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Social Media Marketing Plan
Renee Watkins
West Virginia University March 8, 2015
OpportunityOpportunity
Since 1999, fi360 has been helping clients gather, grow, and protect assets through better investment and business decision making processes. Some of the innovative solutions fi360 provides includes the Accredited Investment Fiduciary® (AIF®) and the Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst (AIFA®) designation programs and one of the industry’s leading investment management technology platforms, the fi360 Toolkit™.
fi360 currently does not have any type of formal social media marketing plan or social media objectives in place. However, fi360 currently utilizes a number of social media platforms including, an fi360 hosted blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Blogger, Tumblr, YouTube, StumpleUpon, Instagram, Reddit, and Pinterest. fi360’s target audience does not utilize many of the listed social media marketing platforms, making a portion of fi360’s social media marketing efforts not only unfocused, but ineffective.
A closer look at fi360’s current social media channels
fi360 hosted blog
fi360’s blog, which is hosted on the company’s website, currently has an estimate of 6,000 subscribers and is the official blog of InvestmentNews. fi360 specifically states on its blog that it will be updated on a weekly basis. However, fi360 is inconsistent in its posting and has been posting on average of once a month. All posts are educational in nature and are written by fi360 staff members. fi360 has not utilized any guest bloggers. Each fi360 blog post links out to outside supporting resources, past fi360 blog posts, and contain a promotional call-to-action when appropriate. While fi360’s blog readers have shared fi360’s blog postings on their personal social media accounts, nobody has commented on the actual fi360 blog.
fi360’s Twitter page currently has 3,875 followers. On average, fi360 posts on its twitter page an average of 2 – 4 times a day, specifically around the time periods of 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., and between 4:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. ET. Posts are primarily published on weekdays, however there is an occasional weekend post. Posts include educational posts from the fi360 blog, educational posts with links to outside news publications and other resources, and promotional posts. fi360 also market’s their presence at events by
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utilizing official Twitter event hashtags. fi360’s Twitter posts are comprised of 80% educational content and 20% promotional content. However, in recent months, 90% of the educational content has come from outside resources and publications. However, fi360’s followers are still engaging with fi360 on Twitter. On average, fi360 averages 0 – 1 retweets and/or favorites per post.
fi360 currently owns an fi360 company page and an fi360 group page on LinkedIn.
The fi360 company page has 992 followers. fi360 posts on its company LinkedIn page an average of 2 – 4 times a day, specifically around the time periods of 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., and between 4:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. ET. Posts are primarily published on weekdays, however there is an occasional weekend post. Posts include educational posts from the fi360 blog, educational posts with links to outside news publications and other resources, as well as promotional posts. fi360’s LinkedIn company page posts are 80% educational and 20% promotional in nature. However, much like Twitter, 80% of the educational posts have been linked from outside resources. fi360’s company page’s engagement has been picking up as of lately. On average, fi360 sees between 1 – 3 comments and 3 likes on every posting.
fi360’s group page is comprised of 2,548 members. Most of these members are individuals who work in the financial and investment planning industry. The purpose of this group is to give fi360 clients and other industry professionals a place to network. fi360 also originally planned to utilize this page as a place to engage and share educational content with its members but have failed to do so. However, members of the fi360 group are actively engaging with each other. fi360 group members are posting an average of 2 times a day on weekdays and have an average of 1- 3 comments and/or likes per post.
fi360’s Facebook page currently has 113 likes. On average, fi360 posts on its Facebook page an average of 2 – 4 times a day, specifically around the time periods of 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., and between 4:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. ET. Posts are primarily published on weekdays, however there is an occasional weekend post. Posts include educational posts from the fi360 blog, educational posts with links to outside news publications and other resources, and promotional posts. Like Twitter and LinkedIn, fi360’s Facebook posts are 80% educational and 20% promotional. 80% of the educational posts have come from outside resources. fi360 rarely sees engagement from its Facebook page. However, it is
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important to note that the fi360 Facebook page is still in it’s infancy as it was created in November 2014.
Google+
fi360’s Google+ page currently has 15 followers. On average, fi360 posts on its Google+ page an average of 2 – 4 times a day, specifically around the time periods of 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., and between 4:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. ET. Posts are primarily published on weekdays, however there is an occasional weekend post. Posts include educational posts from the fi360 blog, educational posts with links to outside news publications and other resources, as well as promotional posts. fi360’s Google+ posts are 80% educational and 20% promotional. 80% of the educational posts have come from outside resources. fi360 rarely sees engagement from its Google+ page. However, it is important to note that like Facebook, the fi360 Google+ page is still in its infancy as it was created in November 2014.
Blogger
fi360’s Blogger page currently has 0 followers. Anytime fi360 publishes a post to its blog located on its website, fi360 copies and pastes that blog post to Blogger. fi360 started its Blogger account in the beginning of January 2015. 100% of these posts have been educational in nature and have originated from fi360 staff members.
Tumblr
Anytime fi360 publishes a post to its website based blog, fi360 copies and pastes that blog post to Tumblr. fi360 has also placed unofficial ads on Tumblr that lead to a landing page where it can collect contact information. fi360 started its Tumblr account the beginning of January 2015 and has 0 engagement from this particular social media platform. 90% of these posts have been educational in nature and have originated from fi360 staff members. The remaining 10% percent are promotional in nature.
YouTube
fi360’s investment management technology platform, the fi360 is very complex in nature. Therefore, in effort to better help clients better understand and utilize its reporting features and capabilities, fi360 developed a series of demonstrations that they recorded and placed on YouTube. fi360’s YouTube channel currently has 45 subscribers. However, most videos have been viewed over 500 times.
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StumbleUpon
In January 2015, fi360 began utilizing StumbleUpon. fi360 currently posts its educational blog posts and product landing pages on StumbleUpon. Postings occur when a new blog post has been published. To date, fi360 has only posted 5 items on StumbleUpon and received a total of 6 likes. Currently, 80% of the posts are educational in nature, while 20% are promotional.
In January 2015, fi360 began utilizing Instagram. fi360 has currently only posted 3 pictures, which are pictures of fi360’s direct mail marketing pieces. fi360 currently does not have a process around what and/or when it intends to post on Instagram. However, it’s important to note that fi360 churns very little imaged focused content. fi360’s Instagram page currently only has 1 follower, which is a fi360 employee.
In January 2015, fi360 also began utilizing and posting educational blog posts on reddit. Posts are developed in conjunction with the fi360 blog postings and have no specific posting dates and times surrounding it. To date, fi360 has not seen any type of engagement from its reddit page.
fi360 also utilizes the imagery focused social media platform, Pinterest. Much like Instagram, fi360 has currently only posted 3 pictures, which are pictures of fi360’s direct mail marketing pieces. fi360 currently lacks any type of process around what it intends to post and does not have a posting schedule. fi360’s Pinterest page has 0 followers. Pinterest was added to fi360’s long list of social media pages in January 2015.
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Audiencefi360’s target audience is comprised of the following demographics:
Gender
76.41% of all financial advisors are male, therefore the male gender will be fi360’s focus. (fi360, 2014).
Age
A majority of today’s financial advisors fall into the 35 – 49 and 50 – 64 age brackets and will be the focus of fi360’s target market. (fi360, 2014).
Income
The average income for financial advisors is $75,320. (Division of Occupational Employment Statistics, 2013). Therefore, fi360’s target audience is considered high-income.
Region
fi360’s targets financial advisors all across the United States. However, the top 10 states with the most financial advisors are in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Massachusetts, and North Carolina. This target market is evenly dispersed across both urban and the suburb markets. (fi360, 2014).
Education
61.34% of financial advisors highest level of obtained education is a bachelor degree. 28.28% have obtain a master’s degree. Therefore, fi360’s target audience is considered highly educated. (fi360, 2014).
Marital Status
fi360’s target audience will primarily be married or divorced.
Race
fi360’s target market is primarily made up of the Caucasian race.
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fi360’s Target Market’s Online Participation Levels
Target Audience 1: Males between the ages of 35 and 44
76% of 35 – 44 year old males who participate in social media are spectators. This means that while they are on social media, they tend to watch others participate in social media and read other’s content instead of generating their own. However, it is important to note that 50% of men in this age demographic will join in on a conversation.
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Target Audience 2: Males between the ages of 45 and 54
As the age demographic increases, males social media participation decreases by 5%. At the age demographic of 45 – 54, 69% of males will be classified as social media spectators. Likewise, only 37% will now join in on social media conversations.
Social Media Platforms fi360’s Target Audience Is Currently Participating In
fi360’s target audience is primarily using Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
71% of adult internet users use Facebook. 66% of male social media users use Facebook. 71% of these male Facebook users are Caucasian. 73% of users are between the age of 30 – 49 and 63% are between the ages of 50 – 64. Moreover, 74% have an income of $50k - $75k per year. (Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, & Madden, 2015). 57% of Facebook users completed some college education. (Skelton, 2012).
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28% of adult internet users use LinkedIn. The site is particularly popular among college graduates and those who are employed with a higher-income. 44% of LinkedIn users have an income of $75k+ and a majority of the users are men in the 50 – 65 age demographic. LinkedIn is the only social media platform where those ages 30 – 64 are more like to be users than those ages 18 – 29. (Skelton, 2012).
23% of online adults currently use Twitter, a significant increase compared to the 18% who did in 2013. In the past year, Twitter has seen a significant increase among a number of demographic groups, including: men, Caucasians, those who are 65 years and older, those who live in households with an annual income of $50k or more, college graduates, and urbanites. Currently, college educated males who earn $50k or more and live in urban areas are the primary users of Twitter. (Skelton, 2012).
Amount of Time fi360’s Target Audience Uses Social Media
The average American male spends 2.6 hours per day using social networking. Individuals between the ages of 35 – 49 are reported to spend 3 hours a day using social networking while those in the 50 – 64 age group report only using social media for 2.4 hours a day. Educated individuals report spending 2.9 – 3 hours a day on social media, compared to their less educated counter parts who spend 3.5 hours a day on social media networks. (Marketing Charts, n.d.).
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Therefore, fi360 can expect its target audience to be engaged in social networking for 2.5 – 3 hours a day.
Technology Platforms fi360’s Target Audience Is Currently Using to Access Social Networks
64% of US adults access social media networks on a PC. However, 47% of smartphone users claim to use social media daily. Moreover, 84% of smartphone and tablet owners say they use their devices as second-screens while watching TV at the same time. (Sterling, 2014).
However, it is important to note that adult’s device preferences change throughout the day. From 12:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. adults are primarily using mobile devices. From 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. adults are primarily using PC’s and from 5:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. adults are more likely to be utilizing tablets over any other form of technology. (Bosomworth, n.d.).
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Therefore, fi360 can expect its audience to be accessing its different social media platforms from a wide range of technology devices. fi360 can also expect to be competing for its target audience’s attention. This heightens fi360’s need to create valuable, engaging content on its various social media platforms.
ObjectivesThe proposed social media marketing plan will address the three marketing objectives listed below.
Objective 1: Increase fi360’s social media marketing reach by 10% in 12 months.
Objective 2: Increase website traffic to www.fi360.com by 20% in 12 months.
Objective 3: Increase the number of people who register for fi360’s product demonstrations by 15% in 12 months.
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Strategy81% of consumers begin their product research online. (General Electric Company, 2013). 44% of all online purchases come from search engines. (Hubspot, 2012). 180 million Americans are on social media and 46% of online users look at social media before making a purchase. Social networking is also the top online activity in the United States with the average American spending 37 minutes per day on social media. However, only 12% of brands in the financial services industry are active on social media. (Go-Gulf, 2014). Therefore, engaging in social media marketing activities will greatly benefit fi360 as it begins to position itself as an industry leader in today’s marketplace.
Therefore, fi360 has a unique opportunity to position itself as the industry thought-leader, grow brand awareness, generate new leads, and drive additional traffic to it’s website by properly developing and leveraging a strategic social media marketing plan.
ChannelsProposed Social Media Channels
fi360 should focus its social media marketing efforts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Below is a breakdown of each of these social media platforms, how these platforms fit with fi360’s current marketing efforts, the pros and cons of each social media marketing channel, and examples of how a fi360 competitors is utilizing the same social media platforms.
Founded in 2004, Facebook is the world’s largest social networking site. Facebook connects friends, family, business associates, and brands by allowing users to share and post messages, photos, and videos. Currently, 900,000,000 unique visitors utilize Facebook on a monthly basis, making it to largest and most popular social media site. (eBiz, 2015).
In 2015, fi360 is focusing on creating brand awareness for not only fi360 in general but also its professional AIF® designation and investment management platform, the fi360 Toolkit™. fi360 will be promoting these product lines by developing numerous educational content offerings that they will promote on numerous marketing mediums including email, social media, direct mail pieces, and on the fi360 website. Each fi360 educational offering will be tied to a drip marketing campaign that will include additional educational resources and eventually lead into
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a free case study or product demo before it enters the sales portion of the marketing and sales funnel.
Facebook is a perfect medium for fi360 to utilize not only because its target market is there, but also because 80% of US social network users prefer to connect to brands through Facebook. (Hubspot, 2012). Moreover, fi360 can utilize many of Facebook’s features to market fi360 and its products. By fully completing its company profile, using page settings to its advantage, and sharing high quality content, Facebook will help increase fi360’s SEO ranking. fi360 will utilize the Facebook timeline to post, share, and promote educational content such as whitepapers, case studies, webinars, infographics, and more. All educational content will be placed behind a company landing page that will collect viewer’s content information and send them down the path of one of fi360’s predetermined drip marketing campaigns. fi360 can also bring additional attention to each of its primary marketing campaigns and content offers by promoting it through Facebook’s targeted ad features. fi360 can also market its upcoming educational events through Facebook’s calendar feature. Besides utilizing Facebook for promoting educational content offerings and driving people to its website, fi360 should also use Facebook to build brand loyalty. fi360 can do this by posting an insider look into fi360’s events and company culture as well as addressing any client complaints, questions, and/or concerns.
Facebook Pros and Cons
Like any marketing medium, Facebook comes with its own pros and cons. The pros of utilizing Facebook include:
Increased exposure to potential customers. The ability to gather potential customer’s email address through a variety of contest,
giveaways, and newsletters. The ability to drive potential customers and clients to the fi360 website. A business page on Facebook is free. Facebook ads are relatively inexpensive compared to traditional print, radio, and TV ads Facebook ads can deeply target a specific audience through custom audiences, location,
audience demographics, interests, behaviors, education level, connections, and partner categories.
The ability to serve as a client relations tool. The ability to gain valuable feedback and insights by listening and monitoring a target
audience’s posts. The ability to easily see how each Facebook post and ad is doing through a clear set of
defined metrics. The ability to boost SEO, which is extremely important since fi360’s website was built
without any SEO or SEM marketing strategy.
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Cons of utilizing Facebook for business purposes include:
Each Facebook post only reaches an average of 16% of a brand’s Facebook followers. (Facebook, 2012).
Giving your competition the ability to easily monitor and copy your marketing efforts and content offers.
Customer service complaints can be seen by all followers. If complaints go unanswered, it sends a negative message to followers and gives the
competition an avenue to steal customers.
With over 300 million users, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. Users primarily utilize LinkedIn for networking purposes and to join topic based communities where they can engage, debate, and learn from other industry experts. Users can also follow brands on LinkedIn and find relevant job postings.
Because educated professionals are utilizing LinkedIn for networking purposes and to discover industry best practices, it is the perfect platform for fi360. fi360 can post its predetermined educational offerings on is fi360 Company Page and in industry related groups. The strategic placement of fi360’s educational content will help drive new users down fi360’s marketing and sales funnel as well as generate brand awareness. Also, because it is a social network, users can also share fi360’s content, expanding its reach. fi360 should also join industry related groups and look for any user’s questions or problems that they can help solve. This will help generate brand awareness and create favorable impressions towards the fi360 brand. Much like Facebook, fi360 can promote its educational drip marketing campaigns and events over LinkedIn ads.
fi360 can also use develop a career’s page on LinkedIn and use to LinkedIn to recruit and fill any open positions.
LinkedIn Pros and Cons
The pros of utilizing LinkedIn for business purposes include:
LinkedIn is extremely rich in content, establishing credibility with prospects and clients. Increased exposure to potential customers. The ability to drive potential customers and clients to your website. LinkedIn ads are relatively inexpensive compared to traditional print, radio, and TV ads
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LinkedIn ads can deeply target a specific audience through custom audiences, location, audience demographics, job titles, industry and company side, and seniority.
The ability to gain valuable feedback and insights to what type of content your target audience is looking for.
The ability to boost SEO.
Cons of LinkedIn include:
LinkedIn only allows users to reach out to people in their network. Therefore, users must upgrade to the premium edition to reach out to anyone it chooses.
Competitors can jump in on your discussions offering their products and services as possible solutions as well.
Twitter, is the second largest social media networking with over 310,000,000 unique monthly users. (eBiz, 2015). What started out as a microblogging site, Twitter allows users to share their thoughts, news, information, and jokes in 140 characters or less. Twitter profiles are usually public, allowing anyone in the world to view what is being written. Users can also follow each other, keep tabs on trending conversations, and converse with specific people.
Much like Facebook, Twitter is a great platform to utilize when it comes to promoting fi360’s educational, user generated content. fi360 should post all educational content on Twitter, utilizing hashtags, and mentions when appropriate. Different mentions and hashtags will be used to penetrate deeper into prospective client conversations. All posts should also include a video or image as well. fi360 will also use Twitter to listen, monitor, and respond to client questions, criticism, and complaints. fi360’s prompt response will help fi360 earn trust and build brand advocates.
Like Facebook and LinkedIn, Twitter also presents the opportunity for brands to promote its products and services through the usage of Twitter ads.
Twitter Pros and Cons
Twitter pros include:
Through the uses of hashtags and mentions, Twitter gives brands the ability to contact and penetrate any and all networks.
Unlike Facebook, every Twitter post goes out to all followers. Since Twitter limits posts to 140 characters, tweets are often easy to create and takes
less than a minute to write.
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Increased exposure to potential customers. The ability to gather potential customer’s email address through a variety of contest,
giveaways, and newsletters. The ability to drive potential customers and clients to your website. A business page on Twitter is free. Twitter ads are relatively inexpensive compared to traditional print, radio, and TV ads. Twitter serves as a great client relations tool. The ability to gain valuable feedback and insights by listening and monitoring audience’s
posts. Twitter allows content to be easily shared.
Twitter cons include:
Customer complaints can be viewed by anyone utilizing Twitter The 140 character limit can be challenging when responding to complex client service
issues and/or explanations.
How fi360’s Competitors Utilize Social Media Channels
While fi360 has no direct competitors, Morningstar’s Advisor Workstation rivals fi360’s technology platform, the fi360 Toolkit™. Morningstar also currently utilizes Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for its social media marketing efforts. Morningstar hosts a wide variety of pages on each social media network. However, the various Morningstar pages generally follow the same formats.
Morningstar has a very professional, well branded Facebook page with over 1,642 likes. Morningstar’s Facebook profile is complete with its start date, address, short description, company overview, its mission statement, and links which drive viewers to its different awards, products, and website. Morningstar’s Facebook page also hosts a link that directs viewers to its Facebook Community Guidelines. Morningstar’s Facebook Community Guidelines clearly define the purpose of Morningstar’s Facebook page, its terms and conditions, and legal disclaimers.
Morningstar posts multiple times a month and shows no consistent posting schedule. Every post contains either a video or picture. All posted content is generated directly by Morningstar. 80% of the posts are educational in nature, 20% are promotional. Educational posts include topics such as information on ETFs, market volatility, fund management, and more. Promotional posts market Morningstar’s annual conference, its new technology
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platform app, a look inside Morningstar’s charitable contributions, and more. Even though Morningstar’s Facebook page is very well done and features useful information, most posts receive a very low engagement rating. On average, each Facebook post only sees 5 – 15 interactions.
Much like Facebook, Morningstar’s LinkedIn page is very professional and well branded. Morningstar’s LinkedIn page boasts information about the company, including specialties, industry, type of company, company address, size, year founded and a URL that links back to Morningstar’s website. Almost all posts are educational in nature, contain a picture, and a linkable call-to-action. Morningstar’s LinkedIn page has 34,127 followers and shows an engagement rating of 5 – 20 interactions per post.
Again, like its Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, Morningstar amplifies a professional, well branded presence on its Twitter page. Morningstar has a complete profile that links back the corporate Morningstar homepage. Morningstar tweets educational based content multiple times a day, every day. Morningstar does not post any promotional tweets on its Twitter page. All tweets contain a linkable URL. When applicable, Morningstar also inserts mentions and trending hashtags into its posts. Unlike its other social media platforms, Morningstar rarely posts pictures and videos on its Twitter page. Morningstar has 48.3 thousand Twitter Followers but only has 2 – 6 people engaging with each Twitter post.
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TacticsSocial Media Marketing Plan Tactics
The proposed social media marketing plan will employ the following tactics:
Tactic: Publish a Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter post around fi360’s published blog schedule.
o Tactic Details: Each week fi360 creates and publishes a blog post on its website. Anytime a blog post is published, fi360 will also publish the blog post on its Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages. Each post will be written in a short, concise manner and will contain keywords as well as a bitly link that directs audiences back to the fi360 website to read the blog post. When posting to Twitter, fi360 will insert a hashtag in front of keywords. The insertion of the hashtag will allow fi360 to expand its marketing reach to anyone who is following that particular keyword.
o How tactic fulfills objective: By employing this tactic, fi360 will increase both its marketing reach and website traffic.
Tactic: Promote fi360’s live, educational webinars by publishing posts to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as well as creating a Facebook event for each webinar.
o Tactic Details: Quarterly, fi360 partners with other industry experts to host live, educational webinars. fi360 will begin to market these webinars 1 month in advance over its Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages. During this 1 month time period, fi360 will publish 2 posts a week that markets the upcoming webinar on each of its social media pages. Each post will be written in a short, concise manner and contain both keywords and bitly link that will drive viewers to a landing page on the fi360 website. The landing page will feature a contact form that users must complete in order to register for the upcoming webinar. When posting on Twitter, fi360 will insert a hashtag before each keyword and mention the guest speakers in the post to deeper penetrate outside networks. Every post will contain a high-quality picture. fi360 will also create a Facebook event around each webinar. The Facebook event will feature the name of the webinar, the webinar description, and link where people can register, the date and time of the webinar. Every event will be made public.
o How tactic fulfills objective: By employing this tactic, fi360 will increase its marketing reach and website traffic.
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Tactic: Promote and increase submissions of fi360’s Client Spotlight Program by marketing it on fi360’s Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages.
o Tactic Details: fi360 is building brand awareness, credibility, and engaging with clients through the Client Spotlight Program. The Client Spotlight Program is where clients go to the fi360 website and fill out an online survey that is set up to help them explain how fi360’s products helped them grow a professional as well as grow their business. Clients submit their story, photo, and bio to fi360. Once a month, fi360 will pick a client story for each of its product lines and highlight them on the fi360 home page. This program is a win-win for both fi360 and its clients for it shines a spotlight on the client’s success as well as fi360’s product lines. However, this program will not be successful without client submissions. Therefore, fi360 will turn to social media to help gain and increase submissions. Once a week, fi360 will publish a post to its Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages asking for submissions. Each post will contain a bitly link to fi360’s client spotlight program form. Every Client Spotlight Program based post on Twitter will include the hashtag #fi360Spotlight. When a submission is selected, fi360 will post the selection on its Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter channels. Each post will link to the selected client story on the fi360 website and feature a high quality, professional picture of the selected client. When posting on Twitter, the post will feature the #fi360Spotlight hashtag and mention the chosen client.
o How tactic fulfills objective: This will help fi360 expand its marketing reach and drive additional traffic to the fi360 website.
Tactic: Every Monday morning, fi360 will promote its weekly product demonstrations on fi360’s Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter channels.
o Tactic Details: Every Monday morning, fi360 will promote its weekly product demonstrations on fi360’s Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter channels. Each post will be written in a clear, concise manner, contain keywords, and a bitly link that will direct audiences to the fi360 website where they can submit their contact information and register for the live demonstration. Keywords and product names should have a hashtag in front of them when posting on Twitter. Each post should contain a product related photo or a generic demonstration photo when there are multiple product demonstrations in one week.
o How tactic fulfills objective: The promotion of the weekly demonstrations over social media will help increase the number of people who register for fi360’s product demonstrations.
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MeasurementMetrics
fi360 will measure its marketing efforts with a combination of quantitative, qualitative, and ROI metrics.
Quantitative Metrics
Unique website visits from fi360 social media marketing channels to the fi360 website
One of fi360’s social media objectives is to increase website traffic by 20% in 12 months. Therefore, fi360 should be tracking the amount of website traffic its social media marketing efforts are generating. fi360 can easily monitor the website traffic coming from each social media channel through the use of bitly and its marketing platform, Hubspot.
Number of followers on each social media platform
Another one of fi360’s social media objectives it to increase its social media marketing reach by 10% in 12 months. Therefore, in order to gauge success, fi360 should be tracking the number of followers on each of its social media marketing channels on a monthly basis.
Qualitative Metrics
Customer sentiment towards fi360 brand
While fi360’s social media objectives are primarily quantitative metric based, fi360 is looking to position itself as a trusted, knowledgeable industry thought leader. One of the ways fi360 is doing this is by sharing relevant, quality content over its social media channels. Social media provides marketers the ability to monitor and listen to its target audience. Therefore, fi360 should be listening to what its target audience is saying about each content offer, the fi360 brand, and what their challenges are. This will give fi360 an opportunity to learn what customers think of the fi360 brand, build better quality content offers, and provide valuable intelligence to fi360’s product teams.
fi360’s Influence score
With the President’s and Department of Labor’s rejuvenated push on the fiduciary standard, it’s more important than ever that fi360 works diligently to position itself as an industry leader in the market place. One of the ways fi360 will be doing this is by
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sharing relevant, quality content on social media. fi360 will utilize Klout to gauge the influencer impact it’s making online.
ROI Metrics
Number of new leads generated through social media channels
At the end of the day, all companies are looking for ways to generate new leads that can potentially turn into new sales. Because buying lists and mass marketing emails to those lists is against the can-spam act, fi360 needs to find new ways to generate new leads. One way fi360 is doing this is by creating relevant content that it pushes out through its social media channels. When the target audience clicks on a content link, they are then taken to a fi360 webpage where they will need to enter their contact information into a Hubspot generated form in exchange for the content. Once fi360 has their contact information, fi360 can begin entering them into different marketing campaigns. Therefore, fi360 will track the number of leads each social media content offer generates.
The conversion rate of social media leads to product demonstrations
One of fi360’s social media marketing objectives is to increase the number of people who register for fi360’s product demonstrations by 15% in 12 months. fi360 will be utilizing its social media content offerings and social media promotional offerings to drive prospects into one-on-one product demonstrations with a member of the fi360 sales team. Therefore, fi360 will track the number of product demonstrations which originated from their social media marketing efforts.
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