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How to run a winning Facebook contest

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

A recent study by Exact Target showed that the main reason people “Like” a business’s Facebook Page is to get special offers and promotions.

Facebook contests offer many benefits. They can increase Likes and fan engagement on your page; secure relevant and targeted fans; add to your e-mail list; increase traffic on your website; and more. Is it time you held a Facebook contest? Here are some tips:

1. Plan ahead
Running an online contest takes planning. What are your social media goals? Do you want more fans or more engagement? Are you running a contest or a sweepstakes? Who will fulfill the prizes? Be sure to have a detailed plan before beginning any promotion.

2. Consider your target demographics
Do you want to microtarget your fans or not? If you’re strictly B2B, how can you ensure that you get businesspeople rather than stay-at-home moms to enter? (Offering an iPad is great, but everyone wants one.) Think ahead and target only the entrants you want.

3. Follow Facebook’s rules
We see promotions daily that are being run in violation of Facebook’s terms. Be sure to read and understand the rules here before beginning any type of promotion. Note that votes and entries can’t be made on the wall without a third-party app like the one we made for our client Hotel Amarano.

4. Promote, promote, promote
Just holding a contest doesn’t mean that droves of people will enter. You need to promote your contest via advertising and online posting as your budget permits. Unless you plan to give away loads of cash, you need to continue to spread the word throughout the contest.

5. Make it easy to enter
Scavenger hunts, point-accruing games, essay contests and other multistep contests are too hard and turn people away. Make it easy to enter and even easier to win, and you’ll get more participants. Of course, collecting emails must be part of the process.

6. Reward participation
Keep in mind that people are taking the time from their busy lives to help promote your company. Respond to all questions and comments and continue to engage with your community. Thank each entrant and perhaps even give a token gift for every entry. We saw bumper stickers (cost: under a buck) fly out the door for a contest we ran recently; for another, we gave every entrant a surprise discount code.

7. Follow up
Make sure prizes are awarded and sent in a timely manner. Ask the winner to send photos with the prize to share with your Page, and send out press or social media posts. Participants want to see that a real person won. Be sure to use the emails you collect from participants to send follow-up messaging.

If you want to get more qualified leads easily, and want to run a contest on Facebook to help, call us at 818-848-1700. We’ll help you do it right.

Tags: contest, Facebook contest, Facebook sweepstakes
Posted in Facebook, Marketing, News, Sales, Social Marketing, social media, Strategy, Websites | 1 Comment »

It’s all in how it’s packaged

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

With the regular mail bills moving to e-bills, paper newsletters moving to e-newsletters, newspapers becoming an extinct news source, and receiving e-cards rather than regular cards, it seems that “new” marketing is all on the internet. WRONG.

I loved typing that just now, and here’s why: the other day I received this envelope.
Untitled-2

What could it be? And who from?? (Lee hypothesized a secret admirer.) I guess I had to open it to find out! Oh the suspense! Oh the glee! It was my very own…marketing material from Staples sales rep Jairo. (Hi Jairo!) Definitely surprised, Jairo’s personally written introduction card made a positive impression on me. Soon after, Jairo followed up with an e-mail and phone call requesting the foot in the door sales pitch meeting that all sales reps would love to have. Granted.

Surprisingly, the next day, I received this other letter:
Untitled-7

I received this letter soon after receiving a call in which I notified them that we were not in need of their services. Not only was our business name blatantly misspelled (Counter-Ntuity), but their generic mail merge document was horribly written with many grammatical errors (and poor wording choices).

Obviously, I’m thinking of switching to Staples now. Jairo is creative, smart, and has what it takes to get me to be a Staples customer. My reasoning? Staples is going to make my job easier by saving me money (covered in the sales meeting), saving me time (notice how he saved his own time), and providing creative solutions to any needs we may have (demonstrated by the personalized print card solution, other marketing materials, and general creativeness in using snail-mail).

Posted in branding, Business Etiquette, Customer Service, Email marketing, Marketing, Sales | No Comments »

Click-through breakthrough

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

When I left you last decade, I was talking about the purpose of an email blast…

An email blast’s purpose is NOT to sell. Counterintuitive, I know. Email attention span is too short. The goal of an email is to get the reader to click-through to your website.

Emails need to be as quick paced as today’s world. It would be fabulous if the reader wanted to act from just the email but that’s too much pressure on a poor, little, albeit well-designed email. The average email reader spends a second or two before clicking or hitting delete.

Your email blast needs to be the aroma of the tasty treat that awaits on your website. The click-through should go to a dedicated page on your website (called a landing page) where the reader can learn, read, sign up, listen, watch, play, buy.

How do you get the click-through? Keeping with the metaphor – you need to whet their appetite. Share enough to intrigue, make them want to bite (too far yet?). Your email should contain photos or images – something to grab the viewer’s attention.

Most importantly, you need a punchy call to action to get the click.

might work.

Click & Save $200 will probably work better.

Anyone can send out an email. The majority get deleted. Your email blast must engage and excite to stand out in an overcrowded inbox. Take the time to develop a dynamic message and call to action. Your effort will pay off.

Extra tip: Have your call to action multiple times. Avoid the temptation to only have it at the end of the email. Also, have the call as text links and image links, this overcomes the hurdle of images being turned off in an email client.

Posted in Email marketing, Marketing, Sales | 1 Comment »

What the Heck is Marketing and Why Do I Need It?

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

A client recently asked us what the term “marketing,” really means. A Google search for the word “marketing” turns up 517,000,000 answers – and most of them are wrong!

Bottom line? Marketing is a catch-all word for everything you think about and do to get your product or service in the hands of the consumer. Much more than tactics, marketing always includes analysis, strategy and execution. Marketing is a series of thoughts, discussions, trials, actions, and sometimes disappointment — that ultimately leads to sales success. This can include identifying target markets, packaging, pricing, distribution, advertising, PR, social media and more.

Part proactive, part reactive, marketing is essential for every business. You can have the greatest product or service in the world, but if no one knows about it — or your company — you can’t sell it. Too many people simply put out a great product and expect it to sell. We like to call that the “Build it and they will come” model. Unfortunately, that only worked for Noah and Kevin Costner.

When planning your marketing budget, don’t ask yourself “if” you need marketing, but “what kind” and “how much?” You need a marketing plan and marketing to be seen, to be discovered, and to create a buzz that will lead to sales.

Tags: advertising, distribution, Marketing, packaging, PR, pricing, social media, target market
Posted in Marketing, Sales, Strategy | No Comments »

Sport Chalet Takes Twitter to the Limit!

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Apparently, more big companies are taking this Twitter thing seriously. And I’m in “Social Media Specialist” heaven. I’ll let the big guns figure out how to monetize the whole thing. For me, as both a consumer and someone who is actually hired to help companies with the ins and outs of social media, I’m finally piecing the puzzle of Twitter’s true purpose together.

To my high school buddy Richard Jalichandra, CEO of blog aggregator Technorati (who just launched Twittorati.com): I’m sorry I doubted you. Not that either of us knew back then which road Twitter would take, but you were confident it would stay on course. Alas, eating humble pie doesn’t taste so bad when losing a debate actually helps me help my clients realize how Twitter fits into their business.

The solution came to me last week as I received a cell phone call from an unknown number. “Hi, Lisa, this is Steve, and I am the Customer Service Manager for Sport Chalet.” Thinking he was calling about the “Nike Super Speed D 3/4′s” we ordered weeks ago, I replied, “Are the shoes in?” Nope. “I’m the customer service manager for Sport Chalet Corporate (!) and I am calling about the problem in our store you mentioned on Twitter last week.”

Panic hit, because some of the Sport Chalet kids know my kids. Feeling like a school-girl caught in a gossip scandal, I blurted out how sorry I was for badmouthing them on Twitter but I had been so frustrated and we really needed the shoes right away and they hadn’t come in yet and no one had followed up and why do they never have our size annd blah blah blah blah blah. Don’t remember precisely what I said. It’s like getting caught with the smoking gun and your dad is at the other end of the barrel.

Somebody actually read Tweets???? “Hooray” and “OMG” went through my head simultaneously.

In this big wide online world, who would have thought that I could Tweet my frustrations, have them actually get back to Sport Chalet, have them look up my Twitter account, click through to my website, find out my name, get my cell phone number and call to solve my problem?

But that’s PRECISELY my point. Sport Chalet took the time to read my Tweet, look up my Twitter account, click through to my website, find out my name, get my cell phone number and call me. And to apologize and offer to solve the problem. This was no impersonal Twitter DM. This was a personal phone call from a corporate officer of Sport Chalet!

It hit me that THIS is the real future of Twitter–a direct, personal, one-on-one experience with companies who actually care about customers as individuals. No more talking to “John” in Mumbai who might pass your ire on to “Sally” in the cubicle next door. I got Steve at Sport Chalet corporate headquarters, prompted personally by a CEO who has better things to do than worry about a pair of cleats—like run 55 stores.

Sport Chalet cared about ME. And it felt good, not just personally, but for my clients. Because now I know exactly how to help them make their Twitter account successful.

It’s not about making money-it’s about creating relationships. White papers and links to websites are great. But my experience with Sport Chalet helped me to see that the true value of Twitter for business is to connect with customers and make them feel important. It sure worked on me!

Tags: Counterintuity, Customer Service, Jalichandra, Sport Chalet, Technorati, tweets, Twitter, Twittorati
Posted in Business Etiquette, Customer Service, News, Public Relations, Sales, Social Marketing | Comments Off

Black and White and Seen All Over

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Is this a joke? Perhaps a skit from Saturday Night Live in, say, 1952? Or a really great attempt at viral marketing?

It’s an actual commercial for a furniture store in North Carolina, where apparently, they just received the telegraph from the Pony Express that the Civil War is over.

“For a while, we couldn’t do anything but answer the phone. ‘Yes, we’re a real store. Yes, that’s a real ad,’” said vice president and manager Steve Patalano, whose Red House Furniture Store has been deluged with customers since the video was posted on YouTube. Not surprisingly, the directors’ previous commercial was about a Cuban gynecologist-turned-car salesman.

People of all races shop and work at Red House, so “we just got the idea that it was just like a big Rainbow Coalition,” Patalano said.

With all the publicity it’s getting, this just might be the most brilliant stupid ad ever made.

Tags: black, furniture, race, race relations, racism, viral, white
Posted in Business Etiquette, Culture, News, Sales, Social Marketing | No Comments »

Retrain. Rethink. Retool.

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Not to make light of the 151,352 jobs that have been lost in January 2009 alone, but I just found out that people actually work at Home Depot.

This doesn’t pertain the the paint guy, who’s stuck behind the counter mixing pigment all day and couldn’t possibly know the aisle for the hose filter washer I needed last week. But try to get help with cement grout filler or a flush assembly for a commode, and you might see tumbleweeds blowing across the aisle.

I’m not exactly sure why Home Depot had to lay off workers who I’ve never been able to find anyways. After all, they aren’t the “Do it Yourself Store.” That’s where I’d go if I thought I was capable. I go to Home Depot because they swear “You Can Do It. We Can Help.” Well, how are they going to help me now when 7,000 more employees go missing?

“We see the announcements as largely positive,” analyst David Schick said. Really? Because if I couldn’t find anyone to tell me the difference between incandescent, CFL and LED lightbulbs before, now I’m really going to be in the dark.

I can’t help but wonder if Home Depot lost so much money because of poor sales or poor service–or both.

There’s a lesson to be learned here. If you, too, have had to lay employees off, now is the time not only to rejuvinate your remaining staff, but to look closely at what part customer service–or lack of it–played in any losses you may have had.

Quantity? Out. Quality? In. As hard as it is on a personal level, “cleaning house” may be exactly what your business needs to suceed in the future. It’s time to Retrain, Re-think and Retool. Invest your time in employees who truly care about your company’s success and future–as well as their own. The end result will be a more secure, motivated staff who can best represent your vision, standards and goals. Read: improved sales and more repeat customers.

Home Depot, are you listening?

Tags: Marketing, recession
Posted in News, Sales, Strategy | No Comments »

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