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Social

3 Marketing Lessons From the Pandemic: One Year Later

If you’re looking for marketing lessons from the pandemic, you don’t have to look far. Just one year ago, businesses were forced to adapt to lockdowns, closures and a new way of doing business. Those that have survived are using marketing lessons from the pandemic to continue growing and staying resilient despite tumultuous times.

With the initial cuts, layoffs and closures behind them, many businesses are using the marketing lessons to better their businesses. With the help of marketing and technology, business owners have been able to continue providing their products and services to customers. Hang on to these lessons as you move forward and plan for a brighter 2021. 

Lesson #1: You Need to Go Digital

With the pandemic, there’s been an increased demand for online shopping, contactless pickup and delivery, and “buy online, pick up curbside/in store” ordering experiences. Businesses that did not previously offer these types of buying options have had to add them into their processes. Consumers not only expect them now, but they’re also critical to your bottom line. 

Even businesses that don’t rely on retail purchases have had to rely more on digital offerings. Fitness clubs, concert venues, art galleries and other brick-and-mortar entities found that livestream and on-demand experiences let them swing open their digital doors, if not their physical spaces.

By meeting your customers where they are, so to speak, you’re able to identify any weaknesses in your businesses. Maybe you’ve had to upgrade your ordering processes, implement an ecommerce system or develop an app for your business. Whatever the case may be, giving your business much-needed upgrades can only be good for your bottom line. 

Related: Lessons Learned From the Pandemic: A Conversation With Franchisees

Lesson #2: Communication Is Key

With in-person interaction being more limited during the pandemic, businesses have had to communicate more frequently through social media and other online technologies. The use of social media has become particularly important, with people turning to their feeds for information and entertainment from business’ social media pages. 

Moreover, they’re finding out basic information such as hours of operation from “near me” searches. This means it’s imperative that businesses have their directory listings up-to-date with details on hours of operation, in-store or curbside buying options, and health and safety guidelines.

No matter what kind of business you have, the pandemic has made it clear that maintaining an up-to-date online presence is critical to your survival. If you’re not already updating your social media and keeping your directory listings current, people will go somewhere else — somewhere that’s making life easier for them. 

Lesson #3: Keep It Real in Your Campaigns

There’s nothing worse than a tone-deaf marketer failing to see the reality of the world around them. The pandemic has taught marketers to stay in touch with the current situation while looking for ways to market their brands.

An example of being tone-deaf might be showing images of people gathering in large crowds in the height of the pandemic. On the flip side, showing clips of people videoconferencing with friends and family from home is an example of keeping up with the times.

Another way to “keep it real” is by posting hyper-local images of people and customers from your location. They can be photos and videos that you snap yourself, those that your employees snap if you utilize them as employee advocates, or those from social media influencers. These are the kinds of authentic images your followers want to see and interact with.

This marketing lesson from the pandemic applies even if in the absence of a global health crisis. Marketers who are sensitive and in touch with people’s current realities appear more trustworthy and relatable. Those are the brands people will remember long after the pandemic is gone.

It’s a real opportunity to uplift others instead of focusing on selling. The end result could very well be increased sales simply because people like and respect your messaging. See how that works?

Related: Social Media Marketing, the Quarantine Edition: How to Pivot When Times Get Tough

Let the Marketing Lessons Carry You Forward

This month marks one year since the pandemic changed our world forever. The marketing lessons learned since that time will stay relevant in the months and years to come.

Perhaps the most important marketing lesson of all — one that overarches all the others — is that it’s necessary to establish trust, transparency and relevancy with your audience. You can never go wrong if that’s your guidepost for every marketing campaign.

And while there are many other marketing lessons to be gleaned from the past year, we want to leave you with the above three. They’re so critical to your success that it’s imperative you focus on implementing them right away. We’ve helped hundreds of business owners thrive during the pandemic using our SaaS platforms and local social media solutions.

At Rallio, we have an entire suite of technology applications designed to help you manage your entire social media presence. Whether you’re a franchisor with multiple locations or an independent small-business owner, we have the right technology to meet your needs, which may include:

  • Getting more online reviews
  • Responding to online reviews, social media engagements and direct messages
  • Updating your directory listings quickly across the web, in just a few clicks
  • Posting local content on your social media pages
  • Increasing your following
  • Keeping track of your analytics so you know what’s working and what’s not

To find out more and schedule a demo that walks you through our various solutions, start at rallio.com or email sales@rallio.com.

Further reading: Why You Need to Keep Up Your Marketing Despite the Coronavirus

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Inspiration

5 Simple Reasons to Be Thankful in 2020

There have been too many challenges to count in 2020, and it’s easy to feel deflated, upset or downright angry if you’ve been personally impacted. Dwelling on the challenges only amplifies those feelings. On the flip side, finding reasons to be thankful gives your brain something positive to think about.

Whichever route you’re inclined to choose, give this article a read first. Although it’s important to address any challenges you’re facing with appropriate actions, it’s equally important to find gratitude. 

Look Hard, and You’ll Find Your Own Reasons to Be Thankful

Focusing on reasons to be thankful might inspire you to do more of the things that are working — and less of the things that are not. Sometimes, it takes more effort to find the good when it seems like the bad is bearing down on you at every turn.

One way to ease the task of finding reasons to be thankful is to write them down. Pull out a journal, a blank piece of paper, a white board, a scrap of paper or even the Notes app on your phone. 

First thing in the morning, write down three to five reasons to be thankful. Do the same thing right before you go to sleep. 

Make it specific to yourself. Don’t worry too much about the complexity of your reasons, either. Maybe today you’re thankful you have a warm cup of coffee next to your keyboard. Maybe tomorrow you’ll feel thankful that you and your kids are healthy. 

There’s no right or wrong way to find reasons to be thankful. Just make it a habit, and before long, your brain might just gravitate to gratitude. Here are a few suggestions to get your gratitude on — feel free to modify, delete or add to this list as it suits you. 

The Great Pivot of 2020

When the pandemic hit, you likely were blindsided — as all of us were — by the changes that happened rapidly around us. Business doors were closed, people began staying home more, and just leaving the house to find toilet paper became a challenge on its own.

As a business owner, you might have had to shift to delivery services or curbside pickup. Maybe you had to build an ecommerce platform or a new app. You may have also stepped up your social media marketing, as people around the globe turned to technology for entertainment, connection, information and online shopping.

In this article, we discuss which social media strategies to keep even when the pandemic has passed:

As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce states in its reopening guide: “The businesses that will survive and thrive are the ones that can be flexible and adaptable to consumers’ new and evolving needs. You’ll need to plan carefully and understand not only what may need to change about your business, but what new growth opportunities may exist for you in a post-pandemic world.” 

Now hiring: Come in, we're open

If you have successfully implemented new business processes and strategies because of the pandemic, then you’re even more prepared to go into 2021 strong. Among the reasons to be thankful in 2020, you can be glad that any weaknesses were exposed in your business. 

Forced to pivot and adapt, you made your business stronger. Now don’t quit while you’re ahead. There’s still work to do, so don’t rest on your laurels.

Appreciation for the Little Things

There may be significant challenges you’ve had to overcome this year. Perhaps you’re still dealing with them. When the challenges are big, turn to the small things to find gratitude.

If you look around, you’ll find meaning in things you may have overlooked before. Maybe it’s your own health or that of your loved ones (those are actually not small things, but easy to take for granted). 

Something as simple as cooking food at home can bring you satisfaction. (Banana bread, anyone?)

Find reasons to be thankful.

What are some of the little things you appreciate now more than ever? Your morning walk with your pup? Your neighborhood — did you get to know your neighbors a little more than you might have if you weren’t at home?

Let these little things make their way onto your daily gratitude list. In time, your list will grow longer because you’ll start looking for more and more reasons to be thankful.

Your Community

This year has included moments of unrest mixed in with moments of selflessness and bravery. Front-line workers in your own community have showed up day in and day out to take care of the community you love.

It’s not just first responders, either. Do a quick internet search, and you can find examples of selfless acts and community support around the globe.

Consider the Arkansas school district that “saved so much money from switching to solar power for their buildings, they were able to bump up their teachers’ salaries and eliminate their budget deficits.”

Or the fact that Zoom is lifting its 40-minute time limit on Thanksgiving this year to help families spend more time together, safely and virtually.

You need only look around your own business and customer base to find even more examples of community support. 

The employees who put in overtime without complaint, take extra care with their cleaning and sanitizing routine, or go the extra mile to make a customer happy.

The customers who leave a big tip, post a positive online review, or smile under their mask as they see you wiping sweat from your brow after a busy day.

They’re all there, if you look for them. And the more you look for them, the more they’ll show up for you.

You. Yes, You

If you can rise in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror, and find gratitude that you woke up that day, your day will always begin on a positive note. 

As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, we want to take a moment to tell you we’re grateful for you — our readers, our clients, our team members and everyone who makes Rallio possible. 

Now go and pay it forward, and find some reasons to be thankful of your own.

Categories
Reputation

How’s Your Customer Response Time? 6 Simple Ways to Step It Up

If your customer response time is lagging on social media, your followers and customers are going to notice. Whether they’re looking to get questions answered or to leave a review, you can count on customers using social media as a customer service channel. 

Is your customer response time fast enough for them? The typical recommendation is a customer response time of less than 24 hours. However, if you really want to impress them, you’ll want to pick up the pace even more.

Additionally, make sure you’ve got all your bases covered as far as responses go. Below, we’ve outlined six simple ways you can improve your customer response time and keep your customers happy.

But first, let’s look at why you should care about customer response time in the first place.

Why Customer Response Time Matters

It’s no secret that responding to your customers is important. If you have a successful business, naturally you have some type of system for customer support. For instance, maybe you have a support email and phone number for customer service inquiries.

However, it’s not enough to provide only email and phone support. The influx of support requests during the pandemic has led to a spike in customer service inquiries, and social media is a part of that equation. 

With pandemic-related extended wait times over the phone and, sometimes, a delay in email response time, it’s critical that you enable your customers to reach you and have their issues resolved via social media. Whether they’re checking on shipment status, inquiring about refunds and exchanges, or looking for information on a product or service, customers are putting on the pressure to get answers, fast. 

Intercom explains, “As the virus spreads around the world, many support teams are experiencing significant shifts in customer requests. In our survey, nearly half (47%) of support teams report that inbound volume has increased since the outbreak and by an average of 51% above their normal volume.”

Pandemic aside, a fast customer response time is one of the best ways to build customer loyalty. According to Gartner, customers are significantly more loyal when their expectations are met versus when their expectations are not met. 

With loyalty, you increase the likelihood of customers sharing about their experiences on social media. From there, you increase your reach and the chances of acquiring new followers and customers.

It all begins with your customer response time and the quality of your responses. So, yes, it’s pretty important that you get this aspect of your business squared away sooner rather than later.

Read more: The 6 Most Common FAQ About Local Social Media, Answered

Common FAQ about social media

Automate Your Customer Responses

One of the first ways to improve customer response time on social media is to automate responses. Facebook will allow you to set up auto-responses to your frequently asked questions. 

Think about the questions you field over and over again. Maybe they include:

  • What are your hours? 
  • How do I make an appointment?
  • Where are you located?
  • Can I see a menu?
  • Do you deliver?

With Facebook auto-responses, you can fill in the answers to FAQ and handle many customer service inquiries without having to lift a finger. Here’s a quick walk-through from Facebook to help you set these up.

Facebook points out that these instant replies are not included in your page’s response rate and response time. These are measures of how quickly and consistently you respond to messages. With a high response rate and fast response time, you earn a “Very responsive to messages” badge that you can display on your page.

Still, though, giving your customers quick answers will help to improve their satisfaction with your brand. In their eyes, you are providing a fast customer response time — even if Facebook isn’t officially recognizing your instant replies as part of your response metrics.

Did you know? 54% of social browsers use social media to research products. GlobalWebIndex

Respond to Direct Messages

The DM feature on your social media pages — Facebook and elsewhere — is a great way for customers to contact you directly without picking up the phone. And while instant replies can handle some of the incoming questions, they won’t cover every single issue.

That’s why it’s important to check your DMs and make sure you’re responding to them. It takes real humans to manage this task. You can either assign this job to someone in-house or outsource the work, but make sure you have it covered.

Responding to DMs quickly not only ensures optimal customer response time, but also improves customer satisfaction. Your customers will be less likely to leave a negative review if you handle their inquiries promptly and professionally.

Read more: 5 Easy Ways to Power Up Your Social Media Presence in One Hour or Less

Power up your social media presence

Improve Your Library of Help Content

Within your auto-responses and any other automated customer service mechanisms such as live chat, you can also direct customers over to your help library online. That is, of course, if you have a help library.

If not, now is a great time to create one!

Help libraries are useful for answering any common questions, providing how-to tutorials, and explaining your customer service or shipping policies. You can keep this library continually updated, adding to it anytime you see a new customer service need.

In addition to providing text-based tutorials and answers, it’s a good idea to add video content to your help library. Many people prefer to watch a video rather than read something, and videos are another way to support your customers and improve your customer response time.

Respond to Social Media Engagements and Reviews

Yet another way that customers will seek out customer support is through your social media posts themselves. In some cases, customers are simply commenting on a post with something positive. Other times, they may actually be posting a question or a negative comment about your brand.

And in still other scenarios, customers may be leaving reviews of your company on a review platform like Google My Business or Facebook. 

In any of these cases, you should respond to your customers quickly. For positive comments, express your thanks and let them know you’re eager to serve them again in the future. For anything negative, offer to help resolve the problem and make it right for the customer. 

Avoid getting into back-and-forth arguments or being defensive. Try to take the conversation offline. Don’t fear negative feedback, however. It can be an opportunity to:

  • Take the high road. Show that you’re willing to resolve problems quickly.
  • Avoid having your comments and reviews appear “fake.” It’s rare that a brand never gets criticized.
  • Consider the criticism as an opportunity to grow if the customer has a valid concern. 

Utilize Social Media Management Tools

This is perhaps one of the best ways to ensure a better customer response time: Have everything housed under one roof.

Rallio technology gives you a single login to one central dashboard that will pull in all of your likes, comments, messages, reviews and other engagements. It also allows you to respond to them. Rather than having to log in to several different platforms and keep up with all of the above, you can keep everything organized.

Not only will you reduce your customer response time by having everything centralized, but you’ll save yourself a lot of time, too. You’ll also reduce the chances of anything slipping through the cracks.

Always Look to Improve Your Customer Response Time

The quicker you can respond to customers, the happier your customers will be. With a blend of personalized responses and speedy response times, you’ll gain customer loyalty and build your online reputation.

In addition to Rallio technology tools, you can work with our Rallio Local division if you’d like us to handle all your customer responses. Whatever your needs may be, we can find a solution that works for you.

Categories
Case studies

Lessons Learned From the Pandemic: A Conversation With Franchisees

If there are any lessons learned from the pandemic, some of them certainly come from business owners, who are navigating the current challenges day in and day out. Here at Rallio, we work with hundreds of different franchisees and small-business owners. And we’ve seen firsthand how these owners have dug down deep and pivoted in the face of a global health crisis.

They’re incredible humans. They’re everything you think of when you think of an entrepreneur: resilient, innovative, perseverant, courageous and strong. Our hats go off to them and to all our healthcare workers and others who are dealing with the COVID-19 crisis every single day.

Today on the blog, we wanted to give you a chance to hear from a few of these owners. We spoke with owners from Tutor Doctor, Pet Supplies Plus and Merry Maids — just a few of the brands we work with. Here, in their own words, are some of the lessons learned from the pandemic.

Lessons Learned on Weathering the Storm

Gaurav Dhir

Tutor Doctor of Courtice, ON, Canada

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TutorDoctorDurhamON/

This is a great topic that you are writing on. The pandemic has been tough on many businesses. We are one of the fortunate ones who seem to have weathered the storm. We are looking forward to emerging stronger on the other side. Below, I am mentioning some of the lessons learned from the pandemic.

Cash Is King

I know, I know, this phrase has been bandied around a lot in the last few months. But we really saw this play out in our business over the quarter gone by. We are lucky to have a strong positive cash flow business. Operating from conservative business principles, we used this strong cash flow to build a bit of reserve over 2019, the first year of our business. 

At the same time, we opened a savings account along with our company’s checking account. I made sure that all the cash that we did not need even for a few days went into the savings account. What this meant is that with our “float,” we were able to earn a healthy interest over last year that went straight to our bottom line (after, of course, paying the taxes). 

We also managed to build up a small buffer when the pandemic hit us. And the pandemic hit us hard. Our business was down over 90% for the Q2 of 2020, over Q1 of 2020. But we know we will live. It was our buffer that helped us. We have just started seeing some green shoots and things have started turning around.

Ask For Help

If you need help, please ask for it. In Canada (and I believe the same is true, south of the 49th parallel), we are lucky to be in a society that tries to take care of everyone. If you need help, just ask. Be it emotional, mental or even financial. 

Some of the things we did for our financial well-being were, we reached out to everyone who was our vendor in the business. We requested all our suppliers to defer and delay payments. 

Now, I am not talking about the small-business owners like my printer. I know that they, too, are in the same boat as us. But I did call my insurance company, phone company and even the bank and got payments in terms of fees, interest and charges waived or delayed. That really helped our cash flow. 

Also, I was very aware and updated about all the government support programs. All this while, I kept in close contact with my CPA, who guided me through the labyrinth of the various grants and loans available.

Use Your Time

It is very easy to feel self-pity or suffer from bouts of demotivation in a time as tough as we have seen during the COVID pandemic. But my wife and I decided that we will use this time to hustle and build something. We are new immigrants to the country, and failure for us is not an option. So while our main business was down, I used this time to start a blog. I was always passionate in the health and wellness space, and in April 2020, I took over https://www.helpandwellness.com/ and started building it. 

The blog started gaining traction, and we managed to monetize it to provide us with a small cash flow. We believe, you can either have internal locus of control and take charge, or have external locus of control and let the situation take charge. We preferred the former over the latter.

So, if you are struggling right now, do not despair. Look out there, to see what can you do to weather the storm? What costs can you cut? What expenses can you shave off? Is there a new line of business that you can start? Can you start a new side hustle that has the potential to scale? If you have worked hard to get your business to where it is, know that you have it in you to come out the other side of this crisis and flourish. Good luck!

Learn more: Cash Flow – How It Works to Keep Your Business Afloat

https://www.facebook.com/TutorDoctorDurhamON/posts/650742435511220

Lessons Learned on Pivoting

Tom Dammer 

Pet Supplies Plus of Sarasota East, Florida

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PSPSarasotaEast/

Obviously, curbside pickup and delivery have been huge benefits to our neighbors during this crazy time, and the value per ticket of those purchases is higher than an average in-store purchase. Grooming has been solid since other grooming shops were closed during the beginning of the pandemic and our grooming was open throughout. 

I did close early for a few weeks, and I found that to be a mistake. I learned from other franchisees that staying open regular hours throughout the pandemic provides neighbors confidence that we are there when they need us. Wearing masks and maintaining the cleaning procedures outlined by Pet Central provides neighbors with the reassurance that Pet Supplies Plus is a safe place for them to shop.

Read more: The Pandemic and Pet Businesses: How Social Media Can Help

https://www.facebook.com/PSPSarasotaEast/photos/a.116876306507392/139102187618137

Lessons Learned on Communication

Michael Blomker

Merry Maids of Albuquerque, NM 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MerryMaidsofAlbuquerque/

The biggest lesson for me was to increase communication. That includes clients and staff. Use all platforms. Facebook, Instagram, Constant Contact, text and phone. The best way to ease people’s anxiety is to talk about it.

https://www.facebook.com/MerryMaidsofAlbuquerque/photos/a.1723549377708750/3185125918217748?type=3

 

What are some of the other lessons learned from the pandemic? We’d like to hear from you. Email your story to marketing@rallio.com with the subject line “Lessons learned from the pandemic, attn: Karen” for consideration in a future article.

Categories
Social

Pandemic Greatest Hits: Top 7 Secrets to Social Media Success

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, virtually every type of business has had to pivot in order to continue reaching customers — who are spending more time online than ever before. Throughout this time, we at Rallio have been helping businesses find ways to change things up and strategize for social media success.

Many of our blog posts have focused on reimagining “business as usual,” because business as we know it has changed. So today, we’ve got a quick roundup of some of the tips and tricks we’ve provided during the pandemic — a “Pandemic Greatest Hits,” if you will. Cue it up, put it on repeat and get to work adjusting your social media strategy if you haven’t already. 

Track #1: Boost the Right Content

Boosting content gives you the ability to reach more of your followers and their friends than organic reach alone. While you might be familiar with the concept of boosting — or maybe you’ve not yet added it to your social media strategy — you might not know what to boost. 

Here’s the track for you: Social Media Success in a Pandemic: A Conversation With 2 Brand Managers

The quick takeaway:

We’ve all seen the constant stream of ads on social media for the newest fashion, kitchen gadgets and skin-care, but local businesses also have the ability to show off their services and products online to their local area. Boosting during COVID was imperative to social media success, but the question became “What do we boost?” 

At a time where businesses are struggling and have taken massive hits to their cash flow, boosting for engagement was not what was going to have the biggest impact. We took the time and care to consider what could actually produce an ROI for these hard-working business owners. Services were emphasized as well as updates for reopening or any pivot they had made during this pandemic. 

Business owners were able to generate actual leads at a time where their businesses were forced to close, and even those that stayed open were taking big hits. In some cases, we actually saw an uptick in sales for products, and followers started using the new methods of getting their products (curbside pickup, delivery). 

Some followers, of course, would automatically assume that they could not go to their favorite local business during this pandemic, but thanks to boosting updates, our clients did not miss out on valuable customers that would have otherwise opted for something else.

Track #2: Update Your Directory Listings

If your business hours have changed during the pandemic, it’s important to communicate that information to your customers. Updating your online directory listings ensures your hours, location and other basic information about your business stays up-to-date so people can find you.

Here’s the track for you: Why You Need Your Social Media Company to Do Directory Listings, Too

The quick takeaway:

If you adjusted your hours due to COVID-19, for example, maybe now you’re getting back to regular business hours. You would want to not only update your hours across the web, but also tell your followers. With a combined directory listings and social media provider, that’s all handled for you.

With Rallio’s services, you actually can be everywhere at once. You can manage your directory listings and social media from one simple dashboard:

  • Your hours, physical address, phone number and other details about your business can be easily updated on over 40 directory listings sites, in just a few clicks. 
  • Using that same dashboard, you can create a post for all your social platforms about your changed hours — maybe a photo of you as the business owner holding an “Open” sign, with a caption that reads, “We’re back! We have resumed our regular business hours and made a few adjustments in-house to account for social distancing and proper cleaning and disinfection.”
  • Another benefit is the ease of maintaining information across platforms. Instead of franchisees having to log in to six or seven different platforms to update their information, they have one simple login and one dashboard to handle it all — streamlining the process and preventing errors. 

Boom. You just updated everyone and, at the same time, gave them the confidence they needed to feel safe returning to your establishment. 

Track #3: Go Virtual

Having an online component of your business is essential, particularly if you aren’t able to open your doors to crowds at this time. Fitness, education and food are just some of the industries that had to pivot to go online. Whether through virtual classes or online ordering options, having online capabilities is what allowed many businesses to stay afloat.

The track for you: Reopening Your Business? 7 Social Media Strategies to Keep — Plus 1 to Ditch Forever

The quick takeaway: 

Many businesses switched to virtual formats to continue offering services amid the pandemic. We’ve seen fitness businesses offering live streaming via Facebook Live and Zoom. Tutors are providing online education in place of in-person tutoring. Everywhere you turn, businesses are figuring out how to reach their audience in a virtual way.

Many customers have discovered the convenience and safety of staying home while still getting the services they need and want. As a business, you may have discovered a whole new line of business by offering virtual services. 

How to incorporate virtual formats in your social media strategy:

  • Use Facebook Live to offer classes, educational services, how-to tutorials and more. You can also use Zoom in cases where you want to be able to see your customers and vice versa.
  • Continue to get creative with your virtual offerings. How about virtual tours, wine tastings, happy hours, shopping events and guest speakers?
  • Create Facebook events for your virtual events. Promote them beforehand with your target audience. Your guests will get reminders on the day of the event to join.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBjqWyFgeH7/

Track #4: Incorporate Employee Advocacy

Employees have become brand advocates and influencers, as they snap photos and videos and mention your company on their personal pages. These personal posts have greater reach than brand-created posts. Employee advocacy, therefore, is now an integral part of social media success.

The track for you: Same track as #3 above

The key takeaway:

Maybe you’ve been highlighting the great work your employees are doing throughout the pandemic. Or perhaps you had to temporarily lay off employees, and now you’re preparing to welcome them back. Whatever the case may be, it’s important to keep showing gratitude for the people helping to keep your business running — from employees to suppliers.

How to incorporate employee advocacy in your social media strategy:

  • Spotlight your employees in social media posts. Tell your followers why they’re so great!
  • Empower your employees to share about your business on their personal social media pages. The Rallio platform makes it easy to share brand-approved content through these extended networks.
  • Invite employees to submit assets like in-store photos and videos. Again, the Rallio platform simplifies this process.

Track #5: Measure Social Media ROI Correctly

ROI is something every marketer wants, but measuring it is not always easy. The social media buying process looks different than the traditional one, but the point is that there is a buying process. Customers do not always buy from you based on one campaign or social media post alone. 

The “track” below is worth reading in its entirety, especially if you are in a position where you have to prove that social media marketing is a worthwhile investment. (Hint: It is.)

The track for you: The 6 Most Important Social Media Metrics to Track for ROI

The key takeaway:

To measure your own social ROI, start by considering the different steps in the buying process of a traditional marketing funnel:

  • Awareness
  • Interest
  • Consideration
  • Intent
  • Evaluation
  • Purchase

We’ve tweaked that traditional funnel a bit for purposes of illustrating the social media buying process:

  • Awareness
  • Interest
  • Consideration 
  • Purchase
  • Loyalty
  • Advocacy

One caveat to keep in mind at all times: A social media user may find you at any step in their own buying journey. They may become aware of your existence through their friend commenting on your team-member Tuesday post. Or checking out your social content and finding out how well you treat your staff may be the tipping point to get them to buy. We recommend checking out our post, Social ROI and the Marketing Ecosystem, for more details on the non-linear nature of social media purchasing behavior.

Track #6: Post. Local. Content. On. Repeat.

We can’t say it enough. We’re actually sick of the sound of our own voices saying it. So just trust us on this one. Your real, authentic, fun, non-salesy, friendly, personable, relationship-building, community-supporting content will outperform the pants off of boring, salesy, promotional or stock photos. Every. Single. Day.

And when you boost it, as we discuss in track #1, you improve its reach. It’s that simple!

The track for you: Facebook Ads and Hyper-Local Content: Your Recipe for Social Media Success

The key takeaway: 

  • While many marketers might be pulling back on advertising due to cost concerns, that’s the last thing we’d recommend doing. Between the increase in usage and the reduced CPM/CPC, there’s never been a better time to dedicate dollars toward social media ads.
  • Franchisors have a unique opportunity to help their franchisees increase exposure at the local level. Franchisees who post and boost hyper-local content ensure they’re connecting at the local level with their customers.
  • Customers want to help their community get back on its feet. When you engage with them and increase your reach with Facebook ads, you increase the likelihood of driving local business.

Stop selling, start storytelling

Track #7: Be a Storyteller, Not a Salesperson

Your social media should paint a picture of your business as a place where people would not only want to spend money, but also get to know the business. The businesses that demonstrate their commitment to their community are the ones that will thrive.

The track for you: 4 Ways to Tweak Your Social Media Marketing for COVID-19

The key takeaway: 

No matter what the industry, COVID-19 has affected businesses everywhere, along with the consumers who buy from them. Given the global impact this virus has had, it’s important to adjust your messaging and social media marketing to reflect the current times — whether your business is booming or struggling because of COVID-19.

Instead of a hard sales pitch, it’s about softening your message and looking for ways to be of service. The term “We’re all in this together” has become a rallying cry of people everywhere — from all industries and walks of life. 

And actually, this is the perfect time to recognize that the hard sales pitch was never a very effective way to capture your audience’s attention. 

Rather than use social media as a blatant promotional tool, think of it as a platform for being authentic, honest and real. Recruit the power of social media to help you tell your story, support your customers and serve your community, and you’ll be met with enthusiasm from your audience. 

We know how overwhelming it can be when there are so many different sources of information out there on social media marketing. Hopefully this article gives you some simple, solid starting points. We’re always happy to make the process easier if you want to tap into our expertise.

Categories
Social

Social Media Success in a Pandemic: A Conversation With 2 Brand Managers

As a social media company, Rallio has worked with businesses in all different industries to help them pivot during the pandemic and find social media success. Whether they were offering virtual classes, curbside pickup or restaurant takeout, we’ve been able to help spread the word about any changes to the usual course of business.

It’s not just our clients pivoting, of course. Around the world, businesses have had to adjust to current times as they navigate the COVID-19 crisis. Those that acted quickly and implemented changes have survived and thrived in many cases. 

Yet all of these changes don’t mean much if your customers don’t know about them. Social media has become more important than ever as a means of communicating, staying in touch and building relationships with customers. 

To get some insight on the factors that contribute to our clients’ success despite the COVID-19 crisis, we chatted with two of our brand managers here at Rallio, Anton Emmerton and Summer Garschina. The Rallio Local team continues to assist clients in pivoting, keeping their social media pages fresh and managing their online presence.

https://www.facebook.com/rallio/posts/1618832671603232

How were your clients initially impacted by the pandemic?

Anton: Since we work with such a wide variety of brands, each of them was impacted differently. Some businesses were forced to close while others remained open as essential businesses. Even those that were deemed essential businesses were still impacted due to the traditional in-store shopping experience changing so drastically overnight. Foot traffic slowed down, so options like curbside pickup and delivery were emphasized to help sales.

Summer: One fitness brand we work with was unfortunately closed during the pandemic, but they saw the power of social media and continued to post and grow engagement. Our printer clients are considered an essential business and saw a need for home office printers and delivery drivers to drop-ship cartridges. Our laboratory testing client was impacted in the best possible way because they were able to come out with a new test in high demand for COVID-19 antibodies.

What were some of the ways Rallio Local helped them to pivot and find social media success?

Anton: Rallio Local has the responsibility of not only managing online profiles, but also providing business with insight and expertise on how to navigate this space in a time of crisis. We offered content ideas to all our clients as well as contingency plans so they knew exactly what to do if anything were to happen to their business. With some businesses not able to operate how they normally would, we were able to help them pivot their business model so they could maintain their clients and even grow their customer base by offering new services or new methods of delivering those services or products to their dedicated customers. 

Summer: Rallio Local continued to post locally for brands to keep them on social media, where most people spent their days scrolling during the quarantine. We hosted webinars to show the significance of social media during these times, the current digital marketing trends, how to respond to a new climate, and how to pivot their local social media marketing strategies. 

https://www.facebook.com/rallio/posts/1594061280747038

How did social media help clients maintain or grow their business?

Anton: The value of social media became so clear to clients when their traditional forms of outreach and communication with their community was no longer effective. Through the constant updates and advertising opportunities on social media, our clients were able to make their followers and community aware of services that they may have not known of before. We ran ads to push these services specifically to their local areas so that the business could continue to grow and keep the loyal customers that they had pre-pandemic.

Summer: Social media helped our clients more than ever during the pandemic because they were able to get information out to their customers and clients here. During a time where everything was basically closed down, people began to use social media as their go-to for everything, whether it was closure notices, positive stories, new products, how-tos, and recent reopening information. 

What did Rallio Local do to help manage clients’ online reputation and customer service — i.e., via online reviews, direct messages, and social media comments and questions?

Anton: At a time where screentime is at an all-time high, there’s no better reassurance to a client than having someone specifically dedicated to monitoring their pages and managing their reputation. Direct messages came flooding in with questions regarding whether our clients were open, what their new hours were, and what precautions they were taking to ensure the safety of their customers. We were able to align quickly with all the franchisees and corporate teams to make sure that these questions were answered in a timely manner with brand approved messaging. 

When it came to reviews, we were able to respond to all reviews within 24 business hours and address any concerns their clients had with the necessary and accurate information. In a time of crisis, it is crucial that all voices are heard and acknowledged and as a customer, there’s no better place to express your concerns than through listings platforms and social media pages.

Summer: Rallio Local helped manage our clients’ customer service tremendously by staying on top of daily direct messages, comments and reviews. There was an overwhelming number of customers going to these platforms with questions regarding what they should do next, how to get in contact, hourly changes and much more. Our Rallio Local team makes these questions and comments one of their daily priorities and won’t end their workday until they’re accounted for and answered. 

What about their change of hours and temporary closures — how did we help with that?

Anton: With new regulations and orders coming into play each day, we were able to stay on top of updating store hours and temporary closures to a plethora of online listings platforms like Yelp, Google My Business and Facebook through our directory listings management. 

Every day, we wake up to a different world, and business owners already have so much on their plate when it comes to in-store operations and their day-to-day. We know how important it is to keep your customers in the loop on changes, and we are proud to say that we could update store hours easily and efficiently to make sure their presence stayed consistent online.

Summer: At the very beginning of the pandemic, this was our main focus. We had client locations with closures and hours changing by the second. We made sure to post for each location on what exactly was happening for their specific store. A rollercoaster of changes, but Rallio Local held strong and made sure to get the job done for each of our clients.

What impact did boosting have on clients’ social media success overall?

Anton: We’ve all seen the constant stream of ads on social media for the newest fashion, kitchen gadgets and skin-care, but local businesses also have the ability to show off their services and products online to their local area. Boosting during COVID was imperative to social media success, but the question became “What do we boost?” 

At a time where businesses are struggling and have taken massive hits to their cash flow, boosting for engagement was not what was going to have the biggest impact. We took the time and care to consider what could actually produce an ROI for these hard-working business owners. Services were emphasized as well as updates for reopening or any pivot they had made during this pandemic. 

Business owners were able to generate actual leads at a time where their businesses were forced to close, and even those that stayed open were taking big hits. In some cases, we actually saw an uptick in sales for products, and followers started using the new methods of getting their products (curbside pickup, delivery). 

Some followers, of course, would automatically assume that they could not go to their favorite local business during this pandemic, but thanks to boosting updates, our clients did not miss out on valuable customers that would have otherwise opted for something else.

Summer: Boosting for our Rallio Local clients helped with getting their content out to more than just their followers. We were able to set up specific mile radiuses on posts in order to get the word out to people who may not even follow their page. This was a huge benefit for all of our clients, because it not only expanded the brand, but it also helped maintain high reach and engagement on content. 

Read more: Facebook Ads and Hyper-Local Content: Your Recipe for Social Media Success

 

https://www.facebook.com/rallio/posts/1586573711495795

For those businesses that pivoted, what are some of the permanent changes they’ll be keeping?

Anton: Tutors can now teach online via Zoom video chats; auto and tire shops can now drive out to customers’ homes to perform routine maintenance; stores can offer curbside pickup or delivery services so that their customers still get what they need from the store they love. The possibilities really are endless. 

Not only did these changes help them maintain their business, but it also opened up a completely different avenue for generating revenue for a lot of business owners. It also emphasized the dedication these businesses have for their local communities.

Summer: Our laboratory testing client has a new COVID antibodies and viral test that will permanently be in their labs in order to test anyone for the virus. Our printer client now offers to print menus for restaurants due to the new regulations on disposable menus. Our fitness brand started a livestream for home workouts that will continue to be a feature on their social media. 

https://www.facebook.com/rallio/photos/a.213849565434890/1554240751395758?type=3&av=207889606030886&eav=AfbBGM-NrxCHWW2QqOCAhwjIH78e36y3EQZA9q8IfecjW55-WIO9HdGwqUqsUdYD91k

What’s one key takeaway you could mention regarding social media as it relates to the pandemic?

Anton: This is a really hard one, because there’s so much to take away. My biggest takeaway is that social media is not just a place to advertise your products/services or share photos and videos with your friends; it is becoming increasingly clear that this is now how we communicate. 

Do not stop talking on social media. As soon as you stop communicating with your local community on your social profiles, they forget you exist and they forget that you care. I encourage more businesses that don’t see the value in social media to take a look at how it has affected our culture in the last three months. We have only scratched the surface of what is capable with these platforms, and you need the help of others to navigate this space.

Summer: A key takeaway of mine is, no matter your brand, create memorable and engaging moments for your clients. Everyone is looking for something to relate to online, especially during these times. So us as a Rallio Local team are the ones to help build these relationships and help grow the brands we partner with.

We’re continuing to help many brands pivot and make the most of their social media presence during the pandemic and beyond. Be sure to check out all our service lines over at rallio.com and schedule a demo with us by reaching out to sales@rallio.com.

https://www.facebook.com/rallio/posts/1584530058366827

Categories
Social

Reopening Your Business? 7 Social Media Strategies to Keep — Plus 1 to Ditch Forever

We’re all seeing signs of life in the economy as businesses start to reopen — an encouraging indicator of impending normalcy. If your business is preparing to reopen, you may be wondering which COVID-19 social media strategies to keep and which ones to ditch. 

That’s just one question among many in this new business climate. As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce states in its reopening guide: “The businesses that will survive and thrive are the ones that can be flexible and adaptable to consumers’ new and evolving needs. You’ll need to plan carefully and understand not only what may need to change about your business, but what new growth opportunities may exist for you in a post-pandemic world.”

We recommend combing through the U.S. Chamber’s guide for more detailed suggestions on reopening. In the meantime, as far as the changes go in the realm of social media, we’ve recommended some “keepers” below. These changes have been implemented by many of the businesses we coach, and you may want to make these changes permanent.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=140029840947243&id=105294971087397&substory_index=0

Curbside Pickup or Home Delivery

The COVID-19 crisis forced businesses to pivot how they do business. Curbside pickup and touch-free home deliveries are strategies that have helped many businesses to keep their doors open. 

With touch-free options, you may have had to implement:

  • Ecommerce systems
  • Fulfillment processing, free shipping and home delivery
  • More advanced text messaging and email alerts to communicate order status
  • Third-party delivery systems

Keep offering these options to your customers for the foreseeable future —  even if your business is able to open its doors for a broader range of services. Many customers are still not going to want to step foot in public places for any length of time.

How to incorporate touch-free options in your social media strategy: 

  • Tout your touch-free options with photos and videos explaining how customers can safely access your products and services. 
  • Snap photos of delivery drivers getting ready to make local deliveries, or employees bringing orders out to customers’ vehicles.
  • Create a Facebook offer with free shipping and boost it.

By the way, these types of white-glove services go a long way toward building customer loyalty — which brings us to … 

Customer Service That Goes Above and Beyond

Going the extra mile for customers has become even more important today. Taking the time to listen to their needs and respond to them sets you apart from the rest.

Online reviews, direct messages and social media comments are often the first place customers go to air their concerns or their praise. Even after the pandemic has died down, you’ll still need to make sure you’re offering customer service that goes above and beyond.

How to incorporate great customer service in your social media strategy:

  • Respond to every comment, question and review. Rallio gives you a dashboard to make it easy to see everything in one place. Don’t want to manage it yourself? Outsource the work to our Rallio Local team of experts.
  • Set up auto-responders on Facebook for frequently asked questions.
  • Feature your customer testimonials in social media posts. Ideally, have a picture or a video of your customer with their positive reviews.

Learn more: How to Reopen Your Small Business Safely

Reputation Management

Along the same lines of customer service, reputation management ensures you’re not only responding to feedback, but also being proactive with getting reviews. Customers are relying on these reviews to decide where to shop and which businesses are worth their money.

A lot of the work of getting a customer to buy from you is already done before you even make contact with them. If they visit your pages or review platforms and see negative comments, they’ll likely move along to the next business. So if you’ve done the work to manage your reputation properly, the good will outweigh the bad and you’ll earn their business.

How to incorporate reputation management in your social media strategy:

  • Ask for feedback after a sale. Our Revv app makes it easy to generate reviews and resolve any negative customer experiences.
  • Be personable, friendly and helpful in your social media posts. Don’t argue with customers or get into a word battle online.
  • Use feedback to improve your business. When you make those improvements, share the news with your followers.

https://www.facebook.com/arcpointlabsofmontereybay/posts/2621841081475463

Sanitizing Protocols

It goes without saying that customers want to see stepped-up sanitization at your business. You’re likely already implementing enhanced protocols that follow CDC and any local guidelines.

Before welcoming the public back into your location, naturally you’ll need to have a system in place for cleaning and disinfection of your facility. If you’re requiring masks for employees and customers, make sure everyone understands what’s expected. And of course, keep your facility spotless to keep everyone safe.

Additionally, you may have had to implement stringent return policies, i.e., temporarily not accepting returns and/or extending return policies for retail goods. 

The key, as far as social media goes, is communication of your policies and procedures. Keep driving home the message that you’re making it as safe as possible to visit your location. 

How to incorporate sanitizing protocols in your social media strategy:

  • Create a video explaining how you’re cleaning the facility.
  • Communicate your mask policy and whether you’re providing masks for those who don’t have them.
  • Communicate what your current return policy is so no one is surprised when returning merchandise.

https://www.facebook.com/MassageHeightsLenexaCityCenter/photos/a.352284941636001/1355771694620649/?type=3

Virtual Formats

Many businesses switched to virtual formats to continue offering services amid the pandemic. We’ve seen fitness businesses offering livestreaming via Facebook Live and Zoom. Tutors are providing online education in place of in-person tutoring. Everywhere you turn, businesses are figuring out how to reach their audience in a virtual way.

Many customers have discovered the convenience and safety of staying home while still getting the services they need and want. As a business, you may have discovered a whole new line of business by offering virtual services. 

How to incorporate virtual formats in your social media strategy:

  • Use Facebook Live to offer classes, educational services, how-to tutorials and more. You can also use Zoom in cases where you want to be able to see your customers and vice versa.
  • Continue to get creative with your virtual offerings. How about virtual tours, wine tastings, happy hours, shopping events and guest speakers?
  • Create Facebook events for your virtual events. Promote them beforehand with your target audience. Your guests will get reminders on the day of the event to join.

Employee Advocacy

Maybe you’ve been highlighting the great work your employees are doing throughout the pandemic. Or perhaps you had to temporarily lay off employees, and now you’re preparing to welcome them back. Whatever the case may be, it’s important to keep showing gratitude for the people helping to keep your business running — from employees to suppliers.

How to incorporate employee advocacy in your social media strategy:

  • Spotlight your employees in social media posts. Tell your followers why they’re so great!
  • Empower your employees to share about your business on their personal social media pages. The Rallio platform makes it easy to share brand-approved content through these extended networks.
  • Invite employees to submit assets like in-store photos and videos. Again, the Rallio platform simplifies this process.

Hyper-Local Social Media

Your audience responds to real-life, hyper-local photos and videos more so than they ever will with any type of “stock” content. If you’ve been following our best practices that we recommend to all brands, then you may already have seen an uptick in engagement, reach and followers.

How to incorporate hyper-local content in your social media strategy:

  • Keep posting real photos and videos of the managers, employees and customers who make your business possible.
  • Focus on building relationships with your followers, not selling them your products and services.
  • Boost your content to expand your reach.

Hyper-local content improves engagement and reach on social media.

1 Social Media Strategy to Ditch Forever: Boring Content

You’ll notice in all of the strategies above, none of them includes boring content. By boring, we mean stock photos, sales pitches, promotional posts, posts without images, captions that don’t inspire engagement and, generally, any type of snooze-worthy dribble.

The pandemic has made it abundantly clear that accounts posting engaging content consistently outperform those that focus on self-promotion. Ditch the boring content and implement our best practices to see greater success with your social media strategy.

Read more: The 6 Most Important Social Media Metrics to Track for ROI

Categories
Social

Top Social Media Content Ideas Just for COVID-19

If you need social media content ideas, you’re not alone. Many businesses don’t have the time or desire to come up with social media content every day, let alone get it posted with a caption.

Oftentimes, you need look no further than the four walls of your business for ideas — or the digital place where your business “meets” and connects. In one of our recent virtual team meetings here at Rallio, our meeting leader asked us each to share a photo of ourselves outside of work.

We got so many incredible photos — from childhood pictures and travel scenes to pets and significant others. Each image was obviously unique and often funny, with many of the photos sparking conversation. And basically, these are exactly the types of photos we would recommend posting on social media for your business.

That photo of an employee holding a wine glass with her self-manicured nails as she shelters at home? Perfect for social media. That promotional graphic featuring a stock photo of a man spreading his arms out to hug the sky upon on a mountaintop? Well, you can probably keep that one tucked away somewhere you’ll never find it again.

The tricky thing is, you might not always have ideas at hand of what to post on social media. That’s why we send out weekly content ideas to our clients, so they can just pick an idea, snap a photo and get it posted. 

If you’re fresh out of social media content ideas, this quick roundup should get your creative wheels a-spinnin’. We’ve broken the ideas down by industry, but you can easily adapt any of these ideas to suit your own type of business.

Read more: 4 Ways to Tweak Your Social Media Marketing for COVID-19

Health and Medical

  • What is your location doing to keep everyone healthy and safe? Take photos of your staff at safety stations in your office, complete with hand sanitizer, gloves and masks.
  • What are some of the FAQ you get about COVID-19? Post a video with an employee answering a handful of the most common questions your lab tends to get.
  • The CDC now recommends wearing face masks out in public. Post a video showing your followers how to make their own face masks using cloth, bandanas, scarves and other household materials. Remind them to wash their hands before and after wearing a mask!
  • Share an inspirational quote or personal story related to COVID-19! Everyone could use a pick-me-up during this challenging time.

https://www.facebook.com/ARCpointLabsofSantaFeSprings/photos/a.874354019284335/2856450044408046/?type=3

Online Education

  • Do you have a teacher or tutor who has gone above and beyond recently, maybe helping a student boost their grade? Post a photo of them with a shoutout to thank them for their hard work!
  • What colleges are your senior students planning to attend? Share photos with them wearing their college sweatshirt, holding up a logo or mascot, or somehow showing their school spirit!
  • As students engage in distance learning, some schools are distributing yard signs for their grads. If you have any graduating seniors, ask them to send in photos with them posing by a “Class of 2020” yard sign or a homemade sign.
  • Kids need your help right now, but so do parents! Share an inspirational message or quote to let them know you care and you’re there for them in these uncertain times.
  • Do you have a Facebook group for your local customers? Let them know how to access it! (Let us know if you need help setting up a local Facebook group to offer extra at-home learning support and resources for children and parents.)

Retail Shops

  • Remind your customers of the contact-free options you have available at your store, such as curbside pickup.
  • In these uncertain times, it’s important to express gratitude for your team. Post a photo of them with a “thank you” message to let them know how much you appreciate their hard work and why you’re grateful for them.
  • With many people working from home, they’ll love doorstep delivery and other local options to access the products they need as they shelter at home — from pet products to work-from-home items such as printer supplies. Take a photo of a delivery driver preparing to make a local delivery.
  • Ask followers to snap photos of their home office setup, with tips on staying productive, ergonomically correct and healthy at home.
  • If you’re open, make sure you communicate that message to customers with your hours of operation and any restrictions you have in place for social distancing.

https://www.facebook.com/cwoftc/photos/a.442057212831058/1035986576771449/?type=3

Automotive Services

  • Are you making any deliveries or picking up vehicles for service? Take a picture of your delivery driver wearing their protective gear before they head out!
  • Host a Q&A on your page! Take a photo of one of your experienced team members, and prompt your followers to ask them some tire-care or service-related questions.
  • Record a quick video to demonstrate how to check tire tread depth! Explain how the “penny test” is a simple way to see when tires need to be replaced.
  • You can post other safety videos or tips, too — like how to check tire pressure, what to do if a tire blows out while driving, or even how to change a tire if you’re feeling ambitious!
  • Thank a customer for a great review! Your current online reviews are so important right now for inspiring confidence in your business. It’s also a best practice to respond to all your reviews, both positive and negative, and reposting a review on your social media pages only adds to the reach.

ANY size, ANYWHERE! We can get it done for you and get you back on the road. It’s just that simple!…

Posted by Rubber On Wheels on Thursday, March 26, 2020

 Cleaning and Restoration

  • Do you have any old photos from team events? Post a throwback photo along with a caption expressing gratitude for your hard-working team, and invite your followers to comment on anything they’re grateful for right now.
  • Make sure you express gratitude for your customers as they continue to do business with you. Post a simple “thank you” with a photo of your team to let them know how much you appreciate their loyalty.
  • What are some of the awesome local jobs you’ve done lately? Highlight one or two of them so customers can see the great work you’re doing in the community.
  • Post a “thank you” to your hard-working team members, perhaps with a throwback photo of past team events or conferences.
  • Whether you’re open or closed right now, you can brighten up newsfeeds with an inspirational message or quote.

Need More Social Media Content Ideas? Let Us Know

Hopefully, this will help spark some ideas of ways you can bring life to your social media pages. Feel free to contact us if you’d love getting a weekly email with content ideas delivered to your inbox. We’ll do the thinking so you don’t have to spend time figuring out what to post, and you can focus on running your business! #winwin

As you’re taking care of social distancing, Rallio is here to take care of your social media engagement — with no initial fees. We have many different solutions for all types of businesses to help them navigate the COVID-19 crisis with greater ease. To get started, fill out our online form or reach out to sales@rallio.com.

Read more: Social Media Marketing, the Quarantine Edition: How to Pivot When Times Get Tough

Categories
Social

4 Ways to Tweak Your Social Media Marketing for COVID-19

No matter what the industry, COVID-19 has affected businesses everywhere, along with the consumers who buy from them. Given the global impact this virus has had, it’s important to adjust your messaging and social media marketing to reflect the current times — whether your business is booming or struggling because of COVID-19.

Instead of a hard sales pitch, it’s about softening your message and looking for ways to be of service. The term “We’re all in this together” has become a rallying cry of people everywhere — from all industries and walks of life. 

And actually, this is the perfect time to recognize that the hard sales pitch was never a very effective way to capture your audience’s attention. 

Rather than use social media as a blatant promotional tool, think of it as a platform for being authentic, honest and real. Recruit the power of social media to help you tell your story, support your customers and serve your community, and you’ll be met with enthusiasm from your audience. 

Follow the tips below to be more impactful with your social media marketing regardless of your industry — not only now during COVID-19 times, but going forward as well.

Tip #1: Think Gandhi, Not Rocky 

You’re not stepping into a boxing ring with Apollo Creed. Knocking your customers in the face with the hard sell is only going to turn them away.

That was true before COVID-19, and it’s even more true now.  

People will resonate with messaging that addresses the current reality. For many, that reality includes dealing with financial and emotional challenges like they’ve never seen before. 

For others, it may mean dealing with loss and grief if they’ve lost loved ones. It could mean isolating from family or putting themselves at risk as essential workers.

Since you don’t know what each of your customers might be experiencing right now, you simply need to speak to all of them with compassion and gritty realness.

Imagine yourself as a storyteller, someone who engages your audience with compelling plots, twists and turns, surprise endings and fascinating characters. Be the type of account someone wants to follow and engage with. The deeper they get into your “story,” the more they’ll remember you and want to buy from you.

You can be playful, motivational and sometimes humorous, too. Give them something to do with all that time at home — dance party, anyone? Zoom cocktail hour? Wacky science experiment for kids? Whatever you do, do it from the heart. Be a friend, not a salesperson. 

CBS Sports nailed it with their inspirational ad speaking to our collective longing for sports, greeting us simply, “Hello Friends.” Grab your tissues, y’all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCt6shOqfSo

Tip #2: Do Stuff You Wouldn’t Normally Do

Think free shipping and deeper discounts. Go the extra mile with customer service. Make every customer feel important and significant. On a more thought-provoking note, trust that what you give away will come back to you tenfold or more. 

Customers are paying close attention to how you are taking care of them right now. You should be treating every customer, follower and lead like royalty. 

It’s the way service should be — we’re just hyper-aware of it today. You better believe your customer will remember you including a handwritten note and a free dessert with their takeout order. Thank them by name for supporting your business, and sign it with your own name, too.

Yes, it’s April and you’re not thinking about creating the type of offers you would normally only dish out on Black Friday. But we’ll say it louder for the people in the back: These are not normal times.

When you tailor your offers for a COVID-19 audience, you are letting people know you care. You’re putting people before profits. And those people will remember your kindness. 

Every time you offer free delivery, free trials, free gifts with purchase and other freebies, you gain your audience’s trust. You’re instilling confidence in your business — the type of confidence that will translate into repeat sales and positive reviews.

Read more: Why Your Online Reviews Are More Important Than Ever

Tip #3: Take a Fine-Toothed Comb to Social Media Marketing

If you already have posts and ads scheduled to go out, be sure to give them an extra once-over. For the reasons stated in tip #2, you don’t want anything going out that doesn’t speak to the current COVID-19 reality.

You can either tweak your scheduled content or come up with new posts and ads altogether. For instance, if you had content set to go out that talks about enjoying spring travel, you can adjust it to speak to people who are staying home instead.

Take Airbnb, a company that obviously relies on travel. With stay-at-home orders in place, they’ve had to shift their focus to virtual experiences. In the April 9 post below, Airbnb introduces “Airbnb Experiences,” explaining that you can “take a flamenco class with Lidón in Madrid, participate in a tarot card reading with Mak in Austin, or visit a colony of penguins in Cape Town—all from home.” 

(By the way, this is another example of a company pivoting to address COVID-19, as we’ve covered in several previous posts about the pet, online education, food and fitness industries.)

https://www.facebook.com/airbnb/posts/10158336490662458

Look at your recent content that’s already gone out, too. If something seems insensitive or no longer applies, you can delete it. Or if an email slipped out with inappropriate messaging, send an apologetic follow-up to practice damage control. 

Be hyper-aware of every piece of content and communication that’s going out. Run it by a second and third set of eyes if you can. Being extra cautious will help you avoid offending anyone.

Tip #4: Get Strategic With Ads and Search

This is also a good time to look at your ad strategy for any opportunities to showcase high-performing content. Those “storytelling” posts you’re creating? Boost them to put them in more of your audience’s newsfeeds. Take advantage of the increase in traffic as more people go online to connect with friends, pass the time and discover new content.

Consider search, too. If you’re running PPC campaigns, add in COVID-19-related search terms to account for new search behavior. Everyday searches like “international travel” and “tax tips” will now include the additional terms “coronavirus” or “COVID,” for instance, as people look for the most up-to-date information on the global pandemic.

A caveat: The trends around COVID-19 search are rapidly evolving. This is not a “set it and forget situation” by any means. Keep yourself up-to-date on the most current search information to be sure your PPC campaigns stay relevant.  

Google’s Coronavirus Search Trends page is one useful resource. Check back daily to stay in the know about how COVID-19 is being searched around the globe in different sectors.

As you’re taking care of social distancing, Rallio is here to take care of your social media engagement — with no initial fees. We have many different solutions for all types of businesses to help them navigate the COVID-19 crisis with greater ease. To get started, fill out our online form or reach out to sales@rallio.com.

 

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The Pandemic and Fitness Businesses: How Social Media Can Help

The Pandemic and Fitness Businesses: How Social Media Can Help

When the day came that fitness studios had to shut down due to COVID-19, they were left with only a couple of choices: Keep going and figure out how to go digital, or shut down, lay off employees, and hope they’re able to recover if and when they reopen. At this point, maybe your fitness business is finding itself somewhere in between. And that’s totally OK.

With the surge in fitness businesses taking their classes and workout routines online and onto social media, you might be asking yourself if there’s still room for you. The short answer is yes — absolutely. What’s more, it’s not too late to jump aboard this quick-moving trend if you haven’t already.

Working out at home has become one of the few things we have control of today. Even with a stressful situation happening in the world around us, we can still break a sweat and do our part to stay home, stay healthy and stay on top of our workout routines.

As a fitness professional, you have an opportunity to pivot your business and serve people in a time when they’re craving your digital presence more than ever. Those who maybe didn’t pay much attention to your social media before may now be actively seeking it out — to find workouts, tips and connection with the fitness community they know and love.

You can’t be there in person, motivating them to sink lower in their squats or pick up those heavier weights. But you can certainly grab their interest and keep them coming back to your social media pages. When all is said and done, you can even have a whole new line of business when you’re able to welcome students back into your physical location.

Key Takeaways:

  • You can stay connected with your fitness community not only through online classes, but also short workouts featuring your instructors.
  • Be as creative with your business right now as you are with your workout routines. Don’t limit yourself just to the same old things you’re used to doing.
  • Social media gives you so many tools to create connection, and your audience is looking for it. Take advantage of this time when you have their attention and they’re craving any interaction they can get with their favorite fitness studio.

But First, Some Housekeeping

Even though your physical location is closed right now, you should still keep up with your social media marketing. Doing so will keep you connected with your audience and ensure you’re able to minimize the damage from being closed. First, though, you’ll need to do the following: 

  1. Let your customers know that while you are closed, you are still open online. Communicate regularly about what virtual classes you’re offering and at what times. Pair your social media communications with emails so there are multiple touchpoints with customers.
  2. Update your physical location’s hours anywhere your business is listed online. Rallio’s Business Listings feature will let you quickly update your hours across the web — a real time-saver, especially considering Google My Business has limited functionality currently due to COVID-19-related staff shortages at Google. 

Now Let’s Get Moving

  • Going online is the most obvious way to keep your classes going. Get yourself on YouTube, Zoom, Instagram and Facebook Live with classes people can take in real time or access later. Include workouts families can do together, too! Some studios are offering free content in exchange for members keeping their subscriptions active. Others have created all-new subscription services. You can decide what makes the most sense for your business.
  • Think of how you can be of service to essential workers. Post a series of free, short videos that healthcare workers, grocery employees, law enforcement and other essential employees can do if they’re able to take a quick break.
  • Take advantage of trending hashtags like #MondayMotivation and #swolemate to get your community involved. Ask members to tag their favorite workout buddy with the #swolemate hashtag and your business tagged in the post.
  • Get hyper-local. Your students are missing their favorite instructors. Show a more personal side of them with posts featuring their home workout spots and setups. They can also post short videos and tips, such as alternatives to weights if people don’t have them — from filled-up water bottles to soup cans and wine bottles! By the way, make sure you design workouts that can be done at home by people who might have limited equipment — not a bunch of exercises involving heavy gym equipment. (This might seem obvious, but we’ve seen some fitness pros posting “home workouts” that show them doing routines on machines at the gym. Hmm.)
  • Have fun with it! Peloton posted an image asking followers, “Choose Your Instructor House.” The post got great engagement from its loyal community as they decided which house full of instructors they’d hang at. How can you creatively present your instructors and staff to generate engagement with your community?

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-xfvE_Ac_e/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Get Creative

  • Rent out equipment. It’s just sitting there at the gym, right? Help your members by renting it out (some places are sold out of workout equipment), and you’ll help keep some cash flow at the same time. 
  • Or, sell equipment and pair it with an online subscription. Boxing club Boxhaus is offering workout bags delivered to doorsteps and paired with a new subscription app to access classes members can do at home — looks like a brand-new line of business to us.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-pyGvkJReu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

  • Create additional revenue streams like online workshops and trainings. We’re seeing yoga studios shift their teacher trainings online. Offer nutrition coaching with the help of certified nutrition experts. Like we discussed in our article about online education, you have something to teach — so now is the time to take it online and get paid for it.
  • Cook something healthy in front of your audience. Yes, they want to see that.
  • Offer freebies to newcomers like a free first class, free first week or free trial of your subscriptions. Create downloads like workout plans and healthy recipes you can offer free with signup.
  • Don’t forget about reviews — both asking for them and posting them on your social media! As we wrote in this article about online reviews, it’s critical that you have current reviews posted, not reviews from several months ago. You can also use our Revv app to send out surveys and gather positive feedback right after members complete a workout.
  • Partner with other businesses. If you’re offering yoga content, collaborate with a HIIT studio, for example. Tag each other in content to help support local businesses and extend your reach.

Host Events

  • Create live Instagram and Facebook events for a “Sip and Shop” or happy hour. If you sell any kind of products, you can showcase them here and offer curbside pickup or free local delivery. Have a couple of instructors model clothing for sale, describe the benefits of any supplements you sell, or demonstrate how a product is used. Never before have you had this kind of captive audience hearing about your products — normally they’re running out the door after class, right? Right now, they’re eager to interact with you.
  • Post a virtual challenge and boost it! For example, fitness chain The 12 is hosting a 21-Day Virtual Challenge with a $25 buy-in, with 100% of proceeds benefiting local efforts to purchase supplies related to COVID-19. Participants are encouraged to post their own workout videos and tag The 12 on Instagram and Facebook — great for generating local engagement. 
  • Go live at specific hours of the day. Post short five-minute workouts to help your audience break up their time at home. Include kid-friendly workouts to get little ones moving along with their parents!
  • Post a “treasure hunt” kids can do at home. It might just keep kids busy long enough for parents to squeeze in a workout! You could also post downloadable puzzles, coloring pages and art projects (glitter-free, of course!). Ask your followers to upload pictures in the comments!

 

https://www.facebook.com/placentiafitbodybootcamp/posts/934893400262359

 

Friends, you’ve been training for this moment since the day you could lace up your sneakers. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we’re all in this together, eager to cross the finish line and get to the other side of COVID-19 even stronger than before.

Remember, the fitness community is one of the strongest, most inspiring groups of people around, and you’re a huge part of it. Hey, if this guy can build a home gym out of wood, you can do anything you set your mind to.

 

https://www.facebook.com/NowThisNews/posts/3318915464865221

 

Do you have a fitness business? What are some other strategies that are working for you right now? Leave a comment below for a chance to be featured on our Instagram page. 

Tap Into the Power of Social Media

As you’re taking care of social distancing, Rallio is here to take care of your social media engagement — with no initial fees. We have many different solutions for all types of businesses to help them navigate the COVID-19 crisis with greater ease.

  • Rallio Dashboard — Our social media management tool was built specifically for franchises and multi-unit businesses. It lets you control your brand’s social and review pages from one simple spot, as well as syndicate content to different types of franchisees and set permissions. 
  • Rallio Local — Technology is great, but humans are better. Rallio Local combines the power of the Rallio technology with the creativity of real people. Receive weekly custom, local content, custom responses to your online reviews, social ad campaigns and community management. We pair you with a Social Strategist to deliver hyper-local content that gets seen by your audience through fully managed ad campaigns.
  • Rallio Activate — Leverage the power of your employees to reach customers like never before. Incentivize them with rewards programs that you create, and collect assets into your brands image library. Have them submit their own photos and videos to earn points, and publish your brand-approved content on their personal profiles. 

To get started, fill out our online form or reach out to sales@rallio.com. Let’s keep you growing even as we navigate the current challenges.

This is the final article in a four-part series exploring ways to respond to changing times, digitize your business and blow up your social media presence. Check out the other three articles about food, pet and online education businesses for additional inspiration.

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