Facebook: Breaking the Sales myth

How The Fresh Diet Drives Consumer Engagement, FANaticism and Sales

Presented by Jim Gilbert:CEO, Gilbert Direct Marketing, Inc.De Facto CMO: The Fresh Diet, Inc.

What to expect today• A how to on how The Fresh Diet does business

on Facebook.

• Insider info you won’t get elsewhere that you can take to “the bank”

What NOT to expect today

• A tutorial on how to set up a Facebook page• Technical details by a web marketing person– I am a direct marketer and approach FB in that

manner.

How many of you use FB for business?

• We’ll discuss how it is working during Q&A• Who is here from the diet or food industry

Lets get started but first…

• About The Fresh Diet

About The Fresh Diet

• Gourmet Meals hand delivered daily• Inc 500 Fastest growing Co. #1 in Miami-Dade• Since 2005• Double growth in 2010• Double again in 2011• And yes, we sell right off of Facebook• Inspire you today

So No, I am not a Facebook Expert

• Started Gilbert Direct FB page 2.5 yrs ago• Had no idea how to make is successful• Originally just pushed info from my blog to FB• End result = Nothing!• Originally took same approach to TFD FB Page.– Pushed out content from blog, articles…

Level of effectiveness = 0

•November 2009:

94 fans

Level of effectiveness = 100

•December 2010:

24,195 likesThat’s a lot more than nutrisysem!

Building our brand via Facebook

• Our facebook page is our calling card.• Many times we prefer to send to FB over web • More powerful than our website– People see engagement and want to join in– People see happy customers and order!

• Beyond our “likes” thousands of people check us out on FB daily.

• Our Reviews page has over 80 Reviews, 95% of them positive

How we got there – Goals!

• Main goal!• Put a human face on the nameless faceless

corporate identity• Distinguish ourselves from big corps• We are real people, promoting a healthy

lifestyle• People respond to real

How we got there – Goals!

• Build relationships - Build engagement• Speak in a real voice• Develop trust• Give to get world• Time spent on site = engagement• Engagement = Sales• Sales + Engagement = Advocacy• I tease people, draw them out, call them out, etc

How we got there – Goals!

"There is only one valid definition of business purpose – to create a customer.

Companies are not in business to make things… but to make customers.”

-- Peter F. Drucker

How we got to 23K – the basics

• Promote via: • Website• Blog• Transactional

emails• Twitter

How we got to 23K – the basics

• Promote via: • Website• Blog• Transactional

emails• Twitter

How we got to 23K – the basics

• Call center• Collateral Material• Mailers• Email signatures• Email newsletters• Any place we can think of

Step 2 building engagement

• It started with a single contest.– Carbometer

• We now run contests every day of the week

Contests mean to us

• A way to seed the market with food• A way to have people come back and give

positive feedback

• An engagement tool• Fun – draws people out

Contest examples

• Plate your favorite meals

Contest examples

• Halloween costume contest

Contest examples

• Motivation poster contests

Contest examples

• Fresh Diet-ize a Beatles Lyric (in honor of John Lennon)

• Fresh Diet-ized Haiku

Contest examples• Video

contests

• This contest coined the phrase, “the fresh diet delivery fairies?

Contest examples

• Ultra secret contests– My excuse

to give away food

• Any old contests– Banner ad

Contests Recipe winner

Any Excuse for a contest

Building Trust – Random Freebies

• Every day we give food away randomly on FB. • Other times we just give it away for no reason• Is it expensive? Sure, but the rewards are

enormous– People are always promoting us to our friends– Another way we seed the market and drive

positive reviews

Our involvement devices

• Delivery fairies• Fearless FB leader• Overgiving• We let our customers run and judge contests• Brand everybody• Make fun of ourselves• Have all get involved in company• Ask questions, involve customers (bag, slogans)

Bio’s of our

employees bring

customers closer to

the company

Build involvement and trust

Build involvement and trust

Be Transparent

Go behind the scenes

Bringing our customers closer

Image done by one of our customers of our CEO Zalmi Duchman.

He is officially Zman or Zuperman to our fans

We do a lot of video

We do a lot of video

And our customers love a good scandal

By By Carnie!

Then there’s the “food porn”

Give to get – Random Freebies

Give to get – Groupon info, drives sharing

Give to get – Groupon contests

The Mommy blogger network

• Hundreds of mommy bloggers• We have them do reviews for food• Contests too

• Other networks, diabetes, charitable orgs, bariatrics

• The potential is unlimited

Engagement, our customer take over

In a social media driven world – people buy from their peers!

Engagement our customers take over

• In Orlando• Customers ran contests, promoted specials

answered CS Q’s• Our customers would walk through fire due to

the trust we have built.• We ask people from FB to do interviews, show

up at events, etc… even be on TV.

Customers take over

Fresh never frozen

Engagement, sometimes

silliness ensues

Engagement, our

customers take over

Positive and negative reviews

Facebook as a customer service tool

• Our Sales and CS people inhabit our page• Customer service is no longer limited to the

call center!!!• When questions get asked, we answer ASAP– Speed and agility in a social media world– If we don’t answer fast enough, we get grief

Facebook as a Customer Service tool

When issues come up we must address them with speed, agility and accuracy, otherwise we will get skewered

Facebook as a Customer Service tool

When issues come up we must address them with speed, agility and accuracy, otherwise we will get skewered

We took a beating last week due to the snow in the NE

Driving sales

• Once you engage, build trust people will buy right off the pages.

• We promote sales monthly.• Sometimes insider sales for FB only.• We drive referrals sales as well.• Our customers are constantly selling TFD on the

page and to their friends• 2011 bringing in online ASP Referral rewards

program.

Driving Sales – Special offers for FB peeps

Building Traffic – Fans and Likes

Ad.ly network allows you to buy paid tweets from celebrities

Gained 400 fans in one day

Building Traffic – Fans and Likes

Tie ins with other sites drove major traffic and likes

We did this one in conjunction with a freebie every day.

Building Traffic – Fans and Likes

Tie ins with other sites drove major traffic and likes

We did this one in conjunction with a freebie every day.

Building Traffic – Fans and Likes

Paid tweets from Heidi Montag promoting a contest drove fans and contest entries

Building Traffic – Fans and Likes

Using the @ sign drives traffic

This post ran on TFD and Holly Madison’s FB page at the same time

Facebook ads drive traffic

Questions…

• Your turn

Want a copy?

•Drop me a card and I will email you a copy of this presentation!

Thank you!

• Gilbert Direct Marketing– Jimdirect@aol.com– @gilbertdirect– Gilbertdirectmarketing.wordpress.com

• The Fresh Diet– www.thefreshdiet.com– www.facebook.com/thefreshdiet