We caught up with marketing master, Alessia Doyle, who is the outgoing Marketing Manager of The Bristol Suspensions. She's overseen a huge rise in popularity for the group recently and has mastered her marketing plan for university-level a cappella. She shares her insights on what to do and what not to do when working to promote your group.
What’s the first step when putting together a marketing plan for your a cappella group?
"The first step is planning a release schedule and then finalising the content theme and a consistent layout for all your posts for that release. There is a common misconception that marketing is all about creating and designing aesthetic posts, in reality the key is careful planning, preparation and scheduling. Planning the peak times to post your content is the secret ingredient to a successful marketing strategy. Keeping your audience in the loop about your release schedule can also be very effective and keep them engaged and excited for future releases. We did this for our Online Fringe Fest in 2020 when we shared a video release schedule. This meant our followers knew what to expect when and also meant that we had to be strict to our schedule."
Does your marketing plan change per term or is there one overarching strategy?
"The marketing strategies can change depending on the type of content that is due for release, but typically I follow the same formula:
Confirm a release date
Schedule teaser & final posts in days leading up to release
Design release logo and post designs
Upload the finished product on the relevant social media platforms
Plan and schedule any additional information/posts for after the release"
How do you get group members involved in your marketing campaigns?
"Within Suspensions we have several different teams, each responsible for different projects. For example, we have a Fundraising team, Music Video team and a Fringe team. All members are welcome to join any team to offer suggestions and ideas, making the creative process a collaborative one. Whenever we have an upcoming project that requires a team of its own, we’ll put a callout message to the group for anyone that wants to be involved with the decision-making, planning or designing of a new project. They then join the team and can contribute as much as they like to the creative and administrative process."
Can you tell us more about ideal marketing team structures?
"I lead the marketing team and do the graphics myself, overseeing the process from start to finish. I often have a partner on the team who I communicate with to help finalise the important details of the marketing campaign such as the colour scheme and release date, ensuring it aligns well with the video and audio editor. I consult the other teammates for their opinions on the post graphics. The second and third opinions really elevate the quality and success rate of the posts, especially as our target demographic on Instagram is the same age bracket as our members, so they have an accurate insight into what our audience might want to see. Therefore we can tailor our content accordingly in an appealing style for our audience. Our most eye-catching and popular campaigns were developed over several weeks with the suggestions from all team members."
How do you approach analytics/data when measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns?
"Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok all automatically track and record insights. From this I can see the average viewing time, what kind of posts get the most engagement and the origin and age ranges of our audiences. This is particularly useful for Marketing as we can gauge what is working and what can be improved. For example, if the average viewing time is low, we can adjust our future videos and make it more eye-catching to encourage viewers to watch the whole video.
Another way to boost your exposure is to purchase sponsored posts. On Facebook, this costs from £5 and can be very effective and really expand your audience reach which otherwise may not have occurred naturally. We usually save these for big releases when we want to reach a wider audience. A useful tactic that has the same effect, is organising a plan for the group members to scatter post shares."
What kind of tools should a marketing manager have? Are there any specific social media accounts or software that you would recommend?
"There are plenty of free graphic design options available online. I use Canva to design the logos for each new release, thumbnails and standard posts as it is free and super simple to use. It’s also really important to stay organised and on top of a strict schedule, which can be achieved easily by using a basic spreadsheet. Finally, we have a group Google Drive that the committee and creative teams can access to add to plans, schedules and comments on post designs."
How do you target audiences for your campaigns, and do you have different targets for different types of marketing?
"We decide what kind of audience we want to target for a specific release or campaign and then strategize a plan accordingly, selecting the correct social media platform for that piece of content. Typically, Facebook is the best way to reach older demographics and generally prefer informative posts along with pictures, Instagram does well with interesting graphics and interactive stories and Tiktok is the perfect platform to reach unknown audiences which tend to prefer live singing videos."
How do you leverage events or gigs in your marketing?
"The best way to leverage events and gigs is to ensure you keep your audience well informed and in the loop. Furthermore, it is essential that all group members share details to all of their friends and followers, instantly expanding the reach of the posts.
This is also a perfect time to contact established links such as TV and Radio stations to inform them of upcoming events and gigs. For example, we contacted several outlets about our 2020 Online Fringe Fest and most recently, our album fundraiser, which was then shared in a number of articles!"
How do you approach media partners when trying to get the word out about your group?
"This year The Bristol Suspensions were approached by BBC and ITV producers following our win at the UK ICCA Final! The best way to generate interest from media partners and outlets is to keep your social media pages and website active and updated with new and exciting things! Once you have established these links and relationships with media partners, it’s important to maintain them by keeping contacts up to date with upcoming new projects. As a university group, it’s also worthwhile contacting your University media teams and SU about upcoming releases. Take every opportunity to create content and get your name out there!"
What are some of the biggest mistakes that can be made when marketing for a university a cappella group?
"Not having a clear plan or structure to your release campaign can be very obvious to an audience. If you are due to release an important piece of content, I would recommend sharing teasers and sneak peaks ahead of the official release in order to generate excitement and anticipation from viewers.
Another mistake is staying inactive for long periods of time. You don’t always have to be creating brand new full length videos to keep your audience engaged. Mix up your content in style and length! This year we introduced a brand new series titled ‘Fast Tracks’ where the group split up into smaller teams and had a week to arrange, learn, record and film a short video to post on Tiktok. These were hugely successful and so much fun to do."
"There are parts of the academic year which are consistently quiet across all UK a cappella groups. These periods would be the perfect time to plan a release or even just interact with the audience via instagram stories using interactive features such as polls or questions. This would also give you more of an indication into what your audience likes and their most active peak times.
Finally, keep inventing and be innovative with your ideas! Just because something worked for another group doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for you! Be original and have fun with it!"