Mediaboss Marketing

2020 has seen many shifts in marketing strategies, most notably the move to virtual events. For many companies, this has shifted digital marketing efforts from promotion of physical event attendance to online webinars, participation in online industry events, and other virtual seminars or meetups.

As digital marketers, it is important to quickly adapt to the changing landscape in your customers industries and the marketing world as a whole. Lets explore the ways that social media marketing can be used to quickly and effectively shift strategy to increase attendance, participation, and awareness for your customers online events, webinars, and virtual happenings.

Incorporating messaging and promotion for upcoming events into ongoing social media strategies is a key component to increase event awareness and ultimately, attendance. However, it is also critical to look to specialized features on social media platforms in order to make your event stand out.

Lets take a look at some of the key features and strategies to consider when promoting an online event.

I wrote in a recent post that stories will be a key component to social media success in 2020. Instagram stories specifically grew at a rate 15X the rate of feeds in 2017 alone and this isnt slowing down anytime soon.

For virtual event marketing, digital marketers should use stories on social media to tease for upcoming events, link directly to registration pages or further event information, and increase overall awareness of the event with their target audience.

When hosting an event online, companies should create an Event on Facebook that contains the what, when, and where for their target audience. Attendees can then RSVP and be reminded of the event automatically by the platform. In addition, this allows you to directly interact with potential attendees and increase exposure as friends of your attendees will see their interest in the event on their newsfeed.

Companies can also boost their Facebook event through paid advertising in order to further increase attendance and share the event with target accounts and relevant audiences within their market.

While many B2B companies focus social media marketing efforts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, Instagram is another platform that can and should be used to boost engagement and web traffic specifically.

Instagram offers many creative tools that engage audiences, such as the ability to create countdowns for upcoming events or announcements. B2B companies hosting online webinars or other events should use countdowns on Instagram stories as a way to promote and build excitement for upcoming events, linking back to relevant assets or the event registration page.

There are a multitude of event formats companies can choose from when hosting virtual events. If the event is an open-format focused on awareness and engagement rather than registrations, live streaming the event across social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn is a great way to promote real-time, genuine interaction and conversation with potential leads.

Promoting the live streamed event prior, as well as ensuring company employees are aware and involved on social media during the live stream, will help to aid efforts and increase engagement and reach for the event.

As we move further into 2020 and virtual events become more prominent for companies across the globe, refined messaging will be an even more critical component.

Digital marketers should put themselves in the shoes of their target audience. Why should they take the time to attend this specific online event or webinar? What will be the benefit? Why is it worth it? It is important to consider what your audience needs and why it is crucial for them to attend your event, now more than ever.

Using list-based posts on social media outlining the features of an upcoming event is an excellent way to quickly and clearly show your target audience the importance of their attendance. Heres an example of that post format highlighting an articles key takeaways:

Keeping messaging up-to-date and in line with trending topics across social media platforms is also critical to success, especially as more companies start promoting online events.

For example, LinkedIn engagement was up 76% for work-from-home related content by April of 2020. In addition, looking into the Trends for you section of Twitter and Todays News and Views on LinkedIn are easy ways to help to inform digital marketers messaging and promotion of upcoming online events to ensure relevancy amid the market and industry at hand.

I shared my insights into a key trend for social media in 2020 in a recent eBook on Search Engine Journal. The trend? Influencer marketing.

Cross-promotion with highly relevant industry influencers through outreach and collaboration is a great way to improve visibility. However, simply increasing employee engagement and promotion of company executives insights around these events is an effective way to increase thought leadership and attendance. As you and your customers ramp up online event efforts, incorporate cross-promotion with program speakers and encourage employee advocacy to drive registrations and results.

For example, using quotes from speakers or executives that will be participating or presenting at the event in social media messaging and custom graphics/video is a great way to introduce the event topics to your target.

There are a few ways to integrate employees and speakers. Tagging speakers and assisting with messaging guidelines for employees to get involved on social media will additionally help to spread your message and increase event participation.

Along with organic social media promotion, dont be scared to put some money behind your event promotion, even if its virtual. Paid advertising on social platforms will increase visibility and attendance of your event significantly, as it allows you to reach beyond your followers on the platforms.

Consider using Lead Generation ads on LinkedIn, which require the target audience to fill out a form in order to capture important information such as name, email, and job title. This list is then available directly in LinkedIn for you or your customer.

These ads can target custom audiences using target lists, job titles, and/or industries they even allow you to exclude competitors in order to further refine your audience.

On Facebook, a great approach is to retarget those that have visited your website via a Facebook pixel, or directly target email lists in order to turn those past touches into leads. Implement this targeting in traffic campaigns, leading your audience to a registration page for the event in order to increase sign-ups.

Often, there is a missed opportunity when it comes to post-event promotion of virtual events. While registrations and participation in the event itself is an important way to measure results and success, dont let the promotion end once the event is over. Take advantage of the wealth of content presented and either distribute to your attendees to keep them engaged or repurpose it for your blog, website, and social media efforts.

For example, creating gated on-demand versions of webinars or online seminars and re-sharing these across social media through both organic and paid channels will continue to increase relevant leads and build your network and audiences for the future. Another way to continue promotion of the event is to create summaries in the form of social media posts or content assets and blogs that can then be shared on social media. This can include quotes from the event, videos summarizing important topics that came out of it, and testimonials from those that attended.

As virtual events become more of the norm, social media marketing is a critical piece to increasing participation, registration, and ultimately, growing your business. Digital marketers should incorporate the above strategies, as well as keep a pulse on the competition and industry trends when it comes to virtual event marketing through social media.

Excerpt from:
5 Ways to Promote Virtual Events on Social Media in 2020 - KoMarketing Associates

Dive Brief:

The coronavirus pandemic has canceled weddings across the globe, stifling the companies that earn their revenues by providing products and services for couples' big days. Jared was already struggling with sales, and the loss of the key summer wedding season likely will only exacerbate its already sluggish performance. Its latest campaign is an attempt to keep weddings happening, albeit in a manner that is safe while people practice social distancing.

The jewelry retailer's campaign encourages couples to continue with their nuptials, which is communicated via the campaign hashtag #LoveCantWait. Its positive message of love in the face of a pandemic may appeal to consumers who are looking for inspiring messages during tough times, and could help people associate Jared with love and positivity in the long term.

By creating an online portal where couples must register to participate in the virtual ceremonies, the retailer is able to collect data for subsequent marketing campaigns or personalized efforts for anniversaries and birthdays. Jared's incorporation of a hashtag within the effort may extend its reach on social as people share the video and virtual ceremony promotion.

Jared's move follows several brands in other categories that have worked to help consumers celebrate missed weddings by giving them consolation prizes through online contests. Miller High Life is running a contest for three couples whose weddings have been disrupted by the coronavirus to win a "Wedding at Your Doorstep." The prize includes an officiant, a photographer and beer as well as $10,000 toward a future honeymoon and canceled wedding costs. Busch Beer ran a similar social contest for couples with derailed wedding plans, letting them enter to win a year's worth of Busch.

Excerpt from:
Jared hosts virtual weddings with #LoveCantWait TV, social campaign - Marketing Dive

Spring is one Lowes busiest seasons. Have you had to adjust your messaging at all to account for the current situation?

Its been a real gift to have such strong relationships and connections within the CMO community. I take heart in the fact that the instincts that I brought to how to approach this wound up being pretty consistent with how others thought about their own businesses. Theres that first initial phase of assessing and then triaging your existing work. Spring is an incredibly important time for us as a retailer, but then you have to go back through all the work that was done prior to this and look at it through a completely new lens of appropriateness, relevancy and how do you tailor the message. And these phases are shortwere talking days, not weeks.

Then its how to bring in the new ways of communicating that feel authentic but right for this drastically altered world. Its profoundI was attracted to come work for this leading home improvement retailer and here I am getting to know and getting to steward this brand at a time when literally home has never been more deeply important to us than it is today.

This is a time where we as marketers need to be agile and adaptive and not necessarily think that were planting flags, but how to be in the now. How do you show a sense of being able to be really connected to how people are thinking, feeling and what they genuinely need and where your brand most authentically and realistically lines up to that? In our case, being a retailer that is essential because we support people in their homes is an unbelievable realization and responsibility. It became much less about being very commercial and promotional in our messaging and a lot more about how do we really express the heart of this brand and do it in a way that is also humble, participatory and true to who we are.

The Build Thanks campaign was starting to see this emergence of people wanting to share their gratitude and also connect to the outside world. It was a DIY project, and were all about DIY and we thought we could help perpetuate that and ourselves with #BuildThanks. We were really specific, we were not asking them to buy anything, but to use what you already have at home. This company is values-driven and has this greater heart, but this story hasnt been well told, and it became a moment of opportunity. The way were showing up now for people is not COVID-basedthis is not COVID advertising, this is advertising about who Lowes is as a brand. This is what weve always done, like with Hurricane Sandy. Its a really nice moment to share that story and reflect on it.

Marvin Ellison, our CEO, has made multiple announcements on that, from deciding to close our stores on Easter Sunday and give all our associates a paid day off, to increasing their wages for the month of April. In stores, theres all sorts of social distancing signage, plexiglass dividers for those working the registers, and we have social distancing ambassadors who man our garden centers. Its a tricky time in general. Being open is a gift in terms of being able to be there, to address the many needs consumers have to run their homes safely and give them projects to do that occupy them, but being open is not without its challenges.

If theres one thing weve all learned from this experience, its really tested our ability to live in the absence of having plans that are as concrete as we might like them to be. There are so many things that are unknown right now, so you plan and then create contingencies and alternatives. You try to be really adaptive. If we all just reflect on how much things have changed in the past month, its shattering. Our intention will be to continue to invest and to create a relationship with consumers and let them know that we have the things they need.

Its still early enough in my tenure that its a lot about optimizing in the channels that we play versus making gigantic shifts. I believe we are a mass brand that deserves a place to tell stories in broadcast media. This has been a good time for that as viewership has been quite high, relative to previous months and years, because people are at home. You go from that to how we invest in paid search and everything in between. We think audio is also an important medium. And our social channels we have a lot of opportunity to do more with them were starting to see how we parse the storytelling differently. One of the things I enjoy about being a large brand is it gives you a sandbox of different channels and different ways of figuring out how to connect and communicate and right now theres no pulling back on any of that.

Weve seen people really dive into the small home improvement projects that maybe theyd put off because they have the time at home now. Theres something wonderfully constructive about putting your energies into them. Weve seen [buying of] products that speak to those types of projects and activities that are in demand and then of course all of the essentials that are core to what we do as a home improvement retailer that enable people to fix things that are broken, keep their homes running smoothly and replace an appliance that is on the fritz. Its a combination of that.

Read the rest here:
Lowe's new CMO on pandemic marketing in the age of social distancing - AdAge.com

Wins, Losses & Other Brand/Agency News

LOreal Paris, in partnership with McCann, launched "Because Self-Care is Self-Worth" last week, the first hair color TV commercial created at home on a smartphone amid the coronavirus crisis. The spot was even directed by and starred LOral Paris spokesperson and actress Eva Longoria for Excellence Crme.

Direct Auto Insurance has named The Richards Group its new brand advertising agency. The shop, in collaboration with Direct Autos leadership, will handle the brands creative advertising strategy, digital strategy, sponsorship marketing, consumer promotions and CRM/analytics. LERMA, a partner of The Richards Group, will manage multicultural marketing for the brand.

Global merged media micro-network Red Havas has launched "Red Rapid Recovery Program," a new offering to help clients set themselves up for success in the post-COVID-19 world. The Red Havas proprietary process includes a mix of global and local data and insights to design programs that allow clients to return to business faster and stronger.

Social video group Brave Bison has acquired social marketing and media business The Hook Group, which launched in 2014 and has grown into one of the largest youth-focused media groups around the world.

Alice + Olivia Founder and CEO Stacey Bendet has developed a new job platform called Creatively to help creatives across all industries network and discover opportunities remotely and globally. The free platform is available through iOS and web in beta starting on May 5.

Cheil digital creative shop Barbarian has created a global alliance with sports business executive and media personality Jay Williams to expand its lifestyle and entertainment expertise across the agency.

LaForce has launched Future Forward Strategy Group, a new specialized practice area for brands seeking guidance as they navigate the future impact of the pandemic and plan for the new normal. The group is being led by SVP Olita Mills and VP Shauna Solum, and will include cross-agency experts and specialists.

Cross-cultural agency the community has hired Anomaly alum Matthew Kline as its executive director of growth and partnerships, effective immediately. Kline, who is based in New York, will report directly to President Luis Montero.

72andSunny New York has hired Brett Edgar as president. Edgar will join the agencys leadership team, which includes Executive Creative Director and Partner Bryan Rowles; Executive Strategy Director Tim Jones; and Director of Production Lora Schulson.

W2O has hired ICF Nexts Bryan Specht as group president, transformation, consumer activation and marketing. Specht, who is based in Chicago, will oversee and expand W2Os consumer-focused, tech-enabled and digital capabilities.

Independent agency Venables Bell & Partners announced today that its in-house production unit, Lumberyard Productions, has expanded its leadership team with several key hires. Creative Lead and Director Tyler Hampton, Production Lead Sasha White and Client Services Lead Kristin Obi will join Lumberyards Director of Operations Raquel Bedard. The three new hires, who all come from VB&P, will help elevate Lumberyards creative product, in addition to working on production and post-production assignments for VB&P clients.

Cybersecurity company CHEQ has appointed David Greenberger as VP of sales for North America, along with Edwin Choi, who joins as VPof customer success for North America. The hires are part of CHEQs U.S. expansion plan.

Influencer marketing company Linqia has hired Tim Richards as the companys first chief revenue officer. Based in San Francisco, Richards will spearhead revenue-generation strategies and execution as the agency enters its growth phase.

Read more:
Movers & Shakers: L'Oreal, 72andSunny, Red Havas and more - Campaign US

Car owners are always on the lookout to enhance their cars functionality. To engage them, many auto parts and accessories manufacturers have opted for social media marketing.

Social media marketing is one of the keys to building brand awareness, consumer engagement, and customer loyalty. Therefore, for auto parts sellers, social media is not only a tool to engage new audiences but also to engage and market to their existing customer base, resolve customer service issues and create a stronger brand image.

So, how can auto parts and accessories sellers use social media to their advantage and boost their engagement process? Here are a few tips:

The first step of audience engagement through social media is finding the right platform. Select the social media platform where your audience frequents. In most cases, auto parts and accessory sellers find most of their audience on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Posting content regularly is the surest way to engage your customers on social media. Also, do not just post on your Facebook page. Contribute periodically to automotive forums and automotive enthusiast social media groups to attract new audiences to your page and ultimately to your website.

Do not make your social media page all about marketing. If you use social media for selling your products, your audience will soon lose interest in your page. Therefore, keep promotion to a bare minimum and engage the audience with contents that humor them, amaze them, intrigue them, or entertain them.

If your social media marketing contents add value to your audience, they will keep coming back for more and turn into your loyal follower and customers. Therefore, always look for ways to add the content of value to your customers. Share scholarly articles on how to ensure car safety, or ways to reduce gas expenses. You can also share coupons that offer you an exclusive discount.

For example if you sellBluetooth throttle response controller, you can offer them great content elaborating on ways to reduce gas consumption and gently push your product in the same article.

Do not make your social media presence all about your brand or product. First, you should make it all about the customers. Focus on how your product is helping the customers. Ask for their feedback regularly. You must also create votes and opinion polls to ensure that your customer has a voice on your social media page. If your customers and audience feel valued, they will think of you the moment they decide to buy an automotive part or accessory you sell.

Using user-generated content is a great way to ensure audience engagement. Ask your customers to take their photos from inside or outside their car featuring your product. You can then feature the best photos on your Facebook page. These are some great tips to facilitate social media marketing for auto parts and accessories sellers.

You can get thoroughly engage your audience and eventually turn them into loyal customers by rightly using these tips.

See the original post here:
How Auto Parts And Accessory Sellers Can Use Social Media For Marketing Their Products - SociableBlog