Blogs merchants read have one characteristic in common: they teach merchants new concepts that help their businesses. Restaurant owners are always browsing through blogs that talk about new recipes, new concepts, etc. They also browse through articles and blogs that help increase their business. This is an example of content marketing that can be used in a form of blog entries that merchants will flock to read on your merchant-facing website.
“ONE SIMPLE TRICK TO CREATE TRAFFIC ON DEMAND USING FACEBOOK FOR FREE.
How many friends do you have on your personal Facebook page? 10, 100, 1000? However many, you should be getting traffic from that page, especially if you have a restaurant, hair salon/spa or a retail store. I will use a restaurant as an example.
Before You Start
First, I want to recommend that you have three Facebook pages: your business page, a business owner page and one strictly personal.
- The business one is straightforward and many restaurants already have one.
- The second one is your business owner page. It’s the page of the restaurant owner that anybody can ”friend.” Use this page to personally friend people who “like” your restaurant. Have your name and your title prominently displayed. That way people know who you are. Example: John Smith, Owner of The Black Swan Restaurant.
- The last page is your own personal one that only close people can access (some people mix the business owner page and the personal page. There is nothing wrong with that, but if you are looking to keep aspects of your life private, it’s better to have two pages.)
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The Trick
Now on to the trick that will make you generate more traffic from Facebook: Every day Facebook shows you a little notification to let you know about your friends’ birthdays. Use that feature in a proactive manner. Every day, check whose birthday is coming up in the upcoming two weeks. One week prior to your friends’ birthdays, send them a personal note to invite them to your restaurant.
The note should be very simple and straight to the point: “Hey John, I saw that your birthday is coming up next week. In honor of your birthday, I wanted to reserve a table for you and your friends. As the birthday boy, your dessert is on me…so is the champagne. Let me know what time and day works best for you and how many people are coming so I can reserve the table. If you can’t make it on the day of the birthday, just tell me which day works better for you.”
This proven method will work miracles for your restaurant. I have seen it used successfully and it worked like a charm on me and I’ll explain why.
The Set Up
About a year ago, I received a similar note from a club owner three days before my birthday. As I didn’t have any plans for my birthday, I ended up sending an email to four of my friends and their spouses to join me at the club. My girlfriend and I were on the guest list, but my friends were not. So, they all paid the $10 entry fee. From the club perspective, there were 16 people who wouldn’t have been there that night: my girlfriend and I, the four couples I invited and six other people that were invited by my friends. This simple email generated $600: $120 worth of cover fees and $480 worth of drinks for less than two hours of fun.
Why It Works
The reason this works is because the owner of the club knows what it is like to make people feel like a VIP. When you treat somebody like a VIP (and you should treat ALL your customers as such) they want to show off in front of their friends. So they invite all their friends to witness their 15 minutes of fame and that translates into good business for the restaurant or club owner.
This plays on the principle of “commitment and consistency” that Dr. Robert Cialdini talks about in his book “Influence: The Science of Persuasion.” Human beings act according to the image you give them of themselves.
For example, if you tell somebody that they are very helpful and two days later you ask them for help, they will be more likely to comply, because they want to remain consistent with the image you drew of them. So, when you treat somebody like a VIP, they will act like one. That means, they will overspend too.
The Steps
Go to your personal Facebook page:
- Under favorites on the left hand side, click on the “Events” icon.
- Locate all the friends who live in town that have a birthday this week and next week.
- Send three or four of them a note similar to the one I mentioned above.
- You can eventually invite all of the people if you can accommodate them.
Last Recommendations
– Make sure you mention that you are reserving a table for them and their friends and that they need only to let you know the day, the time and the number of people coming.
– In order to make this work and increase significant traffic in your restaurant, it is important to friend all the people who “like” your restaurant. It is the only way you can get their birthdates.”
These types of blog entries really resonate well with merchants. They can use them and see the results for themselves. According to a survey of B2B marketers*, the top three issues facing businesses creating content marketing are:
If that applies to you, contact us and let us help you create the type of content that merchants would love to read.
* Excerpt from B2B Content Marketing Trends 2013. For the full report, visit: http://www.slideshare.net/hschulze/b2b-content-marketing-trends-2013
