Social media has quickly risen to become the number one source to communicate with our friends, family, and colleagues. The extensiveness of social media in our daily lives has ascended exponentially since 2004. As of 2021, there are approximately 3.78 billion global social media users; that is about half of the world’s population!
The effortless use of smartphones means that we have access to any and all social media platforms via widgets and apps at our fingertips and therefore we are seeing companies develop solid social media strategies.
The motivation behind the success of these marketing strategies is that approximately 54% of consumers use social media to research products they are interested in buying. Consumers are engaging with companies on social media, reading other customer comments, and seeing tagged photos of products that they are looking to purchase.
The power of influencer Marketing
When your packaging is unique, there is a higher likelihood that customers will snap and share a photo of your product. This is purely free marketing driven by the consumer. People are also more likely to purchase a product if it is recommended by a friend.
Thus the power of influencer marketing. While many influencers are paid for their posts, if there are a select few who gravitate towards your packaging or product, that is an incredibly powerful tool for exposure.
Does your company have a social media presence?
If the answer is no, stop everything you are doing and set up a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, or Tiktok! While the various social media platforms can feel overwhelming, do some research into what your target demographic uses most.
For example, Facebook is the preferred platform of Baby Boomers, Instagram is prevalent among Millennials, and TikTok is the voice of Gen Z.
Designing your packaging
When designing your packaging, use these helpful tips to lead customers to your social media pages:
- Add social media icons and handles to your packaging
- Start a unique hashtag that customer can use when sharing your product; while hashtags aren’t copyrighted, you want to make sure that another company isn’t already widely used. Check out the #shareacoke hashtag for some inspiration on how to use a unique hashtag to promote brand awareness and visibility
- Start growing hashtag feeds by encouraging friends and family to share your product with the hashtag – try to include it in your general profile so that it is one of the first things a customer sees when they visit your page
- Monitor your hashtags, respond to people who post about you to create positive engagement
- Reply, like, respond, repost! Every bit of engagement on your page is a potential sale, therefore put in effort to respond positively to comments and DMs. Many customers also love seeing their photos reposted on a company’s page; try to do the occasional repost! It helps to build a relationship with customers
If you are unsure of where or how to start incorporating social media into your packaging, seek the advice of our client services team who can determine the best packaging strategy for your organisation - contact us.
Controlling Packaging Costs
