The best $9 ever spent; a Facebook case study
City Java & News is a small, Beaufort-area coffee shop that I am lucky enough to work with.
Recently my friend Ken Hawkins suggested that the shop commemorate the umpteenth day of 90+ degree temperatures in the Lowcountry by offering a $9 gift certificate to someone who posts why they love City Java on the biz's Facebook page.
I would hazard a guess that those $9 might be the best and most efficient advertising money the coffee shop has spent.
In the 24 hours that followed the call for entries the Facebook page received 40+ interactions and picked up some 15 fans. Startiing with a fan base of 530 the new fans gained through the promotion resulted in an increase of almost 3%.
Additionally, the promotion simply created a great energy on the page with a lot of back and forth, and City Java also was able to turn around and use the testimonials as part of a blog post.
While we can't track the exact ROI of that $9 gift certificate, I think it's clear that it was money well spent.
Comments
Ian,
Great story here, really interesting that $9 can drive that much interest.
I'm curious about how these deals convert, in a larger sense... Do people get engaged after winning, or more likely, not winning the prize? Do you see interaction on the page peak during the promotion and then die down to normal levels, or does something like this sustain itself after the promo?
We've all read horror stories of Groupon or other daily deals gone bad, to the point that I've unsubscribed from all the LivingSocial/Groupon/Groupon Clone sites because I feel it's taking advantage of business owners. Something tells me doing promos like this might have very different results. At the base level, giving away 9 bucks isn't gonna break anyone, so there's much less risk than with a 1000 coupon deal through LS/Groupon. But beyond that, it seems that this type of deal encourages existing customers to think of your company, not attract as many new 'fans' that may only be interested in getting a deal.
Oh, and remember, a $9 GC should only cost the company about $4.50...Even better ROI
by Ian Leslie | Tue, 06/28/2011 - 14:26
Great questions, Eric.
You're right, of course, in the overall concern in the industry regarding these deals. Especially with these websites that a) make you offer a deal and then b) take a ridiculous cut of the deals sold.
With this and the $9 it was as simple as me passing the owner in the shop, taking the 30 seconds to pitch it and him saying "yeah I'm down." $9 was nothing to him.
As for the new voices vs. old existing voices and sustained interaction, I've actually found that in the few days that have passed interactions on the page have been way up. A post four days removed from the contest net some 11 interactions, which is probably a bit above average for the page.
I think there are so many components that go into something like this pre and post.
1) Have a brand to sell: City Java is uniquely excellent at knowing its customers and fostering its relationships. Plus it has a great product. All of that makes my job easy.
2) Be responsive with your social media presence: You'll find that I respond to all posts on the Java page well within 24 hours. I think people like that immediate acknowledgement.
3) Have larger pages that support your push. No secret that I admin some larger Beaufort-area pages on FB, and having those to leverage the deal with is important. But if the product isn't right, and the call to action isn't simple enough, it all will fail regardless of the size of the viewership.
Ian,
Well said. I have some experience in doing this with business pages I admin as well as the 'larger' site to push the giveaway...everything you said here rings of truth. Since I have started doing this, the call to action has helped tremendously. Also....smart call on using the posts/comments as testimonials. That is, after all, exactly what they are in a sense. And with that one simple giveaway, you were able to give your client a great deal of 'material' to work with in their marketing efforts.