Case Studies: How Top Brands Nailed their Christmas Campaigns
Christmas is just around the corner and as we near the end of the year, we think it’s a good time to reflect back on past Christmas campaigns and do a deep dive into WHY they nailed it.
Christmas is a time full of nostalgia, childhood memories, warmth, gift-giving, and a reflective period of the year just gone.
We’ve all seen campaigns that have gone above and beyond but sometimes it’s the simplest campaigns that pull on our heart strings.
Ever wondered about the psychology behind Christmas Ads? We’ll dive into what tactics brands use to draw you in emotionally and break down the top three Christmas campaigns in our opinion as well as the controversy around Cola-Cola’s latest Christmas Ad using AI.
The Psychology behind Christmas Ads
Retailers save up their budget all year to go all in on their Christmas campaigns and they have good reason to do as the market is extremely competitive.
Ads are emotionally and tug on your heartstrings to make us emotionally connected in a feel-good way with the brand – fostering brand loyalty and driving sales.
But what draws us in?
We’re emotional creatures, we want to belong and crave connection even more so since the pandemic.
Every advert you watch, it’s normally followed with a dynamic relationship such as grandparents, families, and children along with a storytelling element. It takes us on a journey and the magic that follows on Christmas Day.
When you can see yourself in a story, you feel more emotionally connected to it and build an association with the brand.
Branding of Christmas
Christmas is a jolly season and there are many brands we can think of off the top of our heads that we associate with Christmas.
Cola-Cola being the top (however, who knows for how long after the stint they pulled this year), with John Lewis coming second.
If we break down what a brand means, it’s a “concept” broken down into a collection of associations that we organize in our brain to make sense of information.
When you’re exposed enough times to something, we start to begin to understand a “concept”.
In an article on Psychology Today, they use the example of learning the concept of a dog. We weren’t explicitly told what the exact features of a dog were when we were younger but we grew up seeing them in movies, books, and in real life.
When we think of a dog, a big dog like a labrador might be easier for us to use as a “prototype” of dogs compared to a small chihuahua.
Brands utilize Christmas as their broader prototype and build their whole strategy around it.
The packaging, commercials, and the iconic tune of Cola-Cola, no wonder we associate Christmas with the famous coke bottles dressed as Santa.
John Lewis on the other hand is tied to family, traditions, and wholesomeness which ties into the broader concept of Christmas.
Brands that play the long-game throughout the year increase their sales massively when the time arrives.
Boots: ‘The Christmas Makeover’ by VML
Boots’ Christmas campaign has caused quite a stir among viewers, causing many people commenting it’s too “woke” and complaining that they won’t buy from boots anymore.
It released its 2024 festive marketing campaign, “The Christmas Makeover”, unleashing the magic of beauty with actor and Bridgerton star, Adjoa Andoh as Mrs. Claus in a wonderland of Boots beauty.
Its campaign brings us on the story of Adjoa as she leads her squad of beauty elves in “Mrs Claus Werkshop” on packing presents for beauty enthusiasts.
With a swipe of the famous No7 lipstick, which is iconic to Boots, and a swift outfit change, Mrs Claus takes charge of helping the elves pack up presents for the big day.
We catch glimpses of the viral brands that are showcased such as Elf, Bubble, Sol de Janerio, and Lanegie.
Along with the amazing Adjoa Andoh, this short film also features two renowned beauty social media influencers who work with Boots on an ongoing basis, helping Mrs. Claus tests out the products before they get sent on their way.
If we compare other campaigns where Mr. Claus is normally at the forefront of the tale, this twist on Mrs. Claus taking control is a reality many mothers experience leading up to the big day, ensuring everything goes smoothly.
The witty ending of Adjoa as Mrs. Claus saying “You thought it was all him?”” and a playful wink puts a different spin on the normal tale of Mr. Claus and his elves.
This campaign empowers women and shines light on the hard work that goes on behind the scenes.
Women tend to do twice as many festive chores compared to men and are always thinking of the smaller details that go into the festive day.
Boots target audience is between the ages 22 to 55 years old, covering Gen Z and Millennials which care about authenticity, transparency, and most importantly, self-expression.
In a report titled “The Future of Consumer Behavior in the Age of Gen Z,” Mintel, a market intelligence agency, reports that 54% of Gen Z adults trust online beauty influencers and makeup artists.
Since the rise of UGC and influencers, Gen Z is more likely to buy from content creators who they trust which brands will need to implement into their strategy for 2025.
Although this campaign rustled some feathers, it hit the mark and spoke directly to their target audience who favor self-expression, inclusivity, and diversity.
Sainsbury’s: ‘Sainsbury’s Big Christmas’ by New Commercial Arts
In Sainsbury’s 2024 Christmas campaign, the retail giant masterfully tapped into our collective nostalgia by reimagining Roald Dahl’s beloved classic, “The BFG” (Big Friendly Giant).
This choice not only entertains, it weaves in a narrative that resonates deeply with the audience.
The campaign’s parallel between the BFG’s journey across the UK sourcing the finest ingredients and our own familiar Christmas traditions.
Just as families head out on a quest to gather the perfect ingredients for the big day, the BFG’s adventure mirrors this relatable holiday ritual.
It’s a shared experience of Christmas preparations that brings households together across the nation.
The juice, “Phizzwizard” serves as a great metaphor for the Christmas magic that happens. This captures that magic that makes ordinary moments into extraordinary memories.
Sainsbury’s has created a campaign that not only captures the imagination but also reflects the true essence of Christmas in 2024.
The Family Portrait by JD Sports
JD Sports has got us in our feels as they redefine family during their Christmas campaign titled “Family”.
JD Sports take on Christmas is different but simple as it showcases different forms of families that make the festive season special across the country.
A change from the usual families around dinner tables and exchanging gifts, it’s more an embracement of spending time with friends.
While Christmas dinner and gift-giving is the conventional acts throughout many campaigns, this campaign focuses on the simple joys in life.
Meeting friends, getting their favourite food from the local kebab shop.
This is a huge sense of community and belonging felt throughout this campaign as it showcases the different realities of communities felt across the country.
Everyone has their own unique experience of Christmas and what it means to them.
JD Sports is celebrating not just family relationships but the connections and friendships you make along the way.
It opens up another insight into the lives of many and how they celebrate the big day.
It honors authenticity and relatability and feels more down-to-earth in comparison to other campaigns.
JD Sports is the leading sports fashion and trainers company in the UK that offers limited edition collections and exclusive designs from the best brands around the world.
The usual dressing up glam for the festive season is toned down with many sporting JD sports casual wear pointing towards a more relaxed feel at Christmas.
Many well-known names such as Central Cee, Maya Jama, and members from the Beta squad can be spotted throughout, showing different traditions and the connections they have.
Aside from well-known names, it’s the cast of real people that show their traditions.
From two friends sharing a sandwich while fishing, the playful fights in the kitchen with your siblings, to the late-night shifts.
There’s a sense of togetherness, belonging, and inclusivity felt through every scene that makes us feel warm inside.
Representation is important to viewers and JD Sports stepped away from the conventional and moved more towards the reality.
Controversy at Christmas
Coca-Cola’s “Holidays Are Coming” 2024
The iconic tune, the red van, the excited faces, and gathering of families as they wait for the Coca-Cola truck to go through their town.
Once their campaign hits the telly, we know it’s officially Christmas, it’s time to get into the full swing of the festive season.
However, this year they used an AI version for their campaign, labelled as “Real Magic AI”, which hasn’t gone down too well with their audience.
Some have labelled it inauthentic and eerie compared to its normal human connection and personal touch advertisements that bring families together.
In comparison to other campaigns where families rush to catch a glimpse at the Coca-Cola truck, this time it felt animated and emotionless as the AI-generated animals and people watched on in anticipation.
Cola-Cola has associated itself with Christmas for many years with different campaigns throughout the year focused on giving and sharing, a feeling felt specifically at Christmas.
Its red and black color makes it easy to associate to the familiar colors Mr. Claus dresses himself in.
The 1995 iconic “Holidays is Coming” that started it all contrasts dramatically with this year’s campaign compared to the usual story of the red truck driving through the snow, lighting up lights on the streets and homes as it passes by, igniting that sense of magic we all feel at Christmas.
The spirit of togetherness is missing here, as we don’t see those heartwarming moments of friends hugging or families coming together that we often expect in holiday ads.
Although there has been some support towards the AD, calling it creative and innovative especially with the advancement of AI this year, others feel it lacks the magic it once had.
Many consumers are still distrustful of AI especially when it comes to data, privacy, and transparency.
While Cola-Cola did disclose it was created with AI, it’s hard to distinguish between what’s human content and AI-Generated as AI gets more advanced.
People buy from people, not AI-Generated figures.
This could have a massive blowback on brands that choose to switch out real people over generated images.
We connect with a brand through an emotional connection seeing real people use their products and services.
It’s why UGC has blown up in the last few years, it’s created by real people who we can relate to.
When people don’t know whether the content they are seeing is real or fake, it creates a sense of distrust.
A study published in the Journal of Hospitality Market and Management, customers are less likely to purchase if a product is labeled as “AI”.
Participants were shown two products with a description with the only difference being one was labeled AI-powered and the other not.
After being asked about their willingness to buy the product, those who saw AI in the product description were less likely to buy.
Consumers are still distrustful of AI and brands need to be aware how it impacts their reputation and the purchasing decisions of their audience.
Is this the start of AI Christmas campaigns for the foreseeable future?
GoViral Conclusion
It will be interesting to see next year whether many follow in Cola-Cola’s footsteps and integrate AI into their campaigns despite the impact it can have on consumers’ purchasing decisions.
Authenticity, community, and belonging are feelings that consumers are valuing more and more each year.
When brands capture these emotions and create a narrative that sparks the magical spirit of Christmas, customers are more likely to purchase and brand sentiment increases.
Not to mention, awareness of your brand can skyrocket and continue past December into the New Year.
If you need help creating an effective campaign, Contact us!
Paid Ads: 7 Key Metrics to Track for a Successful Strategy
Tracking metrics for a successful strategy is just as important as tracking your steps. Tracking our steps and eating healthier to get fit means we are looking after our body. Just like our body, we need to track metrics in our business to make sure it has a healthy input of money and output of quality content. They say success is subjective but if you don’t track any metrics, how do you know if your business is booming? Nobody likes to waste money so in this months blog, we are highlighting the top 7 metrics to track for a successful paid ads strategy. We got you covered!
The Importance of Tracking Metrics
Let’s break down why tracking metrics is important for your business.
Posting content is crucial for your business because it gets your product or service in front of your ideal customer.
Without content, it makes it hard for people to find your business and buy your products or services. But posting a piece of content once a week isn’t enough to understand if the content resonates with your audience.
The amount of content produced across platforms such as TikTok and Instagram can make it feel like you’re posting into the void. We know the feeling, don’t worry.
Understanding your metrics is crucial to understand your customers’ pain points, how they interact with your content, and whether it’s bringing you in sales.
Posting content that goes viral is great but how many times does this type of content convert? Not often.
It gets eyes on your content and your business but the percentage of people who come from a viral video aren’t your ideal customer.
Having a large following is a boost for vanity metrics but that doesn’t pay the bills.
At GoViral, we are proud of our marketing strategies because we combine inbound marketing with targeted PPC campaigns to get the best visibility for our clients.
Adding PPC campaigns into your strategy is a cost effective way to target your ideal audience but in a less spammy way.
The cost? The only time you pay is when someone clicks on your ad.
Integrating these two methods ensures our clients get their content in front of the right people and guide them along the customer journey.
PPC campaigns achieve amazing results for your business but tracking key metrics is vital for ensuring every click is worth the cents.
Setting up a PPC campaign needs to be well thought out and adjusted if you’re not achieving the results you want.
First things first, goal setting. What’s the purpose for the PPC campaign?
Setting Goals for Success
To achieve anything worthwhile in life, you need to set goals so you have something to work towards.
Outlining the process of how you are going to achieve that goal makes the process simpler and smoother to achieve.
If you don’t have an end goal in sight, you are just going through the motions and the end never ends.
Let’s not do that, especially with a PPC campaign.
Whether its new customers, driving traffic or increasing sales, PPC campaigns are the most effective way to get your products or services in front of them.
Start off defining your goal by using the SMART method (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-related) to break it down into simple steps.
For example, if you’re a B2B company and want to generate leads, you can run PPC campaigns to get customers onto your landing page using targeted keywords related to the problems your software solves.
You can then offer a free trial or demo of their product.
Here they can capture emails and create an emailing list for new product releases or events in the future.
You need to A/B test ad variations to see which ad performs best, adjust the bid depending on how well it’s doing and be ready to refine the campaign if it isn’t achieving the results you want.
Everything in marketing is about testing until you find the “stickiness”.
Think of it like shopping for the best outfit.
You spot two dresses that are in the shade blue but one is slightly lighter.
You decide to try them on to see which one suits you better.
In the changing room, you try on each dress and notice the lighter blue makes you look pale, draining you of colour.
The darker blue makes you look more vibrant and bronzed.
You decide to go with the darker blue because it makes you look and feel better.
Like choosing the best outfit that makes you look and feel good, people are more inclined to click on an ad and convert if it makes them feel like you understand their problem and can provide a solution.
If people are clicking into your ad and not converting on your landing page, something is wrong with the copy or your audience targeting isn’t right.
Get clear on WHO you’re speaking to, what you can do for them and target the right audience who are likely to convert.
GoViral’s Success Strategy
At GoViral, we see the importance of PPC campaigns and the amazing results it has achieved for our clients.
Our client, Jabra, attended GITEX Africa last year and needed our help in creating a campaign before, during, and after for GITEX Africa this year.
We discussed their goals for the PPC campaign and what they’d like to achieve.
Last year, their PPC campaign achieved 44 sales qualified leads and 4 marketing qualified leads.
With our expertise and knowledge of getting the best results from PPC campaigns, we exceeded last year’s results, achieving 99 sales qualified leads and 24 marketing qualified leads.
When done right, PPC campaigns are powerful for your overall business objectives.
Let’s dive into the top 7 key metrics we focus on to achieve these results.
The 7 key metrics
1. Impressions
This is how many people have seen your ad while browsing the internet. Impressions give you an indication of whether your keyword targeting is correct, if your bidding is too high or low and if your copy is resonating.
Main reasons for low impressions are incorrect keyword targeting, poor ad copy or boring creatives.
Your bid might be too low for it to compete with other ads that are bidding for the top.
This can be a struggle for smaller businesses but investing in keyword research, targeting the right audience and have copy that speaks directly to the customer can increase your impressions.
2. Clicks or CTR (Click-Through-Rate)
CTR is an important metric to analyze because it helps when optimizing your budget.
Ads with a high CTR cost less per click which reduces spending large amounts of money on PPC campaigns.
A/B testing ad variations and copy can single out cost-effective keywords and highlight what ad is resonating most with your ideal customer.
Once you notice what ad variation is resonating most, the budget can be adjusted accordingly and help push your ad.
To understand how much each click costs, divide the total number of clicks by the total number of impressions and multiply by 100%.
Think of the last time you clicked on an ad.
What was it about the ad that made you click?
3. CPC (Cost-Per-Click)
In an ideal situation, your CTR should be high and your CPC low.
This shows that your ideal customers are resonating with your ad and are clicking through to learn more about your business.
CPC focuses on optimizing your bidding strategy for PPC campaigns where you can identify keywords or ad placements that are driving clicks.
If a specific keyword is gaining more traction, you can adjust your bidding to be higher on that word and lower bids for others.
If you have a high CPC, your ad could be targeting the wrong people.
Make sure your copy and creative is clear about who its targeting or you’ll end up with a hefty bill and no sales.
To find out what your CPC is, divide your total ad spend for a specific day or campaign by the total number of clicks your ad receives during that period.
4. CPA (Cost per Acquisition or Paying Customer)
CPA relates to how much it costs to acquire a paying customer in terms of clicks.
The only metric you want to be high is your click through rate.
If your CPA is high, like CPC, your audience targeting could be incorrect as its shown to those who are unlikely to convert.
Understanding your audience and segmenting them correctly will give you a much higher return on investment and less headaches.
Find out how much it costs to acquire a paying customer by dividing the total ad spend within a specific timeframe by the number of conversions people carried out after your ad or campaign.
5. Conversion Rate
A huge indicator of whether people are carrying out the desired action is your conversion rate.
This looks different for every business. If you have a newsletter, a conversion could be a subscribe, if you have an E-book on the best ways to convert audiences into customers, this could be a download.
It doesn’t necessarily mean a sale.
Low conversion rate means there’s friction somewhere along the customers journey.
Something is making them leave your landing page or worse, not even clicking into your ad.
Understanding how a person interacts with your content will indicate what needs to be improved.
Maybe your call to action isn’t clear or your layout of your website is confusing.
Your website needs to be clear and straightforward so that you’re guiding the customer with ease through the journey.
To understand what your conversion rate is divide the number of conversions by the total number of visitors to your website and multiply by 100.
For example, 1,000 people visit your website a month and 50 people convert – (50 conversions/1000 visitors) x 100% = 5%.
6. ROAS (Return On Ad Spend)
This helps us measure the actual revenue generated for every euro you spend on your advertising campaigns. So think of your CTR, CPC, and CPA.
The ONLY metric we want high is your CTR. If your CPC and CPA are high also, your ROAS is going to be low indicating your campaign isn’t profitable.
The aim of your campaign is to earn more revenue from your ads then the amount you’re investing in them.
If you have a set budget, ROAS is extremely important to ensure you’re making every euro count.
Divide the total revenue generated from the ads by the total ad spend to figure out what the ROAS is for your campaign.
7. Quality Score
Your quality score is based on how relevant your content is according to Google Ads.
This rating can make or break how well your ad will do because it considers whether it will resonate with your ideal customers, whether the keywords match and if your landing page answers what the customer is looking for.
Your quality score is important when looking at your CTR. If your quality score is low, expect a higher CTR.
A note from our PPC Specialist
As a passionate PPC specialist, I believe in the power of a well-executed Google Ads campaign, here are a few tips to help you on your path to PPC success!
Start by setting clear objectives that align with your business goals – whether it’s driving traffic, generating leads, or boosting sales, know what your goals are.
Make sure you conduct thorough keyword research using tools like Google Keyword Planner and aim for a mix of broad, exact, and long-tail keywords to capture both wide and specific search intents.
Write ad copy that’s not just clear and concise, but also engaging.
Highlight your unique selling points (USPs) and don’t forget to include strong calls to action that make users want to click.
When users click on your ad, your landing page should be fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate, ensuring a seamless experience for visitors.
Don’t overlook ad extensions!
Use sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets to pack more information into your ads and boost their visibility.
Conversion tracking should be a top priority, set it up to see which keywords and ads are performing best, and use this data to fine-tune your strategy and get the most out of your investment.
Monitor your bids and adjust them regularly to make the most of your ad spend.
Automated bidding strategies like target CPA or ROAS can help optimize for your campaign goals.
Continuously A/B test different ad copies, headlines, and landing pages to find the most effective combinations and keep improving.
Remarketing is your friend!
Re-engage visitors who’ve interacted with your site before, and use dynamic remarketing to show them personalized ads featuring products or services they’ve viewed.
Lastly, keep a close eye on your campaign data, regular analysis will help you spot trends, strengths, and areas for improvement, ensuring you’re always moving forward.
Happy Optimizing!
GoViral Conclusion
Understanding the seven key metrics of paid ads can transform your business and get your content in front of the right audience at the right time.
You want the customers’ journey to be smooth from the moment they see your ad to conversion.
At GoViral, we ensure your PPC campaign is tailored to your businesses’ objectives, targets your ideal customers and achieves the results you desire.
Don’t spend time on trying to figure out how paid ads work and lose out on money. Get in contact with us today to start getting a positive return on investment for your campaign.
Contact GoViral Digital today to learn how our expertise in inbound marketing can develop an effective paid ads strategy, getting your content in front of the right people and achieve measurable results for your campaigns!
The Age of Personalization: Personalization Marketing Gone Wrong.
Hey… you… yes you. We’ve been waiting for you. If you’ve watched the series “You”, you know Joe’s fascination with finding his one true love and goes as far as stalking them to find out everything about them. Much like Joe, businesses gather information and data on their customers to adjust their personalization efforts. However, too personal, the customer feels creeped out but if too generalized, the customer feels one of many. Don’t be like Joe. We’re going to dive into the mistakes businesses make that give the customer the ick and how to avoid being called out for stalking.. just kidding but businesses need to be mindful of the information they store and what they do with it. Let’s dive into how businesses can be less like Joe and more like a friendly reminder.
Beyond the Algorithm
If you’ve ever received a personalized gift for your birthday, you know that feeling.
It makes you feel special and seen, making you feel warm inside.
Well, that’s what companies have been trying to do with their products and services making their customers feel heard along the buyer’s journey.
When personalization is done right, customers engage with the business and show loyalty towards that brand. They’re happy to tell people about you over a cup of coffee or recommend using your products online. The dream outcome for a business.
The problem is companies often still see customers as a demographic rather than a real person who has interests, beliefs, pain points, wishes, dreams.
While understanding the demographics of a person like their age and location is beneficial for companies to target their desired audience, this gives a very surface level understanding of who their audience is.
How can you personalize the content your audience receives if you don’t even know what they want?
Automation has helped businesses speed up their processes and workflow but if there’s limited data or worse, wrong data about a segment of your audience, your audience will have no problem leaving a one star review.
The last thing you want is your businesses reputation damaged because you didn’t do enough research into your customer.
You need to know your audience like the back of your hand.
Ever wondered what that looks like?
Let’s dive into…..
Daisy’s Personalized Journey
Meet Daisy.
Daisy is 27 years old, living in Barcelona, and is a digital marketing freelancer.
Daisy is a typical Apple customer who buys products online because of its quick delivery and discounted prices if she buys a bundle.
Daisy goes for a walk at one “o” clock every day to get some fresh air.
Sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time hurts her eyes.
She goes for these walks to feel re-inspired because her concentration levels normally fall in the afternoon.
Daisy loves listening to Mel Robbin’s podcast to get her creative juices flowing again.
Daisy puts her earbuds in, presses play but wait, there’s something wrong.
Nothing is coming out of one of the earbuds.
Daisy hates when this happens because she likes to block out the noise around her and focus on the podcast.
Frustrated about her earbuds not working, she quickly opens up her phone and types “apple store close to me”.
Daisy is a regular customer at apple who buys online but she doesn’t want to wait a few days to get her new earbuds.
She notices there’s an apple store about ten minutes away from her.
Daisy checks to make sure they do in-store pick up.
The relief she feels when she sees they do.
She clicks into the apple website, logs in, and goes to her previous orders.
As she’s about to repurchase her last pair, Apple sends her a discounted code to thank her for being a loyal customer.
Directly after purchasing, she receives a thank you email with her order number for pick-up.
The earbuds are in the store so she grabs her jacket and takes off on the walk.
Arriving at the store, she heads inside to give her order number to the manager.
After five minutes, Daisy gets her earphones and is excited that she can finally listen to Mel Robbin’s podcast on the way home.
She’s super happy with her experience that she leaves a review on the Apple website, thanking them for their quick delivery and great customer service.
Personalisation should be discreet and blend seamlessly into their buying journey.
Daisy moved down the funnel quickly, from becoming aware of her problem, going directly to conversion because of previous positive experiences with Apple that addressed her needs and desires.
Messaging, targeting and timing matter.
Reeling in the Years of Personalization
Personalization isn’t a completely new concept.
Remember that fancy hotel you went to for your anniversary, the hotel manager upgrading you to a suite with balloons and chocolate congratulating you.
The restaurant singing “happy birthday” for your 50th birthday.
Your local shop knowing your first AND last name, asking “how’s the family?”.
The only difference is personalization upgraded to the digital world.
Let’s take a look back at where it all began…
The year was 2011 and you just received an email that had YOUR name in the email. This email is personalized for YOU!
In comparison to how everything is personalized now, this seems small but to have an email with your name was major.
Amazon saw an opportunity and in 2012, they took the first step in personalizing product recommendations, creating a benchmark for other businesses.
This algorithm had the ability to recommend products to the customer, based on what they were looking for.
Seeing the increase of engagement and the value personalisation had, businesses wanted to do the same for it’s customers.
In 2018, personalization spread and websites were adapting to customers needs, ensuring the products were shown based on previous purchases.
If you bought a train ticket to Barcelona, it’s no surprise tourist attractions or hotels in Barcelona would show up, preparing you for your trip.
Understanding the customer’s journey and thinking “what does the customer need”, NOT “what should we show them”. You wouldn’t show an ad for a trip to Madrid after they’ve bought a train ticket to Barcelona.
It’s 2024, where are we now?
We now live in the age of “hyper-personalization”, merging behavioural and real-time data to understand how a customer shops, how they browse and so forth to match products or services to their needs and interests.
But are customers happy about businesses collecting and analyzing data?
Personalized Marketing Gone Right
A business that understands personalization understands the customer and gives them the experience of being seen and heard, which results in them becoming returning customers.
Think of a business that gave you that experience.
They understood EXACTLY what you needed at the right time and overall, it was a positive experience.
Amazon excels in personalization because customers are happy to share their data in exchange for product recommendations that align with their interests and needs.
There’s a reason why customers are influenced by influencers and content creators, we trust recommended products that come from real people.
TikTok took this idea and added TikTok shop to the platform which saw an increase in sales and brand growth. We trust word of mouth and referrals.
Businesses, be AWARE!
Word-of-mouth is powerful so if a customer has a bad experience because of your personalisation strategy, be prepared to receive backlash.
Other businesses that understand personalization are Netflix, sending out content recommendations based on what you watch, having you doom-watching (like doom-scrolling) episode after episode.
Think of Spotify, especially at Christmas Time. The famous Spotify Wrapped is all over everyone’s stories, showing off what artist or album they listened to the most throughout the year.
Businesses that understand their target audience reap the rewards.
GoViral to the Rescue
Look, we’ve all been there. Sent the wrong message to a friend. Booked the wrong train. Took the wrong turn.
Human error.
But for businesses, it’s crucial to be careful with customers’ data and how you plan to use it.
If you’re cutting corners on your personalization strategy to save time, expect errors that will cost you more than an unsubscribe.
Let’s dive into the top three errors we see businesses make and how to avoid your business getting a bad reputation….
1. The Infamous Email Error
You have a large campaign where you need to send out emails to your target audience.
Instead of manually entering everyone’s name, you enter an automation – hi <firstname>, we want to tell you..
But what happens if a person didn’t sign up with their first name?
That person receives the email the same way you sent it – hi <firstname>.
Oops.
Always make sure you have a fallback phrase that relates to the email content.
This makes the customer feel involved and part of a bigger community.
Popular clothing brands will use a fallback phrase like fashionista, travel brands might use adventurer.
This phrase is still personalized to the audience, avoiding the loss of a subscriber.
2. When content hits too close to home…
Sending irrelevant content can put your customer off but sending too relevant content will trigger a bad response from your customers.
Campaigns related to health, mortality, or family need to be carefully thought out, ensuring the correct data is up-to-date.
If you don’t have the correct data to deliver to your target audience accurately, scrap personalized campaigns.
You want to add value to your customers through your content, not confuse, upset or anger them.
Giving the customer the option to opt-out of certain occasions such as mothers day and fathers day is a way to show your customers that you value them, creating a stronger relationship.
3. Research Past and Present World Events
Real world events like natural disasters, political issues or terrorist attacks are also something businesses need to be aware of.
Automation allows a business to send out campaigns to a large amount of people in a short amount of time but be aware of the variables you enter.
Like the email error, always make sure different variations of variables are tried and tested before sending out.
An example would be adidas personalization error where they sent out a targeted message congratulating Boston Marathon Runners for surviving the marathon.
Big mistake.
People on social media were quick to remind adidas about the real survivors of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing.
This stresses the importance of researching past and present events and to try out different wording with variables to make sure the campaign goes smoothly.
You can create temporary filters that target insensitive language related to a specific event before the campaign to ensure the correct wording is used.
We can’t control natural disasters or other such events but we can control our wording so be mindful.
GoViral Conclusion
We know the importance of personalization but getting it right seems to still be an issue for businesses. Using out-of-date data and miscommunication between teams leads to customers receiving the wrong messages. Every business needs a strong personalization marketing strategy so that the customers feel like the message was just for them.
At GoViral, we ensure our client’s have an up-to-date CRM and a personalization strategy, turning their target audience into customers. If your personalization marketing strategy is causing more friction than sales, get in touch and GoViral can help create a seamless experience for your customers every step of the way.
Contact GoViral Digital today to learn how our expertise in inbound marketing can develop an effective personalization strategy that speaks directly to your customers every step of the way!
Authenticity is in, Artificiality is out.
We are back with our monthly GoViral blog and this month, we are delving into the topic surrounding how businesses that are value-driven and have strong brand messaging are maximizing their brand loyalty. People are sick of being sold to and want to feel seen and heard. Most businesses continue to miss the mark, updating people about product features but fail to show the true value and people behind the brand. People buy from people. We share four simple but effective strategies that your business needs to implement if it wants to thrive this year. Let’s get into it!
How businesses are missing the mark
Traditional marketing techniques were straight to the point and created for the masses. There wasn’t a specific target audience they wanted to target, it was for everyone and anyone.
Marketing to the masses has proved costly to businesses and takes up valuable time that can be better spent elsewhere. Businesses that cut costs on marketing are missing out on maximizing their brand loyalty through engaging with their community and having strong brand messaging.
People are more interested in the people behind the brand than the products.
People crave connection
The rise of social media and apps such as TikTok during the pandemic saw a huge increase in people spending more time on their phones to stay connected to their family and friends. When was the last time you looked at your screen time?
With businesses, hospitality and other establishments closed down because of coronavirus, people wanted to stay connected more than ever.
What once was an app for teenagers showing off their best moves has exploded into a platform where social issues such as equality, diversity, and inclusion are spoken about daily. The pandemic, along with the rise of TikTok, opened up a platform for people to speak up and stand up for what they believe in.
A piece of content or a story that invokes an emotion in the person reading causes people to act out an action. This can be reposting to their story for their followers or sharing directly with their family members because they know they’ll appreciate the content. People like to share content that aligns with their values.
The power of storytelling
The rise of social media and apps such as TikTok during the pandemic saw a huge increase in people spending more time on their phones to stay connected to their family and friends. When was the last time you looked at your screen time?
With businesses, hospitality and other establishments closed down because of coronavirus, people wanted to stay connected more than ever.
What once was an app for teenagers showing off their best moves has exploded into a platform where social issues such as equality, diversity, and inclusion are spoken about daily. The pandemic, along with the rise of TikTok, opened up a platform for people to speak up and stand up for what they believe in.
A piece of content or a story that invokes an emotion in the person reading causes people to act out an action. This can be reposting to their story for their followers or sharing directly with their family members because they know they’ll appreciate the content. People like to share content that aligns with their values.
How Gen Z’s Values are Shaping the Content Industry
Companies know what products they sell but do they know the values that represent the business? The term “value statement” is used in marketing strategy because of its importance to the all-over success of a business. If you don’t know what your value statement is, start writing one.
One of the most important cohorts that are value-driven are Gen Z.
They are the first generation to grow up with the internet compared to Millennials and Gen X.
This means they’re more clued in on what’s happening in the world and are more involved in social issues, not afraid to speak up on certain issues especially if it involves a business.
Gen Z’s values are centred around diversity, inclusion, equality, and sustainability. Fast fashion brands have come under fire for unethical labor practices and disregard for the environmental impact it has. They aren’t afraid to boycott a business if they fail to explain their reasoning behind unfavorable conditions.
Stories captivate customers and build brands
Let’s look at some examples of businesses that have set the bar for having strong brand messaging and clear values.
Take a look at the image below. What’s the first thing that comes to mind?
Nike.
If you guessed correctly, then you know how powerful brand messaging can be. Coupled with their slogan “Just do it”, people KNOW who Nike is and what they stand for.
Collaborating with influential athletes such as Michael B. Jordan and Simone Biles and sharing inspiring and motivational stories of people who just DID it, people resonate with the brand and feel inspired.
Nike is much more than a shoe company, they are a performance company that makes shoes as a way to inspire and enable people to perform at their very best.
Overcoming challenges is a big part of life and people find this concept relatable, therefore, strengthening the relationship between Nike and its customers.
Understanding your audience
Jabra, one of our clients at GoViral, is another great example of having strong brand messaging and clear values.
Their technology has evolved beyond the workplace to everywhere on the go. Changes in how people work after the pandemic pushed Jabra to adapt to the current situation. With many workplaces changing to remote or hybrid work, Jabra understood the difficulties that you encounter with technology.
Jabra understands exactly who their audience is and speaks directly to them about the problems they face. Not afraid to create something new and experiment with their technology, they are always seeking to improve to better serve their audience.
Now that we have learnt that traditional marketing is dead and how Gen Z are shaping the content industry, let’s dive into strategies to start creating content that will get people to buy.
1. Craft your story
No business starts with loyal customers or high revenue returns. Every business started from the bottom and made its way to the top. That story is what gets people to buy.
What’s the businesses’ origin story? What values does the business believe in? What struggles did it encounter? What transformation or journey did your product or service bring you on?
2. Connect emotionally to your audience
Don’t tell them about the product. Tell them how it will make them feel. If we take a pair of headphones, no one is going to connect with the product if you tell me it has great sound. Go deeper than that.
Block the whole world out with our noise-canceling headphones to wind down after a stressful day at work… you get the point.
Give them an experience and how they will feel when they buy the product
3. Show, don’t tell.
A business can say its product is amazing but the consumer is in charge of making that decision. If a customer isn’t happy with a product, they aren’t going to shy away from speaking about it on social media. The product or service needs to help fix a problem. A skincare product that gets rid of acne. A pair of shoes with insoles that make you feel like you are walking on clouds. A jacket that feels like your grandparent’s hug.
Let the product speak for itself. Customers won’t have a problem telling everyone about the impact it had on them.
4. Call to action
Customers can resonate with your story and connect to the product but fail to act because they don’t know what the next step is. Be clear on what you want them to do. Whether it is subscribing to your product launch, attending an event, or making a purchase, there needs to be a clear call to action and a reason WHY.
GoViral conclusion
We can all learn something from Nike and Jabra regarding their strong brand messaging and clear values that resonate with their target audience. People don’t want to hear about the next product launch if it isn’t solving a problem for them. Get clear on what your business stands for and show up as that every time your audience sees you online. It’s harder to grab people’s attention but with strong brand messaging, your business will be top of mind for them. Don’t blend in, stand out amongst the crowd.
Contact GoViral Digital today to learn how our expertise in inbound marketing can enhance your brands presence and help tell your brands story.
Leveraging PPC Campaigns for Maximum Event Exposure
When hosting a large-scale event, gaining significant exposure to your target audience and attracting attendees are the top priorities. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a powerful tool that amplifies your event’s visibility and boosts ticket sales effectively. Below we will discuss strategic tips and tactics for using PPC campaigns so you can ensure your event not only reaches but resonates with your target audience.
PPC advertising offers a unique advantage in that it places your event in front of the right audience at the right time. With the ability to target specific demographics, interests, and geographical locations, PPC campaigns are tailored to speak directly to people most likely to be interested in your event. Effective PPC campaigns allow you to cut through the digital noise and reach potential attendees that drive both awareness and conversions. In the following sections, we explore how to utilize the full potential of PPC to create impactful campaigns that capture attention and convert leads into event attendees.
Define Clear Objectives
When launching a PPC campaign, it’s important to gain clarity on what you hope to achieve. For events, objectives and goals can range from increasing brand awareness to driving ticket sales or encouraging sign-ups for a webinar about the event. It’s important to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals to guide your campaign structure and implementation.
Understand Your Audience
Detailed knowledge of your audience’s demographics, interests, and online behaviors will help you to create specifically targeted ads that have a much higher likelihood of conversion. Using data from past events, website analytics, and social media insights to build a comprehensive audience profile will help you to understand and choose your keyword selection, ad copy, and targeting options.
Choose the Right Platforms
There are several different PPC platforms and they all offer different advantages depending on your event type and target audience.
Google Ads:
- High intent targeting: Google Ads operates on the principle of search intent, meaning your ads appear to people actively searching for your product or service leading to higher conversion rates.
- Vast reach: Google provides a vast reach online with millions of searches per day. This can significantly increase your visibility across a range of demographics.
- Flexible budget options: With Google Ads, you’re able to adjust your budget based on your financial constraints and goals. With options like cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) pricing models, you can choose the campaign that best suites your objectives.
- Robust analytics: Google Ads offers comprehensive analytics that help you track metrics, such as, clicks, impressions, and conversions.
- Geotargeting capabilities: Because you can target your ads to specific geographic locations, you are also able to promote local events or segment your campaigns based on where your target audience lives for better accuracy.
- Ad formats: Google Ads provides a variety of ad formats, including text ads, image ads, video ads, product listing ads, performance max, etc. All of these allow for versatile marketing strategies with the ability to test different content types to see what works best.
Social Media Ads:
- Advanced targeting options: Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn offer precise targeting options based on user demographics, behaviors, interests, and connections.
- Visual engagement: As social media is inherently visual, it is an excellent platform for engaging potential customers with eye-catching images, videos, and interactive content.
- Brand engagement: Due to the nature of social media, two-way interaction between you and your audience allows for relationship and community building through increasing loyalty and engagement around the event.
- Retargeting capabilities: Social media platforms excel at retargeting; this allows you to present ads to users who have visited your website but haven’t converted. This is a great way to remind those users about your event and encourage them to buy tickets, register, or book a demonstration.
- Real-time adjustments: Social ads can be tweaked in real-time based on performance data and this allows for dynamic adjustments to maximize your campaign’s effectiveness.
Craft Compelling Ad Copy
While writing your ad copy, be sure you are clear, concise, and compelling. It’s important to include essential details about the event, such as what, when, and where, and make sure to highlight unique selling points that make your event unique. Using strong call-to-actions (CTAs) like “Register Now”, “Book Your Seat”, or “Get Tickets” drives urgency and improves conversion rates. Make sure to test different versions of the ad copy to see what resonates best with your target audience.
Utilize Engaging Visuals
As mentioned above, visual ad platforms like Facebook and Instagram use eye-catching graphics or videos which can significantly enhance your ad’s performance. When creating your ad visuals, ensure you’re appropriately reflecting the theme of the event and create an appeal to the emotions of potential attendees. Short, engaging videos, typically under one minute long, that give a sneak peek of the event highlights can be particularly effective.
Optimize for Keywords
When building out your PPC campaign, keyword optimization is vital for success. Ensure you conduct thorough keyword research to identify terms that potential attendees might use to find events like yours. Include event-specific keywords, such as “tech conferences in 2024” or “virtual marketing summit” and broader terms that relate to the industry or interests aligned with your event. Using negative keywords is also beneficial to prevent your ads from appearing in irrelevant searches, which in turn saves your budget for more qualified leads.
Implement Geo-Targeting
Geo-targeting allows you to tailor your PPC campaigns to reach people in specific locations when you have physical events. For global events, you could consider targeting key cities or regions where your potential attendees are based. For virtual events, you can target a broader geographic area but focus on regions with a higher concentration of your target audience.
Set a Smart Bidding Strategy
PPC platforms offer a variety of bidding strategies that can help you maximize returns on your ad spend. Automated bidding strategies like “Maximize Conversions” in Google Ads can optimize your bids in real-time to get the most conversions for your budget. It’s important to regularly review and adjust your bids based on how your ads and campaigns are performing so you ensure optimal results.
Track and Analyze Performance
Tracking and analyzing your results is crucial to understanding the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns. Set up tracking for key conversion points, such as registration completions or ticket purchases and use analytics to monitor which ads are performing well and why and adjust your strategies accordingly. Doing this will not only help you optimize ongoing campaigns, but it will also provide valuable insights for future event marketing strategies.
Conclusion
PPC campaigns are a dynamic tool that seeks to maximize exposure and drive attendance for all variations of events. Understanding your audience, crafting targeted ads, and continuously optimizing based on ad performance allows you to significantly enhance the reach and success of your global events. As you prepare for your next big event, integrate these PPC strategies to not only meet but exceed your marketing objectives, ensuring your event gets the attendance it deserves!
Are you ready to boost your event’s visibility with powerful PPC campaigns? Whether you’re new to PPC or looking to enhance your existing campaigns, GoViral is here to help! If you have any questions or need more information on how to effectively leverage PPC for maximum event exposure, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Contact GoViral Digital today to learn how our expertise can bring PPC campaigns and event management to the next level.
GoViral Case Study: Timing PPC Campaigns for In-Person Events
A common question among marketers: how far in advance should I advertise an in-person event? When should I start using my PPC advertising budget? At GoViral we’re committed to learning from experience, so let’s take a look at the numbers from three recent events.
When Should I Start Advertising an In-Person Event?
Over the past few years we’ve helped one of our clients, a global leader in business and consumer electronics, advertise their presence at in-person industry events.
When our client attends these events, they want the best bang for their buck. Their end goal is leads. Getting face time with existing and potential customers is invaluable.
But even priceless marketing activities are limited by budget. Regardless of your budget’s size, you need to think carefully about how and when to spend it. So let’s take a look at lead time. How far in advance of an event do we see results for booking in-person meetings?
Our Results from Three Recent Events
For each of our three most recent events, we launched our PPC campaign at a different point in advance of the event date. One campaign started 17 weeks before, one 4 weeks, and one just 3 weeks before the start of the event.
Keeping in mind that we define a lead as someone who schedules a meeting with our client during the event, here are the results of total number of leads acquired by campaigns of varying lengths.
As you can see, we acquired more leads with a shorter timeline ahead of the event. In other words, more time did not translate to more leads.
Furthermore, the Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) decreased as the lead time decreased. How much did we spend to acquire each lead? Considerably more when we started earlier.
Takeaways for Advertising Events with a PPC Campaign
Our overall takeaway? Don’t assume advertising an in-person event earlier means your results will be better.
There are other factors besides the timeline to consider, of course. But one thing is clear from our results: most of our leads for in-person events were acquired in the three weeks immediately before the event.
Our experience has shown that PPC campaigns for in-person events can find success even when limited to the month leading up to the event, and in fact we have had most success acquiring leads during that time.
Further Considerations
As with all marketing advice, your mileage may vary. Consider your specific situation and make strategic decisions accordingly.
Maybe your event requires early registration, or maybe there’s a competing event in a different city on the same dates. In those cases, you might want to start earlier.
Remember that a marketing campaign requires careful planning, including consideration of the buyer’s journey and other factors specific to your business.
However, if you find yourself starting your advertising efforts just a few weeks before your event, don’t despair! There’s still time to get results.
Looking to advertise an in-person event? Let us help you! Tell us more about your project and request a proposal.
Best Practices for Email Marketing
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is still the most effective marketing channel, leaving behind newer marketing channels like social media.
Data suggests that the number of email users increases every year, making it is a great way to generate more leads for your business and build a community for your brand. This is why email marketing should be the key pillar of your strategy.
Serving a purpose in the buyer journey, emails can be promotional or informational. You can announce special offers, new products, sales or discounts with a clear call-to-action (CTA) through promotional emails.
Informational emails are typically company announcements, newsletters, etc. Imagine your company reached a milestone or there are some issues with shipping, the best way to reach your contacts at once is through an email.
But if you’re confused about where to begin, that’s absolutely normal. We’ve put together a list of best practices for email marketing to spruce up your emails.
Don’t Buy Contact Lists
Well, the reason behind this is two-fold. First is the GDPR. These regulations restrict marketers to send emails to unsubscribed consumers.
Secondly, there is no point in sending emails to a person whose contact you bought rather than an interested customer through a previous interaction. You will see the results drop instantly.
Clean Your Mail List Regularly
Following the previous point, it is equally important to review your subscribers and remove the ones who haven’t engaged with your emails for a long time. We know it could be extremely satisfying to see a huge senders list, but sending out emails to non-engaged users will affect the open rate.
The key is to analyse your campaign quality against your loyal customer base.
Personalise Greetings
How often do you come across an email that reads, “Dear Member”?
Terms like members, subscribers, VIP or others should be for internal use. Using a personalised greeting gets the attention of the reader right away. And you don’t need to write 50 names and send out 50 emails manually anymore. Marketing tools help configure the greeting and automatically send the emails to the names on your list.
Incentivise the Subject Line
Want to increase your open rates? Include the offer in your subject line.
“Free shipping”, “$25 off on your first purchase” or “Earn referral bonus” are examples of some incentive focussed subject lines that could work wonders.
Great practice for subject lines is to keep it between 30 to 50 characters. Why? Email services often cut off lengthy subject lines and your readers won’t be able to read it fully without opening it.
You aren’t writing a story in the subject line; create a sense of urgency for them.
Make your CTA the Hero
If your user has to scroll down to find the main message and CTA of your email, chances are you’ve already lost him.
Research suggests that 57% of the time is spent on above-the-fold content which is the information that’s visible to readers before they scroll down. To increase your conversion rate, the first thing your recipient should see is the main message and CTA.
Email Signature and Logo - A Must
41% of marketers said they use email signatures for branding and visibility.
Even if you are sending an email to all contacts in the database on behalf of your company, it should include a signature of a specific person. The reason for this is to there is a human behind the email. People tend to read emails more when they see it is from a person rather than the marketing team.
The chances of a customer making a purchase goes up 34% when logos are included. The best way to leverage it is to include your company logo in the email signature.
Build a Cohesive Look
Your webpage should match the emails – headline, copy, and look. Consistency is the key to email marketing.
The look and feel of your emails shouldn’t be far different from your other assets like the website, landing page, social ads, etc. Not only does it help build your brand visibility, but it also increases trust in your customers.
Say No to “No-Reply” Emails
What is the point of your email marketing campaign if your customers can’t even interact with you when you send them promotional materials? Personally, I don’t even bother to open emails with the words “no reply” or if the sender’s address is noreply@xyz.com.
As previously mentioned, your customers are far more likely to open an email when they see it is from a human being. Marketing tools allow you to set automated emails from a specific email address. Set it to your first name to give your emails a human touch.
There you have it! You can use the above practices to add a competitive edge to your email marketing campaigns.
Marketers today have many channels to promote their business, but the challenge is learning how to prioritise your efforts for the best results.
Want to prepare an email marketing campaign for your business? Contact us to learn more.
How to Grow Your Brand’s Following on LinkedIn
Recently, LinkedIn decided that the Stories feature is not for their platform. The announcement to shut down the feature by the end of September was made on the company’s official blog on August 30th.
Stories were first made famous by Snapchat, and soon Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn followed suit. Stories refer to short video content that automatically gets deleted after 24 hours. LinkedIn’s decision to remove Stories came after Twitter shut down its Fleets feature in July.
In one year, LinkedIn tried different methods to boost promoting Stories feature to all users. They even published themed Stories curated by their own teams only to fill the Stories bar for the users. However, nothing helped push users to use the feature more often. The temporary nature of the feature was the reason users kept away from it. So they decided to ditch the feature. Instead, LinkedIn plans to pivot to short-form, rich interactive videos. They are also looking for ways to bring audio to their platforms with groups or events. This will give users more ways to connect with each other.
But, does all this mean that the Stories format, in general, is not popular anymore? The answer is NO! Video is taking over other social media platforms and should be an integral part of your social media strategy. Instagram recently announced that they are not a photo-sharing app anymore. Stories are getting hugely popular on Instagram while Tiktok is gaining traction for marketers. Seems like people want certain formats on certain platforms. All in all, it was a great experiment for LinkedIn. They know that Stories is not the way to go for them, but it also led them to re-focus their vision to find a tool that their users actually want to use to promote their services or products.
But if Stories isn’t working on LinkedIn, then how to grow your brand’s following without it? While we wait for LinkedIn to launch their short-form video format, we bring you some tips that will help gain an edge and grow your business on the platform.
Here are some expert tips on how to grow your brand following on LinkedIn:
Boost Credibility of Your LinkedIn Page
To stand out from the rest, your LinkedIn page needs to represent your brand in the best way possible. Professionals mostly rely on LinkedIn pages for acquiring brand information and having a weak LinkedIn page instantly makes the user lose interest in your company. Some of the best practices to drive growth to your page are:
Fill in all Company information
Did you know that a page with complete information gets 30% more weekly views? From logo, to key terms, and a call to action (CTA), don’t miss filling out any information.
Encourage people to follow
Push your first-degree connections to check out your page and follow it by sending out regular invites.
Engage in conversation
Join conversations on LinkedIn, invite others in, go on live chats, share @mentions of your company are a few ways that allows you to build a deeper connection with your audience.
Leverage on your employees content
Take advantage of your employees’ content to drive traffic to your page by adding “My Company tab”. This not only gives your brand more credibility, but also lets your employees show their voice in their own way.
Establish Thought Leadership
Want to know the quickest way to elevate your brand image? Posting thought leadership articles! Thought leadership has evolved from being a fluff piece that fills in your social feed to an influential factor in brand reputation. Thought leadership is a powerful way to connect with your audience through a consistent voice and vision.
You can set goals and expectations for thought leadership and through views, you can witness an instant rise in your reputation, demand generation, market consideration and engagement. Make sure to check out Edelman’s Flywheel of Thought Leadership. It will help you create a thought leadership vision that catches the eye of executives and top decision makers.
Increase Customer Engagement
Gone are the days of your generic sales pitch! B2B customers today want the brands to connect with them on a personal level. It is vital that you understand your buyer personas, and how your product/services are going to bring their problems to an end.
If you are still unsure about your customers’ needs, you can consider hosting a LinkedIn event or a discussion which focuses on them, instead of your product/services. Straight from the horse’s mouth!
Show your creativity to stand out
Taking a page from the B2C playbook, B2B marketing is upping the game lately. They are leaving no stone unturned to connect with the users on an emotional level to influence their decisions.
To make people stop scrolling, you need to be creative, interactive and eye-catching. Carousel ads and Conversion ads give you the opportunity to create engaging content while showcasing your visual storytelling skills. Recycle your content to get the most out of it. Turning articles into videos or infographics is another fool-proof way to stick out.
Make most of LinkedIn Insights
If you are a marketer, you should make LinkedIn Reporting and Analytics your new best friend! Data is the best tool that tells how to harness the power of analytics and work around your marketing strategy. It helps you understand the effectiveness of your campaigns. It leads you in the right direction for achieving the best results in the future and how to stay ahead of the pack.
Maximise Objectives with Ads
No social media strategy is complete without ads. To reap the most benefit out of content on LinkedIn, marketers are boosting it through paid promotion. In fact, 80% of B2B marketers invest in their content marketing strategy on LinkedIn.
Adding ads to your regular marketing strategy not only brings more traffic to your page but also drives the three components of inbound marketing: attract, engage and delight. Reports suggest that ads make brands look more professional and respectable.
Marketers need to be on their toes and keep themselves updated with the latest updates on different platforms. Your social media strategy should be aligned with these changes and keep evolving. This gives us more opportunities to grow and achieve more success than ever.
As the world of digital marketing continues to change and evolve to be more video-focused, make sure to stay current with the latest trends and keep your marketing strategy fresh. Sign up for our newsletter below to stay in-the-know.
How to Write a Script for Your Brand Promotional Video
So you’ve decided to make a promotional video for your brand? We approve! The first step is writing a really great script.
Given that social video is dominating digital marketing trends in 2021, there’s no better time than now to use video to promote your brand. After all, customers can’t become interested in your brand if they don’t understand what you’re offering them or how it will help them. Videos are an excellent tool to educate potential buyers about your products and services in a fun, visual, and potentially interactive way.
However, before you can even start creating your video, first you have to write the script. Not only is this an opportunity to collect your thoughts, but it also creates the blueprint to help guide the rest of your creation process. Your script needs to be concise, relevant, and attention-grabbing. This is essential. If your message in the script isn’t on point, no amount of post-production will be able to redeem your video.
Many people feel the sweat drip from their brow when they hear they need to write. It doesn’t always come naturally, and even the best of writers sometimes struggle to find the words. But, if you find yourself staring at a blank screen for hours, the tips and tricks in this article might just help you break free of writer’s block.
Getting Started
Before you dive into writing your script, there are some questions you should ask yourself that can help guide your messaging to better communicate with your audience.
1. Who is your target audience?
The key to any marketing or digital communication campaign is to know your target audience (also known as buyer personas) well. Is your target audience business owners, influencers, students, parents? Male or female? What do they do? How do they consume content?
Well, the tone, language, and visuals used in your video will need to be aligned to match their interests. The better you know your target audience, the easier it will be to write a script that will lead your viewers to take action.
2. What does your target audience need?
Once you know who your target audience is, it’s time to define their needs. By identifying their problems, you can better portray how your product or service can meet their needs.
3. What message do you want to send?
What do you want your audience to remember about your brand? What is the unique selling proposition (USP) of your product or service? What does your brand stand for? Does it offer a solution to their problems? What does your brand promise to do?
Answering these questions should be the heart of your script.
4. What comes next after watching the video?
No video is complete without a call to action (CTA). With no CTA, your audience will simply watch your video, then do nothing – you want to guide them to the next step in the buyer journey.
A few examples of a CTA would be “book an appointment,” “visit our website,” “subscribe to our channel,” etc. A clear CTA will not only help create a lasting impression on the minds of viewers but also provide instructions on what their next action should be.
Now that your homework is done, it’s time to write your script.
Here are some rules to write an engaging script for your promotional video.
Outline Your Script
First and foremost, it’s important to structure your ideas in a logical way. The goal is to demand the viewer’s attention and make it last until the end of the video. So, always start with a catchy introduction, dig deeper with your message and finish with an impressive conclusion.
A good script usually:
- Addresses your audience’s issues/needs at the very beginning of the video so they relate to it and stop scrolling to watch further
- Convinces your audience why you are the best solution to their problems and demonstrates what sets you apart from your competitors
- Concludes with a CTA that leads the audience to take further action. Never forget that the end of the video is as important as the introduction
Pay Attention to the Opening Sequence
No doubt that there’s abundant content on the internet for audiences to consume. The world of social media is quickly moving to video, but you only have a few seconds to capture your viewers’ attention before they scroll on to the next video. Therefore, your opening sequence is important.
Here are a few ways to get your audience interested:
- Intrigue them with some suspenseful opening, reaction sounds, or captivating visuals
- Ask them questions like “Did you know…,” “Have you ever..,” etc.
- Start with some interesting yet unknown facts that are relevant to your brand
Tell a Story
Remember the goal of your video is not only to make the audience watch it until the end, but it also needs to be memorable. There’s a simple yet effective way to do it… through storytelling of course! Telling stories through videos helps make a brand more relatable and engaging for potential customers. Plus, who doesn’t like a good story?
Here are some tips to perfect your storytelling:
- Make sure your video has a clear beginning, middle, and end so it is easy for your audience to follow.
- Focus on emotions–the audience might forget the words in your script but they won’t forget how the video made them feel.
- Write like how you speak to personalise your message and connect with the audience instantly. Don’t be afraid to be less formal.
Add Visual Aids
Did you know that 85% of Facebook videos are watched without a sound? Visuals are equally important as your script and serve as a great tool to segment your video and keep your audience engaged.
Your visual aids should be simple and informative. That being said, don’t force visuals in the video just for the sake of doing so. They should complement what the script is saying without distracting the audience. Try to write a script that naturally and seamlessly creates opportunities to use visuals. Never write the script first and then look for places to incorporate visuals.
“Close” with a Call to Action
Writing a perfect intro is how you get your audiences intrigued about your product or service, but it could actually hurt your brand more if the video doesn’t have the right outro. If you don’t close your video correctly, the impact your video created won’t last, and the best outro is nothing but a good CTA.
What do you want your audience to do after watching the video? What do you want them to walk away with? Whatever it may be, make sure to communicate it directly and clearly.
Video marketing plays a major role in digital marketing in modern times, and writing a script for high-quality videos takes a lot of time and planning. But, now that you have the knowledge, you’re ready to go write scripts for some amazing videos.
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5 Things to Know When Learning Facebook Ads
The world of Facebook advertising can seem overwhelming at first. With over 1,000 different targeting options, 11 objectives to choose from, and all the different ad formats available, it’s no wonder the internet is going crazy on how to crack the code to Facebook advertising.
1. Understand what goes into setting up an ad
First things first, you have to know the different components of an ad.
Step #1: Set your Objective.
Your objective is the result you want to get from your ad, and selecting the correct one will help you meet your goals. Facebook currently has 11 different ad objectives you can choose from.
- Brand awareness
- Reach
- Traffic
- Engagement
- App installs
- Video views
- Lead generation
- Messages
- Conversions
- Catalogue sales
- Store Visits
Step #2: Select your Audience.
Ahhh, targeting. This is where things can get complicated. Facebook allows you to select dynamic targeting parameters for your ads such as age, location, language, interests, demographics, behaviors, and more.
Step #3: Choose Ad Placement.
This is where you decide where you want your ad to be seen. You can choose to allow Facebook to use automatic placements, or you can determine them yourself.
Some placements include News Feed, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network, Video Feed, Stories, and more. You can even choose to target your ads to desktop or mobile devices based on what you know about your audience!
Step #4: Set your Budget.
This is where you decide how much you’re going to spend on your ad. First enter how long you want the ad to run, then you can enter a daily budget: an amount Facebook will allocate toward your ad each day; or a lifetime budget: an amount Facebook will allocate toward your ad throughout the entire time it runs. Learn more about the different ways to use your budget here.
Step #5: Format your Ad.
This is where you can get creative and choose what your ad is going to look like. Facebook offers a variety of ways you can play with the design of your ads with images, videos, and copy, which you can play with according to the ad placements you selected.
After you’re satisfied with these 5 steps, now you’re ready to launch your ad! But, it’s important to understand…
2. There is no secret formula for success.
After launching your ads, you’re not quite done yet. Unfortunately, success in Facebook advertising is not black and white. We often see many businesses new to Facebook ads get discouraged when they don’t hit conversion goals immediately. Well, we’re here to tell you this is normal. With all the different options for targeting, formatting, budgeting, and so on, it’s impossible to know what’s going to work without testing.
Be prepared to play around with different targeting, ad copy, images, and placements until you find what works for your audience. There’s a lot that goes into it! But, one step that will make launching successful, converting Facebook ads will be way easier is identifying your buyer personas. This will give you the best possible understanding of what your audience might be looking for, and how to reach them through your targeting.
A/B Testing
A/B testing allows you to run multiple different ads under the same campaign while directly comparing results. You can compare different images, headlines, copy, placements, and even targeting, and Facebook will show you what your audience responds to more! Trust us, this is a game-changer.
In summary, you need to constantly be testing, measuring, and optimising your ads. You can’t simply launch some to the world and leave them for a week. Well, unless you want to waste a lot of money.
3. Use retargeting.
Ever heard the theory that on average, a customer needs to see an ad at least three times before they convert? Retargeting new ads to people who have already engaged with your brand is one of the biggest missed opportunities we see for people new to Facebook Ads.
Facebook allows you the option to retarget ads to people who have already clicked on your ad, liked your page, visited your website, etc by setting up Custom Audiences.
For example, if someone clicks on one of your ads leading to a blog post on your website, they can be filtered into a custom audience of people who have taken similar action. Next time you run an ad, you can make it sales-focused and target it to all of the people in your custom audience.
Guess who’s going to be more willing to buy from your brand? Someone who has never seen or heard of your brand before, or someone you have already reached through your content? See where we’re going with this?
Using content marketing and retargeting features are how you turn clicks into real conversions and sales.
4. Determine a good method of tracking your ads.
Take it from us, it’s really easy to start playing around with different types of ads, tweaking small things here and there, and then all of the sudden you see a change and don’t know what started working.
How do you know if your ad is really working? Well, it depends on what your goal is (more on this in another article soon). Luckily, Facebook Ads Manager has a ton of built-in Ads Reporting tools that allow you to create, customize, export, share and schedule reports on your ad performance based on a set of parameters that you choose. You can look at how many clicks an ad gets, how many impressions it left, cost per click, and tons more. If this is too overwhelming at first, AdEspresso is a great tool to help analyze your campaigns.
5. Always be ready to learn.
“Always be learning” is actually one of GoViral’s 8 Company Ethos (Check out the full list here). It’s important to never be stagnant in your know-how, because if one thing is for certain, it’s that the latest trends and rules of digital marketing are constantly changing-and Facebook advertising is no different. Facebook is constantly refining and changing its rules, policies, and algorithms, adding new functions to Ads Manager, etc.
For example: Recently, Facebook posted that they will be putting a greater emphasis on building community through Facebook Groups. We wouldn’t be surprised to see the addition of advertising for Facebook Groups sometime in 2021.
To keep up with the latest changes, we recommend setting Google Alerts, following Facebook Community for real-time updates, and subscribing to newsletters from trusted sources. Some of our favorites are Social Media Examiner, and Hubspot.
So, be patient, be willing to try new things, and always be ready to learn.
Are you interested in leveraging Facebook ads for your business? Contact us below for help.
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