This is a question small business owners have been asking themselves for as long as Facebook has existed as a marketing platform.
It’s also a question that Nadia Roch wanted to answer when she helped Island Natural Market launch their Facebook Page in the beginning of 2012.
“A few years ago we upgraded our website and decided we needed to upgrade our online marketing as well,” Nadia explains. “We started off with email marketing and had some great results, so we wanted to see if we could do the same thing with our Facebook Page.”
Getting off to a slow start
Island Natural Market has been open for business since 1992. Over the last two decades, they have grown to become the largest health food store and supplier of organic food and products in Nanaimo, British Columbia.
“We’re lucky to have a passionate following of people who love our products and the service we provide,” explains Nadia. “But getting people to become fans took some time at the start.”
That’s when Nadia decided to try Social Campaigns from Constant Contact.
After seeing the Market’s monthly newsletter become one of the biggest drivers of new business over the last year, Nadia was excited to see what this new tool had to offer.
Quadrupling their fan base in less than six months
With Social Campaigns, Nadia had the ability to run a contest right on the Island Natural Market Facebook Page. In order to enter, participants would need to first become a Fan on Facebook and then enter their email address on a custom landing page.
To promote the contest, Island Natural Market used a mix of “new” and “old” marketing methods. They sent an email to their list of more than 4,000 recipients to let current customers know about the contest and ran a print advertisement with hopes of reaching new customers in their community.
Over the next few weeks, more than 250 people entered to win a prize pack of Island Natural Market products. In total, the contest generated 179 new Fans for the Island Natural Market Facebook Page.
“It was great because it helped attract new fans but also let people enter who already Liked our page,” Nadia explains. “We got a ton of great feedback from everyone who entered.”
Over the next six months, Nadia would run two more contests with the Classic Sweepstakes campaign from Social Campaigns.
“When we ran our first campaign back in November, we had around 200 fans,” Nadia recalls. “By April, we were up to over 850 fans. That’s a direct result from the Social Campaigns tool.”
Turning new Fans into new customers
With a new online audience and the ability to stay in contact with customers and prospects on a daily basis, Nadia began to think differently about the role Facebook could have in the health store’s online marketing efforts.
The contests were just what she needed to grow the Market’s presence on Facebook and now she wanted to turn new Fans into new paying customers.
In April, Nadia decided to offer an exclusive coupon using the new Coupon Campaign from Social Campaigns.
“We did a one day offer to help celebrate Earth Day at the store,” Nadia explains. “It was a chance to give our fans something they would like and it brought people in to redeem it.”
With the new Coupon campaign, Nadia was able to create the campaign and launch it in four easy steps. She could then promote the campaign on Facebook and send an email to her list of contacts. For anyone who wanted to redeem the offer, they would have to bring a printable coupon in store on Earth Day.
“The coupon was even easier to use and it took less time to put our campaign together,” Nadia explains. “Something that took us less than an hour to plan and put together brought us nearly 80 new fans.”
In a single day, over 30 Island Natural Market Facebook fans came in to redeem their offer.
“The ease of converting fans into customers has really been the biggest advantage,” Nadia explains. “That and having people come into the store and tell us how much they loved the campaign.”
How to turn Facebook Fans into paying customers
Island Natural Market is a perfect example of how small businesses can turn fans into paying customers.
Generating business results wasn’t something that happened over night. For Island Natural Market, it began outside of Facebook, with building an active list of email contacts. From there, they were able to build their social presence by leveraging their email list to promote fun and engaging contests.
Combine that with an exclusive offer that takes fans off of Facebook and into your store and what you have is a social media strategy that turns Facebook Fans into paying customers.
Find out how the new Social Campaigns Coupon campaign can help turn fans into customers.