Social Igniter Case Study -The Bistro
With the uptick in popularity, social media ads have become drastically more competitive and therefore expensive. Fortunately, Social Igniters bypass the traditional advertising route and leverage the “network effect” to assure that your brand is seen and ingrained in the minds of new users.
Facebook is arguably the most effective outreach and marketing platform ever created. That being said, you can quickly spend money on Facebook with little to show for your investment if you don’t have the right strategy in place. You can’t simply click “Boost Post” and expect dollars to start pouring in. That’s why I want to share this case study with you!
Campaign: Free Dinner for 4.
Objectives:
+ Build a customer database (emails and SMS)
+ Increased engagement and interaction
+ More local market awareness
+ More new customers
+ Increase guest frequency
+ More 5-Star Reviews
Ad Budget: $100
Duration: 2 weeks
The Ad
We strategically used Emoticons to attract attention and convey emotion. Emojis communicate across all languages. Think of the Emojis as the “spice” and your words as the ingredients. With emojis, like spices, you don’t want to overdo it. A little can go a long way.
We asked people to ‘Like’ the post and got hundreds of new ‘Page Likes’ by inviting everyone who liked the post to also like the page. People sharing the post translated into more reach for the campaign.
The Landing Page
The nicely designed landing page showed what the prize was and when the winner would be announced. We usually suggest a high perceived value prize to maximize participation. Even though the dinner was worth $150, it only cost the restaurant about $50 in food costs. We also recommend a relatively short timeline of one to two weeks for the contest.
The Thank You Page
We encouraged viral sharing to increase the entrants’ chances of winning and increase the organic traffic to the contest. We also included a special offer here so everyone who entered would see it.
The One Time Special Offer
We offered a $30 Gift Card for only $20. Pre-sold food can offset your marketing and advertising costs. Most people will spend more when using a Gift Card and almost 1/3 of consumers who receive one don’t end up using it. We ended up getting a lower than expected number of people taking advantage of the offer, probably because they were waiting to see if they won the grand prize first.
Announcing The Winner
The subject line of the announcement email was designed to get a high open rate.
Subject Line: “And The Winner Of Dinner For Four At The Bistro Is…”
Hello {First Name},
We are excited to announce the winner of The Bistro’s 15-Year Anniversary Sweepstakes is… EVERYONE!
Now, we can’t give everyone a free dinner, but we would like to offer you 50% off your tab, up to $20.
To claim your prize, please follow these steps:
1) Text 50 to 64600 to get your mobile voucher.
2) Tap “Redeem Offer” in front of your server when ordering.
We also announced the winner on The Bistro’s Facebook page and posted a picture of the winner enjoying their free dinner, which ended up being a party of eight. The prize had a value of $150 so this wasn’t a problem, we just deducted $150 from the bill. This was also a win as half of them had never been to The Bistro!
The Consultation Prize
We sent everyone who entered the contest a consolation prize of 50% off of their tab that was redeemable on their mobile phone. We were able to track voucher redemption and people could only use the offer once.
The voucher expired 14 days and ended on June 30th, but we sent an email and text message extending the offer to boost business after the 4th of July holiday. We experienced higher than usual foot traffic even though it’s typically dead that week with everyone BBQing and going out of town!
With the “50% off” offer, the restaurant owner didn’t want people to come in and run up a $200 tab and get $100 off. The average ticket size was $40, so we put a cap on the discount.
We also sent 3 reminder emails to increase redemptions: Don’t Forget About Your Voucher, Your Voucher is Expiring! Last Chance…
Increasing 5-Star Reviews
Once the mobile voucher was redeemed patron’s cell phone was automatically redirected to The Bistro’s Facebook Page on the “Review Us” section. Most gave a 5-star review after enjoying their meal and getting a discount. This is known as reciprocity.
Building A Customer Database
We captured the email of everyone who entered the giveaway plus 300 of them also opted in to receive SMS text messages. The restaurant can now send ongoing weekly emails and/or text messages. With their new email and SMS customer database The Bistro can keep subscribers informed on upcoming Events, Specials, First Friday, Happy Hour, New Menu, Wine Tasting, Recipes, etc.
What We Would Do Differently
Because of the low number of people who took advantage of the special offer of a $30 voucher for $20, we would make this the consolation prize. That way the entrants would know they did not win the main prize and likely take advantage of the discount. We would then wait a month or so and send out a special offer to the newly built customer database to continue offering value, build a relationship, and stay “top-of-mind.”
The Final Results
• 1,287 New Page Likes
• 2,512 Email & 300 SMS Subscribers
• 13,922 Post Engagements
• 99,863 People Reached (Brand Awareness)
• 35 New 5-Star Reviews on Facebook & Yelp
• $320 In Gift Card Sales
• $3,250 In Estimated Food Sales
