inretail_guide-turn_facebook_fans_into_loyal_retail_customers

TURN FACEBOOK FANS INTO LOYAL RETAIL CUSTOMERS

inRetail’s Guide to Using Facebook to Increase Retail Sales

CONTENTS:

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Planning your Facebook strategy

Getting Facebook fans to your website

Gathering good data

Nurturing fans into customers

Closing the loop on Facebook marketing

Pulling it all together

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FANS ARE FINE AND BUYERS ARE BETTER

Social media is one of the most cost-effective, time-efficient ways to reach and interact with your customers — both those customers you already have and prospective customers you want to bring into your stores. And with more than 1.2 billion (yes, billion — and counting!) users, Facebook is one of the best places to start. Effective use of Facebook as a retail marketing tool involves more than just attracting a large fan base. You may already

be putting time and money into posting news, promotions and other offerings to your brand’s Facebook page, but the best Facebook fans are those who are interacting with you in positive ways, responding to what you’re posting, and ultimately transitioning from being Facebook fans to actual paying customers and brand advocates, which indicates you’re really reaping all the benefits that a strong Facebook presence can provide.

ENGAGEMENT WITH BRANDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA DRIVES WEB SITE TRAFFIC

Visited the company’s website 52%

Purchased the company’s product 38%

Visited the company’s physical store/location 32%

Recommended the company 31%

Gave a positive review of the product 28%

Opted-in to receive newsletters/emails 28%

Bought deals for the company’s product 22%

Base: Those who follow or “like” companies on social networks, N=1,025. Q7B Because you followed, “liked” or interacted with a company on social network, which of the following have you done?

RESU LT S OF FOLLOWI NG / L I K I NG A C OMPANY ON A SOC IAL NE T WORK


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1. Quantify your goals Facebook analytics are a powerful tool for tracking user interaction on your Facebook page, so use them to determine both your current and your target click-through rates. Having hard numbers and objective measures to will give you a framework from which to analyze your results.

2. Know your audience To achieve your fan-conversion goals, you have to know who your fans are, and who they should be. Increasing your customer base through Facebook is only possible if you’re reaching the right audience.

3. Create a seamless campaignYour presence on Facebook should map exactly to the rest of your marketing efforts to maintain a cohesive brand experience that resonates with your customers. Make sure the content you’re posting on Facebook reflects the rest of your marketing efforts, both online and in store.

Remember that old adage — “Well begun is half done”? It’s doubly true when it comes to winning customers through social media. If you want to generate new Facebook fans and turn existing fans into loyal customers and brand advocates, you have to begin with a solid strategy.

PLAN YOUR FACEBOOK STRATEGY1

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1. TimingIf a Facebook post gets posted at 3 am, the chances are very few of the people you’re trying to reach will ever Timing: To optimize the timing of your posts, take a look at what’s worked best in the past by using Facebook analytics to view posts with the highest interaction and best click-through rates.

2. Frequency According to Bit.ly, the average Facebook post has a half-life of 3 hours. That’s shorter than a snowflake’s time on earth. Frequent posting helps ensure more people see your posts.

Ultimately, Facebook marketing is a numbers game. The first step in expanding your Facebook fan base is to increase the number of people you’re reaching. Here are a few tips and tricks that will help you consistently up your Facebook numbers:

PLAN: EXPAND YOUR FAN BASE1

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3. Content Nobody likes spam, which in the world of Facebook is defined as frequent, content-light posts. Make sure you’re posting information that’s relevant and interesting to your target audience.

4. Boost your visibilityThese days a picture is worth a thousand (or ten thousand, or a hundred thousand) “likes.” The majority of Facebook users skim their newsfeed rather than read it carefully, and images are a great way to grab their attention.

PLAN: EXPAND YOUR FAN BASE1

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Ultimately, Facebook marketing is a numbers game. The first step in expanding your Facebook fan base is to increase the number of people you’re reaching. Here are a few tips and tricks that will help you consistently up your Facebook numbers:


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Quality content is key to winning and keeping Facebook fans, but that takes time that may be hard to carve out of your already-busy marketing schedule. An organized, methodical approach to content creation can help ease the time crunch.

PLAN: BE CALCULATING AND RUTHLESS1

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Breadth and variety The content you’re creating should cover everything from targeted offers to info on new products to style trends to helpful tips on making the most of your products — anything your fans would find interesting.

•If your brand is the topic of a glowing blog post by a brand advocate, point the way for your fans with a direct link to make sure they see it.

•A celebrity captured on film using or wearing your products? Put it in a post and get the word out.

Your goal should be to post a broad variety of interesting content as frequently as possible, without sacrificing quality.

Be a machine (or use one at least)Create a content calendar that outlines what you want to post and when you want to post it so you can stay on top of content creation, organized and up to date. Utilize technology and good, regular communications to keep everyone on task and on deadline for new content. Then automate your posts with a social media publishing tool to ensure a consistent flow of content even when you or your team are busy with other tasks.

Organized laborApplying an extreme level of organization to your content creation and management will free you up and your team for other equally critical efforts, such as interacting with fans, and monitoring your page and your analytics and adapting to emerging trends and opportunities.

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Stay above the fray Consumers are inundated with marketing content — from billboards to TV commercials to circulars to print advertising, and that’s just the offline marketing. When you add digital communications to the mix, the amount of content they have to cope with more than doubles. Rather than add to the tsunami of information your customers are already drowning in, give your Facebook fans a good reason to pay attention to your brand by providing high-quality, high-value content.

Be responsive: The most successful retailers know what their customers want and excel at meeting that demand. Giving your audience content they find appealing rather than pushing products will generate the kind of interest that ultimately leads to purchases. Curate your content as carefully and thoughtfully as you curate your merchandise assortment.

Racking up Facebook fans is great, but a huge following won’t grow your business or increase sales unless you can turn their passion into revenue.

MOVE FACEBOOK FANS TO YOUR WEBSITE2

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Show, don’t tell All retail is theater. We know irresistible, eye-catching images have emotional impact and can get your point across quickly and memorably, so use them whenever possible. Don’t let cost get in the way.

Stay on message Make sure all the content you’re creating and posting maps to your overall marketing strategy so your brand maintains a consistent and appealing “look and feel.”

Tell them what you want them to do It may seem obvious, but don’t make your fans work to figure out what’s next: just tell them.

Make sure your posts consistently link back to your website. Logos and other branded imagery are a great way to express your identity on your page, but on their own they won’t move visitors through the marketing funnel and turn them into customers. Aggressively write action-oriented links into your Facebook posts.

MOVE FACEBOOK FANS TO YOUR WEBSITE2

Before you can entice your Facebook fans visit your website and buy what you’re selling, you’ve got to get their attention. And then you need to lead them by the hand.


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The best way to get fans from Facebook to your landing page is to create a persuasive “call to action,” or CTA.

CTAs can be anything from special pricing to contests to exclusive offers to sneak previews—anything that gives your fans a compelling reason to choose your brand or make a purchase. Creating a diverse variety of CTAs helps ensure you’re engaging your customers and prospective customers at

all stages of the purchasing process, from consideration and research to browsing to sale.

CTAs should reflect both your brand and your customers’ priorities and preferences, and the action you’re asking your customer to take should be fully aligned with your business goals and brand identity.

MOVE FANS: COMPELLING CALLS TO ACTION2

CLICKABLE CTASIf your call to action is compelling enough, your Facebook visitors will want to respond right away. Make it as easy as clicking a button.

Consider your platformThere are a variety of online tools that make it quick and easy to create clickable buttons for your Facebook page, but make sure that what you create fits well with your brand identity, looks organic to your Facebook page and displays and functions well on both desktop and mobile platforms.

Do it right Clickable CTAs can be placed in your Facebook timeline or in sponsored Facebook posts or both. Just make sure your offer is clear and that it leads

directly to the site or landing page you want your fans to visit.

Bring ‘em home Whatever you’re offering in your post and your CTA has to be reflected in the messaging your customer sees when they click through. Make sure the offer and any next steps are crystal clear.

Keep it simple Don’t use a CTA click-through as an opportunity to pile on the offers by cluttering the landing page with navigation bars or other links. Instead, give visitors one option—to take advantage of your offer or answer your call to action.



EXCHANGE VALUE FOR DATA3

Give to receive: Tying an offer to your request for data is a great way to encourage your customers and prospective customers to share, but doing it right can be tricky. Make sure it’s a compelling offer — commensurate with the value of the information you’re asking them to give you. Always have a clear idea of what you plan to do with the data, so you only ask for what you need and then use everything you get.

Collect the right data at the right time: Make sure you’re tailoring the data you’re requesting to the offer you’re making. Asking for too much, or something too personal may scare off the very customers you’re working to win over.

Deal differentiation: Tailor your data collection efforts to your customers’ level of interaction with your brand. New customers responding to a 2 for 1 deal might be asked only for a name and email address, while a giveaway promotion might require more in-depth information.

Be progressive: Smart forms progressively store information so that return visits don’t result in requests for duplicated information. And as your relationship with your new customer grows, smart forms enable them to provide ever-richer data quickly and easily.

Your customers are much more than just another sale. By volunteering data on their lifestyles, purchase habits, preferences and households, they can help you design more effective marketing programs, products or retail experiences. Directing fans to a landing page with a form is a great way to collect critical information that can help turn Facebook fans into leads today, and help you track interactions with your brand tomorrow. This interaction creates a virtuous cycle and strengthens customer relationships and advocacy.



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WORKABLE WORKFLOWSTo ensure you’re following up with every quality customer interaction your Facebook marketing generates, you’ll want to create workflows that automatically generate a follow-up step based on customer behavior, such as filling out a form, clicking a link or making a purchase.

For example, if a customer responds to special pricing on a particular brand or product, automated email workflows allow you to follow up a few days later with a similar offering, or a CTA that lets that customer know when a product they’ve looked at is about to sell out.

Tailoring the content of your emails based on the information you have collected from Facebook interactions allows you to create even better targeted — and more effective — interactions. Segment your workflows based on the data you’ve collected, and group customer contacts according to specific traits or behaviors.

Geography: Create different workflows depending on where the customer is located. A customer browsing in wintry Chicago won’t have the same product interests as a customer basking in sunny southern California.

Lifestyle: Millennial singles have purchase priorities very different from those of millennial new parents. Mile-high heels, slinky cocktail dresses, teething rings and high chairs won’t have the same appeal across all demographics.

Generational: Younger consumers — our millennials again — operate on a distinctly different frequency from their older consumer counterparts. What speaks to a baby boomer may leave a millennial cold—or worse, turn them off altogether.

If your Facebook marketing efforts are successful, you’ll have people in all stages of the purchase journey headed to your website or brick-and-mortar store. So now you have to turn those visitors into customers. It’s time to take the data you’ve collected and use it to create effective marketing and promotion strategies. No matter where your customers are in their journey, the data should enable you to design the most effective interactions for each stage and to promote your products or brand efficiently and effectively.

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WORK THOSE ANALYTICSTo help ensure all that hard work composing awesome Facebook posts, creating eye-catching CTAs, publishing sleek and effective landing pages and segmenting your customer database doesn’t go to waste, you have to make sure that everything you’re doing is working together to generate more customers.

Marketing analytics tools quantify your results and see which CTAs and landing pages are generating the most customer interaction and which are falling short of the mark, enabling you to better focus your efforts, determine your ROI and document the positive effect your Facebook presence is having on your bottom line.

In Facebook marketing, the four most important retail analytics are:

▩▩ Total visits▩▩ Unique visits per CTA▩▩ Clicks per CTA▩▩ Transactions per CTA

Keeping up to date on your Facebook page performance lets you track each action a Facebook fan takes and determine how successfully you’re turning fans into customers. Using this data, you can better optimize your efforts to meet your goals, recognize trends and repeat the strategies that work best.


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MAKE YOUR EFFORTS COUNT5

DON’T LET CUSTOMERS SLIP AWAYWhen it comes to social marketing, even today’s news is already old. Yesterday’s Facebook post is a distant memory, and last week’s happened eons ago. That’s why it’s so important to follow up on every possible interaction, as quickly as possible. There’s an astonishingly brief window of engagement, and how you interact with your prospective customers in this window is difference between a meaningful customer interaction and a missed opportunity.

Analyze the data generated by follow-up interactions to identify the most successful approaches and create variations so that you can quickly recreate that success with new customers. Work with a creative team that understands how to generate the most effective messaging, so your interactions with customers lead to the maximum number of sales. Be sure to pass along the conclusions from your analytics so your creatives can craft messaging that yields better results next time.

GETTING TO THE BEST ROIYou’ve spent time and money planning, executing and analyzing your Facebook strategies. Managing your return on investment (ROI) will give you a clear sense of how Facebook marketing stacks up against other marketing opportunities.

To calculate your ROI, create different tracking URLs that include the “Facebook” label for each offer so that you can see precisely how many people clicked on each offer directly from your Facebook page. Then compare the cost of each campaign on Facebook (including media spend, marketing support and employee time) to the revenue generate by each efforts.

Once you have a clear understanding of your success, you’ll be in a much better position to either scale your efforts or refine your strategy.

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TAKE THE LEAP6

Facebook is a terrific platform for increasing your customer base and helping you grow your sales. After reading this e-book, we hope you have a clearer understanding of some of the best practices for using Facebook to your advantage — not only to attract new customers and increase brand preference, but to strengthen your relationship with existing customers as well. It will take some time and testing to get things running smoothly, and you may find you need more horsepower to take full advantage of everything Facebook marketing has to offer. Don’t be intimidated by it: success takes courage.

Cut yourself some slack: Start small if you must and work on bite-sized chunks to prove out the value of what you’re doing

Fail quickly and fail forward: Experiment, be agile and don’t be afraid of small mistakes — if you move quickly and make occasional small mistakes, you’ll learn faster and improve rapidly.

Who’s got your back?: Reach out to an experienced social media marketing partner who can help you maximize results — and help you build a social marketing “machine” that will sustain your efforts for the long haul.

Those 1.2 billion (and counting!) Facebook users are waiting to hear from you, but they won’t wait forever. Good luck!


ABOUT INRETAILThe inRetail team consists of experienced leaders from the world’s top retail brands: people who have been in your shoes and have done the job.

Every day, we deliver strategies, insightful creative, innovative technology, and practical solutions to help our clients thrive in today’s customer-driven, anytime, anywhere retail world. We are the retail experts from within The Stephenz Group, Inc., that have combined experience in retail technologies and inside retail.

inRetail is a division of The Stephenz Group, Inc., Silicon Valley’s largest brand and interactive agency. inRetail is a full service division solely dedicated to the retail industry. Our team of experts have over 20 years of proven success in retail technology and the consumer retail sectors.

NEED SOME HELP PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER?

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Visit us at inRetailagency.com or call 408-938-5444.

© 2015 inRetail, a division of The Stephenz Group, Inc. All rights reserved. inRetail, The Stephenz Group, and any inRetail or The Stephenz Group services, products or logos used herein at trademarks of The Stephenz Group, Inc. All other company and product names or logos are trademarks of their respective holders.

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