Now that Black Friday is behind us, retailers are in full-blown holiday marketing execution mode. I’m sure as you’re reading this, your inbox is being flooded with promotional emails, and your screen filled with display ads highlighting holiday specials from your favorite brands.
While marketers have already put their holiday campaigns in motion, it’s critical that they take the time between now and New Year’s to focus on augmenting and amplifying campaigns based on initial customer reaction.
This opportunity is particularly relevant for marketing efforts around enticing customers to advocate for a brand on social media, and drive action among their followers. Many brands have already built systems to identify and analyze which of their customers are the most influential, and monitor what these influential customers are saying about the brand. But when it comes to taking the next step of encouraging customers to advocate for their brand, even the best laid plans can be fine-tuned.
With that, here are five tips for how you can turn more of your customers into brand advocates this holiday season:
1. Tailor your content for each social channel One of the most common types of advocacy activities focuses on empowering a community of customers to amplify a brand’s social media post, in exchange for some type of reward. As you look at the content you’re asking your customers to share, take the time to optimize your copy for each social channel.
For instance, the use of hashtags is incredibly important for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. When running advocacy campaigns on these channels, make sure you’re using hashtags that are unique, memorable and compliant. In contrast, hashtags may not be as necessary for your Pinterest posts. To optimize Pin discovery, you’ll have to focus more on high quality images, keyword optimization, compelling descriptions of approximately 200 characters and a clear call-to-action.
2. Engage your customers with relevant and timely content One of the most challenging aspects of advocacy campaigns is that, occasionally, the product, service or brand message you’re trying to get your customers to share with their friends and family is not resonating. If this is happening to you, consider taking a step back and looking at what your customers are already talking about on social, and see if there are creative ways to align your campaign more closely with their interests.
For instance, if your company sells winter jackets, and you see in mid-November that shoppers are talking about their excitement around the early start of this year’s ski season, consider using their interest as an opportunity to remind them about your company’s incredible apparel.
Just as important as sharing relevant content is making sure you’re doing it in a timely manner. This December, monitor for important social conversations related to your brand, and look for moments when you can engage in ways that encourage customer advocacy. For instance, if you see customers complaining on Twitter about the long line at your store on a busy holiday shopping weekend, you could jump into the conversation and offer them a coupon to thank them for their patience.
3. Check that the size of your “ask” matches the value of your reward offer Asking your customers to create and share a status on Facebook is a sizably bigger “ask” than to comment on a post or share a pre-populated Tweet on their Twitter account.
You’ll likely drive more activity if you attach the big asks with corresponding rewards. For example, asking someone to create and share a Facebook post could be tied to an instant win, while asking them to publish a Tweet might be tied to a coupon offer.
For non-incentivized content, it’s imperative to align your ask in the context of your overall customer journey – such as a within a “thank you” email post purchase or a re-engagement notification in-app.
4. Review your contingency plan for engaging customers Many companies have a plan for launching customer advocacy campaigns, but fewer think beforehand about what to do if these campaigns aren’t going as planned.
Make sure to set aside some time to evaluate your metrics frequently, and have ideas prepared (and, if possible, a modest budget set aside) for re-energizing the advocacy campaign in the event that you’re not getting the desired traction.
Let’s say you’re running a contest on Facebook that asks your customers to post in exchange to enter a sweepstakes with a grand prize. Even if you think the product is something that a wide audience would want, have some ideas in your back pocket for how you can get more people to participate. This could be anything from adding prizes for second or third place, to sending out emails to your existing customer base about the contest, or highlighting the sweepstakes more prominently on your website.
5. Set goals, even if it’s your first year running a customer advocacy campaign We saved the best for last. If this is one of your first years running a formal campaign to encourage customers to talk about your brand around the holiday season, you might be tempted to avoid putting in place metrics, writing your advocacy marketing efforts off as a “test.”
I’d encourage you to set goals for your campaign that go beyond just tracking the results. Goals give you something to strive for, and help you think more critically about what you need to adjust if your expectations aren’t aligning with the results.
Ultimately, success will be determined by your customers’ ability to drive your desired brand action. This is most commonly measured across four key metrics: awareness (impressions, views, earned media value), engagement (likes, comments, shares, or clicks), audience growth (new fans, followers, subscribers), and conversions (downloads, installs or purchases). Decide what metrics matter most for your company, and set goals for each category.
Liz Gottbrecht is director of marketing at Mavrck.
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