Month: March 2023

Meta ads are a great way to target new customers and bring more visibility to your business. However, before creating your Meta ad campaigns, there are a few things you should think about to ensure the best results. In this blog post, we’ll go over what you need to consider when creating Meta ads with the goal of targeting new customers.

 

1. Know Your Target Audience: Before creating a Meta ad campaign, it’s essential to identify your target audience. You need to know who your customers are, their interests, their demographics, and their location. Understanding your target audience will help you create relevant and effective Meta ads that resonate with them.

 

2. Define Your Goals: What do you want to achieve with your Meta ads? Are you looking to increase brand awareness or drive traffic to your website? Knowing your goals will help you create Meta ads that are tailored to achieve those objectives.

 

3. Create Compelling Content: Meta ads are all about catching the attention of potential customers. You need to create compelling content that stands out from the competition. Your Meta ads should be visually appealing, concise, and have a clear message that resonates with your target audience.

 

4. Choose the Right Ad Format: Meta ads come in different formats, including images, videos, and carousel ads. Each ad format has its unique advantages, depending on your goals and target audience. Choose the right format that best suits your objectives. For example you may choose a video creative to demonstrate your product or service or showcase your brand, compared to a carousel ad which could be more suited to showcase a range of products or new launch of items.

 

5. Set a Realistic Budget: Meta ads can be costly, depending on your target audience and ad format. Set a realistic budget that aligns with your goals and target audience. Consider starting with a smaller budget and testing your Meta ads to see what works best before increasing your ad spend.

 

6. Monitor and Optimise Your Campaign: Monitoring your Meta ad campaign is crucial to its success. Keep track of your ad’s performance and make necessary adjustments to optimise your campaign’s results. Use metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, and engagement rates to evaluate your Meta ads’ performance.

 

In conclusion, Meta ads can be an effective way to target new customers and grow your business. To create successful Meta ads, make sure you consider your target audience, set realistic goals, create compelling content, choose the right ad format, set a realistic budget, and monitor and optimise your campaign’s performance. With these tips, you can create Meta ads that resonate with your target audience and help you achieve your business objectives.

 

If you are still struggling and would like further help on launching meta ads built to convert, please get in touch here.

Helloo spring! After what feels like an eternal winter in the UK, it’s finally time for some warmer weather- and time to switch up to spring-themed campaigns.

From paid ads to email to SMS, read on for a dose of creative inspiration to make the most of the new season in your marketing strategies.

 

 

Select your angles

Before we dive into each marketing channel, let’s go through some of the key angles you could use this spring. Depending on your brand and audience, you might find some of the following a great springboard for connecting with your customers at this time of year:

 

-Spring cleaning – many view spring as a time to reset, declutter and refresh- so why not encourage your customers on why your product/service is an essential investment/replacement this year?

 

-Outdoor activities – with the arrival of more favourable weather, customers are more likely to spend time outside- so it’s time to identify what they’ll be doing, and match their needs and interests (from sports to camping to gardening).

 

-Spring trends – particularly in the fashion industry, spring calls for a new wave of trends for the warmer temperatures and activities customers typically engage in this season (from day trips to picnics to sunny holidays). What might be trending in your industry, now winter’s a thing of the past?

 

-Easter – the principal date to highlight in your calendar, Easter weekend is coming up (Fri 7th-Mon 10th April). From virtual egg hunts to vibrant graphics to egg-cellent themed copy (mind the pun), it’s time to get creative and theme up for this holiday.

 

-Spring travels – with the Easter holidays and May half term, your customers might be planning a trip- so it’s important to target the greater likelihood of vacations and staycations. Why should they bring your product along with them? Why is your product travel-friendly?

 

Target pain points in paid ads

Make your brand stand out within the influx of spring-themed content on socials. Your audience will be in the spring mindset- so it’s important to consider and address their pain points, lifestyles and needs at this time of year. Theme up your ad copy and creative to address the change in season.

As well as the angles above, consider promoting a spring-themed promotion to push site clicks and conversions. Encourage customers to celebrate the beginning of spring with a treat, from 10% off their purchase (with a themed code) to a bundle deal.

 

Engage your subscriber lists

Whether it’s email or SMS (or better yet, both), your subscribers offer you the highest loyalty, making the perfect audience to get those creative juices flowing! Theme up your email templates and SMS phraseology (think: pastel colours, nature, flowers, blossoms). 

You could offer your subscribers exclusive discounts to commemorate the start of spring- across your site, or for a specific collection that ties well with spring and activities your customers might typically engage in.

 

Be creative on organic socials

Time to show spring some love on your socials! Engage your audiences with spring-themed content, such as:

 

-Creating themed graphics/infographics that your audience would enjoy and value (for example: ‘how to declutter your space this spring’)

-Sharing your favourite things about spring (a great way to show ‘behind the scenes’ content and elevate your engagement rate)

-Running a spring-themed poll to nurture follower engagement

-Utilising trending sounds to celebrate the coming of the new season

 

Reset for Q2

As April rolls around, the next quarter presents a great opportunity to assess what’s working and how you can optimise your content and campaigns for improved performance over the next few months. Ensure to plan content calendars ahead of time to produce the highest-quality content, and look at key performance metrics (from email click rates to organic engagement) to see what needs particular attention. The ‘spring refresh’ includes your content output, too!

 

Want stellar content for your brand?

If you’ve got the vision, but need the execution- that’s where we come in. Get in touch with our team to see how we can help elevate your marketing strategy and scale your brand in Q2 and beyond.

Book a call now to discuss all things paid advertising, from social media ads to email marketing to UGC.

 

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic entirely redefined the structure of the way we lived our lives both personally and professionally, with many office-based businesses left with no other option but to adopt remote working. 

Fast forward almost 3 years to date, many businesses (including here at SN) have still opted to keep remote and hybrid working as a permanent part of their business model, due to the numerous advantages that come with this style of working. 

If you’re still apprehensive about making WFH a permanent part of your business then we’ve got you covered, as we share the top four favourite benefits of working from home. 

 

Flexibility

Although it goes without saying, working from home can do wonders for your work schedule and general organisation. Your morning, lunchtime and evening routines are free for you to do as you like without the stress of planning around commutes or rush hour traffic.

This point is particularly beneficial for employees who are parents or carers, as remote or hybrid working allows more time to focus on important personal responsibilities such as the school run or getting to appointments.

Improved work-life balance & general well-being 

Whether your ideal morning is getting in an early beneficial workout or a cheeky lie-in to recharge, working from home allows you to easily manage your time and focus on things that are important and personal to you! 

In fact, 47% of people say that thanks to hybrid working they’ve seen a significant improvement in their mental health and well-being, which in turn has made them feel valued as an employee. 

 

 

Increased productivity

Working in an office is great for connecting with your team and is an easy way to stay social. However, as many of us know too well, sometimes the office environment can cause distractions away from your work… 

Working from home allows more control and flexibility around interactions .i.e responding to emails or Slack notifications in your own time, and pausing notifications altogether when you don’t want to be disturbed. 

On top of general freedom of communication, WFH allows you to work in whichever way you feel most comfortable with the freedom to change your work settings (i.e from the bedroom to your study) and even location (i.e going to a workspace or work cafe).

 

Environmental benefits

With the world going greener, there has been a huge amount of pressure on millions of businesses to go net zero by 2050…

Unless you’re lucky enough to walk or cycle to work, unfortunately, the majority of our daily commutes impact the environment via increased C02 emissions, but thankfully this can be solved by switching to a WFH pattern for you and your employees. 

When the initial WFH order was announced in March 2020, globally we saw a huge drop in pollution as a result of the sudden shift in daily commutes. Studies have now shown that a whopping 7.8 billion vehicles aren’t used each year for those who work at least part-time from home! 

 

 

Here at Social Nucleus, we’ve seen first-hand how beneficial a WFH structure can be for both our team and the work we produce, and we wouldn’t be able to achieve the same groundbreaking results without it! 

Book a call today and let’s discuss how we can take your brand to the next level. 

When you’re in the paid social ads game, it’s important to stay in close touch with audience behaviours and tendencies. You need to know what makes your target audience tick, in line with changes to how we consume content on social media. Read on to find out how to adapt your paid ad strategy to today’s social media habits, and the key metric you need to pay attention to.

 

What you need to know

We’re now grappling with even shorter attention spans and multitasking scrollers- think about your compulsion to satiate your attention span by scrolling Instagram while you watch Netflix, for example. Or your rather brutal, subconscious decision-making the second you scroll to every new video on TikTok- if it’s not immediately interesting or entertaining, your thumb knows the drill.

There’s a greater need to capture social media users within the first 3 seconds that they’ll view creatives- and us marketers need to adapt. The metric to optimise is the Thumbstop Ratio; ie  the percentage of people that stopped their scroll to view your ad. Ie your 3-second video plays, divided by total impressions. This metric is vital if you want to succeed at paid ads- the higher it is, the better.

 

Here’s a basic chart to determine how high this KPI needs to be:

Above 40% : Excellent

30-40% : Very good

20-30% : Average

10-20% : Need for serious improvement

Below 10% : Problematic

 

How to improve your Thumbstop Ratio

Here’s the buzzword for boosting your Thumbstop Ratio : the HOOK. Visually and verbally, you need to capture your audience’s attention from the outset. This goes for video/UGC (User Generated Content), graphics and copy- let’s break it down so you can start creating FIRE scroll-stoppers and take full advantage of high quality content.

 

Video/UGC (User Generated Content)

• Be selective with your first clip – show the product straightaway (ideally with a human face or hand in shot) and get to work with dynamic transitions every 1.5-3 seconds.
• Test initial hook text that does well at triggering instant interest, curiosity, or FOMO- keep them short and eye-catching. 
• Ensure you use pumped-up music to keep audiences watching.

 

Graphics

• Use an eye-catching headline that speaks to the audience’s pain points/problems/interests. Any other, smaller copy can talk about product details/key USPs/how it solves the problem.
• Keep things simple- don’t overcrowd the graphic with imagery and text. Pull the audience in with easily digestible visuals and a design that appeals to their demographic.
• Add any offers/deals to attract attention and incentivise further time spent on the ad to find out more.

 

 

Caption copy

• The first line (your hook) needs to speak to your audience- reel them in with a rhetorical question or an appealing statement. Keep it short and punchy to allow the caption to be easily digestible.
• Visually, your copy needs to look like an easy read- break down chunks of text into smaller sections or bullet points. There’s nothing more scroll-worthy than a block of text that the audience immediately thinks is too much to devote time to.
• Use relevant emoji to pull in attention. They’re colourful and fun, and depending on your brand image, a great way to communicate your message.

 

Think like your audience

It’s important to be critical with your ads, and put yourself in the shoes of the social media user persona – appeal to short attention spans and make the experience of your ads as immediately valuable as possible.

You might find a long pan shot interesting on your video content, but your audience has infinite media to watch- and their time is precious. If it’s not engaging enough, you’ve got to be brutal – just like your audience’s decision to scroll (which is often on auto-pilot, responding to their screen stimulus).

Once you’ve mastered the art of scrolling stopping, apply the same dynamism to the rest of your creatives, and you’ll soon see the incredible difference this rather merciless practice will make to your Thumbstop Ratio- and to your ad results overall.

 

Need help to make this vision a reality?

That’s where we come in. Our expert team is always clued up on what’s working, from audience habits to trends to techniques that work. No matter your audience demographic, our dynamic results-driven testing method is proven to help get you the results you’re looking for.

Partner up with us for a built-in paid ads team to put all this into practice and get your audience talking. Book a free strategy call with us to find out more and see how we can help your brand get to the next level.

In today’s digital age, businesses have a huge choice of marketing channels to choose from. From email to social media, there are many ways to reach out to potential customers – new or existing. One channel that often gets overlooked is SMS marketing. SMS marketing involves sending promotional messages directly to customers’ mobile devices. In this blog we are breaking down five reasons why businesses need to adopt an SMS marketing strategy:

 

1. High Open Rates – SMS messages have incredibly high open rates. In fact, it’s estimated that 98% of text messages are opened, compared to just 20% of emails. This means that SMS messages have a much higher chance of being seen by potential customers. This is particularly important for time-sensitive promotions or urgent messages that require immediate action. 

 

2. Personalisation – SMS marketing allows businesses to personalise their messages to individual customers. This can be done by including the customer’s name in the message or by sending messages based on their past purchases or preferences. Personalisation can help businesses create a more meaningful connection with their customers, which can lead to increased loyalty and sales.

3. Cost-Effective – Compared to other marketing channels, SMS marketing is relatively inexpensive. Most SMS marketing platforms charge per message sent, which means that businesses only pay for what they use. This can be particularly beneficial for small businesses with limited marketing budgets.

 

4. Reach a Younger Audience – SMS marketing is particularly effective at reaching younger audiences. Studies have shown that younger consumers are more likely to respond to SMS messages than older generations. This is because younger consumers are more likely to use their mobile devices for communication and are more comfortable receiving messages from businesses.

5. Increased Engagement – SMS marketing can help businesses increase customer engagement. This is because SMS messages are typically short and to the point, which makes them easy for customers to read and respond to. Additionally, SMS messages can include calls-to-action, such as “click here to learn more” or “reply with YES to claim your offer.” These calls-to-action can help businesses drive traffic to their website or increase sales.

 

In conclusion, SMS marketing is a highly effective marketing channel that businesses should consider adding to their marketing mix. With high open rates, personalisation, cost-effectiveness, the ability to reach a younger audience, and increased engagement, SMS marketing can help businesses build stronger connections with their customers and drive sales.

 

If you want to implement or improve your current SMS marketing strategy then get in touch here! 🚀