Every new year brings opportunities for marketers to try new things, improve upon their old strategies and pitch ideas that have never been brought to the table before. But it’s one thing to come up with a creative idea. It’s another to pitch a social media marketing campaign and secure your boss’ approval to execute it, especially when you consider the impact the events of 2020 have had on marketing as a whole.
A powerful pitch, regardless of the circumstances, requires preparation, proof of concept and a plan for execution. In this article we’ll walkthrough:
Content themes that have potential for 2021
Using social data to prepare your pitch
Showing how your idea supports business goals
Packaging and presenting your pitch to get your team on board
What’s the big idea? Inspiration for your social media marketing pitch
In 2021, brands may be a bit more cautious with their content due to the pandemic and growing concerns around appearing out of touch or insensitive to consumers’ needs. At the same time, they’ll need to find ways to stand out from their competition in the saturated digital space. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to completely reinvent your brand and social strategy.
A great marketing pitch idea could be as big as an original campaign or as minor as adjusting your tone of voice on social. Consider what is top of mind for your business and your specific audience and use that to influence what ideas you pitch.
According to the 2020 Sprout Social Index™, the top three reason consumers follow brands on social are to:
Learn about new products or services
Stay up to date on company news
Learn about promotions or discounts
Pandemic or not, those reasons aren’t going anywhere.
If the pandemic is still top of mind for you and making you rethink your 2021 social media calendar, consider pitching content ideas that support and benefit your audience. That might mean building content that highlights the precautions your brand is taking in store or investing more in your social customer care strategy. According to Hubspot, the “four Cs”—community, cleanliness, contactless and compassion—will be a good point of focus for brands, especially those that rely on in-person interactions.
Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Hortons will get new modern drive-thrus at 10,000 locations to increase contactless payment and other digital amenities 🍔 pic.twitter.com/oWLIcyvBhB
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) October 29, 2020
Coming in fourth on the list of reasons consumers follow brands is to be entertained. Considering that 2020 was a rather tense year, you might also consider pitching content or campaigns that encourage joy scrolling rather than doom scrolling.
Thanks for reminding us to let love shine @SamSmith. #LoveGoes #KeepWalking https://t.co/1w2vvv0oWK
— Johnnie Walker (@johnniewalker_) October 30, 2020
The aforementioned stats and data should merely be a starting point that you might build upon. Once you do have more solidified, brand-specific ideas, if third-party data inspired them, embed the relevant stats in your pitch. Showing that there is merit and appetite for your ideas among your target audience can assure the people you’re pitching to that you’re onto something.
Do you have social proof that your audience will dig your idea?
Trends can be good for inspiring new ideas, but not every social trend will work for your brand. Social listening can help you hone in on specific trends and content your target audience is most interested in and engaged with, which may spark a social idea worth pursuing.
For example, a restaurant franchise used Sprout’s social listening tool to determine which menu item to feature in a new campaign. After analyzing the themes in conversations around their brand, the franchise found that nachos weren’t discussed as frequently as other food items, but they had the highest percentage of positive mentions compared to other dishes. The franchise used that insight to create new content promoting their nachos knowing their customers would be happy and engaged.