So I’ve bought this course to realise I can’t afford to run ads….

So you’re a tiny local business, you’ve realised that your £5 here and £10 there isn’t going to buy much – but you can’t afford much more – so you’re thinking ‘why am I even on this course?!’

Don’t despair…

For VERY small budget advertisers there are some clever ways to get some cheap, quick wins. Here are some ideas below:

Engagement to Lead Gen strategy

In the advert you can see on the left – we used this very low cost strategy to generate a lot of new sales. We promoted this to people who liked the Facebook Page and their friends, in the Plymouth area, excluding existing customers (data from the Salon software) and asked them if they were a ‘Brow Envy virgin’ – telling them to comment #imavirgin to uncover a secret and exclusive ‘first time’ offer. We did not ask them to book, because it was a COLD audience.

As you can see, 96 people left a comment and we then used the Message function on each comment to send them, direct to their inbox, a special offer where we then manually chatted with them, to move them down the funnel to Warm.

Around 20% responded to this and booked an appointment. Those who didn’t, we went back two weeks later with a reminder and mopped up a further handful.

Messages Campaign

Messages can work well on a Cold Audience, because you’re not asking them to marry you, you’re only asking them on a date – there’s no commitment!

But it is your job to persuade them to buy, or to move them further down the funnel once you’ve got them engaged in a conversation. That may be:

  • Getting them in for a consultation
  • Getting them to give you their email / number
  • Getting them to book a Demo
  • Getting them to read some articles / content on your website
  • Or chatting with them to the point they actually book your services

Always try to end with a question – ‘Would you like to book an appointment?’ ‘How about a free consultation, so we can show you what the treatment is and you can decide from there if you want it?’ ‘One of our solicitors could give you a call and offer a 30 minute free consultation if you like?’

And always follow up after a few days! “Hey, were you still interested in the micro blading that you enquired about? I have a cancellation on Saturday if you’d like to pop in for a free consultation”

Cost Guideline

£10 Spent on Engagement – asking them to ‘comment’ – might get you anything between 2-20 comments

£10 Spend on Messages might get you anything between 1-8 messages. Obviously the more broad the appeal, the more you’ll get as opposed to something niche.