6 Tips For Creating Social That Sells By Neal Reynolds, President, Bank Marketing Center As a one-time ad agency art director, I always take a special interest in creating a message, whether it’s a television commercial or radio spot — I may be dating myself here — or a direct mail piece, brochure or social post. These days, the medium of choice is social and, as we know, crafting social media messaging that is both creatively compelling and strategically sound is essential. This is true not only because the messaging speaks to your brand — its quality, for one — but also because social messaging needs to break through in a medium that is extremely cluttered. By adhering to best practices, some of which I’ve covered here, you can enhance engagement, convey your message more effectively and achieve your marketing objectives. 1. Start with SMART Goals and Clear Objectives Like taking a road trip, creating creative messaging requires a good roadmap. After all, with multiple individuals more than likely involved in the process, you’ll want to make certain that all agree — right up front — the route you’ll take, the cost associated with the trip and the estimated arrival time. This roadmap, in the marketing “biz,” is called a creative brief. This is where your SMART goals — Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound — will be outlined. And it’s a great way — the only way, really — for everyone to stay aligned for the duration of the “trip.” Don’t start creating without it! 2. Understand Your Audience Who are you trying to engage? This info should be put forth in the creative brief as, after all, marketing is a conversation and it’s hard to carry on a conversation with an invisible individual. Detailed personas are a good place to start. In a nutshell, you want to create an imaginary target individual who is representative of your message’s target audience. Begin by developing detailed audience personas to grasp the demographics, preferences and pain points of your target market. This understanding enables the creation of tailored content that resonates with your audience’s needs and interests. There are myriad tactics you can use here, from surveys and focus groups to analytical tools. P.S., this is what our Social+ platform can do. Once you’ve created your persona based on age, interests, buying habits, location, income and lots more, believe me — you can begin to have a meaningful conversation with this person. And maybe even sell them something, which is the goal, right? 36
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