Principles of Social Media Advertising and Promotion

Be able to plan how to use digital vouchers for marketing purposes.

1.1   Define the term digital vouchers.

Digital vouchers are vouchers which are available online. This could be anything from an e-giftcard to a money off voucher or code. They are often available on the companies website, via an email mailing list, via a student discount program such as unidays, or from companies like wowcher who sell specifically money off vocuhers.

1.2   Explain the potential uses of digital vouchers.

Digital vouchers can be used for many things, they’re especially good for promoting products that may not be selling as well or others or doing “deal of the day” campaigns. They’re also good for generating leads such as “sign up for our mailing list and receive a 15% off voucher”. They can be used for gift cards as well which saves the hassle of having to go and buy a plastic one.

1.3   Research the current disadvantages of digital vouchers.

The main disadvantage you need to consider is your profit margin and roi, you’re going to want to use this as a method of advertising whilst still retaining the customers that you’re gaining through it and it’s important to make sure you’re still hitting intended targets and not blowing your budget. Depending on how you promote your vouchers they could end up giving your brand a negative image so this is something to be aware of also.

1.4   Explain how to overcome the barriers of using digital vouchers for acquisition and retention of customers.

One way to overcome low retention in customers is. By using your digital vouchers as part of a loyalty scheme eg the more they buy the more points they collect and in turn they will turn into vouchers. You should also simply make sure your customers have a good shopping experience with you and that your products are described accurately so they the customer knows what they’re getting. Another good way to retain customers especially if you use your vouchers to build a mailing list is by contact/emailing your customers updates and sales etc however this should NOT be overpowering or spammy as customers will simply unsubscribe.

1.6   Explain methods of managing a digital voucher system.

One way of managing digital vouchers is by giving each one a separate number or code which cannot be used more than once. You could also publish a code to your site or socials which will then return in it being shared and you gaining more sales.

1.7   Explain how to measure the effectiveness of a digital voucher campaign.

You could do this by simply measuring sales beforehand and after, you could also do this by looking at sales of a single product before and after. You can also use google analytics to see your hits and etc.

Be able to plan the implementation of social networking site advertising campaigns for marketing purposes.

2.1 Explain the factors to consider when creating social networking site adverts.

As with any advert you’ll obviously need to look at time scale, budget etc but once those are secured the first thing you should start by is locating your target audience, this is who you will be advertising to. From that you can use your audience to decide where would be the best platform to house your advert on. For example if your audience is supposed to be teens or young adults you’d more than likely host it on Instagram or snapchat rather than the likes of Linkedin. From there you can decide on a relevant CTA and message to get across. After that is secured you should start working on the design. Lastly you want to consider analytics, how are you going to measure success for your campaign.

2.2 Justify the use of social networking site advertising campaigns.

Social networking is simply people sharing content with others, it’s essentially free advertising if you can do it right. It also allows you to engage with your audience and interact with new potential customers with each share of your post. Social networking is essential to establish a brand personality through the content you post and it’s essentially direct human contact which you wouldn’t be able to do anywhere else. It’s also good for updating current clients on new products or sales that may be taking place.

2.3 Explain the importance of identifying the required outcomes from the social networking advertising campaigns.

If you don’t identify the outcome you want for your campaign there will be simply no way to measure success and plan your campaign effectively. You therefore won’t be able to work out WHY you did the campaign in the first place, or how to improve in the future as you won’t have any idea how your campaign worked. Identifying your outcomes makes it so much easier to plan your campaign effectively as you have an insight of what you actually want to get out of it.

2.4 Explain the advantages of creating more than one advertising campaign running in parallel on the same social networking site.

Creating more than one ad campaign is beneficial as it means your customers won’t be seeing the same thing all the time and get bored of fed up of it. It also allows you to A/B test – this is when you run two different campaigns in order to see what worked best for future campaigns. You could also do this to target different audiences or target groups.

2.5 Explain why a social networking advertising campaign might fail.

A social networking advertising campaign could fail for many reasons. One of those reasons could be because they weren’t targeted appropriately at the right audience, this could result in an overly expensive advertising campaign with little return. Another reason why your campaign could fail is if there’s a lot of traffic to your audience or a lot of competition which will raise your costs and make it harder to be visible.

2.7 Explain methods of monitoring social networking site advertising campaigns.

You could track your campaign simply by noting down the daily/weekly likes/comments/shares or follower count. You could also do this using analytics platforms which are built in to the social network of your choice such as Facebook analytics, these are better as they let you see link clicks, impressions, etc.

2.8 Identify changes that might be required for a social networking advertising campaign based on monitoring results.

There are many changes you could make upon reflecting on analytics such as target audience, posting times, or to the content itself. You could change the content following A/B testing when you’ve seen what works out better by using analytics. You could also change the time your ads are being shown for example if you’re b2b you could change the time it shows to 9-5 as that’s the general office hours for businesses, or if you’re targeting young people you could show it only in evenings after they’re home for school.

Understand the use of promotional campaigns on social networking sites.

3.1 Define promotional campaigns on social networking sites.

Promotional campaigns on social networking sites are essentially just campaigns designed to have a specific outcome such as brand awareness, build following etc. Digital vouchers/discount vouchers are a good promotional campaign for targeting new and existing customers as often these will be shared within groups and reach a large audience. Another good promotional campaign could be a giveaway or a competition, these are good for gaining following and promoting brand awareness.

3.2 Compare different types of promotional campaigns on social networking sites.

Voucher campaigns are better for increasing sales as they encourage customers to make a purchase that they may have been considering but may not be as good to build a loyal customer base or build a large following as there’s no obligation to like or follow your page. Giveaway campaigns are great for building a following as you can make the entry requirements whatever you want, e.g. Like and share the page, tag 3 friends, etc.

3.3 Explain why to use promotional campaigns on social networking sites.

Promotional campaigns on social media are great because they’re free, are proven to work and give you a potential audience of millions of social media users every single day. They don’t have any set guidelines or anything so they’re essentially completely up to you.

3.4 Explain the limitations imposed by social networking sites on promotional campaigns.

One limitation to using social networking for your promotional campaigns is that some platforms have a word count which may not allow you to say everything you want to. Another limitation is that platforms such as Facebook have built-in image compressors which pretty much destroy high quality images. Also high quality or lengthy videos cant be used on some platforms which is annoying if you’d like to do video marketing. Another limitation is that you can’t really target your campaigns to a specific audience, as it just really depends on who shares them and who engages with them as to who the algorithm will show to.

3.5 Explain how to comply with restrictions on promotional campaigns on social networking sites.

Most social media platforms will have restrictions on promotional campaigns which you will be able to find in their support of help section. An example of these if that Instagram restricts how many likes and follows you can do in the period of time so you should avoid doing this to try and gain a following. Al promotional campaigns should comply to any laws or regulations which may affect you.

https://help.instagram.com/179379842258600

https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php#promotionsguidelines

3.6 Explain the factors which could cause negative PR when running a promotional campaign.

Negative comments on social media can spiral very quickly and become a viral crisis, this can lead to not only a bad name for your brand but also can result in stores getting trashed, employees getting abused etc. (example: H&M’s ‘coolest monkey in the jungle’ jumper which was distastefully advertised resulting in racism claims and a viral PR nightmare https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2127426/hm-slammed-racist-monkey-jungle-hoodie). Things like than can happen by accident and it is very important to carefully check over any media which may be construed negatively and make any necessary updates to avoid this. Another factor that can cause negative PR would be if your campaign used ill-informed information/images or content which they do not have permission to use.

Understand current national and international legal and organisational guidelines for a social networking advertising/promotional campaign.

4.1 Explain the current national and international legal and organisational guidelines relating to the use of social networking site adverts.

The ASA deal with advertising in the UK. They have a lot of codes which must be followed in regards to advertising and promotion, these are all in place with efforts to keep people safe and avoid any unnecessary upset. The codes are -

·       01 compliance: all marketing communications should be legal, decent, honest and truthful.

·       02 recognition of marketing communications: marketing communications should be obviously identifiable.

·       03 misleading advertising: marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.

·       04 harm and offence: marketing communications must not contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

·       05 children: marketing communications addressed to, targeted directly at or featuring children must contain nothing that is likely to result in their physical, mental or moral harm.

·       06 privacy: marketers must not unfairly portray or refer to anyone in an adverse or offensive way unless that person has given the marketer written permission to allow it.

·       07 political advertisements: claims in marketing communications, whenever published or distributed, whose principal function is to influence voters in a local, regional, national or international election or referendum are exempt from the Code.

·       08 promotional marketing: Promoters must conduct their promotions equitably, promptly and efficiently and be seen to deal fairly and honourably with participants and potential participants.

·       09 distance selling: Most business-to-consumer distance selling contracts are subject to the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation, and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

·       10 use of data for marketing: In considering complaints under these rules, the ASA will have regard to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the General Data Protection Regulation, “GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018 in the case of personal data, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 in the case of activities relating to electronic communications.

·       11 environmental claims: The basis of environmental claims must be clear. Unqualified claims could mislead if they omit significant information.

·       12 medicines, medical devices: These are laws specifically for products which must have a high level of scrutiny as they could be dangerous if misused.

·       13 weight control and slimming: These are laws specifically for products which must have a high level of scrutiny as they could be dangerous if misused.

·       14 financial products: Marketers must have regard to the financial promotion restriction in Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (as amended), as reflected in the rules and guidance issued and enforced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

·       15 food, food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims: These are laws specifically for products which must have a high level of scrutiny as they could be dangerous if misused.

·       16 gambling: These are laws specifically for products which must have a high level of scrutiny as they could be dangerous if misused.

·       17 lotteries: These are laws specifically for products which must have a high level of scrutiny as they could be dangerous if misused.

·       18 alcohol: These are laws specifically for products which must have a high level of scrutiny as they could be dangerous if misused.

·       19 motoring: These are laws specifically for products which must have a high level of scrutiny as they could be dangerous if misused.

·       20 employment, homework schemes and business opportunities: Marketing communications must distinguish clearly between offers of employment and business opportunities.

·       21 tobacco, rolling papers and filters: These are laws specifically for products which must have a high level of scrutiny as they could be dangerous if misused.

·       22 electronic cigarettes: These are laws specifically for products which must have a high level of scrutiny as they could be dangerous if misused.

All above information is from https://www.asa.org.uk/codes-and-rulings/advertising-codes/non-broadcast-code.html.

4.2 Explain the importance of following current national and international legal and organisational guidelines for a social networking advertising/promotional campaign.

Current guidelines are important to follow to ensure your company and any content you’re producing is legal and inoffensive as if any of these rules are broken that could result in fines, court cases, and negative PR.