Ideas for Valentine's creativesValentine's Day is another huge opportunity for you as a DTC brand. This is a big consumer spending period - and it’s coming soon!Really, you should have planned out Q1 by nowBrands usually run this campaign for 14-20 daysAnd end it on the date of their last day of guaranteed shipping February 14thSo it's not a massive window to scale, so you need to be accurate from the get-goYou need to plan.But if you're running late, we're going to share some ideas and help you get a hyper-profitable marketing campaign live in no time!Below are proven concepts you can get inspiration from that will get platform spend and help you scale quickly.REMEMBER:This is a gifting holiday - people buy for other peopleSo you may need to switch up your core avatar in the ad creativeFor Female gifting Male for masculine products and vice versaCheck out these graphic designs that did well for us last V-Day or we think we would do well as a concept:1. The Google search bar has been widely used but it's so powerful as it calls out those who are SEARCHING for answers.Perfect opportunity to use it in this Valentine's Day context.Don't forget a good OFFER can sway the click and purchase.
2. The Bundle Builder is always going to give you the best chance to be profitable, but tying it into a V-Day pun is clever and works!Especially with a play on "Coupling"Think of pairing products, mixing and matching, one for each couple, etc but tie it back into the Valentine's Couple as reasoning for doing the offer.
3. Testimonial Graphic. These are always a good staple to have in your creative setup.You can easily finesse any past creatives or seek out the best gifting reviews from your site to produce a specific gifting-focused testimonial from a happy customer.Add a few hearts and an "XOXO" website code for 20% off and you're set!
There are many other concepts and ideas you can integrate into Valentine's graphicsAnd we haven't even gotten started on the UGC video concepts!Just remember how GIFTING focused this term isDon't neglect the punsAnd remember, GALENTINES DAY trends pretty hard too!Good luck!Paul
Creative Course CorrectingWhen you have a goal, the best plan is to just move forward and make adjustments based on feedback as you go. Most people overanalyze the task ahead or the goal and therefore never actually start moving some people call it analysis paralysis.They think that something is too out of reach. A missile moves forward and then course corrects repeatedly until it meets its target.It doesn't take off in the perfect direction at the very start and you can use this principle in your ad creative planning too.So start with a concept, build to that concept, send it live, gather results, make adjustments and iterations, maybe like new hooks for the first three seconds or new offers or play on the same concept but with different variations. You could even switch out different avatars for similar concepts or maybe loads of the concepts flop and you chop that off the experience and you don't run those again, but don't fail to start or overanalyze just put something out and make adjustments based on the feedback that you get back and then go ham and double down on the ones that win.Watch the video here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz9MM5xouvw/
Social Media Trend Report for 2023I read the 45 page social media trend report for 2023 🦉 📖Here’s what I learned:- Some people still fear buying online incase they can’t make a return, so be sure you have clear refund options and positive reviews ⭐️- Payment can be an issue for people, make sure to offer Apple Pay and PayPal etc 🍎- Also include any safe pay certificates and an SSL certificate on your product page.- Younger users are searching in social media apps more than search engines 🔍Read the entire report for yourself, it’s got some useful info and nice graphics!Hootsuite report: https://www.hootsuite.com/en-gb/research/social-trendsCheck out the video we made on this: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqqMGgIN32L/
Get more CLICKS on your adsOk, you got the consumer's attention - nice hook!They stayed for a while to learn more about your product - good job on the hold!But how do you make sure they NEVER scroll past your video?You need to master the CLICKThis is measured as Click Through Rate % (CTR)In our framework "HOOK, STORY, OFFER"The OFFER is what really gets the clickWhen we ask someone to click, this is the CALL TO ACTIONSo here are the 2 best ways to get that click with a great Call To Action or Offer.Most people do this:"Click now to buy"Or"Shop now / Buy now"This is weak and is usually why we don't see big CTRs
SOLUTION A
Touch on the core pain points and USPs you have just spent the entire video focusing on.Add it to your Call To ActionEg: "Shop now to remove those coffee jitters"OR highlight a USPEg "Buy now to become your most productive self"See how that can increase your ads ‘clickability’ ?
SOLUTION B
Present a great offer!At the bare minimum, you should at least have your email welcome offer present in your ads.Because whether you want to run a big offer or not, the email 10% (that you should have) will be there when they land.So either present that..Or build a better offerEg "Shop now and get 25% off your first order!"
THE COMBO
Those are both great Call To ActionsCertainly better than what most brands are putting out right nowAnd will increase your Click Through RateBut… Now bring them togetherAnd you have a super Offer Call To Action"Shop now to avoid the coffee jitters and get 25% off your first order!"Woah, just brilliantNow go measure your CLICK THROUGH RATE, test some optionsWatch your CTR increaseYour sessions will improveAnd you’ll get more sales!Hope this helps youPaulP.S, If you want to jump on a call and learn more about how we can help do thisFOR YOU, book a call now!
It's all about storyThis framework helped us and our clients scale our ads;How to improve your STORYTELLING to get longer watch time, more clicks, and better return on your ad creatives.In a previous post, I explained THE HOOK and how you can measure and optimise it for better ads.But that is really just the first 2-3 seconds of an ad.The next important part - THE STORYA strong story will improve your HOLD RATEBetter HOLD RATE means more opportunity to market your product.You know, explain the benefits and how this product can impact your customers lives.Think of your ad as a staircase.Each step takes them closer to the action (BUYING)At every opportunity we must lead our prospect up the next step by re-engaging them consistently through the video.We do this through both visual cues and storytelling.Use this framework (save this)HOOK|PROBLEM INTRO|FAILED SOLUTION|PRODUCT INTRO|DEMONSTRATION|BENEFITS (USPs)|OFFER (Call To Action)Guide your viewer through this process with aesthetic and pleasing video.Create variations with the HOOK VARIATION system from my last postAnd you will be scaling ads in no time.Hope this helps!PaulP.S want us to do it for you?Book a call below
HOOK RATE & How you can make it better[et_pb_section admin_label="section"] [et_pb_row admin_label="row"] [et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text"]The HOOK is the first 2-3 seconds of your videoA strong hook will stop your prospect in their scroll.Think of it like "getting the hooks in."The better the Hook Rate - the better the adSimple...BUT WHY?Because in the age of short-form content, lower attention span, and more competition - you need to fight hardto stand out and GRAB the attention of your prospect.It is the most vital part of any ad creativeSo it’s worth measuring.MEASURING HOOK RATEWe call it HOOK RATE or the THUMBSTOP RATIOThe impact your creative has to STOP the scroll, and you can measure it easily.It is the number of people who SEE your ad VS. the amount that stops to watch the first 2-3 seconds of it.HOOK RATE = 3 SEC VIDEO VIEWS / IMPRESSIONS
To work this out, make sure you have the 3 Sec Video View and Impressions column in your meta ad account dashboardand track this every couple of days.
There is an argument to say the HOOK RATE for META is measured off of 3 secs views while the TIKTOK HOOK RATE is measured off of 2 secs video views,since the watch time is lower on that platform.Now that you have the capacity to measure this metric you need to be testing various hooks in your ad strategy.I have some content on how to increase the HOOK output and variations with quite little effort.Check that resource right here!If your brand is scaling and trying to push past that £50k per month mark, it might be worth having a call about how our offer can handle the creative for you.Book a call here if you want to chat about it: BOOK A CALL
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NETFLIX can help you grow[et_pb_section fb_built="1" _builder_version="4.16" global_colors_info="{}"][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.16" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" global_colors_info="{}" column_structure="1_4,3_4"][et_pb_column type="1_4" _builder_version="4.16" custom_padding="|||" global_colors_info="{}" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_text _builder_version="4.19.5" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" sticky_enabled="0"]
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Netflix can help elevate your business with the recent release and success of Full Swing and Drive to Survive just coming back this week, it had me thinking more about these in depth behind the scenes media formats and how it’s helping shape content for the better. You see, people love to see what’s going on behind the scenes.
They like to get more context of the people that are involved and get some narrative, Why do you think Formula One is so popular now? it's not like the sport has just changed dramatically or got better. It's the same sport, but now people have a behind the scenes look of the actual drivers involved in their stories. Now, it's one of the most popular sports in the world.
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This story has engaged more viewers and I guarantee you and you can save of this video that golf is gonna become even more popular than it is and lots of people are gonna take up golf after the release of Full Swing.
But how can this be a lesson for your business? Simply show us more behind the scenes of what goes on at your brand, we started to implement behind the scenes a long time ago and it really did help us grow, but since we started doing our Day-In-The-Life-Like kind of content pieces where we follow the individuals in our team, we've got a lot more engagement, a lot more direct messages and actually people are coming to start working with us off the back of those videos because they understand who we are as people were not just another agency that you will come across when you scroll.
Engage customers who know and like and trust you will buy from you and that's what this kind of content is doing.
So try it out for yourself.
Check out a video we made on this: https://www.instagram.com/p/Co-dfOcIGyP/
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AD Creative TrifectaIf you can hit all these 3 key areas when thinking about your ad creatives you WILL be able to achieve testing scale👏🏼The 3 areas are MARKETING, AESTHETIC and TIME EFFICIENCYMarketing is how your creatives message comes across.Are you show case casing USPs or TESTIMONIALS in the content?Are you showing PROBLEM - SOLUTION so customers know why your product is the best for themAre you using great HOOKS and OFFERSAll of this key information is important for creating a solid creative marketing piece and shouldn't be neglectedHowever, recently businesses and brands are focusing so hard on their marketing messaging that they forget the brand style and aesthetic is still important! 🖼You need to stay ON BRAND and make sure the creative is appealing.This doesn't mean shot perfectly on professional camera, although there is room these beautiful brand pieces.It means keeping viewers engaged and impressed.For videos, make sure to have shot variety and shot length should be short and change often.Show the product in its environment (Check out this quick video on different ways to show your product off in video)Some brands try and make such a lovely creative (art is subjective btw) that they neglect the marketing message behind it.So don't forget to include this aesthetic when building your marketing videosLastly, you can nail both these areas - but if it takes far too long to build the content, it’s going to be hard to scale and test!You need to have systems in place for creating content at scaleFor example batch creating and batch editing.This is going to be the key especially for creative testing in ads.1 ad isn't going to help much - you need 3 variations at least of that 1 add.Find the balance in this trifecta and winWhat to do now?Book a call with our team who can show exactly how this trifecta at scale can be implemented for your businesshttps://calendly.com/d/grc-jmx-z75/creative-call-discovery
3 WAYS TO PUT OUT MORE CONTENT
This is my secret to turning out loads of content on a daily basis.
I'm gonna tell you three really great ways of getting content out without sacrificing quality.
BATCH CREATED
The first way to get more content out is to actually batch create it.
You may have noticed in the last few Instagram videos that I'm wearing the same T-shirt in every video.
Well that's because I've actually just been shooting my content back to back.
I bullet point out the things I want to talk about in my laptop and then I just ripped through the videos.
ACTIVATION ENERGY
The second most important thing, low activation energy
Activation energy is the amount of energy it takes to start something.
You've probably been in a position where you think I know I need to create content but I don't want to go and set up my camera, get a light, turn on my microphone, make sure all my batteries are charged.
Get in a nice area and look all fancy, that's activation energy and if it's high you won't do it, you'll find something else to do this easier with lower activation energy.
This is actually why there was a gap in our content because I didn't have a setup where it's actually easy to come in and shoot content. I had two high activation energy to start.
To find a way to get a little content corner or something where there's a permanent setup that you can just jump in and rip through those ideas that you have.
CONTENT DOCUMENTATION
Last point, don't always rely on content creation.
Sometimes you need to lean on content documentation.
This means to simply whip out your phone and just start documenting what's going on in your business, behind the scenes day to day instead of thinking up all these ideas and going and creating it.
Just document what's happening. It's actually very interesting and the authenticity normally lands really well with your audience. So three ways, go and try them.
If you want to chat about content and ad creatives for your brand, you can book a free call right here: https://calendly.com/lifelikemedia/creative-offer
Check out a video we made on this:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CikzMjGDRpS/
HOW TO INCREASE AVERAGE ORDER VALUE
What if every single time someone bought from you, it was a profitable exchange?
Now you're probably “thinking that's always the plan!”
But whenever you start to scale business and you try and run advertising, sometimes you do acquire customers at a loss.
But then once they're in your ecosystem at scale you could be retargeting them and re- marketing them for life. But the cost to acquire that customer can sometimes be a loss but it doesn't have to be.
What you can actually do is increase your average order value.
Increasing your AOV is going to help make sure that every purchase that comes in is more often than not a profitable exchange.
THREE WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR AOV
BUNDLES
First way is bundles.
Bundles are so powerful, for example maybe you're buying the makeup and you're adding the brush and the makeup remover.
That's a bundle.
They came for the makeup but they bought the bundle because the perceived value is so much higher, therefore your average order value then increases.
UPSELLS
The second way is up-sells.
Unlike a bundle where we're trying to sell them everything at the front end an up-sell happens whenever a buyer enters the checkout, purchases the first item and then at the end we say “why not add this?”
Say they buy a T-shirt, why not add the shorts?
This upsell can be done using very simple cart upsell features in Shopify apps.
FREE SHIPPING
The third way to increase your average order value is by offering the free shipping bump. If your current average order value is, let's say £65 average, and we want to increase that average order value, we can use this following equation.
Create a free shipping option IF customer spends AOV + 20%
For this example, you can let customers qualifiy for free shipping if they spend £80.
This means someone has to add another product to get over that £80 threshold, and then they qualify for free shipping.
The extra product is going to cover the £3.99 shipping costs, and you just increased your average order value.
If you want to chat about content and ad creatives for your brand, you can book a free call right here: https://calendly.com/lifelikemedia/creative-offer
Check out a video we made on this:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CjVy-zmja9M/
