How brands can leverage digital marketing during the World Cup to differentiate themselves

The most exciting football event is here at last! The World Cup is the perfect event to boost your digital marketing activities. Brands from all around the world know the importance of digital marketing - and will try and win over competition with unique strategies. Here are some top tips for your 2018 FIFA World Cup digital marketing campaigns:

1. Understand your audience

If some of your customers live in Germany, you wouldn’t send them an email with #GoEngland! Most likely they won’t appreciate it… Utilise personalisation and knowledge of your audiences to create tailored content to your customers. This goes beyond demographics, as you can make use of knowing how and when customers engage with your brand, increasing your chances that they will respond to your messages! If your goal (pardon the pun) for the World Cup is to increase sales through targeted interactions, then a strong email marketing campaign will be the most effective.

2. Engage with your audience

One of the wonders of digital marketing is the freedom of communication between your brand and your customers. Engaging with your audience via social media during the World Cup is crucial, as the last World Cup Final saw 280 million interactions on Facebook alone. Make the most of #hashtags during different games, using popular platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to drive two-way conversations that can lead to more responses with your content. As always, make sure your social media posts are not harmful or offensive, but rather open to conversation, such as including a poll asking your audience to guess the winner between 2 teams. Social media will be buzzing during the event, therefore strong social advertising is a must to leverage your brand amongst competitors!

3. Social media competitions

Everybody loves competitions, especially during the World Cup! You can take your social media posts to the next level by offering incentives that will surely grab the attention of your audience. One way you can do this is by asking who your audience thinks the winner of the World Cup will be. Take this further by requesting your audience to share the post and comment with the flag of the country. State that you will be offering a prize to the correct answers by the end of the competition. You can also do this during individual games, however keep in mind your budget and what prizes you want to give out to winners. All in all, utilising social media during the world cup can massively strengthen your brand.

4. Reward programmes

Like competitions, reward programmes are a great way to keep your customers actively purchasing your products. You can tailor these during and even after the 2018 FIFA World Cup to further increase customer spend. A simple method to doing this is by creating a points system whereby customers can earn points through interacting with your brand. This can be anything from purchasing your products to sharing your social media posts. Consider offering a grand prize for the customer with the most points by the end of the tournament, as this level of competition can entice your customers to spend more throughout the World Cup. To execute these reward programmes, well-developed eCommerce is crucial as your business must transact smoothly to ensure that your customers can easily track how many points they have gathered during the World Cup.

5. Don’t miss out on the action

Plain and simply; don’t just create a campaign for the 2018 FIFA World Cup without knowing what’s going on. You will need to keep updated every single day, with all the scores from every game, to fully utilise the event and generate involvement. There is nothing worse than creating social media posts about the World Cup winner if you post it a day after the tournament has already finished. You need to be on top of your game (literally!) and ensure that you are making relevant posts at the correct times. Whilst you may not need to watch every second of every game, at least keep updated with the scores and maybe even the goal-scorers, that way you can remain relevant and provide informative and timely content to your audience.

Become a winner this World Cup

By implementing these strategies for this year’s World Cup, you’ll be able to capture and retain your audiences by providing accurate and engaging digital content. Remember that football is about having fun (for the most part!) and that no matter what the score is at the final whistle, you can be satisfied that you were supporting your nation, but more importantly, your brand. Which flag will you be waving? We're supporting the Three Lions #GoEngland! Contact MintTwist today if you need help with digital marketing in London.