Chapter 3

Selling Products and Services Using Facebook Offers

IN THIS CHAPTER

Bullet Introducing Facebook Offers

Bullet Creating offers

Bullet Managing offers

Bullet Promoting offers

Is Facebook just for building a fan base and getting people engaged? Or can you actually use Facebook to sell products and services? With various e-commerce applications and email acquisition apps, the answer is: both. Facebook Pages allow you to engage customers, and Facebook Offers get your customers buying your wares and talking to their friends about your business.

How does this feature work? Suppose that Threadless posts a limited offer for $10, and you choose to redeem that offer. As soon as you click Get Offer, your friends see that you’ve just taken advantage of the offer on their Timelimes. Your action may not make all your friends buy T-shirts, but it will certainly be attractive to all the Threadless customers in your network!

In this chapter, you see how to use Facebook Offers to promote your business. You can create an offer and then promote the offer with Facebook Ads, your Facebook Page, and your email list. You also see how offers can enhance your current sales process.

Understanding Facebook Offers

Facebook Offers encourages people to share your business with their friends when they claim your offer. When people claim your offer, they make a commitment to buy your product or service as well as share that commitment with their friends. Facebook Offers lets you make any offer to increase sales, repeat business, or leads. You can offer a discount with a purchase, for example, as shown in Figure 3-1. Then Facebook users can claim your offer in your store, on Facebook, or in both places.

Screenshot of Facebook that Offers increases in sales and gets customers to tell their friends.

FIGURE 3-1: Facebook Offers increases sales and gets customers to tell their friends.

Here's how Facebook Offers works:

  • Offer Post: You create an offer on your Page by using the Publisher, where you typically upload photos and post text updates. You don't pay a fee to create an offer post. Your offer is shown on your Page with other posts.

    Tip You can choose to boost the offer post at the time you create it. Boosting a post is an advertising method that allows you to choose an extended audience beyond your own. You can either choose to target friends of friends or choose a specific audience. You do pay a fee to do this because it’s advertising.

  • Offer Ad: When you buy a Facebook Ad to promote the offer, your offer can show up with other ads on the right side of the Page or in the News Feed. Boosting Facebook Offers isn’t free, but it’s a very powerful way to grow your business. You can also track the usage data in Insights to help you improve your offer.

Three types of offers are available for you to use to promote sales and build word-of-mouth advertising:

  • In Store Only: People who claim the offer can print the offer email or show it on their smartphones to your sales staff. If your goal is to increase foot traffic in your store, this option is your best choice.
  • In Store & Online: People can redeem the offer in your store or on your website.

Creating an Offer for Your Page

You can create an offer from your Page Publisher by following these steps:

  1. Go to your Page, and above the Write Something box, you see a graphic button that says Offer (see Figure 3-2). Click it.

  2. Write a title and description in the Tell People about Your Offer box.

    Make the value of your offer simple to understand, such as “Limited space for one-on-one meetings.” Several details must be included (see Figure 3-3), as follows:

    • Date the offer expires
    • A photo(s)
    • Where people can redeem the offer (optional)
    • Add terms and conditions (optional)

  3. Choose an expiration date by clicking a day in the future.

    Tip Limit your offer to a week or less because after a week, you reach the point of diminishing returns.

  4. Put a check mark in the box to let the customer redeem it in-store, online (you’ll need to add a URL), or both.
  5. Add a promo code (optional).
  6. Add terms and conditions (optional).

  7. Go to the Publish button drop-down menu.

    The drop-down menu lets you choose either Schedule, Back Date, or Save Draft. If you choose Schedule, a window pops up, asking you to schedule an offer.

    Tip You are also given the option to click the Boost Post button from this screen.

  8. Click Schedule Offer and choose the date you want your offer to go live.

    Your offer is published on your Page at that date.

Screenshot of Beginning to create an offer page.

FIGURE 3-2: Beginning to create an offer.

Screenshot of a view of the offer details.

FIGURE 3-3: A view of the offer details.

Tip When customers view the offer from the Offer link on the left side of your page, they can save it for later or view past offers, making it more accessible.

Getting the Most from Your Offer

Using Facebook Offers as an effective part of your marketing strategy requires more than simply knowing how to create one (which is pretty easy, as you’ve just seen).

As with any other promotional strategy, the message and the offer are what really determine success. Do your customers need what you’re offering? Is the free offer or discount something they’d truly get excited about? The more clearly you can answer these questions, the more successful your offer will be.

Tip You can get the most from Facebook Offers with these nine tips:

  • Offer something remarkable. Offering real value makes customers happy, but offering remarkable value inspires those happy customers to tell their friends. If your favorite restaurant offered a free bottle of wine with reservations booked online, no doubt you’d claim that offer. Give people something they’ll make remarks about (something remarkable).
  • Keep the offer simple. Write a headline and summary that inspire people to claim your offer. Use simple language that’s concise and easy to understand, such as “Get a free coffee with a full breakfast” or “Ten percent off gym membership.”
  • Be clear about restrictions. Mention any time limits or other restrictions. Otherwise, you end up spending too much time explaining the offer to confused and disappointed customers.
  • Be clear about how to claim the offer. Don’t leave people guessing about what to do after they claim the offer. Clearly state what they need to do next, such as “Show your phone to the salesperson.” Fortunately, Facebook sends an email with instructions to anyone who claims the offer.
  • Keep the offer fresh. If you run an offer too long, people lose interest. You want to make them happy, and you want them to tell their friends.
  • Don’t run too many concurrent offers. Doing so only causes confusion among your customers and your employees.
  • Prepare your employees. Make sure that all your employees understand the terms of the offer, how people will redeem it, and what customers get when they claim the offer. Be clear about how to handle customers who ask about the offer after it expires.
  • Stock the warehouse. Make sure that you have enough of what you’re offering to honor all offers during the run.
  • Be cheerful. Make sure that your customers are treated in a cheerful manner when they claim a deal. The last thing you want is for a customer to feel that the sales staff was reluctant about honoring the deal. Be cheerful. It can’t be said enough.

Promoting Your Offer

After you create your offer you need to make people aware of it by promoting it. An ad alone won’t make the offer a success, however. Promote your offer as much as possible. When people claim it, a story is created in their News Feed so that all their friends are exposed to your business. Also, the total number of claims is displayed (see Figure 3-4), which adds a social-proof element and strengthens the offer.

Screenshot of total number of claims, which is created when people claim your offer, stories are generated in their friends’ News Feeds.

FIGURE 3-4: When people claim your offer, stories are generated in their friends’ News Feeds and the total number of claims is displayed.

Tip Social proof is a psychological concept that says that people look at the actions of other people to determine what the correct thing to do is in a given situation. In this instance, the number of claims indicates that others have accepted the offer, so it must be good.

Promoting your offer on your Facebook Page

Many of your potential customers are exposed to your business through their friends who use Facebook. When one of your fans comments on or likes a post on your Page, Facebook distributes that action in their friends’ News Feeds. In the same way, you can create awareness about your deal by posting stories about it on your Page. This leverages the word-of-mouth feature that's inherent on Facebook.

You can use your Page to promote your offer effectively with these methods:

  • Announce the offer a couple of times. If a product is associated with the offer, upload a photo and post a link to the offer in the photo description. In this update, ask an engaging question like “Who’s hungry for a free appetizer?”
  • Use your Facebook cover to promote your offer. Hire a graphic designer to create a Facebook cover promoting your offer. If you don’t have the budget to hire a graphic designer, try using Canva.com (http://canva.com), a visual-content-creation tool.
  • Create conversations about your offer when appropriate. When someone claims the offer, mention it on your Page (“Jane just claimed the shrimp cocktail! Who likes shrimp?”). This technique invites fans and their friends to comment on your Page, creating more awareness of your deal.

These are just examples to get you started. Using your Facebook Page as a marketing tool is limited only by your creativity.

Warning Some promotional activities are prohibited on Facebook. Make sure that before promoting your deal, you review the Facebook Pages Terms at https://www.facebook.com/terms_pages.php.

Promoting your offer with Facebook Ads

Another way to promote your deal is to use highly targeted Facebook Ads. You can select specific geographic criteria as well as demographic information when you create your ad. Your criteria should be based on your knowledge of your target market and your ideal customer located in the vicinity of your business. With Facebook Ads, you can target a city, for example, or parents with children younger than age 5.

Remember Don’t forget to create mobile ads for your offers. According to VentureBeat, Facebook mobile ads made up 90% of its ad revenue in 2018.

Promoting your offer through other marketing channels

In addition to using your Facebook Page, you want to use other marketing channels to promote your offer. Many of your customers may not be active Facebook users but would still be interested in connecting with your business to take advantage of your offer. Consider the following options:

  • Email marketing: Many businesses have an email list. Send an email announcement of your deal with these tips in mind:

    • Write a compelling headline that gets the reader’s attention. This headline could simply be your offer summary.
    • Keep the body of the email short and concise. You have only a few seconds after someone opens your email to grab her attention. Communicate the essence of your offer in as few words as possible.
    • Include an image. Keeping the preceding point in mind, remember that a picture is worth a thousand words. Use a picture of the product or service you’re offering.
    • Ask the reader to click. In the middle of your email and at the end, clearly state what you want the reader to do, such as “Click here to become a fan of our Facebook Page.” This way, you can continue to remind readers of the offer.

    See Book 5, Chapter 4 for more information on email marketing.

  • In-store promotion: In addition to using email and your Facebook Page, you want to promote your deal in the store with posters, mentions at the cash register, and other traditional in-store promotional methods.

    Why promote an offer that’s intended to encourage in-store traffic to people in your store? The critical thing to remember about using Facebook Offers is that in addition to encouraging foot traffic, you create awareness about your business as people claim offers.

    For example, imagine you’re offering a free coffee with a full breakfast. When customers claim that offer, many of their Facebook friends are exposed to the coffee shop because their friends will see that they claimed the offer. Some of them will become new Facebook fans, and some of them will claim an offer and show up at the coffee shop as well!