Creating a Memorable Holiday Marketing Campaign
Are you ready to unwrap the secrets of creating a holiday marketing campaign that drives sales? As we embrace the holiday season, it’s not only the time for gift-giving but an opportunity for businesses to connect with their audience in a meaningful way. So, how can you craft a marketing campaign that resonates, spreads cheer, and sets your brand apart in the holiday shopping frenzy?
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore tips and strategies to make your business shine during this festive season. Get ready to create a holiday campaign that not only captures the spirit of the season but also achieves your marketing goals!
Understanding Your Audience
During the holiday season, understanding your audience is like knowing their deepest desires before they even make a list for Santa. To craft a memorable holiday marketing campaign, you need to read into the minds and hearts of your target demographics.
Here are some strategies to get you started:
Customer Personas: Begin by creating or revisiting your customer personas. These detailed profiles of your ideal customers can guide your campaign’s messaging, design, and channel selection. Consider their demographics, psychographics, and buying behaviors. Are they parents searching for family-friendly deals or millennials looking for unique gift ideas? The more you understand them, the more precise your campaign will be.
Analyze Past Data: Review data from previous holiday seasons. What were your most popular products or services? What promotions or strategies worked well, and which fell flat? Analyzing past data helps you identify trends and customer preferences, allowing you to tailor your campaign to what’s resonated with your audience in the past.
Feedback and Surveys: Engage with your audience directly through surveys or feedback forms. Ask about their holiday shopping habits, what influences their purchasing decisions, and their preferred communication channels. Understanding their concerns can help you create campaigns that directly address their needs.
Segmentation: Consider segmenting your audience based on their behavior. For example, you might have loyal customers who need exclusive incentives, last-minute shoppers who respond well to flash sales, or early birds who appreciate sneak peeks of upcoming promotions. Segmenting allows you to personalize your campaigns for maximum impact.
Competitor Analysis: Don’t forget to peek over the fence at what your competitors are doing. Analyzing their holiday campaigns can provide insights into market trends and customer preferences. While you don’t want to copy them, you can identify gaps or areas where you can differentiate yourself.
The Power of Storytelling
The holiday season is a time of year filled with emotion, nostalgia, and cherished memories. To craft a memorable holiday marketing campaign, focus on the power of storytelling. Stories have the ability to connect with your audience on a personal level and this can include powerful emotions.
Here are some ways to create an engaging narrative:
Relatable Narratives: Create narratives that your audience can relate to and think about the challenges, joys, and traditions that come with the holiday season. Write stories that align with these experiences, for example, tell a story about how your product or service made a customer’s holiday preparation easier or more joyful.
Emotional Appeal: Stories that cause emotional reactions are more likely to be remembered. Whether it’s the heartwarming tale of a family reunion, the excitement of gift-giving, or the magic of winter, fill your campaign with emotions. This emotional appeal helps your brand resonate with your audience on a personal level.
Consistent Brand Story: Ensure your holiday campaign story aligns with your overall brand narrative, your holiday story should be an extension of what your brand represents throughout the year. Consistency in storytelling helps reinforce your brand’s identity.
User-Generated Content: Encourage your customers to share their holiday stories related to your brand. Whether it’s through social media posts, videos, or reviews, user-generated content adds authenticity to your campaign. Repost and share these stories to demonstrate real experiences with your brand.
Visual Storytelling: Visual content is a powerful tool for storytelling. Consider using videos, graphics, and images that narrate a holiday-themed story. Show how your product or service fits into the holiday season and the lives of your customers.
Content Series: Expand your storytelling across multiple touchpoints by creating a series of content pieces that build upon one another, gradually unfolding a holiday tale. This keeps your audience engaged and eager to see what comes next.
Create Captivating Visuals
The holidays are a time for vibrant colors, twinkling lights, and cozy imagery. Incorporate these elements into your marketing materials, including your website, social media, and email campaigns. Visuals have a profound impact, and when they align with the holiday theme, they can bring about a strong emotional response.
Here are five strategies for creating captivating visuals:
Festive Branding: Temporarily update your brand’s color scheme to reflect holiday colors like red, green, and gold and add festive elements to your logo and website banners. These small changes show that your brand is in tune with the season.
Engaging Social Media Content: Share visually appealing content on your social media platforms and post high-quality images of holiday-themed products, decorations, or behind-the-scenes glimpses of your team getting into the holiday spirit. Use these platforms to tell a visual story about your brand’s relationship with the season.
Email Marketing: Design holiday-themed email templates that are mobile-responsive. Incorporate eye-catching graphics, gifs, or animations in your email campaigns and use a clear call to action that stands out among the festive visuals.
Website Redesign: If possible, redesign your website’s homepage with a holiday theme. Create a welcoming, immersive experience with holiday-inspired imagery and ensure that the navigation remains intuitive to guide visitors effectively.
User-Generated Content: Encourage your customers to share their holiday experiences with your products. Repost their images on your website and social media as it not only builds trust but also generates authentic, relatable content.
Leveraging Social Media
Social media is where many of your customers are spending their time during the holiday season, making it a prime platform to connect with your audience.
Here are five effective strategies for leveraging the power of social media for your holiday marketing campaign:
Festive Hashtags: Create and use holiday-specific hashtags to increase the visibility of your content. These tags make it easier for users interested in holiday-related topics to discover your brand.
Holiday-Themed Content: Craft engaging and shareable holiday-themed content. This could be in the form of blog posts, infographics, videos, or social media posts. Use storytelling techniques and visual elements to create content that resonates with your audience during the season.
User-Generated Content: Encourage your followers to participate in your holiday campaign by running contests, challenges, or giveaways. Ask them to share their holiday moments with your products or services. By showcasing user-generated content, you not only boost brand engagement but also create a sense of community.
Live Streaming: Consider using live streaming on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. Host live Q&A sessions, behind-the-scenes tours, or special holiday events. Live streaming provides an authentic and interactive way to engage with your audience.
Paid Advertising: Allocate a budget for paid social media and Google advertising during the holiday season. Platforms like Facebook and Google Ads offer robust targeting options, ensuring that your content reaches the right audience. Use carousel ads, video ads, and other interactive formats to tell your holiday story.
Prioritizing Customer Experience
Outstanding customer service is a must during the holiday season. To ensure your customers have a seamless and enjoyable experience, here are five ways to prioritize customer satisfaction during the holidays:
Customer Support Readiness: The holiday season often brings a surge in customer inquiries and requests. Ensure your customer support team is well-prepared to handle increased volumes. Consider extending support hours and responding promptly to customer messages.
Efficient Shipping: Customers expect their holiday purchases to arrive on time. Partner with reliable shipping providers and clearly communicate shipping deadlines. Offer expedited shipping options for last-minute shoppers.
Easy Returns and Exchanges: Simplify the returns and exchanges process. A hassle-free return policy gives customers confidence to make a purchase, knowing they can easily return or exchange items if needed.
Personalized Recommendations: Leverage customer data to provide personalized product recommendations. Suggest complementary items, offer tailored promotions, and make your customers feel like you understand their needs.
Post-Purchase Engagement: Don’t forget about your customers after the purchase. Send follow-up emails expressing gratitude and requesting feedback. These interactions can turn first-time buyers into loyal, repeat customers.
Our Holiday Campaign Conclusion
In the world of holiday marketing, crafting a memorable campaign involves understanding your audience, telling compelling stories, creating captivating visuals, leveraging social media, and prioritizing customer experience. By delivering a cohesive and engaging holiday marketing campaign, you can boost sales and create lasting impressions that endure well beyond the holidays, making the holiday season a joyous and memorable time for your customers and your brand. Wishing you a festive and prosperous holiday season!
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The Different Stages of an Inbound Marketing Strategy
Inbound marketing has fundamentally transformed the way businesses engage with their audience.
It’s no longer just about casting a wide net and hoping for leads; it’s about building meaningful relationships, nurturing prospects, and turning them into loyal customers.
At the heart of this transformation are the three pivotal stages: Convert, Close, and Delight.
Convert: Turning Visitors into Leads
The journey begins with attracting visitors to your website through engaging content and optimized SEO strategies. These visitors are your potential leads, but to move them through the inbound marketing funnel, you need to convert them.
- Captivating Content: The cornerstone of conversion is valuable content. Offer eBooks, webinars, or insightful blog posts that address your audience’s pain points. These resources act as a magnet, enticing visitors to share their contact information in exchange.
- Effective Calls-to-Action (CTAs): Well-placed CTAs guide visitors to take the desired action. Whether it’s downloading an eBook, subscribing to a newsletter, or requesting a demo, CTAs are your digital sales team.
- Landing Pages: Once a visitor clicks on a CTA, they arrive at a dedicated landing page. It’s here that you collect essential information, such as their name, email, and perhaps even specific details relevant to your offering.
- Forms and Lead Magnets: Make the process seamless with concise, user-friendly forms. The fewer fields to fill, the better. And don’t forget lead magnets—enticing incentives that provide value, like a free trial or exclusive access.
Close: Transforming Leads into Customers
With a treasure trove of leads in your CRM, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and focus on closing the deals.
Lead Nurturing: Not every lead is ready to buy immediately. Implement an effective lead nurturing strategy using automated email sequences to provide relevant content and guide them through their decision-making process.
CRM Integration: A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system becomes your best friend. It helps you track interactions, analyze data, and segment leads for tailored communication.
Sales Enablement: Equip your sales team with the right tools and knowledge to engage and convert leads effectively. A solid content library, email templates, and sales training are invaluable.
Personalization: Leverage the data you’ve gathered to personalize your interactions. Tailored emails and recommendations show your leads that you understand their needs.
Delight: Fostering Long-Term Relationships
Congratulations, you’ve closed the deal. But the inbound journey doesn’t end there. Delighting your customers turns them into promoters of your brand.
Exceptional Customer Service: Offer top-notch customer support and assistance. Happy customers are more likely to refer your business to others.
Surveys and Feedback: Regularly seek feedback from customers to understand their experience better. Use this input to refine your products and services.
Loyalty Programs: Reward loyal customers with exclusive offers, discounts, or early access to new products. This keeps them engaged and feeling valued.
Content for Current Customers: Continue to provide value by sharing helpful content, tutorials, or updates tailored to your existing customers.
Our Conclusion
Inbound marketing’s Convert, Close, Delight strategy is a continuous loop. It not only transforms prospects into customers but also nurtures lasting relationships. By focusing on providing value at every stage, you’ll not only grow your customer base but also create brand advocates who champion your business to others.
Remember, in the world of inbound, it’s not just about selling; it’s about creating a memorable and mutually beneficial journey for all.
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GoViral Case Study: Setting Up an NFT Campaign
As we venture deeper into the Web3 era, many marketers wonder what role NFTs play in their work, and how they can get more hands-on with this new type of digital asset. At GoViral Blockchain we recently tackled these questions for a client, artist Jennifer Strings.
We’re committed to learning from experience, and we invite you to learn along with us.
First things first: Are you still fuzzy on what NFTs are and how they can be useful for marketers? Start with our essential guide, Intro to NFTs for Marketing.
Got the basics down? Great. Let’s go over the process of minting NFTs and listing them for sale.
How to Mint NFTs on OpenSea
Our client, artist Jennifer Strings, created a new collection of stop-motion animations during the COVID-19 pandemic. She wanted to share them with the world as NFTs, so GoViral got to work on the first step of making NFTs available: minting them.
Minting an NFT is another way to say creating an NFT. In simplified terms, minting means converting a digital file (in this case, a stop-motion video) into a digital asset to be stored on blockchain.
Because it is stored in a decentralized database or distributed ledger, the newly minted NFT cannot be edited, modified, or deleted.
OpenSea, which operates the largest NFT marketplace, is the gold standard NFT platform. See the overview below for the steps involved in minting NFTs on OpenSea.
1. Set up a crypto wallet and connect it to OpenSea
In order to mint NFTs on OpenSea, you will need cryptocurrency stored in a crypto wallet.
OpenSea accepts a range of cryptocurrencies, with Ethereum being the most popular. If you don’t already own Ethereum or another accepted currency, get started by buying cryptocurrency on an exchange such as Coinbase or Binance. These exchanges accept “fiat currency” (traditional currency like US Dollars or euros) in exchange for cryptocurrency.
How much do you need to get started? The number can vary based on your goals, your budget, and the ever-changing gas fees. A good range to have in mind is the equivalent of $100-$300 USD.
After purchasing cryptocurrency, choose a crypto wallet for storage. We recommend using MetaMask, the most popular wallet.
2. Create an OpenSea collection
After you’ve connected your crypto wallet to OpenSea, follow the steps below to create a collection:
A. Click the menu icon in the top right corner of the OpenSea homepage.
B. Select “My Collections” from the dropdown menu.
C. Click “Create a collection.”
D. Fill out the form with your collection’s name, description, and other relevant information, including categories and tags to help potential buyers find your work.
E. Choose a Logo Image, Featured Image, and Banner Image for your collection.
F. Choose whether to use your own contract or use the “Lazy Minting” method. If this is your first time minting NFTs, we recommend using Lazy Minting. The benefits include not paying any gas fees until someone buys your work.
G. Click on “Create” to finalize the creation of your collection.
3. Upload your work
You’re in the home stretch! Now it’s time to decide which of your assets you’d like to make available as an NFT in your collection.
Visit your new collection page and click “Add item” to mint and add an NFT.
OpenSea accepts the following file types for the creation of NFTs: JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG, MP4, WEBM, MP3, WAV, OGG, GLB, and GLTF.
How to List NFTs for Sale on OpenSea
Once you’ve uploaded your work to your OpenSea collection, you can list each item for sale. Simply click on the Profile icon on OpenSea and select the NFT you’d like to list from your wallet.
When listing an NFT for sale, you can choose Fixed Price or Auction. There are pros and cons to each.
In general Fixed Price is a good choice for those who are new to OpenSea, don’t want to negotiate on price, and have limited time to monitor the sale.
Auctions can be unpredictable and require more monitoring. Consider choosing Auction if your top priority is generating excitement and having the chance to sell for greater than a chosen list price.
Tips for Campaign Success
Congratulations! If you’ve followed the steps above, you’ve entered the new and exciting world of NFTs. A few more important tips from GoViral to ensure campaign success:
- Tell the story. Use descriptions that hook readers’ interest. Consider creating buyer personas for your work to help understand the mindset of potential buyers.
- Supplement your NFT listings with other digital marketing assets. Take a look at the video introduction to our client Jennifer Strings’ work, which GoViral supported from start to finish.
- Build the buzz. Our client has built an impressive Instagram following, whom she also keeps updated on her NFT listings.
Interested in starting your own NFT campaign? Tell us about your idea and we’ll be in touch.
Top 5 Web Design Trends for 2023
When it comes to your brand’s website, you already know that displaying all the relevant information and appealing to your audience is important, but what about your web design?
With the COVID-19 pandemic redirecting businesses toward more digital and remote work, a surge of new websites have entered an already crowded cyberspace. Competition now is higher than ever.
Regularly updating your website following current web design trends directly affects how your website performs in search results. Here are 5 web design trends to help you stand out online in 2023.
What are Web Design Trends?
A Design Trend is a general direction in which design is changing or developing. Trends “do not necessarily have to be new; they can take references from the past or they might be new in the domain of interest, e.g. the field of design.” This is especially true for web design.
We use web design trends to interpret what’s happened before and to predict what will happen in the future, with a focus on evolving technology. Your website should be updated at least every two to three years and follow new design trends to captivate your audience and beat the competition in the rankings.
Why is it Important to Follow Trends?
There are many reasons why following web design trends helps your website rise to the top of Google’s organic search and grow your online audience. An updated website lets Google know the information is relevant, which will cause Google to show your website to a wider audience. Consistent updates also let your audience know they can trust your content and your business.
Here are three key reasons to update your website design regularly:
1. Regular updates let Google know that your website is up-to-date and trustworthy. In Google’s eyes, websites left for years without design updates are more likely to have information that is out of date and not valuable to the user.
2. Web design trends tend to focus on newly available technology. Animations, scrolling effects, etc. are all advancements that can enhance the user experience and increase your visibility. Using innovative ways to direct the user down your website’s UX path shows users that you are bringing them the best experience possible, while creating value for your brand.
3. Fresh design is a great way to expand your customer base. 81% of people research a business online before purchasing a product or ordering a service. Updating your design to reflect current trends will bring you new and returning visitors you may have otherwise missed. With a whopping 94% of global users expressing distrust for outdated websites, it’s a no brainer!
Top 5 Web Design Trends to Follow in 2023
1. Embedded Videos for Engaging Homepages
It is more important than ever to keep users on your website for as long as possible. Showing video content on your homepage grabs the user’s attention and begins the engagement with your website right away. It’s also a great way to summarize your business and brand and show the user why they should continue to scroll through your site.
2. Gradient Color Schemes
We’ve seen this trend slowly emerging since Instagram rebranded their logo in 2016. The gradient they used made their logo more engaging and better looking on retina displays, much like gradients seen on websites.
Gradient color schemes, like the one shown above for our client PharmaLedger, have now become a top trend. Attracting customers to a new, modern looking page with eye-catching gradients will do wonders for your shareability and brand presence.
3. Hover Animations
With an increased focus on engagement, hover animations are becoming increasingly popular. These were commonly used in the past to keep the user subtly engaged throughout the website experience.
However, now we are seeing hover animations used for larger reveals and more frequently, all to keep the user entertained and following the user/buyer journey.
4. Dynamic Landing Pages and Responsive Web Design
We will discuss responsive web design later in the post; however, this incredible combination is worthy to note twice. Creating a dynamic landing page is notably one of the rising web design trends of 2023. A dynamic landing page involves one web page divided into various sections that give the user your key information related to your business. The responsive web design both gives you a better mobile user experience and includes animations, interactive features, and generally engaging content that is visually stimulating and gets to the point, so your viewers have the best experience possible.
5. Parallax Scrolling
Parallax scrolling adds depth to your page and keeps the reader engaged with the moving content as they scroll.
When the user scrolls down the page, videos and images with a parallax effect can appear to be placed behind neighboring sections of the website. This is visually stimulating, engaging, responsive, and allows the user to be entertained and interested in moving forward with your site and your brand.
Three Easy Ways to Keep Your Website Design Up to Date
Practice 1: Have a Responsive Web Design
Responsive web design allows a website to adjust to any screen size. With 92% of internet users using a mobile phone, it’s important to have a website that looks amazing at any size.
Some companies opt for two separate websites, but why spend the money hosting two different sites when you could simply make your web design responsive? Your customer base is important, so don’t let it dwindle because the mobile version of your website isn’t updated.
Practice 2: Keep Content Relevant and Updated
Remember that Google will give higher rankings to websites that are regularly updated. Make sure your content is relevant and engaging because your online presence relies heavily on the user engaging with your website and spending time viewing your pages. Some ways to keep your site updated with engaging content are blog posts, removing and adding products or services, and a calendar of current events.
Practice 3: Track Your Stats
Tracking your website statistics allows you to notice and quickly follow new trends or cultural signals. Don’t just wait for trends to appear online, make sure you stay ahead of the competition by monitoring metrics related to conversion optimization, user-experience, product development, and page views to truly gain insight into your audience.
Does Every Business Need to Focus on Website Design Trends?
While every business is unique and has different brand requirements, keeping your website up to date and in line with new design trends and advancements will be sure to help you achieve the visibility you need in a quickly growing digital environment.
Building a Digital Trust Ecosystem with Blockchain
Although we are connected through the digital world now more than ever, the term digital trust isn’t new. Digital trust refers to online security and data protection, usually in terms of how companies are collecting and using our personal data.
Customers are increasingly more aware and more interested in privacy policies and how their data is being used on the Internet. We all want to avoid having our personal data stolen or used in a way that we haven’t consented to. The number of incidents where data is mishandled is alarming, and this fosters mistrust among customers, which isn’t good for business.
It’s important to build digital trust within your company and assure customers that their data is safe and secure. In this article, you’ll learn more about what digital trust and a Digital Trust Ecosystem (DTE) is. We will also give you some examples of companies implementing digital trust at its core, and how blockchain technology fits into all of this.
What Is Digital Trust?
Digital trust is the “ability of an organization to inspire confidence within their digital ecosystem about their intent and capability to deliver the promised services.” Your business needs to be trusted by customers in order to succeed in the long run. Without trust, customers will run to another company with more secure offerings.
One example of how digital trust is implemented can be seen in Subex, a company devoted to digital trust that provides solutions to the world’s top 50 telephone companies. As you can see in their model, digital trust is a multi-layer matrix that works across various processes and systems. Digital trust looks different depending on the industry and technology used.
What About a Digital Trust Ecosystem (DTE)?
The technology research company Gartner defines a digital ecosystem as “an interdependent group of actors (enterprises, people, things) sharing standardized digital platforms to achieve a mutually beneficial purpose.” These various entities that are working together are independent, yet collaborating together through digital platforms and solutions.
A Digital Trust Ecosystem (DTE) uses standardized digital solutions that are working together within a trusted network. You can think of it as an intricate web, connecting various companies, people and organizations.
PharmaLedger: A Case Example of Implementing a Digital Trust Ecosystem (DTE)
One of our clients, the PharmaLedger Association (PLA), has built a DTE in healthcare to investigate, develop, and deploy blockchain-enabled solutions. Their philosophy is built on trust, where network participants are encouraged to collaborate and push innovation forward. The DTE is the external framework through which PLA operates.
PLA’s DTE is made up of regulatory authorities, healthcare providers, services providers, distributors and wholesalers, research and academia, insurers and NGO Payers, Biopharma manufacturers, and most importantly, patients.
What does blockchain have to do with a Digital Trust Ecosystem (DTE)?
Some of the key features of blockchain technology are the security provided, the immutability of data (everything stored cannot be changed or tampered with), and the traceability of data. Adding these and many other features of blockchain solutions to your company’s network creates the trust that customers need to do business with you.
Watch the short PharmaLedger Project explainer below to learn more about blockchain technology.
Tell Us About Your Blockchain Project
Are you interested in creating trust in your business with the use of blockchain solutions? If so, our specialized GoViral Blockchain Team can help. We are experts when it comes to inbound marketing, community management, and creating funnels for online sales – but we especially know how to write and create content around blockchain that gets others talking. Tell us about your blockchain idea.
The Importance of Brand Voice
When it comes to distinguishing your brand, having an appealing visual identity and logo surely helps, but what also matters is your brand voice. In order to make your business stand out from the rest and connect with your target market, establishing a brand voice and using it consistently in your marketing strategy is vital.
There’s a reason why a hip brand catering to young adults might use “cool” slogans, or why luxury cars keep it sleek and professional. Your brand voice helps you to make your brand recognizable and reach the right audience.
Let’s talk about what brand voice is and why it’s a good idea to think it through for your brand. We’ll also cover how to create a unique brand voice that you’ll use throughout your communication channels.
What is Brand Voice?
Just like how a personality makes a person unique, a unique brand voice distinguishes a company from its competitors. Brand voice is defined as a personality that your brand consistently communicates. It reflects your brand’s values and serves as a guide on how and what you say when it comes to your marketing strategy. It also helps you connect to your audience and reach potential new customers.
You can think of your company’s brand voice almost as if it were a person. What personality does your brand voice have? What phrases does your brand use? Imagine that your brand is at a dinner party; how would it speak to the other guests?
Why is it important to establish a brand voice?
There is an overload of noise when it comes to advertising and other online content. Individuals and brands are constantly talking through social channels, so it’s important to stand out. Having nice photos, a unique logo and well-thought-out products are all great ways to strengthen your brand, but what you write needs equal care.
Having a consistent brand voice helps differentiate your company while switching up your voice in each post can quickly lead to an unfollow from your customers.
How can you create a unique brand voice?
1. Start with your brand values and mission statement.
Do you need help creating your brand voice? Look at your brand values to determine your voice and how you communicate with your target audience. Make sure that what you promote and say to your audience also reflects your values and mission statement.
Let’s say that your brand named “Green Sea Turtles” sells bright-colored sustainable cleaning products for Gen Z. You value eco-friendliness, have a modern approach and donate 5% of your yearly income to a charity that saves baby sea turtles.
How you communicate to your customers and in what style should also reflect your products. You probably won’t be speaking strictly professionally to your Gen Z customers and the advertising could be directed in a fun, light-hearted manner.
2. Identify your buyer persona to target the right audience.
Making a list of potential customers and writing down their personalities, habits and what they might be interested in is a great way to explore your brand voice.
Knowing that your Gen Z customer for the “Green Sea Turtles” brand is 19 years old, loves to dress in vintage 90s clothing and watches ASMR cleaning videos on TikTok can help you to create your brand voice. Making t-shirts with “God save the sea turtles” slogan and videos promoting your cleaning products showing a Gen Z cleaning her apartment can end with her saying, “Omg so clean, thanks Green Sea Turtles.”
Knowing your buyer persona can also help you to choose the tone of voice that you will use when communicating with your target audience. If you want more tips on how to reach Gen Z customers, read our blog article 5 Tips for Marketing to Gen Z.
3. Keep your brand voice consistent over all social channels.
This includes being consistent on all your social platforms, email communication and even packaging. Think of your brand like a bundle. It would be weird if you communicate your brand in a casual, fun manner and have extremely formal emails like you’re talking to a corporate audience.
One brand that is a great example of keeping its brand voice consistent is Apple. The brand often leaves the wording simple and to the point and adds an eye-catching image to highlight cutting-edge technology. Even their packaging is simple and enjoyable to open, just like how their products are enjoyable to use.
Apple’s advertisement above for the new “unsend” Imessage feature is almost like a short movie. At the end of a message that was unsent, Apple wrote, “Relax, it’s iPhone.”
How do you know your brand voice is working?
Remember, be yourself. One way you know your brand voice is working is if your customers feel as if your company is directly speaking to them, they feel connected to your brand and they feel like they’re part of the conversation.
You can also investigate how your customers are engaging with you online to see if your brand voice is working well. Make sure to read our How You Can Use Social Listening to Improve Your Business blog article to track what others are saying about your brand, and if your brand voice is structured correctly.
Make sure to sign up for our newsletter below for more brand strategy and the latest marketing tips to stay ahead of the competition.
An Introduction to Creator Marketing
You already know that creating engaging content and a well-thought-out marketing strategy helps you grow your business. But one idea that might be new to you is creator marketing, a concept that is shifting how marketers collaborate and create content. When introducing a product or promoting your business, one post with a creator simply no longer suffices. Instead, a larger strategy needs to be set in place.
This article will introduce the concept of the creator economy and creator marketing. You’ll also learn more about the difference between working with a content creator and an influencer.
What is the Creator Economy?
Before we get into creator marketing, let’s look at the background on this topic. The countless social media platforms and content creators active today make up a new landscape on the Internet, which is called the creator economy.
According to the marketing software company HubSpot, the creator economy is the online economy made up of content creators, which includes social media influencers, videographers, bloggers, and other digital creatives. Tools and software that help these creators grow profit from the content are also part of the creator economy.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when many people were at home and had more time to spend time online, the number of active content creators increased. Many soon discovered this content could also generate money. It was estimated there were over 50 million content creators just two years ago. It’s likely this number is even higher today.
Creators use social platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Twitch, just to name a few. If you’re not yet using TikTok to promote your brand, take a look at our blog article Using TikTok for Your Business.
What is Creator Marketing?
Sprout Social defines creator marketing as “when brands partner with content creators to drive awareness and engagement for specific campaigns or initiatives.” By incorporating creator marketing into your strategy, you can greatly improve your audience engagement and reach.
Choosing to work with a content creator can help you strengthen your community or reach new followers, but not all creators are the same:
- Content Creators: produce entertaining or educational content for digital distribution, including audio content (podcasts), written content (blogs), photos/images, and videos (YouTube videos). Content creators know how important it is to build a relationship with their audience, which is important to note when you are looking for someone to collaborate with a creator.
- Social Media Content Creators: similar to content creators, this creator subcategory prioritizes building a relationship with audience members across all social platforms. If you are interested in marketing on various social platforms, it may be beneficial to work with a social media content creator.
One popular content creator is Yoga with Adriene. She creates yoga-workout videos and has brought yoga to many peoples’ homes, especially during the pandemic. She connects well with her following and it is apparent that she has built a strong community behind her brand.
What is the difference between a content creator and an influencer?
It’s important to note that content creators create content, blogs, photos, etc. to make money, while influencers “inspire” followers to buy or to do something. The big difference is the intention behind the content being posted.
Content creators produce high-quality content to engage with their audience through photos and videos, which can include tutorials, how-to guides, etc. Influencers share their lives and promote products, which, if purchased by their following, often bring them a percentage of sales.
Here are some example marketing goals that can help you decide if you should work with a content creator or an influencer.
- Working with a content creator: you want high-quality content and/or want to create a unique project. You’d like to use the creator’s style to present your brand. Digital content creators are usually paid per project and they often offer you a quote based on your request. They can help you create engaging content for marketing purposes or for sale strategies.
- Working with an influencer: you want to reach new audiences and increase brand awareness. You’d also like to promote a new product or service to a special niche group that the influencer targets. Influencers often create packages based on the promotion that you want and the reach that they have.
It’s important to note that choosing to work with a content creator vs. an influencer is not necessarily an either-or situation. It really depends on your marketing strategy and your overall goals.
As always, make sure to stay on top of trends and learn about content creators in your industry. You can find content creators or influencers that interest you by using social listening. Want to learn how? Read our How You Can Use Social Listening to Improve Your Business blog to find out.
Do you want to learn more about social media marketing and get other tips on growing your brand or business? Make sure to sign up for our newsletter below to stay in the loop.
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.
How You Can Use Social Listening to Improve Your Business
Building brand awareness and connecting to customers online requires a holistic approach. Practicing social listening is just as important as creating meaningful content. In this blog post, we will introduce you to this topic and give you some tips on how you can get started on improving your brand through social listening.
What is Social Listening?
According to HootSuite, “Social listening is the practice of monitoring social media channels for mentions of your brand, competitor brands, and related keywords.” You can track any mentions online about your brand or business, which can give you insights into how people are reacting. It can also help you to quickly identify a crisis and react accordingly.
Social listening can help you:
- Understand how your customers feel about your brand/business
- Figure out what you can improve if there are complaints or other negative comments
- Find out what competitors’ customers are talking about and discover trending topics
- Complete all of this in real-time, so you can act fast if needed
Is Social Listening the Same as Social Monitoring?
Social monitoring, or brand monitoring, is when you get notified when your brand or business is mentioned online. This is useful for responding quickly when needed, but it doesn’t give you a whole picture of your brand or the industry you’re focused on.
Social listening is more expansive in that it gives you mentions about not only your brand but also conversations about your competitors, the industry and similar products. This is a more complete picture instead of just snippets related to your brand or business.
Through social listening, you can make better decisions about how to structure your marketing or social media strategy, since you have a clearer picture of all that surrounds your business.
Why You Should Use Social Listening for Your Business
1. Know your audience
By listening to what is being said about your brand or business online, you can better understand what customers want and how you can improve your offering/services.
2. Respond to crisis
If something goes terribly wrong in relation to your brand, you want to find out right away and respond quickly.
3. Build customer relationships
Social media can be a great way to talk to current or potential customers, but your goal doesn’t always have to be about selling something. Build relationships and respond to customers instead of just offering a product or service every time. Share useful information that piques interest instead of strictly pushing what you have to offer.
4. Learn more about your competitors
Social listening can keep you in the loop about what your competitors are doing and give you updates about the latest trends in your industry. This can inspire you to create new products or services.
5. Improve your social media strategy
Listening to your customers, competitors and your industry as a whole can help you create tailored content. You’ll be able to learn more about what your customers want and what content seems to resonate with them. Need help creating meaningful content for your customers? Take a look at our Content Strategies for Different Stages of the Buyer Journey article.
Tips on How You Can Start Social Listening
1. Use the right social listening tools
Depending on what you want to track, make sure to use the right tools. There are various social listening apps that can help you monitor your social channels. Make sure to do your research to choose the right one for your needs.
Buffer, Hootsuite, Google Analytics, Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics are just a few that are worth looking into.
2. Create a Social Listening Strategy
You should structure your social listening and treat it as a project. Aside from monitoring tags or direct messages, monitor variations of your brand or business name, and the founder or other public figures associated with your brand.
3. Monitor your competitors
And not just the happy customers from your competitors, but keep an eye out for unhappy customers. What are they saying? How can you cater to them? You could find solutions to their problems.
We hope this introduction to social listening was helpful for you and that you can get started using these tips right away. There are so many opportunities to connect to your existing and potential customers by using social media and the various social listening tools available.
Want to connect with your audience, and get paid for it? Make sure to read more in our article Facebook & Instagram Subscriptions Feature: How to Make the Most of It.
Introducing GoViral in 90: How to Expand Your Network and Grow Your Business
Are you looking for new ways to build your business? Do you need more clients but hate reaching out for sales calls? Introducing GoViral in 90, a free resource and accountability check to help you connect with 90 people in 90 days and supercharge your professional life.
After nearly two decades of living in Europe, GoViral Managing Director Belinda Filippelli embarked on a journey to generate more business. The question? What could you achieve if you committed to having 90 meetings in 90 days?
After connecting with 90 people, what inspiration could you find? How would you refine your brand vision and what could you modify, cut, or add to your marketing strategy?
How much could your sales grow?
Read on to see why GoViral in 90 works, what we’ve learned, and how the challenge could help change the game for you, too.
Why 90 Meetings in 90 Days?
The business world is large and competition can be fierce. How do you stand out in the crowd and find the people your brand can truly help? We believe an old-fashioned face-to-face meeting (in person or virtually) can work wonders for your confidence, clarity of vision, and relationships.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, solopreneur, or freelancer, chances are you want more clients and business opportunities. Perhaps you’ve lost more customers than you’ve gained in recent years. Or maybe you’re spinning your wheels–-maintaining business as usual, but not moving forward.
In a word, you’re stuck.
We created GoViral in 90 to help you break free of stagnancy by reconnecting with yourself and others and clarifying your understanding of what your business seeks to do, and why.
Why does it work? Because sales is about relationships.
Committing to 90 meetings in 90 days seems like a tall order, but don’t panic! It’s not about reaching 90 exactly, or about making a sale during each meeting.
This is about sharing your passion.
When you share your passion, you show people what motivates you and why you’re in business.
Belinda’s industry knowledge bears this out. Over more than ten years, her agency GoViral Digital has focused on an inbound, brand-love marketing approach that sees customers as people and leads as an opportunity to build a relationship.
Here’s what Belinda had to say about her own 90-day journey: “It’s a big challenge to do 90 meetings in 90 days, and there were many times I wanted to give up. But the fact that I committed myself to the process, to my own business, and to my own beliefs made it much more than a business development exercise. It really became a personal development exercise.”
We’re not here to sugarcoat the GoViral in 90 process, but we are here to give you the tools and motivation needed to take on the challenge.
Even if you know your buyer personas by heart, meeting with real people can help you refine them further, identify blind spots, and connect the dots between their needs and your offerings.
Join us on the journey!
We’re not selling anything. GoViral in 90 is a 100% free accountability-check challenge to level-up your brand and your professional skills.
Some of the benefits of completing this challenge:
- Expand Your Network: engage with people and communities you normally wouldn’t
- Improve Your Pitch: learn to pitch to different audiences, and feel confident while doing it
- Grow Your Business: turn connections into ongoing conversions
- Better Yourself: commit to yourself and your business and gain the confidence to achieve new heights
When you sign up, we’ll send you weekly emails for six weeks with step-by-step instructions and helpful tips. By the end, you’ll be ready to start your own 90 Meetings in 90 Days journey.
What are you waiting for? Get started today!
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