A majestic White Dogwood in its natural habitat
With all the chaotic changes happening in the world this year, it can be harder than ever for marketing teams to focus on creating quality content that connects with their community.
At the same time, the pandemic has led to an explosion in demand for social content across channels. With people spending more time at home and engaging with their social communities like never before, a lot of brands are playing catch-up to keep social channels programmed with creative content at an ever-increasing pace.
Some brands have seized the moment and used this time to create content that fills a gap for their audiences and communicates their message in a way that is sensitive to the times we live in. One example is Fast Growing Trees.
Based in Fort Mill, South Carolina, Fast Growing Trees allows you to buy a wide array of trees, from mighty evergreens to adorable shrubs, that are shipped direct to your door. But their trees aren't the only things growing fast during the pandemic... Their sales are also exploding, as people look to spruce up their living quarters for this never-ending quarantine.
I had the chance to (virtually) catch up with Justin French, their Director of Marketing, on how he’s scaled social content while maintaining quality over the past year. Read on for a recap of our Q&A, his advice to marketers navigating uncertain waters, and some examples of content Fast Growing Trees created by tapping into the Tongal community.
Q&A with Justin French of Fast Growing Trees
Tongal: We've seen big spikes in the demand for social content since the pandemic began. How have you kept up with the increasing scale of social content over the last 6-12 months?
Justin: In addition to regularly scheduled content (blogs, tree trivia, content, and review sharing from customers), I've identified popular posts for other similar brands and created our own versions of those posts. For example, the "Quarantine House" meme that was popular earlier in the year. I designed and created our own FGT version in InDesign and posted it on Instagram.
Tongal: What is your process for identifying what types of content you'll create by channel?
Justin: Evaluating each platform's main audience, the other accounts those customers tend to follow and respond to, and modeling our content based on those factors. Users on Instagram tend to be a bit younger, so they respond more to trend posts, and we get a lot of good feedback on anything we post that follows popular posting trends. For Facebook, people tend to respond more to educational or inspirational posts.
Tongal: What is your typical frequency of posting by channel?
Justin: Currently, about twice weekly, with frequent Instagram story posting. We tend to get less engagement on both platforms if we post more often, but I experiment with different days, post times, etc. to see how customers respond.
Tongal: How has that frequency changed over the last 12-24 months?
Justin: When we had shipping delays as a result of COVID earlier this year, I slowed down posting a bit - we had a lot of customer complaints around that time, so people weren't responding positively to a lot of our salesy posts. For that reason, I focused more on story Q&As so that we could control the IG content and feedback that other customers saw. When I posted content on our timeline, I focused on trend posts related to quarantine and tagged products here and there but avoided including Calls to Action.
Tongal: What channels are your biggest growth drivers right now and what types of content are performing best?
Justin: Over the last several months, Instagram has really exploded. We've seen growth on Facebook but gained several thousand followers on Instagram, and they respond well to our plant memes, contest posts, and any Q&A or interactive posts we make.
Tongal: What metrics do you follow most closely and how do you track them?
Justin: Follower count for both platforms, but also engagement and customer feedback. Are customers commenting on our photos? Do they react positively (i.e. likes or reacts, tagging friends, etc.). I'd say likes and comments on both Instagram and Facebook are most important, and I also monitor reach on Facebook.
Tongal: What advice would you give to other marketers attempting to navigate the social space right now?
Justin: I would say to keep an open mind and always research what similar brands are doing. Thinking outside the box and taking small risks go a long way...some posts that I didn't think would perform well on Facebook, for example, have gotten good feedback. Trial and error are important.
Fast Growing Trees most recently worked with the Tongal community to create a series of explainer videos that show how to order and take care of their most popular trees. Check out a few of the videos below!
