We are always on the lookout for ways to better utilise the various Social Media platforms that we use; so the recent news that Twitter’s ad platform is now being made available to SME’s in the UK has certainly caught our attention.
Twitter’s self-serve ad platform features two ways in which users can advertise; by promoting accounts or by promoting tweets and is currently only available to SME’s which affords an excellent opportunity to wield a tool not currently being utilised by any of your larger competitors.
I have little doubt that the power to reach and engage with larger audiences, coupled with the ability to broadcast tweets to a well-targeted and previously unreachable audience will attract a significant amount of attention from law firms.
As excited as I am about the possibilities of Twitter Ads I must put my marketer’s hat on and implore you to approach this exciting new opportunity with caution. It’s easy to get carried away with an exciting new tool like Twitter Ads but adopting a gung-ho approach to your ad campaign could lead to a hefty bill to present to the Partners as well as disheartening results.
In order to make the most of Twitter Ads it must be approached like any other marketing campaign, with clear objectives set out from the onset and results driven ROI focus. In order to help you use this medium effectively we have prepared three questions you should ask yourself before starting a Twitter Ads campaign.
1) Who will I be targeting?
Having a vast number of followers looks great on paper, but unless the followers you have acquired actually care about what you’re saying and are engaged enough to follow any calls to action that you tweet then there is no real business benefit to be gained. The key to acquiring quality followers is effective targeting.
Profiling of your existing best clients is a simple but remarkably underutilised method of developing an accurate picture of the characteristics that you should be targeting. You’re best prospects will often look like your existing best clients so why wouldn’t you profile before any campaign? Existing customer data should be easily accessible provided your firm has a history of good CRM practice, and it shouldn’t take too long to draw inferences on the characteristics that should be targeted.
Once you have developed an accurate picture of the type of follower you would like to acquire, you can include this information in your targeting options for a campaign. Targeting by interests, geography and gender are all straightforward; Targeting by keywords is an altogether more challenging prospect and with this, the devil really is in the detail.
Keyword targeting allows you to target keywords and phrases that match with users that tweet with the keywords you enter. Knowing the words your targets tweet is a skill that may take some time to master but the rewards are potentially large for those willing to invest the time.
2) Do I have the content ready to keep acquired followers engaged?
A good content marketing strategy can drive traffic to your website, increase the amount of telephone enquiries and downloads you receive and generate real interest in your products and services. Quality content is a stimulus for engagement with your firm and provides the added bonus of positioning your firm as an authority in your given field.
Without a solid content strategy in place acquired followers will soon lose interest in your law firm, so before the outlay in Twitter Ads spend make sure you have the resources, time and motivation to produce interesting and relevant content that will keep your acquired followers loyal and consequently far more likely to share and provide positive word of mouth about your law firm both online and offline.
3) Will I be able to track the effectiveness of my Twitter campaign?
There are countless tools out there that enable users to track pre-defined metrics related to a social media campaign; a detailed review of the tools available for social media tracking is beyond the scope of this blog post (maybe one for the future); we use Hootsuite which we find an excellent tool for tracking awareness and scheduling campaigns.
Before embarking on a Twitter Ads campaign make sure that you are comfortable with whichever tool you use to track a campaign, setting up a low cost test campaign is a sensible way to pilot a tracking tool or piece of software.
Concluding thoughts
I hope that by asking the following three questions before starting a Twitter Ads campaign you will be able to confidently use the platform and begin to benefit from a well-planned and strategic approach to your social media campaign.
As always we are putting our money where our mouth is and trialling the Twitter Ads platform for ourselves. We have opted for a promoted Tweet campaign with three separate Tweets promoting different services that we offer.
Our early results:
Impressions= 24,700
Engagements = 292
- 2 Retweets
- 1 reply
- 7 follows
- 292 clicks
Spend = £96
Engagement rate: 1.22%
Effective Cost per Engagement: £0.32
If you would like to discuss Twitter Ads or any other social media objectives your firm would like to pursue, please get in touch. For more great ideas to help boost your law firms Twitter marketing download are tips booklet “53 Ideas To Help Law Firms Raise Brand Awareness Through Twitter.”