Tag Archive for: consumer services

How to Decide When Choosing PR, Marketing or Branding Agency?

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Key Takeaways

  • Distinct Roles: Branding focuses on building loyalty and emotional connections, PR aims to create awareness and trust through influence, while marketing drives leads and conversions. Each discipline plays a unique role in a comprehensive business strategy.
  • When to Use Each Strategy: Branding is essential at launch and throughout a brand’s lifecycle to maintain consistency and emotional resonance. PR is best utilized for awareness and credibility, especially when building relationships with stakeholders. Marketing is most effective once a brand has established trust and is ready to generate leads.
  • Integration of Tactics: While branding, PR, and marketing have different objectives, they complement each other. Effective strategies often involve a mix of all three, depending on a brand’s maturity and specific goals, with each contributing to overall business success.

At Avaans,  we offer those services to our clients, but sometimes we find our clients think they need one thing when what they actually need is another. So what’s the difference and when should you use each as a strategy.

In truth, your business probably needs ongoing campaigns for each of those, but breaking it down helps prioritize when choosing an agency, it helps to know which of the three disciplines (branding, PR, and, marketing) you should select the agency for. Many agencies offer services in all three categories, like Avaans, but most lead with one of the primary disciplines. So how do you decide when choosing a PR, Marketing or Branding Agency?

What’s the difference between marketing, branding and PR?

Branding: Building Loyalty and Affinity

When to do use it: At brand launch, product launch and throughout the brand’s existence to ensure consistency.

Many people think creating a logo is the extent of branding, but nothing could be further from the truth. brand is your company’s personality.

Branding drives the emotional response your audience has to your message and brand. Branding means having a solid understanding of your audience, their emotional triggers. Branding will touch every single thing you do in marketing and PR too. Think about your social media voice – is it sassy or supportive? That’s a branding decision.

B2B firms often think they can skip the branding step, but it’s even more important for B2B brands to invest in clear, concise, industry consistent branding.

A strong brand has a clear voice and gives their customers & clients something they can self-identify with. When your brand fits into their self-story of how they seem themselves you’ll increase affinity and loyalty. The strongest brands have simple identities that rarely change. Think: Coca-Cola (happiness), Apple (innovation) Lady Gaga (acceptance). The strongest brands also always consider their brand when making big decisions (is this consistent with our brand and our customer’s expectations of us?)

All of the below-mentioned tools will support a brand initiative, the biggest key to a branding initiative is to be sure your company has complete clarity on the audience, key messages, and the desired emotional connection. Branding initiatives may include a call to action, but most prominently elicit an emotional reaction or response.

  • Website: with an emphasis design and layout that matches desired emotional response
  • Content: whether 3rd party or branded, designed and selected to enhance brand’s status in the customer’s mind
  • Advertising: with an emphasis on “WHY” the brand is relevant rather than the “how or where”
  • Events: designed with imprint a memorable experience, or attach a brand to a memorable experience, in the customer’s mind, as opposed to a “lead retrieval” strategy

PR: Influence & Social Proof


When to use it: to create awareness, educate consumers, develop trust with stakeholders.
PR is the art of influence and raising awareness. It’s the ultimate in social proof.

In this bucket, we find tactics like:

  • Events: brand-hosted events for customers, community or likely customers
  • Word of Mouth: campaigns that get people talking about your product, brand and key message
  • Media Relations: relationship building with journalists, writers, and bloggers with an emphasis on collaboration
  • Social Media: with an emphasis on key messaging and influencing the market

In PR you may not get editorial control, so don’t count on a strong call to action, although you may get a link or product recommendation, it will rarely come with a heavy sales action. The best PR is earned PR which means it didn’t come with a quid-pro-quo and that’s part of what gives PR enhanced credibility over marketing.

It’s not as if these tactics aren’t supportive of one another (of COURSE you can get leads from PR tactics), but your brand’s maturity, customers, and community will determine your overall mix among other things.

Marketing: Driving Leads

When to use it: after your brand is established and you’ve earned some brand trust.

Acquiring leads is job number 1 for marketing. Depending on your product marketing may also be the science/artform of conversion also.

In this bucket, we find top-of-the-funnel tactics including:

DIGITAL 

  • Website: Landing pages with a strong call to action
  • Content: blogging, lead magnets designed to support the customer’s buying cycle
  • Content: Webinars
  • Social Media: with a link-building and custom content emphasis
  • Email marketing: shopping cart abandonment, new product announcements, customer campaigns and promotions
  • Digital Ads: social ads and banner ads with a strong call to action for potential customers
  • Remarketing: including shopping cart abandonment and past and current customers

IN PERSON

  • Tradeshows/Festivals
  • Seminars

When to use marketing tactics:
Use marketing when your sales people are trained and ready to follow up with leads. Training your sales people to understand the lead source and where the customer is in the decision-making funnel will help increase conversion. Notice one of the key differences between marketing and branding content is the use of a strong call to action.

Have more questions about how and when to use these tactics? Get in touch with us.

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5 Steps to CPG PR Crisis Planning

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Key Takeaways

  • Crisis preparation protects your brand: For CPG brands—especially in emerging industries—proactive PR crisis planning helps organizations respond quickly to scrutiny, rumors, or regulatory changes before issues escalate.
  • A dedicated crisis response team is essential: Effective crisis communication requires coordination between leadership, PR professionals, legal advisors, and operational leaders, each with clearly defined responsibilities.
  • Crisis communication must be tailored to stakeholders: Different audiences require different messaging and channels. Planning in advance ensures communication remains consistent, timely, and credible during high-pressure situations.

For most CPG brands, a PR crisis is rarely a question of if—it’s a question of when.

This is especially true in emerging industries where regulations evolve quickly, research is still developing, and business deals grow larger and more visible. Those conditions create the perfect environment for public scrutiny—and occasionally, public relations crises.

Most CPG companies initially approach PR firms to share their story, gain media coverage, launch campaigns, and build brand recognition. Those are the exciting parts of public relations.

But some of the most valuable work a PR firm does happens behind the scenes: preparing a company for moments when things don’t go as planned.

Why Plan for a PR Crisis Before One Happens?

According to Plos|One research, true rumors are confirmed in roughly two hours—but false rumors can take more than fourteen hours to debunk.

In today’s fast-moving media environment, misinformation spreads quickly across social platforms and news outlets. Companies often have very little time to assess the situation, determine their response, and communicate clearly.

This is why crisis planning matters.

We once had an entrepreneur decline crisis planning because they “didn’t want to think about it.” For us, that was a clear red flag. Crisis preparation isn’t about pessimism—it’s about protecting the brand and ensuring the company can respond effectively when pressure arises.

Crisis planning may not be glamorous work, but it is essential. A thoughtful plan strengthens your brand’s resilience and allows leadership teams to act with clarity instead of panic.

In the era of rapid news cycles, social media amplification, and cancel culture, having a plan in place is one of the most effective ways to protect your company’s reputation.

Step 1: Identify Your PR Crisis Team

Your crisis response team should include the individuals responsible for leadership decisions, communications, and operational response.

Depending on your organization, this may include:

  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Chief Marketing or Communications Officer
  • Brand Spokesperson
  • Public Relations Agency and Investor Relations Advisors

Additional team members may participate depending on the nature of the crisis:

  • Legal Counsel
  • Human Resources
  • Product or Quality Assurance Leaders
  • Social Media Specialists
  • Customer Service Representatives

Not every crisis will require every person listed above. However, each team member should understand their role before a crisis occurs. During a crisis, clarity around responsibilities helps prevent confusion and conflicting communication.

Step 2: Identify Potential Crisis Scenarios

Some CPG PR crises are unique to consumer brands, while others affect companies across industries.

When developing a crisis plan, leadership teams should brainstorm potential scenarios together. This process helps ensure all perspectives—legal, operational, marketing, and communications—are considered.

It’s also important to remember that a crisis can emerge simply because someone claims something happened, even if the claim proves false.

For example, if allegations against a company appear in the media or circulate widely online, the reputational damage may occur regardless of the outcome.

A well-known example is the Tide Pod Challenge. Although Tide had nothing to do with the viral social media trend encouraging people to consume detergent pods, the company still needed to respond quickly and responsibly.

Common crisis scenarios to consider include:

  • Product injuries affecting staff or consumers
  • Quality control issues or product recalls
  • Natural disasters affecting operations
  • Legal actions involving employees, clients, or partners
  • Regulatory investigations or emerging research impacting the industry
  • Executive leadership changes

Not every situation requires the same response. Some crises demand immediate public statements, while others may require targeted communication with a limited audience—or occasionally no response at all.

Step 3: Identify Stakeholders and Audiences

Most crises involve multiple stakeholder groups, each requiring slightly different communication.

While the core message must remain consistent, the level of detail or tone may vary depending on the audience.

  • Employees
  • Customers
  • Retail partners or dispensaries
  • Business partners
  • Investors
  • Government regulators
  • Industry media
  • National media
  • Local media

Mapping these audiences ahead of time ensures communication can happen quickly when needed.

Step 4: Determine Communication Formats

Different crisis scenarios require different communication strategies.

Companies should determine in advance how messages might be delivered. For example:

  • Will the company issue a press release?
  • Will leadership provide media interviews?
  • Will updates be shared on social media?
  • Will a video statement be appropriate?
  • Will investors require direct communication?

Although press conferences are relatively rare in the CPG sector, certain situations may call for them.

Planning communication channels in advance allows teams to move quickly and consistently during a crisis.

Step 5: Know Where Critical Information Is Located

During a crisis, speed matters.

Your crisis team should have immediate access to key information, including contact lists, internal leadership contacts, legal advisors, and media relationships.

Your PR firm should also have the necessary background materials ready—company facts, leadership bios, and messaging frameworks that can be adapted quickly.

Having this information readily available can sometimes mean the difference between damaging headlines and quickly resolved issues.

The Ongoing Step: Listen Carefully

In the day-to-day demands of running a CPG brand, it’s easy to overlook early warning signals.

That’s why monitoring industry conversations, social media sentiment, and media coverage is an essential part of crisis preparedness.

Strong media monitoring and social listening allow companies to identify potential issues early and adjust messaging before a situation escalates.

Understanding how consumers, regulators, and investors are reacting to industry developments provides valuable context when determining whether and how to respond.

There’s no single formula for CPG crisis planning. Each plan should reflect the company’s culture, leadership style, and risk profile.

But if a crisis does occur, having a plan in place provides something incredibly valuable: a clear path for decision-making.

If you’d like to learn more about crisis communication planning—or if you’re looking for experienced cannabis PR crisis advisors—you can start here.

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Create an Edge with Powerful Purpose Driven Public Relations

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Key Takeaways

  • Consumer Demand for Purpose: A significant majority of consumers (63%) prefer brands that align with their values, and 62% want these brands to take a stance on social and political issues. This trend is particularly pronounced among younger audiences, highlighting the competitive advantage for brands that embrace purpose-driven strategies.
  • Authenticity is Crucial: Brands must back their claims about supporting social causes with genuine actions. Consumers, especially teens, are skeptical; 37% doubt brands’ sincerity in supporting causes, and 69% believe brands often overstate their contributions. Authenticity in messaging is essential to build trust.
  • Successful Case Studies: Brands like Nike and Patagonia demonstrate the benefits of purpose-driven public relations. Nike’s partnership with Colin Kaepernick showed that taking risks on social issues can resonate positively with consumers, while Patagonia’s commitment to environmental causes strengthens its brand loyalty. Companies that adopt and communicate a clear purpose can attract and retain customers effectively.

Why Purpose-Driven Public Relations Have an Edge 

It’s easy to see why some companies are skeptical of shifting to a “purpose-driven” business model. Doing so requires companies to take a position on important, potentially controversial issues like environmental protection, workers’ rights, racial and gender discrimination, income inequality, that have social impact.

Is Taking a Stand the New Social Media in Public Relations?

Taking a stand can generate a swift backlash from the community and consumers. For an example, look no further than the reaction from many fans of the National Football League when several players, most notably San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, knelt during the national anthem as a protest against police violence.

The NFL is one of the few monolithic institutions left in American life, and the response from its fans would seem to discourage other brands from getting involved in political and social issues. Even President Donald Trump got involved by putting pressure on team owners and league officials. And yet, the NFL’s handling of its players’ police violence protests offers an instructive example of why brands should lean into social causes instead of avoiding them.

After all, what was the ultimate outcome for Kaepernick? The NFL caved on player protests and is allowing social justice messages in the end zones this year. Kaepernick partnered with Nike on their “Dream Crazy” ad, which helped spread his message to a much wider audience. Though the ad was criticized in some quarters, most people responded positively to it. Younger audiences, one of Nike’s key demographics, responded especially well.

Making that ad was a risk for Nike, but it’s a risk that clearly paid off. By being aware of social trends — particularly among some of its core customers — and partnering with someone who had legitimate social justice credentials, Nike scored a public relations coup and rode the wave to increased sales.

Jumping into the realm of social activism is new for Nike, but other brands have engaged in social, political, and environmental causes for many years now. The clothing company Patagonia, for instance, supports many social causes, especially groups focused on the protection and preservation of public lands in the United States. They’ve also imposed a “1% for the Planet” tax on themselves, in which they spend 1 percent of their sales (not just their profits) on environmental activism while encouraging other companies to do the same.

Another brand that’s making headway in terms of changing the way business is done is King Arthur Baking Company. Unlike many larger bakeries, King Arthur is a private company that is owned by its employees and is a benefit corporation. This means that having a positive impact on the world is built into the company’s corporate structure. In an article for the New York Times, Ralph Carlton, one of King Arthur’s chief executives, said “Being accountable to our employee-owners means we have to take them into account. We don’t believe in growth for growth’s sake.” The company’s message is clearly resonating with consumers; according to the Times article, King Arthur’s sales tripled this past spring when many people went into quarantine and started baking their own bread and other goods.

Is a Purpose Driven Public Relations Strategy for Everyone?

These examples and additional research illustrate the gains to be had for brands that embrace social causes. For instance, the research firm Accenture found in 2018 that 63 percent of consumers prefer to support brands that share their values and beliefs. In that same study, Accenture also found that 62 percent of consumers want brands to take a position on social and political causes, and 65 of consumers said their buying decisions are influenced by the values, actions, and words of a company’s leaders.

As we saw with Nike, these trends are even more pronounced among younger audiences and consumers. Other researchers have found that 54 percent of teens age 16-19 boycotted or bought from a brand because of its ethics. Furthermore, 63 percent of teens say they are more likely to buy from brands that back charities or other causes they believe in.

These figures provide more evidence that consumers are eager to buy from brands they perceive as having strong morals and values. However, brand trust is a precious commodity that companies should not take for granted. About 37 percent of teens surveyed in the study mentioned above said they didn’t trust the claims brands make about the causes they support, and 69 percent of teens in the survey said brands overstate how much they support the causes they supposedly champion.

That last point is critical. It’s not enough for companies to say they want to make the world a better place, they have to back it up with their actions and policies. If you tell consumers you’re moving to a purpose-driven business philosophy, you need to give them proof.

Once again, we can look at Nike for an example of this theory in action. Regardless of other criticisms the company has faced in the past, making Kaepernick the centerpiece of a campaign took courage, as he was a pariah in many circles and hadn’t been a star player for several years. But because Kaepernick had sacrificed his career and his reputation for his beliefs, Nike benefitted from his social justice bona rides.

As more consumers push for brands to become more socially and politically engaged, companies that have already adopted a purpose-driven approach or are willing to make a good-faith effort have a tremendous advantage in the marketplace. If you can show consumers that your brand shares their values, they’ll flock to your business.

How to Celebrate a Purpose-Driven Public Relations

 

Of course, getting your message in front of consumers is easier said than done. You need a public relations firm that understands the challenges purpose-driven brands face and the benefits they can provide consumers. Fortunately, PR for purpose-driven brands is what we do at Avaans Media, and we can help show the world what makes your company special.

It’s important not to be too bold or too generic when it comes to PR for purpose-driven brands. You need to be specific about what you’re doing and how it’s generating the kind of positive change you’re striving for. We’ll create a campaign that’s tailored to your company’s specific strengths and goals, and we’ll show consumers that you’re serious about achieving those goals.

This kind of campaign is something we already have experience doing. One of our biggest successes came from helping a nonprofit create content to help parents who were non-native English speakers improve their children’s early education outcomes. We listened to what they wanted to achieve and created streamlined, easy-to-understand social media content for parents to share with each other and their children. Furthermore, we helped the nonprofit lobby the state legislature to fund early education programs for pre-kindergarten students.

Our campaign was a tremendous success, generating over 401,000 impressions over six months among our target audience, with an engagement rate of over 50 percent. The state legislature also saw the extensive community support for the program and funded more early education programs, providing an even greater benefit to the community.

Our organization has the tools and talent to bring this kind of success to your purpose-driven brand. To learn more, visit our contact page to schedule a call with one of our offices. You can also find us locally in New York, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Phoenix, Denver, and San Diego.

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5 PR Trends CMOs Need to Watch in 2022

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Key Takeaways

  • Techlash and Consumer Engagement: The ongoing distrust in social media requires brands to rethink their online strategies. Engaging consumers through customer service on social media and focusing on smaller, targeted platforms is crucial for maintaining loyalty and satisfaction.
  • Purpose-Driven Marketing: Brands that align with consumer values and take a stand on social issues are seeing increased loyalty, especially among Millennials and Gen Z. Emphasizing self-care, sustainability, and local support is key for attracting these demographics in the current landscape.
  • Cross-Department Collaboration: Breaking down silos between PR, marketing, and branding is essential for creating cohesive and effective campaigns. A unified approach will enhance brand loyalty and ensure consistent messaging across all platforms and initiatives.

5 PR Trends CMOs Need to Watch for 2022

[6 minute reading time]
There’s no shortage of uncertainty in marketing and PR planning for 2021. But there are some trends happening that are sure to impact PR and Marketing in 2021. At Avaans PR, CMO’s love us because we know consumer trends impact where our target audience will be, the frame of mind they’ll be in and what journalists will write about.  On a tactical level, trends impact our content creation, journalist relationships, and campaign recommendations we’re making now and in the next year. We’re ready for 2021 to require agility, but we’ve found that even agility requires forward-looking and yes, some planning. These are 5 of the marketing and PR trends for 2021 we’re watching on behalf of our consumer-forward brands.

PR Trend #1: Techlash Continues

From a PR trend perspective, this has a tremendous impact. Now is the time to reimagine how you’ll use social and digital media in 2022, from both a marketing and PR perspective.

The sting of social media won’t soon to be forgotten by consumers, regardless of political affiliation. During 2020, in particular, during the pandemic, social media took on outsized importance, but also affected consumers in new ways, and not all of them positive.

Yes, consumers continue to spend time and even buy on social media, but they are spending more and more time in micro-groups of their own on platforms like Slack or Messenger, or in like-minded platforms. This means brands will have to be extremely smart about their placements and presence in 2021. The separation also requires brands to be exceptionally clear about who their customers really are.

Further, the coveted 25-55 college-educated, earning $100,000 or more per year are using social media for customer service. This coveted group will not support companies who don’t support customer care. If 2020 was the year of pandemic-related customer acquisition for your brand, 2021 will most definitely need to be about keeping them happy and engaged. Part of that will most definitely be a branding effort to existing customers, ensuring your values align with theirs (more on purpose-driven initiatives below).

But it’s not just customer service affecting social media in 2021.  e-Marketer reported:

We have increased our forecast on mobile messaging and now believe time spent by US adults will grow by 4 minutes in 2020, to 24 minutes per day, not only due to the pandemic but also data showing strong engagement on messaging services like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Apple iMessage.

 

PR Trend #2: Work With Media in New Ways

Whether it’s TV, programmatic, or print, all media outlets are bracing for reduced advertising revenue in 2021. This will have very real implications for public relations initiatives.

First, according to Edelman, trust in media actually increased in 2020. This means you should absolutely be leveraging the trust of other outlets, particularly in lieu of the distrust around social media. However, you should do so with earned media and branded content.

Expect to see more “branded content,” in 2021. Well done branded content can be very effective in both PR and branding, so consider these options carefully. Branded content is better received than traditional ads, in fact, Second Street Lab reported in June that branded content through premium publishers sees a 50% brand lift.

Further, outlets will need to keep eyeballs on their content, to help drive ad revenue, brands with media relations campaigns should be looking at ways to support outlets who support them. At Avaans PR we are actively doing this for our clients already and seeing great brand lift and also enhanced journalist relations.

 

PR Trend #3: Purpose-Driven Buyers

Trusted brands saw huge increases during the pandemic, up to 50% growth, according to McKinsey. This is due to an unprecedented shift in brand loyalty during the pandemic.

Even pre-pandemic, affinity for brands who take a stand and align with consumer’s values were seeing real ROI on purpose-driven initiatives. As Americans slog through the pandemic, they are consistently re-evaluating priorities, this is especially true for Millenials and GenZ.

PR trends for 2021, include self-love and body positivity will be a purpose for many buyers, especially those who emerge from isolation hibernation with a few extra pounds. GenZ is feeling stressed. While some are still below the age of 18, they remember the great recession. Right now, self-care and home comfort are top of their list. Pre-pandemic, GenZ was actually returning to malls, but the pandemic has left this generation feeling a bit powerless and reconsidering purchasing behavior, at least for now. But 51% of GenZ’ers say they will return to in-store shopping. But when GenZ returns to stores, according to Retail Dive, they’ll do so with the expectation of safety and a frictionless environment that mirrors the ease of online shopping.   GenZ is also moving towards “thoughtful consumption,” especially those brands with responsible sourcing, environmentally friendly policies or support social issues. Local businesses and minority-owned businesses are also on their radar in a whole new way.

As for Millenials, the eldest of whom are in their 40’s already, are leading the way, followed by the often forgotten GenX, to continue online shopping across almost all verticals from essentials to alcohol, according to McKinsey.

Plus, record low-interest rates have created a whole host of new home buyers. In September 2020, 60% of U.S. homebuyers were Millenials, they’re likely to spend an increasing amount of time at home, items that allow them to spend more quality time with friends and family will be attractive, so delivery and home-based products will take a new focus for that generation.

PR Trend #5: The New Corporation

The media loves cultural changes and the radical changes to corporate America as a result of the COVID pandemic are monumental. From new work structures resulting from work from home to updated DEI hiring practices, diverse executives, and the great resignation, the media is covering companies through a very different lens today.

Technology is a considerable sub-topic here. If your brand is using technology or inventing technology to address these radical changes, there are considerable thought leadership opportunities for you.

From a spokesperson perspective, the media is also being more proactive about gathering a multitude of diverse perspectives on almost any topic. If you’re hiring corporate spokespersons or brand representatives, be clear on your objectives, and your audience. Not all spokespersons are useful in PR, and that doesn’t mean they aren’t perfectly good spokespersons for things like ads or social media, but they might not get a lot of lift in PR.

Trust is no longer a trend – it’s an imperative. From a public relations standpoint, you’ll want to be thinking about how your brand will differentiate itself in the media and marketing activities. With trust and security taking new precedence, brands will need to think about how they will reinforce those messages in a brand-consistent way.  Now is the time to explore partnerships and the potential activations, which will create the memorable moments consumers are craving.

From tourism to retail to direct-to-consumer products, brands will need to be thinking about how they will be relevant at the right moment.

From content to media relations to events, now is the time to plan, but bake in flexibility. For example, secure your video producers now, and create three original scripts, secure the time and the talent now, so you can move faster than everyone else when the moment is right.

PR Trend #5: Cross Collaboration

This is the year where everything needs alignment. If you haven’t already, tear down the silos between PR, Marketing, and Branding. Get those people together now so they can be more effective together in 2022. Think about how each department can align on digital and in-person initiatives. Think about initiatives that are word-of-mouth worthy, there will be plenty of industry and even national coverage for brands that are thoughtful about how they align.

A unified, personal experience will be an expectation in 2021. So ensure your messaging, your purpose, and your plans are operating together, not just in tandem, but together.

Use your owned, earned, and paid media together in new ways and your brand can benefit from the realignment of brand loyalty happening right now.

 

If you’re ready to use these and other marketing & PR trends for 2021 in a more customized way, let’s talk. 

This article has been updated

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Social Advertising for Travel, Tourism, and Lifestyle Brands

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Key Takeaways

  • Understanding Spending and Lifetime Value: Establish a clear understanding of your customers’ Lifetime Value (LTV) to determine your social advertising budget. A good rule of thumb is to maintain a 3:1 ratio of LTV to customer acquisition costs over a year, adjusting as necessary for luxury or boutique brands.
  • Targeting Your Audience: Utilize advanced targeting techniques in social advertising, leveraging digital data to create effective audiences. Ensure that your audience matches the customer journey and avoid sending cold audiences directly to sales pages, as building familiarity is crucial for conversion.
  • Strategic Ad Placement and Content Utilization: Choose ad placements that align with your objectives, recognizing that there are no bad placements, only misaligned strategies. Additionally, integrate your social media efforts with user-generated content and PR to enhance organic reach, as traditional organic visibility has diminished due to platform algorithms.

Social advertising is here to stay, but with all the options available many brands don’t feel comfortable with the many options, formats, and platforms available. For travel, tourism and lifestyle brands, social advertising is the pre-eminent form of advertising because it so brilliantly works with your customer funnel, your PR and your branding.

If this sounds like you, please keep reading. If you’re feeling 100% in control of such questions such as how much you should spend, how exactly to target your audience and what format makes the most sense for you then I’ll save you some time, you don’t need this blog post.

How much should I spend on social advertising?

Without a doubt, this is the most common question we encounter.

Every business starts with answering this question with a clear understanding of the Lifetime Value (LTV) of customers. A good rule of thumb is your ad buy should be a 3:1  LTV: Cost to Aquire over a 12 month period. For luxury brands or boutique brands that ratio may vary, slightly, but that’s a good rule of thumb.

The next question is “what will I get for this spend?” Again, an absolutely fair question and we have a process for determining this and ways to maximize your spend.

In social advertising, especially Facebook advertising, it’s exceptionally important that you’re clear on your objectives.  Is your objective awareness of recent PR?  Perhaps you’re announcing a new luxury service and want to increase reservations. We can help you identify the most effective objectives for your budget and optimize your ad spend. It’s also very important that your social ads match the customer journey, that’s one of the advantages of social advertising.

How to target your social advertising audience?

All digital advertising includes remarketing tactics, but social advertising also includes very sophisticated other ways to target and this data gets incredibly insightful when using Google Analytics to identify existing web traffic. That’s one small tactic that saves time.

Using all the existing digital data at our disposal is important. Social advertising audiences can even target competitors’ potential customers. There’s an endless number of ways to target audiences, and this is the rub, because frankly, from junk audiences come junk results. Your audiences should also match the ad’s destination for customer phase. For example, there’s no use sending a cold audience direct to a sell page, people unfamiliar with your brand will rarely purchase immediately. Spending time allowing your audiences to get to know you and your place in their lives will save you thousands in acquisition costs, but selecting the right audience for this message is paramount and then how to follow up those ads as the customer moves through the funnel is equally important.

Where should you place your ads?

Even once you narrow it down to a platform or two, in the case of Facebook, there is an overwhelming number of ad placement choices. Understanding the pros and cons of each is important, but even more important is understanding how each of those placements matches your objectives. There are no inherently bad ad placements, only bad ad strategies.

What do I do with all this brand content?

It wasn’t too long ago that obtaining organic reach on social media wasn’t that difficult. Today, the algorithms of (at least two) social media platforms throttle organic reach. Much has been written about that, but the real issue is what to do with your social posts? Are Page Like ads useful? When do I boost a post? Can Instagram drive traffic to my website? All these questions are absolutely relevant and your answer will be based on your strategies and KPIs. There are times where we make recommendations about KPIs that are more current to today’s ad choices and social media atmosphere, then there are times where we can help you match your existing KPIs to perfectly great ad strategies. Don’t forget that there are ways to supercharge your organic content by including user-generated content and well-earned PR. Today it’s more important than ever to integrate all your efforts into your social advertising spend.

Besides social media advertising, what are my options?

Look, with very few exceptions, social media advertising is part of a modern, healthy advertising strategy. Are there other organic options? Absolutely, and they’re probably important to evaluate as part of your marketing strategy. Creating branded content, on your platforms and on existing social media platforms, isn’t “out,” it’s simply changed.

If you’re interested in an evaluation of your expected social media advertising results, email us for a free social media audit. 

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