Huzzah! We won an award! This year, The Web Marketing Association presented our recent ad campaign for Fremont Bank with an Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) award for Best Bank Social Media Campaign.
How did our work win this award?
Our social media campaign was successful because of five key elements:
1. Clear Objectives
Know who you are talking to and what the key messages should be.
Imagine your core audience. Who are they? Where are they? How can we reach them directly? What do we want to provide them with and how will we communicate it? These are all things to consider when crafting key messages.
Here, the audience was our client’s end customers: account holders at the bank. We imagined their frustrations when experiencing issues (we’ve all been there!) and thought about what kinds of messages would reassure and capture their attention.
2. Engaging Graphics
Whether it’s animation, video, imagery or illustration, graphics should be on brand and appealing to your audience.
Visuals are a great way to grab attention and break up longer blocks of text, thus making them easier to digest and understand. An easy way to keep your graphics on-brand is to have them follow your company’s color palette. Whatever form your graphics take, keep your audience in mind to ensure they’ll be engaged by what you present.
This was the fun part—envisioning graphics that spoke to our audience’s needs while conveying a sense of trust and competence on our client’s part. The end result was a series of illustrations and animations that spoke to the power of the product in a fun, humorous, and engaging way.
3. Clear Call to Action
Having one clear action to take is essential.
An effective Call to Action (CTA) encourages the audience to take a step in the direction of your goal: such as clicking a button, entering information into a form, or contacting you directly. The CTA should be framed in a way that aligns with your goal for the campaign.
In this campaign, all ads directed the audience to a landing page regarding the benefits and convenience of Fremont Bank’s virtual concierge. This page was an integral part in communicating why you should bank with Fremont Bank—they’re a business that is innovative and cares about giving their customers the best support possible.
4. Complementary Variations
One ad on its own is unlikely to convert. Variations on the same ad—similar in tone, graphics, and its call to action—win the day.
This campaign tested several versions of copy, color schemes, and CTAs to ensure the ads optimized content for performance.
5. Advanced Analytics
While all campaigns build brand awareness, tracking the engagement and conversion rates allows us to learn more about our audience and better understand how the marketing funnel is performing. Is there a stage where your customers are getting stuck? Are your customers loyal and returning?
Advanced analytics tell you what parts of your campaign are and are not working and provide actionable insight on how you can adjust your ads in real-time. Tracking this ad showed us that animations were a big hit with our audience, which opened the door to additional animations for successive campaigns.
Consider these five key elements to ensure your next ad campaign is a success.
How can we help your business create the next award-winning ad campaign? Get in touch and let us know!
