14 Social Media Campaign Ideas Based on Your Goals

Your product is perfected and ready to launch – all you need to do is tell people about it. While you are scrolling your news feeds, you are likely to bump into dozens of amazing social media campaign ideas. Thanks to the digital world, engagement with the customers has never been easier. But before you pick your perfect campaign ideas, it is important that your chosen strategy fits your specific goal.

Did you know that Neil Patel increased lead capture by 500% using LeadQuizzes

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Did you know that Neil Patel increased lead capture by 500% using LeadQuizzes

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Do you need to make people aware of your business? Do you want to engage potential customers, or the ones who already bought from you? Do you feel it is time to nurture your relationship with the existing customers?

Some campaigns’ goals tend to overlap – they can simultaneously engage with your existing followers and customers and help you acquire the new ones.

In this article, we’ll help you pick the perfect campaign ideas based on your goals.

Social Media Campaign Ideas for Generating New Leads and Customers

This is probably the most difficult and maybe the most exciting part of your marketing journey. You need to reach out to complete strangers and spark their interest in your product or services. But how do you do that in the world full of competitors who are vying for the same people’s attention?

1. Build suspense

Building suspense is one of the most effective strategies out of the classic marketing cookbook. For a good reason – a little bit of secrecy and mystery goes a long way with capturing everyone’s attention. If your riddle gets viral, it may even become interesting to your respective industry leaders or the media.

An excellent example of this social media campaign was set by Pinterest. It started off as an exclusive club you could access only with an invitation – and the secrecy created the buzz.

By the time Pinterest opened its doors to the entire world, major news outlets like BBC, Huffington Post, and TechCrunch did a number of cover stories about the mysterious new website.

pinterest campaign idea
Join the exclusive club. Even if you have no idea what it’s about.

Naturally, everyone was curious to register and find out what the deal was. But you don’t have to be a social media giant in the making to build suspense.

An effective question, riddle or mystery paired up with a good design can be quite enough to make your product go viral.

2. Solve an everyday problem

Your product does not have to end world hunger or stop the wars to be successful. Sometimes solving a small, mundane, yet relatable problem is quite enough.

A huge chunk of the $200 billion infomercial industry is based on just that – helping people cut vegetables more easily, separate egg yolk from egg white or paint their walls without the ensuing mess. Social media campaign ideas are all over your news feed!

PayPal campaign idea
No more math at the dinner table.

Even the payment platform PayPal utilized this technique in one of its email campaigns – promising the customers a smooth ride when they want to split the bill in the restaurant.

3. Challenge people

How many people knew about the ALS Association before the famous Ice Bucket Challenge? The organization wanted to spread the awareness of the motor neuron disease by challenging people to dump a bucket of ice over their head or have another person do it to them. The person would go on to nominate someone else for the challenge. They could opt out by making a financial contribution to the ALS Association. The campaign raised $115 million in donations.

ALS Association campaign idea
Henry Cavill and Amy Adams accepting the Ice Bucket Challenge

“It encourages a competitive spirit, with each participant trying to make their video more amusing, absurd or outrageous than the last. It also plays on the fact people often have narcissistic tendencies on their own social media feeds and enjoy an excuse to post images and videos of themselves,” Eb Adeyeri, strategy director of We Are Social told Guardian.

“It also embraces the community spirit of social media; rather than sponsoring someone to climb a mountain or run a marathon, the low barrier to entry means everyone can get involved and feel as though they’ve done something good with their day,” he added. Take notes!

4. Quiz People

Major content platforms like BuzzFeed have used quizzes for years to boost their engagement and presence on social networks. But you don’t have to be an established player to reap the benefits of social media campaigns.

The founder of Fit Father Project Anthony Balduzzi’s used a quiz as a focal point of his social media campaign on Facebook, giving people the opportunity to find out their results after they subscribe to his sales letter. The ad generated 15,000 leads for the newly established project. If you want to get even better results, you should consider automating your social media publishing plan with one of social media management tools.

Fit Father Project campaign idea

People want to be asked, analyzed, identified, assured, challenged in a light-hearted competition. On social media, quizzes are a particularly effective tool for driving and perpetuating engagement – because both draw their appeal from catering to similar emotions and social needs. 

Long story short, quizzes are a marketing campaign guaranteed to capture people’s attention – and here you can find a comprehensive guide to lead-capturing quizzes.

5. Giveaways and Discounts

No need to explain these too much – everyone loves to get stuff for free or for less money. Inviting people to join contests, share your content or tag their friends is an excellent way to draw in as many people as possible.

In its latest email campaign, SportsDirect invited people to engage with the brand on social networks. Prize? A pair of Nike shoes.

SportsDirect campaign idea

Earlier, SportsDirect offered discounts to users who use its mobile app to purchase their products. On the other hand, Dropbox gave away its users extra free space for every new customer they bring in.

dropbox campaign idea6. Talk to People

Social chats, live streaming or Q&A sessions where followers can ask you questions about your start-up, product or business can be an amazing opportunity to generate interest and engagement among your audience and potential customers.

Social Media Campaign Ideas for Building Engagement

While marketing campaigns aimed at capturing attention have to spark users’ interest or promise them some sort of instant value, engagement campaigns are a bit different. As we already mentioned, campaign goals and methods often overlap – as you connect to the existing audience, you are also reaching a new one.

However, engagement campaigns tend to be more entertaining, inspirational or educational, in order to emotionally connect the customers with a brand.

If you wish to manage your social campaigns with finesse, you can check out Shane Barker’s list of social media management platforms.

1. Ask your customers to get creative

Photo contests are an amazing way to build your social media following. You can invite people to post creative photos of themselves using your product or simply ask from them to get involved with your particular cause. This is what National Geographic did in 2014, launching a contest where its fans competed for a free vacation and their photograph featured on the magazine cover.

National Geographic campaign idea

Dove used a similar strategy with several contests in the company’s ongoing Real Beauty campaign. Users were encouraged to share pictures of themselves, along with the testimonials about dealing with their insecurities and building confidence. That way, Dove turned its customers into the powerful spokespeople for the brand. 

Dove campaign idea

2. Hashtag away

Daily hashtags, weekly hashtags, monthly hashtags – all excellent ways to engage with your audience on a regular basis. After a while, they will be waiting for the next challenge, question or a chance to talk to you.

One of the best examples for an A+ hashtag game is Oreo, which launched several successful hashtag campaigns like #PlayWithOreo and #OreoHorrorStories.

Oreo campaign idea
The power of milk compels you.

The latter came ahead of Halloween festivities, with Oreo posting several videos reenacting famous horror movie scenes with an Oreo cookie in the leading role. It didn’t take long for fans to jump on board and join the party.

Entertainment doesn’t have to be the primary goal of your hashtags – you can also use them to inspire people or strengthen a sense of common purpose or community among your followers. This was the case of #LikeAGirl hashtag created by Always.

Always campaign idea

Depending on your product and business, you can pick the right tone and time for your hashtag, and try to avoid some common mistakes such as unfortunate spelling or overly self-promotional angle. Remember that hashtag is here to help you reach out and engage – not sell the product this instant.

3. Ask honestly

You have no idea who your customers are, but you want to give them a smooth personalized experience with your business and products. Well, you can always skip formalities and simply ask for the information you need. This is what Amazon Local did in this email campaign – the company asked customers to tell them what they like and dislike in exchange for the relevant emails about Amazon’s products and services.

Amazon campaign ideaDear customers, yay or nay?

You can try a bit more heartwarming, personal approach like Clarks.

Clarks campaign idea
Deep down, we all want to believe it IS all about ourselves.

As people become more suspicious about sharing their personal information, these straightforward campaigns are a perfect way to earn back some trust. Explaining to your customers why you need to know about their preferences and how it’s going to improve your service goes a long way.

4. Re-engage

On average, two-thirds of shopping carts are abandoned. Fortunately, this is not where things have to end. According to an email automation company Moosend, more than 40% of cart abandonment emails are opened. Half of them are clicked on, and 50% of the users who clicked purchased the product.

Reengagement campaign idea 

It is essential that your re-engagement email campaign deals with the problems your customers encounter with your services.

Mindfulness and meditation app Aura dedicated this email campaign to the users who uninstalled the app. It is a formidable effort to reengage users with an understanding, informational message.

Aura campaign idea

Email Campaign Ideas for Nurturing Leads and Customers

Now that someone bought your products or used your services, you want to stay in contact with your customers – inform them about the upgrades, developments and engage them with your brand to turn them into loyal, lifelong customers.

At this point, you should know who these people are and what they want – so let’s look at some examples of nurturing a good relationship via marketing campaigns.

1. Make it easy for the customers

Most men don’t like shopping, trying on clothes or spending a lot of time on their appearance. What better way to engage your male customers than offer them your product in the simplest possible setting? This is how Bonobos did it, inviting them to immediately pick their shorts size and receive a 25% discount.

Bonobos campaign idea

 

2. Offer customers what they need

A good relationship with a customer does not need a lot of philosophy. This BookDepository email campaign informs the users about the latest discount – on books they added to their wish list. The language and design is delightfully simple and satisfying, reminding you of the items you want to buy and giving you the chance to do it at a lower price.

BookDepository campaign idea

3. Look at the time of the year

The spring is coming and so is the season of weddings. FragranceX is using this time of the year to engage brides among its customers and offer them a special discount for selected advertised products.

Screen Shot 2018-07-02 at 3.26.12 PM

While FragranceX keeps its language neutral, UncommonGoods is toying with the sense of urgency and guilt that may arise from not taking any action.

Uncommon Goods campaign idea
4. Be informative

If your product is good and your service is impeccable, you have the luxury of keeping things simple. Just informing a loyal customer about the latest addition to your catalog is enough for an instant click-through.

netflix
Play.

Conclusion

You may have noticed how our story slowly moved from one channel of communication to another – from social media campaign ideas to email campaign ideas. We did it for a reason, even though email isn’t exactly social media.

While social networks are a great way to get the word about your business going, the power of email campaigns dwarves them when it comes to your ultimate goal – sales. Read this article to learn more about the ways to build your email list as your campaign is progressing.

As your marketing strategy moves from one goal to another, your social media campaign ideas will adjust accordingly. However, don’t forget that promoting your brand begins and ends with a great product – and each campaign is a chance to learn more about the ways to develop and improve it.

Did you know that Neil Patel increased lead capture by 500% using LeadQuizzes

View Full Case Study

Did you know that Neil Patel increased lead capture by 500% using LeadQuizzes

View Full Case Study