Influencer Marketing

How manufacturers use racing to sell bikes – and how effective is it?

How manufacturers use racing to sell bikes - and how effective is it

How manufacturers use racing to sell bikes - and how effective is it?

For several decades, motorcycle manufacturers have used the adrenaline and glamour of elite level racing to increase their visibility and boost sales. The philosophy of ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ has been ingrained in the industry for many years, emphasising the concept that success on the race track translates to commercial success in the showroom. It sounds obvious, that the exhilaration of watching the best riders in the world do battle on the best bikes would surely help sell lots of motorcycles. But how true is that?

Our latest Motorcycle Marketing blog will therefore explore the effective use of racing as a marketing tool by motorcycle manufacturers, delving into its origins, the types of motorcycles promoted in various championships, the pros and cons of this tactic, and how the landscape of motorcycle marketing has evolved.

Origins of racing and manufacturer participation

Motorcycle racing has a rich history, with events like the Dutch TT, the Isle of Man TT, and Grand Prix racing serving as breeding grounds for manufacturers to showcase their engineering prowess and performance capabilities.

The FIM World Championship Grand Prix - which is now simply known as MotoGP – dates back to 1949 as a formalised championship. Big international race meetings, some of which eventually became part of Grand Prix racing, date back much further, to the start of the twentieth century.

Brands such as Norton and MV Agusta achieved great success in the early days of racing, before the big Japanese brands came along to start dominating from the late 1960s through to the 2000s.

There are many different types of World Championship racing under the umbrella of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM).

In MotoGP manufacturers showcase prototype motorcycles - bikes that are built for racing only and not available for sale - and cutting-edge technology, pushing the boundaries of speed, handling and innovation.

Meanwhile in championships such as WorldSBK, MotoAmerica and British Superbikes (BSB), you will see high performance sports bikes on track. These are production motorcycles that have been fine tuned for racing with the highest-grade components.

On the 2023 WorldSBK grid for example, you’ll see the Ducati Panigale V4R, Yamaha YZF R1, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, Honda CBR1000 RR-R and the BMW M 1000 RR.

In the MXGP and AMA Supercross Championships, the manufacturers display their finest motocross bikes, showcasing their durability and versatility. There’s more off-road technology at the sharp end of the competition in the Dakar and the World Rally Raid Championships (W2RC) with rally-prepared versions of dual-sport bikes prepared by the factories to deal with grueling conditions, highlighting their endurance and rugged capabilities.

In the new FIM E-Xplorer World Cup the participating manufacturers Cake, EM, EMX Powertrain and SUR RON compete with electric off-road motorcycles, demonstrating their potential for sustainable racing.

The effectiveness of racing as a sales tactic

The tactic of using racing to drive bike sales comes with its own set of pros and cons. On the positive side, racing enhances a manufacturer's brand image, instilling a sense of excitement, performance, and reliability in the minds of consumers.

Success on the race track can cultivate a sense of trust and credibility, making potential buyers more inclined to choose a motorcycle from a victorious manufacturer. The exposure garnered from racing enables manufacturers to showcase their technological advancements and attract new customers.

However, this strategy is not without its challenges. Participating in elite-level racing requires substantial investment in research and development, race team infrastructure, and marketing efforts. Manufacturers must strike a balance between allocating resources to racing and other marketing channels.

Additionally, winning races does not guarantee immediate sales success, as consumers consider a range of factors such as pricing, aesthetics, and brand loyalty when making purchasing decisions.

It’s not always easy to attribute increased sales directly to the investment put into success in racing. Also, could going racing but finishing at the back of the pack even diminish your sales, even if you still get plenty of brand exposure?

The changing landscape of motorcycle marketing

While racing remains a powerful tool, the effectiveness of this traditional marketing tactic has evolved. Manufacturers can now directly engage with their target audience, create buzz, and showcase their products through digital platforms, social media engagement and influencer marketing. Achieving commercial growth away from racing has become more feasible, completely challenging the notion that motorsports are the sole key to market dominance.

PR, advertising, content marketing, track days, trade events and the festival scene provide alternative avenues for motorcycle manufacturers to gain visibility, credibility and generate sales.

Some manufacturers are 'all in' on racing

Several manufacturers have wholeheartedly embraced racing as a core element of their marketing strategy. Honda, with its long-standing commitment to MotoGP, showcases its engineering prowess and technical expertise through racing success, even if they have struggled to maintain their status as the top dogs in the premier class in recent times. Ducati, in particular, have pushed harder and harder towards the top and are now considered to have the best bike in MotoGP and WorldSBK.

KTM's success over the last decade in the MXGP and AMA Supercross Championships, coupled with their progress in MotoGP to become race winners, exemplifies their dedication to racing as a means of brand promotion. There’s a reason why the Austrian brand’s slogan is ‘#Ready To Race’.

For some manufacturers racing is not so relevant

On the other hand, for some of the major manufacturers, such as Royal Enfield and Harley Davidson, racing is not so relevant, given their traditional focus on models which are not used in the best-known race series. 

Suzuki dropped a bombshell when they decided to leave MotoGP at the end of 2022 despite having won the World Championship with Spanish rider Joan Mir in 2020.

A Suzuki statement at the time read, “Unfortunately, the current economic situation and the need to concentrate its effort on the big changes that the Automotive world is facing in these years, are forcing Suzuki to drastically decrease racing related costs and to use all its economical and human resources in developing new technologies.”

Racing’s positive impact on sales: Ducati and KTM

Ducati's success in MotoGP and WorldSBK in recent years has solidified its reputation for producing high-performance motorcycles, attracting riders worldwide. Ducati are the current champions in both of those series and according to Statista the Italian brand have achieved solid global sales over the past decade, with worldwide unit sales expected to reach 28,140 in 2027.

Similarly, KTM's consistent success in the MXGP and AMA Supercross Championships has been impressive, as have the increases in the brand's visibility and sales. KTM's expansion into road racing, including its victories in MotoGP with Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira on the RC16, has further enhanced the brand's reputation.

Again Statista data reflects the apparently positive correlation between KTM's racing success and its unit sales, showcasing the effectiveness of racing as a marketing tool. Revenue for KTM is projected to reach US$1.39bn in 2023, rising to US$1.76bn by 2027.

So is it worth going racing?

Racing continues to be a potent marketing tool for motorcycle manufacturers, allowing them to capture the imagination of current riders and potential customers, to build brand reputation, and ultimately drive sales. While social media and alternative marketing channels increasingly offer additional avenues for growth, racing still remains a time-tested method of showcasing a manufacturer's technical prowess.

Brands like Ducati and KTM have effectively leveraged their racing success to boost sales and establish a strong foothold in the market. However, it is undeniable that the approach to marketing has evolved, and achieving visibility and credibility away from racing is now more feasible than ever before.

As the industry continues to evolve, motorcycle manufacturers must strike a balance between traditional racing involvement and exploring new avenues for engaging with their target audience, ensuring a comprehensive and effective marketing strategy.

If you're looking for ways to benefit from your racing efforts in your online marketing activities, don't hesitate to contact us to explore the possibilities.

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How to Maximise Your Digital Impact Around Trade Shows

Motorcycle Marketing 2023-01 How to Maximise Your Digital Impact Around Trade Shows

How to Maximise Your Digital Impact Around Trade Shows

If you are planning to exhibit your products at a motorcycle trade show it’s well worthwhile to consider how to maximise your digital impact around the event. Let’s face it, most attendees at events spend half their time on their phones anyway, so creating a strong link between your physical presence at a show and your associated online marketing content is a wise strategy.

The overlap between the digital world and ‘real life’ has become increasingly significant in recent years and the Covid-19 era only enhanced that trend. Customers and industry players will hit the major motorcycle trade shows in big numbers in 2023 and the hunger for face-to-face contact, plus the urge to see new bikes and products up close is still strong. The key point to set your brand apart from your competitors is by linking that footfall at shows to your digital goals.

Let’s Get Digital

Trade shows are important events that can generate leads and provide a boost to your business network and sales. However, they also require a significant investment. Before attending one, it is a good idea to create a strategy, defining the steps you’ll take before, during, and after the event, to maximize your digital impact.

The first step to optimizing your digital results around trade shows is to set the right goals for the event and make a plan accordingly. Your goals might be to increase your customer email database, to recruit more dealers, to promote specific pieces of online content about your product, to announce a new partnership with a big name influencer or directly to sell more motorcycles thanks to your presence at the exhibition.

If you’re still unclear what your goals are, or you need help with figuring out how to make and execute a plan to hit your key objectives, contact the team here at Motorcycle Marketing and we’ll put you on the right track.

Then it’s about creating a tailored plan around your goals before the show and setting up the digital infrastructure to support the physical marketing presence you’ll have at your exhibition stand.

If you have not been to a motorcycle industry trade show before, or if you’ve not attended one for a few years, it’s probably worthwhile going to a few shows just as an attendee if you can, simply to observe trends and examples of best practice. You could even attend trade shows from other industries which are local to you.

There are often good examples of innovators and brands getting it right at any exhibition of repute and attending a well renowned show could give you all the inspiration you need to make a splash when it’s your turn to set up a stand of your own.

What To Do When It’s Showtime

During the show, be sure to share your marketing materials with the attendees. Sounds obvious, but some brands still don’t do this. They simply turn up and display their products. Make it easy for expo attendees to digitally connect with your brand at or immediately after they visit your stand.

You could offer an immersive content experience with VR headsets or headphones to allow those visiting your stand to dive deep into your online content at the show, rather than seeing incoherent content on background screens. For tips on how to efficiently create strong content check out our blog post on just that topic.

There are several other ways to create a digital hook at your stand. Perhaps offer superfast wifi accessible via email registration through a mobile router at your stand. Often at events mobile networks and free wifi networks become swamped, so offering attendees a superfast alternative will quickly make you popular.

You can also create online contests to win your products and potentially consider creating interactive games to increase the buzz around your products and exhibition. You might also make exclusive influencer led content available only via your stand.

You can invite media and content creators to generate video and audio material at the event. Creating a small media studio where journalists and creators can record podcasts, live interviews or features with your CEO, CTO and/or brand ambassadors can lead to robust online media output from the show.

If you want Motorcycle Marketing to take care of inviting the right industry players, media contacts and influencers to your stand at a trade show, just let us know and we’ll use our extensive contacts list to make that happen.

You can also brief those hosting your stand well, to encourage visitors to interact, visit your website, join your email newsletter database and follow your brand’s social media channels.

Providing slickly produced videos about your product and giving that material to media and other attendees on high capacity pen drives (carrying your company logo) will raise brand awareness beyond the event, leaving a lasting and positive impression.

Something More To Take Away

Royal Enfield made a big splash at EICMA 2022 with the Super Meteor 650 but it was their marketing around their annual Rider Mania event in Goa just after EICMA which allowed them to double the hype on the launch of the new bike.

Similarly, Kawasaki caught the eye at EICMA with the display of their hydrogen engine, derived from the supercharged H2 motor, which got plenty of attention from visitors. It is Kawasaki’s extensive, supporting online material around their hydrogen project which makes it more intriguing and exciting though.

Attendees of trade shows have so much to take in, which makes following up around any launch or announcement at a big show so important. Only a fraction of your target audience will actually be in attendance at a show anyhow.

Actually BMW have significantly reduced their trade show participation in recent years. BMW Motorrad and the individual national and regional branches of the company did not attend EICMA 2022 or Intermot 2022. Instead of fighting to stand out from the crowds, they prefer to do their own thing, with events such as BMW Motorrad Days.

When you have a brand presence so well established and respected as the folks from Bayerische Motoren Werke you make your own rules when it comes to marketing. Their impressive launch of the awesome 2023 BMW M 1000 range one month before EICMA 2022 showed they know exactly what they are doing.

What Shows Should I Be At?

Now that we’ve looked into strategies on maximising your presence at trade shows, let’s take a look at the main events taking place in 2023 and 2024.

EICMA - held in November each year in Milan - is one of the most popular motorcycle trade shows in the world and connects professionals, the press and two wheeled enthusiasts. This expo is a platform for all manufacturers of bikes, accessories, parts and aftermarket products.

EICMA includes many elements that make it a must for any motorcycle industry professional. These include the MotoLive area, which features live competitions, trial acrobatics and freestyle motocross. Amongst the most exciting features of EICMA are the Start-Up and Innovation areas. They allow visitors to shop for new products and watch demonstrations from industry leaders.

Another well-known motorcycle trade show is the AIMExpo. As the largest North American motorbike trade show, the event is produced by the Motorcycle Industry Council. Visitors can expect to meet hundreds of exhibitors and distributors and the 2023 event takes place in February in Las Vegas.

Intermot is a biennial international motorcycle trade show that takes place in Cologne, Germany. The event is attended by over 200,000 people and it will next be held from 1st-6th October 2024.

Likewise, taking place every two years in Australia, Moto Expo Melbourne is one of the largest expos in the southern hemisphere. Visitors have the opportunity to see a range of different motorcycle models, accessories, parts and apparel, but like Intermot it is not taking place this year and will be back on the calendar in 2024, so take note if you like to plan well ahead.

Here are a few dates for your diaries for 2023 motorcycle trade shows. Depending on your goal and audience, you might want to secure your spot!

If you’re looking for any help selecting the right events or identifying the best strategy for your brand, make sure to contact us.

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3 Easy Steps to Preparing Your Social Media for the Holidays

Motorcycle Marketing - 2022-10 Preparing Your Social Media and Content Marketing for the Holidays

3 Easy Steps to Preparing Your Social Media for the Holidays

The holidays are coming. Thanksgiving is upon us, and the shops are already stocking up on Christmas 2022. The stress of planning your social media, blog content and influencer content is bad enough without the holiday buzz.

While you might think that the holidays are a time to wind down your social media presence, the unfortunate truth is that the internet never sleeps.

According to LinkedIn’s data, social media engagement is at its highest in December at 32% higher than the annual average.

With similar trends across social media platforms, you want to maintain your engagement and get ahead for the new year.

Here’s how to prepare your social media and other content marketing for the holidays:

1) Update Your Existing Platforms

Sadly, too many go head-first into their Christmas preparation without taking the time to review what is already out there. There’s no point in publishing a jaw-dropping Christmas campaign if your pages hold outdated or old information.

81% of people are turned off by an outdated functioning website.

Look to update your company profile pictures, biography and company details on your site and other platforms. Think about reviewing your opening hours for the holiday period and make sure there are no broken/removed links on your website.

Regularly reviewing your social media, website and blogs should be a habit, but it’s extremely important during the biggest marketing time of the year!

2) Step Up Your Marketing

It’s time to put together some holiday campaigns and turn everything red and green.

Despite rising costs, it is predicted that 2022 holiday retail sales will increase by 3.3% in the US alone. That’s a big difference from the stats last year that showed 61% of customers seeking out discounts in 2021 by joining loyalty plans. So how do you ‘up’ your marketing?

Update Your Visuals

Think about the flurry of Halloween visuals we saw last month from brands like Starbucks. You need to bring Christmas to your visual content. It’s no wonder 40% of people surveyed said that images were the most valuable parts of a website as well as 21% stated videos. Making these relevant for the Christmas season will have a significant impact on your customers' spend.

Partner with an Influencer

This is one of the largest marketing tools used at this time of the year. Google searches for ‘Influencer marketing’ increased by 400% between 2016-2021 as people are learning about its return on investment. And it’s not just marketers; 61% of consumers say they trust influencer marketing.

Create Giveaways

Contests get a conversion rate of over 34% into new customers, which is higher than any other type of content marketing. They also get a great reach as 94.46% of the time, users share the promotion immediately after they register.

On Instagram specifically, accounts that hold contests grow their followers 70% faster on average than other accounts without them and get (on average) 3.5 times as many likes and 64 times more comments than regular posts!

Have Christmas Discounts

Discounts help promote your services and drive engagement.

Studies have found that products that are discounted by 10-20% show a 7% increase in revenue and a 28% sales increase. Make sure you don’t go above a 20% discount though as that is where transaction revenue drops drastically.

Start Charity and Community Events

Christmas is a time for giving, and wanting to do something good and giving back to the community should be the reason to do so.

But still, 85% of consumers have a better image of a company and its products when it supports a charity they care about and 80% of Americans for example stated wanting to switch brands to buy from one that supports a charity.

Having events and being a part of this Christmas spirit is sure to help your marketing while you are lifting your spirits and supporting some amazing causes.

3) Automate Your Posts

Christmas can be the most disorganised time of the year…

To maintain engagement, you can use automated apps like Hootsuite, Buffer or ContentCal to post for you. That way you can let your feeds work while you are snuggled up with that warm eggnog or nursing your Christmas food belly. You can automate your holiday email newsletters too that contain important New Year’s updates or engaging blog content marketing.

Another way to keep your content going in December is to delegate work to your team. While we’re not suggesting giving all the work to your team (they need a holiday too), it always works better to spread the load and be flexible with them.

There’s a reason why shops are already playing insufferably Christmas tunes to get us prepared. By updating your existing pages, planning your holiday campaign, and automating your posts you are saving stress and time later when you could be partying.

To find out more about how you can create the best content marketing for the holidays, visit us at Motorcycle Marketing.

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A motorcycle salesman selling a motorbike to a biker customers in a motorcycle dealership store.

Your 3 Step Guide to Selling More Motorcycles

A motorcycle salesman selling a motorbike to a biker customers in a motorcycle dealership store.

Your 3 Step Guide to Selling More Motorcycles

Dealerships and brands, this one is for you… Competition for sales of new models is fiercer than ever. Your prospective customers want increased flexibility with payments and are looking for cool, informative content, as they increasingly purchase higher ticket items online.

8 years ago, already 54% of 18-34-year-olds preferred to shop online, and this number has only increased. If 50% of US bikers are aged 50+ in 2014, this number is even greater now. This leaves you to attempt to win over the millennial majority for great lifetime ROI, but they are less likely to walk through your dealership!

Elon Musk suggested closing most of Tesla’s dealerships in favour of online sales because everyone was buying online, especially in the post Covid era. And it’s no different for motorcycle dealerships. Studies show that people get intimidated by dealership staff who work in lavish showrooms. Meanwhile, with so many brands offering wider ranges of models and getting evermore creative with financing options, the competition means it’s a buyer’s market and customers don’t go to dealerships to spend hours negotiating prices either.

The only advantage to going into the store is to test how a bike feels. There’s nothing stopping customers from trying a bike in your store and then buying it cheaper with your competitor’s easy-to-navigate online store.

You need to improve your digital marketing game.

Let’s find out how…

1) Know Your Audience

Market research helps you understand the things that your target market gets drawn to and what they’ll avoid. Recent studies from Hinge Marketing found that those who do frequent market research will have 2.7% better growth and 9.2% bigger annual profits than those who do occasional research, and a whopping 7.8% larger growth and 9.7% more profit than those doing no research.

For example, many millennials get drawn to the on-trend bikes with an urban appeal or a retro look (like our photographer, Berenger or our content writer, Jasmine with their Café Racer and Street-bike styles!) Or emphasise a better value-price ratio for smaller and better insurance savings for smaller bikes or a minimalist design.

Knowledge is power, and market research like this will give you the power to sell better, grow faster and make more money. Knowing your audience is absolutely key.

2) Marketing Online

Build Trust with Customer Reviews

Reviews are one of the best weapons in your marketing strategy. Think about the times you look at reviews on Amazon before you buy something.

Statistically, 91% of the 18-34-year-olds trust online reviews equally to personal recommendations, with other studies finding that 93% of customers state that online reviews directly influenced their decision to buy.

Build Your Google SERP

One of the best ways to improve your SERP (placement on the search engine results pages) is through regular content marketing, blogs and social media campaigns. You can use SEO keywords in your blogs to get ranked higher by Google and other search engines. This gets more visibility for your dealership store online and subsequently more sales in person.

Build a Better Online Store

Online customers, especially millennials, like convenient online experiences. Every obstacle that stops them from easily and simply purchasing your product will lose you sales:

  • 99% of customers abandon their online carts before purchasing.
  • 59% of these customers say that it was due to some inconvenience of the website.
  • 48% said it was due to extra costs like shipping, tax and fees being too high.

You need to make it easy to buy online. Improving your e-commerce site can give you a 35.26% potential increase in conversion rate if you improve your check-out design! Online customers are fickle and have many other options, and younger customers know how to find alternatives. Try to give them as few reasons to do that as possible by improving your online store and marketing presence.

3) Selling in Person

Know Your Bikes

Almost every advice forum and article online recommends researching thoroughly, such as Cycle Trader and Begin Motorcycling. With 90% of millennials being online each day, let’s assume that they know more than you think they do about specs, price comparisons and reviews.

Promote In-store Benefits

You can do this through your new awesome online presence. You can add extra incentives like discounts and deals for those who are willing to come into your dealership.

There are innate advantages to buying in-person, like test drives, size and weight checks, and that ineffable feeling of “that’s the one for me” as they see the bike romantically from across the room. This provides you with perfect opportunities to interact one-on-one with your customers, who have already been convinced by your online reputation, which is likely to lead to better sales figures.

Create Rapport

This will stop them from buying elsewhere. Once you’ve got them in the door with a good deal, interacting with a human as opposed to an online entity causes better customer retention through building a good rapport with the business. With 81% of customers stating trust as an important factor in making a purchase, you can make sure they buy from your motorcycle dealership and not your competitor’s.

We always look at what Motocorsa are up to, given that they’re widely regarded as one of the best Ducati dealerships in the USA… with the numbers to prove it. They build and maintain an awesome rapport with their audience and customers through in-store events, regular meetups and track days, workshops and MotoGP viewing parties.

Making sure you know your audience and improving your online presence will drastically help you sell more bikes online and in-store.

For further support, get in touch at hello@motorcycle.marketing and don’t forget to check out our other articles to help you with your social media, influencer and content marketing.

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Your Introductory Guide to Brand Awareness

Motorcycle Marketing - 2022-08 Your Introductory Guide to Brand Awareness

Your Introductory Guide to Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is one of those terms used in marketing, but what does it mean for your motorcycle brand? How can you increase it and measure it? We have put together this short guide in 3 easy sections to answer just that.

Firstly, what is brand awareness?

Simply put, it’s how ‘aware’ your customers are of your brand. Will they think of your company when they think about getting new tyres or next season’s motorcycle jacket?

It’s about using your marketing efforts to make sure people know who you are, what you do and communicate why you are the best.

1 ) Why Brand Awareness Matters

If people can’t see you on social media or websites, you don’t exist. Nobody can buy from you if they aren’t aware of your products and services!

71% of customers said it was vital that they recognised a brand before they bought from them.  In another study, 52% stated this familiarity with a brand to be the biggest factor in their buying decision.

This awareness is a crucial part of the buying process for every business, but it is especially useful for brands that are:

  • Starting up and entering a new market.
  • Smaller brands with many competitors.
  • Premium brands that take more consideration from the buyer.
  • Companies that rely on specific high seasons of income.

Brand awareness matters for 3 key reasons:

  • It creates trust for the brand.
  • It associates actions and products with the consumer.
  • It increases a brand’s value.

All of these 3 reasons end in a sale conversion, which builds your business.

2 ) How to Increase Brand Awareness

Social Media

People expect to see brands on social media. If they search for you and find a dead Facebook page, for example, they will think you are not in business anymore.

Over 91% of people keep up with the businesses they like/use, and 63% assume they can receive quick customer service from those same pages too.

You need to research where your audience is and what they want to see to build your awareness and convert this into revenue. Remember that consistent posting is not a substitute for having a strong social media presence. You need to create a plan for your social media posts that is in line with your marketing strategy to get any results.

Blogging

Blogging is another marketing staple that nurtures your potential leads into sales.

There’s a reason why 90% of brands have used blogs in the last year to build brand awareness in their marketing campaigns. WordPress reports a whopping 70 million new blog posts every month in 2022!

When done correctly, blogging brings authenticity to your company name and can set you apart from your competitors. The informative content in a blog builds an authoritative voice in your industry. It shows you are a reliable and trustworthy brand to learn and buy from.

Blogging also includes Search Engine Optimisation, which helps you get seen on the search engines by driving traffic to your store or website.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a hybrid between a review/testimonial and a social media campaign.

We all rely on word-of-mouth recommendations or look to the review section on an Amazon product, and Influencer marketing is no different from this. 49% of customers depend on this kind of marketing to buy a product/service.

This marketing tactic helps build trust as these influencers know their audiences well. Their followers are more likely to believe the products are of great quality and will suit their lifestyle as the influencers have been building their audience through their authentic content.

Check out our other blog for specific support on Finding Great Influencers here.

3 ) How to Measure Brand Awareness

As noted by HubSpot: brand awareness can be difficult to understand and measure as it cannot be analysed in a ‘traditional sense’. Yet, there are quantitative and qualitative brand awareness measures that they suggest:

1. Quantitative Metrics

(The Amount/Quantity of Brand Awareness)

  • Direct traffic to your website from knowing and typing in your name/URL.
  • Record all site traffic numbers.
  • Measure social engagement like comments, retweets etc… on your page.

2. Qualitative Measures

(The Quality of Brand Awareness)

  • Use Google Alerts that tell you when your brand is mentioned.
  • Use social media management tools to see who is talking about your business / using your hashtags.
  • Have brand awareness surveys that request direct feedback from your customers or people in your market.

Most importantly, you need to make sure your team knows exactly what brand awareness means to the business. Every company is different and will have a different way to measure its success online. Have regular conversations with your team and stakeholders about specific goals to achieve this.

How you choose to increase and measure your brand awareness should be decided by the marketing goals and strategies you have from these brainstorming sessions.

If you need further support for increasing your brand awareness, get in touch at hello@motorcycle.marketing or view our other blog resources here.

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Hiring Freelancers: Better Than an Employee?

Hiring Freelancers

Hiring Freelancers: Better Than an Employee?

You know the importance of being visible online and connecting with your followers through great social media posts, influencer marketing and other content. But with the risk of freelance agencies prioritising other clients and the costs of employee hires, which is better for your motorcycle brand?

Let’s explore the pros and cons of outsourcing vs hiring:

The Advantages of Hiring a Freelancer

Time and Cost

The main difference between freelance and employee marketing experts is that you pay for singular projects at a specific rate instead of monthly wages. Freelancers cost much less than employees as a result. You only pay for the work freelancers complete and they tend to be quicker to complete work since they must keep clients coming back for great content.

Comparatively, employees’ downtime on the job is huge. The average employee is only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes a day, despite you paying them for 8-9 hours of work. A network of freelancers, however, are more productive due to no commutes, flexible hours and fewer distractions, such as chatting with co-workers, searching for new jobs and other massive time sucks that interrupt office workers. Hiring a freelance agency that relies on high productivity to bring in their full-time income means you get great marketing for a better price.

The Small Business Administration found that hiring a full-time employee is much more costly than expected too. The real cost is 1.25-1.4 times more than a salary and bonuses. Payroll taxes, insurance, training and other expenses are all added on top, and this could really impact any business and especially a budding start-up.

Also, hiring a permanent position takes up a lot of time. Freelancers are easier to find and sometimes you can get a project agreed upon within 1-2 weeks or even 48 hours depending on their schedule. Your HR team won’t be pressured to fill the marketing role, which can sometimes take several months to complete.

Quality of Work

When you bring a freelancer team into your marketing strategy, you are not limited by your local talent market. You can connect with freelance specialists from any location too.

Plus, to keep up with the marketing and motorcycle industry, these freelancers are more likely to produce higher-quality work than your average in-house employee. Freelancers must be more aware of new trends and skills to keep attracting projects, and this additional training need is only getting bigger after the shifts in the way we work post-pandemic.

A network of freelancers also has greater pride and satisfaction than in-house marketers. A recent IBM study found that freelancers are more engaged than most employees, with another study comparatively finding two-thirds of employees as not engaged in the company that they work for. Freelancers, however, cannot afford this. Their whole livelihood depends on high-quality, productive work to maintain their client base.

Diversity

Though you can have diverse employee teams, having freelancers increases the variety of backgrounds and cultures even further.

These different backgrounds build a creative space where people can find new perspectives and approaches to your marketing content. This means faster innovation as your motorcycle brand will not only appeal to a broader audience because of their cultural differences, but make you more competitive in your market thanks to their unique marketing insights.

The Cons of Freelancers

To understand the outsourcing pros and cons fully, let’s explore some concerns when hiring a freelancer…

A Multitude of Options

You can get an overwhelming number of replies when you post a new project ad. Who do you pick? What if some of these freelancers exaggerate their marketing skills and capabilities if they are desperate for work?

Let’s break this down into 2 parts:

Firstly, don’t hire freelancers whose social media pages or websites cannot be found. You should review any past work or find testimonials from their clients to see how good the marketing professional is to support your brand.

And secondly, although you may get many responses to a project, it isn’t as labour-intensive as finding a permanent team member who must fit your work culture and will be much more expensive to employ than if you hire freelancers.

Misunderstandings / Missed Deadlines

You need freelancers who are motivated and efficient. Yet, there is a popular concern that hiring a freelancer/s could be more problematic because you cannot track a freelancer vs an employee.

To avoid any misunderstanding, delays or missed deadlines, make sure you are thorough when discussing the project. Asking them for content in an appropriate timescale will make sure you get the high-quality marketing content that you both expect.

And, remember that you don’t have to supervise a freelancer/freelancer team as they are highly qualified independent workers.

Company Loyalty

One of the top reasons businesses think about choosing an employee over a freelancer is down to brand loyalty.

Freelancers sustain their own business by taking on projects from other clients. This can be seen as a weaker business relationship as there’s less company dedication for the freelancer vs in-house employees. Not to mention how they prioritise their urgent project deadlines.

But freelancers are multitaskers. With an extremely high engagement rate; 76% of full-time freelancers are satisfied with their work, with 69% being happy with their pay in 2021.

They create marketing content for multiple businesses because they love it. For example, Thalassa, our founder and social media strategist, has several clients she has worked with on a regular month-to-month basis since 2016! She has brought this same dedication into our network of remote freelancers here at Motorcycle Marketing.

The best freelancer teams work with you because they are eager to support your company. Although they will have other client commitments, they won’t want to go elsewhere if you keep them engaged enough in your brand with exciting work outlines and pay their market rate.

The Takeaways

Statistically, there are more benefits of hiring freelancers than employing someone in-house to do your marketing­­. A freelance marketing agency will be easier to find and make your awesome team more diverse. (Not to mention the lessened risk for start-ups too when you are fleshing out your work culture.) It is an overall shorter process and doesn’t involve the extra employee costs such as insurance, and other hidden expenses like training. Freelance marketing experts work independently, and they are specialists in the marketing field.

Why not join the over 90% of other companies that are utilising and building freelancers into their daily tasks?

Contact us at hello@motorcycle.marketing or check out our other blogs for more content marketing, social media or influencer marketing support.

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Find Influencers for Your Motorcycle Brand: The Top 6 Mistakes to Avoid

Find Influencers for Your Motorcycle Brand

Find Influencers for Your Motorcycle Brand: The Top 6 Mistakes to Avoid

Influencers are trusted by millions of people around the globe. It is also known as brand influencer marketing or social influencer marketing. These influencers can command more trust than brands using their own content on their social media channels.

But how effective is influencer marketing?

When you want to buy something, you want proof that it’s good and surveys have found that as much as 80% of consumers have bought a product as a result of an influencer recommendation.

Think of an exhaust system for example. You want to know how it sounds, so you will watch YouTube videos or Instagram Reels to make your decision. But having a great influencer marketing strategy will give your ideal audience the extra push needed to convince them to buy it. Influencers have a certain number of followers for a reason as they have attracted an audience around their personality and preferences through their authentic content. They know what their audience likes and can powerfully recommend products on a more personal level than more traditional forms of marketing. These influencers can use the trust they have built-in to their communities to raise awareness of your brand and sell your product.

Where Can You Find Influencers?

Influencers are on any social media platform or on lists of influencers that you can find on Google. It depends on the brand, but a large majority of motorcycle influencers are found on visually-based platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. YouTube is up there too for influencers as this is where you will normally find longer review videos, like motorcycle gear or exhaust systems.

Instagram and TikTok take the top spaces for influencer marketing platforms. Instagram stories has 83% of marketers saying it is a crucial influencer marketing platform and TikTok holds the biggest influencer engagement rate.

Which Influencers Should You Approach?

Not every influencer is right for your brand. So how do you pick the right one?

Influencers can be broken down into five categories:

  • Nano: between 1.000 and 5.000 followers
  • Micro: between 5.000 and 20.000 followers
  • Power or mid-tier: between 20.000 and 100.000 followers
  • Mega: between 100.000 and 1 million followers
  • Celebrities: more than 1 million followers

Almost half (47.3%) of all influencers are in this micro range and are shortly followed by mid-tier (26.8%) and nano influencers (18.74%).

It is easy to get caught up in the numbers, but the best choice for your company isn’t necessarily the people with the most followers. Instead, find yourself a relatively small account as they will have higher engagement rates that make it easier to sway the minds of followers in what they end up buying.

But there are also drawbacks if you don’t choose the correct influencers…

The 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Getting Influencers:


1)    Collaborating with the wrong people
Not every motorcycle influencer can sell your product, so make sure you do your research first to get the best results.

2)    Cutting communication
After the campaign, you should stay in contact with the influencer for future events and maintain the relationship.

3)    Not having clear campaign goals
Without clear goals or briefs, you won’t be able to communicate what you need to your influencer to create the best content.

4)    Influencers with fake followers
About 10% of all Instagram accounts are fake accounts. Some people will buy fake followers on shady websites too. But these will only superficially help your image in the short-term and not help your content convert to sales. You need an influencer that cares to connect with their followers and faking it will ruin your reputation.

5)    Influencers with poorly written content or images
Make sure that the social media influencer you pick knows how to write good descriptions, uses the correct hashtags, and picks high-quality images to get the best engagement. People buy from people they trust, and influencers build their following through original content that is authentic to them and the brands they work with.

6)    Not obeying FTC guidelines
FTC is short for Federal Trade Commission. Every social media platform has FTC guidelines to prevent deception, fraud and unfair business practices. Make sure your brand supporter complies with these federal consumer protection laws before they promote your product.

So now you know what to avoid, here is what to expect:

What You Should Expect from Influencer Marketing

First off, you would never be expected to give away a free motorcycle to an influencer (unless it’s a rare circumstance). Many brands let influencers borrow bikes for reviews and it is more common to give them bike gear in exchange for content reviews. This way, you can use their reviews on your blogs and social media channels to boost your sales. Different companies have different influencer marketing strategies, and some reviewers test the gear over weeks or months as certain content is harder to make for brands because you can’t create everything in the office.

Here are some examples:

SW-Motech

SW-Motech gives their influencers accessories in return for high-quality content which they can repost on their channels and use in catalogues. They don’t focus on a certain type of social media influencer marketing but require high-quality content which they can post as they want real-life examples of how their products are being used. They can attract the riders who need premium motorcycle accessories through their natural persuasion, without the exaggeration or use of sponsored posts.

REV’IT!

REV’IT! works with their REV’IT! Riders and ambassador programs to promote their products (such as the Women’s Adventure Team). Their content speaks to a massive audience, but they search for influencers in their subcategories Adventure, Racing and Urban to create specific content. They emphasize custom-created content that matches their own brand and that will really add something to their strategy and fit their “profile”.

Overall, authenticity and credibility are the two highest requirements for finding an influencer. If they are passionate about what they are recommending, they will have higher conversions for your brand. To get the highest conversion of sales in any collaboration with an influencer, it’s crucial to come up with a good influencer marketing strategy.

If you need help with this, or approaching and managing your influencers, check out our influencer marketing services and contact us at hello@motorcycle.marketing

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