Is Your Plan Working?

Most marketing and advertising companies are large and sometimes outdated corporations that attempt to foster creativity from ‘tried and true’ techniques that have worked for decades. Although this is a solid approach, it often ignores the new media culture and lifestyle.

Over 60% of social media users get most of their news, particularly breaking news, from their social media newsfeed. This means that users are spending less time on other apps and news feeds, and more time on social media. What this means for your current marketing campaign is that users are not just ignoring the feeds where you are trying to be seen, but by extension are also ignoring your ads.

Additionally, it’s not enough to just be seen anymore. Your content has to generate interest enough to be shared. Straight impressions from an ad campaign are often not enough to get users to click and share. The use of hosted video, custom sound, graphics and animation go a long way to generate user interest.

goodPosts

Are the data sets from from your user engagement being sufficiently tracked? Unless you know how your users are interacting with your execution, you won’t know how successfully your campaign is reaching and engaging your users. We set up an engagement tracking model every month using Google Analytics to determine how well your model is performing.

Your Unique Selling Proposition

Are you familiar with USP? If you aren’t, you aren’t alone. Most business owners have no idea what it stands for, but it’s vital to know what it is before working with any marketing or advertising agency.

The USP stands for “Unique Selling Proposition,” and is a phrase that identifies the uniqueness in your product or service. The USP is the crown jewel in what makes you different and unique to your demographic, and must be the prime motivator in your messaging.

  1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer—not just words, product puffery, or show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: "Buy this product, for this specific benefit."
  2. The proposition must be one the competition cannot or does not offer. It must be unique—either in the brand or in a claim the rest of that particular advertising area does not make.
  3. The proposition must be strong enough to move the masses, i.e., attract new customers as well as potential customers.

--Rosser Reeves, Ted Bates and Company

Good examples of USP would be statements from Avis “We Try Harder,” and FedEx’s “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”

We construct messaging that ties directly to your USP, so that not only is your message relevant to your demographic, but also compelling and unique.

Scheduled Execution

How much and how often one posts is a major factor to user retention and engagement. Overposting usually glosses the user, and retention and engagement drops considerably. Users who see messages several times a day, or often simply every day start to lose focus on the message as it slides into the ‘noise’ realm.

Underposting has the same affect. Users who don’t see enough from a feed will lose interest, and sometimes forget why they were followed in the first place. Posting once twice a month or less generally has this effect.

Execution schedule is really about gauging users and their interest level. There is a posting ‘sweet spot’ that is neither over or under, and has the right impact to find the right user interest to increase engagement. It is usually determined after timed testing to determine where user’s interests lie.

12VoltArts uses engagement research to determine if the execution schedule is performing at its optimal configuration. It takes time, but scheduling well-planned executions across social media and advertising platforms can have a huge affect on your campaign’s success.

Post Quality

Many comments from would-be clients tend to be centered around… “why would we not just hire an intern to shoot and write posts with an iPhone?” Certainly, that is the much cheaper option. But with all economy options, one gets what they pay for.

You are the message that represents you, and your users will judge your reputation based on the quality of your postings.

We consistently see great postings from small companies and terrible postings from large corporations all of the time. The reason for this, is because social media and some advertising campaigns by small business owners—owners who care deeply about their business and are meticulous about their message and passionate about their execution. Larger corporations tend to hire a staff or a company that has “social media” representatives in the basement of their advertising agencies. They aren’t quite in the mail room, but they are right next door.

Fortunately, there is a shift towards the marketing of companies in social structures versus traditional advertising, and some are slowly adopting to this model.

honda

We are obsessed with /all/ media from a client coming out clean and professional. It has to look professionally produced and photographed, with quality sound and no errors in copy. We use professional equipment to achieve this. Sure, we can make some iPhone photos look spectacular. But, mostly we use high-end DSLRs, professional video with appropriate lighting and rigging, Terrific graphic and motion design with photos, slates and other images, and top-tier sound and music.