When thinking about Marketing Online sometimes it is easy to go for the option of just running a paid campaign to promote your business however this doesn’t always give you a cost effective answer should it be via Google or Facebook. The key issue with most of these types of paid marketing campaigns is that they are not targeted enough. Thinking in some more depth about the type of person you are trying to target and why they will react to your campaign can sometimes increase the response hugely.

Looking at a typical scenario you could target everyone who is in a relationship on Facebook with a valentine’s advert which is generic. However this creates a weak connection and just feels like you are selling. Instead consider the alternative: Creating a funny or slightly controversial campaign about targeting men who always leave it till last minute to get something sorted with some amazing offer that is only available to them creates a connection and something they can relate to. That gives a much stronger impact from a brand. Also do men react more to valentine’s adverts more than women? It may sound stereotypical to suggest that however if that’s what the figures show then it means money well spent on your valentines digital marketing campaign, which makes sense.

So for Valentines ideas what can you do as a small to medium size business who connects to a consumer market?

The Idea

You could try a few of the following elements:

1. Sell an offer or discount. If someone is to book in advance, an early bird discount may be a good option. The good points of this are cash upfront (if you are taking a deposit), you are also advertising to a market early, to people who are less likely to have made a purchase beforehand so have less reason not to buy from you. The bad points are that you are devaluing your product so by offering a discount taking less revenue may be something you do not wish to do. Also you may be advertising to people too early who have not had time to think about the seasonal event so have decided to ignore the majority of advertising at this point.
2. Create a sense of urgency. You may only have a few products or tables left at your restaurant and want to let people know this is the case, urging them to book sooner than they would have done otherwise. By creating this sense of urgency you are triggering a fear factor that they will be unable otherwise to get the thing they want. The good aspect to this is that you are not having to discount something to sell it, instead you are increasing its perceived value due to popularity.
3. Do something different. What does your package product or service offer that is different to other businesses or venues? Does it include something more than what the competition is offering? Does it offer a free bottle with the meal? Does it have more value? Do they get 4 courses rather than the standard 3? To increase the price someone is prepared to pay you need to increase its perceived value which is something marketing does really well.

The integration with digital

So now we have the ideas we need to integrate this into digital and get the message across. We can do that via social media, email marketing, the website, however which is best? We feel that all need to work collectively to create a consistent message across the entire brand. So why not design some eye catching graphics or video to complement your offering and then push it out to your audience? They might see it once on your website, again on your Facebook page and then again in an email another couple of days later. This sort of consistent marketing is likely to be more effective than focusing on just one social media channel. This means you can do the following:

• Send out an email – drive people who have subscribed to your website and or social media pages.
• Design website banners – showcase your offering on the front page of your website, that’s what it is there for!
• Data capture – collect information of people who are interested for future marketing
• Post correctly sized Facebook graphics which are consistent with everywhere your advertising appears. This includes your Facebook cover, and posts within the page.
• Run a sponsored (targeted) Facebook campaign.
• Send out a text message campaign – yes this still works and the open rate can be great.

All channels need to advertise all channels.

Drive each person from each area to another, from your website to email and social and from social to email and the website and from email to the website and social. This keeps people connected to you at more points so that the message is delivered more frequently and you stay connected with them as their communication preferences change.

Expect Best have experience in working in all these areas and can provide a package around an email campaign, Facebook graphics, and website banners probably for less than you might think, we will also throw in an extended strategy so contact us today if you would like to know more.