it! These will help you plan the holiday sale–without losing your holiday cheer! I’ve learned from experience that there’s no such thing as a stress-free sale, but these questions will help keep you focused!

Do you need marketing help for the holidays and beyond? Contact us today for a free consultation!

Click Here to Subscribe

How to Create the Perfect Budget for Holiday Marketing

By Christopher Tompkins

10Sep

Business, Facebook Advertising, Local Marketing, Marketing

I know, I know, I know. Budgeting at this time of year can be challenging at best. As we go into the 4th quarter, most of the marketing budget has probably already been spent. Every business enters the crucial 4th quarter period counting pennies and figuring out ways to cut costs so that they can still somehow end the year with a bang.

Why is this an issue for so many companies? Why does it keep happening year after year?

Two words: poor planning.

You don’t account for surprise marketing expenses. You don’t adequately track your annual marketing spend. You just don’t plan.

Listen, what’s done is done: you need to move forward. Tomorrow is a new day–a day when you still will have the ability to plan and budget for your success. The wonderful world of social media marketing has many hidden expenses that can pop up suddenly. So expect the unexpected–and include the unexpected in your budget!

Let’s throw the other important factor into the mix: the holiday season. You need to answer some basic questions before you can begin your preparations. Are you a product company or a service company? Do you know what you should realistically expect to pay for social media advertising during the busy holiday season? What are your objectives? How much saturation will you need to overcome in your market? What are your competitors doing?

Now that you have those basics, how do you prepare the perfect budget for your holiday marketing on social media? Here are my tried-and-true, go-to tips to help you begin!

The Objectives: What does your business need to achieve in that all-important 4th quarter? Increase number or amount of sales? Get rid of old stock? Build awareness for an upcoming initiative or launch? Your first step when it comes to any budget is to understand what you want to achieve.
The Where: Once you understand what you want to achieve, you need to think about where you’re going to focus your efforts. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube? All of them? This is important as each one of these has not only a different price tag for entry, but includes a whole separate set of work.
The Who: Now that you have objectives and social media sites in mind, who is doing the work. In-house, or are you outsourcing? Why – there is a cost associated with this decision.

Now it’s time to work on your budget:

What Are You Working With? Take a look at your annual budget and see what is left. How much will you be able to allocate to your social media marketing for the holiday season?
What Is Your Timeline? How long will your holiday marketing campaign last? Do you want to slowly escalate it, or stay at one pace? When will you be doing the most marketing?
What About Advertising? If you don’t plan on outsourcing your social media efforts, this will be your only remaining price pusher. How much do you want to spend on social media advertising? If you are new to this concept, I would suggest Facebook Advertising. It has a low barrier to entry and will help you understand how to execute a campaign. My top tip is to test ideas for your advertising accounts before you launch the full holiday campaign!

This will help you get your ducks–or reindeer–in a row. Remember that the more you spend on social media advertising (when the correct audience and metrics are in place, of course), the more results you will see. Now get going!

Click Here to Subscribe

Target Acquired: Tips for Finding Your Audience

By Christopher Tompkins

5Sep

Advertising, Business, Facebook Advertising, Social Media

On your mark . . . . Get set . . . . WAIT!

I have seen so many marketing campaigns that feel like a pee-wee track meet: they are hastily organized, poorly attended, and all hell breaks loose at the sound of the starting pistol.

Too much money, time, and effort are wasted marketing the wrong message to the wrong audience. In fact, you’ve probably done it yourself.

“That’s impossible!” You say. “We hired the best copywriters to create persuasive content! Our design team made stunning visuals! And the videos were so expensive, they had to be good! But we didn’t see any return on our investment!”

You are frustrated and exhausted. “This was the absolutely perfect campaign!” You ask, “where did we go wrong?”

Well, I hate to tell you, but at the very beginning, my friend. When you planned that campaign, did you think about your target consumers or clients?

I am all about planning every single detail prior to the launch of every marketing initiative, but some aspects still get lost in the process. There is one point I don’t feel is emphasized enough when creating the strategy for a marketing initiative: identifying the actual target for all of these marketing efforts.

Everyone is sharing the latest ways to “work” (note the scare quotes) the Facebook algorithm to your advantage or quickly boost your Instagram views, usually with just a few steps (kind of like those “one weird trick to losing weight” ads). Awesome, right? Wrong. All of the tips, tricks, and tactics in the world are useless unless you fully understand who your target audience or customers are.

Right now, you’re probably saying to yourself, “Well, that might be true for some business people, but I know who my customer is.”

Again, I hate to tell you this, but . . . you probably don’t.

I’m not trying to insult your knowledge of your own business, but when you are marketing on social media you need much more than the standard demographic outline. With any digital or online marketing, you need to dive deeper and understand more elements of your target audience.

Not to worry though, I have you covered. Here are some of the simple steps that we take our clients through when they are having trouble identifying their target audience. Let’s go!

1. Money, Money, Money, Money: Yep, everyone loves that green stuff. Turn your attention to your books. It is crucial for you to be able to identify a few key monetary aspects. Who–demographic-wise–is spending the most money? What product or service sells the most? What product/service delivers the highest margin? Once you know that, determine who is buying it. If you are a beauty brand that sells 1,000 hairbrushes for profit of $10 and sells 500 hair dryers for a profit of $400, then I would look into the demographic makeup of that hair dryer crowd–the brand should focus on the products that bring in more money with fewer sales. Use your sales successes and current client roster as your starting point.

2. Sex Matters: If you have a product or service that is specifically made for a woman, it does not mean that men could not be loyal consumers of your company. Don’t ignore any markets or demographics without the proper data to back up your decision! Major opportunities are lost this way.

3. Location x3: Where are your consumers? National, regional, state-wide, city-wide, or even more local? Why do I ask? Well, did you know that you can place advertising to specific audiences based on specific zip codes? Yes – you can be that specific.

So now you will have a very strong initial idea of some of the basic concrete aspects of your target audience. But you want to take this further. You’ll need to create two more items:

1. Baseline Audience Demographic Profile: This is where you take the information gathered from the initial three steps listed above and put it into an outline that can be used as a jumping-off point for further analysis and inspection. The profile would need the following information: age range, gender, location, average value of each new client/customer, net worth, household income, and any other pertinent data.

2. Buyer Profiles: Now this is where you can dive deeper and get more acquainted with your target audience. Buyer profiles allow you to create specific customer profiles that will reflect your audience in multiple ways. These take your existing data and delve deeper into various aspect such as interests, hobbies, media habits, and more. Buyer profiles will help you not only engage with your audience in a more human way, but also identify your audience faster.

While this might seem like a lot of work, the reward is well worth the effort. For one thing, digital marketing gives you more opportunities to target! For instance, did you know that on Facebook alone you can target based on restaurants that your audience visit, movies that they see, and political parties that they follow? And that is just scratching the surface.

So as you can see, it is more than having a product and/or service and simply choosing your audience. Proper audience identification is a process that may take a little time, but pays dividends when completed properly. Take your time and ensure that you have this piece completed before moving forward with any costly or time-consuming marketing activities or initiatives. Otherwise, you’ll be left in the dust.

Click Here to Subscribe

Social Media Marketing Solutions: Yoga Studios

By Christopher Tompkins

8Aug

Social Media

For the rest of the summer, the Go! Agency blog will focus on the social media habits of different industries. For each week in August, our first blog will explain common mistakes made by an industry; our second blog will explain how to fix those mistakes.

All the mistakes we discussed in our previous post can be quickly and easily corrected. Let’s take a look at a yoga studio that needs to work on it’s social media marketing. (Note: The following example is a hypothetical case study that combines features from several different situations. Names, locations, and other details have been changed to protect the privacy and anonymity of source examples.)

Mantras & Mudras is a new yoga studio in Chippewa Valley, Michigan. Lindsay Weir, owner and yogi, switched careers after three decades as a microbiologist and moved back home to open up her own studio. She wants Mantras & Mudras to appeal to as many people as possible, so she has hired a diverse team of instructors. Unfortunately, none of them have a background in marketing. She thought she could convince her brother Sam to help out with their social media, but he is adamant that his Ph.D. in computer science did not prepare him for running a Twitter account. Right now, she and Kim–head instructor–manage all their social media profiles as best they can.

Mistake 1: Inferior Images

Lindsay decided to crowd-source the images for their Instagram page. She receives pictures from all of her instructors, and–once she’s obtained the consent of the subject–posts them all. She knows the pics aren’t polished, but won’t the rough quality just enhance the carefree vibe?

Solution: Get serious about your visuals.

As we mentioned in our Brewery edition, this is a flaw common to every industry.

However, this is particularly heinous with yoga and other image-friendly activities. The solution? Make quality visuals your priority! Whether you just become more discerning about the images you post or you hire a professional photographer, you need to treat this seriously. Having decent visuals is not optional for social media.

Mistake 2: Not Posting Frequently Enough

No one has time to post. Lindsay has been busy setting up the studio. Kim still has two teenagers at home, so she can only post at work in between classes. Although assistant instructor Millie has taken over social media duties when Kim is really swamped, their posting habits are still haphazard at best.

Solution: Use a program to pre-schedule your posts.

Good news: your audience (yoga aficionados on social media) is highly engaged already! Bad news: you will lose them quickly unless you feed their content craving! Social media moves quickly–if you don’t post often enough, you are limiting the size of your audience! Successful yoga studios on Instagram post once a day at minimum. It is an indisputable fact that yoga studios must post often if they want to stay relevant. A social media manager (either a program or a professional) can help you. The best programs not only enable you to pre-schedule your posts, they allow you to crosspost to all your accounts on different platforms.

Mistake 3: Too Much Filler, Not enough Value

Given that they don’t have a lot of time to take polished pictures, it’s no surprise that Kim and Lindsay post a lot of inspirational quotes and sayings on every platform. They’d like to posts more shots of poses, but they agree that poses should include instructions and neither has time write guidelines.

Solution: Shoot for quality and quantity.

As we mentioned above, yoga-enthusiasts on social media are engaged and eager for content. Ergo, you need to post frequently. That being said, you need to make sure that the content has value. A few quotes are fine, but no more than one every week. When you post pictures of poses, include instructions for how to do the pose. You need to commit to doing several quality posts per week, and at least one quality post per day for Instagram. If you don’t have time, you must make time.

Mistake 4: Ignoring the Human Element

The instructors are all passionate about yoga, but they arrived at it from different places. Millie enrolled in a yoga class as an elective for undergrad when she needed one more course hour to remain a full-time student. Kim first got into yoga at the suggestion of a therapist, who thought the calming practice would help her deal with PTSD. Jean, Lindsay’s mom, took a class with a friend a few years ago and loved it–she’s now one of the oldest Yoga Alliance-certified E-RYT 500s in the country! It’s too bad that these compelling stories aren’t included in the studio’s social media . . . .

Solution: Share your stories.

One quick caveat: before you post anyone’s photograph or even use their name on social media, make absolutely certain that you have their permission. Once permission is granted, talk about yourself and your instructors! Share inspirational journeys, life hacks, personal quirks–you name it! This will help your followers identify with your staff, and thus will humanize your brand.

Mistake 5: Ignoring the Yoga Community

Lindsay has a doctorate in microbiology. She has presented papers at international conferences and lectured around the world. Lindsay is a brilliant woman, but she’s self-aware enough to admit that she just doesn’t grasp the social aspect of social media. Her niece tried to explain hashtags to her, but Lindsay is still lost. As a result, Mantras & Mudras is disconnected from the greater yoga community on social media.

Solution: Connect!

Use hashtags (#yogaeverydamnday, #yogaeverywhere, #yogaeveryday) to reach new followers! Participate in monthly or weekly challenges! Tag and contact yoga influencers! Your community is already on social media, it’s up to you to take the time to find it.

Once they understood what was holding them back, Mantras & Mudras overhauled the studio’s social media strategy. Below are the before and after screenshots:

To paraphrase a post from Mantras & Mudras, you decide if today is one day or day one. Every day is another chance to make a fresh start. Your yoga studio could attain social media success if you get commit to improving your social media strategy.

Yoga instructors and yoga studios: now is the time to align your strategies with your goals! We want to help you! Contact The Go! Agency today for a free consultation!

Click Here to Subscribe

Tag : marketing strategy