Targeting social posts during COVID-19

What goals have you set for your social channels during the coronavirus? If you’re like many craft beverage brands, social has become your go-to for communicating openings/closures, hours of operation, procedures and other COVID-19-related updates. Splashy new release posts and staged product packaging shots reassure fans and followers that you’re open. You may have even caught the production team in some candid, behind-the-scenes footage, reminding everyone that craft beverage is still fun. So, what’s the problem?

Your customers aren’t in the photos.

The reasons for this are obvious: social distancing, gathering limitations, take-out options…the pandemic has radically changed the way we typically enjoy tasting rooms. And the content shared socially is a direct reflection of that. However, the effect on your business is a little more subtle. Organic growth in craft beverage social channels is slowing because your posts aren’t reaching new customers. We’ll help you introduce your brand to new drinkers by targeting your social efforts: 

• Lifestyle content
• Facebook/Instagram
• Twitter
• Guide to Marketing During COVID-19

A client in Denver recently shared an aggressive goal of increasing Facebook page likes 30% by the end of the year. In March they were on-track to achieve that goal, but since then they have plateaued and even lost followers and engagement. Their posting calendar consists of creative and beautifully-staged product shots in the tasting room, outdoors and queued for curbside pickup, but no customers. We agreed that promoting or boosting content was the only way to reach new audiences and achieve an ambitious social goal during COVID-19. We’ll walk you through the steps in a sample targeting exercise below.

lifestyle content

Craft beverage brands have shown both resilience and creativity during the coronavirus: going virtual to entertain fans, participating in online festivals and embracing ecommerce. All this while supporting frontline workers and balancing the in-person and remote needs of the community. Digital is our primary point of connection with friends, families and businesses. So why are the client’s social channels not performing as expected?

Without featuring guests safely enjoying themselves, there’s little pushing a new customer to visit your tasting room for the first time during COVID-19. Because to many, a trip to your tasting room is more calculated than spontaneous – they must first be comfortable with your pandemic procedures. Imagery of customers and staff interacting at a safe distance helps attract new customers who are easing back into social gathering (where allowed). For a complete list of ideas or to discuss ways to creatively share safe social gathering content, just pick a time to talk with a storytelling expert.

facebook/instagram

Once you have the photo or video content that:

• features customers (with their permission)
• enjoying themselves
• in a socially-distanced/safe environment

…it’s time to post to Facebook and Instagram. Page Admins can then have that post show up in the feed of users who haven’t liked the page yet (called “boosting” the post). This requires you to set up an Ad Account in Business Manager, if they haven’t done so already. To illustrate, we’ll walk through a sample targeting exercise to reach new drinkers in the area surrounding our home office outside Denver, Colorado. We’ve highlighted our choice at each step, showing the audience increase or decrease. If you are a Page Admin:

1. Navigate to the post you wish to boost and click “Boost Post”
2. Under Audience, select “Create New,” name your Audience and select the attributes that most closely resemble your craft beverage drinker, for example:

Then, it’s a matter of timing and budget. Select a Duration (how long to feature the post) and a Total Budget (not to exceed) and Facebook will estimate the number of people reached daily across both Facebook and Instagram platforms. Here’s the expected performance of our craft beverage post using the above targeting and sample budget for 5 days: 

While the performance estimates are broad, it’s easy to see how targeting can help achieve your social goals. Choosing the right targeting options gives you the best chance of reaching someone willing to take action – liking the Page in our client example. Facebook doesn’t allow targeting users who have checked-in at a tasting room, so we filtered our list by a set of Behaviors we thought would deliver more likes:

• Engaged Shoppers: users who clicked on an ad in the last week
• Frequent Travelers: more likely to travel away from home under normal conditions
• Interested in Upcoming Events: actively seeking safe activities outside the home

The timing of your boosted post is critical. With frequent changes to COVID-19 guidelines for doing business in your state, the imagery and text in your post could become outdated quickly. Boosts may be paused or canceled from your Ad Account.

twitter

You can post similar lifestyle content to Twitter, giving users a compelling reason to follow your account. We like Twitter for quick, timely posts about your tasting room, especially in the ever-changing coronavirus environment. You only pay for new followers who discovered your brand from a promoted tweet or ad. Again, we’ve highlighted our choice at each step. From the homepage of your Twitter account, Page Admins can:

1. Click on “More” and then “Twitter Ads”
2. Select “Create an ad”
3. In this example, we’re looking for “Consideration: Followers” as an objective
4. Give your campaign a name and specify a Daily or Total Budget for a date range
5. You can also group your ad creative by name, with its own budget and date range
6. Under Targeting, select the attributes that most closely resemble your craft beverage drinker, for example:

Once you choose your creative (either an uploaded photo/video or an existing tweet), you can start your campaign. While the process is easier to set up in Twitter, it doesn’t offer all the targeting options available in Facebook/Instagram. Your performance estimates also don’t change based on budget or duration. For those reasons, we recommend craft beverage brands try different creative executions to see which one(s) deliver your social goals.

guide to marketing during COVID-19

Market Your Craft offers owners confidence their customer-facing digital efforts are driving tasting room traffic, building customer engagement and capturing new sales. We’ve designed a guide with proven marketing tools to empower your team during the pandemic:

• Message COVID-19 effectively
• Design a procedures landing page
• Notify everyone of your hours
• Support frontline workers
• Reach new audiences
• Develop content and events
• Engage customers with video
• And more!

Schedule a complimentary Zoom call to review your digital efforts and receive “A Glass Half-Full: Marketing During COVID-19” (a $99 value). Sharpen your focus on customer needs and keep fans engaged during the pandemic.

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