As part of our immediate membership support package which includes the Essential Business Survival Webinar Series, we have written the following blog to give you some handy marketing tips and tricks based off our Marketing Best Practices During COVID-19 webinar. Implementing these will help you to keep your audience engaged during this time when they may be unable to dive and can help retain your customer base for when business starts to return to normal.
Instagram Stories have become increasingly popular since their introduction, with over 500 million stories being posted every single day! Story games are a great way to engage your audience and you may have seen PADI recently incorporate games into our Instagram including ‘Scuba Diving Bingo’ and a ‘Learn To Dive Q&A’. You can find many templates for these using our favourite, free graphic design tool – Canva.
If your dive shop is not currently conducting any dive activities, you can use this as a fun opportunity to involve your audience by showing them how to ‘scuba’ at home. This can include anything from utilizing Google 3D Animals to showcasing some dry Divemaster skills. If you choose to give this one a try remember to use the tag #PADIatHome.
A social media staff profile is a wonderful way for you to introduce your staff to your existing and potential customers. Some ideas to include are images of them underwater and topside, as well as a written profile of their time at your business, their favourite course to teach and a fun fact to add some humour to the post.
If blog writing is included in your business model, you could use this as inspiration for a series of blogs which can then be shared on your social media accounts. You can link from the social post to a longer interview blog post. Just remember to keep content varied between your interview posts and blogs!
Asking your followers is one of the easiest ways for you to boost your digital engagement. Asking questions will make your audience feel as though they are part of the conversation and that they are valued by your business. On top of this, asking questions will also allow you to understand more about them and what content or courses they would like to see from you.
Hashtags have all but taken over in the time of COVID-19 and will stay strong throughout 2020 and beyond. Try keeping your audience engaged with a hashtag challenge. These fun activities give your customers something fun to do while remaining socially distant. You can get your audience involved with the #PADIatHome challenge, or try something else.
Now is the perfect time to schedule your social media content in advance. PADI recommends that you start small, with 3 x posts a week and work your way up to 1 x post per day. It is important to focus on quality over quantity, and do not just post for the sake of posting. If you are concerned that you are unable to find enough content, remember that you can post the same content on both Facebook and Instagram. If you need some inspiration, have a look at the PADI Facebook and Instagram pages.
Reviews and word of mouth recommendations are incredibly important in the diving industry. In fact, research released stated that 1 in 3 people use Facebook to look for reviews and recommendations. It is recommended that you take advantage of this by encouraging your followers to review your business online across any platforms that your business has presence on.
Whilst your customers are looking for ways to keep themselves entertained, a good idea to keep them engages is to educate them. The above graphic lists some of the ways you can do this, or you could consider informing your customers of fun things to do in your local area and ways they can be more environmentally friendly to protect our ocean.
We recommend that you use the down time to optimize your Facebook and Instagram profiles. The options listed in the graphic will make it easier for customers to gather information that they need in order to contact you and make a booking or purchase.
Instagram recently released a Gift Card and Donation call to action buttons for your Instagram profile and sticker functions for use on Stories. Using these functions will allow customers to directly support you through Instagram by purchasing gift cards for your business! You can find out more about setting up these functions on Instagram’s help page.
Contact Us
Please know that the full resources at PADI remain available to you, and your PADI team remains dedicated and committed to your ongoing support. Visit the PADI Pros Site for contact details of your PADI Field Services team or contact PADI Marketing directly with any questions you may have.
