"Social Media Gurus" love to make online marketing complicated. Self-proclaimed "Social Marketing Mavens" will mystify and archetype and buzz word at you until your head is spinning.
Here on Bits + Pieces, we like simple answers to real-life questions. Today I’m answering common question:
“How do I launch a successful campaign?”
Step 1: You need the right tool for the job.
Like trying to bake a cupcake in the freezer, there’s no sense devoting marketing resources to an online campaign if you’re not using the right apps.
The choice can be overwhelming. The Tradable Bits platform alone has 28 apps to help you market your business online. But there are three essential things to look for when making a decision. Your app must be:
- Socially interactive: People listen to their friends. Make sure your campaign is easily shared, mobile-friendly and clearly “clickable”. (Psst! - all of our apps have these features built in)
- Open Graph enabled: “Open Graph” is the fancy word for “Posts linking back to your app appear on your fans’ friends News Feed when fans interact with your app”. It's what makes campaigns go viral. When a potential client sees that 10 of their friends have claimed your deal, chances are they’ll check it out.
- Relevant to you: Photo contests and pet-lovers, Tug of War and sports fanatics, good wine and brie cheese… some things were made for each other. Use an app that makes sense for your audience. We're here to help you find that app. Contact us for a friendly, stress-free chat about your campaign ideas.
Step 2: Use your existing social connections
Once you've chosen your app and set it up, it’s time to launch! On Day One of your campaign, tell your existing connections you’re hosting a promotion and ask for their help to spread the word.
Launch Day tasks:
- Post links to your app using the External/Mobile link on all of your social networks.
- Write different posts for each media. Your Twitter users are different than your LinkedIn users. It’s worth the extra 10 minutes to speak to your audiences personally. Trust me - they'll thank you for it.
- Clearly ask your fans to share. Your followers like you. They’ll help you out if you ask nicely.
Step 3: Speak directly to your audience
Social media was your broadcast. Now it’s time to get personal.
Following the “2.5 day rule”, wait 2-3 days after posting to your social profiles to send your email blast. By now, your social media posts are getting stale and it’s time to personally remind your fans that you’d like them to participate.
Include these essentials in your email:
- A captivating headline: Make your headline unique, relevant and curiosity-sparking. If your subject line's boring, you’ll get sent to the Trash folder faster than you can say “Spam”.
- Mobile-friendly design: Over 75% of email is viewed on a mobile device. Even if your banner looks beautiful on your computer, your campaign's kaput if it doesn’t work on your fan’s new iPhone.
- A clear call-to-action: Tell your fans exactly what they need to do after they’ve finished reading your short, personal and thoroughly proofread email. I bet they'll do it!
Step 4: Expand your reach
After about 2-3 more days you'll see your activity spike start to plateau. This is the perfect time to expand the reach of your campaign and finish strong by sending out targeted ads.
Three types of Facebook ads you can run are:
- Promoted post: A post that you publish to your business Page is given “paid reach”, or is seen by more Facebook users (who like your Page or are in a target group), depending on how much money you spend.
- Sidebar/Newsfeed ads: Ads specifically created for sidebar or newsfeed placement that are auctioned on the Facebook Exchange system, where you bid for your ad to be shown to a target audience.
- Sponsored stories: Paying for a fan’s action (“Emily liked Tradable Bits”) to be seen more frequently in their friends’ news feeds.
If you've launched a campaign with a Tradable Bits app before and have Fan CRM, you can target your ads to the participants in your last campaign and their friends. Contact us for help with custom audiences for Facebook ads.
Spending even a little money on ads will take your campaign that much farther and keep it active for the entire ideal 10-day run time.
And there you have it! Your campaign is successfully launched in four easy steps.