Sara owns a cafe near Jumeirah Beach Road (for our readers outside of the UAE, that is in Dubai. Check it out if you visit. Anyway, I digress). It's called Coco's Cafe and apart from being a super comfortable, homely place, it has one of the best and tastiest healthy food menus around.
Coco's Cafe is very close to Dubai Media City, an area filled with international and local companies. It's flooded with caffeine hungry business professionals who would exchange their nearest and dearest for a decent cup of coffee and lunch, just so they can finish the day with some energy and knowing they've eaten healthily. Customer set 1, *tick*.
Apart from Media City, Coco's Cafe is also close to Dubai's American University. A good number of students go there to hangout after class and enjoy great food and drinks in a comfortable setting. Customer set 2, *tick*.
It all seems great.. right?
Well, yes,Coco's Cafeis at a great location. However, Although it has good, loyal customers, Sara hasn't managed to increase the number of her customers. The cost for traditional adverting is too high so her business can't really afford to spend thousands on magazine ads and billboards. One bad advert can cost thousands and become a complete waste of money. She had been posting regularly on Coco's Cafe's Facebook page in an effort to expand her reach but apart from the people who already are following her page, her posts didn't seem to be making any impact.
" One bad advert on a billboard or magazine can cost thousands and become a complete waste of money."
So around 3 months ago...
Sara heard about the power of social media marketing and in particular,Facebook ads. After researching further, she realised that it will provide her with amazing data, insight and targeting capabilities on potential customers. She learned that Facebook allows you to target and filter people who are likely to be interested in Coco's Cafeby age, gender, interest, location, place of work/study, or even people who Liked specific Facebook pages or groups. But that's not all, she also learned that she's in complete control of the ad costs which start from as little as $5 per day (with the option of switching it off at any time) and best of all, she can set it so she will only be charged if the advert is clicked on. Needless to say, Sara didn't wait around.
Campaign 1 - The picture ad
The first ad was designed to target more of the hungry business professionals in Media City. So to start with, a list of the near by companies was made. Then, their employees were added to a list of targets. After that, a killer ad needed to be designed with the right offer.
One of the popular items among the business crowd who visit Coco's Cafeis the organic shakes. So a special offer of 20% off was designed to lure in new customers who were yet to taste the awesomeness of their organic shakes. This also enabled Sara to track how many people are coming to the store through the Facebook ad.
Campaign 2 - The video ad
The second ad was this video designed to target the students from American University Dubai (You might be aware that video is by far the number 1 form of content with the highest engagement rate). It offered a free coffee with every purchase of their awesome chicken wrap. Needless to say, students loved the offer.
Total cost of ads for 2 weeks = AED257 ($70)
Yes... Just AED257 ($70). Needless to say, the cost of printing and distributing flyers would've been higher so I don't need to make comparisons to billboard or magazine ads. In addition, Sara also got to collect the data and see what kind of ads work best for her customers.
How did it work out for Sara?
The outcome isn't always instantaneous as the right match of audience and adverts must be found first. But in just a few months, there's a big increase in the number of customers walking through Coco's Cafe's doors. And it all started with just 2 ads.
And now?
Now I guess it's time for me to make an admission. Coco's Cafe is not a real place. It's a fictional and so are all the characters mentioned.
What?! So what was the point of this story?
I just wanted to show you that social media isn't just for online businesses and teenagers anymore. It's become a powerful marketing tool that's perfect for YOUR business, no matter how big or small. As you saw, you're in full control all the time and get to learn about your customers like never before.
So what next?
Feel free to get in touch with us if you want to learn more about the benefits of social media marketing for your business. We'd be happy to give you a free consultation.
If you've come this far, then I hope you have enjoyed the story so please leave a comment, share your thoughts and subscribe to future posts
Thank you very much for reading.
Best,
Reza
Founder at TMR Creative Studios
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