How to Use Social Media to Enhance Promotional Marketing
How to Use Social Media to Enhance Promotional Marketing
Promotional Marketing includes any marketing strategy that generates new leads or entices a customer to buy by giving the prospect something for nothing. Examples include 2 for 1 coupons, samples of product, and contests with valuable prizes that anyone can win.
This form of marketing can be a powerful sales tool, but even the most creative promotions can be a mixed bag when it comes to actual measurable results. That is where social media comes in to broaden a promotions reach, generate interest in a company, and deliver real results.
Begin a social media promo campaign the same way any promotional campaign should be started. Have a measurable goal, whether it be to generate a new lead list, build the overall customer base, reach a new region, or introduce a new product to the public. Once the goal is established, define who the target audience is and decide on the type of promotion based on what appeals most to that demographic. For example, coupons have proven to be most popular with women over the age of 35. For high budget promotions where a lot is at stake, consider using a service like Quantcast to pull demographic info from recent converts. Next, set up the promotion to target either more of the same type of customer or a previously unreached audience. Time your promotion to precede a big industry trade show or the launch of a new company website feature for even more impact.
Once the type of promotion and target audience is established, it is time to promote it using social media. If the company doesn't already have a facebook fan page, set one up and add the "Promotions" application to it.
This app works great for coupons, but can be used for many types of sweepstakes and contests as well. If the contest has a specific start and end time (which it should) add it to the events tab on the company facebook page. Also post the rules and information about the promotion on the facebook page's wall. Remember that posts with images attached always generate more shares than text posts. The idea is to canvas the promotion in as many places on facebook as possible with each page and tab revealing some new information about the company.
Twitter is another social media tool that can assist in promotional marketing. The micro-blogging platform of twitter makes it perfect for making promotional announcements. First ask contestants to follow the company twitter page. Consider posting contest clues, promo codes, or other valuable information about the promotion only on twitter. This will give people more incentive to follow the company on both twitter and facebook.
One company who has mastered the art of using social media for promotional marketing is Raven, an internet marketing company that specializes in SEO tools. They have run two successful promotional scavenger hunts called RavenHunt where players pick up clues on Raven's facebook page and through twitter direct messages (a person has to be a follower to receive a DM) to hunt for hidden letters on Raven's webpages, blogs, and referring sites. At the end of the week, the letters can be unscrambled to form a secret message. The first person to send Raven the correct message wins a prize (RavenHunt II's first place winner got an ipad.) This promotion was smart because it not only gained Raven hundreds of new followers on facebook and twitter, but it educated a person about their company's services while the game was being played.
If a promotion has valuable prizes and a good concept, people will invite others to participate through twitter posts, facebook shares, diggs, and other social media interaction. Remember that every time a promotion is shared from one person to another, the company that created it is getting free advertising. One way to encourage mass sharing is to create a twitter-friendly phrase about the promotion (less than 140 characters) that people can "retweet" to their followers. For example, every time someone found a clue during RavenHunt they were told to tweet a message like, "@RavenTools I found the clue, send me the next one, I want to win a free ipad!" When other people saw these messages they visited Raven's twitter page out of curiosity and many of them ended up playing the game and following Raven as well.
It used to take weeks or months for word of mouth to help a promotion's popularity, now with social media tools like facebook and twitter, serious buzz can be generated in a number of hours.
As a final tip, make sure to include some type of "opt-in" form on the company's website as part of the promotion. Have a simple box asking people if it would be okay for the company to inform them about future promotions and special offers. Do the same for new facebook fans by sending them a message thanking them for their participation and asking if it would be okay to stay in touch. With their pe
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