ALPACA ASSESSMENTS - SOCIAL MEDIA

Tactically Implementing Free Trial on Social Media Channels

Why was a Trial Implementation Strategy needed?

The goals for the Free Trial implementation slightly differs to that of the social media strategy. Those were as follows:

Increase Awareness: Elevate the free trial’s visibility among educators and school administrators through engaging, informative content.
Drive Engagement: Foster interactions with our audience, encouraging inquiries and discussions about the trial’s impact on early childhood education.
Boost Trial Sign-ups: Convert interest into action by highlighting the ease of integration and the immediate benefits of ALPACA’s tools.
Expand Social Media Reach and Followers: Use the campaign to grow ALPACA’s social media footprint, attracting new followers and keeping them engaged with valuable content.

My Role:

My roles in this objective was as follows:

Research Best Practices and Techniques.
Create a Calendar for the Pre-Free Trial Period.
Create Content and Implement the Strategy.

Best Practice and Techniques

Based on the research into best strategies and lessons learned from previous social media efforts with ALPACA, the following techniques were identified as key points for this campaign:

Clear Calls to Action (CTAs): Clear and compelling CTAs were used to guide users on exactly what to do next, such as “Learn More” or “To Sign up -.” The language was action-oriented, direct, and simple to maximize user engagement and conversion rates.

Creating Share-Worthy Content: The content aimed to be informative and visually appealing. This, we hopped, would not only increase the visibility of the free trial but also help in building organic reach and credibility.
Creating a Sense of Urgency: Elements of urgency and anticipation were incorporated in CTAs and posts to encourage quick action. Posts showing “Only 11 days left” and “This is your last chance!” were used to create a fear of missing out (FOMO) and prompted users to sign up for the trial quickly (Hubspot, 2023).

Content Calendar

Breakdown of Content Calendar

Consistent Posting Times: Posts were scheduled for 12pm, aligning with times when our target market was most likely to be online as researched in the social media strategy.
Emphasis Was Placed on Calls to Action: A greater prominence of calls to action was maintained throughout the campaign to encourage sign-ups and participation.
Posting Frequency Was Increased in Pre-Trial Period: Numerous posts were scheduled during the pre-trial period to maximize the impact of the free trial and build anticipation and awareness.
Ongoing Campaign Goals: Visibility, building trust, engagement and education were still prominent goals in this campaign, similar to that of the initial strategy.

Content Creation +
Implementation of the Strategy

Timeframe

1 Week

Reach

2,184

Engagements

74 New followers

31 Results of the campaign

Unfortunately, similar to previous issues with the social media strategy, posting frequency was a problem that led to an underperforming campaign. Only 3 of the 9 scheduled posts were actually published. However, during the one-week period when these posts went live, they proved to be some of the most fruitful for ALPACA in terms of reach, engagements, and new followers.

Below can be seen the individual metrics for the posted content.

KPIs - Goals

Achieve a 7.5% increase in followers on our targeted social media platforms by the end of the free trial period.
Generate at least 500 sign-ups for the free trial from social media leads.
Increase engagement rates (likes, comments, shares) by 2.5% on content related to the free trial campaign.

KPIs - Results

During the duration of this campaign, there was a 5.06% increase in follower count. Although the goal was not fully met, given the short span of the campaign, this result is considered successful. Had the campaign run as initially planned, it is believed that the target would have been achieved.
While the exact number of sign-ups generated via social media leads is unknown, ALPACA has met its overall free trial sign-up goal of 1,124, according to the data analysis.
The engagement rate during the campaign was 5.31%, an increase from the previous rate of 2.93%. Although this did not meet the expected targets, the improvement in engagement is still considered a success, albeit narrowly missing the set goals.