I’m going to admit, I’m not great at Facebook promotions, but over the summer I’ve been working hard, with a little help with some friends from Club One, to design some great promotions for our readers.
It hasn’t been easy, but we’ve quickly learned the value of Facebook promotions. Not only does it help build an audience on Facebook, but also it provides value to your followers. Over the summer we ran a promotion along with Perform Better. We drove up our fans by more than 100, and increased revenue for a great advertiser.
This fall we have teamed up with Vicore to help promote its line of benches. The promotion is for non-fans and current fans alike. Not only should it increase our Facebook “Likes,” but also it should both increase our newsletter subscribers and website traffic.
The three-fold increase was an idea that we had played with after doing large amounts of research from major consumer magazines. We thought long and hard about all the things we needed — increased traffic, likes and newsletter subscribers — then proceeded to work backwards to discover how we could potentially receive all three from one great promotion.
How could this work for you? In the digital world you should buy into the concept that content is king. The more content you have on your website, the more valuable your website will be to your members and potential members. If you deliver nutrition and exercise tips to your members on your website, then promote your articles via Facebook, you can drive up web traffic. What you receive from driving traffic to your website can mean a multitude of things.
1) Increased guest passes being used.
2) Increased exposure to your club.
3) Increased revenue for your personal training department.
4) Increased revenue for additional paid amenities.
5) An increase in membership sales.
Your promotions can be as simple or extravagant as you desire. Wildfire Facebook Apps can be as expensive or as inexpensive as you desire.
Utilize the experts that work in your club to create content for your website. Design discounts on personal training and nutrition counseling, as well as discounts on memberships. Use the discounts and content on your Facebook and both drive people to your website and through the doors of your club(s).
I know that all of this might sound a tad bit complicated, but that’s OK. It’s a lot simpler than you’re thinking, and remember, you can always shoot me e-mails and comment on posts for additional insights and advice from myself. Good luck, and I hope your Facebook promos are as beneficial as ours. Oh, also, remember to go sign up for our new promotion to potentially win one of five Vicore Benches!
Tyler Montgomery is the Editor of Club Solutions Magazine. Contact him at tyler@clubsolutionsmagazine.com
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
Great read Tyler!
Tyler–can you offer up a couple of examples of the promotions you ran this past summer?
Early on we used iTunes Gift Cards and American Express Gift Cards. They provided “Likes” but not in the volume we were looking for. We eventually partnered with Star Trac, Ab Coaster, Perform Better, and now Vicore. The winner(s) received a Spinner Blade, Ab Coaster or Vicore Bench, in each of the promotions. Partnering with advertising clients has been our best bet. When we partner with companies that we have relationships with, we push the promotion and they do too. We found that providing quality products to our readers through our promotions has been the most beneficial. Perform Better was a great promotion because it was a coupon that everyone that became a fan could receive simply by “Liking” our page. That was our best promotion to date. I would suggest finding a way that every person that already “Likes” your page, and any new “Likes” you receive, everyone gets something. That seems to have the best outcome.
Hi Tyler,
I agree that promos are an excellent way to increase your social base. Just let me recommend you a new tool to create htem: Hisocial.com. I hope you like it.