Black Friday, eh? That glorious (or dreaded) time of year when every brand on the planet screams for attention, and consumers are primed to throw their money at deals. But with so much noise, how do you make sure you’re not just another shout into the void? Our digital marketing director, Jack, explains all. Buckle up for his quick guide to Black Friday marketing!
Build your database in advance
We all know Black Friday marketing is a battlefield, and trying to get noticed amidst the chaos can be harder than finding a parking spot on Christmas Eve. Paid Social and Email are your secret weapons here. In our experience, these two avenues are the perfect pairing to build interest and drive a generous return through the BF and Christmas period. Running lead generating (lead-gen) activities allows you to build an engaged database subtly up until your promotion begins.
Got a month before BF? Perfect. Start offering early access or even better deals for those who sign up in advance. Meta’s lead-gen ads are cheap as chips (seriously), and while you might get the odd lower quality sign-up, you can purge the lists in the new year based on campaign performance. Plus, when the time’s right, you’ll have a warm audience ready to hit the “buy” button, instead of a bunch of cold leads who barely know your name.
Respect your loyalists
It’s easy to get carried away during Black Friday. Audiences are in purchase mode and will jump at the chance to grab a deal, but this doesn’t mean you should risk p*ssing off your loyal customers with rock-bottom discounts. Consider a tiered discounted approach. Maybe offer your top-tier buyers a sweet GWP (that’s Gift With Purchase) or an exclusive discount that makes them feel truly special. Let them know they matter, and you’ll keep them coming back long after the Black Friday marketing buzz has faded.
Consider the long-term impact
Black Friday might feel like the marketing equivalent of a gold rush, but have a think: Do you really need to join the fray? Are you a seasonally rich business or do you operate well all year round? Is running a heavy discount in November going to cripple your revenue figures in December/January/February? Maybe not, but it’s worth considering the knock-on effect of discounting too heavily for a short-term gain. Cash flow has left the chat.
What are your competitors doing?
You don’t want to follow the crowd blindly, but knowing what your competitors are up to is important. Keep an eye on their promotions, their tactics, and their messaging. If everyone else is slashing prices, maybe you could take a different approach.
Why not focus on offering added value instead of just cutting prices? For example, highlight your standout customer service or offer something unique like free consultations, exclusive bundles, or a VIP experience for top customers. You could even offer early access to deals or a loyalty reward for repeat buyers.
Get creative and make sure your campaign isn’t just about saving money, but about why they should keep coming back long after Black Friday.
Save the planet?
Ok so this may be a stretch, but it’s worth noting that, during November Black Friday, deliveries will produce over 430,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. To put that into perspective, that’s the equivalent of 435 return flights from London to New York, or the weight of 61,308 elephants. Grim, right? Why not take a stance on this? You could, for example, pause trading for the Black Friday weekend. Likelihood is you won’t lose revenue, you’ll just get it later in the year. Again, think about your loyalists who’ll come back no matter what. And why not make this a PR moment for a non-financial gain, but a brand gain?
Summary: Black Friday marketing is about smart strategies
Black Friday marketing doesn’t have to be a mad rush of discounting chaos. Be smart, be strategic, and take care of your loyal customers. Whether you’re building your database early, considering the long-term impacts, or using the opportunity to make a brand statement, this is your time to shine.
And whatever you do, don’t forget to have a cheeky peek at what the competition’s up to – just to make sure you’re staying one step ahead. Happy Black Friday prepping!
If you want to learn more about how to market your business for Black Friday, or any time, just get in touch below.
Let’s talk…
Picture this: you’re casually scrolling through your inbox when a message pops up. It starts with, “Hope you’re staying safe during lockdown.” Wait, what? It’s 2024. You have to do a double-take. Did I just time-travel back three years? Nope, it’s an email that’s gone a bit stale (see below). And that’s exactly why keeping marketing communications up to date is so important. When you don’t, it can make your brand look disconnected, and that’s the last thing you want.
Here’s why keeping your marketing communications up to date is crucial, and a few tips to make sure you don’t get caught out like this anonymised organisation did!
1. First Impressions Matter
Let’s get straight to it: sending out-of-date messages instantly makes you look…well, out of touch. If your marketing is still talking about “lockdown” when we’re all planning our next getaway, it suggests you’re behind the curve. It’s a red flag for potential customers. They might think, “If they’re this out of date with their messaging, what else is behind the times?”
Quick Fix: Make it a habit to review your automated communications (like email sequences) every quarter. It’s a quick and easy way to make sure you’re saying the right things at the right time.
2. Reflects Poor Planning
An outdated message screams one thing: lack of organisation. It’s like turning up to a halloween party in shorts and flip flops—great for a summer break, but completely out of place now. When you keep your marketing communications up to date, it shows you’re organised, paying attention, and ready to meet your audience where they are now.
Quick Fix: Create a simple content calendar with key events, holidays, and current trends. This will help keep your messaging relevant and timely, without requiring a crystal ball.
3. It Damages Trust
Trust is everything in business. If your marketing communications seem stuck in a time warp, it can erode the trust you’ve built with your audience. People want to feel understood and connected, not like they’re an afterthought in a dusty email campaign from 2020.
Quick Fix: Use customer segmentation to tailor your communications. The more relevant the message, the more trust you’ll build.
4. You Miss Golden Opportunities
Marketing is all about timing. If your emails and social media posts are talking about past events, you’re missing out on the chance to engage your audience with what’s happening now. Think of it this way: sending out a ‘lockdown’ message in 2024 is like showing up to a BBQ with a hot cup of cocoa—comforting in the right context, but totally out of place here. This shows how essential keeping marketing communications up to date really is.
Quick Fix: Stay on top of trends and current events in your industry. Set up Google Alerts or use social media to keep an eye on what’s happening, so you can tweak your messaging in real-time.
5. Your Competitors Are Watching
Let’s not forget that marketing is a competitive sport. If your competitors notice you’re still talking about old news, they’ll pounce on the chance to show they’re more in tune with the times. No one wants to be that brand that’s still talking about “staying safe during lockdown” while the competition moved on years ago.
Quick Fix: Check out what your competitors are saying. It doesn’t mean you have to copy them, but it will give you a sense of where the conversation is heading.
How to Keep Your Marketing Fresh and Relevant
- Regular Content Audits: Give your communications a quick health check every few months. Is your website talking about events that have come and gone? Are your email sequences still mentioning last year’s big trends? Time for an update.
- Stay Flexible: Avoid being too specific with dates unless it’s necessary. Keep your content adaptable so you can easily make tweaks without a complete overhaul.
- Automate Reminders: Set up reminders to review your scheduled content. That way, you won’t accidentally send out a ‘lockdown’ message as we head into the cosy autumn season, years away from travel restrictions.
- Keep an Eye on Trends: Make trendspotting part of your routine. When you stay on top of what’s relevant, your messaging will naturally reflect that.
So, there you have it. If you want to keep your brand looking sharp, you’ve got to keep your messaging in the here and now. It might take a bit of effort, but trust us, it’s worth it. After all, nobody wants to be that person still banging on about lockdown when the rest of us are out here panic-buying Halloween sweets and complaining about the Christmas ads already on TV.
If you want to improve your digital marketing and avoid costly mistakes like this one, get in touch via the form below and learn how we can keep you up-to-date and getting your message across.
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A staggering 320 million new users joined social media between January 2023 and 2024. With this number only set to rise, sharing quality content that cuts through the noise is more important than ever.
But we get it. Social media is easier said than done and can take up lots of time and resources if you don’t have a dedicated social media manager or team. You end up rushing and posting low-quality content that doesn’t serve a purpose or do your brand justice. Then you wonder why you’re not seeing real, tangible results!
If you’re managing your brand’s social media channels and want to improve your game, keep reading. I’m going to share three common mistakes that brands make on social media, why you should avoid them, and what to do instead.
Social media mistakes to avoid
Low-quality posts
83% of marketers agree that it’s more effective to create higher quality content, less often. So don’t fall into the trap of sacrificing post quality for quantity. Instead, allocate time to take a variety of photos and videos showcasing your products, team, office or venue. This way, you’ll have a catalogue of content ready to post whenever. Good lighting is key, so keep creating content and the better you’ll get.
We did this for Mysa Flowers, and now have access to a bank of professional product photography at all times. (Full case study here).
Inauthentic content
When sharing photos and videos of your team, keep them natural. People can spot inauthenticity a mile away, so your team members have to want to be on camera and feel comfortable to come across as genuine.
You could even create a montage of short employee videos and clip them together so they don’t feel like the focus is solely on them. Here’s an example of a social media video we created of our team over Christmas 2023, which really helped everyone feel comfortable and have a laugh at the same time.
Encourage your team to get involved and film their own employee-generated content (EGC) too. Research shows that 92% of consumers place greater trust in content shared by friends, colleagues and family, compared to other forms of brand messaging. So empower your team to share content through their personal social channels and give your audience a look into the ‘behind the scenes’ of your company. This will help them get to know the real people within your business, build long-term trust and loyalty.
Sales-heavy posts
Nobody likes being sold to, so don’t use social media as a platform to sell sell sell. Instead, provide your followers with real value, whether that be entertaining them, engaging them, or educating them. Play around with different content types and consistently analyse your data to see what gets the most engagement, from styled product shots to photos and videos of your team, to infographics and branded visuals.
By understanding your audience and the types of content they enjoy, you can tailor your strategy and start to build a loyal community. In fact, 90% of marketers agree that building an active online community is crucial to a successful social media strategy, so focus on community building and the sales will come naturally.
But that’s not to say selling doesn’t have any place on social media. Some posts should be promotional, for example, if you’re running exclusive offers, discounts or flash sales. You could even promote these in paid social ad campaigns as well, to target different audience segments at different stages of the funnel.
Ultimately, it’s the content types you use to promote your offering that determines their success. One example of brand that does this well is our client Castle Green Homes. Its marketing team shares engaging photos and video tours of inside their homes to give you a real feel for what they’re like inside. By sharing content that captures each room’s elegance and aesthetics, users are highly engaged and more likely to keep Castle Green front of mind when looking for a home in future.
Summary
Social media is all about being authentic, sharing valuable content and building communities. Don’t just share content for the sake of it and instead, establish what you’re trying to achieve. Is your goal to raise brand awareness? Is it to generate leads?
Once confirmed, you can create a strategy aimed at getting you there. Use your team (they’re your biggest asset), learn as you go and listen to your audience. Do this and avoid the above mistakes, and you’re on your way to creating an effective social media strategy.
If you need social media marketing support, whether it be for your organic presence or paid ads, we can help. Simply fill in the form, and we’ll be in touch.
To kickstart the new year, we asked the team what their digital marketing predictions are for 2024. We’re keeping an eye on generative AI, omnichannel marketing and the results of game-changing industry cases like the New York Times suit against Microsoft and OpenAI. We also expect to see way more brands focus on social media, particularly leveraging UGC and video marketing to grow and engage their audience.
What’s in store for digital marketing in 2024?
Abi Crosbie, SEO Manager
“2024 is the year of AI finding its place in everyday life. We’ll start to see further roll out of Google’s generative AI, and those brands using AI to improve work processes will stay ahead of the game. We’ll also see big impacts on the future of AI with the results of the New York Times suit against Microsoft and OpenAI for copyright infringement. Whether this case signals the blow up of AI being able to access anything, or it hobbles AI’s ability to access content to learn from, the outcome is one to watch closely.
I think there’ll be advancements in omnichannel marketing too. There’s been talk for years that other platforms meet the criteria for being search engines and that SEO techniques are transferable to them (think Amazon, Ebay, YouTube and TikTok), but few SEOs have ventured beyond discussion. I think 2024 will see SEOs going beyond a website-only focus, branching out to push the benefit of content on multiple platforms.
The reason we’ll see this is the transformation of the SERPs. Google in particular is adding more SERP features from platforms like X and TikTok into prime SERP positions. This means SEOs pushing for optimised content on these platforms is a technique that will help organic performance, increasing visibility right where we care about it – in search engines.”
Yasmin Rowlands, Social Media Executive
“Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and even LinkedIn will continue to heavily invest in creator marketplaces and tools. This will make it even easier for creators to produce and distribute high-quality content, work with brands, and connect better with their audience. I also think we’ll see an increase in brands partnering with influencers and sharing UGC to build trust, credibility and ultimately, sales. Creators being the most authentic will thrive because people want to see real, relatable content that resonates”
Bryn Jones, Technical Director
“It seemed like 2023 was finally the year where the popularity and crucially, the capabilities, of AI and machine learning made a huge leap. In 2024, we’ll continue to see big developments and new ways of using these exciting technologies. You only have to look at the evolution of Midjourney, an image generation tool to see the staggering progress made in a short space of time. As a Web Developer, tools like Copilot and Chat GPT can be incredibly useful (when used in the right way) but they are far from perfect. They often give plausible yet inaccurate answers to prompts, so I definitely expect progress to be made here.”
Leanne Bates, Marketing Manager
“I think we’ll see way more brands putting the spotlight on their internal teams and sharing ‘real people’ stories to engage their audience. I think brands that have been reluctant to start turning to video marketing and while short-form styles will prevail, I do think we’ll see an increase in long-form video and live-streaming.”
Overcoming the decline in organic social media engagement
If you’ve noticed a decline in your brand’s organic social media engagement, you’re not alone. On average, Facebook post engagement rates have dipped as low as 1.52%, and Instagram’s reach has plummeted more than 50% since 2015.
Several factors contribute to this decline including algorithm changes, shifting user behaviours, and content saturation. It’s challenging, and you might be questioning if it’s possible to generate meaningful engagement without paid ads, or the value of sharing organic social posts at all.
But consistently sharing organic content is very much still worth it for your brand. In this blog, I’ll explain how to create an organic social media strategy that engages your audience, including content ideas and business benefits.
What is an organic social media strategy?
In short, your organic social media strategy is how you plan to grow your brand’s presence without spending money on ads, posts or shares. There are various types of content you can share, including:
- Photos
- Videos
- Blogs
- Memes and gifs
- Infographics
- Reviews
For organic social media to be successful, your content has to naturally resonate with your audience. Think of it like a plant – nurture your audience well, and it’ll naturally grow.
Why do I need an organic social media strategy?
It’s a cost-effective way to reach your audience
Generally speaking, organic social media costs less than paid advertising because you don’t need an ad budget to share posts and engage customers. You can leverage existing resources and start posting whenever, making it a powerful way to gradually build your brand online.
You can showcase your brand’s personality
Organic social is the perfect opportunity to promote your brand’s personality, team and culture. You can shape your brand’s narrative, tell your story and become more relatable. As a result, you’ll connect with your audience and build a community, leading to increased sales and customer loyalty.
You’ll stay front of mind
I’ll use an example of a new burger place that opened down the road (because it’s front of mind). When the restaurant opened they followed me on Instagram. I followed them back because they have an excellent Instagram game. They pack their feed with high-quality photos of tasty burgers and sides, team photos and local stories.
After a couple of weeks I booked a table and the meal didn’t disappoint. Can they say my booking is a direct result of organic social media? Probably not, but without it, I’d be missing out on awesome burgers and they’d be missing out on a loyal customer.
This is just one example of a small, local restaurant but the same logic applies for B2B and B2C brands. Nurture your followers, stay front of mind, and keep them coming back for more.
How do you create an organic social media strategy?
Now I’ve explained why organic social is important, here’s how to create a social media strategy that gets meaningful engagement.
Set realistic goals
Choose your social media channel(s) and set realistic SMART goals to measure and justify success. ‘Going viral next week’ is unlikely, but ‘Increasing Instagram engagement rate by 5% this month’ is more doable. This will motivate you too because it gives you something to aim towards and hold yourself accountable to.
Also remember that social media engagement measures shares, likes and comments, so consider these when setting your SMART goals.
Plan and schedule content
Plan, create and schedule your content ahead of time. There’s plenty of platforms you can use including Hootsuite, Loomy and Canva, each with different features and pricing. You can even schedule content using some social media platforms themselves, like Facebook and Instagram. This will save you time and stop you pushing organic social media to one side.
Share content your audience wants to see
Consistency is key to generating organic social media engagement. But there’s no point in posting every day unless you know who you’re posting to. Find out what your customers like, what matters to them and what they really want for your brand. Share engaging posts that align and make them want to follow you.
Example: If you’re an e-commerce brand selling make-up, your followers only want to see photos of mascara and foundation, right? Wrong. They want to see how your make-up looks on real people. They want to watch videos of customers applying your make-up so they can learn how to do it themselves.
Here’s three organic social media content ideas to help boost engagement
Short and snappy videos
Over 54% of marketers say that video is the most valuable content for social media success, so lean into it. Film short videos of your product or service, and what goes on ‘behind the scenes’. You might find filming challenging, especially if you’re not used to it, but video is the future and a great way to drive engagement.
User-generated content (UGC)
Build trust by sharing UGC such as photos, images, and reviews about your brand on your company page. Showcasing real customer experiences will make your audience more likely to engage and ultimately, convert. Here’s a great example of UGC on our client Dcypher’s Instagram page:
Reactive ‘on trend’ posts
Share reactive content to engage your followers and expand your reach. From jumping on Instagram Reels and TikToks to writing thought-leadership articles, getting involved keeps your brand relevant. If your followers enjoy your content, they’re more likely to share it on their own profiles too.
Engage engage engage
You can’t just post on social media, you have to engage too. Get involved in conversations by commenting on other posts and sharing your followers’ content on your own channels. Ask questions to spark conversations and encourage audience engagement. This is the perfect opportunity to shape your brand’s tone of voice and personality, so make sure it’s consistent.
Report, learn and go again
Create a social media report to keep track of your organic growth and measure your performance against your goals. Analyse and build on the data, pivoting your activity, content types and strategy accordingly.
You can access key metrics like engagement rates, reach, mentions and shares within most social media platforms. You’ll soon learn which content types resonate and the best days and times to post.
So hopefully now you have a better understanding of how to increase organic social media engagement. Just remember to be consistent, relevant, and have fun with it! Nail that, and you’re well on your way.
A bit about Reckless
We’re an e-commerce digital marketing agency with offices in Liverpool, Chester and Manchester. We help brands grow through custom websites, bespoke software development, paid media, SEO and online marketplaces. If you need a hand taking your e-commerce brand to the next level, get in touch.