Generating Quick Cash as soon as possible is exactly what Small – Medium size Businesses need to survive. Especially, when they are just starting out.
In some cases, Generating sufficient Profit Quick enough can be a matter of continuing your Business OR letting your Business die, forever.
You don’t want the latter to happen to your Business. Nobody does.
This is a Case Study of a Business that I, along with my Business Partner decided to Test. Having experience with Social Media Promotions, I decided to go ahead with promoting and making a Profit from Facebook for this Business Model too.
It was a Brand New eCommerce Book Business Idea we tested during Lockdown, from our Homes.
The results from this were so good, that now it is a Full-Time Registered Business of ours. An important note to keep in mind is – this Test Campaign was ON for only 5 days.
I break down the step-by-step process, along with the real numbers (with proofs) of how we did it. And How You Can Too.
So, How Did We Actually Make Profit from Facebook for This Business? Here’s How:
STEP 1 – Creating a Story Around Product
First, we created a Long Story of 3 paragraphs related to the Book we were planning to Promote. But during this step, we did not Try to Sell.
We just shared a brief History about the Topic, to spark an interest in the subject.
Keep in mind, we were later only going to show this campaign to people already interested in that particular subject, so creating an Online Campaign with a Story around the same subject felt like a smart move.
The Goal never was to sell at first interaction. At the very first interaction, the Goal never is to Sale, it is to create Connection and Trust.
If you try to Sell at “Very First Interaction”, whether through Ads, Social Media, Newspapers, or any other medium available in the world – you’ll most probably fail to sell.
Always think from the Customer’s Point of View. Would you like it, if a Random Man stops you, while you are roaming around the streets and said – “Hi! My name is John. I Sell Books you like. Buy from Me.”
If you are like most people, you’ll say No within 10 seconds.
Instead, if John would have shared a brief story about the book of your interest subject while holding the same Book in his hands in front of you pointing towards its cover, and sometimes showing Images from inside of the book – You would have most likely let him finish his story. Or, maybe asking for more.
Creating a Story, and sharing it as a Value for Customers (Not to Sell) was key to Grab Attention, Create Trust, and the success of this Campaign.
STEP 2 – Find Out Narrowed Down Audience
“When You Speak to Everyone, You Speak to No One.” – Meredith Hill
I can not stress enough this quote.
The rookie mistake many, many Business People make (especially while starting out) is to try to sell to everyone.
Let’s assume for a minute, you own a T-shirt Selling Business and You are trying to sell a T-shirt that has “MARS” printed on it.
Now, if you try to sell it to just everyone – there’s no actual reason for people to buy it. It’s just another T-shirt, similar to which can be available just anywhere. Why buy from You?
Instead, if you try to sell it to Space Geeks, People interested in Astronomy, or Elon Musk Fan base – with a little story about similarities between the color of the surface of the Mars and clothing material of that T-shirt – People are more likely to hear your story.
Our Audience for the Book was Highly Narrowed Down. The Book we were selling was written in “Marathi” language. It’s not a common language in a Country. Instead, it’s a language of just one region.
Hence, our Campaign, Message, and Communication – from A-to-Z: the complete process was in the same language. They could have easily understood and communicated in English – but we didn’t want them to adapt. Instead, we changed our communication according to their language.
It helped us a lot. It created that crucial first connection between our audience and us.
Also, the topic covered by our Book was Narrowed down. Later we went on to target that specific group of people for our Online Campaign.
STEP 3 – Highly Targeted Facebook Campaign
Facebook has a huge database of people from it’s own platforms, Instagram, WhatsApp, and through tie-ups with major Banks and other companies.
Facebook has user-activity data of your potential customers. You just have to know how to utilize it for your Business.
There are many objectives available as per different Business Models and needs. But since, since we were just testing this eCommerce Business Model – we didn’t have any website. So, making sales using a Website (which works Great for Businesses) – was not an option for us at that moment.
Hence, we decided to collect their details as a Lead. People interested in the Book happily shared their contact details with us. Asking us to contact them.
The Result:
- Duration = 5 Days
- Investment = Rs. 1460
- Return = 151 Leads
- Sale = Rs. 52,510
That’s Almost 35 Times Return on Investment = 35X Profit.
It was surprising but still expected, as there are many True Social Media Success Stories with Super Crazy Number I come across or read about.
The Business took off and we are still receiving the same Return on Investment ratio – with a Bigger Investment now.
CONCLUSION
I have good experience with Facebook – Instagram Promotional Campaigns, which I run for myself and my clients.
So, we surely expected a good response, but more than 35X Return on a Very Small Investment was beyond even my expectations.
After several months, I analyzed the reasons why it worked so well. So I can apply similar strategies to all Businesses I am working with.
It all came down to major 3 points I explained above-
- Creating Helpful Story (Helpful to Customers) Around Your Product / Service
- Narrow Down Your Audience, As Much As Possible
- Using Facebook’s Huge Database to Your Advantage
Have you tried Social Media for your Business’s Advantage? What was the result you were able to achieve with Online Campaigns?