Average amount spent per person for Valentine’s Gifts is over $131 (Forbes)
Restaurants can feast!
Overall, 38% say they plan to go out for dinner on Valentine’s Day. For those who are married, that number jumps to 45%. (Forbes)
Consider also…
50% of Valentine gifts are purchased in the last week before February 14! (Source)
In 2013, the average man planned to spend more than twice as much as the average woman on Valentine’s Day. (NRF 2013)
TIP: Tweet these Stats!
Tactical Tips for Retailers:
One Size DOES NOT FIT ALL – Target your Marketing to Niche Segments
“Bombarding shoppers with irrelevant, one-size-fits-all messaging and offers will be the death of retailers this Valentine’s Day. ” said Daniel Toubian, principal consultant for U.S. retail and consumer brands at Maxymiser. Read more: Maxymiser Valentine’s Day Study
Most men shop late for Valentines, so you still have time!
Free Shipping is a “most desired incentive” for those making purchases (Maxymiser)
How Can Your Business Quickly Roll Out a Valentines Deal on Facebook?
Need something quick and easy for your Facebook Page this Valentines season? TabSite offers businesses the power to offer a Facebook approved Deal on Facebook Pages. (See Apps)
1. Identify your ideal buyer first! – Male? Female? Age?
2. Identify the time when this audience is on Facebook (Use your Facebook Insights to view data about your fans)
3. Use Language in your Posts and Tab that connect with that audience! Different words, even slang, connect with different demographics.
4. Solve the Problem that your ideal buyer has in deciding what to buy! Men need the gift fast, easy, no hassles. Women will spend more time thinking through the gift they plan to buy! (See below – full details here >)
5. Repeat this process for Ideal Buyer Type #2 and #3! Yes, it can be so important to run not just one campaign, but 2-3 unique campaigns each designed for a specific audience!
Ideas for Promotions:
1. Timeline Contest to win a Valentine Gift Card (Do it all in 1 day!)
2. Easily create and launch a discount code for online use, or a coupon or a discount on specific products that fans can bring in to your store to make their Valentine purchase.
Yes, Valentine’s is a romantic holiday, and, yes, this is a post related to the digital side of business sales geared towards that romantic holiday. How else does digital tie into the romantic side of things?? Well, in case you needed to know this, Logitech did a survey and….
21 percent admitted to damaging their
tablet or smartphone while being intimate!
As a business owner it is very important to take a good long look at what is going on in your business. As you know having customers, clients and patients are the lifeblood of your business. So, the marketing aspect of your business needs to be constantly improving.
So, I’ve put together 10 true and false statements that will help you understand if you are on the road to business success, struggle or failure in today’s new economy, our new world of social media, and online marketing.
This is meant to help you get clear and see where you need to improve your consistency or get real with yourself and realistically understand if you have the hours in the day to handle all that is required.
The days of popping an ad in the paper or in the yellow pages is over and it’s time that business owners, the ones that want to succeed for the long haul, get serious about what they want.
So, take a moment and see which of these statements are true or false for you and your business?
10 True or False Questions to Guide Your Digital Marketing
1. I have my client’s emails in an email campaign manager like Mail Chimp, Aweber, icontact, etc. Either my staff or myself actively update this list.
True or False
2. I currently have a blog and either my staff or I write/post a blog once a week, which is sent to my email list and posted on all my social media profiles.
True or False
3. Either my staff or I email my clients or potential clients great content on a regular and consistent basis. (I also receive either written or verbal responses from patients, clients or fans that this information is helpful.)
True or False
4. I have social media business profiles and either my staff or I actively post engaging content and status updates multiple times per day.
True or False
5. I understand how to and actively place successful Facebook ads for my business each week.
True or False
6. I currently have a landing page or squeeze page that shares a free e-book or report that specializes my expertise in my field of niche.
True or False
7. I have written an ebook that I am currently selling on amazon about my area expertise or niche that pertains to my business.
True or False
8. I am either employing help or I have the technical ability to understand how to implement all of these components into my business.
True or False
9. I have a solid understanding of how internet and social media marketing works in order to make it successful for my business.
True or False
10. I have a strategic plan for that will help my business grow and reach my goals.
True or False
The key is to really identify where you’re weak
and also where you are strong.
Smart business owners know this and do this. They don’t take it personally, they understand this is part of growing! Once you identify those strengths and weaknesses you can easily begin to make the appropriate changes that will dramatically increase your success!
And if you are one of those business owners that still don’t see the validity in implementing these marketing strategies listen to a conversation I had this morning with an oncologist and my client who (at preschool while we were dropping off our kids.) My client said to the oncologist verbatim…”The results from social media and working with Amanda have been dramatic. Last year at this time I had 5 new patients for my practice and this month I have 30 new patients.” (and the month isn’t even over yet.)
These are the results when done properly and consistently!
So, in short…this is what you need to be doing consistently.
1. Building a massive email list of clients, patients and customers.
2. Writing 1-2 blogs per week and sharing via email and through all of your social networks.
3. Consistently posting 3-12 times per day on all social media channels for your business with engaging content.
4. Focus on building relationship with your fans, followers and clients that creates a culture and a loyal following.
5. Create a free report, ebook and other written publications to help spread the word about your area of expertise as well as continue to grab the attention of new fans, followers and clients. View TabSite eBook on Facebook Page Review Checklist >>
6. Continue to learn new strategies and techniques for implementing these strategies into your business through online courses, consulting or seminars OR hire a talented person who can implement this for you. I come from the philosophy of do what you are good at and let others to the rest.
7. Create multiple streams of landing pages and websites that bring in new leads for your business.
8. Develop a strategic plan on how you will achieve your business goals.
There you have it in a nut shell. This is what you need in today’s world of marketing.
Need Support?
If you need a strong person on your team that understands the online and social media marketing world please feel free to reach out to me and I will be happy to take the time to speak with you. 919-539-6451 or email is marketing@amandabrazel.com
Many marketers jump on Facebook and expect instant results. They often see other business leaders seeing success and question why they aren’t experiencing the same results.
The truth is that although some Facebook marketers may make it look easy, chances are high that the ones that are driving real business results did not just get lucky. Many have been in the trenches for months and years doing research on their community, testing different methods to drive engagement, integrating social media into their business and list goes on.
Knowing who is in your community is key to success for any and all Facebook marketers. Often times who you think is in your community is far different than who really is or who you wish was in your community.
As part of our “Get a Grip” Series on Facebook Marketing where we help marketers look at key aspects of their Facebook strategy, this post helps Page Admins dig deeper into the core behind your actual marketing. This is IMPERATIVE in order to ultimately be successful.
It could be you are still in early growth stages of developing your community or you could be several years into leveraging Facebook to meet business goals. Regardless of the size of business, how many fans you have, or how long you have been doing Facebook marketing it is important to know your audience.
10 Questions You Must Answer to Grow a Vibrant Facebook Community
1. What are your goals and objectives?
Hopefully when you started using Facebook you set goals, objectives and a plan to attract, connect with and engage your target audience. If you didn’t, well no better time than the present. As we always recommend, you must take time to plan and set goals for what you want to accomplish.
2. What is your target market?
If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to clearly define your target market. Who do you want to attract? Define the specific demographics of your target market. Who are they? How old are they? What specific industry or niche do they work in? What is the role they have at work? Do they work?
3. What is the online behavior of your target market?
When are they online? What social network sites do they frequent and why? How often do they frequent them? Do they read blogs? Do they prefer video, audio, text or all of the above?
4. What language does your ideal customer talk in?
What is the tone of their conversations? Are they more casual or formal? Are they using simple language or more complex? Do they use acronyms or will they be confused by them? Do they talk the same language and in the same tone of which you have been speaking to them?
5. What problems does your target market have and how can you help them solve them?
What keeps your ideal customer up at night? How can you help them sleep better? How can you help them solve their problems so they can focus on their core business
6. What are the core benefits you offer to your ideal customer?
How can you help them drive higher efficiencies in their life or business? How can you help them achieve more? How will they benefit in purchasing your products or services
7. What core benefits do you offer that are different than what your competitors offer or what they can get from replacement products or services?
What do you offer that is unique? How is your product or service more valuable than the others? What can you do to drive higher value in the eye of your ideal customer?
8. What can you offer your ideal customer for free to attract them to you and your brand?
One of the best things you can do to grow a Facebook community is to share your best content. Don’t hold back. What information can you share with them to help them meet their business or life goals? You can provide free blog posts, downloadable worksheets or white papers. You can offer training in the form of video, audio or a combination of both.
9. How will you measure success?
It is imperative that you set goals and metrics for how you will measure results. How will you know if you were successful if you don’t know what successful looks like? Truth is you won’t.
10. When all else fails, ask your community.
If you struggle with the answers to any of the above questions, try asking your community for answers. People love to answer questions. If you don’t know what they want, ask them. If you don’t know what problems they need solved, ask them. If you don’t know what keeps them up at night or how you can help them, ask them.
Thoughts on this? Any areas that you would recommend adding?
Facebook offers EVERY restaurant a great way to stay in touch with their customers and find new ones. The key is in providing timely information and great value.
By offering regular, fun, social information and timely updates via Facebook posts, a page has started well! By then making sure you offer easy access to information, deals, and more RIGHT ON Facebook to would-be customers, restaurants can really benefit. This provides easy, fast, and immediate access and removes barriers of potentially losing fans by transferring them to your website (more on that below).
6 Things Restaurants Should Do on Facebook
1. Post Inspiring Content, Images, and News Regularly
While it could be tempting to offer deals, specials, and more continually, please remember that social media is about building relationships, being social, and offering value. Users are on Facebook to connect and engage with things of interest. Being too salesy all the time will turn fans off. A loyal following and community can only be created if you actively seek out and share valuable content, yours and community related, that inspires, informs, educates and connects.
Post on a regular schedule, such as 2-3 times per day at key times and in a way that invites Likes, Shares, and Comments. Use a mix of post types from status updates to photos of food and short videos of life and times at the restaurant.
NOTE: people are visual and the popularity of Facebook and Pinterest prove that people connect with images. If you want to quickly capture the attention of your fans or followers, add images that are eye-catching and pleasing to the eye. Also, consider using simple tools like Vine and Instagram’s Video tool along with Facebook Video and YouTube as ways to easily create shareable videos that display well on Facebook.
2. Highlight Special Items on the Fan Page Cover Image
Now that Facebook no longer has a text limit of 20% on Cover Images, use the Cover Image regularly as a means of showcasing valuable items like this week’s special, new seasonal offerings, or pictures of the live band, whatever is relevant to your restaurant! This can be changed out weekly or 2x a week. Consider using a Cover Image template to enable you to customize images quickly and be sure to edit the image to include a description and a link when it is posted. Here’s 12 more ideas for creating buzz with your Cover Image.
3. Include a Menu Tab
It’s not rocket science! Let visitors on your Facebook Page know what you got right on Facebook!
Add a tab and add your menu to the tab. Want to save more time? Use the TabSite Website ReSizer and simply add your existing menu from your website to a Facebook tab! Why? It saves time! Update your menu on your website and the tab is updated automatically since it’s the same page, just on Facebook! Website ReSizer allows the powerful advantage of making any website page fit perfectly in a tab.
Then share updates to your menu via a post on Facebook and link to the tab via a Smart URL(mobile friendly) to take visitors direct to the tab!
4. Offer Reservations via a Facebook Tab
Does Friday evening get packed at your hot spot? Do you already offer reservations via your website? Then simply bring it into Facebook for use! Same as the menu tab above, create a tab and use the Website ReSizer app to bring your web reservations page into Facebook for use. Then post about it in the news feed before prime time and get customers used to coming to your page on Facebook to make their reservations! Sweetness!
This adds a great dimension of functionality to your fan page. When people are on Facebook, they want to stay on Facebook, and this allows them to do so by giving them the information and tools right on the Facebook page tab.
5. Use Facebook Check Ins and Check In Deals
Restaurants can have the Check In feature enabled, which is valuable to get extra exposure on Facebook!
Facebook offers quite a variety of page category options. One of the biggest features that any local business should take advantage of is the Check In option.
This will allow users to check into your location, which is helpful for at least two reasons. First, it can raise awareness of your business and location with friends of the user checking in. Second, check ins can be part of Graph Search results, so that if a Facebook user is searching for a restaurant in Chicago that friends have visited, check ins appear in results.
Graph Search result with check-ins of friends listed.
To check or change your Page category, go to the Admin Panel and select Edit Settings. Then go to Basic Information, and find Category at the top of the list.
Check In Deals
A big bonus that Facebook offers is ability for locations with Check In feature to offer a deal for visitors checking in. This is a great way to generate some buzz and get more exposure leading to more customers. (Note: I’ve seen that they are not available in some countries).
What is a Check-in Deal?
A Check-in Deal is a way to offer an incentive to customers to check-in to your business on Facebook with their mobile devices. When they check-in, you can offer any of the following Deals in exchange:
Individual: Offer a discount to an individual for simply checking in.
Loyalty: Offer a discount or freebie for checking in a certain number of times.
Friend: Offer a Deal to groups of friends who check-in together.
Charity: A check-in results in a donation to the specified charity.
Access Deals in your Page Admin area:
Check In Offer Deal Types as Shown in Page Admin
6. Offer a Special Deal for Email Sign-ups via a Facebook Tab
By adding a Email sign-up tab to your Facebook page and making users aware of it periodically through posts and tips, restaurants grow their email list and then reach potential buyers and sellers via this means as well. This is critical! Email continues to be a primary marketing success method. When it gets into the inbox, it gets attention.
Email marketing continues to provide value to those who use it by creating a routine of regular information and education that is in the inbox! With integration’s for tabs from services like MailChimp and Constant Contact among others, having a custom tab for email sign-ups is a snap! More powerful still than a basic sign-up form is to create incentive by offering some of value, a free guide, offer, or resource, that is the motivator that is shared to encourage users to opt-in.
Together these tips implemented and carried out with regular news feed updates on your restaurant fan page can be a valuable method of marketing to grow more customers!
What about your business? Most of these tips can also apply to other industries as well! Do you have other ideas to add to the mix?
Facebook recently announced the incorporation of hashtags into their platform.
What is a hashtag?
Hashtags turn topics and phrases into clickable links. They can be used on your personal timeline, Facebook page, photos on Facebook and the list goes on. Facebook hashtags make it easy for users to easily follow conversations and even find topics or products they are interested in.
Check out this post which provides a good summary of the new Facebook hashtag feature and capabilities, “Hashtags on Facebook Arrive.”
As marketers are starting to dig into the opportunities for using hashtags on Facebook to increase their marketing results one way that must not be overlooked is the ability to use Facebook hashtags for contests and promotions.
How to Use Facebook Hashtags in Contests and Promotions
1. Select a hashtag to represent your contest, promotion and/or brand. Make it simple and easy to remember.
2. Include the hashtag as part of the foundational communication for the contest or promotion. Include it in all communication such as email, tweets, Facebook posts, Facebook images and photos, Pinterest posts, and blog posts when announcing and inviting people to participate in the contest or promotion.
3. Give participants clear instructions on how to use and include hashtags as they participate in the contest and as they share with their friends and colleagues.
4. Monitor the hashtag on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and other platforms as appropriate. Watch for conversations to engage, answer questions.
5. Leverage the hashtag in your metrics to measure the overall success of the campaign. Facebook has not launched integrated hashtag measurement features for this yet. Efforts currently will need to be manual and leverage available tools, manual monitoring and tracking of conversations etc.
As with anything you do with social media and Facebook marketing, hashtags should not be used as a stand-alone strategy or tactic. Integrate hashtags into your marketing. Align them with key marketing initiatives, campaigns, and promotions. Take the time needed to learn and understand how they can help you achieve your goals and objectives, not just randomly throw them into your contest.
Check out our recent Facebook webinar for details on how to use hashtags in Facebook Promotions and Contests and much more. “How to Run a Successful Facebook Photo Contest.”
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