When selling something online, it works best when you consistently follow through on the ‘threat’ to expire the offer. The whole point is to encourage them to ACT NOW.
Try these tips:
– Decrease your free trial time period (cut it in half or more)
– Limit free trial units (only X available)
– Display a counter — time OR units are running out
Remember: A delayed conversion = a lost conversion.
Jordan Gutierrez from Wishpond found after a bunch of A/B tests that YouTube video ads are, by far, the most effective retargeting tool out there. But YouTube does not support remarketing pixels.
You can, however, still create a remarketing list only out of people who watched your videos.
In order to handle this, Wishpond`s team created and embedded short videos for each of their most popular articles. To do this, they used a white-screen video without sound, 1 second in length, and autoplayed it on every page with this invisible code:
There’s no denying the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Ever since it officially reached U.S. soil on January 20, 2020, a “new normal” has emerged.
A normal life during coronavirus now includes wearing masks, washing our hands constantly, and having more Zoom calls in one week than we had in the past 10 years due to social distancing.
1.Social media strategies are easier to manage because you don’t need to keep up with a crazy amount of posting across channels.
2. You need to be more thoughtful about your posts and ensure quality is high because you have fewer opportunities to engage and capture audience attention.
So, how can you create high-quality content in the age of coronavirus?
When considering your organic social media strategy during COVID-19, there’s one word to keep in mind: messaging.
This applies to your paid strategy, too, but is especially significant on the organic side of things.
There are a few tips to keep in mind here about both messaging and general strategy.
1. Showcase the People Side of Your Organization
Offering behind-the-scenes looks and insider info has always been an element of organic social media.
However, marketing during COVID-19 means recognizing that the desire for people to connect with the people behind your brand is even stronger.
Hubspot is a great example of this.
They created an entire Instagram account devoted just to their company culture and employees.
Posts and Stories that feature the friendly faces behind the brand help their followers relate to them and encourage engagement – especially at a time like this.
You don’t necessarily need to create a whole separate account for your employee/company content.
But, this example does give some great ideas for how to take advantage of the different placements offered on each platform (e.g. Stories, Facebook Live) to show the personal side of your brand.
And finally, UGC drives conversions: 80% of people claim that UGC greatly influences their purchase decisions.
Similar to the reason why showcasing the people behind your brand is so important right now, consumers are craving a human connection.
With user-generated content, customers can see their peers, feel that personal attachment, and be more driven to trust and engage with your organization.
They gave Twitter followers a challenge to recreate famous paintings using household objects and tag their posts using #betweenartandquarantine and #gettymuseumchallenge.
A recent poll revealed that 57% of adults believed an ad showing people shaking hands is inappropriate during the time of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, 70% believed that ads showing social distancing were appropriate.
A Hotels.com ad shows how an adjustment to this type of media expectation can be met.
They created a new ad in which their mascot, Captain Obvious, follows all the right rules when it comes to self-isolating and social distancing.
While these stats and examples speak to advertisements, your organic social accounts need to follow suit.
You can’t run an ad showing a group of people linking hands and sharing a bag of chips between them.
So, why would you post that to your organic profiles either?
Set the right example by using appropriate media that follows COVID-19 behavioral guidelines.
And if you need a refresher on what the official U.S. guidelines are for social distancing in the time of coronavirus, you can check out the CDC website.
4. Establish a Helpful Tone
Organic social media is often thought of as an extension of paid social that helps drive customers through the conversion funnel.
In the past, this meant including links to purchase within a post, announcing promotions and sales, and generally complementing paid social strategies.
However, marketing during coronavirus means shifting to a more helpful tone instead of a sales-focused one.
People are on the lookout for brands trying to profit off of the pandemic.
And they are quick to disassociate from those that they believe are guilty.
In fact, a recent survey revealed that 71% of respondents would lose trust in a brand forever if they felt the brand was trying to take advantage of people for profit.
So, focus on transitioning your tone to one that is helpful and solution-oriented.
As shown in the Food52 examples above, the company went from showcasing their own home goods to providing NYC residents with a solution for where to get bread and pastries.
Not only does this help their followers, but it also supports struggling local businesses.
This kind of supportive, positive, and helpful messaging is the type of presence people are looking for from brands and their marketing during COVID-19.
Paid Social in the Age of Coronavirus
A lot of what we just talked about with organic applies to paid social strategies.
Messaging, creative, and subject matter all need to shift as you run paid marketing campaigns during coronavirus.
But, there are some things happening right now that apply specifically to just paid social.
Of these, 48% have adjusted their campaign instead of pausing or pulling entirely.
Considering the previously mentioned stats regarding ROAS and CPC, your business should be among those that are shifting.
Instead of bagging your marketing initiatives, try shifting messaging, creative, and goals.
Yes, we know that’s no small feat.
But, in doing so you can take advantage of the reduced competition and additional opportunities within the paid ad space.
2. Offer Things for Free
Helping people selflessly during this difficult time is a double-win.
On the one hand, there are the good feelings and karma points earned from doing something that helps others.
And on the other, more tangible hand, brands that show their compassionate side at this time can boost brand awareness, increase brand loyalty, and even create new conversion opportunities.
One of the best ways for brands to be selfless is to offer their product or service for free.
From fitness to Broadway shows, there are many companies offering free trials or free, full access during coronavirus.
Even SaaS companies can do this.
Take a look at Hootsuite, for example:
In a sympathetic post, they announced free access to their Professional plan and demonstrated their commitment to helping others out during COVID-19.
Besides the moral kudos it’s worth giving a post like this, we should also look at engagement numbers.
On average, Hootsuite’s engagement metrics on Facebook from the previous month, February, looked like the following:
30-50 likes
1-5 comments
20-30 shares
Comparatively, their post announcing the free access has so far earned:
70 likes
90 comments
51 shares
Check out the number of comments!
And regardless of whether people eventually paid for Hootsuite’s plan or not, these numbers indicate an increase in engagement and a likely boost to traffic.
We know budgets are tight right now, but consider what your business can give away for free.
3. Be Overly Self-Aware
If there’s one major takeaway for how you should be handling marketing during COVID-19 it’s this: there’s no such thing as “business as usual” right now.
“To not even acknowledge it is a disconnect. It’s a missed opportunity to demonstrate that you’re listening and that you’re human.”
– Rohit Bhargava, author of the business forecasting report Non-Obvious Megatrends.
It is absolutely essential for businesses to be self-aware about the situation at hand and their place in it.
Customers are on the lookout for any sort of opposite behavior and are quick to punish businesses they perceive as guilty.
The same survey we cited earlier about 71% of people losing trust in a brand they perceive is profiteering from coronavirus had a few more insights.
First, the survey showed that nearly 90% of respondents wanted companies to do everything possible to protect employees and suppliers, along with providing free or lower-priced products and services.
The second piece of insight worth mentioning is that 77% of participants wanted advertising to shift so that brands only highlight how they are aware of the crisis and how it’s impacting customers.
An additional highlight: Over half (57%) wanted brands to stop any humorous or light-hearted advertisements.
All of these statistics make it clear that brands absolutely need to be self-aware by addressing the current state of things in their ads.
Additionally, you should go the extra mile and launch initiatives or partnerships that make an impact.
Then, you can highlight these on both your organic and paid campaigns.
Frito-Lay does this in their recent, 60-second advertisement.
https://youtu.be/aqOvJ_9YVa4
In fact, there’s a whole list of examples of companies putting out these self-aware ads.
Every piece of marketing material you put out now needs to reflect the fact that you understand the state of marketing isn’t “business as usual” like we said before.
Show you care, tell people the impact you’re making, and try to be a sympathetic, helpful voice during these times.
You Can Succeed in the New Normal
Making all of these changes to your paid and organic marketing strategies during COVID-19 can seem overwhelming.
But, it’s the key to staying afloat – and even succeeding – in this new normal.
As this article discusses, all is not lost.
There are plenty of opportunities for small businesses to capitalize on without compromising your morals.
In fact, implementing even a few of the suggestions above can help you make an actual, positive impact.
Maybe you give struggling small businesses free access to your marketing software.
Or, maybe you partner with a local restaurant and highlight their takeout, delivery, and/or gift card options.
Now could even be the perfect time to try running paid ads for the first time!
However you go about shifting your marketing during COVID-19, just know that you have the resources and capabilities to succeed.
Growth Hack #3 – How PopcornMetrics Increased Revenue +367% in 12 Weeks:
This is what they did:
They focused on helping their churned (lost) free trial users become successful in achieving their goals by using their product with deep 1-on-1s. They tweaked code, gave useful info, spent hours on Skype — whatever it took.
After a while, that un-scalable hustling turned into scalable texts, videos, tutorials, onboarding emails, FAQ section, etc.,
This boosted their conversions by 367% over 12 weeks.
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