Dear Socially Stephanie:
I'm the inventor of an amazingly awesome kitchen tool that's a perfect gift for the holidays. I'm already running some commercials and infomercials and getting a lot of traction. I have a nice healthy budget for advertising online, but I have no idea where to start. Any advice on how to get the most bang for my buck?
Decking the Halls in Halifax
Dear Decking the Halls,
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we have no time to waste. Advertising and social media go hand-in-hand for the holidays. More than half of holiday shoppers admitted that advertising impacted their decision-making processes, and social media plays a huge role in purchasing influence as well. So obviously social advertising is going to be a home run for you.
For your type of business, I'd focus on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. They all have their own unique features and benefits that are can work to your advantage. And when your cash register is ringing I'm sure you'll be in quite the merry mood.
First let's talk about Facebook. You know by now that Facebook organic reach is way low. Even with millions of fans, you can't rely on organic posts alone. Luckily for you, you have a budget to work with, and on Facebook that comes in handy. There are two different types of advertising I'd like you to experiment with: remarketing and retargeting.
The first is remarketing. A company is remarketing when you visit their website, and then all of a sudden everywhere you go on the Internet, you see an ad from that company. It's clever and it works well to keep people engaged with you, and more importantly, on their radar. Because most people window shop before they purchase, it is likely that during the holiday shopping season, more people will visit your website than other times of the year. With the right ad pixel in place, Facebook will reserve those visitors with a beautiful ad, and send them straight to your website.
Once they are there, you will want to allow them to sign up for your newsletter - so make sure you've got a pop-up ready. This way you are hedging your bets that you'll get in front of them again. And online, this is crucial. Not only can you get in front of them via email marketing, which is extremely intimate and powerful for moving sales, you can also use their emails to market to them - and people like them - through Facebook's "lookalike audience" feature.
All right: Facebook, check. Let's move onto Twitter. Twitter is becoming increasingly popular for advertising because of its highly targeted nature. Plus, they are adding a "Shop Now" button to promoted tweets. I like this because it adds a specific call-to-action that Twitter was lacking before.
Holiday shoppers respond really well to deals like discounts and free shipping. You can play into this mind-set and offer a discount to potential shoppers. But in order to get the discount or offer, they have to sign up to your newsletter. You can do this by advertising with Twitter Lead Cards. As you know, I'm all about the newsletter marketing. By using social media and social advertising to build that list, you'll have a lot better sales than if you just relied on one metric.
Lastly, there's YouTube. Because a really awesome kitchen tool deserves to be seen in action, YouTube is a perfect medium for you to explore. Again, you can be highly targeted and serve your ads to a specific audience based on gender, age, interests and location. Video is tricky because you have to capture the viewers immediately to tell your story, or else they will move on. But considering you've done infomercials, I'm sure you have a good handle on video marketing.
Remember, advertising is all about testing and trying new things, and seeing what works best. Once you do, run with it. Happy holidays and good luck!
Socially,
Stephanie
Do you have a question for Socially Stephanie?
Please email [email protected] and let Stephanie help you solve your social quandaries, queries, and boondoggles. (Questions may be edited for length and clarity.)