The Winner’s CircleThe Winner’s Circle
Book Winner Case StudyBook Winner Case Study
by Kim Walsh-Phillips
What makes up No B.S. Social Media?
Results-driven, measured, and high-ROI-producing campaigns.
As mentioned earlier in Chapter 6, we held a contest for a Small Business Social Media makeover as a pre-publication promotion for this book. Four finalists were selected to receive a social media makeover, and one was chosen as the grand prize winner to be featured in this book.
For a writeup on all of the winners, visit www.NoBSSocialMediaBook.com.
Honorable Mention: Fitness Revolution
Justin Yule and his wife Janelle own a personal training studio, Fitness Revolution, in Chanhassen, Minnesota, www.chanhassenfitnessrevolution.com. Prior to this contest, they were heavily engaged in Facebook. They posted daily and used their Facebook account to run private support groups for members.
When they decided to take the leap into using Facebook Ads, they knew how important it is to be diligent about tracking ROI. (We loved that characteristic in a finalist for this contest.)
The average monthly membership cost for Fitness Revolution group personal training program (the program they would be advertising) is $175/month for a 12-month agreement. Each new member would be worth AT LEAST $2,100—and that number would go up with back-end offers throughout the year. While the majority of Justin and Janelle’s members renew at the end of the year, to track their ROI for this contest we purposely chose to focus on the more conservative one-year, rather than lifetime value. And the numbers are still extraordinary.
The first ad campaign was for a Front End Offer (FEO) of $79 for a four-week pilot class. The ads featured pictures of actual clients and contained a short quote from each. To maximize effectiveness, ads were targeted toward specific age groups and featured members in those same age groups. In addition, each of these ads went to a different landing page with the same offer, but the testimonials matched up to the ad.
These ads were all split-tested with different images, and the winning combination was fully launched in the campaign.
In addition, a change in the standard campaign increased the ROI dramatically. Within the sales video and the landing page, other start dates and session time options for the program were mentioned. This proved to be very fruitful as the MAJORITY of purchases were NOT for the initially advertised session time.
The results:
• $2,979 spent on ads
• $2,139 brought in on the FEO
• $15,719 sold in memberships
• $17,858 total revenue
• $14,879 in profit for a 500% ROI. This number will continue to increase as back-end sales and referrals are made, both of which have already started as we report this.
Any time we can put $1 into a machine and get $5 out, we’re willing to play all day.
The second campaign run wasn’t so fruitful—only a 316% ROI, but we’ll take that, too. Because a handful of leads from that campaign are still in trial, the ROI could certainly catch up to the first campaign. Better odds than roulette.
Justin shares, “Overall, we’re very excited about adding Facebook Advertising to our lead generation toolbox. Naturally, like most direct-response marketers, we won’t rely solely on one strategy, but will put more focus into it moving forward.”
See Figures 15.1 through 15.4 on pages 306 and 307 for samples of the ad split test winners.
Grand Prize Winner: Surface Creek Veterinary Center
Surface Creek Veterinary Center in Cedaredge, Colorado, provides routine preventive care, vaccinations, surgery, dentistry, x-rays, laser therapy, in-house lab testing, reproductive services for large and small animals, farm visits, herd health consults, and much more. Dogs, cats, small mammals, cattle, goats, sheep, llamas, and alpacas are all welcome, and it makes farm and ranch calls as needed.
Right off the bat, we knew we were going to need to focus its offerings to gain momentum in its Facebook marketing ROI.
FIGURE 15.1: Chanhassen Fitness Revolution Ad Split Test Winner
FIGURE 15.2: Chanhassen Fitness Revolution Ad Split Test Winner
FIGURE 15.3: Chanhassen Fitness Revolution Ad Split Test Winner
FIGURE 15.4: Chanhassen Fitness Revolution Ad Split Test Winner.
When we started working with Surface Creek Veterinary Center, its overall social media marketing was minimal. Its posting was sporadic with minimal engagement on its page. It did not have a proven digital sales funnel, and it was not running any ads on Facebook outside of Boosted Posts, which offer a low overall ROI.
We selected Surface Creek as our winner, and Account Manager Danielle Passaro worked with veterinarian Dr. Susie Hirsch to optimize the Surface Creek Veterinary Facebook page, create a sales funnel, and run ads via Facebook for which we could show a proven ROI.
IN THE BEGINNING
Our first step was to update the cover photo, which was a great shot of the full Surface Creek team, but was from the new office construction back in 2011. We chose a photo of Dr. Susie and Dr. Jeff holding the office cats while standing just outside of their office. (See Figures 15.5 and 15.6 on page 309 for before and after covers.)
We added text on the image that would show at-a-glance what this business is all about: Helping your pets live longer, healthier lives. The photo instantly increased page engagement as it received 95 likes, six comments, and two shares, all without spending any ad dollars. Increased engagement leads to free lead generation, so this was a great way to kick off the account.
Beyond the social response to the image, the reasons we chose an image like this were multifold. We wanted to introduce the veterinarians to their audience and put friendly faces with the business. We also wanted to clearly show what their focus is and what they can do for prospects—and establish them as experts and authorities in the market.
We also updated the profile image. Surface Creek was already using its logo, but the dimensions of the logo image caused Facebook to crop it and made it unreadable. A small tweak was all that was needed to fix the image, making it not only readable but also easily recognizable.
FIGURE 15.5: Surface Creek Veterinary Facebook Cover Photo—Before
FIGURE 15.6: Surface Creek Veterinary Facebook Cover Photo—After
Before and after (see Figures 15.7 and 15.8 on page 310):
FIGURE 15.7: Surface Creek Veterinary Facebook Profile Image—Before
FIGURE 15.8: Surface Creek Veterinary Facebook Profile Image—After
These two tweaks created a more welcoming and focused homepage. (See Figure 15.10 on page 311 and Figure 15.11 on page 312 for before and after homepages.)
SOCIAL MEDIA POSTING
Surface Creek had previously been posting every couple of days. The content skewed too salesy as it often shared the current month’s promotional offer with occasional cute pictures of animals or a relevant news article from an outside source.
FIGURE 15.9: Using a Positive Review as a Social Media Post
FIGURE 15.10: Surface Creek Veterinary Facebook Homepage—Before
We ramped up the posting to once daily, and expanded types of content posted. The page engagement increased almost immediately. Its seven-day schedule:
Day 1. Meet the Staff (photos of the staff and a quick description or quote from them). Because there are only so many staff members, future schedules could shift to “Meet the Patients” and show images of the pets who come in along with a quick story about them. (See Figure 15.12 on page 313.)
FIGURE 15.11: Surface Creek Veterinary Facebook Homepage—After
Day 2. Funny Pet Memes and Pictures. Because we know people spend hours looking at these on their own, we wanted to share some cute ones here. They effortlessly encourage interaction and sharing. (See Figure 15.13 on page 313.)
Day 3. Pet Health Tips. We pulled a lot of these posts from content already available in past blogs and newsletters written by Dr. Susie and Dr. Jeff. (See Figure 15.14 on page 314.)
Day 4. More Pet Facts. This could be anything from information on vaccinations to what type of foods to feed your pet. (See Figure 15.15 on page 314.)
FIGURE 15.12: Day 1—Meet the Staff
FIGURE 15.13: Day 2—Funny Pet Memes and Pictures
FIGURE 15.14: Day 3—Pet Health Tips
FIGURE 15.15: Day 4—More Pet Facts
Day 5. Pet Parent Reviews. This is an easy way to share testimonials and reviews from patients. New reviews can be shared as they come in and older reviews that have already been collected can also be used, thus giving them a longer shelf life. (See Figure 15.16 on page 315.)
FIGURE 15.16: Day 5—Pet Parent Reviews
FIGURE 15.17: Day 6—Inspirational Pet Quotes
Day 6. Inspirational Pet Quotes. These typically include a cute photo and quote, and often garner a lot of response. I mean, cute puppies and kittens. You can’t lose. (See Figure 15.17.)
FIGURE 15.18: Day 7—More Pet Health Information
Day 7. More Pet Health Information. (See Figure 15.18.)
THE SALES FUNNEL
It’s one thing to get people to click “like” on a photo of an adorable animal. But what about the ROI?
Surface Creek Veterinary Center does run monthly offers and shares them via newsletter to current and prospective clients, on the website homepage to all who visit, and typically via a social media post. However, we wanted to create a sales funnel to bring new patients into its offices, which would allow its team to then create a lifetime relationship with the pet owners.
Dr. Jeff also recently published a dog food recipe book called Cooking with Buck: Healthy Recipes for Dogs, for which he was interviewed on national TV. We figured we could use that to our advantage!
The offer we came up with was a $20 checkup plus nutritional consultation for first-time patients. The typical value of a checkup is $38, so the average annual value of a pet patient is $625, and the lifetime value is $3,000. The $18 price reduction on the initial checkup would easily be made up in the first year alone.
We carefully chose our text for the offer to help qualify prospects. We reached out to pet owners to remind them they need to have their pets checked out with our opening line: “When was the last time you took your furry friend for a checkup?”
We added a sense of urgency by offering it as a “limited time offer.” The call to action is a simple “Click to Claim” to make it easy for readers to figure out what to do to get the offer. And finally, the descriptive text gave a little more detail and left an open loop by running off the page. We added some qualifiers to get readers to schedule before April 15th, which was three weeks after the start of the campaign. (See Figures 15.19 through 15.21 on pages 318 to 319.)
We integrated the landing page for this offer within the Surface Creek Veterinary Center’s website. By integrating directly within its website, we could use retargeting to follow up with anyone who didn’t opt-in.
On the landing page, we included the most successful image from our Facebook ads, and provided more information on the Veterinary Center as well as the offer. We mentioned “bringing in your pet” to make sure the readers would know the offer was not for a farm or ranch visit, as those are typically much more expensive.
The form was hosted by AWeber and once filled out, immediately triggers a thank-you message and enters the user into a follow-up sequence that shares pet-owner information in addition to sending an alert to the vet offices. The thank-you page is a pop-up that shares the phone number with readers who want to reach out immediately, and sets the expectation that the user will be contacted via phone as well as email.
FIGURE 15.19: Add a Call to Action
FIGURE 15.20: Create a Sense of Urgency—Limited Time Offer
FIGURE 15.21: Leave an Open Loop Where Some of the Text Runs off the Edge of the Ad
A great reason for asking users to submit their information to you for an appointment is that they can do it at any time of day or night, not just during office hours. Many users are online in the nighttime hours, and many submissions came in for Surface Creek after hours. This allowed us to receive the request at the time that best suited them, then the receptionist could call back during office hours. We also asked for a “Best time to call” as we originally noticed that reaching out to users during the follow-up was not always successful. This way, the respondent could let the receptionist know when to call back. Additionally, by collecting user data, Surface Creek can now reach out to users via email with additional offers and information. (See Figures 15.22 below and 15.23 on page 321.)
FIGURE 15.22: Use a Landing Page and Opt-In Form to Schedule Discounted Appointment and Garner Contact Information
Once we developed a great offer and sequence, we needed to warm up the traffic we wanted to send the offer to. We typically did this by finding blog or newsletter content that was of high interest to readers. We researched which blogs were the most popular. We saw that vaccinations were a common topic, and used that to our advantage.
We pulled a few blog articles that already existed on the Surface Creek website and created another set of ads to drive traffic to those blog posts. We utilized the multiproduct ads so that we could show four different blog topics—some more relevant to dogs, others to cats—in addition to the general Surface Creek link. We incorporated a few funny and cute images to help grab Facebook users’ attention, and included text that asked, “Is your pet’s wellness something that is weighing on your mind?” to help get readers thinking about their pets’ needs. (See Figure 15.24 on page 322 and 323.)
FIGURE 15.23: Thank-You Page
We retargeted people who visited these blogs and extended the checkup offer to them. Those users had recently visited Surface Creek’s website and will have been thinking about their pets’ wellness, so the obvious next step would be to come in for a checkup. It’s much easier to sell on Facebook, or anywhere for that matter, to people who have already interacted with you and your brand, than to cold traffic.
Targeting was tricky for Surface Creek because its market is a local area. We focused on the zip codes of the cities it serves, and created a look-alike of the current Surface Creek patient list. That group was the most successful for clicks to the blog and those who had visited the website previously. We also paired that with other interests and behaviors like: Purchased pet-care products, cat products, dog products, pet products; people who identified as being cat owner or dog owners; people who donated to animal welfare organizations,; people interested in the ASPCA or Humane Society, cats, dogs, kittens, puppies, pet stores like PetSmart and Petco, or dog training and obedience. Many of these audiences were small, so we needed to run a few days to test them. We found we had hit most of the people in that audience during that time, so we needed to rest them for a while before sharing ads again. Overall we found success with many of those audiences, garnering 600 clicks with an average of $0.80 per click, and some as low as $0.56 per click.
FIGURE 15.24: Funny and Cute Pet Images to Grab Facebook Users’ Attention
A few days after the blog campaign started, we began to run the $20 Checkup offer to the website traffic audience as well as to audiences that had been particularly successful through the blog campaign. Within three weeks we were able to get 12 new patient appointment requests.
The total spend for the campaign was $878. With 12 appointments requests and a per-patient value of $625, the total value of their new patients was $7,500, giving Surface Creek over a 900% ROI.
That’s even cuter than baby puppies and kittens.
For all of the contest finalists and more tips on how to get a high ROI with your Facebook ads, visit www.NoBSSocialMediaBook.com.
#NoBSsm Tweetable Takeaways#NoBSsm Tweetable Takeaways
Use actual clients in your posts and ads to develop credibility with your audience. #NoBSsm
Track everything. #NoBSsm
Increased engagement provides free lead generation. #NoBSsm
Use your cover photo to build trust with your target market. #NoBSsm
Be clear on who you are marketing to and focus on this audience with all of your messaging. #NoBSsm