Tips for Successful Holiday Marketing Campaigns

It's no longer a question of either-or. Savvy entrepreneurs know that both email and social media are important parts of a successful marketing strategy. Using the right tools to get the right message to the right facebook social media marketing audience is critical over the holidays, when businesses and organizations are pulling out all the stops to capture consumers’ attention and dollars.So how can you engage customers when competition is so fierce? Here’s some good news for small businesses on a budget: Social media extends the life and reach of your email marketing campaigns. It empowers marketers to better engage their audiences, and gives customers the means to share content and offers with their networks. If email gets your message heard, then social media spreads the message even farther.Here's how to extend your email marketing reach and add some social spice to your holiday campaigns. Before you start spreading the cheer, keep these seven tips in mind.And brands that combined social media mentions with billboard advertising increased sales by one and a half times.What are the implications of this study? First, it suggests that those who employ social content should increase customer and prospect exposure in order to impact sales and brand perception. Even more important, the report shows that integrating other media channels into your content results in the biggest impact on consumers.Use surveys, loyalty program tracking and coupons when evaluating the sales impact of your social content. Don’t depend solely on direct clicks. By monitoring your social media closely, disadvantages of social media marketing you can also discover and remedy any negative press about your brand, product or service, because these certainly affect brand perception. In fact, Taco Bell had a 220 percent lower shift in consumer perception of the chain providing a “great dining experience,” a direct result of a socially charged news cycle involving ingredients used in Taco Bell’s meat products around the time of the study.

Create valuable content to share

Your email subscribers and social followers won't share content just for the sake of sharing. But they will share content that interests and entertains them, shows them you're listening, solves their problems, and improves their lives. hotel social media marketing And around the holidays, everyone is looking for a great offer, whether it's a clever gift idea, an awesome deal, or a money-saving coupon.You should also plan your social content in a manner that best emphasizes the qualities with which you want the public to be aware. The goal is to reinforce your brand’s uniqueness, and that means promoting broad discussion on your brand in order to keep your social content fresh and up-to-date.The building at 4565 N. Elston Ave. on Chicago's Northwest Side has a black-painted brick facade and opaque windows. There is no sign, so you would never guess that the business inside is one of Chicago's busiest up-and-coming craft breweries--Finch's Beer Co.The lack of a sign might also make you think the guy who runs Finch's doesn't know the first thing about branding and marketing, but there you'd be wrong about Ben Finch. Before getting into the business of hops and barley, Finch co-founded The Killswitch Collective, the cutting-edge Chicago creative agency that has done design work for the likes of MTV.The absence of signage hasn't hurt Finch's Beer. It garnered much local buzz and had a long list of bars awaiting tap handles even before it filled its first keg last spring, thanks to an early, aggressive marketing strategy heavily reliant on social media." atlanta social media marketing From day one I decided that a lot of the marketing effort would be focused on social media," Finch says. "When you look at how beer brands are marketed, the big ones may do a lot through other media, but that is not an option for a craft brewery. It wasn't an economic decision--it was just the best way for us to build a hard-core following."

Include a social call to action

When you start a conversation, request feedback, or make a promotional offer via email, the next step is to drive your audience to social destinations and engage them. Make it clear to your email readers what you want them to do next. how to do social media marketing It may be to "Like" you on Facebook to get a coupon, follow you and retweet an offer on Twitter to be eligible for a prize, or continue a hot-topic holiday discussion elsewhere.The social media effort began many months before the brewing, as the company used Facebook and Twitter to build brand buzz, share photos of the brewery's construction phases and give local bars shout-outs through a "Daily Social Love" post, which no doubt endeared Finch's to many would-be partners.To manage its social media activity, the company uses Sprout Social, a platform Finch learned of when Killswitch became one of Sprout's early test groups. Finch digs in to Sprout reports to gauge the company's traction and following, but otherwise keeps the strategy simple.Social to me is as DIY as marketing gets," he says. "You don't have to have a ton of experience and practice to use it. There's no 'right' recipe. As a small business, you just need to start interacting with your customers.For Finch, social media is just one facet of an old-fashioned marketing philosophy. "We don't have people finding us through social," he says. "They find us through word-of-mouth. If I go to a bar where we're on tap and talk to someone, they become a fan and tell 10 of their friends about us. I'm still a big believer in word-of-mouth.Not having a name on the door is Finch's way of proving that personal interaction with customers is still an important notion. social media marketing trends After all, plenty of people have managed to find the brewery--the neighborhood folks who showed up for an informal Memorial Day barbecue Finch announced through Twitter, the throngs who have signed up for brewery tours advertised through Facebook and the beer enthusiasts who have taken a home-brewing class Finch's hosted via community learning marketplace Dabble.