Ok, we all mess up once in awhile, right!
- We miss a deadline.
- We forget to call a client back.
- We overlook an important email.
Each of those things can be corrected pretty quickly with an apology and some hard work.
However, messing up in social marketing can quickly go from bad to worse—to expensive. During the pandemic, many marketers let their advertising take a back seat to simply staying afloat. That’s reality!
Now that travel is ramping up again, here’s 3 social marketing blunders that can be easily avoided.
Blunder #1 – Missed Opportunities
The other day a travel pro showed me a video she had produced showcasing the value of using a travel advisor. The video was beautifully animated and the voice-over was top-notch! I loved it, but… what was missing? After watching it a few times and marveling at the content, I realized I knew nothing about the person who was asking for my business on the video.
The fix: Imagine the impact if the travel advisor was on-camera talking about how they were able to help a client navigate post-pandemic travel. Imagine the impact if the advisor talked about personal travel tips gained from a recent trip. That would have made this video pop!
The mission: Don’t be afraid to jump in front of the camera and let the light shine on you and your expertise. It can be scary, but so worth the time and effort.
Bonus tip: Remember to include your contact information in the video! Consider that viewers may share the video and you want to make it really easy for all viewers to connect with you. Including a call to action, contact info, and branding helps seal the deal.
Psssst… want another reason to jump in front of the camera? It’s a great way to keep your funnel full and new prospects coming your way. Tune in for an easy funnel-filling tip to attract new biz. Not sure about funnels, here’s a quick overview.
Blunder #2 – Mistaken Identity
A tour operator was lamenting the lack of response to a recent social ad, as well as the cost of advertising. So we dug in and explored their ad audiences. What a shock! This tour company was marketing a wide range of tours: religious, art history, and sports. However, they were using the same ad audiences for all their ads! When we started looking at the audience demographics and targeted interests, we found targeting was set up to include people who liked the New Orleans Saints football team, classical music, the Louvre Museum and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. Wow, who fits all of that criteria?
The fix: Set up multiple ad audiences, so that you can target people interested in each specific tour you offer. In this case, create separate audiences for each tour: religious, art history, sports. Then get more highly targeted for each audience by focusing on the unique demographics, interests and behaviours common to each type of person choosing one of the tours. Savvy marketers design avatars for each tour and create an ad audience based on that avatar.
The mission: You can create as many ad audiences as you’d like. There’s no limit! Once you have your audiences created, test each one to see how they perform. Study whether one audience yields more engagement, conversions or reach than another. Split-testing is crucial to meeting your campaign and budget goals. Tweaking and editing each audience will help hone in on what works.
Blunder #3 – Cutting Corners
We just talked about the value of split-testing an ad audience to reach an advertising goal. But don’t make the mistake of only testing the audience. There’s so many more variables to a successful ad campaign: ad text, headlines, graphics/video, call to action. Successful marketers test each variable against a control.
The fix: For example, savvy advertisers will use one audience and test the ad text, until a winning ad is found. Then they test that ad with that audience against a set of varying headlines. Then then test the winner using a variety of graphics.
The mission: Dive in and spend the time. While split-testing may seem like it takes forever, the result will be an ad campaign that meets your unique goals. Don’t waste your ad budget.
Bottom Line
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to stand out in the noisy world of social marketing post-pandemic just because of some easy-to-fix blunders. The world has changed so much that messing up is part of the learning curve, but implementing new solutions is key to surviving and thriving. The bottom line is that what worked successfully in 2019 may not work now.
Catherine Heeg, International speaker & trainer, focuses on social media marketing strategies for the tourism and hospitality industry. Connect with her at www.cmsspeaking.com and socially.
