What can we say? 2018 was a great year for Captivate! We’ve welcomed new clients, pushed out to new markets and gained some new, shiny additions to our team. But as with any approach to another year of hard work, it’s time to reflect on what tactics were successful, what campaigns not so much and how to apply this to 2019.
From handy design hacks to easy social media pushes, here’s our Captive New Year resolutions:
1) Invite the audience you really want
“For me, one of the simplest but most effective things I have learnt in 2018 lies in a little white button called ‘invite’. When creating Facebook ad campaigns for new clients, I was seeing a great increase in reach and engagement but follower counts didn’t reflect spikes in user actions. Without wanting to waste allocated budget on campaigns that simply attract follows from bots, empty accounts and users who would never go to the restaurant, I started manually inviting users who have engaged with campaigns each day. Something I’ve always thought of as spammy has not only greatly increased following from users genuinely interested in content but improved levels of engagement for all of my posts overall. It’s definitely the trick I will be bringing with me into the New Year!”
– Frankie Lane, Marketing Account Manager
2) It’s all about the context
“One area of design I worked hard to focus on in 2018 was context. It’s so important when working on a design to keep asking questions like:
– Where will this be seen?
– What will be competing with this for attention?
– What frame of mind will the audience be in when they view this?
My aim for the new year is to turn my conscious thinking about context into subconscious habit, to ensure I’m creating the most effective visual communication I can.”
– Sharni Beere, Designer
3) Don’t leave it all to automation
“One of the tactics I’ll be bringing into 2019 is short and simple. We saw a rise in automation across all social media channels last year but none have had quite the same effect as Instagram direct publishing. Scheduling posts on Instagram through CMS is finally as easy as Facebook and Twitter but don’t forget to put in the hours! Spending the time commenting on your competitor’s posts, liking content which is trending in your location and reaching out to followers with a genuine tone of voice makes sure you won’t lose any of the engagement you had before automation.”
– Nicole Falk, Senior Marketing Account Manager
4) Go big (with a creative campaign) or go home
“2018 was a year of realisations that bigger can be better, if a campaign has an interesting aspect, is a bit different, raise the budget and push the boat out to let it reach it’s full potential, you’re doing all the work to come up with the campaign and implement it and push it to your audience, so give the extra boost to reach a wider audience. So for 2019 we will be working towards more creative campaigns for our clients, not the “free drink” or “10% off” trends but more the “Anti-Valentine’s Day” and the “Let mum spoil you on Mother’s Day” campaigns.”
– Tarryn Smith, Senior Designer
Now we’re all a little wiser, take advantage of that new year energy and get in touch with the Captivate team to kick off your marketing strategy for 2019!
Give us a call on 020 3954 6253 or easily fill in a contact form here
