Every week I’ll share five ideas that are easy & affordable (or free!) to execute and can help your brand get, keep and grow customers. Ready?
1. Work on a killer first impression: Take a closer look at your brand’s current social profiles. Analyze how a regular user’s first impression takes place—with an editing eye. Are you showing your very best right off the bat? Is there a clear call to action that takes visitors down a desired course of action? (i.e. converts). You may want to storyboard quickly how users go from one action to the next within their first few seconds looking at your profiles. Then optimize this flow. Why this works: Human beings make relatively stable first impressions within just a few seconds (some say 7-8) of looking at someone/something. Capitalize on this time as much as you can to increase the rate at which visitors convert.
The Adobe Creative Suite team has created a positive first impression in the product’s Facebook page. Not only do you see an inspiring group of images at the top, reminding you of what you (too!) could accomplish, but the “Rating & Reviews” tab presents even more reasons to purchase.
2. Play with the senses: You may not think of your product/service as a living being. This week, make it a goal to start doing it. You’re probably familiar with how the product looks, but how does it sound like? Feel like? Taste like? Why this works: These are the sensations that truly connect with your audience. Consider the scenario where each of your users is receiving the social media message you’re creating: in the middle of the workday? While taking kids to school? In a relaxing weekend? Right before Christmas? This context will inform the types of multisensory cues that will draw their attention.
Not many would associate Facebook with an ice cream cone, but when you pair it with their HQ in the background, a sunny day, and (what seems to be) an energetic team, it all makes perfect sense.
3. Play up a (trivial) holiday: Did you know there are hundreds of holidays throughout the year that never make it to the news, because we’ve simply decided not to celebrate them? Cheesecake Day, National Boss Day, World Pasta Day… did you know today is National Bologna Day, btw? Look out for more here: http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/ Why this works: It is no secret that the urge and anticipation to celebrate triggers quite a few purchase decisions. Some even satanize marketing and blame it for the reckless spending during Christmas. Guilty as charged. However, when thinking about your brand, try to ignore haters and take advantage of the unique opportunities that holidays bring to satisfy someone’s need. You can also take the chance to make a statement related to your brand personality that associates your product/service with a given theme (and adds value to what you’re selling).
Poppin, a company that sells some really stylish office accesories, used National Boss Day to ask its followers: “Are you doing anything special for your Boss today? #workhappy”. This reminded them of Poppin’s core brand promise, you guessed it: to allow you to #workhappy.
4. Run a contest: Engage with your customers by offering a token in exchange for some desired action. Ask them to participate in a contest via social media where you offer a product (ideally the one you are selling, or some item related to it) in exchange for a valuable action. At this point you’re probably thinking: what is this “valuable action”? Answer: whatever is your conversion goal at the moment: have someone like or follow your page/profile, collect more signups, gather answers for a given survey, among others. There are apps that can make launching contests much easier; try Woobox. Why this works: There’s a reason why people pay shocking amounts of money in casinos, buy lottery tickets, and enter sweepstakes: we’re irrational, some of us believe the “odds will be ever in our favor”… we’re unrealistically optimistic. Psychologists would say we’re “cognitively biased”. Lets leave it at that: our superstitious selves are confident that we will win this time. In the meantime, collect everyone’s email and as much information as they’re willing to share.
Lilly Pulitzer created a contest where you could win a planner by entering your information and letting your friends know that you were in. They captured 9,000 emails and 23,000 likes. Via http://www.razorsocial.com/facebook-contests/
5. Congratulate your customers: Has someone completed a certain number of posts within your app? Has a customer been next to you for a significant amount of time? Did your B2B customer just overcome a sales milestone, by using your product? Pay attention to these moments, and take the chance to reinforce behavior by sending them a good-old “Congrats!”. Why this works: If no one else says it, I will: we enjoy being congratulated. In psychology, we call this “positive reinforcement”. Think about it: when you detect a positive consequence (say, a friendly email) to having done something, how do you feel about doing it again? Enthused, motivated, right? Schools seem to give out certificates for almost everything these days… ever thought why?
I recently received this email from Tumblr. Made me smile. (And run to publish my next post, of course! Find me on tumblr as http://laurabusche.tumblr.com )
I hope you enjoyed this post! If you have any questions feel free to email me at laurabusche@gmail.com, comment right here, tweet @leanbranding or leave a comment on our wall at www.facebook.com/leanbranding.