Tuesday, May 21

🗣 Running a B2B and want to reach 33,441 DTC Brands? Start here

Ask Ibrahim: If you need advice for your business, ask our DTC expert here

WHAT’S HOT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

What do we love about it?

• Experiential activation (as the tweet suggests)

• People talk about it (word-of-mouth)

• People take pictures/videos, and share on socials (because it’s cool)

• Really good content they could use for socials/ads

Thoughts? Reply and let us know..

MINISOCIAL

Take a page out of the book of Banza, Topicals, Imperfect Foods, and MeUndies and partner with miniscoial for their micro influencer campaigns, which is the key to unlocking consistent engagement on Instagram and TikTok and content that you can leverage across all of your marketing channels.

Stop wasting your time emailing dozens of creators every day, easily partner with minisocial and get 25, 50, 100 creators booked up for your next campaign within a week.  

minisocial is a fully-managed solution that partners your brand with high-quality micro influencer creators who produce fully-licensed content AND share it with their followers! It's the best two-in-one solution out there. 

Scared of commitment? Good, they don’t have any. Just pay per project you choose to spin up.

Reasons Why Your Video Ads Suck

Unengaging Hook: If your video doesn’t grab attention within the first few seconds, viewers will scroll right past. Make sure to start with something intriguing or eye-catching to keep them hooked.

Video Resolution: Grainy or low-quality videos can make your brand look unprofessional. Invest in high-resolution production to ensure your content looks sharp and engaging.

Audio Quality: Poor audio can be just as off-putting as bad visuals. Ensure your sound is clear and pleasant to keep viewers from immediately hitting the mute button.

Excess use of Stock Photos and Videos: Overusing generic stock images and videos can make your content feel impersonal and uninspired. Aim for unique, brand-specific visuals to stand out.

Not Using Real Faces of the Brand: An extension over the above topic. Real Faces connect more with people than faceless entities. Showcasing the faces behind your brand builds trust and relatability.

Poor Attention Grabbing Visuals: Bland or overly complex visuals can cause viewers to lose interest. Use vibrant, dynamic imagery to capture and maintain their attention.

Lack or Excess of Branding: Too much branding can feel like a hard sell, while too little can leave viewers unsure about who you are. Find a balance to keep your brand identity clear without overwhelming the content.

Not Optimising for Silent Viewing: Many users watch videos without sound, especially on social media. Make sure your content is understandable through visuals and captions alone.

Lack of Emotional Appeal: If your video doesn’t evoke any emotions, it’s unlikely to leave a lasting impression. Tap into feelings to create a more engaging and memorable experience.

Too Much Complexity: Overloading viewers with complex information can overwhelm and turn them away. Keep your message simple and easy to digest.

Ineffective Storytelling: A video without a clear, engaging story will quickly lose viewers’ interest. Craft a compelling narrative to keep them engaged from start to finish.

Not Optimising for Mobile Viewing: Most viewers watch videos on their phones, so make sure your content is mobile-friendly. This includes considering screen size and loading times.

Inconsistent Rhythm and Pacing: Erratic pacing can confuse and disengage viewers. Maintain a consistent and dynamic flow to keep the audience’s attention throughout the video.

Not Addressing Viewer’s Curiosity: Failing to pique curiosity can result in viewers tuning out. Pose questions or present intriguing scenarios early to keep them watching for answers.

Ineffective Use of Thumbnails: Your thumbnail is the first thing viewers see, so make it count. An unappealing or misleading thumbnail can result in lower engagement and missed opportunities.

IBRAHIM’S NUGGETS

Heyyy,

Today, let’s talk about something that most good direct-response ads should contain. Not saying they need, but can make a positive impact! I’ve been travelling lately, so I’ll keep today’s nuggets quite short.

Alright, let’s get into it..

A Specific Avatar

This is one I have been guilty of a lot. I think this has gotten worse as people have embraced broad targeting on Meta. When you're doing broad targeting, you're not. You are doing interest targeting; just doing it at the content level now. Your ad won't show to everyone, especially if you're optimizing for purchase conversions—which, you should be doing with direct-response ads.

I've been guilty of speaking to everyone with ads, and that often falls flat. You want to speak to a very specific customer avatar and allow the algorithm to use it to serve it to people who will resonate with it. You need to really understand your customers and know why they really buy your products. The deeper, more emotional reason, the better.

I would have someone on your team be responsible for customer research, which includes reviews, social commentary, and customer support inbox, but it should also include actually getting on the phone with customers and asking leading questions.

This horizontal, content-based targeting is perhaps the best way to scale. You likely have different types of people or avatars buying your products for different reasons. Let's say you are selling orthotics for shoes. There are different problems they can solve, that might appeal to different avatars.

Here are just a few examples:

1. Pregnant Women with foot pain

2. Runners with heel pain

3. Doctors and nurses on their feet all-day

4. People with back pain

Instead of just doing some generic "fix foot pain" ads, you can use different creative styles to help reach varying avatars and audiences with content that will resonate to them.

Alright folks, that’s it for today.

I’ll see y’all tomorrow inside the deep dive!

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Have any questions that you need help with?

Ask here - and look out for Fridays Issue where Ibrahim will answer them.