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The Arizona Office of Tourism was spending a significant amount of money on traditional forms of advertising and they were seeking a cost-effective alternative to reaching interested parties. They decided to implement a marketing strategy on Facebook that would get visitors excited about the state of Arizona.
- Promotion utilized popular keyphrases to maximize exposure
- Drawings were held for free vacation getaways
- Keywords were based off Facebook users’ various interests
The Arizona Office of Tourism saw an average of eight times more clicks to their website than what traditional advertising campaigns delivered. Over one in four of those visitors requested additional information about vacationing in Arizona, which was a much higher conversion rate than they had ever experienced before. Since the promotion delivered such promising results, 89% of the advertising budget for the Arizona Office of Tourism is now spent through Facebook. To read the actual study, click here.
Currently, YouTube referrals represent more than 45% of all the referrals to the Dynomighty site. Company executives used to see even higher percentages prior to ramping up other marketing campaigns… but it still out-weighs everything else.
More importantly, the percentage of referrals from YouTube convert to a sale at around 50% – other site referrals typically convert at around 10%.
This shows that the depth of story telling in a video is far more effective towards making a sale and leads to a better conversion rate.
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Describe the business problem or objectives of the campaign
Flagler Hospital Bariatric found they could not accurately track new leads or new surgeries by using traditional marketing (TV, billboards, etc.). They came to XE Corporation to explore using a social media campaign to gain awareness of their services and increase the numbers of their surgeries.
Other areas in need of improvement included:
- Increase new patient counts
- Increasing the number of attendees to their free seminars.
- Increasing referral rate to both seminars and Flagler Bariatric.
- Increasing past patient participation/engagement on social channels and at events.
- Increasing fan counts/participation on Facebook.
How were the business challenges / campaign objectives addressed?
XE Corporation formulated a comprehensive social media campaign that utilized offline and online tactics to create buzz around their brand, establish an on-going conversation around their services and engage members of their community to refer their friends to attend Bariatric seminars and then become new patients of Flagler.
Tactics:
Customize Facebook Landing Page
Re-branding of the Facebook page via landing pages and other customization to better control the experience for users.
Create Online Invitations for Events
Promotion of Flagler Bariatric Events using social networks to gain more attendance
Launch a Referral-Based Giveaway
Created a referral-based Wii Fit Giveaway requiring entrants to “like” the Facebook page and to refer a friend to attend one of the Free Seminars held by Flagler Bariatric.
Online Surveys
Designed and promoted surveys to gather feedback specific to social efforts from the Bariatric community
Fan-Favorite Recipe Module on Website
Creation of Fan-Generated “Menus”, where current and past bariatric patients shared their favorite recipes/meals to eat that are bariatric-approved.
“Spotlight Fan” Facebook Contest
Patient submitted Before & After pictures as part of “Spotlight Fan” Facebook Contest to increase support and conversation among fan community.
Campaign Results
- Cut marketing costs by 93% by switching from traditional media to social marketing.
- Increased Facebook Fan Page conversation by 5 times
- Increased visits to the Facebook Fan Page by 400%
- 30% participation rate with online survey after 5 weeks
- Using “crowdsourcing” from survey – it helped Flagler decide on the next Facebook patient appreciation campaign – Giveaway a year’s supply of custom vitamins and supplements
- Recruited 40+ volunteers to be community leaders online to help promote the Flagler Bariatric Community with other fans and potential patients.
- Produced 24 qualified leads to attend free seminar
- Estimated 16 new surgeries from this campaign
Want your own success story featured here? Tell us about your social media campaign!
Here’s a good lesson that the goal of Twitter efforts should not be to simply increase the number of Twitter followers (or Facebook Fans, or…). As noted by social-media-optimization.com, the objective of the Celtics online efforts is to drive people to their web site.
Celtics.com features GameTime Live, an application that features real time scores, tweets, and blogging with supporters throughout the world. The team beta-tested GameTime Live during the 2009 postseason, and more than 50,000 unique visitors checked it out during the triple-overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls in Game 6 of the first round.
It’s remarkable how many marketers, though, fall into that trap of trying to boost numbers for the sake of numbers.This is why setting an ROI goal is so critical. Are you trying to sell e-books (like me <grin>)? Then which specific page on your web site are you plugging?
Back to the Celtics:
YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/bostonceltics)
With less than 700 subscribers, the Celtics YouTube channel is not attracting a lot of attention at the moment. Most videos get around 1,000 views. However, the team recently began distributing exclusive locker room footage on YouTube which will drive more people to this channel and increase subscribers. This is a great example of providing different content for separate digital channels in order to make them more valuable in users eyes.
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/bostonceltics)
With over 450,000 fans in its Facebook page, the Celtics are the second most popular NBA team on Facebook. Similar to the exclusive locker room video for YouTube subscribers, last week the Celtics launched 3-Point Play, an interactive stats prediction game for fans on its Facebook page.
Twitter (http://twitter.com/celtics)
With almost 22,000 Twitter followers, the Celtics have built up a good following. In addition to Tweeting quotes from press conferences and team events, the Celtics are also using Twitter to offer seating upgrades at games. The picture below was from earlier today.
I really like the stuff on Social-Media-Optimization.com. It’s worth adding their feed to your reader.
It took some convincing, but when the state finally jumped aboard, Iowa’s First State Lottery had built an interactive, digital footprint to support its brand, improve customer engagement, drive ticket sales and extend its reach, including to a younger demographic.
And the numbers panned out: Social media statistics for Iowa State Lottery included more than 18,000 YouTube video views, 1,600 Twitter followers and 1,700 Facebook fans. Source Case Study (hat-tip to Michelle C.)
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Tod Maffin, COO and Senior Strategist at