Facebook: Breaking the Sales myth
How The Fresh Diet Drives Consumer Engagement, FANaticism and Sales
Presented by Jim Gilbert:CEO, Gilbert Direct Marketing, Inc.De Facto CMO: The Fresh Diet, Inc.
What to expect today• A how to on how The Fresh Diet does business
on Facebook.
• Insider info you won’t get elsewhere that you can take to “the bank”
What NOT to expect today
• A tutorial on how to set up a Facebook page• Technical details by a web marketing person– I am a direct marketer and approach FB in that
manner.
How many of you use FB for business?
• We’ll discuss how it is working during Q&A• Who is here from the diet or food industry
Lets get started but first…
• About The Fresh Diet
About The Fresh Diet
• Gourmet Meals hand delivered daily• Inc 500 Fastest growing Co. #1 in Miami-Dade• Since 2005• Double growth in 2010• Double again in 2011• And yes, we sell right off of Facebook• Inspire you today
So No, I am not a Facebook Expert
• Started Gilbert Direct FB page 2.5 yrs ago• Had no idea how to make is successful• Originally just pushed info from my blog to FB• End result = Nothing!• Originally took same approach to TFD FB Page.– Pushed out content from blog, articles…
Level of effectiveness = 0
•November 2009:
94 fans
Level of effectiveness = 100
•December 2010:
24,195 likesThat’s a lot more than nutrisysem!
Building our brand via Facebook
• Our facebook page is our calling card.• Many times we prefer to send to FB over web • More powerful than our website– People see engagement and want to join in– People see happy customers and order!
• Beyond our “likes” thousands of people check us out on FB daily.
• Our Reviews page has over 80 Reviews, 95% of them positive
How we got there – Goals!
• Main goal!• Put a human face on the nameless faceless
corporate identity• Distinguish ourselves from big corps• We are real people, promoting a healthy
lifestyle• People respond to real
How we got there – Goals!
• Build relationships - Build engagement• Speak in a real voice• Develop trust• Give to get world• Time spent on site = engagement• Engagement = Sales• Sales + Engagement = Advocacy• I tease people, draw them out, call them out, etc
How we got there – Goals!
"There is only one valid definition of business purpose – to create a customer.
Companies are not in business to make things… but to make customers.”
-- Peter F. Drucker
How we got to 23K – the basics
• Promote via: • Website• Blog• Transactional
emails• Twitter
How we got to 23K – the basics
• Promote via: • Website• Blog• Transactional
emails• Twitter
How we got to 23K – the basics
• Call center• Collateral Material• Mailers• Email signatures• Email newsletters• Any place we can think of
Step 2 building engagement
• It started with a single contest.– Carbometer
• We now run contests every day of the week
Contests mean to us
• A way to seed the market with food• A way to have people come back and give
positive feedback
• An engagement tool• Fun – draws people out
Contest examples
• Plate your favorite meals
Contest examples
• Halloween costume contest
Contest examples
• Motivation poster contests
Contest examples
• Fresh Diet-ize a Beatles Lyric (in honor of John Lennon)
• Fresh Diet-ized Haiku
Contest examples• Video
contests
• This contest coined the phrase, “the fresh diet delivery fairies?
Contest examples
• Ultra secret contests– My excuse
to give away food
• Any old contests– Banner ad
Contests Recipe winner
Any Excuse for a contest
Building Trust – Random Freebies
• Every day we give food away randomly on FB. • Other times we just give it away for no reason• Is it expensive? Sure, but the rewards are
enormous– People are always promoting us to our friends– Another way we seed the market and drive
positive reviews
Our involvement devices
• Delivery fairies• Fearless FB leader• Overgiving• We let our customers run and judge contests• Brand everybody• Make fun of ourselves• Have all get involved in company• Ask questions, involve customers (bag, slogans)
Bio’s of our
employees bring
customers closer to
the company
Build involvement and trust
Build involvement and trust
Be Transparent
Go behind the scenes
Bringing our customers closer
Image done by one of our customers of our CEO Zalmi Duchman.
He is officially Zman or Zuperman to our fans
We do a lot of video
We do a lot of video
And our customers love a good scandal
By By Carnie!
Then there’s the “food porn”
Give to get – Random Freebies
Give to get – Groupon info, drives sharing
Give to get – Groupon contests
The Mommy blogger network
• Hundreds of mommy bloggers• We have them do reviews for food• Contests too
• Other networks, diabetes, charitable orgs, bariatrics
• The potential is unlimited
Engagement, our customer take over
In a social media driven world – people buy from their peers!
Engagement our customers take over
• In Orlando• Customers ran contests, promoted specials
answered CS Q’s• Our customers would walk through fire due to
the trust we have built.• We ask people from FB to do interviews, show
up at events, etc… even be on TV.
Customers take over
Fresh never frozen
Engagement, sometimes
silliness ensues
Engagement, our
customers take over
Positive and negative reviews
Facebook as a customer service tool
• Our Sales and CS people inhabit our page• Customer service is no longer limited to the
call center!!!• When questions get asked, we answer ASAP– Speed and agility in a social media world– If we don’t answer fast enough, we get grief
Facebook as a Customer Service tool
When issues come up we must address them with speed, agility and accuracy, otherwise we will get skewered
Facebook as a Customer Service tool
When issues come up we must address them with speed, agility and accuracy, otherwise we will get skewered
We took a beating last week due to the snow in the NE
Driving sales
• Once you engage, build trust people will buy right off the pages.
• We promote sales monthly.• Sometimes insider sales for FB only.• We drive referrals sales as well.• Our customers are constantly selling TFD on the
page and to their friends• 2011 bringing in online ASP Referral rewards
program.
Driving Sales – Special offers for FB peeps
Building Traffic – Fans and Likes
Ad.ly network allows you to buy paid tweets from celebrities
Gained 400 fans in one day
Building Traffic – Fans and Likes
Tie ins with other sites drove major traffic and likes
We did this one in conjunction with a freebie every day.
Building Traffic – Fans and Likes
Tie ins with other sites drove major traffic and likes
We did this one in conjunction with a freebie every day.
Building Traffic – Fans and Likes
Paid tweets from Heidi Montag promoting a contest drove fans and contest entries
Building Traffic – Fans and Likes
Using the @ sign drives traffic
This post ran on TFD and Holly Madison’s FB page at the same time
Facebook ads drive traffic
Questions…
• Your turn
Want a copy?
•Drop me a card and I will email you a copy of this presentation!
Thank you!
• Gilbert Direct Marketing– [email protected]– @gilbertdirect– Gilbertdirectmarketing.wordpress.com
• The Fresh Diet– www.thefreshdiet.com– www.facebook.com/thefreshdiet