Tag Archive for: social media advertising

Social Advertising for Travel, Tourism, and Lifestyle Brands

, , ,

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. 

by

5 Emotions For Your Marketing & When To Use Them

, , , , , , , , ,

Imagine your advertising and marketing becoming 2X more effective overnight. Using emotions in marketing and branding is the key to more effective campaigns

According to Roger Dooley, emotional ads work TWICE as well as rational ads. So it’s important your campaign incorporates emotion from the start. You can deploy these emotions through copy and creative in all formats, analog and digital.

Before you create your next campaign, check in with these powerful emotions in marketing and branding.  Be sure you’ve considered your strategy, both long and short term before deciding which emotion works best in your marketing.

Fear
Fear comes in many forms, and it creates a sense of urgency.

Fear also heightens any other emotion created alongside it and it drives us to make deeper connections with those we share the fear with-this is why scary movies create deepen relationships. 

There are several different kinds of fear, but two common types include:
“Fear Of Missing Out” (FOMO): This particular fear tends to work well on younger people in social media. This works particularly well for items with time sensitivity.
“Fear of Isolation”: closely connected to FOMO, fear of isolation, used in connection with health products, deodorant for example: “use this so you don’t smell, because when you smell, you become a social pariah.”

When to Use Fear in Emotional Marketing/Branding:

  • To drive leads
  • You have a specific and actionable solution
  • You have an easy, no stress way to buy

Happiness/Joy
What happens when we feel happy? You might be surprised.

It’s a fine line because if we’re too happy, we might not be motivated to purchase. But happiness DOES make us want to share. It seems good news travels fast. According to a study by Fractl these are the Top 5 emotions which drive viral content:

  • Amusement
  • Interest
  • Surprise
  • Happiness
  • Delight

When to Use Happiness in

in Emotional Marketing/Branding:

  • You want others to share your message
  • You want to build trust and loyalty
  • You can commit to happy content as a brand

Inclusion

One of our oldest motivations is the need to be part of a tribe, included in a group. For our earliest ancestors, it was a requirement for survival, today, that need is still a powerful motivator and when we have it, we feel safe which leads to loyalty.

When to Use Inclusion in

in Emotional Marketing/Branding

  • To attract or retain customers
  • When you can also utilize the fear of missing out
  • When you have the processes and platforms to create and sustain community

Anticipation

We’re hardwired to anticipate outcomes. We’re not always right, but we are always anticipating. You can use anticipation in a couple of different ways, to attract and retain customers.

Attracting customers with anticipation typically comes with a stimuli and an outcome. The faster the outcome, the more likely we are to repeat the stimuli. Once we’re hooked on the stimuli, the outcome frequency can become variable (you might have learned about Pavlov’s dog, this is the same theory). Gamification uses anticipation brilliantly.

Keeping customers with anticipation requires a product commitment (free sample with every order) or an anticipation experience connected to the product (why subscription boxes are so popular). You can create variables in the anticipation (products, frequency) that will actually heighten the anticipation.

Something else about anticipation: it DECREASES when we’re stressed and change can be stressful. This is why consistency in branding is so very important and why big changes for big brands are big-time risks. Can you think of a brand whose big change created major negative upheaval for them?

When to Use Anticipation in

in Emotional Marketing/Branding:

  • You have the willingness to keep the anticipation fresh
  • You want to build loyalty and repeat buyers
  • Your brand is elevated and/or lifestyle oriented

Expertise/Leadership

Making your customer feel like they’re the smartest/sexiest/most influential is a great way to get people’s attention. People love to be the most “something” of their friends and people will work to achieve this effect.

This marketing emotion is closely connected with our need for mastery and our innate value of time. Because of these two addition motivations, the harder you make it the more committed they will become to the process. It’s all about our emotional triggers again, we’re hardwired to commit more time to something we’ve already committed time to – this is the same theory behind the test drive and keeping you at the dealership during a car purchase.

Again, games do this quite well. Successful fitness trainers do this quite well.

When to Use Expertise and Leadership in your Marketing/Branding

  • When you have a unique process people can move through and see improvement
  • As a relationship builder, such as influencer marketing or tips and tricks your customers can use

Good luck and I look forward to hearing how you’re using emotion in your marketing and branding.

by

Social Media Branding: Stand By Your Brand

, ,

When To Stand Up for Your Brand in Social Media

This week, with the Dave and Busters “Juan” tweet yet another social media gaffe made its what into the collective conversation.
It sparked furious cries of racism.
It sparked snickers.
It sparked the “holier than thou” media to earn mega points for traffic.

Imagine for a moment, the alternative tweet: “I hate tacos” said no one ever. #tacotuesday.

Imagine what THAT would have caused: crickets.

Which of those  two messages was more brand consistent, more interesting, more compelling and took more courage?

Branding is like getting a tattoo: it takes guts and commitment.

Tweet: Branding is like getting a tattoo: it takes guts and commitment.

This is why brands and businesses must be crystal clear on who they are, what they stand for, and who their target customer is. I’m not suggesting that every brand and business rush to the edge of every cultural controversy and insensitivity in order to create some reaction to their message. But in order to make it interesting, they HAVE to know where the line is on risk-taking. Brands and businesses have to accept that people who AREN’T their customers aren’t going to “get” it and they have to stand with their customers who DO.  If you insist on a completely bland copy, messaging, and creative, you will get some bland results.

Tweet: If you insist on a completely bland copy, messaging and creativity, you will get some bland results.

Tweet: Brands and businesses have to stand with their customers who DO “get it”.

I’m actually disappointed Dave and Busters didn’t fire back to the haters with another pun. Dave and Busters is a GAMING VENUE for grown-ups. It isn’t a financial company; it isn’t a children’s nonprofit; it isn’t a government agency; it isn’t a church. It’s supposed to be FUN. Taco Tuesdays are supposed to be FUN. I don’t know about you – but I could use a little fun in my tweet stream.

So here’s where we’re at with a collective lack of spine in the social, marketing, and advertising world: be creative, be dynamic, create conversation and excitement, but DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TAKE RISKS. Does the marketing and advertising world really want to be known as the analysis paralysis industry, whose signature color is beige?

Tweet: Does the marketing and advertising world really want to be known as the analysis paralysis industry whose signature color is beige?

Yes, let’s think through things. Yes, let’s consider the context. But let’s stop freaking out the minute someone with 2,000 followers takes issue with an edgy statement. Let’s understand our brands, their purpose, their customers, and values, and let’s stand by those values even when everyone else doesn’t get it. It’s OK. If your brand is truly defined, not everyone will.

Yes, the pain of nasty-gram tweets and email is piercing. They don’t last forever. In fact, in most cases, those same people are off on an entirely different tangent tomorrow. Being a wishy-washy brand isn’t good for anyone, except dish soap – and those consequences are far longer reaching.

Tweet: Being a wishy washy brand isn’t good for anyone, except dish soap – and those consequences are far longer reaching.
Stand tall. Take smart risks. Stand by your customers. Have some brand confidence. Stand by your brand.

 

This post originally appeared on Akamai Marketing

by

Social Media Marketing or Advertising? What’s Better For Your Budget?

, , ,

Bet your starting to think about next year’s social media marketing plan. And as importantly, where will social media marketing fall into the mix? Will there be more? Less? The latest Advertising Trust report from Neilsen may offer some insights to help you in your planning process.

One of the strongest reasons to increase your social media is the the number one source of consumer trust and action is “Recommendations from people I know”.  Trust and action are often hand in hand, and we can’t discount the value of trust, but its also hard to measure. However, what creates trust and what creates action can be different. For example, consumers report that humorous ads resonate most with them. We know that humor is a powerful tool, especially in social media. It might be more powerful than cats, dare I say (GASP). However, humor is rarely what makes people take ACTION.

The action taking piece is the one I’m always most interested in looking at more closely. And its really no surprise that word of mouth leads the pack. Ads on social networks have a lower trust score than they do action score. That’s actually true for several advertising types. With respect to social media, there are two key take aways:
1)  Use social to build trust and be very aware of what motivations exist for taking action.
2) The power of your tribe: when they share what you’ve got, its a more credible source. So be very aware of what and why people share on social. Tribes deeply impact our actions.

Now, the challenge with a report like this is that these results are all self-reported. The challenge with self-reporting is that people don’t always really know why they do what they do. I know, YOU always know why you do what you do. Or do you? Your motivations may not always be clear even to you. That’s why I started Captivation Motivation Training. 

Just remember, what type of message you use impacts trust and action. Decide what you’re trying to establish in every single post. Be purposeful in your social media practice and you’ll find that you can actually be more human.

 

 

 

PS: If you’d like to download the Neilsen Report for yourself: click here

This post originally appeared on Akamai Marketing

by