GETTING THE INFO YOU NEED FOR SOCIAL MEDIA + EMAIL MARKETING
This is for our social media managers and email marketers!
As good as you are at your job, you can only truly be effective if you have a constant, dependable pipeline of information from your client or, if you’re in-house, boss. This can be in the form of company updates, photos, videos, copy, news articles, links, contact information, and more.
And we all know what it’s like when you don’t have that free exchange of information. At best it causes some frustration. At worst, it results in missed deadlines and the loss of audience engagement and trust.
So what can you do as a social media manager or email marketing manager [and we know a lot of you do both!] to ensure you have a solid pipeline of information? Here are a few tips that have worked for us:
Prepare calendars at least one month in advance. Planning out your client’s marketing in advance gives them time to gather the information and media you need. This also leaves you time to remind them to send you things without the project being delayed.
Be specific. Do you need a certain picture or for your client to film a video? Tell them exactly what you need - what to say, how to frame it, what angle, what lighting, etc. When your instructions are vague, your client is more likely to push off the assignment and/or send you media you can’t use. Clear direction makes it easier on everyone!
Unpopular opinion - invite text messages and emails during your off hours. We know!!! And we’re not saying you have to respond to them immediately. But when your client sees their work featured in print, or they snap a photo at an event that they’d like to have featured, or if they just get a great idea that they want to share, don’t be too strict about how you get this information. Let them send it to you in the moment, before they forget. Trust us - getting a couple of random texts on the weekend is better than having to chase people down for content!
Create a folder on Google Drive or Dropbox for your client to drop things into. Make sure their entire team has access. We’ve found that it’s best to be flexible with which platform you use. With some clients we use Dropbox and with others we use Google Drive. How do we pick? We go with whichever one the client is most likely to actually use!
Visit them on site. Depending on how you structure your contracts, you may need to charge more for this, but meeting your client on site to take a few photos and videos can save everyone time and stress. You’ll get the exact shots you want when you want them, and your client doesn’t have to do it on their own.
Looking for more tips? Sign up for our email list HERE!
