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Do you think your digital media business promotion strategy is not yielding expected results? Read this case to understand the possible reasons.
The Case: Clara is an upcycling designer. She is a skilled craftsperson & ethical designer who believes in sustainability & circular economy. Clara has a workshop in the side lanes of a well-known fashion street, where she helps clients upcycle their old but good-condition clothes and accessories into something suitable for the current season. She also provides these services on e-commerce mode through her website. It’s a highly skilled job as it involves careful realignment of clothes and accessories, bespoke tailoring and up to date sense of what is in trend. Many a times Clara complements her upcycled products with fresh purchases of coordinates and accessories that she sources for her clients from all over the world.
A state-of-the-art profession as it is, Clara often finds herself at the receiving end of criticism about her services being expensive. Sometimes she just about manages to match the price of a new ensemble on shop windows or pull something somewhat lower in price. However, people in general view upcycling as beneficial only if available at very low costs. Only a handful are appreciative of the fact that upcycling & recycling projects are not just money savers, they are a huge boon to the environment as they optimise the life-cycle of an article of clothing, thereby reducing waste accumulation and carbon footprints while conserving articles that are special for some reason. Additionally, each ensemble is a unique attire customised as per the personality & comfort of the wearer.
How can Clara make this environmentally responsible and highly creative venture into a profitable one? Can Digital Marketing help?
The Analysis: Clara is running an Omnichannel business where her services are offered both online & offline. First and foremost, she needs to list down the specific objectives of her business in a sequenced manner.
Target customers for this business is a niche group that is aware of social issues, aspires to make a difference and is well-informed. Since the customer group is niche, Clara cannot be depending on the neighbourhood clientele only. Thankfully, this customer group can be expected to be super active online, so digital marketing is her best bet.
Her specific business objectives/conversion goals in the right order will be as follows:
The Strategy: Since each of these objectives are different, they need to be achieved by specific vehicles of digital marketing. More than often, there will be multiple digital marketing tools working together to achieve one set of objectives.
Creating Brand Awareness
This is like introducing your venture to the customer for the first time……do not expect immediate sale conversions here!
This is like you moved to a new housing community and want to get known to people. The best way is to create your presence where people generally come together to socialise… Children’s Park or the next community event maybe. Here you meet multiple people and gradually form associations with the like-minded ones. Not that the ones who do not think alike are not worthy, but you understand that they won’t be long term close associates.
So, Clara’s business information needs to be where people socialise, i.e., Social Media -Instagram & Facebook! This is where Clara needs to release her first set of updates….both paid and organic. Remember, with right targeting, these platforms will generate a lot of interest in the form of likes, comments or enquiries but hardly any sales.
Developing a Brand Community
Now that you are broadly known by a sizeable population in the housing community, you start forming your own close friendship groups within the community. These are your close set of friends with whom you share a relationship of mutual trust. You establish one-to-one communication with them via mobile chats, WhatsApp messages, home parties etc. So basically, you have skimmed like-minded people whom you want to spend more time with and vice-versa.
For Clara & her business, maybe it is time know to reduce focus on generic Facebook updates and work on a combined ad strategy for Twitter, Pinterest & Instagram. Taking a step forward, this is the right time for influencer marketing, contests and community events. Maybe face-to-face weekend kiosks at locations that have shown interest in your products online, will help people see them in person and appreciate them better (in addition to digital marketing).
Awareness about Social, Environmental & Personal Benefits
Now that Clara’s business & brand name is known by people, it’s time to reemphasise its benefits for the environment and society at large. If the first two steps have been done right, by now Clara has amassed a wealth of information about the demographics and psychographics about her potential customers. She can use this information to design ad targeting while launching still & video ads about how her venture can help people participate in green economy, while styling themselves in a unique manner. Again, targeted advertising on social media - Instagram, Twitter & YouTube combined with occasional email marketing newsletters will be a winning combination at this stage.
Shift focus of Cost/Value estimation
Now that the narrative about the brand is almost established, Clara needs to work on the biggest hurdle - price/value perception. She needs to make her followers understand that it is not just the money paid at till that decides the value of a product. There is huge intangible currency involved in a product in terms of the carbon footprints generated in developing the product as well as binning it when still useable. Add to it the emotional & social currency and the product value is further amplified. Discarding a product well before its useful lifetime reduces the ‘return value’ apart from increasing environmental damage. The message needs to be simultaneously projected on all social media platforms and content marketing in form of blogs & stories need to enter the scenario here.
Focus on Sales NOW
Now that the want has been created, it’s time for the final push. It’s time for Pop-up ads, PPC & more content marketing with keywords. While Clara’s social media platforms should be buzzing now with offers and discounts, it is also time for digital billboards & Google My Business updates. Please note here that Clara’s products and services would be available for purchase right when she would be dealing with the first objectives. However, it is now that she can make a strong sale pitch and expect sizeable returns. So, this is the time to scale up in terms of sales and new customer acquisitions.
Reinforce, create stickiness & win ‘Repeat Customer Conversions’
By now Clara should have achieved a sizeable number of first purchases. This also adds to her data base a wealth of information about, ‘who actually buys this kind of products & services’! It is time to use that information to further sharpen targeting that would bring down her customer acquisition rates on search engine adverts. Also, a regular but infrequent, meaningful communication to existing customers with email marketing will keep reminding her customers about her brand’s focus on ethnic styling and new offerings. She will have to keep reinforcing happy customer experiences by displaying testimonials on her website. Additionally, she needs to work out some membership/benefits for repeat customers to ensure they return to her business next time.
This 6-step strategy can help Clara to push her small business prospects and play efficiently on her strengths while targeting the right kind of audience.
So, if you are a small business / microbusiness, looking for novel ways to promote your business; you need the right strategy more than money to ace the game. Different businesses have different goals at various stages of growth. It is important to identify the specific business goal at that point of time and match it with the strengths of the particular digital promotion platform. There is no ‘one’ right or wrong digital media for business promotions. Neither a business can afford to completely do away with any of the digital media channels. While it is important for businesses to maintain a presence on all the social media platforms, the focus will keep moving to various permutations & combinations of digital media platforms, depending on the specific business objectives at that point of time.
Do you also have a story about how you pulled a clever digital media strategy to promote your business? Are there any questions you would like to ask? You can type your inputs in the comment box below! We would be very happy to hear from you!
We will be back with more such stories soon…till then…. Happy Digital Advertising!
descriptive, step-by-step explanation!