Your thoughts on my 'refer a friend' deal?

[nicole333]

In short, I want to drum up business so have come up with this scenario for referring a friend.

It will be put out on FB, which is where I interact with clients and potential clients regularly. This is what I'm thinking...

Refer a friend for an xyz treatment, and both you and your friend receive ?10% off.

T&C's
To claim this offer, both you and your friend need to 'Like' this page (I'm thinking more likes = bigger reach etc).
The referred friend posts the name of who referred them on the page.
The referred friend books and has the treatment carried out first, receiving the 10% discount.
Then the person who referred can book and receive 10% discount off their treatment.
On booking, both parties quote 'refer a friend' to get the 10% discount.

Do you think it's simple enough? Have any of you had success in similar referral schemes in it drumming up more business for you?

In your experience, is there anything else that I need to take into consideration?

Thanks in anticipation.

 

[EllieJoy]

That sounds fab,I let my clients have an extra stamp on there loyalty card if they refer a friend, they love it, after there treatments they literally squeal with excitement to get another stamp! Xx

 

[Jack Shaw]

Hi

You are breaking facebook rules with that as it will be classed as a promotion for your business.

To claim this offer, both you and your friend need to 'Like' this page

You cannot make an offer/promotion where the user has to like a page to recieve it.

The referred friend posts the name of who referred them on the page.
Making users create posts, like post, like photos, tag themselves is not allowed.

I am not saying dont do it, I constantly break the FB guidelines, just be careful with it. FB are getting very keen on these sort of things

These are the guidelines
Facebook

Under "Offer" it states this line
You may only run an offer if you are the merchant for or the manufacturer of the product or service you are promoting.

Which will bind you into the terms in the "promotion" section

 

[nicole333]

Thanks for pointing that out Jack, I thought it was competitions that they didn't like.

I guess that stuffs that then. :irked:

 

[Jack Shaw]

NO do the offer just take the rules of engagement out, if they take you up on the offer then you can get them to like your page in a different way.

The promotion will either get them to like your page or not, does it really matter. Its about promoting the business and getting cash through the door, FB likes do not make money just create an audience...its what you do to entice the audience that matters

 

[nicole333]

Ok, so I may be able to tweak it then? But my aim is to increase the likes, so that my interactions reach more people. Hopefully this will result in an increase in clients, as I like to entice on my FB page!

How would you work this offer without breaking the rules?

 

[Jack Shaw]

Ok, so I may be able to tweak it then? But my aim is to increase the likes, so that my interactions reach more people. Hopefully this will result in an increase in clients, as I like to entice on my FB page!

How would you work this offer without breaking the rules?

To get page likes do not make it obvious this is what you are doing in any of your offer rules.. One report as spam to FB's radar and they will be watching you, which is not what you want.

If you want to do it properly then FB is a time consumer, you need to spend time on to increase page likes, 15minutes a day will not increase your page likes by 100's a day.

But to do it the "correct" way then use your profile not your page to increase your likes, you have more control over where you can go and where you can post with a profile and not a business page.

Groups, as you probably know FB wont allow pages to post on groups they know groups are spam havens, we have all seen the £750 in your bank account today.

Join groups in your area, people always say Buying & Selling groups, forget that, join every group that is related to your area and market, night clubs are always a good one, especially with this sector as most females want to be glam when they go out at weekends, another good thing with night clubs is that they normaly have large followings, once you have been accepted to the group ask the admin if you can post, how often you can post and give them something in return, even if they dont take you up on the offer, if it is a female admin then offer one of your beauty treatments half price. Get on a level with the owner of the group, they will be more inclined to help you promote your business.

Do the same with pages related to your area, go to pages where your targets go. And interact with them, I would advise having your logo in your profile pic on your "proflie" page when your interating with them, get your brand out there.

But always get in with the page/group owner.

Competitions, some of these bits are naughty but as long as you dont spam the A*** off FB you will be ok, When ever you run a competition then make it aware on groups/pages and to friends, again all with your profile, the biggest mistake people make with compeitions is give away a prize that aint worth anything, ie Competiton to win a Pen or Keyring, pack of seeds etc etc,
Make it worthwhile, it wil pay off in the long run, give something away like a full beauty treatment make over, it may cost you £30 but if you state that you are giving away £150 of beauty treatments then it opens peoples eyes, not only to enter but to like you page so they can see whats going off.

Now the naughty bit, when you select the winner of a competition then click through the entrants, spend some time doing this, some of the people who entered will have 2000-5000 friends

And the winner is...drum roll please....the one with the most friends, then treat them like royalty, the chances are they will write in their news feed, Had a great Day of pampering at "your Page", not bad 2000-5000 people will potentially see that post. And if she is an "it" girl then her followers will follow.

The best two rules I can give is Never Spam FB you will be blocked, and always get the owners page/groups permission and if possible cross promote. And spend sometime on FB searching, promoting, and researching, no disrespect I have found the buying and selling groups are normally always full of people who want something for nothing, but a good place to start.

Hope this helps.

 

[nicole333]

So are you saying that I should only promote my business page from my personal profile and not my business page?

Surely I would have to post a link to my business page every time I did that, otherwise nobody would know where to go in order to get to the page to like it.

 

[Jack Shaw]

So are you saying that I should only promote my business page from my personal profile and not my business page?

Surely I would have to post a link to my business page every time I did that, otherwise nobody would know where to go in order to get to the page to like it.

Sorry should of made it clearer, when you visit groups then use your personal profile and post links to your page, thats why you get in with the group admins, owners, they will give you ideas of how often you can post the page on their group, when searching for groups leave the ones with 29 members alone, go for groups with 300ish people+, the more people the more activity, the more you will be allowed to post your page address. Another tip when searching for groups is always right click on the link and select "Open in new Tab" or "Open in New page" as when you start going backwards and forwards FB will put you to the top of the page so you have to scroll through them all again.Which can be a pain if you there alot of groups.

When visiting pages mix it up between you page and your profile. But like groups go for pages with high numbers and work something out with the owners. Comment and interact. This is why I say to get high numbers in the page like status off people who are interested in you and your business is a time consuming job. Unless you can make an offer/competition go viral that spreads like wildfire.
Facebook pages always seem to do really well when thinking out of the box or a competition that is worth a look.

One guy I remember set up a page and the title was
"Save me from Bankruptcy" and his page went mad and got loads of work from it, just with a little reverse psychology, the cheeky bleeder sent out and email after a few mths, basically saying he tried and couldnt make it work, I know dam well it was a second bite of the cherry, which worked. He not only made a mint from it he has now got the audience to promote to later down the line.

Another way to build page likes is build up friends on your personal profile but this is a different ball game altogether and hard to stay away from FB radars, but it can be done....and quite quickly. it depends how you push it and more improtantly how brave you are.

 

[Emmalou91x]

i have just started out and wanted to do something like this but trying to get my head around the working of it.
I have done like a slip/voucher to give to people.

In order to receive this offer, please recommend A Touch Of Beauty to a friend or family member, If your friend/family member likes the look of our treatments, books an appointment and comes in for their pamper, then you will receive a 10% Discount off your next treatment (1 treatment only).
They then will also have the chance to recommend a friend and take this offer.
Does this seem fair or??

 

[facelashbrow]

That's so helpful Jack, I do lots of Fb promo so thankyou x

Sent from my HTC Desire using SalonGeek

 

[Jack Shaw]

In order to receive this offer, please recommend A Touch Of Beauty to a friend or family member, If your friend/family member likes the look of our treatments, books an appointment and comes in for their pamper, then you will receive a 10% Discount off your next treatment (1 treatment only).
They then will also have the chance to recommend a friend and take this offer.

One big mistake people make when offering to people online is confusing long winded rules, break it all down make it stand out and treat everyone online as lazy readers and make your point clear. People see 10%off everyday of their lifes do something different,

Like Free Beauty Treatment*, the little * I could have a million definitions and meanings behind the *, but it will grab most peoples attention, everyone likes something free and most will look whats free. It all depends what is behind the * that stimulates the the user /viewer/reader to take action,and in this case lets say the "= (*free treatment to the value of £20 when you introduce 5 friends)

 

[nicole333]

Thanks Jack.

So basically, join groups or like pages from my personal profile, ask permission and for limitations from the admin of the page/group of posting and linking to my page.
Choose pages/groups that include my target audience and that have a lot of likes/members.

I can like or join pages/groups from my business page too and follow the above rules, but a mixture of using my personal profile and my business page is a better balance.

Have I got this right?

 

[Jack Shaw]

No you cant join groups from pages you have to use your profile, groups dont even come up in search when you are logged in your business page.

Its a spam thing.

 

[nicole333]

Got it!

Thanks for all the info on this thread. I have only ever had a very basic understanding of FB, so more exploration is needed here.

 

[Jack Shaw]

NO problems

Had a little look around last night and you do have a few groups and pages to go at, I will back pedal a little as I wasnt aware of your demographic, lower the people on the groups and pages by half 150ish people.

A couple that did catch my eye last night was a group "Websites in Isle of Wight" have you got your website on that one yet?

Another one for out the box thinking "Fisherman in the isle of wight", get an advert on there something like "We will keep the misses amused so you can sod off fishing" well maybe not them words but you get my idea.

Your website....I struggled to find you for any search terms the only one I could find you for is Business name Isle of wight, you need some work doing on your site, if you want more pointers give me a shout.

 

[Planky1]

And another geek taking time out to help people understand things better and make the most out of their businesses. This place and the geeks in it are awesome. Hope these little tips help everyone who needs them

Sent from my GT-I9300 using SalonGeek

 

[nicole333]

So kind of you Jack and I echo what Planky has written above.

When my site went live, I asked friends in other areas of the country to use some search terms on Google to see where I was and my ranking was very good so I don't know what has happened there!

Do you mind if we take this to pm?

 

[Jack Shaw]

So kind of you Jack and I echo what Planky has written above.

When my site went live, I asked friends in other areas of the country to use some search terms on Google to see where I was and my ranking was very good so I don't know what has happened there!

Do you mind if we take this to pm?

Ignore friends results, if they have already looked at your website then the chances are there is information in the cookies, history, cache or account so they will get incorrect results when searching, use the private browsing option and do searches like

Nail Salon Isle of wight
Manicure Isle of wight
Pedicure Isle of wight

This will reflect a better result of where you actually stand.

Of course you can pm me

 

[Eyelash Addict]

My refer a friend deal has always been...
Refer five friends, and get a service of equal value free.