In addition to the incredible software development that we offer all of our clients, Northsail is known for giving clients the tools that they need to holistically improve their business strategies.
We've developed that reputation through the trust earned by always delivering our projects on-time, on-spec, and on-budget for our clients. In fact, Northsail is so confident in the services that we offer, we even provide a 6-month guarantee on every project.
If you've been following our blogs, you'll know that we offer strategies that businesses can use to expand their marketing strategies, grow their clientele, and ultimately increase their sales.
In the past, we've talked about how to run campaigns for Twitter, as well as Instagram and Pinterest, and today we'd like to discuss another valuable social media marketing strategy - running effective contests and promotions on Meta (formerly Facebook).
But before we jump into some useful strategies that you can use to improve your own Meta marketing strategies, let's talk a bit about social media marketing, and why it's important.
Social media marketing is just a single term used to describe any marketing strategies that you apply to a social media platform.
Social media has become increasingly prevalent in our culture over the last several years, and there are a number of great platforms that you can use to reach your target audience in different ways.
Some social media platforms rely on hashtags to run campaigns, while others use visual marketing techniques like photo contests to draw customer engagement.
There's usually not a singular platform that you can utilize, but each different type of social media requires unique planning and execution, if you want the campaigns to be as effective as possible.
Unlike some other forms of marketing, using a social media strategy gives you the opportunity to connect directly with your customer base, and in some cases, even give them the opportunity to contact you directly.
Because of this direct line between your business and your potential customers, maintaining a strong social media presence can be seen as a sign of credibility and accountability in the eyes of active users on your chosen platform.
In addition to paying to run advertising campaigns on your social media accounts, you could consider running social media contests and promotions, which can not only be a cheaper alternative to other advertising options but more effective as well.
While you can simply pay for Facebook Ads, there are more things that Facebook can offer you in regards to customer engagement than automated ad campaigns.
Running contests and promotions on your Facebook pages is a great way to increase engagement rates and create excitement within your social network of active users.
All of your business' followers will have access to these promotional materials on your Facebook pages, and your post notifications should appear on their personal news feed.
Another useful feature of running promotions on Meta is that you can upload video content alongside your promotions, where only certain other platforms (i.e., Instagram stories, etc.) give you even close to that kind of freedom.
Of course, all the video views in the world won't do you any good, if you're not able to get your Facebook pages in front of your ideal customer.
As with most other forms of social media advertising strategies, you need to put considerable time into establishing Facebook business pages, otherwise your social network may not be big enough to achieve successful campaigns.
This means spending weeks or months leading up to your promotion building interest from potential customers and expanding the reach of your Facebook pages to your target audience.
Without that extra preparation time, even the best social media managers may not be able to get you the kind of results you're looking for. So, if you don't have the time to properly prepare, you may want to consider using another social media platform to reach your business goals.
When you're running a promotion for a limited time period, including a countdown timer on your Facebook pages is a way to create a sense of long-standing urgency for the entire length of your contest.
Urgency encourages the average user to participate, even if they aren't part of your normal target audience. In turn, this can dramatically increase the response rate you get from potential users and continue to grow your Facebook pages' audience network.
When it comes to execution, this is a quick and easy way to build something into your first organic post for the contest, and then pin it to the top of your Facebook business page so every visitor sees it as soon as they get to you. It also makes the limited time period of your promotion abundantly clear.
For such a small change, it can have a really positive impact on your average click-through rate for contests and promotions.
Just because you're running a Facebook Ads campaign doesn't mean that you can't also run contests and promotions in tandem. In fact, we'd recommend it.
Thinking one-dimensionally about your marketing strategies is a great way to waste a lot of money, when you could be letting your business tools work together to create a better, more effective end result.
Facebook Ads can be one of your most useful advertising tools, if you're using it to help promote a big contest that you're running. Depending on the type of giveaway you're running, this could help increase conversions.
Conversely, if you use your promotion to push the release of new products or services that your business is also promoting through Facebook Ads, it can help you get better value from the cost per action you're spending on the pay-per-click advertisements.
Anytime that you can get your audience network to create content that's relevant to your brand, you should consider that a win. Not only does it show incredible brand affinity, but these are extremely valuable as future marketing materials.
Just be clear about the type of pre-produced video content you're looking for from customers, because the vast majority of them will have minimal videography experience.
This includes things like the video duration you're looking for (keep it short and sweet), the type of video content you're looking for (i.e., funny, heart-warming, cute. etc.), and even the video file type that they should submit their entries as.
The easier you make the process of submitting a short-form video for your contest, the more potential users will want to participate.
Sometimes it's alright to reach outside the expertise of your team and seek help from advertising experts that can offer advice for marketers that don't know how to handle their social media campaigns.
There's nothing wrong with admitting that you need outside support strategizing how to run successful Meta blog posts and building up enough of an audience to justify running a contest or promotion on that platform.
An agency is specifically designed to be able to evaluate your existing strategies and then offer advertising tips that you can use to improve your next campaign.
More importantly, these experts understand the intricacies of how different social media advertising platforms work, so that you can create a holistic plan that ensures your Facebook Ads work in tandem with all of your other marketing and promotional strategies.
Whether you call it Meta or Facebook, the platform offers a uniquely intimate conversation between businesses and their customers.
Anytime you post something on your Facebook pages, your customers can comment, like, or even share your posts. If you want feedback from customers about future potential promotions, things that they might like to see you offer as contest prizes, or ideas about where you could improve your current promotions, this is a good place to start.
You might not want to face the odd negative comment you receive on an open platform like this, but these can actually be a valuable way to show integrity to your entire customer base, while demonstrating that you're not afraid to deal with issues as they arise.
To remain credible in today's social media environment, you have to take the good with the bad and face criticism head-on. By reaching a public resolution to any customer issues, you'll not only build better loyalty with your whole social network, but you could ultimately turn unhappy customers into brand champions for your business.
After all the time that you've spent strategizing and implementing your social media strategies, taking the time to create beautiful, high-performance contest pages to link out to from your social media platforms can be frustrating.
Thankfully, we've created a new service called 'Horizon' that's not only allowing our clients to efficiently build-out pages with stunning, intuitive designs, but you can also quickly build in valuable customer data forms that will allow you to begin immediately collecting customer information from your pages.
And best of all, now you can try out this new service for free while it's still in its trial phase. Just sign-up now to take part in the trial, and we'll get you started right away. All we ask is that you take a little bit of time to tell us what you think about Horizon, once you've had a chance to check it out.
That's it. All the freedom to start saving time and energy getting your next project off the ground, and no obligation. What are you waiting for?
We’ll send you important updates about the early access program and your free invite when we are ready.
Your contact information will only be used for the early access program, not for future sales and marketing.