Socialpals Introduction Socialpals 8211 Buylocal
Management Summary
With SocialPALS you can manage and optimize your social media marketing. You can find out why this is important and how you can use the program to your advantage here.
What is SocialPALS?
SocialPALS is a software solution for digital, local retail marketing. The purpose is to effectively promote a range of goods or services together.
Brands provide CI-compliant marketing content on the platform to reach local target groups via the digital channels of retail partners. Once registered, retailers can start campaigns with one click and reach potential customers through professional online advertising at any location without spending any time or special knowledge.
“Temporary Closed” – Digital transformation due to the pandemic
Since the first lockdowns due to Covid, most brands have had to rethink their approach. Brick-and-mortar retailers were forced to remain closed and therefore (now at the latest) rely on online marketing measures. Because: A third of consumers want to visit brick-and-mortar stores less often than before the pandemic, and among 18 to 29 year olds the figure is almost half.
This online shift has decreased slightly due to the decreasing number of infections. Nevertheless, online trading is stronger than ever before and it is no longer possible to imagine a successful marketing strategy without it.
#Buylocal – Buying locally is in
The crisis has had a lasting impact on consumer behavior. Internet-savvy consumers, who have long benefited from price research and same-day delivery, are becoming the “new normal.”
All market segments must learn how dependent they are on external factors and how quickly their consumers switch to major competitors. A suitable communication strategy is required to permanently attract customers to the store.
As the pace of everyday life increases, the demands placed on marketing also change. Instead of rigid campaign planning, a targeted approach and quick and flexible action are crucial. In short, thematically appropriate advertising packages must be designed in such a way that they always offer the necessary reach – and often with manageable budgets.
Key Benefit: The retailer as sender
When potential customers search for products online, the problem presents itself in two ways. On the one hand, only the respective brands themselves are displayed as senders. On the other hand, retailers have little reach and visibility in the user’s local area.
The brand’s advertising message is then played out as part of a national or international online campaign, but usually has less to do with the respective region and therefore with the established retailer in which the purchase was made. This means that the customer journey is only covered to a limited extent.
With a decentralized sales structure, it is almost impossible to redirect advertising pressure at an international or national level to regional sales areas. As a result, interested parties often buy from more prominent local competitors or directly from large, well-known online shops (which are often out of competition when it comes to advertising budgets).
This is where SocialPALS comes into play; The platform can therefore be used as a headquarters to create and control collective advertising campaigns, but with their own sender.
The concept, source: SocialPALS
A Guide – How SocialPALS Works
After an ad account has been created, it can be filled with new campaigns in the campaign HUB:
Campaign HUB, Source: SocialPALS
The name of the campaign, the duration and the number of participating retailers can be viewed here. A suitable cover photo also helps you find the right campaign at first glance. These cards can be created in advance in a kind of “draft mode” for each campaign and participating retailers can be invited.
The invitations can be created individually for each campaign.
You can find a good example of how this can be designed here:
Hello dear Max Mustermann,
Nice that you are taking part in the campaign!
This is how you benefit from the campaign:
The XXX theme is advertised online and you are the sender of the ad. This increases your level of awareness and brings customers to your store.
Advantages of socialPALS:
- Initial registration in just about 10 minutes (if you don’t have an account yet)
- Content provided –textually and temporally customizable
- Advertising budget for Facebook and Instagram – for your target group-oriented online advertising
- NEW! Book additional advertising budget and achieve higher visibility
- All campaign material will also be available to you after the campaign via the download area
- socialPALS support throughout the campaign
The prerequisite for participation is that the dealer has completed registration in advance, which includes information such as the name of the Facebook/Instagram page and the location.
To get back to the keyword #buylocal:
Geotargeting is particularly important in SocialPALS campaigns because the focus is on the radius around the retailer location.
Geotargeting, source: SocialPALS
Campaign settings in SocialPALS
After the campaign has been created, several settings can be made in the “Campaign Details” menu bar.
The most important ones are explained in detail below.
Campaign details, source: SocialPALS
Create and add content for your campaign, such as Facebook posts, Instagram posts, images and videos for your social networks.
1 – Select the content type you want to add to your category.
2 – Upload the graphics and set the details.
Campaign image, source: SocialPALS
Settings for the targeting, budget and goal of the campaign can be made under the “Ads” tab.
One of the special features of SocialPals is the budget setting. Here you can set a budget limit as well as the maximum number of ads per partner and the maximum duration of an ad. Our recommendation here would be not to have a daily budget of €10.
Budget limits, source: SocialPALS
Another benefit of the tool is the ability to choose from several landing page options.
Depending on the campaign goal, you can vary a lot here. For example, if you want to increase traffic on your own retailer page, the action we have ticked makes the most sense. But if, for example, a separate landing page was created for the campaign, the last option might be the best fit.
Landing page link, source: SocialPALS
The last step is to time the ads created under “Content” correctly. For this we use the calendar tab to time the individual advertisements precisely. As soon as the campaign has started, you can view the current campaign performance in real time at any time under the “Dashboard” tab:
Of course, participating retailers also have the opportunity to analyze the performance of the ads that come from their own sender.
The user experience is designed so that even “non-marketing experts” can find their way around and get a good overview of the most important metrics such as impressions, clicks and budget.
Calendar, source: SocialPALS
Campaign performance, source: SocialPALS
Conclusion:
socialPALS creates the opportunity to provide high-quality content and (multi-channel) campaigns in a “bite-sized” manner. This makes work extremely easier for customers with little social media know-how. The entire campaign is ready with just a few clicks, even if compromises have to be made in terms of complex reporting. The support when onboarding new partners is also worth highlighting.
