Listen to podcast:

Transcription:

Good morning internet fans. It’s Ryan Perry, Simple Biz Support. Today is Wednesday, therefore it is Social Media Wednesday and specifically it’s December 16th, and because it is December 16th, I have Sarah Giometti with Provaro Marketing. Good morning Sarah.

Sarah Giometti: Good morning Ryan. How are you?

RP: Minus the weed whacker dude that’s like directly under my window, I’m doing great. So hopefully, as we’re going through you don’t hear…

SG: Well I can’t hear him through here, so hopefully your mic is not picking it up.

RP: Alright, well I’ll just keep on adding in sound effects as he goes…

RP: I’ll just kind of add it on so, to make sure you can hear it.

SG: Thank you.

RP: I always… We’ve got to add a little quality to the production value every now and then. Today we are going to talk about Facebook advertising, and I don’t know if a lot of people know that you’re… That golden pot, that email list that all these business owners have been collecting over the years because they’re doing a great job of capturing emails, can actually be re-purposed for Facebook ads and you want to talk about five different ways that you can do that. And some people are probably a little confused because they’re not understanding the association between your email list and Facebook ads. Maybe we should start there.

SG: Right. So Facebook allows you to upload your email list and target those users specifically if their email from your list matches their Facebook profile email. And that way you can target your specific audience of your email list. And if you maybe haven’t been so great about building an actual email list, your client base counts as an email list. So if you’ve been in business for five, 10, 20 years and you have been collecting email addresses for your customers, that is also an email list that you can utilize to target them through advertising on Facebook.

RP: Okay. And then just so there’s clarity here for people that this may be brand new to, when you log into Facebook, you have to use an email address. And essentially that email address is kind of like your social security number in Facebook. Attached to that email list are all the different things that you’ve liked, that you’ve shared, interests, pages that you’ve followed, your age, if you like soccer or baseball, if you went to college, all that information, where you go to work, it’s loaded. And essentially Facebook knows pretty much everything about you because of that, and they have an idea of who you are as a person. So when you’re saying that if I have an email list I can upload that to Facebook, and if one of the emails in my list matches their user name, they’re going to have a profile essentially of who this person is. “Okay it’s a male, between 50 and 60, high school or college education, loves to play golf and owns a Corvette”.

SG: Right. And all that information is going to be very important when we hit number five of the five ways to use your email list to market on Facebook. So you definitely… That email address is very important because it is tied to a lot of information. But the easiest one is, you can just… When you upload your list as a custom audience in Facebook, you can create an ad and just serve it to your entire list. Every email address you’ve ever collected in the entire time you’ve been in business, you can serve an ad up to them. This is a great way… They’ve already opted in in some way. They signed up for your newsletter and willingly gave you the email or they’re a customer, a former customer. So they’re closer to buying again because they’ve already actively engaged with you in the past. And so this is a great way to target them if you’ve got a new product rolling out, a new service, a discount, a new promotion, something you want to get in front of people who are more likely to buy than some random stranger who’s never even heard of you. So this is a great way to up your sales on Facebook through people who will buy from you, or have in the past already.

RP: Okay. And again I just want to clarify because this may be a really new concept to people. Two things, one from a security point of view, when you upload that email list, Facebook isn’t going to tell you all the people. They’re not going to go “Look here’s 20,000 people that match your list and go ahead and market to them”. They keep all that information behind closed doors. And the second thing is, what you’re essentially saying is, take the list that you have, that database that you’ve collected, people that have already bought from you, your current customer base, upload it, the only people that are going to see these ads are the ones that have a matching email address. Is that correct?

SG: That is correct. So I’ll use myself as an example. There are some lists that I’ve joined with my business email address. My Facebook email address is a personal email address. So if those businesses utilize their email list, I will not see the ad, if they’re running it towards just that ad. However, if the email addresses match, so if I had signed up using my personal email address and they go to re-target on Facebook with an email list, I will be served the ad because the email matches. And you as a business owner aren’t going to know any of that information. So, on the flip side, you as a consumer don’t worry when businesses are doing this. The businesses doesn’t know any information. Facebook keeps that all secret. They do it behind the scenes, do the matching, and then serve up the ads as necessary.

RP: Okay. Perfect. So this is like the real basic, rudimentary, “Let’s get our feet wet and take it from there.” I’m assuming we’re going to get a little more advanced as we step through two through five.

SG: We are. So that’s the first step if you’ve never done it, just do that. It’s really easy. The next step is look at your email list before your import into Facebook and segment it between opens and not opens. So what group of your email marketing list is often opening the emails you’re sending out? That means they’re engaged in your content, they’re interested in what you’re sending out and upload just the people… Or segment the list and upload another custom audience of the people who are actively engaged right now, because again that means they’re currently engaged and they’re that much closer to buying whatever you are offering and trying to promote to them. And you’re eliminating spending money to the people who are disengaged and so it’s a more cost effective way of advertising to people who are currently engaged, more likely to buy.

RP: Alright, that makes sense. And depending on your credibility level, are people opening your emails ’cause you have a really catchy tag line or are they going, “Oh, this is from somebody I want to know,” truth in advertisement. If you’re putting out a good quality product and people are opening it because they’re interested in what you have to say, is going to pay huge dividends if you’re going to do something like a segmented list versus the people that use really catchy headlines because they know they can get a better open rate even though they have a really poor conversion rate in the email.

SG: Right. And if you create your add to look a little bit like the email. Maybe it’s the same headline, one of the same images. So the people who open the email, it’s already in their brain, they’ve seen it before, so when they see the ad, it just resonates with them because they’ve already seen it and have actively engaged with it through email. So having that similarity, so it’s easy for them to recognize it and engage is a great way to step into this, the next step of utilizing your email lists.

RP: Right. Anybody who’s in marketing will always let you know the more you can refine or segment a list, the narrower or the closer you’re getting to that bulls eye, and typically if the message is in alignment with those people, you’re going to get a higher conversion rate. Which is… If you spend a little time up front, you’re going to get better results on the back end.

SG: Right. And the smaller list is not a negative. If you’ve got 100 people who actively open your list versus the 5,000 people who don’t, that 100, spend your money on them because they’re engaged and it’s money well spent because that 100, they’re the closest to an actual purchase.

RP: Yeah, definitely. Alright.

SG: So the next one we’re going to segment even further. Is you’re going to look at your data bases and pull out the people who’ve actually bought from you in the past. Once they’re a paying customer… Whoops, sorry.

[chuckle]

RP: That’s alright. There was a paying customer right there, they must be watching the show. [laughter] “I want to buy your product, Sarah.”

SG: So once you have a paying customer, they are that much more likely to buy from you again. So… Sorry. It’s my husband calling. He does this almost every single Wednesday. You and I have been doing this for two years and he calls every Wednesday at like five to 10. Sorry, end of rant. [chuckle]

RP: No problem. Just tell him to call me next time.

SG: I will. So if they’ve already bought from you, they’re extremely likely if they’re a satisfied customers to buy from you again. So if you segment your list even further to targeting your paying customers, especially if you’re rolling out a promotion or a special, give them something special. “Thanks for being a customer, here’s a sneak peak at my new product”. Whatever it is that you’re doing, they’re already engaged ’cause they’ve already bought from you. And again, you’re making your lists smaller, however, the higher percentage of that smaller list is closer to buy or are more likely to buy than that giant list of people… Of a mix of people who kind of are engaged, are not engaged at all. So you really want to segment down to them, especially if you’re rolling out a new product and you want a bunch of purchases right off the bat, target them specifically.

RP: Yeah. And that falls right into what I call the VCC process, which is one you have to create visibility. So if you have visibility with 100 people, perfect. That’s the first step. If you don’t have visibility with 5,000, you’re not going to get anywhere. So then the second step is credibility. If those 100 people have already bought from you, you have credibility, so that’s part of why they’re more likely to buy, and the last C is conversion. So if you target the people that you have visibility with, you’re going to get some conversion because at least there’s some credibility there. However, once you really build credibility, and that’s a sale, may it be a service or a product, once somebody has bought something from you, they are establishing credibility, and then of course it’s your responsibility to maintain that credibility by following through with the product or service that you stated and then it’s going to be real easy to upsell new products or services to them down the road.

SG: Right. So this is… If you are able to segment that out and utilize that on Facebook advertising, absolutely do it especially if you’re rolling out a new product.

RP: Okay, perfect, and then we’ve got number four, correct?

SG: Yep. Number four is, now that you’ve done all this segmentation and you did one where you did people who open your emails, the other half of the list are the people who don’t ever open your emails. They’re totally disengaged, they’re not responding to anything, is target them to reengage them. Maybe give them a free promotion or free promo code, or something that’s exclusive to them to try and bring them back in so they can be part of some of those other lists and you can nurture them over to a sale. So the advertising you do to them would be totally different and it would be aimed at trying… You don’t need to match the email because they never open them. So do a new add, new messaging, something that’s exclusively for them to try and bring them back into the fold and reengage them since you already have their information, they’re… At some point, they were interested in what you had to offer. So, this is a great way to try and bring them back in and get them engaged again and upsell them into buying something.

RP: Yeah, the other suggestion, I’m going to throw out there, is that since this group is very disengaged at this point, this may be a great segment to do some testing with, where you want to test some new ideas, maybe you’re going to step outside of your comfort zone and you’re like, “Ah, I don’t know, I don’t want to damage my reputation with my regular clients”. Test it with this group and see what the response is, ’cause if it’s a negative response from people that already aren’t engaged with you, that’s one thing versus having a negative response from people that know, like, and trust you.

SG: Right. That’s a great idea is to test things out because they’re not paying attention to you anyway, so, the worst case scenario is, they continue to not paying attention to you. The best case scenario is they reengage and go, “Oh, that’s really cool,” and you get justification and then you can take that piece that they started to engage to and bring it over to your engaged audience because it won’t harm your reputation.

RP: Yeah, alright, perfect. Then can we get into number five?

SG: We can. So number five is look-alike audiences, so that’s where the beginning of this, you were talking about all the… Your email address has all this information connected to you, who you are, your gender, your age, your marital status, what you like, what you don’t like, where you work, all the pages you like, your interests, all of that. So, when you upload an email list… Say you have an email list of 80,000 people on it and then you create a look-alike audience so, you want to find an audience that looks like the information demographics of the list you uploaded, your potential could be over 2 million people to reach, that’s like a 20 times larger audience that you can target. Even though they’re not actively involved with you, they look like the people that are already on your list. And so there was something about the people on your list that’s… Something about you that spoke to them. And so if you’re picking up an audience that looks like them, then it’s a higher probability that you’ll speak to them as well. Because they’re similar interests, likes whatever it is versus just randomly going after people and you have no idea what they’re interests and likes are.

SG: So, if you’re trying to grow your subscribers or product, and you are trying to pick up the new customers, new customers are expensive than keeping new customers and this will lessen that costs a little bit because at least, you’re starting off with they look like you’re existing customers or engaged audience.

RP: Right. So, two things and then we got to go ’cause we’re out of time. The key difference with this one is that, you’re actually taking your base that’s buying from you and trying to find new customers out there. So, Facebook is looking at the different attributes that these profiles has and says, “Okay. Now let me find other attributes,” and now those ads are going to show up here where the other four was we’re essentially selling to our current customer base. Number two is, it’s really about community at that point. What is it about this community of people that’s unique and similar and as a marketing person or as a business owner, you really need to know what that is in order to sell to them correctly. And that takes a little bit of work and effort, if you just put an ad out there, that says, “Hey, buy my product,” and I know all these people over here have already bought my product, the likelihood that these people over here who don’t know you unless you connect with them in a community way, you’re not going to get the same results. So, it definitely goes a lot deeper than just the 15 minutes you have in this episode and all you need to do is agree with me and then we can go ahead and end the episode.

SG: Yep. Totally agree with you.

RP: Alright, good answer. By the way, next week, I did not look at my calendar before we started, but I believe it is… Yes. Next week is the 23rd, I’m going to be in LA, so, I’m going to be indisposed of and then also the 30th, I’m still going to be in LA and indisposed of. So, we’re actually going to take a couple of weeks off for the holidays. However, January 6th will be our first episode for 2016, so, we’re really excited to see everybody then. I do want to say to everybody that’s been following us for the last two years, thank you very much. Also, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Kwanzaa, I don’t know all the other different holidays that are going on. But, whatever it is that you celebrate, I hope you enjoy it with your friends and family. Sarah, as always, I appreciate the time and energy that you put into the show. And I hope that you and your intrusive husband, Tom, have a great Christmas and a good New Year.

SG: Thanks, Ryan, I hope you and your family has a great Christmas and New Year and maybe we’ll connect in LA next week.

RP: Alright, sounds good everybody. That’s it for 2015 Social Media Wednesday. We will see you the first week of January 2016. Take care.