Continued from Part 1…

There’s another factor that’s even more critical in determining the right balance of prizes in your promotions planning:

Customers vs Non-Customers: As part of your online promotion strategy, you may run a promotion that targets current customers who are already brand loyal, to encourage continued or incremental purchasing. On the other hand, your promotions planning may target consumers who currently prefer another brand or are not currently purchasing in your category to try to entice them to purchase your product instead.

In the case of non-customers, promotion consulting research shows that a larger number of lower-value prizes will work best. This is because your targets currently perceive a negative overall value of switching to or otherwise purchasing your product (or they would already be doing so), so they need the assurance of readily available prizes in order to expect a more positive outcome from your product. In considering these targets as part of your online promotion strategy, offer several small but desirable prizes to encourage them to switch to your product, which will erode their negative perceptions and encourage them to purchase.

With current customers and brand loyalists promotion consulting research shows that the opposite is true. They already expect a positive outcome from purchasing your product, so the prize is just icing and serves to increase their brand preference. So in general, these customers will be more interested in the possibility of winning a single large prize. Your promotions planning for current customers should offer only one valuable prize.

Thinking about these factors will get you started in the right direction. There are many other variables that go into good promotions planning, and the best strategy should be determined on a case-by-case basis as part of your overall online promotion strategy.

AlterSeekers is a brand promotions agency in New York focusing on promotions consulting and planning, web strategy, social media marketing (including Facebook strategy), go to market strategy, and overall strategic planning. For more information see AlterSeekers.com.

When doing promotions planning, the question inevitably arises: how should we structure our prizes? As with any good question, the answer is:  it depends on your audience and the specific goals of your online promotion strategy.

Given a fixed budget, the main problem in structuring your prizes is to find the right balance between a small number (often just one) of high-value prizes, versus a large number of low-value prizes.

It’s important to note during your promotions planning that what you’re trying to impact is not the actual customer satisfaction or perceived value upon using the product. Instead you’re trying to impact the combination of the customer’s expected (or anticipated) value of the product and prize(s) together.

There are a number of factors to consider in our online promotion strategy that impact what sort of prize structure will be most enticing to your target audience. Two of the most critical are 1) whether you’re targeting current customers or non-customers, and 2) how risk tolerant your target audience is.

Risk Tolerance: It’s important to recognize in your promotions planning that your targets may be more or less risk tolerant. All else equal, a more risk tolerant audience will prefer a single high-value prize, and a risk averse audience will prefer many smaller-value prizes.  As part of your overall online promotion strategy, it is important to balance the risk tolerance of your target(s) against the number of prizes you offer.

Coming up in Part 2… the #1 factor in determining your prize structure!

AlterSeekers is a brand promotions agency in New York focusing on promotions consulting and planning, web strategy, social media marketing (including Facebook strategy), go to market strategy, and overall strategic planning. For more information see AlterSeekers.com.

With the current stampede to get on the social media marketing bandwagon, many companies find themselves surprised by the lack of customer engagement on their newly minted Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or YouTube sites. What happened? If you build it, they will come, right?

Wrong.

Many brands treat social media as one more channel to blast their one-way message at customers. This method worked in the days of TV because you essentially had a captive audience. Their program was interrupted, and they could either get up for some cheese doodles or sit tight and watch your commercial. Social media offers no such advantage. People come to your social media site if they want to, or they don’t come at all so a solid social media marketing strategy is critical to success.

Marketers inevitably develop a case of marketing myopia around their brand. If I get up every morning and go to Widget X Incorporated, then I tend to think about Widget X a lot. And every time there is the slightest bit of news around Widget X, I’m very interested. In most cases, your customers are not nearly so engaged with your product or category as you are.

So what are your customers looking for out of your social media marketing initiatives?  Fun, value, and relevance. A good social media strategy should address these categories.

Fun: Do you have games, videos, funny pictures, or other content that will make people want to come to your page and share what they find with their friends? A successful social media strategy attracts users by entertaining them.

Value: Do you offer coupons, freebies, hold sweepstakes and contests, and provide useful information? Social media thrives on the ‘give something to get something’ idea.

Relevance: Are your pages relevant to your target audience and their lives, and not only to you? Your social media strategy must ensure that your brand is relevant to what you’re offering or your prospects will purchase elsewhere.

AlterSeekers is a brand promotions agency in New York focusing on promotions consulting and planning, web strategy, social media marketing (including Facebook strategy), go to market strategy, and overall strategic planning. For more information see AlterSeekers.com.

Twitter is a great social media platform because of its simplicity. But with that simplicity comes the potential for marketers to set up a Twitter page and start tweeting with little regard for good social media strategy. Like other social media platforms, Twitter is about having a conversation and providing value. There is no captive audience for your Twitter posts, and if you’re just another spammer, your customers will stop following you.

How do you know if your social media marketing is serving up nothing but a heaping plate of spam? Two words: common sense.

It’s easy to forget common sense when you’re too caught up in your own brand and have been drinking the social media Kool-Aid. This results in brand tweets like this:

We just redecorated the 3rd floor kitchen at Brand X and it looks great!

Buy Brand X! It’s awesome!

Wow, fantastic. I so don’t care. Try getting in your customers’ heads. What do they want out of your brand and how should that translate to your social media marketing? They want value and they want relevant social media interaction. Here are some good examples from Reebok:

Congratulations to Rio for winning the 2016 Olympic bid – we’ll see you there!

Reminder: take $15 OFF your next of order of $75 or more @ Reebok.com (there are a couple exclusions). Code 15OFF. http://bit.ly/Wka4T

Congratulations to @Reebok athlete @Jones_Drew32 on being named the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Week!

Reebok is providing fun and informative sports tweets that are interesting to the Reebok target market, and valuable discounts on Reebok merchandise as part of their social media marketing. This combination creates value and makes following Reebok worthwhile. How this is best done will look and feel a bit different for each brand, but the key to social media is to create value for your customers.

Happy tweeting!

AlterSeekers is a brand promotions agency in New York focusing on promotions consulting and planning, web strategy, social media marketing (including Facebook strategy), go to market strategy, and overall strategic planning. For more information see AlterSeekers.com.

1. Be clear and transparent with your objectives.

What is the purpose of your product or service’s Facebook page? Do you have a clear and concise facebook strategy? While your ultimate goal may be to win business, your Facebook participation should be focused on activities that support sales instead of expecting your Facebook page to make direct sales. Effective social media marketing conveys clear, consistent messaging.

2. Do not attempt to maintain control over your content.

Instead, welcome Facebook user participation in the form of comments, pictures, videos, feedback and reviews. Water tends to seek its own level, and social media is a powerful equalizing force. Although you may encounter a few ‘trolls’ whose only intention is to convey your brand negatively, if you already have a positive force in the marketplace, your brand champions will quickly step in to defend you. People will inevitably take your information and remold it according to their needs, so encourage creativity whenever possible.

3. Dedicate enough staff to be able to listen effectively.

Interacting with your users and forging relationships within your online community takes a significant time investment. It is very important for your Facebook presence manager(s) to be able to articulate your social media marketing objectives and ensure that your facebook strategy evolves in synch with the growth of your online community.

4. You must give to receive.

A successful facebook strategy gives something of value before expecting to receive anything in return. Offer your community something they want because this encourages community interaction. Your users will keep coming back and will spread your message virally as they tell their friends. Also, the goal of your social media marketing should not be to bring users to your website. Keep your Facebook community on Facebook, because users do not like to leave while they are there.

5. Keep it real.

Facebook social media marketing is not an alternative channel for your traditional interrupt marketing programs. Your facebook users expect a social experience, not a platform for sales solicitations. Imagine being at a party where you are discussing your favorite books or sharing pictures of your children and someone interrupts your conversation with a sales pitch. Your facebook strategy should be to provide information that facilitates sales, not make direct sales.

6. Define how you will measure your ROI.

Whether your facebook strategy includes increased product awareness, cost reductions in support staff, better qualified leads, or a combination of all of the above, you must be able to set and measure your goals to determine the effectiveness of your social media marketing programs.

AlterSeekers is a brand promotions agency in New York focusing on promotions consulting and planning, web strategy, social media marketing (including Facebook strategy), go to market strategy, and overall strategic planning. For more information see AlterSeekers.com.