Understanding Your Online Audience

Your audience online is changing? Are you? Do you really know who your target market is and more importantly, do you know what it wants? Often times we spend and waste time "talking" to an audience that is not our potential consumer. Have you thought about how many of your Facebook fans or followers would actually be interested in your product or service? For example if your content or wall posts on Facebook is geared toward sales in sporting equipment and most of your Facebook followers or friends are elderly people who rarely get out to ski, you are definitely not going to get the results you are looking for. Another example is you own an expensive wellness spa but your followers are all college students that have little to no disposable income. Perhaps you are the CEO of a trendy swim trunk company and your followers are friends that purchase maybe one pair of swim trunks every year. You need to do some reaching out to find an audience that really "fits" your product. You need to find out who your evangelists are and you need to cater to them.

What forums do you actively participate in? Are you offering interesting and valuable information in these forums or are you just trying to make a fast sell? The same holds true for online associations, groups and clubs. You need to find the people that are truly interested in the same product or service you provide.

Understanding your audience takes a lot of research and does not happen overnight. The payoff however is great. The engagement between you and your audience will be a natural consequence and that engagement will lead to future sales.

TIPS ON USING FACEBOOK

DON'T use Facebook for a fastsell. People don't want to be marketed to and it is a quick turn off. If you have a repair shop or store don't post "Get our gift certificates now." This type of marketing via social media is not effective.

DO offer valuable information for your audience and then mention your product or service. It is much more effective. In other words if you have a shoe repair shop or dry cleaning business, tell your audience how to get rid of stains on your shoes or clothes. Then you can tell them about your gift certificates.

DON'T just copy what your competitor is doing. What works for them may not necessarily work for you. Just because Burberry's Christopher Bailey is "talking" to his fans about the brand on its Facebook page and has fantastic results in engagement does not mean Gucci's Frida Giannini will have the same type of success. There are a lot of different factors in play and duplicating exactly the same thing that the competitor is doing, especially for a luxury brand, is like copying another brand's designs. Not good.

DO research what the competition is doing via social media and then find creative ways to make your strategy even better.

DO engage the audience offering interesting information. No one wants to read that you are attending a staff meeting to discuss delivery schedules. Boring.

DON'T  be wordy.  People don't have time to read lengthy posts.

DO provide accurate information and use proper grammar.

DO find an audience that can actually utilize your information.

Managing Luxury Brand Online Content

Managing your  online brand  content can be as common sense as proofreading the grammar and punctuation on all your material to setting and managing the overall tone of the brand throughout all digital platforms.It is surprising how much material gets published without anyone reviewing and editing the content. It is even more surprising how many errors get published even though content was reviewed and edited!

Luxury brands in particular have to be extremely careful and prudent in not only what is written about their products but how it is written. Building and managing the overall tone of a luxury brand is extremely difficult. Typically content is reviewed many times before being published. The tone of the company has to match its message. The personality of the content writer should not come out in his / her writing but rather the personality of the company and brand should be a natural consequence. Luxury brands usually have a subdued tone. Typically, one would not find sarcasism, humor or aggression in luxury brand content. Also as for any content, grammar and punctuation should be precise and there should not be any errors in information given.

Now more than ever branded content is created with mobile devices in mind. What does this mean? It signifies that content should be to the point, not wordy, interesting and valuable. The average person has literally seconds to read and digest the material and decide if it is valuable enough to pass on to others or to utilize. Consumers don't want to be advertised to or pushed to purchase. Rather consumers and fans of brands do enjoy feeling a part of the "brand" family. Burberry for example invited fans on Facebook to ask questions directly to its Chief Creative Director, Christopher Bailey. Mr. Bailey then answered questions live via Facebook, addressing fans by their names. It was a huge success. Gucci, just recently did the exact same thing with its Creative Director, Ms.Frida Giannini.

Everyone and anyone who represents the company and who publishes content has to be onboard and strictly supporting the corporate tone and message. The social media strategy is no longer "owned" by the marketing department and therefore anyone in the company can adversely affect the luxury brand's social media strategy. Not only should there be training sessions to aid employees on how to use new social media tools, but those who represent the company online should publish content that is consistent with the overall corporate tone and message.

Engagement & Perceived Value Through Social Media Marketing

When you think about how to engage an audience, you have to first focus on the message you want to get across. Toms shoes focuses on their message of helping children. Zappos focuses on their superior services and the value of people, both their own staff and their customers. 

Apple focuses on selling superior products to their fans. Apple fans are not just repeat consumers but feel they are a part of something bigger. They feel a sense of belonging to the Apple family. The focus of Burberry is to provide high quality  luxury products. Burberry fans feel a connection to the historic brand that other luxury brands cannot seem to replicate.

There is no formula in building an affinity through social media with your customers. It takes hard work, committment and real engagement. The message has to be clear and real. How is your brand, product, service perceived? What can you do to change the perception? Consumers are looking for increased value.  You neeed to raise your brand's perceived value. For example, you may have a wonderful product but consumers are asking, what have you done for the environment, charities, non profit organizations,etc.

What do your customers value? Is it price, quality, availability, after sale service, etc? What is the most important parameters for your clients? For a dry cleaner it may be extending your hours to accommodate your clients. For a Doctor it may be returning phone calls personally. For a new brand of footwear it may be comfort and style.

Once you know what your customers value you can take steps to reach your audience through social media marketing. You may announce through Facebook your new extended hours or the fact that you personally return all calls. Once you have the perceived value down you need to express it.

Social Media Marketing - Finding Your Audience

The first step in social media marketing is identifying your product or service. If you have done your homework and a business plan, you should already have a clear definition of what you are selling, whether it be legal services, shoe repairs, leather handbags or cooking classes. If you cannot put in simple words what your business is, then you need to go back and work on your business plan. This is key to continuing.

The next step and all so equally important is defining who your audience, consumer, potential customer is. It sounds like a clichè but you really have to think outside the box and research this point fully. For instance, you may have an eyeglass store in a small town and think your potential customer is the average person who needs eye glasses. Well this may not be the case. In fact if you do your research, you will find out that when people get their prescriptions filled by eye doctors, they usually ask the eye doctor to recommend where to buy the glasses. So in this case your leads are coming from eye doctors and not the average person who walks into your store.

Another example could be a cooking school who wants to promote its gourmet cooking classes for children. This cooking school's audience is not the children but their parents and not just any parents but parents from a specific income level that can afford these type of classes. One would waste resources of time and money trying to engage all children or all parents in this instance. A better step would be to find through blogs and forums for instance parents who enroll their children in other classes (sports, music, dance, etc) in your area.

Why is it so important to know exactly who your audience is? If you don't know exactly who it is, you will not be able to locate the audience in social media communities. The average Joe does not "hang out" in the same social media communities as Dr.X, the eye doctor.Once you know who these people are and where they are, you can create content that is specific to that target audience.

What Luxury Brands Should Be Doing Now With Social Media Marketing

I write a lot about luxury brands mostly because I reside partially in Italy, am surrounded by fashion everyday, work with luxury brands and ... am a fan myself of some of the beautifully made, high quality items with the designer labels. I am only human.

I also have a passion for social media because I like people and I am always curious about consumer behavior and personalities. I have written about what some of the luxury brands are doing with social media and have even listed the top brands. However I am shocked that more steps have not been taken by even the giants. I see a lot of copying eachother. One brand (Burberry) does acoustics on their FB page and another luxury brand (Bulgari)    does the BZero1 video.  One brand is doing events on FB (Dolce & Gabbana) and almost instantaneously its competitor is doing events as well on FB. Where is the creativity? Where is the wanting to really outreach to its fans making them feel special and a part of their "family?" There seems to be a lot of fear especially with the luxury brands in doing something that won't be fitting to the image. Instead I believe the more human the brands look, the more they will gain a feeling of affinity with its fans. I am really surprised that luxury brands have not already done the following but maybe after reading this post they will ;) :

1) Build forums where inside staff answers questions.

2) Build blogs where brand designers actually give advice how to wear particular items, what styles look best on what body build, upcoming trends,etc.

3) Use blogs where the sourcing or manufacturers that the luxury brands use around the world show and discuss what goes into making an item. The general audience has no idea what fine handcrafted work goes into making a leather handbag or boots or sweater, etc.

4) Use same blogs as in n.2 above to get the manufacturers on board, make them feel part of the brand "family" as well.

5)  Build social network where consumers not just upload their picture wearing the brand item but the consumer gives some more detailed info of where the consumer is going, his/her profession, etc. This is what personalizes it. I love Burberry's social networking site  http://www.artofthetrench.com/ . I would however enhance it in the detail's section. On this site, fans are encouraged to upload their pictures wearing their Burberry trench coats and include their name and location. To personalize it more it would be better to have   "Anna, a journalist in London, late for work."rather than just "Anna photographed in London."

6) Link everything to a "How do I get this look" idea to the brand's ecommerce site.

Come on luxury brands, catch up!

Burberry, Social Media and Sales

If you are interested in social media and fashion you don't have to look far to see how Burberry has had a tremendous boost in sales due also to its extraordinary efforts in social media. I took a trip to our favorite outlet in Tuscany (Leccio Reggello Florence) Italy to The Mall on Saturday and found to my amazement the Burberry Store was cram packed with buying fans. With cash in hand (the outlet only takes cash or debit cards), hundreds of people were in line paying for outer wear, coats, trenches, rainboots, umbrellas, scarves  of every type and color, handbags, wallets, shoes. Is this because of the affinity people have with the brand? Is it because of its social media brilliant presence and engagement?

Before entering the store on a freezing Saturday afternoon (the Mall is outdoors), we strolled passed Valentino, Gucci, Ferragamo surprised to see mostly vacant stores with salespeople twirling their thumbs. Instead at the Burberry store, you could hardly get through and had to hold on for dear life to those items you wanted to purchase for fear they would be snapped away. Men, women, children of different nationalities looking through items to purchase, standing in lines, trying to look in mirrors without being trampled on....this was the scene at the Burberry store in (Leccio Reggello) Florence Italy last Saturday.

Myself? I ran away happily with a new delicious Burberry trench in hand. My husband? A beautiful new Burberry winter coat. Thanks Burberry. You made my birthday.