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How To: Get More Facebook Fans (Likes) Using Contests

July 13, 2011 By Jeremy Leave a Comment

The quickest way to get quality Facebook fans (likes) is to a) buy ads on Facebook or b) run an awesome contest. Let’s discuss contests.

The good ol’ days of saying “Like my page and be entered to win” are over. You need to run your contest through a third party app, like the popular Wildfire, or have a web services company (like us ) create one for you. If you don’t, you put your page at risk of being shut down. Yes, there are still many pages doing things the wrong way, but it’s our opinion that you should always follow the rules.

Don’t let this deter you. In fact, there is a huge benefit to this: In addition to getting new likes, you are gathering EXTREMELY VALUABLE INFORMATION like name, email address, home address, phone number, how they found out about you, etc. This info is gold and can be used later for email and direct mail marketing efforts.

GOOD PRIZES

The key to a successful contest is to “wow” your fans (and potential fans). If you give away a t-shirt, nobody is going to care. If you give away something expensive, unique, and/or exclusive you’ll get a much better response. And, if you think creatively, you may not have to spend any money on prizes. Because many of our clients are in the wine industry…

Ten Things a Winery Could Give Away

A gift certificate to be used in an online store or on site.

A reservation to the next winemaker’s dinner.

A private winery/vineyard tour and tasting.

A private dinner with the vintner/winemaker, be it on site, at a local restaurant, or via Skype.

A “Be a winemaker for a day” prize.

A chance to work crush and have dinner with the crew (free labor, too ).

An iPod Nano (or two) with the winery’s name engraved on it.

An iPad with the winery’s name engraved on it.

A stay at a local inn or B&B (opportunity here for cross promotion) / a gift card to a local restaurant that serves your wine.

Tickets to the IPNC Passport to Pinot, DHWX, or Pinot in the City.

As you can see, a little bit of creativity combined with a moderate budget could lead to an amazing contest response. For an example, check out the current Archery Summit contest.

TYPES OF CONTESTS

The two most popular types of contests are sweepstakes and photo submission.

Sweepstakes: The user fills out the form and is entered to win.

Photo Submission: The user snaps a photo (of whatever you determine) and sends it in via a contest app on Facebook. It can then be judged by you or voted on by others on Facebook.

You can get as creative as you want in this process but know that the more complicated you make a contest, the lower the response rate will be.

PUBLICIZING THE CONTEST

If you want your contest to be successful you need to publicize it. Here are some ways to do that.

Send out an email newsletter at the beginning, middle, and end of the contest.

Put it on your website and/or blog about it.

Post about it on Facebook every few days.

“Send an Update” to your fans on Facebook.

Post on any other social media that you’re using (Twitter, etc.).

Make sure your staff knows about it and is telling customers.

Have a computer set up in your tasting room with your FB page up so visitors can easily enter.

Take pictures of people entering the contest so you can post about it in a creative way.

Use your, and your staff’s, personal friend network to promote it.

Be sure to take photos, live Tweet/FB when the winner redeems his/her prize (eg, at a private tasting).

ROI

Let’s assume you are giving away an iPod Nano, a $100 gift certificate to your store, and a private tasting with the winemaker. We charge between $250 and $750 for the custom contest app. Let’s go with a super awesome fancy one at $750. The Nano is $150, and the gift cert. is $100. Time with the winemaker is free. You run the contest for a month and get 1,000 entries. That comes out to $1.00/lead. You also earned hundreds of new Facebook fans and received a lot of attention on social media. Not a bad deal at all!

In addition, each time you run a similar contest (say twice a year) you are sending it out to a larger base making each successive contest more successful and therefore cheaper.

SUMMARY

With a little creativity and a bunch of promotion a Facebook contest can not only up your fan (like) count but can provide you with valuable insight into your customer base and give you something to post about on a regular basis. What’s more, your contest doesn’t have to cost you a lot if you offer up your or your staff’s time to create an exclusive experience for the user. Just remember to think it all through before you go and launch it.

If you have any questions or comments, please post below! I welcome your feedback.

Filed Under: Blog, Facebook, Social Media, Twitter, Wine

The Great Twitter Fail of Willamette Valley Wineries — Memorial Day Weekend ’11

June 3, 2011 By Allison 9 Comments

Are you a Willamette Valley winery owner or employee? Then, you should know that Willamette Valley Wineries failed this weekend at social media. That’s right. We’re giving you guys an “F”, and not even two months after the big Social Media Conference held by the Tasting Room Managers Network. Oh, the shame .

Haven’t a clue how or why you failed? After all, you tweeted that you were open. You shared a few photos on Facebook of your event. You may have even made a video of the weekend. Let me break it down for you:

You are a winery that makes a fantastic product.

Wineries in the immediate area make an equally fantastic product.

You want your winery to be the one people choose.

When the quality is the same, people choose based on price point and/or great customer service.

Since price point isn’t really negotiable, you need to go with customer service.

Twitter, when used correctly by businesses, is a customer service tool.

Not a single Willamette Valley Winery used Twitter as a customer service tool over the Memorial Day Weekend Winery Open House.

How do I know this is true? Because I baited the Willamette Valley Wineries over the weekend with the following tweets:

Can you guess how many wineries reached out to me? Zero.

This leads me to believe that wineries still don’t understand the power of Twitter. Sure, many are hopping on the Twitter train and broadcasting, but few are actually engaging. And none seem to be engaging correctly, because, if they were, there is no way they would have allowed my tweets to have gone unanswered. No way.

So, without further ado, here is how wineries need to be using Twitter to bring in and (dare I say) steal customers from other wineries:

When your tasting room is open, search Twitter (search.twitter.com) for hashtags (#) people may be using while wine tasting in your area. For example, #WillametteValley #winetasting #pinotnoir #Oregonwine, #ORwine, etc.

Also search the names of nearby wineries, by both Twitter handle and full name (e.g. @sokolblosser and Sokol Blosser). Full name is important because Foursquare check-ins that are sent to Twitter are in full form. If you don’t have time to search a lot of wineries, go for the more popular ones with large ad budgets.

When you find someone in your area, send them a tweet. Sweeten it with a deal. Include a map link, so your new customer can find you. For example, “@AliSchubert Visit us today for free tastings. Ask for Brad. http://bit.ly/ms0XVq.” Note, deal making is a blast. Offer a taste of “something special”, or 20% off, 2-for-1 tastings, or a free tour of the winery.

When your tasters arrive and ask for Brad, the introductions have already been made. Show them a great time. Make them feel special. Make them customers for life. Better yet, make them brand ambassadors.

Follow up with the customer on Twitter, AND occasionally check in with him via non-wine related tweets. Make sure that when he returns and/or when his friends ask for recommendations of wineries, yours is on the tip of his brain.

Now, a demonstration of how this works as the customer.

Hey, look at me. I’m in the Willamette Valley tasting wine. I want people to know about it, so I shall tweet my adventures.

Hey, look at that! Because I receive tweets via text message, I was just instantly notified that a nearby winery is offering me free tastings if I ask for Brad. That sounds like a deal. Awesome, there’s a link to a map. Thank you!

Arrived at the winery. Announced my arrival via Twitter so all of my followers know where I am. I also checked in via Foursquare and Facebook, just for kicks.

That Brad is really a great guy. And, wow, what fantastic wine. I’m definitely buying. Perhaps I’ll even join the wine club.

I will tweet (and, perhaps, even blog) about my awesome winery experience when I get home. When people ask for a recommendation, I’m definitely telling them to go to Brad. I can’t wait to return.

Now, will every experience be a resounding success? No. But it does happen. It happens quite a bit.

We know wineries are incredibly busy over the Memorial Day Weekend. But, why not bring in that extra body whose job it is to totally focus on social media. When they aren’t scooping up and meeting tweeters, they can be snapping photos, providing virtual tasting notes, and sharing experiences as they happen. Yes, it’s one extra body to pay, but, if that person brought in one lifetime customer, they would more than pay for their time.

Here are some real tweets (found after searching a handful of terms) from the weekend. Consider them missed opportunities.

Social media isn’t going anywhere. It may come in different forms in the years ahead, but this new way of reaching out to customers over the internet is here to stay. And, while all Willamette Valley wineries failed the Twitter test this past weekend, I guarantee it will not happen again.

So, if you are a winery owner, or if you work in a winery, it’s time to get involved in the world of Twitter. If you don’t, then don’t be surprised when your tasting room is getting fewer and fewer visitors while your tweeting neighbors have full parking lots.

Update: We’ve received a number of calls from WV wineries regarding this post. Many are asking about our Twitter services. Here’s the deal. We can train wineries on Twitter. We can even tweet for them for a period of time to help their establish their tone and following. However, the goal is that the winery does its own tweeting. This is for two reasons.

Wineries know their own product better than anyone, and are, therefore, more passionate about it than anyone. People can sense passion on Twitter, which is a good thing.
Wineries need to be tweeting from their own tasting rooms when they attempt to snag people from surrounding businesses, as they know when they’ll have the time to give customers personal attention.

Of course, we’re happy to talk to anyone who calls about any of our services. 503.941.0660.

Filed Under: Blog, Social Media, Twitter, Wine

How To: Make Your Email Newsletters Better

May 11, 2011 By Jeremy Leave a Comment

Many of our clients are interested in ways to make their email newsletters better. And, why not? In our opinion, email newsletters are the most powerful and effective way to reach out to your customers. Below, you’ll find a distilled version of things that we’ve learned over the years. FYI, as many of our clients are wineries or wine-related, I’ve used that industry for examples.

Who to Use

There are many good email management solutions out there so you’ll want to spend some time looking over their features and pricing structures. Here are the ones that we like the best.

List Building Tips

Make sure that your website has a signup form in an obvious and prominent location.
Make sure that your Facebook page has a signup form (you can encourage signups in a variety of ways…offer a coupon, discount, etc.).
If you are a business with a retail area, make sure you have a signup list at the Point of Sale and/or make sure your employees are asking for email addresses.
Export your online store’s email list to your email management program.

List Management

Use different opt-in forms at each of your collection points. That is, make separate forms for your website, facebook page, etc. That way, you can see what collection point is working the best (you could even have two different signup forms on your website…one on the front page and one on a newsletter page and then judge which one is working better).
Segment your lists! You can target specific newsletters, for example, to people who have physically visited you, or to people who have purchased wine from your online store, or to your wine club members.

From and Subject Lines

The “From” line and the “Subject” line are the two most important parts of any email. If the user doesn’t know from whom the email is coming, they won’t open it.
The subject line will take a bit of testing. Although it may sound counter-intuitive, in most cases, boring is better. People are so used to spam that they have an automatic negative reaction to a sales-pitch. Also, keeping your subject line a bit more generic keeps an air of mystery about what’s inside. Of course, every list is different and that’s why you’ll want to do some testing…see the next point.
For the more advanced users, most email providers allow you to do A/B subject line testing (MailChimp even has a subject line tester built in). When you’re ready to send out a newsletter, take 10% of your list and slice it, sending half of them one subject line and half another. Wait 24 hours to see what one is working better, then send out that subject line to the remaining 90% of your list.

Write at a 5th – 8th Grade Level

Not that you want to dumb down your copy, but when you write at a 5th grade level, your reader is thinking about what you’re saying, not how you’re saying it. Keep sentences simple, never use a big word when a small one will do, and make sure that your calls to action are at the end of paragraphs and/or prominently featured (like a link on its own separate line).

Curious about this blog post? Well, it’s written at a 7th grade level. Want to find out how you’re doing? Check out this free tool:

http://www.perrymarshall.com/grade/

Thanks to Perry Marshall for the above advice. He is a good resource to follow if you are interested.

Biggest Mistakes

Too much content jammed into your newsletter. Do I still have your attention? Granted, this is not a newsletter, but the same principles can be applied to a successful blog post. I’d be willing to bet that a good number of you have stopped reading by now. My advice? Keep it short, keep it simple, keep it to one or two topics. If you find that you are regularly sending a monthly email with 4 items, it’d be better to send a bi-weekly newsletter with 2 items.
Content that is too long. Even if you have only one item in your newsletter, try to keep it to one or two paragraphs. If you want people to “read more,” then link to it. For example, if you have an event, quickly tease it and then say, “click here for details,” linking to an event page on your website. In this way, you can quickly give readers the gist of the event and then entice them to make the jump to your website for more info (they are now at your website where, hopefully, you can get them to look around a bit and purchase).
A muddled or unprofessional template design. Even if your content is great, if you have an overwhelming, confusing, or just plain ugly template, people will associate that with your brand. You may even want to try a plain-text newsletter. They often get a better response than a graphic-laden one.

Some Practical Advice

You probably get a bunch of email newsletters every day, be they from Groupon, Amazon, political parties and action groups, non-profits, and any other place you’ve ever shopped. Start looking at these newsletters with a critical eye. What is drawing you in? What would make you want to buy something? What makes you not want to open one? When you see something that makes you happy or makes you cringe, make note of it and learn from it for you next newsletter.

Please post your questions and comments below!

Filed Under: Blog, Facebook, Social Media, Wine Tagged With: How to, Newsletter

How To: Facebook Places – Create, Claim, and Promote

April 11, 2011 By Jeremy Leave a Comment

Last August, Facebook unveiled its own “check-in” system called Facebook Places to compete with startups such as FourSquare. What is it?

Places is a Facebook mobile application that allows you to see where your friends are and share your physical location. You can check in to nearby Places to tell your friends where you are, tag your friends in the Places you visit, and view comments your friends have made about the Places you visit. – From Facebook Help

If your business has a big upcoming event, this is the perfect time to set up your Places page and tell all of that foot traffic about it!

Please note, Places pages are different than Business (fan) pages. If you create a Places page it will be in addition to your regular Business page and you will have two pages to administer. There is a way to “merge” the two pages, but there are a number of caveats to consider.

If you would like your customers to be able to check-in to your business, follow the directions below to first create and then claim the page.

To Create a Places Page

1. Download the Facebook App for your smartphone.
2. Go to your business, I mean physically go there in person (make sure you have your smartphone with you).
3. Load up the Facebook App and hit the “Check In” button
4. If the “place” has not yet been created (anybody can create a place, so it may already be there), click “add place” and enter the pertinent info.
5. That’s it, your place is now created and anybody can check-in.

Why claim your Places Page?

As the Places page administrator you can create Facebook Deals, add photo albums, customize the profile picture, post on the wall as the business, view stats, and generally administer the page just as you would your normal Business (fan) page.

To claim your Places Page

1. Go to Facebook on your computer and use the normal search bar to type in your business name.
2. Because you already created it (or it was already there), click on your places page in the results.
3. Once on the page, look in the lower left of the page for a link titled, “Is this your business?” Click it.
4. Follow the verification instructions (the email method can take up to a week, so be patient).
5. Facebook will notify you via email when your Place is verified.

Once your Places Page is all set up, you’ll want to encourage visitors to your business to check-in, so make sure your staff knows to talk it up and you may want to offer a discount or “Places Deal” for those who check-in.

You can also set a username for it (Vanity URL) and promote it in much the same way as you would your normal Business page.

Filed Under: Blog, Facebook, Social Media, Wine

Keys to a Successful Winery Website

April 25, 2010 By Jeremy 2 Comments

Having recently launched the R. Stuart & Co. Winery Website I thought it might be instructive to go through some of the key elements that we feel all winery websites should have, using the example of the R. Stuart site.

While this is, by no means, an exhaustive list of every feature we packed into the site, it does cover the most important. I hope you find it useful!

Wine Detail Page

Look at those lovely details!

While it seems obvious, many wineries forget that their website’s primary purpose is to introduce (and sell!) their wines to a passionate audience. You’ll see sites that are so jumbled up with things like Flash splash pages, music pairings, and navigation systems that bury the wine pages that it’s almost criminal (a crime against the wine). We focus on the wine. Each wine detail page is easy-to-read and offers layers of information for both the wine newbie and wine geek alike. These include: a detailed description, a large “buy now” button, previewable and downloadable tasting notes, spec data for the vineyard, vinification, and final products, a Google vineyard map, and photos.

The Store

A winery store that is actually a store!

Speaking of selling wine, we created a custom Volusion store (the store used by both Barack Obama and John McCain in the 2008 election and by the new Kangaroo) for R. Stuart which gives users a standardized (Amazon.com-esque) shopping experience. The store can handle quantity discounts, free shipping, price groups for the wine club, and gives a number of opportunities for marketing including coupon codes. It’s also PCI compliant and hosted on Volusion servers so critical data and transactions are ensured to be safe.

Contact Information in Obvious Locations

Easy to find contact info!

There is nothing more frustrating that going to a winery’s (or any company’s) site and having no clue where they are located or how to contact them. You are then forced to find the “contact” dropdown item where they may or may not have what you’re looking for. With R. Stuart, we placed the pertinent info in the upper right of every page. It’s also at the bottom of every page, in the footer. Another bonus, pull up the site on an iPhone and the phone number is automatically a link to call.

Blog / Social Media

Blogs and social media integrated into the site!

While wine is the product and, if it’s tasty can sell itself, a good dose of personality is also required. Enter social media and the blog. We place the social media all in one spot (the jquery drawer on the left of the site) so that users aren’t distracted by it, but can easily access it at any time. The blog is integrated into the site and is divided into three sections: winery postings (From the Winery), trade postings (On the Road), and recipes. We give the power to the winery staff to update the blog (and all content, for that matter) themselves. The more they blog, the more they look like a happy, vibrant business and the more it helps their searchability. Oh, and check out a recipes page and note the “Share and Print” button. You can easily print any page of the site (practical for recipes) and even instantly create a PDF of it. Very cool.

Trade Page

Don't forget about a trade page.

Every winery should be as accomodating to trade as it can. We gave trade a one-stop page for all necessary information. This includes: contact information, distributor list, winemaker bio, logo art, and tasting notes, label image, and bottle image for each wine.

Simple Navigation

This isn’t so much a wine-specific feature, but a website feature in general. We subscribe to the philosophy that less is more. This is particularly the case when trying to relay a large amount of information in an easy-to-understand manner. Navigation needs to be obvious and consistent. If a user doesn’t know exactly where a link is going to take them, they aren’t going to click (example, if you have a blog, call it a blog for goodness sake…don’t try to be cute or clever with its name).

Calendar of Events

A clean and simple cal. of events...list view or calendar view.

Most wineries have a calendar of events but make two major mistakes with it: 1) It’s rarely updated so it looks like your winery doesn’t do any events and/or 2) The calendar is difficult to navigate. We created a simple and clean list of events which quickly gives the user all of the necessary details. If the user wants, she can click “Calendar” to see the classic calendar view. Clicking on any one event brings the user to a detailed event page where they can comment on the event or share it via their social networks.