The Ideal Home Show is the world’s longest running exhibition. Now in its 11th year, the show will be celebrating ‘The Best of British’, with experts offering insider knowledge on everything from interior design inspiration and landscape gardening, to tech trends and advice on wellbeing.
But with so many innovations in a market already so saturated, it’s getting more and more difficult for brands to prove they’re worth a second look. In the final part of this series we take a look at how you can utilise social media to engage with new audiences, without letting your focus move away from your existing customer base.
UTILISE THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Identify your platform: With so many different social media platforms it is important to identify which your target audience are using regularly. If your chosen demographic is over 40, Facebook is the place to be making an impression. If your sector is bridal or homeware, Pinterest users will be engaged with your offering. And finally, Instagram and Snapchat are great for brands targeting a younger consumer.
Create engaging content: The aim of your content is to encourage your target consumers to like, share, retweet, re-pin, register and download content on your brand. Engaging content can be in the form of:
- Competitions
- Interesting statuses
- Eye-catching imagery
- Humorous tweets, and much more
Be on the ball: Remaining aware and knowledgeable of emerging social apps is key when utilising social media. When you are targeting a younger demographic it is important position your brand as current and engaged with social trends.
Social Media in action: Surrey County Cricket Club
When Surrey County Cricket Club wanted to raise awareness of their home Twenty20 cricket matches with an aim to reach a wider audience to their core demographic we set to work. Our team deployed a multi-pronged approach using public relations techniques to engage female, youth and family audiences to create positive media narrative around Surrey’s annual family day match vs Essex.
We engaged with press and ‘mummy’ influencers in the local area to run ticketing competitions and giveaways in the lead up to the match. As an extent we secured extensive coverage and attracted more than 20,000 spectators – double the anticipated crowd.
AND FINALLY…DON’T ISOLATE YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMER BASE
Keep your customers: Engaging a new audience is important, however it is equally important not to alienate your existing base. Many brands successfully manage this through keeping a clear vision of who their customer is and ensuring that the activity for one customer group does not alienate another.
Customer Retention in action: Coca-Cola
This is a great example of a brand who has kept existing customers loyal but also engaged with new audiences is Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola launched ‘Diet Coke’ as a low-calorie female friendly alternative to the original Coke. Then came ‘Coke Zero’, a similar product to ‘Diet Coke’ but targeted specifically at men who wanted an alternative low-calorie option to ‘Diet Coke’. Most recently, Coca-Cola launched ‘Coke Life’, a low-calorie version of Coke sweetened with natural sources for the health-conscious market. The variety of Coca-Cola’s products, each with their own brand identity and communication strategy, allows each product to engage with new and existing audiences effectively, ensuring that the Coca-Cola group remain the market leader in carbonated soft drinks.
The tips and advice given above provide an outline of some of the key elements a successful PR strategy will incorporate to engage a new audience, and for more tips check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the series. If you would like to speak to experts regarding a campaign you are looking to launch or ways in which you can engage with a new audience, please get in touch with our Consumer PR team.