HOLIDAY PLANNING GUIDE for Social Marketers

Transcription

1 2017 HOLIDAY PLANNING GUIDE for Social Marketers

2 INTRODUCTION With holiday season just around the corner, it is important for social marketers to prepare their social marketing strategies for the busiest time of the year. Whether you are a retail brand looking to increase engagement and drive sales during the busy holiday season, or you are a B2B company hoping to influence end-of-year budgets and generate new business, this guide will walk you through the necessary steps to implement and analyze your most successful holiday campaigns. In this guide, you will learn: How to use social listening to understand customer intent and conversation during the planning process The core components of a successful holiday campaign How to optimize decisions and measure performance of your social media content during the holiday season How conversion tracking can help you identify your best-performing pieces of content and their business value This guide includes the Simply Measured Social Metrics Map - Holiday Edition, along with our content planning worksheets, to assist you in planning and implementing your holiday campaigns and guiding your customers through the entire sales funnel Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 2

3 ANALYZE PAST CAMPAIGNS: Your First Step in Holiday Planning What Can We Learn From Past Campaigns? Begin by looking at your historical data and how your social profiles performed during previous holiday seasons. The insight gained from past social campaigns can inform a more strategic and effective holiday campaign by telling you which type of content resonates the most, what messaging works best, and which platforms will lead to the highest levels of engagement. Below is a screenshot using Simply Measured Social Analytics for Gymboree s social profiles. Gymboree, a children s clothing retailer, is most active on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Here s what the data tells us. In December 2016, Gymboree s social profiles received 50,322 total engagements, including comments, likes, and shares. From the graph above, we can identify peak engagement days and can determine any trends in engagement based on the date content was shared and the social network it was shared on. Below are Gymboree s top-performing social posts during the month of December Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 3

4 Gymboree experienced peak engagement on December 23rd, attributed to a post asking users to ask their daughters which outfit they d prefer to wear. Polls are a great way to increase engagement, as audiences are often eager to share their input. Gymboree also incentivized the poll and offered a $50 gift card to a lucky winner. This particular Facebook post pulled in 5,704 interactions between the Gymboree brand and their followers. Gymboree leveraged eager parents, and their excitement to showcase their children, to increase engagement on their social media accounts during the busy holiday season. Below are two user responses to Gymboree s request for feedback on two of their seasonal outfits. Responses like these are a great way to increase engagement because they are user-generated meaning limited effort on the brand s behalf and every post shared by Gymboree s following increases their reach and brand awareness Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 4

5 What Will Social Listening Do For My Holiday Campaign? The holidays are one of the busiest and loudest times of the year, especially on social media. With the amount of noise circulating in the social sphere, it s important to listen to your audience and join in on conversations that they find important tailoring your social strategy to meet their needs and what they care about. By actively listening to your audience, you are limiting the risk of sending out content that gets lost in an overcrowded, oversaturated social space. As you prepare your social campaigns for the holiday seasons and start listening to your audience, be sure to listen in on conversations specific to the holiday you are planning for. Monitor conversations for a specific holiday Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Independence Day, etc. so that you can easily identify relevant, popular conversations related to your brand, industry, or products and other offerings. Social listening will help you understand which content people are naturally sharing and is a helpful brainstorm resource in case you run into any creative roadblocks during the holidays. Here s what actively listening to your audience on social can do for you as you prepare your 2017 holiday campaigns. Identify Trending Topics of Conversation Social listening can be as broad or as specific as you desire and is an essential step toward building your most effective 2017 holiday campaign. You can strategically listen to various conversations based on the particular holiday you are planning for, the specific location your are targeting, the industry or sector of your business, or can jump in on conversations specific to your brand and its offerings. By Holiday When people start talking about the holidays, their conversations on social can provide a lot of insight into the type of content that will resonate most with your audience. The word cloud below showcases the most-used hashtags related to the 2017 holiday season. From this word cloud, we can determine that in addition to the bigger holidays like Halloween and Christmas, there are specific topics within those broader conversations that can inform a more strategy social campaign Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 5

6 For example, in addition to using the #Halloween hashtag in their conversations, people are also using #HalloweenCostumes, #HalloweenParty, and #Price. We can conclude that Halloween sparks a lot of conversation around the party aspect of the holiday, the best costumes to wear, and where to find the best deals on costumes for the right price. By Location Below is a screenshot from Simply Measured Listening, showcasing a wordcloud of all of the hashtags used most-often when people are talking about Seattle on social media. In the past few months, social users have been talking about the #sunshine the #PNW has been experiencing this #summer. Using these hashtags in posts, along with some of the other popular keywords, or creating content related to these popular topics, can help spread your brand message to your local audiences Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 6

7 By Industry, Sector, or Specialty If you are looking to explore broader conversations related to your industry or sector, be sure to identify keywords or hashtags you think will provide you with the most insight into the interests of your audience. For example, some keywords or hashtags that Gymboree can monitor related to retail and children s clothing might include #kidsfashion, #kidsclothes, or #babyclothes. The #kidsclothes hashtag was used over 1,300 times between August 13 and September 10, Using Simply Measured Listening, we can identify who the main conversation drivers are, and determine other trending topics related to kids clothing that we can leverage in our own content Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 7

8 By Brand Using social listening solutions, you can easily identify the most popular hashtags or keywords that people are using when talking about your brand. Using Simply Measured, we were able to identify popular hashtags used when people talk about the Gymboree brand. The hashtags #kidgoals and #giveaway are used frequently with brand. This is because Gymboree s social campaigns often include product giveaways as incentive for the audience to share, comment, or create. By Product or Offering As you focus your social listening to your specific brand offerings, you can gain insight into what people are saying about your product, and can identify any other hashtags used alongside your brand s products. Using Simply Measured Listening, we can determine which posts saw the most engagement during specific time periods. Using Simply Measured Listening, we discovered Gymboree s most popular posts between October and December of 2016, some of the busiest holiday months of the year. We can pinpoint Gymboree s most popular posts, by platform, and view each post s total engagement which is further broken down into replies, shares, and likes Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 8

9 On October 16, Gymboree posted a picture of their new product, Halloween-themed Gymmies. This Facebook post asked families to share their favorite Halloween film for a chance to win $150 to purchase their new Gymmies. This post received nearly 1,700 likes and more than 2,700 comments. As Gymboree starts planning their holiday campaign for 2017, they can use social listening solutions to identify important topics of conversation that can help them boost their brand conversation, increase engagement, and create a social strategy that will reach the right audience at the right time Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 9

10 Elements of an Effective Holiday Campaign In order to create your most effective holiday campaign to date, here are the key elements your campaign needs to make the biggest impact possible this holiday season. Clear Objectives and Goals Great marketers will always set clear objectives before planning or implementing a new social campaign. Objectives can vary greatly depending on the industry or the brand. For example, some brands want to tailor their holiday campaigns to increase customer retention, while others are focused on amplifying reach in the marketplace. Your objectives can be fairly broad, but should be the guiding principle behind the rest of your campaign plan. At Simply Measured, we use the Objective and Key Results (OKR) Method to identify broad objectives that are supplemented with specific, numbers-driven key results that align with our predetermined success metrics. These success metrics could reflect engagement metrics including shares, likes, and comments, or could focus on conversion tracking to determine business value of shared content. Here s what a holiday objective could look like for your brand: Objective Key Results Increase web traffic driven from social media during the 2017 holiday season. Increase unique page visits by 10% in Q4 the busiest holiday months (October, November and December). Average 100 likes on every Facebook and Instagram post between October and December. Your main objective above is to increase web traffic driven from social media. Success for this objective will be determined by the number of unique page visits and the web sessions attributed to the holiday season. Your key results should define what metrics you will analyze, what success looks like, and how you will determine if your campaign has positively impacted overall business objectives Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 10

11 A Detailed Plan After you ve determined your objectives and key results, you can start building out a detailed plan that outlines your target audience, the type of content you will produce, where it will be shared, and any resources or budget you need to implement the plan. To help make the campaign planning a bit easier, we ve constructed campaign planning worksheets for social marketers to use that align with where their customers are in each stage of the buyer s journey. This particular worksheet is specific for top-of-funnel marketing efforts during the awareness stage, and helps outline the specific goal of the campaign, which call to action to use, where to share content, the type of content being created, who are the target personas, and which social conversations to join Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 11

12 Optimize Decisions and Measure Performance of Holiday Campaign Content 1. Identify Your Relevant KPI s Whether you are more focused on the number of web visits driven from social media, the total number of engagements on your social posts, or the number of new subscribers to your blog, you need to identify which key performance indicators (KPI s) are most important to the success of your holiday campaign. Once you ve identified your KPI s (similar to the key results section of the OKR Method), be sure to run constant and consistent analysis to ensure you are working towards achieving them. 2. Establish Your Baseline Earlier in this guide, we discussed the importance of looking at historical data and past campaigns as a starting point to building out an effective holiday campaign. The data you collect from past campaigns should serve as your baseline moving forward, to help you understand the value of your social campaigns. Analyzing past brand performance will help you establish more effective strategies in your 2017 holiday campaign. Above is a screenshot from Simply Measured Social Analytics, where we analyzed the content shared by Coca-Cola on their Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter profiles between October and December of From this data, we can identify which content types receive the highest levels of engagement, which channels produce the best results, and which specific posts Coca-Cola can resemble, revive, or repurpose in their 2017 holiday campaign. Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 12

13 3. Create a Reporting Cadence Setting up a reporting cadence requires you to answer the following questions so that you re not making mid-campaign, gut-based decisions and are reporting only relevant information to your key stakeholders: How often are you going to analyze your performance? Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Who will receive reporting deliverables at specific moments on the campaign timeline? CMO at the end of the quarter / end of the campaign Marketing Director or Marketing Manager at weekly check-in points When will your post-mortem report be ready? Immediately following the end of the campaign After the conclusion of the holiday season Track Your Content to Determine Business Value As your holiday campaign gains momentum, it is important to track your content so that you know which types of content are not only producing the highest levels of engagement from your audience, but are also contributing to your bottom line and adding value to your business. Using Simply Measured Conversion Tracking, you can connect the dots between dollars and outcome by identifying what are your most profitable forms of content, and where they are being shared most often (including dark social channels). Conversion tracking helps you determine the exact value of your social efforts and the channels that are generating the most business value based on how your page visits translate into conversions. Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 13

14 Using Simply Measured Conversion Tracking, you can connect the dots between dollars and outcome by identifying what are your most profitable forms of content, and where they are being shared most often (including dark social channels). Conversion tracking helps you determine the exact value of your social efforts and the channels that are generating the most business value based on how your page visits translate into conversions. Simply Measured Conversion Tracking also helps you identify which types of offers are creating the most business value. The brand below can determine that their gated content is shared most often through Facebook and contributes roughly $2,000 in business value. While gated content is also being shared through Twitter and dark social channels, Facebook is really the bread and butter for that specific type of content. Social data helps you focus down your social strategy so that you are investing in the right content, to be shared through the right channels. If you can determine which content types and channels are generating the most business value, you can better prepare your holiday campaigns Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 14

15 Increase Brand Awareness This Holiday Season A common goal for holiday campaigns on social media is to increase brand awareness. Increasing your brand s awareness through social media can help build a stronger, more robust customer base, and while your brand may be able to organically reach a large audience, there are a few ways you can increase the chances of getting noticed on social during the busy holiday season. 1. Monitor Earned Mentions for Hashtags Actively listening and monitoring your target audience on social media will provide insight into what people are already saying about your brand or industry. Be sure to monitor your brand on a daily basis and pick a unique hashtag that will not get lost in all of the holiday noise. 2. Measure Across Social Channels While your brand may only be active on one or two primary networks, it is still important to monitor other networks around holiday topics. If your brand is only on Twitter and Facebook, it could still be beneficial for you to check out what is engaging audiences on Instagram to help with content creation ideas and to understand if there are other social channels that could greatly benefit your brand if invested in wisely Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 15

16 Even if your brand isn t on all social channels, you can still gauge the sentiment of your brand using Simply Measured Listening, by social channel. If sentiment is generally higher on one platform than another, but your brand doesn t engage on that specific channel, that positive sentiment could be a good indicator that your brand is missing out on engaging with an audience that are already fans of your brand. 3. Find Influencers Around Your Hashtags If you are searching for influencers to help boost your performance on social media, start by identifying those voices on social that are engaging with your brand, your hashtags, or holidayrelevant hashtags. Influencers can help you increase brand awareness, can generate unique content on behalf of your brand, and can ultimately influence the purchasing decisions of their followings by providing suggestions and positively promoting your brand. Using Simply Measured Listening, you can segment users who have engaged with your brand based on the total number of engagements they were able to generate from their followings including likes and shares or by the sentiment of their posts regarding your brand Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 16

17 4. Generate Content Based on Audience Interest Using a social listening solution, you can identify trending topics of conversation either related to your brand, your industry, or the holidays in general. While exploring the general hashtag #holidays using Simply Measured Listening, we can see that #decorations was used 20 times. This informs us that an important topic related to the holidays is decorations - people are talking about holiday decorations and are most likely craving information related to the best types of holiday decorations for their own homes. Determine Revenue from Your Social Campaigns From our 2017 State of Social Media Marketing Report, we found that measuring and reporting on ROI continues to be the biggest challenge for social marketers, year after year. With Simply Measured Conversion and Share Tracking, you can identify which channels are generating the most business value for your brand and which types of content are your biggest drivers of revenue. The Biggest Challenges Social Marketers Face in 2017 You can optimize your social campaigns by aligning your efforts based on business value, but first you need to identify your drivers of business value, like: Form fills Free trials Downloads Newsletter subscribers Webinar registrations 2017 Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 17

18 Simply Measured Conversion Tracking also provides insight into where your content is being shared most, either through the networks themselves or through dark social channels, and places exact value on those efforts so that you can identify your most profitable social channels and can adjust your social strategies accordingly. From the data above, we can see that dark social channels are generating the most shares and leading to the highest number of unique visits for this brand both important metrics to watch when constructing an effective holiday campaign on social. The most business value originated from Facebook, followed by dark social, and then by Twitter. This data can be used by marketers to determine which social channels to continue to invest in and develop content for especially important considering the social media noise generated by the holidays Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 18

19 CONCLUSION With proper preparation, your brand can have a successful 2017 holiday season on social media. Start by listening to your audience and find ways to engage in conversations that your audience finds interesting. These topics can be general to your industry or business location or can be specific to one of your products or brand offerings. As you start constructing your holiday campaign plans, be sure to set clear objectives that outline what success looks like whether it s increased engagement by generating more likes and shares, or if it s using social media to drive more traffic to your website to drive sales. This guide provided you with steps to optimize decisions and measure the performance of your holiday campaigns, and showcased how tracking your content can help identify your most profitable social channels and content types. You also learned how to increase brand awareness by monitoring your branded hashtags, exploring and monitoring content on a variety of social channels, and finding influencers that can extend your reach and boost your brand s presence on social. Social media has the potential to make your holiday season both profitable for your business and memorable for your followers. Use this guide, and the included content planning worksheets, as your foundation for an effective social strategy so that you are investing in the right channels, producing your best content, and driving sales Holiday Planning Guide for Social Marketers 19

20 AWARENESS Holiday Content Planning Using the Social Metrics Map As social networks continue to integrate commerce capabilities into their platforms, businesses on social have an incredible opportunity to engage customers through all stages of the sales funnel. This opportunity, however, also has its challenges. How can you best use social media to reach the right customers for your specific brand? How can you offer value and drive buyers through the entire funnel with rich, relevant content? These questions only become amplified during the holidays, as social media suddenly becomes saturated by every brand through every channel, pushing to increase engagement and drive sales during one of the busiest seasons of the year. These worksheets are for social marketers who want to improve their social media strategies by building out specific content for each stage of the sales funnel. In the awareness phase, your primary goal is to increase the number of people who know about your brand. The content during this stage should not only be entertaining, but should be share-worthy. The content doesn t need to be brand-specific, but should be used to showcase your brand s personality. Here is your opportunity to attract new audiences by joining relevant conversations during the holidays. Use popular hashtags like #WinterWonderland, #HappyHolidays, or #WrappingPaperWednesday. CONSIDERATION In the consideration phase, your goal is to start educating your audience about what your brand has to offer, including services or products. In this phase, make it a strong point to guide your audience back to your website so that they can learn more about your brand and its products. INTENT In the intent phase, your customers are on the brink of making a purchase decision. In this stage, your goal is to make your brand the obvious choice for your customers. Provide opportunities for people to see what your customers are saying about your brand by sharing comments or reviews. How-to videos, with an obvious holiday twist, can make your products/ services relevant to the user and could convince them to take the plunge and purchase. DECISION In the decision phase, your customers have already made an initial purchase. Now your goal is to keep them engaged with your brand, so that they either purchase again, or refer your brand to their friends and social networks. In this phase, provide opportunities for your customers to engage with your brand in new ways, with a personalized offer, product/service education, or referral rewards. You can also give your audience ways to spread the cheer, either with holiday promo codes for discounts or special offers to share with friends and family.

21 The Social Metrics Map Holiday Edition BUYER S JOURNEY KPI GOAL PAIN POINT AWARENESS Mentions, Sentiment, Reach, Impressions, Shares, Likes, Follows Increase the number of people who know your brand and the products/services you offer. How do I attract attention in such a noisy and competitive social environment? CONSIDERATION Engagement, Audience Growth, Likes, Shares, Follows Educate people on your products, mission, and lifestyle. How do I keep people s attention and stay top-of-mind when social media is oversaturated during the holidays?" INTENT Web Sessions, URL Shares, Page Views, Time on Site Differentiate your brand and its products/services and create urgency to take action. How do I get people to my digital storefront during the holidays, especially with more people shopping online? DECISION Revenue Driven from Social, Interactions, Likes, Shares Entice people to purchase, purchase again, or refer their friends to purchase. How do I make social media a place to acquire customers?

22 Awareness Content Pre-Planning Past Campaign Performance Campaign Name The Goal of This Campaign Was to _ Top-Performing Content Link Total Impressions Total Reach Content Type Owned User-Generated Live-Video Office Culture Service/Product-Specific PR/News/Update Customer Testimonial Content Format Video Infographic Photo Link GIF Text-Only Least-Performing Content Link Total Impressions Total Reach Content Type Owned User-Generated Live-Video Office Culture Service/Product-Specific PR/News/Update Customer Testimonial Content Format Video Infographic Photo Link GIF Text-Only Goal Achieved Yes No What Worked and Why? What Didn t Work and Why? The Social Metrics Map Holiday Edition

23 Awareness Content Planning Campaign Name Social Channel Facebook Instagram Twitter Pinterest YouTube Snapchat Other The Goal of This Campaign Is to Call to Action Subscribe to Newsletter Like / Follow Us Learn More Share Now Comment Now Visit Website _ Content Format Video Photo GIF Infographic Link Text-Only Other Content Type Owned User-Generated Live-Video Office Culture Service/Product-Specific PR/News/Update Customer Testimonial Resources Needed Social Conversations to Join # # # # # Awareness Tactic Interact with Users Join Popular Social Conversations Evoke Emotional Response Survey / Poll / Contest Target Persona(s) Primary Secondary Other Success Metrics Impressions Reach Shares Likes New Goals Impressions Reach Shares Likes New Follows Date to be Completed Campaign Launch Date Campaign End Date Estimated Budget The Social Metrics Map Holiday Edition

24 Consideration Content Pre-Planning Past Campaign Performance Campaign Name Product/Service Promoted The Goal of This Campaign Was to _ Top-Performing Content Link Total Clicks Total Likes Total Shares Total Follows Total Interactions Content Type Owned User-Generated Live-Video Product Review Product Demonstration Lifestyle Company /Business Information Content Format Video Photo GIF Advertisement Link Text-Only Least-Performing Content Link Total Clicks Total Likes Total Shares Total Follows Total Interactions Content Type Owned User-Generated Live-Video Product Review Product Demonstration Lifestyle Company /Business Information Content Format Video Photo GIF Infographic Link Text-Only Goal Achieved? Yes No What Worked and Why? What Didn t Work and Why? The Social Metrics Map Holiday Edition

25 Consideration Content Planning Campaign Name Product / Service to Promote Top 3 Product/Service Features The Goal of This Campaign Is to Social Channel Facebook Instagram Twitter Pinterest YouTube Snapchat Other Call to Action Add to Cart Add to Wishlist Download Coupon See Related Products Visit Website Other Target Persona(s) Primary Secondary Other Resources Needed Keywords/Hashtags to Use # # # # # Content Type Owned User-Generated Live-Video Product Review Product Demonstration Lifestyle Company/Business Information Content Format Video Photo GIF Advertisement Link Text-Only Success Metrics Clicks Likes Shares Follows Interactions Other Goals Clicks Likes Shares New Follows Interactions Other Date to be Completed Campaign Launch Date Campaign End Date Estimated Budget The Social Metrics Map Holiday Edition

26 Intent Content Pre-Planning Past Campaign Performance Campaign Name Top-Performing Content Link Total Web Sessions Total URL Shares Total Page Views Avg. Time On Site Other The Goal of This Campaign Was to _ Content Type Owned User-Generated Live-Video Special Offer Coupon How To Customer Review Other Content Format Video Photo GIF Advertisement Link Text-Only Least-Performing Content Link Total Web Sessions Total URL Shares Total Page Views Avg. Time On Site Other Content Type Owned User-Generated Live-Video Special Offer Coupon How To Customer Review Other Content Format Video Photo GIF Advertisement Link Text-Only Goal Achieved? Yes No What Worked and Why? What Didn t Work and Why? The Social Metrics Map Holiday Edition

27 Intent Content Planning Campaign Name How We Are Creating Value for Our Customer The Goal of This Campaign Is to Our Top 3 Competitors Resources Needed What Makes Our Product/Service Unique? Social Channel Facebook Instagram Twitter Pinterest YouTube Snapchat Other Content Type Owned User-Generated Live-Video Special Offer Content Format Video Photo GIF Target Persona(s) Primary Secondary Other Coupon How To Customer Review Other Advertisement Link Text-Only Call to Action View Customer Testimonials Visit Website Buy Now Chat Now Contact Us Claim Your Reward / Discount Other Success Metrics Web Sessions URL Shares Page Views Time on Site Other Goals Web Sessions URL Shares Page Views Avg. Time on Site Other Date to be Completed Campaign Launch Date Campaign End Date Estimated Budget The Social Metrics Map Holiday Edition

28 Decision Content Pre-Planning Past Campaign Performance Campaign Name The Goal of This Campaign Was to _ Top-Performing Content Link Total Likes Total Shares Total Clicks Other Content Type Owned User-Generated Educational Special Offer Coupon How To Discount Code Other Content Format Video Photo GIF Advertisement Link Text-Only Least-Performing Content Link Total Likes Total Shares Total Clicks Other Content Type Owned User-Generated Educational Special Offer Coupon How To Discount Code Other Content Format Video Photo GIF Advertisement Link Text-Only Goal Achieved? Yes No What Worked and Why? What Didn t Work and Why? The Social Metrics Map Holiday Edition

29 Decision Content Planning Campaign Name What are we doing to delight our current customers? The Goal of This Campaign Is to Social Channel Facebook Instagram Twitter Pinterest YouTube Snapchat Other Target Persona(s) Primary Secondary Other Resources Needed Special Offers / Deals We Can Include Content Type Owned User-Generated Educational Special Offer Content Format Video Photo GIF Coupon How To Discount Code Other Advertisement Link Text-Only Success Metrics Interactions Likes Shares Clicks Other Goals Interactions Likes Shares Clicks Other Date to be Completed Campaign Launch Date Campaign End Date Estimated Budget The Social Metrics Map Holiday Edition

30 ABOUT SIMPLY MEASURED Simply Measured is the world s leading full-funnel social analytics provider. We support and enable data-driven social marketers. Our passion? Exposing social media s total impact, from conversations to conversions. Our mission? Helping you generate actionable insights from social data so you can do your job better, faster. Want to try Simply Measured? REQUEST A DEMO Copyright Simply Measured, Inc. All Rights Reserved.