When we think of campaigns, we think of Black Friday, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day.
These are great opportunities to acquire and engage customers — we should keep them running. But for smaller companies, it’s hard to fight for attention during these special days.
First, the cost of advertising is much higher — up to twice the usual. Second, your emails get buried under 1000 others with somewhat similar titles.
To get noticed at lower costs, sneak up to your customers on peaceful days.
Other than product launches, partnerships or random giveaways, here are 3 ideas I’ve tried and love.
Hopping on fresh news
Every now and then, a random trend appears on the internet. You’ve probably seen the blue and black dress debate, the ice bucket challenge, and funny Uncle Roger.
There’s a small time window — days or weeks — before the trend dies down. So you’ve got to get your troopers ready to catch them in their freshest state and hop on as soon as possible.
Choose the ones most relevant to your brand and give it a shot. The extent of success varies. Some might not work, but when it does, you can expect 10x of your usual results.
Here’s an example.
In response to the Uncle Roger video on fried rice, we created this Instagram post. It gave us 4 times the usual engagement.
Another one.
When HBO Max’s intern sent an empty test email to their mailing list and everyone was consoling the intern on Twitter, we did this. Engagement went through the roof.
Just remember always to include the relevant hashtags for maximum impact.
Staying raw and real
While companies have an image to uphold, it’s good to be human and honest sometimes. This draws your users/customers and creates a connection above the adoration of the brand.
It also sells.
There was a time when the juices were expiring, and we had to clear the stocks, fast. We could simply sell them at a discount without explanation. Customers would likely take it.
But I went on to share the true story.
Customers enjoyed the story. We had over 200 bottles and they’re all gone before the expiration date. No wastage. All happy customers.
Doing things that don’t scale
As Paul Graham says — do things that don’t scale. Startups, like engines, need a push before they can power up. And what seems like too much effort for that “tiny” result, can compound.
When the Covid-19 restrictions were tight and friends couldn’t gather, we figured birthday people would be sad and lonely without the celebrations.
So we decided to throw them an online party. It took extra effort to build the silly story. And even more effort to serenade the birthday human with a song.
This email campaign brought 1.5 times our usual campaign. It’s a small win, and definitely not scalable.
But the point is to touch the hearts of individuals and let them amplify the impact for you.
Word of mouth has always been one of the most effective. According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from their family and friends more than anything else.
What other campaigns have you run and seen success in?