Holiday season is widely known to be a critical period for virtually all retailers. Every year companies spend hundreds of hours and millions of dollars to ensure they increase shopper's interest and that sales go up.
You can leverage their ad spend by extracting the success factors from this year's holiday campaigns.
Here's how to do that based on 3 older campaigns.
3 EXAMPLES OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
One of the most compelling campaigns was Hewlett-Packard's Listen 2U. The campaign was a game changer in terms of how social media was utilized as a corporate advertising platform. Listen 2 U is a website dedicated to young people which allows them to direct, edit and post their own videos to the site for the chance to win Hewlett-Packard products like a Notebook or Desktop computer.
Colgate's social media campaign to promote their Wisp disposable breath-freshening toothbrush was also among one of the effective and far-reaching campaigns to be developed . Colgate's search for the most kissable person in America was advertised on Twitter, Facebook and Vimeo and garnered millions of views. This increased the amount of attention the product got and also increased consumer spending in a measurable way.
Another memorable advertising campaign that made use of social media was Nike's viral video campaign featuring faux-voyeuristic videos taken by a new neighbor of Kevin Durant. The videos were revealed to be a marketing ploy by Nike but they were very effective in driving traffic to the site and in showing consumer dedication to the brand.
WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM THESE CAMPAIGNS
- User-generated content:
integrate marketing reviews and ratings across the board. These play a role in helping consumers make valuable purchase decisions and will increase the odds that they will buy from you and remain a customer. Those last minute shoppers don’t necessarily want to research to find reviews about an eRetailer they’ve never heard of. Make the reviews accessible on the site, taking a lesson from the Amazons and Walmarts of the eCommerce world. - E-mail marketing:
Continue to send email blasts to consumers post purchase. Suggest additional items they might like, and customize the e-mails as best you can to target your efforts. - Cross platform branding consistency:
Keep consistency between your Facebook page and your website, in addition to across the board on any social media site you use for your marketing efforts. - Interactivity a must:
Allow customers "likes" to be visible both on your Facebook page and on your website, ensuring that customer’s reviews and feelings about a product or service will be visible to new people browsing on your sites. - Track everything:
Make sure you have Google Analytics set up properly to track conversions during the busiest time of year. Use this information to better target your messaging next year, and perform a bit of conversion optimization on your site. Don’t forget about tagging when doing e-mail marketing campaigns as well. - Presence:
Above all make sure that the customer’s voice is as present on your site, on your Facebook page and on your Twitter account as possible. Helping a customer feel connected to a brand is one of the best ways to increase their spending, and having prospective buyers see how satisfied current customers are will only help in making that final buying decision.
What examples of successful social media strategies have you seen, and what tips do you have for readers?