Bloggers may be clued in on something your brand is actually missing: Pinterest is an AMAZING product discovery tool. More, it’s basically a shopping list for about 55 percent of its active users. Pinterest itself presents a powerful marketing opportunity that can not only get your products in front of shoppers who have their wallets in-hand, but can also drive huge amounts of traffic to your website.

In this post, I’m going to help you build a Pinterest marketing strategy (you’re welcome) that will fortify your next influencer campaign.

Talk Topics for This Post:

• A Quick Overview of Pinterest

• Moms, Millennials and Men: Who Uses Pinterest

• User Behaviors That Make Pinterest a Digital Marketing Goldmine

• Tips for Making Pinterest Work for Your Business

A Quick Overview of Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual discovery platform where users can post (“pin”) their own visual content or repin (share) other users’ pins. post contains a title, description and a link to where the content being pinned lives on the web (usually a blog). Pinners must assign every pin a board (collection of pins) in order to pin it and assign any content they repin from another user to a board in their own collection.

So, for instance, with our Pinterest account we pin blog covers images to our board, From The Shelf Blog and pin our infographics to our Influencer Marketing Tips or Marketing Mojo boards. We may repin ideas we like from other pinners in one of several boards we have like Minimalist Bloggers, On the Streets, Summer Forever, or Weekend Style.

Imagine if Instagram and Google got together and had a digital baby. That’s Pinterest.

Pinterest is one-part social media platform, one-part search engine, and completely driven by visual content that can quickly travel across the site, and the world wide web to bring new visitors to your blog, website, or online store.

Pinterest Was Pretty Awesome Out the Gate

Pinterest launched in 2010 as a way to share cool ideas. When it first launched, it was invitation-only. Do you remember that – waiting to hear back from Pinterest and not even fulling getting what it was?

In spite of the invite-only setup, Pinterest ended up being the fastest site in history to reach 10 million monthly active users. Then, like now, it served as a great platform for the crafts and DIY communities, as well as various lifestyle verticals that are driven by visual content (and even lots of verticals – like personal finance – that aren’t super-interested in pretty pictures)..

Today, seven in ten Americans know about Pinterest. With more than 52 million mobile users, Pinterest is the fifth most popular social networking mobile app and the fourth most popular social network behind YouTube, Facebook and Instagram (third if you don’t think of YouTube as a social network).

AND you can find just about anything on Pinterest, from industry information – like how it’s overflowing with colorful marketing infographics like these…

…. to wedding ideas and wedding planning tips.

Pinterest isn’t in the top 10 as far as search engines go, but it may be of interest to brands and marketers that Pinterest is a popular search engine that 39 percent of female users and 48 percent of male users choose over more traditional search engines like Google or Bing, according to AdEspresso.

That makes sense to me. Here’s why…

If you were to search for “short blond pixie cut” on Google then perform the same search on Pinterest, different results would show. More importantly (for searchers), Pinterest filters the results a little smarter for stuff like this.

In the two screenshots below, check out the filter options along the top of each picture (and the fact that Google results INCLUDE Pinterest pins).

Pinterest also does a better job of integrating sponsored content a little more naturally with your actual results.

Actually, let’s try it for another popular Pinterest topic – home decorating. The search term is “small bedroom ideas”. I actually had to scroll down a bit because the first row on Google was sponsored content / products.

Now, it’s not that people don’t want to shop on Pinterest. The truth is actually quite the opposite. Pinterest is the social platform users are MOST likely to choose when they are ready to spend money.

Ninety-seven percent of Pinterest searches are unbranded searches, meaning users are open to suggestions from brands. In fact, 78 percent of Pinterest users say they want to see branded content, and more than half of shoppers name Pinterest as their platform of choice for finding and shopping for products.

Source: Statista.com

Moms, Millennials and Men: Who Uses Pinterest?

There is a much wider diversity in Pinterest’s audience than you might think. One in three U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 49 use Pinterest, and one in four adults between the ages of 50 and 64 use Pinterest, according to Statista. Not to worry, those stats change significantly for Millennial users.

• There are 265 million active monthly users

• There are over 175 billion pins currently uploaded to the site

• 81 percent of users are female

• Half of new user signups in 2018 were men

• 34 percent of 18-49 year old Americans use Pinterest

• Pinterest is as popular an app with Millennials as Instagram

Pinterest is popular among Millennials, and especially among Millennial women. One in two US Millennials use Pinterest, and 7 in 10 Millennial women use the platform – that trumps both Twitter and Snapchat. Seventy percent of US moms and one-third of US dads also use the super-charged scrapbooking platform.

And people use Pinterest for a number of reasons. Most people use Pinterest to look at pictures (60 percent) and find/shop products (55 percent). It’s also a popular place to share content (24 percent) and watch videos (15 percent).

Source: Statista.com

So…

A pinner can easily have 1,000 people following her Wedding Ideas board

And 500 other people who are only following her Shoe Lust board

And 2,000 people following her Blogger Tips board AND her Passive Income board

And 900 people following her Bible Verses board who ARE following Passive Income and ARE NOT following her Shoe Lust board.

The possibilities are endless, both for Pinners and for marketers.

Let’s Talk About the User Behaviors That Make Pinterest a Digital Marketing Goldmine

Take a look at the picture below . It was captured a few days ago by Sorilbran, the editor of The Shelf blog who came across the poster at her local McDonald’s.

In June, McDonald’s will be sponsoring the Women’s Expo in Atlanta, GA. In case you’re wondering, Atlanta is a global destination point, playing host to the busiest airport in the world. It’s home to a sizable entertainment industry hub, with countless television shows and movies being filmed here (think Avengers and other Marvel Studios movies).

The celebrity lineup for the Atlanta Women’s Expo is nothing to sneeze at – reality stars, social media stars, movie stars… these women are famous.

But it’s not just McDonald’s that will be involved. To give you a better idea of the scope of this event, other sponsors include luxury brands like Chanel, Coach, Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo and Dior, as well as retail heavyweights like The Home Depot, Walgreens, and Kroger.

Why am I telling you this? Because upon closer examination of the poster, you can see that one of the featured workshops for this event, which draws tens of thousands of women every year, is a Pinterest workshop. So, let’s talk about why that is.

Pinterest Has Cross-Generational Appeal

Whether Millennials or Boomers, adults love Pinterest. They love having a one-click storage place of awesome photos and cool ideas. They love having a place where they can build targeted audiences whose ideas and tastes align with their own.

Pinterest Time is Me Time

Pinterest is where people go to source and collect ideas to help them be their best selves. The fact that Pinterest is so heavily aspirational (with no PERSON in particular to be the target of anyone’s love-hate aspiration) keeps Pinterest from earning the same stigma as some of the other popular social networks. No reports of Pinterest-fueled depression or rage. It’s aspiration without the stigmas. It’s no real surprise (especially to anyone who actually uses the platform) that Pinterest users are twice as likely to think their time on Pinterest is time well spent.

Pinterest is a Positive Corner of the Internet

Pinterest gives all the feels. Pinterest is the platform that helps people feel more creative (73 percent), inspired (68 percent) and organized (62 percent).

Pinners are Planners… and They Plan Waaaay In Advance

Pinners are planners. While Pinterest users post about seasonal events year-round, there are noticeable spikes in engagement with holiday- and event-related content in the weeks before that holiday or event.

But if you notice, the posts start typically a few months ahead of the holiday. Pinterest users tend to start planning twice as early as people who use other platforms. Heck, Father’s Day ideas start circulating around the platform as early as March and interest in Halloween starts to spike in June.

Pinners also use the platform to plan life’s important milestones, like buying a new home, decorating your home, getting married, and going on vacation.

Pinners Are Purposeful

Pinterest users are more likely to use the platform for the intention of finding products and ideas, as opposed to just using the platform to kill time. Ninety percent of users use Pinterest to make purchase decisions.

Pinners Favor Mobile

Pinterest users heavily favor the app. Eighty percent of users access Pinterest on mobile devices and 85 percent of Pinterest searches are on mobile.

Pinners Use Pinterest to Source Ideas

Pinterest is the go-to spot on the web for people to discover new products and source new ideas, and part of the reason branded content is so effective is because Pinterest shows new content based on what people have seen and engaged with before. This personalization helps the platform naturally integrate product ideas and Promoted Pins in a way that doesn’t look like ads or make users feel like they’re being marketed to.

Pinners Can Buy Instantly

Most social media platforms are shoppable now. With Pinterest, every one of the images acts as a direct link back to the site, making it infinitely easier for companies with promoted posts to attract new followers and site visitors.

Half of all Pinners make a purchase after seeing a promoted pin. And, since so many Pinterest users are actively looking to make their next purchases, smart marketers can leverage the platform as a way to generate both traffic and revenue.

A Simple Process for Creating Your Pinterest Business Account

It’s true that you’re going to make a hefty front-end investment laying the foundation of your Pinterest marketing, but managing Pinterest is actually pretty easy (and a little addictive). Pinning and repinning takes up very little of your time, and in many ways, it’ll become second nature.

Here’s what you need to know about setting your Pinterest business account.

#1 Create a Business Account

You may have a personal account, but you still want to create a business account that you can use to run campaigns and monitor the performance of your pins. Pinterest is like most social media sites in that way – business accounts give you access to features you need to run successful marketing campaigns. Plus, you can start creating rich pins. More on those later – just know, they’re super important.

#2 Stay On-Brand

Once you’ve got a business account set up, you’ll need to get your branding in order. Of course, you’ll need the basics as well: A clear profile picture, business name, and bio are essential – just like on any other platform. You’ve got to put your best foot forward so people can see your awesome brand personality shining through.

#3 Create Keyword-Optimized Boards

Pins go on boards, so in order to add pins or repin anything, Pinterest needs to know where you want pins to go. This is a good thing because Pinterest is AI-powered, so it learns your preferences based on what you pin and repin and starts showing you more and more content like the content you’ve engaged with previously.

You’ll need to create keyword-optimized boards. For us, a lot of our boards focus on either blogger life or marketing strategies. So, you’ll notice we have tons of style and fashion boards, lots of infographics, a board that’s specifically to promote our blog posts, even boards on beauty trends and color combinations that look cool (we’re all about color).

Each board you create can be classified as either Public, Secret, or Group. Best practices indicate that creating 10 boards initially is a good way to start, with each board tailored to your target audience in order to attract them to your pins.

Pinterest serves two billion searches a month. As you can imagine, pinners will need a way to find your content. That’s where you keywords strategy comes in. Your keywords are going to be vital when naming and creating your boards. Choosing which topics to focus your boards on should be based on the keywords you think are most important to your brand.

#4 Design and schedule pins

Next, you’re going to need some pins creating for your content so you can get sharing, and start growing your audience. Canva is an easy-to-use tool that will help you streamline this. The platform is free to use (or you can upgrade to a paid plan) and it comes with templates… for the design-challenged pinner.

Pinterest is a visual platform, so creating pins that are eye-catching colorful and easy to read / understand is important for growing your audience. As soon as someone sees your pin, he or she should know exactly what the webpage you’re leading them to is all about.

To make sure your pinning strategy is as effective as possible, make uploading your pins a regular part of your content distribution schedule. Using a scheduling tool like Tailwind is a good way to do this, and also gives you access to Tailwind Tribes, where other users will also share your content to increase your reach.

#5 Make Pins That Convert

Possibly the most important factor in a successful Pinterest marketing campaign is how you build and design your pins. The huge focus on aesthetics on this platform means you need to be on top of your game when it comes to this side of the platform. We know how intimidating creating any kind of visual content can be if you’re not a graphic designer by trade, but Pinterest doesn’t have to be as difficult a task as you might think. I’ll walk you through it.

Let’s start with covering the basics of pin design. Without having these fundamentals down, no matter how fancy your design skills are, your marketing is going to fall flat.

Dimensions

Each of your pins should be vertical images, and according to Pinterest themselves, the ideal dimensions are 600×900, or any 2:3 ratio image

Image Style

Images that are high quality, light, and surprisingly, without faces receive more repins on average than others

Plain Image vs. Text

Depending on your target market and brand style, you may want to include text on your pins instead of just plain images. Both are viable options on Pinterest, and choosing which one to use should depend on your audience.

Of course, when it comes to design, there are a million and one ways you can go to make your pins stand out. From cool fonts to striking imagery, your pins are your chance to express your brand, so don’t be afraid to go a little wild.

Before We Wrap Up, I’ll Share Some Pin Design Ideas

When appearance really is everything, you need to be spending time designing the perfect graphics for your pins. So, for those who aren’t exactly the visual content type, let me show you some of the different ways you can go when building your own Pinterest designs.

Image only

If you have the ability to stage and capture stunning photographs or have an entirely visual product, then image only pins can be the best thing for you. People use the platform to create dream collections, so having high-quality images they can swoon over is perfect. Just remember to avoid including any faces, and keep your images as bright as possible for maximum impact.

Text over image

If you’re using pins to help promote blog posts or special offers on your site, then including a text overlay on your image is the perfect way to go. Having titles like the ones above on your pins helps to inform viewers exactly what they will see when they click through to your site.

Just make sure that your text is as easy to read as possible. The best way to do this is to place a solid shape underneath it so that it’s not affected by your background image. Also, take some time to experiment with fonts and see which styles and sizes are easiest to read both on a desktop and mobile view.

Infographic

One of the most popular forms of pin design is the infographic. These images educate and inform the viewer, allowing them to complete a project or plan a trip with added ease. People love to share images like these for future reference so can work as continual traffic for your site.

You have so much freedom with your design choices here as well, you don’t need to stick to the usual cookie-cutter style of infographic. If you take a look at the examples above, they all work in different ways, with very different styles. You can tailor yours to your audience and brand.

Rich Pins

If you’re linking your Pinterest strategy to a product, article, or recipe on your site then you need to be using rich pins. These special kinds of pins show more information on your pins to help inform viewers about what you have to offer. Not only do they look better than regular pins, but Pinterest will also sometimes amplify the reach of these pins so even more people will see your great content.

To make rich pins, you need to apply through Pinterest – this is entirely free to do, so every account can take advantage. Once your site has been approved, every pin you create, with the necessary data, will be shown as a rich pin.

Final Tips for Making Pinterest Work for Your Business

As with any social media site, the way the general public uses Pinterest, and the way businesses use it differ greatly. You can’t simply expect to put up a few boards, pin a few images to them, and suddenly attract loads of web traffic. You have to do things differently to get the best results.

Add Pinterest Save Buttons to Your Site

You want to be sure that it’s not just you pinning your content on the site. You want your followers, customers, and potential leads to be doing it as well. The best way to this, is to make it as easy as possible for them to share your content. By including a pin button on your site, you can increase the amount of content pinned from your site by up to 5x as much.

You can install permanent pin buttons to each image, or use hover buttons that only appear when a user moves the cursor over an image. The latter can often look cleaner and allow your pictures to maintain their visual integrity. But, by having a permanent button, you’re making it easier and more obvious for users to take advantage of the option.

Pin Consistently

Dumping all of your pins in one go is not recommended. Instead, you should aim to pin at least once a day, ideally in the evenings or at weekends if you’re working with the U.S. market. Spread your pinning throughout the day and week to help keep a consistent schedule going. As with any marketing – consistency really is key.

Plan Ahead for Holidays

When it comes to holidays or special event marketing, plan to start pinning around 45 days in advance. This gives your pins time to get traveling around the site and attract more attention.

Make Your Pins Accessible

For many of us, it’s easy to forget that not everyone who uses social media can consume the content in the same way as us. Pinterest is a highly visual platform, so this can be severely limiting for those with visual disabilities. There are ways you can make your content more accessible, helping to expand your audience even further.

For instance, if someone needs to use screen readers to access visual content online, text over images won’t register as text to them. This means that you need to incorporate proper pin descriptions to really make your pins work for you. Also, make sure that any fonts you choose to use are as clear and easy to read as possible. Finally, don’t forget to be conscious of your color choices. If you take the time to use color contrast ratios, not only will it make your content easier to read, it will also make it look more appealing in terms of design.

Promote Your Pins

If you have a marketing budget for social media, you should definitely consider plugging some of that cash into a Pinterest strategy. There are two different options when it comes to spending money on marketing your pins – promoted pins and shoppable pins.

Promoted pins work in pretty much the same way as promoted posts on any other network. You pay money to have Pinterest show your pin to people who you select through targeting. How many people see it will depend on your ad budget. They identify these posts with a small “promoted” button on the bottom of your image, and viewers can select that button to see more information about who promoted it.

The difference with using these promoted pins on Pinterest though, is that once a user pins your pin to their board, they begin to act like organic pins. This is why promoting on Pinterest can really help your budget travel further. In fact, according to Pinterest, brands who launch ad campaigns on the platform received an average of 20% more organic clicks.

Promote Your Pins

These pins are ideal for when you have multiple items to promote in each image. They appear pretty similar to promoted pins, but they have little dots over each product that you can click through and buy.

Pinterest recommends that you include between 4-6 buyable items in each pin to get the best results. Each link should go directly to the object when possible to make it easier for users to engage with.

It pretty much goes without saying, but these pins are optimized for generating sales, so if brand awareness is your goal, you’d be better sticking with the traditional promoted pins.

TL; DR – Pinterest is Effective AF

Pinterest is one of those great online tools that you can really get results from, even without spending a dime. It is still extremely underused by many businesses, so now really is the time to capitalize on the opportunity and get ahead of your competition.

Pinterest is visual discovery platform where users go to dream, get inspired, and perhaps most important to brands… users use Pinterest to plan purchases. More than half of active users open their apps in the store to use as a shopping list.

When it comes to your Pinterest marketing strategy, you can’t really phone it in. The returns will be better if you can get in there and do the work. Spend the time nailing your Pinterest marketing strategy. Design great-looking pins, schedule them out across the week, and build your boards around the best keywords for your brand. Do all this, and you’ll be winning.

Social media ROI. It’s one of the great mysteries of life for many brands and marketers. How the heck do you calculate the ROI of a single tweet? Or the ROI of using Instagram for your business over, say, Twitter? Or determine which platform brings in the most revenue for your company? Despite knowing how impactful social media can be, being able to quantify that value gets tricky.

Even the marketers who know they need to focus on this area are often held back by business-minded higher-ups who tell them that without clear evidence of ROI, they can’t invest money into a tactic they know works.

So, in this article, we’ll take a look at how you can measure, track, optimize, and understand social media ROI, and choose which platforms will bring the best results for your business.

What is Social Media ROI?

Let’s start with the basics. The return on investment (or ROI) for any campaign is a crucial metric to track for marketers. It lets you know what’s working and what’s not. If you’re pouring time and resources into a marketing strategy, you need to make sure that you’re getting the most out of it.

When it comes to social media marketing though, marketing teams often struggle to quantify the ROI of a campaign. This is because social media goals are not always based on revenue.

Much of time, social media marketing goals are focused on things like brand awareness, customer engagement, and website visits. These are not necessarily metrics that easily convert to ROI statistics. But, that doesn’t mean they aren’t important. If these are the kinds of goals you’re aiming for, you can still use them to measure your ROI on social media.

How to Measure ROI on Social Media

We’re working on a big post on goal-setting and ROI for social media (specifically influencer campaigns), so be looking for that in the next few days.

But just so we can get to the “which platforms” part of this article, I do want to run down a bit of the goal-setting and ROI info for you since something like 60 percent of marketers agree measuring ROI on social media is one of their biggest challenges.

Let’s take a look at some business goals, the cost of running campaigns, and the actual things that matter when it comes to social media ROI.

Count the costs of “doing” social media

We know what you lose by not investing in social media. But there are costs associated with even the day-to-day management of social media. Before you can calculate how effective your campaign has been, you need to have a clear picture of how much you have invested in your social media marketing. While posting to social media networks, in general, is a free endeavor, there are other factors to consider as investments from your business.

TOOLS

If you’re investing money in scheduling tools, improved analytics, photo or video editing software, research tools, or anything else that helps you build your social media posts and strategy, these costs should be taken into consideration.

For instance, MeetEdgar is a social media scheduling tool. It keeps a virtual inventory of your social media content and automates the publication of your posts based on a post category schedule that you create provide.

So, for instance, every Wednesday, we have blogger roundups scheduled to go out to our networks on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Daily at 9AM, we publish blog posts from The Shelf Blog, and around 11AM, we share posts from some of our favorite blogs. Every day. Without fail.

So, if you’re not using third-party tools like MeetEdgar or Buffer (which we use as well) in your social media marketing, you should definitely check some out and consider them. The value they can bring to your marketing campaigns far outweighs the initial costs you must spend to get started (plus, most of them offer free trials to front-load value).

ADVERTISING COSTS

If you’re including things like boosted posts, PPC ads, or other paid advertising as part of your social media strategy (and you probably should be) these costs also need to be factored into your overall investment cost to calculate your ROI.

STAFF

Hiring designers to create marketing assets, specialists to create ad campaigns, influencers to promote your brand, or freelancers to help manage your presence on social media are all great ways to improve your marketing. But they all come with a cost, and this cost will impact your ROI.

TIME

The one resource you can’t replace… time. If you and your team spend 20 hours a week managing Facebook, but only 10 hours a week managing LinkedIn, each platform will have a different investment amount to include.

There’s a monthly subscription fee for MeetEdgar… but the tool literally saves us about 10 hours a week of social media scheduling time… or something like $200 to $300 a week just in scheduling and curating our social media feeds.

Add all of these costs together and you’ll have your total investment for social media.

Set goals and objectives for each campaign

Goal setting is an important part of any marketing campaign. Without setting clear goals early on in your campaign, you’re setting yourself up for a frustrating cycle of wondering how well your efforts are working… and what they are actually doing for you.

Goal setting isn’t hard, but it does need to be practical. If you’re rolling out a new software system, having people click through to see or schedule a demo is a much better metric of how well a campaign is working than would be, say getting sales. Getting sales is important, but the reality is social media users aren’t on social to find a new piece of software. So, a legit win would be getting them to click through.

Yes, people are growing more and more comfortable with buying online, but many are buying as a result of the positive experiences they are having online with different brands. So, I’m definitely not saying that sales isn’t a solid goal to set. What I am saying is before focusing on converting customers, you need to focus on getting their attention long enough to sell them.

Here are some goals social media are great for:

BRAND AWARENESS

Brand awareness is probably one of the most important yet least understood of the SMM goals but increasing your brand’s awareness is the first step in every marketing / sales funnel. People have to see you to do business with you, so knowing how to effectively market your brand across social media helps spread the word about your company, team, culture, brand and product (because social media success is about way more than talking about your product).

In a brand awareness campaign, reach becomes really important. So, if you’re going to partner with influencers to announce a new product launch, a new store, the spring line… you want to target larger influencers because they will be able to reach the most people with the announcement.

A successful brand awareness campaign will result in greater visibility, which will lead to more brand mentions, engagement, more followers, and more people sharing your posts with the people in their own networks.

For its Spring 2017 marketing push, Donald J Pliner launched the #ArtofFun campaign on social media to get eyes on its inventory of edgy mid-priced shoes. This was a brand awareness campaign, meaning DJP wanted to get the word out to as many potential customers (not just random people) as possible about its shoes.

So, we (The Shelf worked on this particular campaign) enlisted a set of confident, fashion-forward Millennial macro-influencers who had the influence, the follower numbers, and the engagement needed to help Donald J Pliner get the attention of people who were most likely to “get” DJP’s vibe and want to get in on the extra-ordinariness. These were people who invested in their shoe game.

The campaign produced some really great posts. They were colorful, creative, stylish, and a bit out of step with the typical Instagram posts you see.

UGC AND CREATIVE ASSETS

We’ve done several posts on the topic of user-generated content…

The benefits of UGC

How to drive sales with UGC

How to get amazing UGC in your campaigns

Examples of cool UGC campaigns

Getting the rights to sponsored content

That’s because user-generated content – the posts created by users that get published to different platforms – are the lifeblood of social media and influencer marketing.

For brands, UGC is a powerful word-of-mouth endorsement from key opinion leaders of targeted demographic segments. When presented in the right way, UGC carries more sway than any other type of branded or brand-owned content.

So, we get lots of clients that are looking to get loads of UGC from their influencer campaigns that they can reuse across their own branded social media feeds, in paid ads. Basically, they can use UGC as a creative asset in any way they see fit.

You may not immediately recognize the name Alex Brands… but you know the company’s products. Alex Brands sells some of the most well-known brands in the toy market, like the Slinky and Hot Wheelz bikes for kids. There’s even a National Slinky Day at the end of summer.

Until recently, the company’s primary method of distribution and their way to get new products into new markets was through Toy R Us stores. In early 2018, their #AlexBrandsPlays social media campaign was all about boosting visibility by having kid influencers create tons of UGC Alex Brands could use on their own branded social channels.

Source: on Instagram

ENGAGEMENT

Speaking of engagement, this is another popular goal for social media marketing. This goal is focused on encouraging your customers and followers to interact with your brand online. This can take the form of liking, commenting, sharing, messaging, or tagging you across social media platforms.

This is a great goal for brands who are focused on a slightly younger audience, as brands appearing authentic and “human” online is a big deal for them.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

With younger audiences fast becoming the majority of spenders across the board, having top notch customer service online is no longer simply an option for brands. Platforms like Twitter are perfect platforms for quick responses and public discussions that show how much you value your customers.

Measuring this can take the form of response times, response rates, and the resolution of problems via social media.

Which Social Media Networks Will Deliver the Best ROI for My Campaign?

The real reason you’re reading this is to determine which social media networks provide the greatest ROI, right? So let’s dive into some platform-specific analysis to see where your business or brand can get the most bang for your buck.

I do feel like we need to reiterate that interpreting the results of any social media campaign always goes back to the goals you set. Your goals also determine which social media platforms you use to accomplish your goals. while one platform may bring in amazing results for one brand, it may not do the same for you if your goals do not align.

For this reason, we’ve organized the top social media networks by the goals they are most likely to help you reach.

Facebook

For Brand Awareness

With over 2 billion users, Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. So, it is highly likely that your target audience is spending time here. Facebook can be a great platform for those who have placed brand awareness as their number one goal on social media.

Facebook’s algorithm shifted in 2018 to favor personal content over posts by business pages, and this definitely put a thorn in marketers’ sides as their reach was slashed. But, a shining light came in the form of Facebook groups and the platform’s new feature that allows pages to post in groups, just like individual accounts.

If you’re leaning toward paid ads on Facebook, “Brand Awareness” is also a campaign goal that you can access in the dashboard of your Facebook ads manager. You can choose ad recall as a goal, you’re working towards “Ad Recall” to ensure people remember seeing your ad two days later. Marketing is about more than just reaching lots of people; it’s also about sticking in those people’s minds.

If you have money to spend on advertising on Facebook, you’re going to see even better results. According to research by the social media scheduling tool Buffer, Facebook ads can bring in some pretty great ROI. Their experiment saw the average price on Facebook for a thousand impressions was $0.59, compared with $3.50 on Twitter – a big difference.

For Building Community

Facebook is also a great platform for building a branded or industry-specific group. And if you do that, you’re in luck because Facebook favors group posts more than anything else right now. A Facebook group will enable you to get your content in front of a group of people who have already demonstrated an interest in your content.

Brands can also join and participate in groups as a business page, so social media managers don’t have to worry about their personal brands being overshadowed by their professional brands on Facebook. They can remain separate.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the home of professionals on social media. There are 40 million decision makers on the platform, so it’s the place to be if you want to establish yourself as a knowledgeable professional, do targeted B2B marketing, and attract new clients to your business.

For Establishing Authority

LinkedIn is the place professionals go to connect with, talk to, and hear from other professionals. For brands, LinkedIn presents a moderately captive audience who is checking in for one reason and one reason only – to find professional opportunities. Those opportunities could be sharing an interesting post they read, sharing an idea they want to spread, sharing information about their company and culture…

All these little bits of information will come together nicely to help people establish credibility and build authority in their specific area of expertise.

For Website Traffic

Let me share some really interesting stats I found at Omnicore.com.

Of the 500 million LinkedIn users, 3 million of them share content weekly and 1 million users actually create articles for LinkedIn. But here’s the thing: 91 percent of marketing executives peg LinkedIn as the best place to find quality content. It is currently THE #1 platform B2B marketers use to distribute content and LinkedIn makes up half the traffic to B2B websites.

For Generating Leads

LinkedIn leads the pack when it comes to using social media marketing to generate B2B leads. LinkedIn accounts for 80 percent of B2B lead generation while Twitter and Facebook account for the other 20 percent.

Sponsored InMail allows users to inbox personalized messages to other users, whether regardless of whether there is an existing connection on the platform.

Brands use Sponsored InMail to facilitate trust with new potential leads, send out invites to webinars or in-person events, or to pitch their services to business owners.

InMail isn’t the only advertising option at your fingertips though, LinkedIn offers a range of different ways to reach new customers.

Sponsored Content – In the same way you can on Facebook, you can plug some investment into existing posts you’ve sent out from your company page to help them reach more people. This should be reserved for your best performing posts.

Display Ads – These appear in people’s LinkedIn feeds just like Facebook Ads. You can use text, images, and video to attract people’s attention.

Dynamic Ads – Display ads on steroids. These are shown to people based on their activity, making them hyper-targeted compared to the usual fare.

It almost goes without saying that this platform is great for B2B brands, or those who have services that would benefit busy professionals. This is probably the most niche of all the social media networks, and not everyone will be able to benefit from advertising here. So, make sure you fit the LinkedIn mold before going forward with a campaign here.

Instagram

For Product Launches

Instagram is my absolute favorite platform for engaging and connecting with customers and influencers alike. It reached 1 billion users in 2018 and is only going to get bigger. Thanks to it’s visual nature, content on Instagram is much easier to digest and engage with as it require less concentration and shorter attention spans.

For Customer Engagement

Instagram gives you a number of ways to reach your audience on their platform – all of which encourage engagement and interaction. Because the site is accessed almost exclusively on mobile devices, it’s a place that is ever-present in many of our lives. The platform is key for engagement based goals as it brings in 10 times more engagement than Facebook does, despite not having as many active users.

Thanks to the “Explore” page and the power of hashtags, discoverability is much higher on Instagram than other social networks, which helps brands to connect with more people. This also means this can be a great platform for reach as well, but you’ll have a more limited demographic than you would on Facebook, which is why we positioned it in this way.

There are two ways to post on Instagram – in the main feed, and in your stories. Both offer different advantages, and both should be undertaken simultaneously for maximum impact. Unlike other platforms where engagement is limited to likes and comments, Instagram offers users a number of ways to interact with your content.

If you post to Instagram Stories, viewers can interact in the following ways:

• Swipe up – if you have a following of over 10k and are operating on a business account (which you should be), you can include a link in your story that viewers can access by simply swiping up. Other than this, the only way to include a clickable link is in your bio on your profile. This is an incredibly useful tool for businesses looking to drive web traffic through social.

• Questions – If there’s something in particular you want your followers to tell you about, then you can post a question on your story. With this feature, you’re actively encouraging engagement by giving your followers the chance to speak directly to you. You can then share their answers on subsequent stories to further increase their effectiveness.

• Polls – Polls on Stories are pretty self-explanatory. You pose a question to your followers with two possible answers and all your followers have to do is click one, and there’s your engagement.

Combine all of these with the usual options of liking, commenting and direct messaging, and you have a catalyst for huge levels of engagement that you just won’t find anywhere else on social media.

Twitter

The final of the big four is Twitter, and this is the place to be if you want to focus on customer service across social media. Thanks to the fast pace of the online world, we are no longer content to sit on hold for hours with customer service teams (not that we ever liked it in the first place), so businesses need to be able to respond quicker than ever.

For Talking with Existing Customers

That’s where Twitter comes in. The fastest-moving of all the social networks, it’s the ideal place to keep up with customer requests. Because it’s such a public way of dealing with customer requests, many people love to use this in the hopes of receiving a speedy and positive response, as they know that others will be watching.

This means you need to be quick off the mark, and prepared to help diffuse any situations as soon as possible. But, providing awesome customer service isn’t just limited to direct questions sent your way. Keeping your eye on brand mentions on the platform is another way to make sure your customers stay as happy as possible.

(https://twitter.com/unbounce/status/935567576423325696)

See how Unbounce responds to a brand mention to help their customer, as well as turn the situation around in their favor? This is the kind of quick thinking that helps keep your customer service in tip-top shape.

For Getting Clicks

So, this last one is really from our personal experience. On the word of Gary Vaynerchuk who said during a keynote or fireside chat or something last year that Twitter ads were under-priced, we leveraged the reach of Twitter to promote a downloadable guide to rolling out an influencer campaign ahead of last year’s holiday season.

The response was phenomenal. Within a span of about two weeks, we saw more than 1,000 downloads of the guide.

Here’s the thing though: Because we weren’t nearly as focused on list-building as we were on testing Twitter’s fire and getting the guide in people’s hands, the landing page for the guide gave visitors the option to opt-in or not. What I mean is they could download the guide and skip town for all we knew. Despite not NEEDING to opt-in in order to get the guide, about 1 in 10 did.

So, when it comes to promoting content to get clicks and traffic back to your site, Twitter is a really affordable way to go.

For Getting Shares

Whether you’re Marvel promoting the next Avengers movie or Daquan spreading the next great meme, your Twitter network is key. Because so much of your reach on Twitter comes from engaging with and sharing other users’ content, creating content specifically to grab the attention of your Twitter followers can help you grow your network and build your reputation in the process.

Final Word

We have to agree with those who claim that measuring ROI on social media really does differ from case to case, but having a firm grasp on your campaign goals is the first step in making sure you get the most out of your marketing.

By understanding our goals, you can understand where to place your efforts on social media. Social media is a great way to bring in customers, engage with your fans, and keep on top of customer service – if you do it right.

Here are the 16 Trends in Influencer Marketing and Across Social Media that Are Going to Have an Impact on Your Digital Marketing Strategy This Year

We’re still pretty early in to 2019, so it’s the perfect time to welcome in a new era of changes. From video content to branding practices, using AI to keeping it personal – here is our roundup of the biggest social media trends to not just follow but leverage in 2019.

Let’s Start with a Look Back at Social Media in 2018

First, let’s take a quick look back at how social media evolved last year. 2018 brought a number of key changes to the social media marketing landscape. There were algorithm changes (aren’t there always algorithm changes?), new platforms emerging, and a BIG shift in the type and frequency of content brands needed to produce.

Some crucial algorithm changes happened

Both Facebook and Instagram rolled out sweeping changes to its algorithms and changed the way users saw content… AND the way brands and marketers distribute content. Facebook feeds heavily lean toward showing content from a user’s personal networks and groups as opposed to posts generated from business pages. Instagram did away with the chronological feed (much to the chagrin of the majority of users).

Whether you were pleasantly surprised or raging in your office, both changes were designed to help the platform’s users see the content they were most likely to find interesting. Marketing challenges aside, the platforms are just better now… for users, at least. Of course, the changes have made organic reach a virtual nightmare for brands that aren’t willing to invest loads of time into creating and sharing content that looks like it’s native to each specific platform.

We beefed up the influencer marketing space

In 2018, influencer marketing was stronger than ever. Social media users started to expect more relatable, and personalized content from brands, and influencers are the logical choice for creating trending, relatable, hyper-targeted content.

On the heels of the Fyre Festival fiasco, and numerous instances of influencers promoting products without disclosing they were being paid to do so, brands and governments made measurable moves to formalize influencer marketing and ensure brands and creators alike were held accountable for the content being produced and pushed out to the masses. There was a rise in regulations and laws to protect the public from underhanded techniques.

The UAE even implemented a law requiring influencers to be licensed as publishers… for a hefty fee. And transparency was THE buzzword in this space last year. Brands wanted influencers to be transparent about their actual reach and influence. Governments required influencers to clearly disclose ties to any brand whose products were mentioned in or featured in a post.

Take heart, with more regulations, it’s now a more trusted marketing method than ever before.

Fast forward to today and we’ve already seen a number of predictions come to life for social media marketing in 2019.

Let’s look at what we can expect from the next 12 months.

Here Are the Social Media Trends We’re Getting In On in 2019 (Maybe You Should, Too!)

Social Media Trend #1: Video as a Core Content Type

This may legitimately be the one trend that’s been on everybody’s list for the last few years: Video.

marketers foretold the growing utility of creating video content. Video is THE BEST way to reach a wider audience on social media. Social media platforms give preference to video content, and each generation that’s active on social media right now is consuming millions of hours of video content A DAY on platforms like YouTube.

So, it’s not just about making marketing reels featuring glossy product shots and peppy models (hasn’t been about that for years and years). Instead, content marketing has shifted in tone from presenting products to documenting the culture, production, and processes of companies and brands. This is important because Millennials are notorious for leaning more toward brands whose values align with their own. So, videos that feature real people in raw, unscripted scenarios are replacing the traditional idea of what brand-owned content looks like.

Social media Trend #2: TV & Vertical Video</h2

One of the biggest shifts we’ve seen with video content is the flip from horizontal to vertical video that resembles what we see on old school TV. But vertical is native to social media in large part because of how we access social. Right now, 61 percent of North Americans access social via mobile. Another thing that impacts how creators make videos now is Instagram’s 2018 launch of IGTV.

The consumption of video on mobile devices has been steadily growing over the last few years, and now more that 50 percent of videos are being viewed vertically, on mobile. This means that brands are having to adjust their video production strategy (by 90 degrees) to stay current and effective.

Social media Trend #3: Branded Stories

The rise in vertical video was born out of the popularity of disappearing Stories across social media platforms. If you remember, Snapchat’s initial claim to fame was the fact that its content disappeared after 24 hours. One of the coolest things about this kind of ephemeral content is that is gives creators a greater sense of freedom. The content creators post won’t be around forever, so the pressure to perfect the content (lighting, editing, etc.) simply isn’t there.

The disappearing content trend has spread to Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, and new platform TikTok. So now, across social media, these disappearing Stories are pretty much the norm.

Here’s the pivot in the industry though… This more relaxed approach to content creation also gives brands and marketers a group of platforms on which they can post “un-produced” content to do things like give “behind the scenes” looks and take customers along on almost every step in the product journey. Customers can see the production line, the brainstorming sessions, product testing, and even company parties. These insider looks allows them to feel more involved, like they’re part of the decision-making process, too.

According to The Drum, one in three Instagram Stories are now from brands. Not only that, but increasingly, brands are negotiating Stories-only deals with influencers, despite the obvious obstacles disappearing content presents for measuring the ROI of a campaign.

Thanks to advances in technology, Stories have become super effective tools for marketers, beyond simple storytelling devices. Integrated shopping features now allow viewers to buy directly through social media platforms, adding another layer of impact to video strategies. And, with over 90 million people clicking tags in shoppable posts every month, including Stories as part of your social media strategy can help you convert followers to buyers.

Social media Trend #4: TikTok Is a Thing

Let’s face it – kids don’t want to share the Internet with their parents, at least not as far as social media is concerned. And TikTok is specifically suited for younger users.

TikTok has emerged as one of the most popular social media apps in the world. As of this writing, it is the top free app for Androids. The platform was created as a lip-syncing app that allowed its users to post create 15-second videos of them performing songs. As the community has evolved, the videos span a much wider range of content.

TikTok has been growing from strength to strength as well. The app merged with Musical.lyback in August 2018, and the most recent user stats put TikTok at 500 million monthly active users ALTHOUGH the app was reportedly downloaded more than 800 million times in the US… in October 2018 alone.

TikTok is popular with younger users (41% of users are between 16-24), and only recently instituted a minimum user age of 13 after the app got fined $5.7 million for collecting the user data of minors without parental permission.

Still, the app has grown immensely in recent years when most adults have no idea it even exists.. And, the adults who do typically have zero idea of how it actually works.

Marketers have been watching the platform for months and months. Ahead of the TikTok even rolling out ad inventory, Universal Pictures tapped TikTok influencers to promote the film The House with a Clock in Its Walls.

Source: On TikTok @OurFire

This year will prove important for the platform. In January, it rolled out its first batch of ad inventory. While the platform doesn’t have a program just yet to help Creators monetize their content, brands are taking their first careful steps onto the platform to leverage a young audience that has proven to be highly engaged with the content being created for the platform.

Social media Trend #5: Personal Branding > Company Branding

Personal brands are making a comeback! Not that they ever left, but you may remember the days when solopreneurs had access to a slew of products designed to make themselves seem like a corporation rather than an actual person.

That’s the past.

More than ever, people want brands to be relatable. Big corporate shills are being shunned in favor of local businesses and social media brands. So, you need to put a face on your brand pronto if you want to win over consumers in 2019.

Social media Trend #6: Transparency

For 2019, craft campaigns to your audience’s interactions with your brand on social foster trust. That means transparency… and lots of it.

Social media users don’t like being blindsided by privacy issues and you know privacy issues have been a huge stumbling block Facebook users, and with the news that TikTok has been illegally collecting user data… brands have to be careful.

Consumers expect brands to be more transparent than ever on social media, but only 55 percent of users feel that brands are “somewhat transparent” right now. Somewhat is not a word you want to hear in marketing. Millennial users are even expecting brands to be more transparent than their friends and family!

One of the best ways to make your business more relatable is to be honest. Admit your mistakes. Admit when you don’t know. Take credit when you’re crushing it. Being honest about things you’ve done wrong, or wish you had done differently really helps to humanize your brand. Likewise, being honest in your customer interactions, and showing exactly how your products are manufactured can show the level of transparency users are really after.

Social media Trend #7: Employees as Influencers

Building on the importance of humanizing your brand, influencer marketing will continue to become more popular into 2019 and beyond. Despite the headlines, slam pieces, and documentaries (talking about the Fyre Festival here), influencer marketing remains mostly untouched. Yes, regulations have been tightened, but influencer marketing continues to flourish and bring in great ROIs for businesses.

One big shift we have seen is brands using their own employees as influencers and brand advocates. Even more so than regular influencers, these kinds of partnerships are allowing brands to give followers a human touch to their marketing. By using their own employees, they are presenting customers with genuine, “real” people who love their brand.

But, as an employee of the brand, you’re unlikely to say anything negative, so there is still the question of trust when adopting this kind of practice. Either way, we are still much more likely to trust the voice of an influencer than we are of a business thanks to the human connection we feel we have with them. Influencer marketing will continue to rise in 2019 and will begin to diversify even more across new and emerging platforms like TikTok.

Social Media Trend #8: Facebook Groups

One problem that many marketers had in 2018 stemmed from Facebook’s algorithm change that favored personal content over business pages. Organically reaching the number of followers you once had became harder and harder. The easiest way to get around this block was by leveraging the organic reach of Facebook groups.

Brands can create a group linked to your business page, and members of that group are much more likely to see your posts than the followers of your page.

This has sparked a rise in the number of private member groups on Facebook, with brands using them as engagement tools, sales funnels, and avenues for gaining feedback from their customers.

Social Media Trend #9: Using Social for Storytelling

Going hand-in-hand with the need for personal branding, storytelling should be at the heart of your social media efforts in 2019.

The need for transparency from brands, as well as the rise of influencer marketing, has lead to a social culture of storytelling across platforms.

Social Media Trend #10: Partnering with Influencers Who are Great Storytellers

Simply writing a post about your brand is no longer enough on social media. If you really want to tell, and sell, your story – you’re going to need video. But, this doesn’t mean you have to create it on your own. Partnering with influencers is a great way to get your brand story in killer video content, without having to film a single shot.

Working with influencers, you can employ them to create user-generated content centered around your brand that they can then share with their followers. Product reviews are incredibly popular right now, so that’s a great way to get started. Working with them to feature you in their Instagram stories is even better.

There are so many options available to you when looking to partner with an influencer. Be sure to check out our articles on finding the perfect influencer, video marketing basics, and the power of UGC before you dive in.

Social Media Trend #11: Documenting

The rise in popularity of Stories and disappearing content doesn’t mean a switch in video styles. It means a change in the kind of content we produce.

Followers find candid content intriguing, often even more than scripted. There’s a rawness to in-the-moment content that feels real and authentic.

Selfie-videos are huge, so you’re going to have to get over the fear of talking straight to the camera and producing your own video content. Live videos are more popular than ever, mostly because many social media platforms seem to favor this form of content over pre-recorded video.

On Instagram, a live video will disappear after 24 hours, just like a normal Story post. But, over on Facebook, those live videos will stick around and remain as video content on your page, or in your dedicated groups. This makes going live on Facebook a great way to build up a library of video content while engaging heavily with your fans in the process.

Social Media Trend 12: Using AI for Customer Insights

We’re living in the future now, so it’s no surprise that advances in AI technology are starting to influence our online interactions. We’ve already seen the majority of businesses utilizing or hoping to utilize basic chatbot features on their websites with 60% of the Millennial population using them to interact with brands.

Online customer service has been using chatbot technology for some time now. These simple forms of AI walk customers through the basic options in a chat, almost like the old-fashioned “Press 1 to continue” style. But, as technology advances, so does how businesses use AI for their customer service.

Some companies have built their entire brand around chatbot technology, and what they’re using is way more advanced than you might think. But, despite all this, only 0.5% of trending B2B companies are using chatbots to their advantage. For many, it is still a new technology that they can’t fully trust yet. The same was true with social media marketing, and influencer marketing – it can often take larger businesses a little longer to catch on.

Without getting too technical here, the introduction of things like the business API for WhatsApp has begun to pave the way for brands to have more control over their chatbot technologies. By 2020, 80% of businesses want to be using chatbots as part of their online presence.

Social Media Trend #13: Paid Ads on Social

Now that more and more brands are taking up social media real estate, businesses can no longer ignore the importance of ads. In 2018 alone, we already saw businesses up their social media ad budgets by 32%, so it’s clear that this is a fast-growing area.

Facebook advertising currently makes up 23% of total US digital ad spending. Nearly a quarter of all digital ad revenue is going into one social media platform. If you haven’t been using social media ads yet – what have you been doing all this time?!

We already mentioned the changing algorithms on social media and how much they have restricted the organic growth of businesses. Ads are how you get around this in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.

Social Media Trend #14: Hyper-targeting and Personalization

Social media users have become accustomed to seeing ads that are expertly tailored to their specific needs and interests. We’ve all been a little spooked out when an ad pops up on Facebook about the thing we were just talking about, right? Creepy as those borderline invasive ads are, they are helping to shape an online experience that is making users less and less tolerant of poorly targeted ads that don’t apply to them.

Every social media platform has targeting tools for ads, and we can expect these ads to become more nuanced (and thus more effective) as time goes on. By further segmenting your audience with these targeting tools, you’ll be able to bring only the most relevant content to users news feeds, and see the best ROI possible.

Social Media Trend #15: Nano-Influencers

Another cool trend that surfaced last year and that is playing a greater and greater role in influencer marketing strategy is the use of nano-influencers. These are people who have smaller followings, but who exercise quite a bit of influence with their audiences, as evidenced by their tendency to have high engagement.

Nano-influencers (sometimes called unfluencers) typically have anywhere from a few hundred followers to a few thousand followers.

We typically say users who have between three thousand and 100,000 followers falls into the category of a micro-influencer. But modifying that scale a bit, nano-influencers can have anywhere from 800 or 900 followers up to about 10,000 followers. So, using three thousand as the benchmark makes sense.

Source: Mediakix

Why would a brand want to work with a nano-influencer? Well, to answer that question, you have to sort of think about how people first start growing their networks on social media.

On Facebook, they start with their friends and family – these are people they know and with whom they already have a relationship.

On Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, people start by following their interests and grow their communities by engaging with other people who share similar interest.

On LinkedIn, people typically follow their industries and the sectors and categories within their industry. Thought leaders emerge by engaging thoughtfully with content created around certain industries.

We know from influencer marketing that as an influencer’s audience grows, the interests of the audience members become more and more varied. In fact, one of the biggest challenges brands face with mega influencers is they can get the brand in front of lots of people, but the audience of a celebrity influencer or other mega influencer is often far less targeted than the audience of a micro-influencer.

So, you actually will find big brands leveraging the authentic influence of social media users who have smaller followings to get eyes on the brand… the difference is the eyes will be more likely to buy.

Social Media Trend #16: Metrics Mania

The in-built analytics dashboards you find on your business’s social media accounts may no longer be detailed enough to get an edge online. There is a huge variety of independent programs out there now that offer insights on a much deeper level. Here are three of our favorites right now:

Brandwatch is an amazing tool that focuses in on something called social listening. This means it helps you to monitor brand mentions across platforms, runs awesome competitor analysis, and helps you build better brand awareness on social media.

BuzzSumo is one of the more popular and well-known tools, and for good reason. It provides you with detailed engagement reports for social, helping you to pinpoint your most popular content, as well as the best times to post on each platform.

And, finally, Vizia is an amazing tool for producing detailed – and hella good looking- analytics reports. This tool is especially useful for sharing progress and updates company wide, and keeping an eye on how your social media platforms are progressing.

Moving through 2019, you’ll want to find programmes like these that gather and analyze important data, especially since most brands will be using multiple social platforms to target audiences. Use the data you collect to inform your decisions throughout your marketing efforts: which platforms to focus on, which influencers to work with, even which product to launch next.

Let’s Wrap it Up

A lot of what is predicted to happen in 2019 is building on what already happened last year. Sure, nobody has a crystal ball, but we do have analytics and surveys to back us up. So, here’s a TLDR; to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

• Video content should be at the top of your content priority list

• Your team members need to develop and nurture their personal brands in addition to supporting a companywide corporate brand

• Influencer marketing can help you build trust online

• Your content needs to tell a story

• Don’t be afraid of integrating AI into your online marketing

• If you’re not using social media ads yet, make that a priority.

Video has fast become one of the most effective marketing tools brands can use to attract, engage, and convert new customers. Forget the old days of TV commercials where all your money, time, and effort went into one 30-second spot, the days when you lived or died by your time slot. Now, with YouTube standing firmly as the second biggest site on the web, video has a new format.

Video Has the Power to Convert

Video can be a powerful tool for converting views into sales. According to a survey by Google, more than half of the shoppers they spoke to said that online video helped them decide which specific brand or product they wanted to buy.

That said, it’s time to start thinking of your video content like a funnel. Grab their attention to stop them scrolling, deliver real value with your content, use video to pitch, and convert viewers into customers with your call to action.

If you read our last post, YouTube User Stats by Generation, you’ll probably notice that across generations, how-to videos and product reviews are among some of the most popular forms of video content. People love to learn new skills and pursue their passions through online video. These are both great opportunities for brands to showcase their own products in a value-driven way to attract new customers.

People may not be heading to YouTube with the intent of purchasing anything, but ninety percent of people say that this is exactly how they discover new brands and products, and 80 percent include video when researching which products to buy.

Tips for Creating Video That’ll Make Your Social Marketing Efforts More Effective

#1 Make your video native to the platform

Making a video “native” to a platform has to do with two key things: The video needs to be suitable for the platform, and the video needs to be published directly to the platform.

Video content takes on very different forms across the different social networks, so you should plan to adapt your strategy depending on where you plan to post video content. Which platform you choose for your videos should depend primarily on your target customer. The good news here is that pretty much everyone uses YouTube. Outside of YouTube, audiences can vary wildly.

If you want to market to more mature audiences like Baby Boomers and Gen X, create multimedia content for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Younger audiences like Millennials and Gen Z have a soft spot for Instagram, Snapchat, and Musica.ly.

“Can’t I just create one video and put it everywhere?”

Uh… you could… but what translates well on Facebook may hit a brick wall on Snapchat. It’s not necessarily because people aren’t interested in your brand or your product, but because by skipping the part where you repurpose and tweak your video, you will inevitably end up posting a video that sticks out like a sore thumb if you post it to the wrong platform. Or worse, people go completely blind to it, which happens a lot with sponsored content that’s not tailored to the platform.

For YouTube…

The first thing I want to clarify is that YouTube IS a visual search engine. It’s owned by Google, so the search capabilities are phenomenal! So, it makes sense put some thought into how your video and the descriptions show up in people’s YouTube feeds.

Yes, keywords are important. Yes, content quality is crucial. And yeah… titles matter. What are we getting at here? For search purposes, it’s important that you treat your YouTube video content with the attention you would treat blog posts and articles where SEO is concerned.

More than just the video’s title and the description below, the actual scripts for YouTube videos should be keyword optimized. Ever notice how drug commercials repeat whatever afflicting condition the drug is treating over and over again these days?

“Blah, blah, blah, recurring mid-to-lower burning back pain…”

“A treatment that heals your recurring mid-to-lower burning back pain…”

“To keep your family from having to deal with your recurring mid-to-lower burning back pain…”

“So you never have to deal with recurring mid-to-lower burning back pain again…”

Those commercials are keyword optimized… to the point of making you roll your eyes. We certainly don’t recommend you just lift keyword phrases from Google if they don’t sound natural, but you do need to be strategic about how you’re going to use your keywords in a post. That’s important.

Last thing about YouTube: The description box underneath the video gives you ample space to link to outside sites such as your sales pages or other social media profiles as well.

For Facebook…

A lot of the video consumed on Facebook is done so within the feed itself, so videos can be viewed with the sound on or off, depending on the user’s preferences. Compared to a platform like Instagram where videos are viewed with the sound on. This part is important: If you want to maximize both views and impact, include subtitles with your videos. On Instagram Stories, 60 percent of video ads are viewed with the sound on. In comparison, only seven percent of Facebook video ads are viewed with the sound on.

Facebook is also a plagued by constant scrolling, so short videos are ideal. Unlike Instagram where most people are checking it in their downtime, Facebook is often used as a pleasant distraction during the workday with engagement actually peaking between 10AM and 3PM EST

Source: Mashable

Facebook recommends keeping posting videos with run times between 5 – 15 seconds for optimal performance, and plan to woo them in the first four seconds of video if you want them to keep watching.

Part of making video native to the platform, especially as far as Facebook is concerned is creating the video to upload directly to Facebook. You get better video performance (by as much as four times) by sharing your video directly to Facebook as opposed to uploading it to YouTube and sharing the link or embedding the video on Facebook.

Also, be sure to caption your video with a description (some short-form content) so people know what the video is about and have a good idea of the backstory for the video. If you have a great script for your video, you want to further drive home your point with great copywriting in the caption.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn isn’t always the first platform marketers think of when planning a video content strategy. But, when you’re targeting older professionals or the B2B market, LinkedIn is incredibly effective at getting your product in front of businesses. Eighty-four percent of people who have used LinkedIn video as part of their strategy have found it to be effective , so more people and companies are using it.

LinkedIn really favors video in its algorithm right now as well, so by sharing content like this, you have a much better chance of it getting seen at the top of people’s feeds. This is also a good platform for longer content than most other social networks, with recommended video length falling between 30 second and 5 minutes.

Twitter

Twitter is possibly the fastest moving social platform around, so executing a video strategy usually isn’t high on marketer’s lists. One of the most effective ways you can win over the platform’s speed scrolling users is to create your own GIFs to upload and share.

If you go the more traditional video route, most of the same rules apply here as on other platforms. Tutorials, storytelling and live video are all killer tools to boost your account’s engagement. Bear in mind that 93% of the videos on Twitter are viewed on mobile devices, so preview your content on these screens before posting, and include subtitles where possible.

Instagram

Already well-known as a visual-focused platform, it’s no surprise that video on Instagram has become key to running a successful marketing campaign. Because of this, one of the most important factors, when uploading video content, is ensuring your content is super high-quality.

Videos on Instagram are automatically played without the sound, so it benefits you to invest in adding subtitles to your video. Instagram in-feed videos are limited to 60 seconds of content. So be quick to get to your message. Stories, on the other hand, give you much more freedom. Your content doesn’t need to be as polished, and you can go live to share longer content.

Snapchat

In 2016, Snapchat viewers were watching more than eight billion mobile video views each day. Snapchat rivals Facebook in terms of reach, and the majority of the platform’s video views come from the younger audiences. Content on this platform is sharp and snappy and speaks directly to the user.

Sales-focused content will flop massively here, so you need to include some more subtle tactics instead. Creating your own customized geo-filters can be a great way to get your brand noticed without feeling too “salesy”.

Musica.ly

If you’re wanting to reach Gen Z, then Musica.ly is the quiet challenger to traditional social media platforms. Most brands haven’t explored the power of this platform yet, but with top influencers working on campaigns with the likes of Disney – it’s clear that they should be.

As the platform starts to become more popular with those of us over the age of 18, we’re seeing influencers start to become more creative with their content as well. It would seem that for best results, partnerships with these influencers is how you’re going to crack this platform.

#2 Front-load Value

With the amount of video content being shared online every day, you have to provide value if you want to engage your audience. Unless you’re terribly entertaining, skip editorials that don’t really provide value… other than you getting stuff off your chest.

Gary Vaynerchuck is a great example of how this strategy works. Gary uploads video content every day (multiple times a day), and each upload is packed with advice, tips, and the kind of insights business stakeholders and makers are typically willing to pay to get.

Here’s what’s cool: Gary is known for his approachability, his plain-talk strategies (without the high-brow marketing jargon), his uncanny ability to see trends in everything from social media to rap music, and his unrelenting drive to work smart enough and hard enough to eventually buy the New York Jets.

So, if you take a look at his content, he talks about A LOT of different things, but everything he puts out falls into one of those four categories – his life and thoughts, strategies, trends, or motivational content to push people to work harder and smarter.

Gary Vaynerchuk has built his career on the video content he produces, and audiences eat up the information he shares because he front-loads value into every piece of content he puts out.

Fun Factoid: Did you know that 70 percent of people actually report feeling motivated or confident after learning something new from a YouTube video? By providing great content, you’re making your audience members feel good about themselves. Creators like Gary Vaynerchuk can create millions of raving fans because in addition to delivery tactical strategies… he makes people FEEL good.

Here’s the takeaway with this one… At this point, creating video content that isn’t jam-packed with value is probably going to be a waste of time. Gary Vees of the world have already figured this out. Remember in our last post, we found out that all four generations (Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z) relied on YouTube to learn new things and to be entertained. The only difference between the generations was the kind of content they sought to learn and the kind of entertainment they preferred.

#3 Include Influencers in Your Video Marketing Strategy

I mentioned a little earlier in this article the kind of power influencers can have to boost your video content on Musica.ly. Now, let’s explore some of the other platforms, too.

Of course, influencer marketing is what we do, so we’re always game to lay some influencer strategies on you. But that’s because it works. There’s no denying the effectiveness of influencer marketing across social media. For every article on effective video marketing, there’s one on extolling the benefits of influencer marketing.

Not all of us are blessed with the personality and confidence that top YouTubers and other influencers have in such abundance. That’s why partnering with influencers to produce video content (they specialize in creating content, after all) can help boost your credibility and get eyes on your brand and product. If you don’t have a production team of your own, then working with influencers to review your products or vlog from your event are really the next best thing for boosting brand awareness AND generating some awesome user-generated video content.

Of course, you’ll need to make sure your influencer partners include the necessary disclosures and follow all the necessary legal guidelines.

#4 Create a Legit CTA

Calls to action aren’t limited to sales pages and landing pages. So, don’t forget to include a call to action in your video content. It seems simple, I know, but so many marketers leave this out of their video marketing and it isn’t helping them to forget the CTA.

Simple phrases like “Click the link below to find out more”, or “Comment your favorite NFL team below”, or “Make sure you subscribe to see more videos just like this” can often be the thing that compels viewers to take an action. It helps them if you tell them the kind of action you want them to take after watching the video.

#5 Make Your Video Content Pop

You don’t need access to film studios and extensive editing software to create killer video content anymore. Smartphones are able to record HD video at just the click of a button, and with a little research online, you could reasonably “master” the basics of editing – at least enough to make your video pass the muster.

Doing it all yourself can seem daunting, but it is possible. Of course, you could always use tools like Promo to access stock video footage.There are all sorts of high definition clips available that are entertaining, interesting, engaging in lots of verticals, moods, and film styles. So, if you’re more of a one-trick pony, mix it up with professional stock videos.

#6 Generate Clicks with Great Thumbnails

When you upload a video on YouTube, you can have YouTube generate a thumbnail from your actual video. This will just be a still shot snapped at some point during your video… usually at a point when your mouth is agape and your eyes are mid-roll.

You don’t want that.

Instead, take advantage of the option you have to upload a custom thumbnail that will stop YouTubers scrolling.

A great thumbnail should showcase exactly what your video is all about. Include the title right there in the thumbnail (even better if it’s tweaked a little to make it more interesting than your keyword-optimized meta title. Use a high-quality photo taken in the same style of your video to keep a consistent theme.

( Madelaine Petsch )

Speaking of… your video title is another area you’ll need to concentrate on getting right on YouTube. It needs to be clear, concise, and include your chosen keywords. This is no time to get clever with wordplay or post something funny – you need to say exactly what your video is about. The clearer the title, the easier it is for Google/ YouTube to categorize the video, and the more people will be sent your way.

Finally, the length of your video should be tailored to your audience and their preferences (i.e. attention spans). In most cases, a shorter video will work better…

…. ALTHOUGH Gary Vaynerchuk recently posted a four-hour Super Bowl mega-vlog that got something like 36k views in 12 days. So…

But for the rest of us who aren’t Gary, shorter usually outperforms longer videos that can tend to include a bit of rambling. You want your video long enough to capture your audience’s attention and short enough to hold it. Get to your point, deliver some value, and get out of there.

Also remember as you’re creating content that you’re creating it for different platforms that may have specific content length rules.

A Few Content Creation Tips

So, I know you’re waiting with bated breath to know the number one tip I have for new video creators. And it is this:

Practice, practice, then practice some more.

Film, edit, and upload a bunch of content and see what sticks. It’s free to do it, and as long as you’re not filming offensive or low-quality video, it won’t harm your brand as much as you might think. Take heart. Most of us suck at it in the beginning… including television shows.

Everyone starts somewhere and people appreciate honesty in a world filled with filters, so take a deep breath and…go!

Always film in HD.

Technology is too far advanced and too easy to access for you to be filming in with your grandma’s shaky, old Camcorder. If you have a budget, do invest in a tripod and a microphone to improve your quality even further. Keep your editing simple, this isn’t the latest Avengers movie and you probably don’t need special effects to promote your brand.

Be yourself on camera.

Your audience will spot a fake personality a mile away and instantly switch off. Don’t try and make your videos look like someone else’s. Take inspiration, yes. But nothing more. Dive in head first, test different content options. Forget about A/B testing. You’re probably going to have to test the entire alphabet.

Go. Create.

YouTube is the OG of the video content world. Launched back in 2005 (on Valentine’s Day), YouTube now has over 1 billion unique users every month. To put that in perspective, half the people on the entire internet are using YouTube. That is A LOT of people.

Eighty percent of YouTubers are outside the U.S. So, it’s no big surprise that YouTube is the second most visited website in existence AND the second largest search engine in the world after parent company Google.

Side note: Baidu search numbers were unverified, so we’re excluding China’s biggest search engine from our little rankings pool. But just know that YouTube receives more search queries per month than Yahoo, Bing, Ask, and AOL combined.

Using YouTube as a Mid-Funnel Sales Tool

The range of content across YouTube is phenomenal, namely because it’s all user-generated content. About 400 hours of content are uploaded every single minute, so you can find videos teaching on a crazy range of topics from…

…. Learning how to boil an egg,

…. To getting a behind-the-scenes look at your favorite movie

… Or listening to someone whisper softly into a microphone (it’s called ASMR, you’ll either love it or hate it, but you have to watch some, trust me).

Basically, there’s something for everyone on YouTube, and that’s what makes it such a powerful resource to leverage in your marketing campaigns.

Despite its accessibility, ease of use, and super-sophisticated targeting tools, just nine percent of small businesses are using YouTube for business. And, before you start screaming at me that your audience isn’t even on YouTube – think again.

A whopping eight in ten people 18-49 years old use the platform, as well as about half of all internet users over the age of 75. This is important because people are three times more likely to pay attention to online video ads over television ads. They are twice as likely to give their attention to a YouTube video ad, even over Instagram and Facebook video ads. No doubt that has a lot to do with the platform’s targeting capabilities.

Ninety percent of YouTubers say they discover new brands or products on YouTube, and 40 percent of the shoppers around the globe say they have purchased something they discovered on YouTube.

Still think your audience isn’t on YouTube?

YouTube can add a touch of mid-funnel magic for the sales cycles of marketers and brands. The platform allows for creative, high-impact storytelling that your team can personalize (YouTube has a video ad sequencing tool) AND scale.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has fallen into a “suggested video”-fueled rabbit hole and lost (or invested depending on how you look at it) HOURS to a random, yet interesting, parade of YouTube videos. People are watching more than one billion hours of YouTube videos every day. That’s more than Netflix and Facebook combined.

And, we’re not just watching it on our computers anymore.

People are watching YouTube on their TVs twice as much as they used to, and we’re spending more than 40 minutes each session watching content on our mobile devices, too. The platform is steadily spreading throughout our lives to become one of our main sources of video content.

Video Content & Social Media Marketing

I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve seen a marketer acting like video is the only strategy out there. Still, many companies – especially smaller businesses – are slow to roll out full-on video marketing campaigns. I get it, it can be super scary to record yourself talking straight to a camera, or directing a promotional video – but my gosh is it worth it.

The first time I did a live video on Instagram, I was, in a word, terrified. It’s scary to put yourself out there like that. But, I did it. A grand total of six people tuned in, I talked, they listened, and then it was over. From those six people, two reached out to me to say how much they enjoyed it and to discuss what I’d talked about more in-depth. In that one video, I was able to give something of value, and transform my audience (of six) into my very own brand advocates. All in just three minutes of live video. So, just think what your brand could do if you harnessed the power of video content for your next big campaign.

Of course, YouTube is probably what comes to mind when video marketing is mentioned, but it isn’t the only video platform out there by any stretch of the imagination. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and LinkedIn are all embracing video content more, and it may be that your brand and audience are better-suited to one of those platforms. That’s why we’re going to use the next post to cover video content and social media marketing as a whole. Today, we handle YouTube user stats.

The YouTube Habits of Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z

I already mentioned just how many users are tuning into YouTube videos day after day, but that’s just one platform. Add to that the number of people on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok, and anywhere else you can find videos online, and you’ve got one heck of an audience.

Let’s break this down into easy-to-understand demographics, generation by generation.

Baby Boomers: 55 – 73 years old

Many marketers seem sort of bent on getting young Millennial eyes on their products, but brands can reap huge rewards by targeting the mega-spending generation known as Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers should be a BIG DEAL to brands and marketers. They spend more time online than Millennials, and they have greater spending power.

Be honest. Boomers are probably the folks you expect would spend the LEAST amount of time watching YouTube videos. But in reality, the cool kids who make up the 55 and up crowd account for 24 percent of YouTube viewers – that’s like 31 million people.

How Boomers consume YouTube content

With an estimated 10,000 Boomers retiring every day, you would think this generation had oodles of time on their hands. But, according to a survey run by Google, one of the big reasons Boomers love YouTube is because it helps them save time. YouTube is a GREAT place for Boomers (and every non-tech person) to go to get a better understanding of tech, gadgets, new software… that sort of thing. It’s sort of a mid-funnel buying guide they can easily use without having to go to a store, spend hours on with tech support, or call in a younger (know-it-all) relative.

That said… Baby Boomers are far more likely to respond positively to data-driven product reviews (think “here is the product, here are the specs”) than opinion-based product reviews of another YouTuber’s experience with a brand or product. Boomers often skipp programmed TV in favor of bite-sized chunks of short-form video content. Like the rest of us.

Video content serves as a vehicle by which Boomers can learn new skills – something a lot of Boomers are really into post- empty nest. So, whether they want to learn how to play guitar, pick up a new language, or even become a social media influencer themselves, they’re turning to video to learn how to do it.

Type of video content Baby Boomers prefer:

• How-to videos for learning new skills

• Entertainment roundups to keep up to date

• Online tutorials that can save them time

Generation X: 39 – 54 years old

Born into a world that drastically changed around them as they grew up, Gen X is probably the most adaptable generation. When the older Gen Xers were the youngest people in the world, having a TV in the home was juuuuust becoming the norm. Now, programmed TV is becoming obsolete as people spend more time consuming content online than watching live TV (and TV manufacturers were smart to make televisions essentially 50-inch computer screens for watching YouTube and Netflix – that definitely kept electronics companies in the game).

How Gen Xers consume YouTube content

Gen Xers spend A LOT of time watching video, and especially old school content – stuff from their teen and adolescent years. In fact, 75 percent of Gen Xers use YouTube to get access to nostalgic videos. While this generation is all about the nostalgia effect, they’re still spending more time watching video content on their computers and smartphones than they are on traditional TV. Gen Xers account for over 1.5 billion views on YouTube every day, so the incentive to engage with them is definitely there.

Gen Xers aren’t just spending time on YouTube though. While it is an important platform, Gen Xers share content – especially video – more readily to Facebook than any other site. This is closely followed by YouTube and Twitter, showing that in order to reach this generation (well, any generation really), you’ll need to develop an omnichannel approach.

Type of video content Gen Xers prefer:

• Nostalgia-driven video to take them back to their childhood

• DIY videos they can follow along

• Current news and trending events

Millennials: 22 – 38 years old

YouTube’s mobile viewers reach more 18 to 34 year-olds than any other TV network. That’s mobile! Browser views aren’t included in that number. Millennials are constantly checking in on social media (for many of us it’s every hour), short-form content wins hands down as we don’t really have the time to watch lengthy content throughout the day, and we prefer to watch a video over reading an article.

AND Despite Instagram and Facebook Live being thrown in the mix, YouTube is still the video platform of choice for most Millennials. We marketing folks often look at YouTube as another social network because it’s SO socially-driven and people enjoy consuming YouTube content together. Technically, YouTube isn’t a social media network, but if it were, YouTube would be the third most popular social platform out there.

How Millennials consume YouTube content

Millennials are avid YouTubers. Fifty-four percent of Millennials check YouTube daily. Cool, right? Well, this is even cooler: While about 1 in 10 Millennials use ad blockers, and more than half only watch YouTube ads to the Skip Ad point, 29 percent of Millennials actually watch YouTube ads all the way through. And don’t forget our earlier stat about the 90 percent of people are using YouTube for product discovery. YouTube’s video ads are very well-targeted these days.

Contrary to popular beliefs about how Millennials relate to brands, many Millennials (especially Millennial women and moms) want and expect to see sponsored content (we talked about that a bit in the What Makes They Buy post), AS LONG AS it’s the right ad targeting the right person on the right platform at the right time. And many Millennials are actually kinda sweet on well-targeted video ads.

Thirty-seven percent of Millennials admit to binge-watching a block of something every day, and upwards of 65 percent of Millennials binge-watch at least once a week. So, it’s definitely good news to marketers that 62 percent of Millennials actually take action after seeing an ad.

Type of video content Millennials prefer:

• News and human interest stories to keep us up to date

• Unboxing and product review videos to influence our spending

• Quick and fun entertainment content

Generation Z: 4 – 21 years old

Enter Gen Z, the largest and most diverse generation in history. These social media natives are growing up in a world of selfies, influencers, and hashtags. They know how to navigate the online world better than anyone else, and their video consumption habits reflect this.

Their most used platform is YouTube closely followed by Instagram – so video is clearly a priority for them. How they’re consuming this video content is even more important for marketers.

How Gen Zers consume YouTube content

Fifty-nine percent of Gen Z video consumption is through social media, where they spend twice as much time as they do on streaming services, and five times as much as on traditional media. What are they watching, though? Here’s a hint: It’s not music videos.

That’s right 80s and 90s babies! While it may seem like MTV just sold its platform to YouTube, unlike teenagers back in the day, kids today aren’t using the world’s largest video platform to watch music videos. In fact, only four percent of Gen Zers name YouTube as their preferred music platform. Spotify and Apple Music are the top music streaming services, with 60 percent and 26 percent (respectively) of teens using those platforms as their go-to.

As a brand, YouTube has more influence over this generation than big names like Oreo, McDonalds, and even Lego. So, it’s safe to say that if you’re targeting Gen Z, you need to be targeting them through video.

Type of video content Gen Zers prefer:

• Humor – They love videos that make them laugh

• Short and snappy content to compete with their busy lives and busy minds

• Unboxing and product reviews to keep on top of trends

Conclusion

When you’re talking about online video, you should always begin with the powerhouse – YouTube. YouTube has blazed a trail that other platforms have tried to follow. The major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn notoriously give preference to video, eventually introducing well-trafficked video platforms of their own like Facebook Watch and IGTV. Still, no other platform comes close to the reach and impact of YouTube or its AMAZING search capabilities and predictive algorithms. #Facts

The Rise of Recommerce and Online Resale Sites Part 2: How Retailers Like Depop, ASOS, and Stella McCartney Are Appealing to Thrifters

Despite FANTASTIC holiday sales the retail industry is still experiencing a seemingly unstoppable tumble in revenue. As companies like Macy’s and Sears scrambled to implement a legitimate plan B in response to the exponential growth of e-commerce, fewer in-store visits from customers often mean dwindling sales, smaller inventories, closing stores, and in some cases bankruptcy.

Last week, we analyzed the campaigns of three luxury brands… luxury goods represent one segment of the retail industry that is still experiencing growth. This week, we’re analyzing another profitable segment in the retail sector, also experiencing massive growth – resale.

So… we published The Rise of Recommerce and Online Resale Sites a few weeks ago to give you an overview of the resale industry as a whole. You can read that post here. In this post, I want to take a look at the marketing strategies of clothing brands that are successfully targeting thrifters.

Resalers are Nudging Traditional Retailers Out of Closets

Uh… thrifters. Why thrifters? Aren’t they sort of like the anti-target? Yes, and no. By definition, thrifters do spend a portion of their hard-earned money on used stuff.

The thing is, thrifting isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, the resale market is expected to double in size, reaching $41 billion in annual sales by 2022, according to ThredUP’s 2018 Resale Report. Just a few years ago, thrifting was sort of an acquired taste. In 2012, only 11 percent of the items in the average thrifter’s closet were used. By the year 2022, 40 percent of the stuff in their closets will be used. That means the money shoppers are spending on vintage goods and previously-worn clothes are being moved out of the hands of traditional retailers and into the hands of resalers – that includes individuals resalers, apparel brands, and resale stores.

It is projected that the money shoppers spend at department stores like Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s and even mid-priced specialty stores like Banana Republic and Ann Taylor is going to shrink and that money will instead be spent with off-price stores like TJ Maxx, and you guessed it, resale stores like Poshmark and ThredUP.

For Millennials, Thrifting May Make the Most Financial Sense

That makes sense, right? We’re always harping on how Millennials have more debt than their Boomer parents, and are making different buying decisions than their parents would have made.

So, let’s look at the some numbers. Thrifters pay, on average 70 percent less shopping resale than they would buying the same items new. They pay 40 percent less shopping at off-price stores than they would shopping with traditional retailers.

That’s why resale sites like Depop, ThredUp, and The RealReal have all been experiencing year-on-year growth as consumers become more ethically conscious with every purchase.

The Resale Market Has Officially Become THE Thing

The resale market is rapidly growing. True. But how is an industry based around used clothing making such a high revenue?

Well, according to that report I mentioned earlier, one in three women shopped secondhand in 2017, and that was about 10 million more women than the year before.

Millennials play a big part in the success of the resale industry because they are weirdly both wasteful and waste-conscious. Here’s why: The average Millennial discards a clothing item after just one to five wears. The flip side is 77 percent of Millennials are more likely to buy from brands that are environmentally responsible. #kanyeshrug. In our deep dive into how to market to Millennial women, we discovered that 34 percent of Millennial women are more likely to spend their money on products that are environmentally friendly.

Consumers Are Moving Spending Dollars to Resale Stores

There are a couple of reasons buyers are shifting their spending from buying new at traditional retailers to buying used at online and offline resale shops.

People are spending more time shopping online and choosing to shop from their phones in lieu of venturing into stores… and getting those all-important impulse buys (socks, lip glosses, matching earrings, a bangle that would be cute with another thing in your closet) isn’t so easy online as it is in-store.

People are buying clothes direct from China. From baby clothes to prom accessories, it’s now simple and inexpensive to buy high-quality goods directly from China and skip paying the premium franchises, big box retailers, and physical store locations charge consumers to get access to the same (or close to the same) goods and services.

Casual Friday starts on Monday. Who needs a work wardrobe when more and more employers are allowing employees to dress down for work? Street clothes and work clothes are often the same.

Signature outfits. Buying 5 black turtlenecks and 5 pairs of acid washed mom jeans to wear Monday through Friday is a REAL THING. Popularized by Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg (and driven by the minimalist movement), more people are relying on signature outfits – self-appointed uniforms that reduce the amount of time spent deciding what to wear to work every morning.

Remote teams. Four in ten American employees now work remotely at least part of the time. At The Shelf, those of us who work at the Brooklyn headquarters work remotely two to three times a week. The rest of the team is spread out all over the globe – British Columbia, the UK, Russia, California, Atlanta… this is fast becoming the new norm.

Social media. Social has changed the way we live in multiple ways. One key way is that people no longer have to rely on apparel as their primary form of self-expression. Many of us now prioritize experiences over things. We’re seeing people care more about having an Insta-worthy life that they can show off on social (and create a business from) than spending their money on branded items.

Athleisure. Athletic wear is getting smarter. With retailers like Outdoor Voices (which we profiled in this post) selling athletic wear with no-sweat technology, people with active lifestyles can move seamlessly from gym life to life-life without having to stop and change clothes.

Is it any wonder spending on apparel has plummeted?

Consumers are planning to reduce their spending in traditional clothing avenues such as department stores by as much as 71 percent over the next five years, and at the same time, increase their spending on thrift products by the same percentage. Thanks to this shift, we’ve seen a number of resale brands experience phenomenal growth recently… which brings me to the next part of this article – how clothing brands – even traditional brands – are targeting the thrift market.

These are some of our favorite brands and the marketing strategies they’ve employed to take advantage of this growing retail trend.

Luxury Resaler The Real Real

The Real Real is probably the most popular luxury resale platform in the space, though platforms like Vestiare Collective are also making noise in the luxury resale space. The Real Real only works with luxury brands and offers customers a slick experience when shopping with them online. The Real Real has the authentication process locked down so buyers don’t have to worry about being sold knock-offs.

Luxury goods are ideal for resale sites. Sixty-six percent of resale customers buy luxury goods second hand. This enables them to own brands they otherwise wouldn’t (or couldn’t) pay full price to own. Thanks to the growth and rebranding of the some of the biggest names in the luxury retail industry in recent years, luxury goods are more accessible now than ever before.

The Real Real – Stella McCartney Partnership

The Real Real pushes the overarching brand message of eco-consciousness, and the brand has partnered with fashion icon Stella McCartney to launch a circular fashion promoting the message of “make well, buy well, resell”. Resalers get a $100 voucher for selling a Stella McCartney item on The Real Real.

The campaign included social media posts, TV spots, and print ads encouraging people to resell their unused items. You may know Stella McCartney has a reputation for creating ethical fashion, making vegan sneakers, trying to push fur bans, and using recycled materials as often as possible.

By teaming up, the two brands were able to tap into to each other’s followings and add to their own. The campaign gained some serious traction online, thanks in part to the growing trend of sustainability both in and out of the fashion world.

(@therealreal)

Why It Was Sort of Magical

Finding another brand that perfectly lines up with your own core values to form a partnership is always a win.

Shared values. Partnerships inherently lend each partner the other’s values. allows you to tap into their following while staying true to your brand. The Real Real’s partnership with Stella McCartney was 100% on-brand for both companies.

Wider reach. Whenever brands with different core audienes join forces, the result is greater exposure. The key is to choose partners carefully so you can leverage the exposure for the mutual benefit of both partners. Double the impact without double the work.

Customer Rewards. This partnership provided The Real Real with a new and exciting way to reward their loyal customers, something that probably wouldn’t have happened outside the partnership with Stella McCartney. Customers like to feel valued, and rewards like gift vouchers, discount codes, and free items with purchase are a great way to do this. By teaming up this reward system with another, related brand, they made it feel even more special.

The Hip Resale Community Depop

Depop is a social marketplace used by over 10 million people worldwide. Unlike The Real Real, Depop is more peer-to-peer selling, whereas The Real Real serves as an intermediary to authenticate products being sold on its platform. Depop is a much more accessible platform, especially for Millennials because it gives the whole shopping experience a personal feel, as people are buying directly from individual sellers.

The platform features a mixture of people selling items straight from their wardrobes… plus, small business owners and designers use the platform to sell their own products. We’ve talked before about how a third of women only wear an item five times before getting rid of it. That’s just one workweek of wear time. And, with many of us more focused than ever on our environmental impact, simply throwing our garments away is… well, it’s frowned upon. This is where social selling networks like Depop become super useful.

Often lorded as being a mash-up of online bidding store eBay and Millennial favorite Instagram, Depop engages in some rather unorthodox marketing to reach its ideal demographic.

Depop Rolled Out a Killer Marketing Campaign…

The majority of Depop’s early growth came from user word-of-mouth, but the brand built on the momentum with a campaign that partnered digital and print together and focused on the users themselves. Depop created a collection that highlighted its users, including a few well-known faces like model Jazzelle Zanoughtti of @uglyworldwide.

(Image: The Drum)

Depop highlighted what customers already loved about using the platform – the feeling of community. And, thanks to the diversity of people featured in the ads, Depop was able to celebrate the diversity of its user base – another important factor for Millennials and Gen Z.

…. Then Opened a Friggin’ Depop Coworking Spot

But, the fun didn’t stop there. Depop also opened a brick-and-mortar location in L.A.their own. The store was not filled with stock, and it wasn’t marketed as an IRL place to buy the items you might see on the site.

(Image: Fashionista)

Instead, Depop designated it a hub where sellers could attend workshops to improve their sales, photograph products with the right lighting, and even book a session with the staff photographers to do it for you. It is a place for users to meet, discuss, and build their own businesses through Depop’s framework.

Depop’s marketing strategy of print ads and brick-and-mortar stores may seem odd, especially since 75 percent of the platform’s users are under the age of 24, but it definitely worked. The company successfully tapped into the minds and desires of the #hustle generation and its disenfranchisement with traditional retail. Depop has become a community.

Traditional Brands Are Targeting Thrifters, Too

Urban Outfitters

Wait. What? Urban Outfitter’s Urban Renewal line is a good example of a traditional apparel brand targeting thrifters and proponents of circular fashion by including a section on its site for shoppers to buy Urban Renewal, Urban Outfitters’ curated selection of previously-worn apparel.

So, trust that dedicated marketplaces aren’t the only brands cashing in on this resale revival. Urban Outfitters is one of a growing number of high-street brands that are working hard to claim their own piece of the resale market.

Urban Renewal is classified as a brand under the Urban Outfitter umbrella, so it’s not a marketplace since users aren’t the ones selling apparel. Instead, items in the Urban Renewal line are carefully selected by UO’s own buyers then resold to the public both online and in-store.

This Urban Renewal line comes in four flavors; Vintage Originals, Remade, Remnants, and One of a Kind. With products that range from unique high-end luxury pieces to new items made entirely from discontinued fabrics. A brand that has always catered to the Millennial crowd with their stylish and vintage-inspired designs this supplemental line suits them perfectly.

ASOS

Online retail giant ASOS has had a resale marketplace as part of its online store for years. The ASOS Marketplace. independent brands and vintage stores from around the world into one easy-to-shop online marketplace. The company represents over 800 different brands with products varying from vintage designer sportswear to one-of-a-kind handmade items.

ASOS talks openly about its commitment to a more sustainable fashion industry and has a collection of Instagram Stories under Sustainability that double as a fast fact resource and a way to promote recycled items posted to the ASOS Marketplace.

Let’s Wrap it Up

The phenomenal growth of the resale market teaches us that the influence of the millennial generation is not to be underestimated. Eco-conciousness is fueling spending habits, and feeling good about your purchases seem to be the driving factors between a lot of retail spending.

Even if you’re not participating in the resale industry, there are still some pretty good lessons to be learned in this post… like understanding who your target market is, what they’re about, and what would resonate specifically with them can bring back good, old-fashioned work-of-mouth advertising. These are the types of strategies that work all the time, every time, across every vertical… if you execute them well.

The landscape of luxury brand marketing is changing. Noticeably, luxury brands are moving away from thriving on exclusivity to include products that appeal to a wider range of customers from varying socio-economic backgrounds. Still, they haven’t lost their allure. In fact, some of the world’s most sought-after manufacturers and retailers of luxury goods are capitalizing on digital marketing trends that have essentially reshaped how these high-end brands show up in the market.

I’m not saying these iconic brands are failing in this new climate, it’s actually quite the contrary. Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Chanel and Hermes all experienced over 30 percent sales growth last year; fan favorite Gucci grew by a whopping 62 percent.

How Millennials and Gen Z Are Contributing to the Reshaping of Some of the World’s Most Iconic Luxury Brands…

Everyone is chasing Millennials. Seems to be the thing for retailers to do. Lately, we’ve been sort of looking at the numbers and analyzing what makes Millennials spend money vs what makes Boomers spend vs Gen Xers vs Gen Zers.

For years, luxury has been about exclusivity, sometimes to the detriment of the everyday shopper. Luxe brands have historically charged premium prices for premium products. But, the economic landscape is always changing, and right now, retail as a whole is suffering.

Millennials wield a significant amount of spending power at $65 billion and influencing upward of $1.3 trillion. Gen Zers influence upward of $143 billion in spending power (though some reports put that influence as high as $600 billion).  Certainly, luxury brands are starting to pay attention to this significant chunk of the consumer market.

Combined, Millennials and Gen Z teens and young adults will represent around 40 percent of the luxury goods market by 2025 – up from 30 percent in 2016. Makes sense. That demographic will age-up: the oldest Millennials will be in their mid-40s and at their peak earning potential while the oldest Gen Zers will be knocking on 30.

…. Like Gucci

Gucci has topped the list of best-performing luxury brands, and they did it thanks to the star power of those pesky Millennials. We may be “killing” everything from Christmas to KFC, but in reality, we’ve got money, style, and a long list of demands from the businesses we buy from. Gucci knows that and has spent a lot of time and effort keying into what makes Millennials tick. Millennials aren’t into buying “stuff” in the way that other generations have been. They prefer experiences, and even better if they are “Gram-worthy” experiences.

Since Millennials spend most of their time engaging with brands in the digital space, they’ve put a lot of their focus on this area in the last few years. It paid for them as well, as they received L2’s Digital IQ Index top spot in both 2016 and 2017.

So, how have they cracked this corner of the market? Well, it’s been quite a multi-layered approach built up of shadow committees, social media, and design risks. Every level of their marketing has complimented another, and they have really honed in on their target market, niching-down to get the best customer base they can.

Social media marketing

Gucci knows how effective social media marketing can be for a luxury brand to enable them to get closer to their customers. And, they know how to do it well. They’ve got their fingers in all the social media pies, and people are happily lapping up what they’re sharing.

Building up such high follower counts across all those platforms is no easy feat, but Gucci has accomplished this by being very platform specific with their content while keeping a similar theme running across them all. By doing this, they manage to keep their brand identity strong enough that whatever content they post, it is instantly recognizable as Gucci content.

Where they really shine though, is on Millennial’s favorite site – Instagram. Their expert use of branded hashtags allowed them to coordinate some fantastic UGC campaigns. The first of these campaigns was their #GucciGram run. With this hashtag, the luxury fashion brand asked creative individuals (with a solid following on social media, of course) to share their own interpretations of the iconic patterns and motifs that Gucci uses in their designs.

This project was inspired by the label’s newest designer Alessandro Michele who wanted to combine the old and the new to create something exciting. With this campaign, Gucci was able to tap into something that Millennials really love – novel ideas smartly done.

Their other wildly successful social media effort was their #TFWGucci hashtag (That Feeling When Gucci). With this one, they encouraged their followers to create their own memes using Gucci products and witty text. This seemed like a very bold move for such a high-end brand to make. Memes are very much the domain of the everyday internet user, not those who would normally spend their money on luxury items.

But, that’s exactly why it worked for them. They made it easier for the social media masses to relate to their brand by communicating in a way that they are used to and understand. They gave themselves a more relatable brand persona that was able to tap into the growing spending power of a new generation.

In fact, this campaign was so successful it generated a whopping 1.9 million likes and nearly 22k comments. That’s some serious engagement for the brand from their newest target market.

Clearly, targeting younger consumers is a great strategy for luxury brands as Gucci has been topping the leaderboards in most events including sales growth, fashion week engagement, and social media followers.

How you can use Gucci’s strategy

Having a clear image in your mind of who your target market is is essential to every marketing campaign. But, being the first in your niche to target a new market can be a daunting thought. Don’t be afraid to go against the traditional when picking your target market, risks can pay off. You still need to be smart about it though. Gucci switched things up by going after a market they know has spending power, and has the ability to keep their brand sales healthy in these difficult times.

Know where your target market is spending time, both online and offline and center your efforts around that data. Gucci poured a lot of their social media efforts into Millennial favorite Instagram, as well as spending more time on Snapchat, and posting live content on Instagram Stories. It may be that your audience will respond better to email marketing, or even direct mail. Wherever they are, that’s where you should be.

Be aware that times are constantly changing, especially when it comes to marketing. Even Baby Boomers are spending time online and on social media now (on average, they actually spend more time on social media than Millennials), so putting your heart and soul into digital is a no-brainer whatever your goals.

…. And Farfetch

While social media may be a powerhouse when it comes to marketing to Millennials, when it comes to luxury goods, the in-store experience is still paramount to selling success. That feeling when you walk into a high-end store, you’re treated like the valued customer you are (or could be), and it becomes about more than just buying a product, it’s an experience. And there’s nothing that Millenials love more than an experience.

Often luxury stores like these can be quite intimidating to just stroll into off the street. Farfetch found a way to work around this, and start bringing in more customers, not just from outside the store itself, but from online to in-store – a very difficult feat to achieve.

First, let’s take a look at what Farfetch does. This UK-based online shopping destination is a monobrand retail model which houses multiple luxury brands on a single site, making it much easier for consumers to find the perfect piece. It does this so well in fact, that it is now the world’s most successful luxury e-commerce destination in terms of web traffic, beating out big names like Net-a-porter and Neiman Marcus.

In a dismal retail landscape, Farfetch has become something of a “unicorn” when it comes to continued success. And, to build on this success, they have begun trialling a new innovative in-store experience – their “store of the future”.

In-store experience

The technology that Farfetch are developing is not intended to be used as a physical store for their own brand, but rather to act as a kind of operating system for other luxury brands to create their own advanced in-store experiences on top of. Until now, a lot of in-store technology has been based around gimmicky add-ons like fitting room photo booths that are nothing more than PR stunts that tend to fizzle out in no time.

(Image source)

What Farfetch have been working on though, is much more exciting. From clothes racks that automatically track what your viewing and add items to your wishlist, to a login system that recognises you as you walk into the store, they’ve made a concept that makes the in-store experience more personalised than ever, while tying it seamlessly into the digital space.

So, why is this set to be so popular? Let’s think about why people like shopping online and offline.

Online shopping

When you shop online, everything is right at your fingertips. There are no issues with items not being in stock at that store, lines to pay, or unhelpful staff. With a few clicks of your mouse, your basket is full, you’ve paid for your products, and they’re on their way to you – and you don’t even need to get out of bed.

In terms of behind the scenes, you’re able to track a customers journey from start to end on your site – where they came from, what they looked at, and how much money they spent. Having all of this information at your fingertips helps you to tailor your website to better serve your customers and your bottom line.

Offline shopping

The in-store experience is your chance to have a social experience, enjoy personalised attention, and try on any items you’re thinking of buying to find the perfect purchase. You can better see the quality, style, and sizing of the items, ask for advice from the staff and pay with either cash, vouchers, or card.

For business owners, you’re able to display your products in such a way that influences your customers towards certain purchases. Allowing you to push sale items, and encourage impulse buys near the register. You’re also able to offer a more personalised experience.

The best of both worlds

With Farfetch’s store of the future, they’re combining the best of both the in-store and online shopping experiences. They’re keeping the personalisation aspect of visiting a store, mixed with the ease of online shopping. While online is growing year on year, the majority of us are still making most of our purchases in-store. So, social media and digital are important, but if you neglect the in-store experience itself, you’re going to be alienating your customers more than you can afford.

How you can use the same strategies

There’s no question that putting money and time into your social media and general digital marketing strategies is incredibly important now. But, if you also own brick and mortar stores, then tying in your digital and in-store experiences is essential to keeping your customers happy.

But, that doesn’t mean you need to invest millions in your own futuristic store, yet. Simply by running the same ads on social and on in-store displays, having your own app that allows you to order in-store collections, or having screens in a store that allow customers to search for the perfect item are simpler ways to merge online and offline into one place.

…. And Mercedes-Benz

Taking user generated content to the next level, Mercedes-Benz launched an entirely digital campaign to celebrate the launch of their new car. Their #GLApacked campaign saw five Instagram influencers battling it out to win a free car. Mercedes lent each of the influencers with their own model of the new car, and asked them to take a road trip and document the experience for their followers. The account that attracted the highest number of likes won the car.

A simple enough formula, many brands use a similar structure to run less extreme competitions on their own social media platforms. But, what Mercedes managed to do, was engage with the millennial age group specifically by appealing to their love of the “gram” and social validation. This wasn’t the first time either. Back in 2013 Mercedes ran an almost identical campaign for the launch of their then new car, the CLA.

Mercedes had a problem – their average consumer was older than their biggest competitors, and that was alienating them from potential earnings. So, they needed to tweak their marketing strategy to target a younger demographic. By tapping into social media, UGC, and focusing on experiences over products, they managed to do just that with this campaign.

The influencers

Mercedes cleverly decided to work with five influencers who operated across a variety of niches. All of their chosen influencers have solid followings with each of them attracting over 500k followers as well as good levels of engagement on their posts. The first post they all uploaded was an organized shot of what they would be taking on their road trip, all laid out beautifully on a Mercedes brand mat.

@mercedesbenzusa

@rickiefowler

These expertly arranged shots worked perfectly with the Instagram aesthetic, and really helped Mercedes to target a younger market. Each influencer posted the image on their own account first, before it was reposted on the official Mercedes Benz page. But, the really creative posts came after this, as the influencers attempted to attract the most engagement by crafting individual and striking images of their road trip.

@brenton_clarke

@cubbygraham

@thiswildidea

Why it worked

Now that millennials are taking an interest in the luxury market, brands are having to seriously rethink their marketing strategies if they want to reach the right people. By not only using Instagram to market themselves, but turning it into an adventure in top-quality UGC, they were able to tap into this generation’s love of the platform and quality content.

When they first rolled out this method for the launch of their CLA model, they experienced some great success. Thanks to their Instagram infiltration, the CLA soon became the darling of the younger generations, with CLA owners becoming the youngest generation of Mercedes owners in the history of the brand.

This time around, they had access to Instagram ads as well – something that wasn’t available to them with their CLA campaign. So, not only were they reaching Millennials with Instagram posts and influencer team-ups, they could pour some of their marketing budget into placing those posts more strategically than ever before.

How you can follow suit

Luxury brands aren’t always the first to think of Millennials as their target market, but once you do, you’ll need to change your tactics to reflect this. Direct mail print ads are not the way to reach this digitally connected group. If they find these leaflets in their mailboxes, they’re likely to move them straight to the recycling without so much as a second glance, sighing at the unnecessary use of paper that the whole process entailed.

But, it’s not just about being online anymore. You need to find a way to cut through the noise. Working with your potential customers to create content allows you to connect with them on a much more personal level. UGC helps to give your brand a more trustworthy image online that people find it easier to connect to.

Millennials + Luxury = Winning

Millennials may be killing plenty of things out there according to journalists, but they are working hard to keep the luxury market well and truly alive. As a brand in this niche, ignoring this corner of the market is a huge mistake. By taking advantage of online tools, social media, and user-focused marketing, brands can expand their target market to include this demographic.

Millennials value real people and experiences over the products themselves, so investing in UGC and influencer marketing help to ingratiate yourself to this hard to win market. Luxury brands should look to the campaign examples above and use them as a guiding post to build their own marketing genius.

Marketing campaigns for sports and outdoor brands have matured a lot over the last 10 years. More than just the pretty landscapes or the aerial shots, the marketing for outdoor brands is turning traditional calls-to-action on their heads and making us actually want to check out the products placed in live action shots…whether or not we love the great outdoors.

In 2019, outdoor brands are uniquely positioned to deliver a creative and visually-amazing collection of marketing campaigns right to our screens So, in this post, we’re analyzing some of the more interesting campaigns we’ve seen from outdoor brands, telling you what worked and how you can use their success as a model for your own campaigns.

Quick & Dirty Overview of the Outdoor Market’s Surprising Growth

The retail category known Sports & Outdoors is booming. Sales of outerwear, shoes, fitness equipment, water sports, hunting and fishing gear, sporting weapons, swimming accessories, winter sports gear, and hiking poles (not an exhaustive list) amount to about $67.75 billion in global annual sales (about one-third of that comes from US consumers), with year-over-year growth of 8.1 percent pushing that number to $92.36 billion by 2023.

Around the world, Statista estimates 675 million will take part in outdoor activities in 2019. In 2016, more than two million people (that’s around 48 percent of the US population) took up a new outdoor activity which required them to purchase new equipment. That’s some serious shopping. And I would suspect it’s no coincidence the growth of outdoorsy types directly coincides with the growth of photo sharing networks like Instagram.

Outdoor activities carry with them a wide range of spending opportunities with everything from clothing to equipment to supplies, and the amount consumers spend depends almost entirely on their chosen activity and the difficulty level of what’s involved.

The much-talked-about decline in retail sales hasn’t touched the outdoor market. Fashion apparel sales are down four percent, while sports apparel sales are up two percent.

Thanks to a mixture of “athleisure” making a fashion come back in a big way, and an increase in people looking to connect with nature and unplug from the digital world, outdoor brands are definitely having a moment. That said, let’s see how they’re capitalizing on it with social.

Outdoor Brands That Are Leveraging Digital Marketing to Boost Brand Awareness

The Instagram Savvy of Outdoor Voices

Core Strategy: Crowdsource

Sportswear retailer Outdoor Voices sells all-weather technical apparel for active lifestyles. Most of us don’t give much thought to the textiles industry… unless you’re in it. But it takes a special kind of magic from a special kind of clothing wizard to come up with the technology to make athletic apparel that rebuffs sweat.

With locations in L.A., SoHo, DC, Boston, Chicago, and other trendy spots in major cities across the U.S., Outdoor Voices has amassed a sizable Instagram following of more than 320k users, many of whom wear being called a “recreationalist” as a badge of honor. It’s something of a movement.

Social media strategies that are working for this outdoor apparel retailer

They speaking the language of their core audience. Outdoor Voices has mastered the art of low-key, friend-to-friend conversation online. None of the company’s 2700+ Instagram posts sound like “branded content”. You could say the same thing of Nike, but Nike’s vibe is anything but low-key. And that’s another nuance of Outdoor Voices successfully speaking the language. While Nike targets those who want apparel for optimal performance (you’re familiar with Nikes popular “Just Do It” motto, right?), Outdoor Voices promotes athletic and athleisure apparel for buyers who are “human, not superhuman”. OV sells apparel that helps people move seamlessly from “gym life to life-life” under the hashtag #DoingThings.

Source: Instagram at @outdoorvoices.

Outdoor Voices leverages user-generated content. Outdoor Voices is successfully parlaying everyday posts into branded content by taking advantage of user-generated content – posts  generated by their audience that the brand hasn’t paid the audience members to create.

What’s cool is the first strategy and the second strategy work in tandem. Since the goal is to target everyday people DOING everyday things, it reduces the “regram criteria” for content posted from their followers to be curated as part of OV’s feed. Followers don’t have to be feeling the burn at the local CrossFit box to be regrammed as UGC. They just have to be DOING SOMETHING.

Source: on Instgram @outdoorvoices

Moosejaw’s Email Marketing

Core Strategy: Make every brand-customer interaction memorable

If ever there was a company with a strong brand voice, Moosejaw (on Instagram @moosejawmadness) would be it. Moosejaw isn’t the only company that sells outdoor clothing and gear, so the company’s marketing strategy is to make each experience customers have with the brand a memorable one. They do that by creating messages and content that is fun, quirky, and a bit irreverent. The company tagline is simple: “The most fun outdoor retailer on the planet”.

So… Moosejaw’s near-legendary email marketing strategy springs from a keen understanding that they are not the only game in town. And the marketing needs to provide consumers with a compelling reason to buy from Moosejaw.

(Source)

Historically, Moosejaw’s award-winning email marketing campaigns have been a series of smart attention-getting programmed messages… some of which have toed the line between being quirky and funny to being offensive.

Moosejaw’s emails are wordy, contain very few pictures, and are loaded with big chunks of text – exactly what they tell you not to do on day one of email marketing school. So, why do their emails work so well?

Email marketing strategies that are working for Moosejaw

Using a consistent (and unrelenting) brand voice. Moosejaw’s brand voice typically drips from every single character of the marketing content. With opening lines like “We’re excited to show you some weird stuff, but not that weird” you know you’re in for a wild ride right from the start.

The company also pays attention to the details that so often get overlooked by marketing teams…  things like making sure your small print is on-brand.

“Our mean lawyer is making us add this info. Blame him, not us.”

Every single word this brand puts out there is carefully thought out and planned.

Experiential marketing and total brand immersion. Moosejaw doesn’t just limit its shenanigans to email marketing, though. The company has been known to treat holding callers to a recording of Winston Churchill. Head into one of their stores, and you might just be surprised with a game of hide and seek by the store staff.

Thanks to its mixture of youthful brand personality and digital marketing prowess, Moosejaw now conducts a large chunk of their sales online, which is pretty consistent with its target market being active Millennial and Gen Z consumers who, by this time, are fully expecting brands to do something cool to win their loyalty and dollars.

Not being “market-y” all the time. It’s not unusual for a Moosejaw campaigns to attract media attention – not because of their intricacies or marketing prowess, but because of their silliness and uniqueness.

One of their catalogs included an augmented reality component that allowed users to see through the clothes of catalog models by downloading Moosejaw’s X-Ray Body Scanner app. Not kidding.

Did it provide extra product detail? Nope. Just showed good-looking models in their underwear. Nothing useful to it at all, simply just there to make people laugh.

Long before being acquired by Walmart, Moosejaw killed at leveraging every opportunity as another chance to create a lasting impression with customers. It’s these types of little details, these tiny bits of fun that Moosejaw mixes into the marketing funnel that enables them to push past competitors. It’s what makes people read their emails, even when they aren’t looking for anything in particular. And, it’s these random reads that not only help keep the brand at the forefront of customers minds but can also encourage them to check out what’s on offer and make an unplanned purchase.

Patagonia’s Anti-Consumerism Print Ads

Core Strategy: Values-centered marketing

Patagonia is one of the most well-known and successful outdoor brands. As of 2018, this powerhouse brand is now worth $1 billion, which is pretty impressive in this tumultuous retail landscape. What’s most surprising about Patagonia’s monetary success is their consistent fight against consumerism and over-spending.

Their brand image is built on a platform of being friendly to the nature that their products are used in. So, a lot of their marketing campaigns have been centered around sustainability. The most well-known of these campaigns has to be the “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ad. Sent out into the world on the biggest shopping day of the year – Black Friday, and taking the form of a full page spread in the New York Times, their anti-buying message set the retail world ablaze.

(Source)

The ad detailed exactly how much of an environmental impact each of their jacket’s had to give some serious weight to their anti-consumerist message. Encouraging their customers to only buy their products if they actually need them runs strongly through all their marketing and branding.

Print ad strategies that worked for Patagonia

Aligning your message with your mission. Patagonia’s target customers are people who respect the outdoors as much as they love them, and Patagonia’s products specifically appeal to this demographic. This approach to ethical consumer behavior also falls in line with recent buyer trends. Millennials have long been focused on buying ethically-sourced products, and are more inclined to spend their money on products that come from a sustainable brand. In fact, 66 percent of all consumers are willing to spend more on a product if it comes from a sustainable brand.

Doing the opposite of what you’re supposed to do. In lieu of pushing products that customers will need to replace every few months, Patagonia publishes tips on how to repair products if something happens to them out in the wild. It also runs “Worn Wear” events across the country helping customers to repair clothing. Alternatively, you can take your Patagonia products straight to the company, and Patagonia can repair it for you.

The outdoor mega-brand has built its reputation creating long-lasting high-quality products for the outdoor market, and more than once the company’s used disruptive marketing to spread its message to the masses. Patagonia is dedicated to keeping the environment healthy while running a successful business. This can be seen in their own mission statement: “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis”. Lofty goals indeed.

Patagonia not only focuses on being ethically sound but also on storytelling. Company values run deep, but no one would know a thing about them if they didn’t invest in their marketing. Patagonia has successfully married the brand message, ethos, and beliefs into its marketing strategy. Not only did it draw the eye in with its title, but it also gained a lot of media attention for its bold message. So, a double whammy. Making headlines with your headline? Very cool.

Don’t be afraid to try something new, as long as it doesn’t take away from what’s really important to your brand. Take a risk, dare to be different, and see the sales start rolling in. Don’t worry about making it too busy either. Sometimes, the most dramatic and effective ads are the simplest ones.

LL Bean’s Interactive, Event-Based Marketing

Not all of us manage to embrace the outdoors as much as we’d like. Tied to our desks at 9 to 5 jobs, we sit and longingly gaze out our windows, or at the stunning landscapes on our computer desktop backgrounds. LL Bean found a way around this with an interactive marketing campaign it launched last year.

The “Be an Outsider” campaign encouraged New Yorkers to step outside the office and spend some time working in the company’s pop-up co-working space in Madison Square Park. Workers could book their space ahead of time, or simply turn up on the day and be able to work away under the June sun (or rain). Yep, whatever the weather, they were determined to go ahead with the plan.

(Source: Event Marketer)

LL Bean ran their innovative campaign was also run in other cities around the US including Boston and Philadelphia. LL Bean ran a survey to tie in with this campaign, discovering that workers between 22-65-years-old were spending a whopping 95 percent of their time indoors – with half of that time dedicated to working.

86 percent of those they surveyed also said they wished they could spend more time outdoors during the work day, so giving them the chance to do this was an excellent way to market its products. The campaign was a great success. Multiple teams used the space for real, important work – not just an excuse to goof off for a few hours.

How LL Bean made an office cubicle (of all things) on-brand for them

Going for the least likely consumer. LL Bean’s “Be an Outsider” campaign ran for more than a year – quite different from the “here today, gone today” world of marketing. One of the cool things about the pop-up office was that LL Bean filled it with tips on how users could get outside more. There was also a downloadable PDF guidebook.

Unlike most other outdoor brands that focus on the wild, adventure-filled side of the great outdoors, LL Bean shifted to a more everyday outdoor style. While they still sell all the outdoor gear a budding adventurer would need, by zeroing in on the everyday enthusiast (especially one who may not have tons of time), the company can expand its target market to include those of us who love the idea of the outdoors but lack the adrenaline junkie gene that spurs us to explore it.

(@coworkingchron)

(@steveramosmedia)

The company created a branded hashtag #BeAnOutsider, allowing for a curated feed of user-generated content to go along with the campaign. Experiences like these get people talking and organically spreading both your brand name and your marketing.

By expanding their target audience, LL Bean was able to appeal to a wider section of the public than most outdoor brands have so far been able to do. And, thanks to their wide collection of content types in this campaign, they were further able to appeal to a broader audience. We all prefer to consume content in different ways – some of us prefer to watch a short video, some to read through web content, and some through social media hype.

Cashing in on a trend (even one that’s anti-your thing). LL Bean was able to cash in on two popular trends: remotely working from co-working spaces AND improving mental health in the workplace. Essential for younger generations.

We’ve written before about marketing to Gen Z consumers and the Millennial market (we published posts on both Millennial men and Millennial women). By honing in on how being outdoors benefit busy professionals, LL Bean creates an opportunity to widen their market.

Cross-channel messaging. Outdoor brands are often marketing to those of us who like to unplug. While they may be pushing hard on digital platforms, they’re not skimping elsewhere either. Build your marketing message throughout your channels, even if your focus is on digital.

In-store experiences, product launches, and special events are all ways in which you can tie your digital marketing into real, tangible campaigns. And, with many people starting to see the draws of a “digital detox”, pouring yourself into multiple channels can only be a good thing.

Finding new and interesting ways to expand your target audience can help bring in a nice boost in sales as well. Find a way to tie your product into an everyday event that the majority of the public take part in. This way, you’ll have a safe and simple route to a whole new market.

Conclusion

All four of these brands exist in the niche of outdoor products, but they all have very different voices and marketing styles. Despite their differences, they all share one thing in common – awesome marketing. So, what lessons can these three outdoor brands teach you?

One thing you’ll notice throughout all three brands mentioned above is that their brand styling and brand voice carries through everything they do. From product design to social media posts to campaign ideas – keeping your brand flowing smoothly through all this is the perfect way to ensure a successful campaign.

Whatever industry you’re working in, you’ll never be the only one there. So, you need to make sure you stand out from your competition. Brand voice is the easiest way to do this. Every time you “speak” be it in person or online, people should instantly know who is talking to them. This is the magic of strong branding, and it works wonders.

All of these brands worked hard to skirt around the rules of marketing in one way or another. They were disruptive, they were rebellious, and they were successful. Today, we are inundated with ads from every side – TV, social media, emails, banners. Trying to stand out in this huge crowd can be tricky. The best way to do it? Dare to be different.

Many marketing teams worry that by going too far out of the box, they may fall flat on their faces. But, with no risk, there’s no room to grow. Sure, it might not work, but the same could be said for any marketing campaign – different or not. So, it’s better to take the risk for a bigger payoff, than playing it safe once more.

It’s that time of year again, Valentine’s Day. Some people are more the flowers and candy type. Others feel they’re better off watching rom coms with their friends (or with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s). Heck, even non-celebrants find a reason to do something for Valentine’s Day three percent of the time! Regardless of which of these groups is your target audience, they are sure to have a tried and true strategy for celebrating Valentine’s Day. That’s where your Valentine’s Day marketing comes in. There will be lots of opportunities for retailers, brands, and marketers to get in front of consumers with, like, a million and one ideas for celebrating (or not celebrating) Valentine’s Day.

People LOVE Valentine’s Day (Sometimes Even When They Hate It)

Whether viewed as a commercial ploy by retailers to make people spend more, or a great way to celebrate love and relationships, Valentine’s Day is a day of spending and gift-giving, even among those who openly shun the traditional “Valentine’s Day for lovers” concept.

Last year, the National Retail Federation predicted 55 percent of Americans would celebrate Valentine’s Day… and that’s just in America. Valentine’s Day is also a make-or-break holiday for couples, as 53 percent of women said they would end a relationship with their significant other if they didn’t receive a gift on Valentine’s Day.

That said, finding a way your Valentine’s Day marketing strategy has to position your product as a marvel of a gift idea if it is to help you get a hold of a chunk of this steadily growing V-Day market.

In our business, there are two simple litmus tests we can use to gauge the popularity of a topic – searches and shares. From Valentine’s Day 2017 to Valentine’s Day 2018, searches for the term “Valentine’s Day gifts” doubled. And a quick snapshot of the year’s most popular Valentine’s Day content proves people are feeling pretty good and pretty optimistic about Valentine’s Day… whether or not they plan to celebrate it.

This screenshot of a BuzzSumo search we did for this post of the most popular Valentine’s Day content just proves that the overall sentiment about V-Day is pretty positive.

Valentine’s Day has evolved past being just a day for lovers. Singles have ramped up their Valentine’s Day spending over the last few years as well. Here are a few fun facts about people and their love for Valentine’s Day:

• Twenty-seven percent of non-celebrants have Valentine’s Day plans, whether it’s to treat themselves or spend time with friends and family.

• To date, there are more than 473k Instagram posts tagged #galentines  #galentinesday #palentines #palentinesday, the hashtags commonly used to celebrate mirror holidays Galentine’s Day (for female friends) and Palentine’s Day (for any friends).

Source: From Julian Daigre on Instagram @juliandaigre

• 4 in 10 V-Day celebrants would love to attend a concert, go to a sporting event or share some other experience on Valentine’s Day, and half of them will get just that.

• The average person spends about $140 on Valentine’s Day, of which $88.96 is earmarked for a significant other or spouse. The rest is lovingly divvied-up between kids, parents, school parties, pets and co-workers.

Marketers LOVE Valentine’s Day, Too

There’s enough love to go around for Valentine’s Day! Not only is the holiday a favorite with consumers, it also gives brands the perfect opportunity to launch new products or reimagine existing products. For instance, the white cheesecake M&M’s headlining the first article in the BuzzSumo screenshot above…

Of course, retailers of traditionally “romantic” products (jewelers, lingerie companies, chocolatiers, etc.) can expect their usual sales boost this year. Less lovey dovey brands are wise to invest in Valentine’s Day marketing, too. Marketers can spur sales by helping Valentine’s, Galentine’s and Palentine’s Day celebrants dream up ways to pass time on the 13th and 14th. Here’s how Valentine’s Day celebrants typically spend their money…

History is full of pretty cool Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns that have helped some pretty well-known brands better target the sweetheart market. These were campaigns that were creative, engaging, exciting, AND they increased sales.

In the next section, we’re gathering some of our favorites to share with you, and hopefully inspire your own LOVEly marketing ideas.

3 Examples of Sweet Valentine’s Day Marketing Campaigns

#1 Snickers – The Interactive Experience

When you think of Valentine’s Day chocolates, I’m guessing that the nut-filled Snickers bar by Mars isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But, their Valentine’s campaign in 2017 really put them in the forefront of people’s minds.

You may be familiar with their “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign, which has featured celebs like Whoopi Goldberg, Willem Dafoe, and even a cameo from Marilyn Monroe.

For the company’s 2017 Valentine’s campaign, Snickers built on the success of these ads with its “You’re forgetful when you’re hungry” campaign. A huge billboard like the one below was positioned in the middle of bustling London, UK, the letters of the billboard made up of removable V-Day greeting cards to help out anyone who might have forgotten to pick up their Valentine’s Day card.

Source: CreativePod

Source: Marketingweek

This campaign was entirely experiential, with a number of billboards in the surrounding area pointing people to the main event in Waterloo. It didn’t just end on February 14th though. On the 15th, 3000 apology cards were added for the benefit of those who forgot the to shop for their loves for Valentine’s Day.

By using this interactive billboard Snickers managed to effectively advertise its brand as a Valentine’s-appropriate product, despite its usual association with being a solid, stocky snack – not the most romantic candy around.

The big takeaways

Snickers is proof positive you don’t need to be a traditionally romantic brand to cash in on Valentine’s Day. A little creative thinking can go a very long way when it comes to building a marketing campaign. Snickers have long marketed themselves as a substantial candy bar that can really fill you up when you’re hungry. Usually, on Valentine’s Day, we prefer a box filled with a delightful selection of delicate chocolates instead.

So, Snickers had to think of a way to make their product work for the holiday. Instead of trying to pull off a branding 180 – especially for such a well-known brand – they instead went in another direction. They built a campaign that was loosely based around their product but was mostly aimed at customer interaction and creating a shareable experience.

• Find a way to tie your brand in with the holiday

• If your product doesn’t fit, don’t be afraid to take the focus off your product, and focus on your brand instead.

• Shift your focus to the customer experience of your campaign to get people talking

#2 Dunkin’ Donuts – UGC

A brand well known for embracing the holidays with its festive flavors and enticing smells, Dunkin Donuts didn’t hold back on Valentine’s Day either. The company put its power in the hands of followers this time, and rolled out a UGC campaign on social.

Dunkin’ launched a competition in 2018 through their Instagram account for users to share their “Dunkin’ love story” on their own Instagram accounts and use the branded hashtag #DDLoveContest. Those who participated were automatically entered for a chance to win a trip for two to any US city with a Dunkin’ Donuts.

Wisely, they were careful to make clear that this wasn’t just for romantic relationships and love stories. Best friends, self-love, and all manner of love stories were encouraged – nobody was held back from entering. And, of course, they had love-themed goodies in store to help inspire your pictures.

(cferraco10 | cferraco10 | jeffmindell)

This isn’t the first time the brand has relied on UGC to propel its Valentine’s Day marketing. In fact, it’s become something of a habit for the donut brand. In the past, Dunkin’ Donuts has released Snapchat filters, ran Facebook live streams from inside real stores, and always encouraged their followers to share the love around this romantic holiday.

Source: Dunkin’ Donuts Twitter

This time around, Dunkin’ Donuts spread its V-Day campaign across different platforms to really hit us with an effective multi-channel campaign. While the competition ticked along on Instagram, donut lovers were embracing the love-themed geo-filters over on Snapchat. In a very creative, DD also ran a number of Valentine’s Day polls and messages on the infamous dating app – Tinder.

User-generated content works at any time of the year, but especially so for Valentine’s Day. It helps to build a community around your brand, and allows followers to feel more connected with you and your product. A time of year when it’s all about relationships and loving each other, allowing users to dictate your marketing campaign is a great way to tie in the holiday with your product.

The big takeaways

Not only does UGC allow a brand to increase their brand awareness, it also helps them to create a pool of usable content with very little effort. This approach works especially well if your product looks the part for the chosen holiday.

Dunkin’ Donuts’ heart-shaped donuts and pink frosting make perfect Instagram models for a Valentine’s campaign. If your product doesn’t fit the holiday aesthetic, reimagine it. Although a heart-shaped pastry is nothing new, it’s typically novel enough to trigger seasonal buying (sort of like the mad dash to buy paczkis every year on Fat Tuesday).

On the other hand, if you want to widen your targeting, there’s nothing like creating a corresponding anti-Valentine’s Day campaign to rope-in followers who will use your products  in new and creative ways to shamelessly shun the annual celebration of love and relationships.

Dunkin’ Donuts used a branded hashtag in its campaigns. Using a dedicated hashtag for your UGC campaign helps you boost brand awareness, AND it serves as a pretty simple way to keep track of all the posts being submitted.

Of course, UGC doesn’t isn’t limited to Instagram marketing. If you want photo content, then Insta is definitely your best bet. But, if you want to hear in-depth stories you could turn to Facebook or Wattpad. If you want to see their movie making skills, turn to YouTube. Short and snappy quips or photo captions work great on Twitter.

• Pick the perfect platform for the kind of content you want your followers to create

• Use a dedicated hashtag to keep everything in one easily accessible place

• Tailor your UGC campaign to the appearance of your product

#3 Renault – The Emotional Approach

Of all the holidays throughout the year, Valentine’s Day is probably the most emotionally charged. There may be no better time to lock in to your customer’s emotions and really try and tug those heartstrings than February 14th.

And, our heartstrings were definitely yanked with Renault’s ad in 2018 to advertise the new ZE model. For many of us, a car is not something we instantly think of as being the vehicle for a great romantic tale (…vehicle…get it?), but somehow, Renault managed to do just that.

Renault’s animated video tells the story of a lovelorn postman, who has been long holding a flame for one of the residents on his route. Unfortunately, the love of his life has a rather ferocious dog, who doesn’t take too kindly to him. Every time he drives back to her house to talk to her, her dog hears his car rumbling down the street long before he ever reaches her house. His advances are thwarted… that is, until he rolls up in a brand new ZE, which is an electric car that makes “zero noise” as the ad says. The postman rolls up incognito, walks past the sleeping dog, and sparks a romance with the girl.

Super cute.

Renault found a way to work upgrading an old car into a love story, and successfully aligned the brand with Valentine’s Day. The tagline “Everything starts with an electric moment” further ties their story line into the theme of the holiday.

The big takeaways

Renault was able to portray its product as the key that unlocked romance. No safety features. No live-action shots of the car speeding. The company didn’t even position the car as a status symbol. It’s just… a neat car. If you have a product – especially a high ticket item- that is not traditionally related to Valentine’s Day, telling a compelling, emotional story will help you win.

It’s a long established strategy in marketing to address pain points and take advantage of emotional pulls and connections to sell products. Even with all the changes in the marketing landscape, this still rings true. Whether you choose to appeal to the loved up masses with a romantic tale, encourage revenge fantasies for those recently single or harboring resentments around this holiday, or lift people’s spirits by enthusing about close knit friendships – Valentine’s Day gives you a wide range of emotional pulls to draw from.

• No matter what your product may be, appeal to people’s emotions to connect it with the holiday

• Romanticize or criticize Valentine’s – it’s up to you!

Conclusion

Entice your customers this Valentine’s Day. Whether you’re appealing to booed-up couples and starry-eyed singles hoping to win the hearts of their secret loves, or you encourage friends to celebrate the holiday together in lieu of partners, Valentine’s Day is the great opportunity to flex those creative marketing muscles.

And whatever approach you take with your Valentine’s Day marketing campaign, just remember that the focus of the holiday is on relationships. The most important relationship is the one your brand has with your customers. Make them feel engaged, loved, and excited to celebrate Valentine’s and you’ll be on the right track.

What have been your favorite Valentine’s campaigns over the years? What are you doing for your business this Valentine’s Day? Let us know in the comments. And, if you need help setting up an awesome influencer marketing campaign, get in touch – we can make it happen!

Six Traits that Make Marketing to Gen Xers Both a Joy and a Challenge

Born between 1965 and 1980, Generation X is thought to some of as the “middle child generation”. They are often overlooked for the cooler, trendier Millennial market. And believe it or not, Gen Xers won’t overtake Boomers by number for another ten years, according to Pew Research. But Gen Xers wield a significant amount of influence in the market, with spending power that tops $2.4 trillion.

In this post, let’s take a look at what makes the 66 million adults known as Generation X spend their hard-earned money, and how brands and businesses can capture the attention of the Digital Age’s first adopters by tailoring their marketing specifically for this booming audience.

Trait #1: Gen Xers Are a Nostalgic Bunch (Sorta)

It’s no secret people love reliving the good old times. Studies have found that that we spend more money when we’re feeling nostalgic. While nostalgia is nothing new (haha – pun), Gen Xers are the first generation to be able to indulge in their nostalgia by accessing retired sitcoms and music videos from the 80s and 90s on demand.

(Like when Ozzy got his own show… and it was both startling and hilarious? On the one hand, Ozzy was BACK! On the other hand, Ozzy was OLDER and didn’t know how to operate his own remote-controlled house.)

And it’s not just the music. Sony released an updated PlayStation Classic. Reboots of popular franchises like Star Wars, Transformers, and Full House grace our screens – big and small. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Iron Man are back. Nostalgia is a growing market, and people are buying into it in spades.

One great example of this was the marketing campaign from Domino’s to advertise the new Domino’s Tracker app. Modeling its commercial on the classic 80’s movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and casting one of the original cast members alongside Stranger Things star Joe Keery, the company effectively covered all of their bases by appealing to people across generations.

Gen Xers were the last generation to grow up on Saturday morning cartoons, and the amazing storytelling that came with them. To this day, Gen Xers can be swayed with a great story… and even more if the great story you’re telling is a throwback. Ideally, you never want to alienate anyone from your marketing, even when targeting it at a specific group. Nostalgia is one thing that everyone can enjoy – if it’s executed well.

Trait #2: Gen Xers are BIG on Family

Gen Xers are still knee-deep in family matters. The majority of Gen Xers are married and have an average of 2.5 children per household . Many older Gen Xers have also assumed the role of primary caretaker for their own parents. But here’s the thing that sort of rattled the personal finance world a few months ago: According to a recent study released by Merrill Lynch, there is actually what is referred to as an “economy of support”. Millennials and adult Gen Zers are relying on their Gen X and Boomer parents to help them meet financial obligations, to the tune of $500 million a year. The money Gen Xers and Boomers would otherwise earmark for personal purchases and retirement is being reallocated to financially support adult children.

Gen Xers make up around 20 percent of the population, and control 14% of the nation’s wealth. But, 75 percent of them also help their parents financially, and 52 percent support their adult Millennial children struggling to make it on their own. Add to that the 54 percent of Gen Xers still controlling the spending of younger Gen Z children who are now teens and in their early 20s, entering high school, college and the workforce and you can see why Gen Xers have to be smart about their spending.

Many Gen Xers live in multi-generational households, really keeping their families as close as possible. This is why a lot of that family support spending happens. Family is incomparably important to this generation (we’re not going to mention the helicopter parenting thing), so keeping a focus on that is essential if you want to appeal to Gen X.

This doesn’t mean that you have to fill every commercial with the beaming faces of a happy family. What it does mean is that appealing to this generation as parents, adults (who are STILL rebels, by the way), and individuals.

Trait #3: Gen Xers Pretty Much HAVE to Be Smart Shoppers

Let’s talk about that $2.4 trillion in spending power. Despite being the hardest hit by the Great Recession, most Gen Xers count the cost of home ownership among their many financial responsibilities… in addition to college tuition, business costs (they’re the entrepreneurial generation who invented hustling), and saving for retirement.

This may explain why Gen Xers are so likely to zero in on good deals and thrifty spending… despite their ample incomes. You’re likely to find Gen X coupon clippers, so if you want to channel their spending power into your brand, you’ll need to offer them a great deal because these guys do their due diligence. They love comparing companies, products, and prices online to ensure they get the BEST possible deal.

That said, it’s pretty safe to assume that Generation X will respond positively to the use of compelling UGC in your digital marketing campaigns. They put a lot of stock into researching brands to figure out which companies are worth patronizing. Positive (and negative) customer reviews matter, so make sure you’re set up to receive recommendations and reviews. . Learn how to effectively use user-generated content, and you’ll be appealing to what these savvy shoppers find important.

Right now, the average Gen Xer is on the verge of big life changes, and these kind of changes always come with a price tag. Whether that’s focusing on personal investment, organizing retirement funds, or sending kids off to college. Money stays on the mind of Gen Xers.

Brands like Amazon (headed by borderline Gen Xer Jeff Bezos) have the market cornered when it comes to online shopping. Their unique mixture of great deals and customer reviews makes this a popular spot for Gen Xers to spend their time and money. It’s easy for them to research the products, they can save money compared to buying elsewhere, and with the option of free delivery, they can be confident with every purchase that they have either gotten the best deal or they’ve gotten the best value. Both are wins.

Trait #4: Gen Xers Prefer Analog… and Digital

Analog was a bit of a reach, I know.  But it’s totally true for Gen Xers. This generation didn’t grow up with the internet. There was no wi-fi, no smartphone, and no social media. But, they’ve adapted better to this new technology than the Baby Boomers who came before them.

All the technologies that we take for granted as part of our everyday lives came to fruition as most Gen Xers were already adulting. They had to either adapt or be left behind… typical choices for Gen Xers.

Despite this, they’ve have developed an intense affinity for tech and gadgets, while still nurturing a sort of inborn appetite for traditional live TV, old school radio, and even lo-fi vinyl records.

Gen Xers aren’t afraid of technology, but they still have old school boundaries in place from when they were growing up. They come from a time when there was only one telephone in the house that everyone used, and today 85 percent of Gen Xers use smartphones. They really are great at straddling both the traditional and digital worlds. This is the type of fluid duality marketers complain about when it comes to reaching Gen Xers, but the truth is being able to reach your target audience across multiple platforms isn’t a disadvantage.

Gen Xers are masters of cross-channel living. They will happily research the best product and price online before heading into the store to purchase. They all have social media accounts that they check throughout the day, but will also still put pen to paper and actually mail a handwritten letter. They survived Oregon Trail (or rather, they died of dysentery, but kept trying time and time again to make it), and played Monopoly, Clue, and Catan on the weekends… that was before they switched to The Sims, Candy Crush, and 2048.

Brands only have to make it easy for Gen Xers to find them and that means doing some savvy omni-channel marketing and beefing up your voice search and AI chops. In the next few years, 50 percent of online searches will be conducted by voice, rather than by typing. No surprise there. In January 2018, 39 percent of US adults said they were very likely or somewhat likely to buy voice-activated smart speakers in 2018, and 61.1 million Americans (nearly 20 percent of the population) expected to use a smart speaker in 2018.

This shows a considerable shift in the way that we use everyday tech… and where brands should be aiming their marketing. Even when working in the digital space, keeping it personalized and human, while combining it with the newest tech or digital practices inspires Gen X to take action.

Trait #5: Gen Xers Prefer Live TV… When They’re Not Streaming

Once branded the “MTV Generation”, it’s no surprise that Gen Xers are big live TV watchers. In fact, according to data from Nielsen, this generation watches more traditional live TV than Millennials . This does not, however, mean they’re not also indulging in streaming services like Netflix, although older Gen Xers still prefer traditional pay TV services over streaming.

So, when building your marketing campaign for this generation, traditional TV ad spots can work to your advantage. This generation grew up on massive amounts of TV, and are more than used to sitting through countless commercials, and seeing them become more and more inventive and interesting. They pay attention to what you’re saying in a commercial, but only if you stand out some. Make your ad original and appealing, and this generation will sit up and listen.

Alongside traditional TV, YouTube offers an amazing opportunity for brands to interact with Gen Xers. Of all the the most popular platforms (most of which are social networks), YouTube is one of the most effective ways for brands to reach Gen Xers, moreso than any other demographic. This is because Gen Xers rely on YouTube to improve their personal and professional performance and to find better ways to connect with their children and those around them.

Seventy-three percent of Gen Xers go to YouTube for DIY tutorials, according to Think with Google. They learn new skills by following DIY tutorials, which in turn could save them money.

Seventy-five percent of Gen Xers watch YouTube videos that relate to past events or people. They can rewatch old favorites that have been uploaded onto the platform for new generations to enjoy.

Sixty-eight percent of Gen Xers use YouTube to stay on top of current events, get the news, and keep up with what their kids are watching.

“I sat through what turned out to be a pretty fun night of YouTubing Carpool Karaoke with my nieces and nephews, which introduced me to both Cardi B and Migos. Weirdly enough, a few days later, my teenager met Quavo from Migos at the Pacers game, and you know what – I didn’t have to ask, ‘What the hell is a Quavo?’ Cool Mom moment.” -Sorilbran, The Shelf team member and Gen Xer.

Most Gen Xers aren’t fans of digital advertisements in the way that their Millennial, Gen Z, and Alpha counterparts are, but YouTube manages to get around this by toeing the line between traditional TV commercials and customer reviews.

Trait #6: Gen Xers Have a Tech-Driven Split Personality

While Generation X is no larger than any of the other defined generations we work with, the difference between the oldest and youngest of the group is much more defined.

Between the 1970s and the 1990s, the evolution of digital technology happened was much faster than in previous years, resulting in very different landscapes from the 70s to the 90s. It’s because of this split that we even have a microgeneration within Gen X – the Xennials; a mixture between Gen X and Millennials.

Xennials were finishing high school in the 1990s. Many are now looking after young kids, and being extra wary of their money after the Great Recession back in 2008 when they were first building up their careers and savings.

Compare this to the older Gen Xers who enjoyed an almost Boomer-esque economic period of stability and were able to climb onto the property ladder in the midst of an upswing – lucky them. Now they’re getting ready for retirement, with their own kids heading off into the world on their own.

Understanding these differences is key to understanding this generation. Younger Gen Xers and older Gen Xers can be vastly different from one another. These are the differences that make it a challenge to target Gen Xers.

Their parents may have ignored them after school, helping them to attract the title of “latchkey kids”, but marketers really shouldn’t follow suit. As with middle children in real life, this generation has had to fight for attention, breeding a collective of “I’ll do it myself” entrepreneurs, go-getters, and people who have no trouble bucking tradition and dismissing both the prevailing wisdom and authority. Gen Xers have launched over half of all U.S. startups, eschewing Boomers who refuse to leave their jobs, and creating roles for those digitally advanced Millennials to fill.

Let’s Wrap This Up

As youths, they were disinterested in what “the man” was doing to our country, rebelling through the pop punk movement, skateboards, and bags of teen angst. You can see this perfectly mirrored in the hit movie of the era, The Breakfast Club which shows a group of misfit teens learning that they want to be themselves, and that’s what will make them “cool”.

These latchkey kids were left alone for vast amounts of time, with their parents busy working, or simply taking a backseat approach to parenting – which was the way to do things back then. This turned them into the generation of parents who liked to hand out participation trophies, and never say “no” to their toddlers. A total 180 from their own upbringings. But, this built in need to rebel and nurture all at once makes wooing this audience a bit tricky.

While many may forget or overlook Generation X, they aren’t going anywhere. They not only have massive spending power right now, and if if they seem a little elusive at times, smart marketing teams would do well to target them.