Download Gaining referrals—and revenues—in the digitized world

Building Social
Media Success
Gaining referrals—and revenues—in the digitized world
INTRODUCTION:
Marketing Where the Customer Talks Back
Imagination is a powerful thing.
Michael Chrisman of Bookbinders Workshop wants you to touch
his fine leathers. Micha Foster of Sugaree’s Bakery wants you to
taste her delicious cakes. Both operate small businesses from a
single location, but they have attracted customers from all over
the United States who have never set foot in their establishments.
Both businesses are also thriving in a still-tough economy.
A bookbinder and a baker. What is their secret? Smart social
media marketing strategies using Facebook programs and
templates from Constant Contact. They did it without having
any programming or other technical computer knowledge, and
they did it for very little money; (see case studies for additional
information).
Most small businesses say
they’re using social media
because everybody else is.
If you ask small businesses
their major marketing
issue, it’s ‘I need more
customers.’ The second
answer is, ‘I need customers
to refer me.’
“Social media is different from traditional marketing because the customer
talks back to you,” says Mark Schmulen, general manager of social media
at Constant Contact. “Most small businesses say they’re using it because
everybody else is. If you ask small businesses their major marketing issue, it’s
‘I need more customers.’ The second answer is, ‘I need customers to refer me.’
Well, number two is the solution to number one—the best source for new
customers is word-of-mouth. Social media is just word-of-mouth digitized.”
Creating Word-of-Mouth
This is nothing new, says Schmulen. Word-of-mouth and repeat customers have
been around since the beginning of commerce. What is really new, he says, is
that we have the ability to create that word-of-mouth. And social channels are
helping us discover and share information like never before.
“Smart marketers today are figuring out how to harness that word of mouth
and make it work for them,” he says. “For the first time in history, we aren’t
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just hoping; we’re inspiring and compelling people to talk to their
friends through social channels.”
Glen Gilmore, an attorney who teaches social media in the
mini-MBA program at Rutgers University and is the author of
Social Media Law for Business, agrees. “Social media has great
opportunity for small business,” he says. “Most small business
owners are passionate about what they do, and social media is all
about sharing your passion.”
Most small business
owners are passionate about
what they do, and social
media is all about sharing
your passion.
Plan Your Social Media Campaign
Facebook is your focus; that’s where you will find everyone—or,
rather, where you will enable them to find you. But just putting
up a page isn’t enough. That’s like having a brochure living
in cyberspace.
A study by SMB Group, a consulting firm in Northborough, Massachusetts,
found that the percentage of small businesses using social media rose from 53
percent in 2011 to 58 percent in 2012, but that only 28 percent of them are
using it strategically. Just being there is no longer enough. Today, you need a
plan. Here are some elements worth considering:
• Put up valuable, interesting content. Whatever your business, show
your expertise, the quality of your product or service, and that you
can provide useful information that visitors won’t find elsewhere.
That includes high-quality photographs and even video. Social media
gives you presentation opportunities not available in print—use them.
“Small businesses often underestimate their ability to connect,” says
Gilmore. “If you share good content about what you do, people will
find you. For example, if you have a hardware store or appliance
repair company, you might talk about steps homeowners can take in
the spring to make sure everything is in good working order. That’s
something every homeowner wants to read, and it may get you
new customers.”
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• Give visitors an incentive to respond. Include a
coupon or other offer that entices the visitor to do
business with you. That, in addition to the content
you provide, increases the likelihood of response, of
leaving a comment, and of passing your offer along to
someone else.
You need to leverage every
communication channel
that you have. A small
business might have 200
contacts on Facebook
but more than 2,000 on
email. Write to your email
contacts, and invite them to
like you on Facebook.
This is what Schmulen calls “putting cheese in the trap.”
Your primary objective, he says, is to build an audience,
and most small businesses start out with only a small
group of fans and followers. “First you get fans,” he says.
“Then you turn fans into customers. Maybe it’s a coupon;
maybe it’s a downloadable brochure. If it really resonates,
they will share it with their friends.” Whatever the incentive, it needs
to be front and center. “The mistake too many companies make,”
says Schmulen, “is to ask visitors to do nothing, or to do too much.
You want one very clear call to action per impression.”
• Spread the word. Constant Contact’s Social Campaigns tool lets
you install it on your Facebook page. “If you build it, and then tell
everyone about it everywhere, they will come,” says Schmulen.
“You need to leverage every communication channel that you have.
A small business might have 200 contacts on Facebook but more
than 2,000 on email. Write to your email contacts, and invite them
to like you on Facebook.” That, he explains, will build traffic—and
approximately 30 percent of people who participate in the offer share
it with their friends.
• Stick to your timetable. Most social campaigns are set to run for 10 to
14 days, but the majority of responses are within the first 24 hours.
Make sure you are ready to respond before the campaign turns on.
Once it does, a delay can be costly.
• Learn your lessons. “Now that everything is digitized, we can scale it
and track it,” says Schmulen. “Marketing is a science; if you’re not
measuring, you’re not marketing. Measure, and you can see how well
you are meeting your goal.”
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That includes responding to comments about your
“If you’re a trusted source,
product or service, not all of which may be positive.
people will find you,” says
Claudia Townsend, an assistant professor of marketing
Gilmore, “and they will
at the University of Miami’s School of Business
want to stay connected.”
Administration, says the two-way street of social media
You can make that happen
can have both positive and negative effects. “As soon as
by continually refreshing
you get customer input, they become part of the brand
your page with new,
narrative,” she says. “If someone has a bad experience,
they may post something on Facebook or elsewhere.”
useful content and
But, she adds, post-consumption feedback, good or bad,
additional offers.”
is still an opportunity. “Marketers really need to listen and
respond to what the customer is saying,” she says. If you
do that successfully, she notes, you can turn a negative
into a positive, giving a valuable boost to your company’s reputation.
• Stay connected. As your campaign goes along, you’re going to get more new
people to like you on Facebook, says Schmulen. “Connecting with people
is so powerful because you’re getting permission to communicate with
them, to reach them inside their email box.” This builds the power of your
connection, he explains. “Email is a great place to get your message read;
social media is a great place to get it spread.”
Most important, you can’t just run a social campaign once. Each time, you will learn
more, and you will increase the success of the campaigns that come after it.
“If you’re a trusted source, people will find you,” says Gilmore, “and they will want
to stay connected.” You can make that happen by continually refreshing your page
with new, useful content and additional offers. “You have to realize that you’re not
just sharing streams of information; you’re creating opportunities for a conversation.
Listening to comments or questions is important. They can provide data that will give
you a competitive edge.”
“Social media marketing is not just an experiment,” says Schmulen. “It’s not a best
practice for everybody out there. Constant Contact was the first tool to democratize
email marketing. I like to think that’s what we’re doing in social media: and running
great campaigns that get really good results.”.
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CASE STUDY:
Sugaree’s Bakery: Old-Fashioned Goodies,
New Marketing
Sugaree’s Bakery, a New Albany, Mississippi-based purveyor of
old-fashioned Southern layer cakes, is a small-batch operation
that has developed a national customer base with thousands of
contacts through social media. What’s the secret recipe?
“Digital marketing is building our business,” says Micha Foster, marketing
manager of the company, which has 18 employees and a little more than $1
million in sales. “When I took over marketing in January 2012, I wanted to
expand our Facebook presence because I knew it could drive sales.”
Generating fans and likes
Sugaree’s was already using Constant Contact for its Email Mtarketing, so it
was a simple matter to expand that relationship and develop an active social
marketing program through Facebook. Foster began by launching Facebook ads
for Sugaree’s, which, she notes, are much less expensive than print ads. Then,
inspired by Facebook couponing done by other companies, she ran a promotion
using Constant Contact’s Social Campaigns tool in February, April, and June
that offered visitors 20 percent off their first online order. It was accompanied
by mouth-watering photographs of the bakery’s cakes. Foster’s first order came
in an hour after the campaign went live. In the first four days, Sugaree’s netted
more than 200 new fans; that number reached 600 by the end of the month.
Then from August through December she ran a contest to win a free cake.
The real winner was Sugaree’s, with 745 new contacts and more than 300
comments from contest entrants. Now, with her market’s appetite whetted,
Foster doesn’t have to give away cakes, and just a $10-off-shipping offer
generates 1,400 likes.
At least 50 percent of Sugaree’s mail order business is gifts, providing significant
word-of-mouth benefit and increasing the company’s fan base and helping the
number of contacts grow. In a year, the number of Facebook friends has grown
from just over 2,000 to nearly 13,000. What really impresses Foster is the
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number of comments she receives about how much customers love the cakes.
“The most common request we get,” she says with a laugh, “ is for us to open
a store near where they live.”
CASE STUDY:
Bookbinders Workshop: Material Success
After 30 years of working as a bookbinder—a cottage industry,
literally, in which about 75 percent of the people in it work from
their home—Michael Chrisman realized that there was more
money to be made selling materials to other bookbinders than
in binding books himself. Moreover, the rise of social media has
made it possible for him to do so in ways that are strategic yet
simple, sophisticated yet inexpensive.
Chrisman’s company, Bookbinders Workshop, is located in Garden City, New
York. With seven employees and annual sales of $400,000 to $500,000, it also
operates two warehouses in Atlanta and Blue Hill, Maine. Customers for its
exclusive lines of leathers, handmade papers, and supplies are looking for the
best materials available. More than 50 percent of Chrisman’s business is repeat
orders, and word of mouth is critical in an industry so small.
Getting the word out
Chrisman learned that the key to growth was not how to tell his story but how
to tell it to the most people possible. “I launched a Facebook page in early
2012 and told my friends about it,” he says. “That got me up to 51 fans. I
wasn’t impressed.” Then he discovered Constant Contact’s Social Campaigns
tool. “Our education resources have always helped differentiate us from the
competition,” he says, “so I wanted to promote that.” He offered any customer
who bought at least $300 worth of leather and supplies a free hardcover
volume on bookbinding. Chrisman was already a Constant Contact Email
Marketing customer, so he sent out an announcement about the campaign, but
he also promoted it through Simple Share. Word spread, orders came in, and
soon he had 600 new fans and $15,000 in new revenue.
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Today, he has nearly 7,000 fans on Facebook, and his business has spread beyond
bookbinders to violin makers, shoe makers, furniture makers, jewelry box makers,
and other crafts businesses. “Constant Contact’s 14-day calendar for social
campaigns really works for me,” says Chrisman. “It shows me, step-by-step, how to
engage my customers, how to keep the conversation going, how to follow up. Not
everyone buys from us, but they may mention us, and in an industry as small as ours
that’s what you need. I visit my competition’s websites at least once a week to see
what they are doing and be sure that what I am offering is as good or better. So far,
we’re hitting that mark, and we’re growing every quarter.”
Engage on a Deeper Level
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