A big week is coming and no doubt with so many things to think about in regards to safety, marketing might have fallen by the wayside. I’m not surprised! However, I always say people posting about your business on social media is the modern day word of mouth so spend an hour on marketing and reap the rewards as people come to visit you again – and tell their friends about it.
Here’s some top tips for making sure your customers do your marketing for you:
1. Calls to action on the walls
Whether you write it on the blackboard or invest in some personalised wall stickers make sure you’ve placed a message around your premises encouraging customers to share their experience with you on social media. Include your social media handles so that they tag you in their posts – creating content you can share too.
2. Follow up emails
Do you run a business which requires pre-booking? If people can book with you online it also means you have their email address! GDPR regulations state that you can use that email address to contact a customer for reasonable business use. Sending a follow-up email to get feedback on your new ways of working would be classed as reasonable – selling another event would not. Use Survey Monkey or something similar to send a follow up survey to customers, gaining valuable insight on the service you provide. However, end it with a call to action asking them to share their experience by leaving a review or posting and tagging you and you’ve got some useful feedback and a little bit of word-of-mouth marketing in one!
Research shows that sending follow up emails within three days of a customer buying or shopping with you get a much better response so don’t delay! There are loads of ways to automate this, your booking service provider should be able to help.
3. Background walls or props
If you have the space, then creating a designated area for people to pose for social media is a great way to encourage people to share their experience with you while maintaining some control over how your brand is represented. If you don’t have the space then try out a placard or selfie board instead! Make it either too beautiful not to capture or too silly not to join in with!
4. Incentivise!
If you have the budget or capacity, then incentivising any of the above options will create an even bigger response. For example, if you’re a restaurant, you could say that for everyone that tags you in a social media post, one person will be selected to win a free meal for two each month.
5. Why bother?
The reason nothing has ever compared to good old word of mouth is because people are hearing about a business from someone they trust. It’s exactly the same on social media – after all, which do you trust more? A sponsored post or a post from your mum-friend saying what a great day out she’s had? Investing in this kind of comms will have massive returns, so stop boosting posts and look into this instead! Good luck! Chloe
If you would like more tips on making the most of comms opportunities without spending heaps of time on it then subscribe to our newsletter, here.
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