So you’ve set up your salon business Facebook page. You have a few, or a few hundred, followers. Now what? How do you turn those fans into clients and reach even more?
One tried and proven strategy is to occasionally run a Facebook Campaign or Contest. Have you ever entered a Facebook contest hosted by one of your favorite brands and were directed to a special page within that brand’s Facebook page? That fancy entry page you saw was created using a Facebook contest application, since hosting a contest or sweepstakes on your wall is against the rules on Facebook. Boo. Or is it?
Running a Facebook campaign is a great way to show fans what services you have to offer and encourage them to cross the digital divide and come into your salon. You can do this by installing an interactive application on your Facebook page, many of which are free and available for your use. Others can cost from $25/month to $2,500/month depending on what you want to do.
Installing a Facebook campaign app is easy enough; there is an icon just under the cover photo on your business page titled “apps” that will walk you through the steps to get your campaign started. Some of the most popular Facebook campaigns include:
- Sweepstakes
- Promotions
- Newsletter sign-ups
- Contests
Tips for Facebook Campaign Success
In short, you want your Facebook campaign to be fun for your fans but also serve a promotional purpose for your salon. When you are setting up a Facebook campaign, keep these things ideas in mind for the best results:
- Require people to like, or share, your page in order to participate in any promotions or contests. This is also called a ‘like gate’ or a ‘fan gate’. This will help to build your following for future offers.
- Make your campaign easy for fans to share on their own pages. When the friends of those fans see what you are offering or giving away, they will like your salon or spa page, too.
- Host a contest that gets others involved, like captioning or voting for a winner. This is a great way for your existing fans to promote you to their network and build your fan count.
- Do not reinvent your marketing “wheel.” If you have success with a current promotion, make it a Facebook contest using one of these apps and then promote it in the salon as well as in email and your other promotional channels.
Facebook Campaigns in Action
One of our clients that always runs a Mother’s Day promotion was looking for a way to boost the number of likes on their Facebook page. To make it simple, he decided to turn his usual front desk raffle into a Facebook campaign. The client encouraged fans to post pictures of moms that deserved a free makeover. The mom with the most votes won – but the people voting had to first “like” the salon’s Facebook page, bringing in over 600 new fans. After the contest ended, they decided to maximize on their new fans, by running a second campaign, a group deal that offered 50 percent off a massage or facial. Of the total number of sales for that promotion, 65 percent of those were from the new clients that heard about them on Facebook.
The takeaway here is to come up with a campaign that goes along with promotions you already run and translate it into a Facebook setting. This can mean an interactive contest, or a one-time discount, or any other ideas you can develop that make sense in the Facebook setting.
Author Bio: Valorie Reavis
Social Marketer, foodie, closet geekA marketing professional who has focused primarily on the hair and beauty business for of the past decade, Valorie now runs linkup marketing, a digital marketing agency for the hair and beauty professional. Valorie works to engage clients in the marketing process and help them successfully engage with their clients and community. Energetic and passionate about the industry, Valorie focuses on blending traditional and digital media in order to bring salons closer to their clients.
