Don't Judge a FaceBook by it's Cover

[Alex Snyder]

I tried an experiment over the past two weeks:

Control:

• Week 1: Toyota offers of 0% APR, seriously reduced lease payments, 2 years of free maintenance, and we gave away 25 42" LG Plasma TV's
• Week 2: Toyota offers of 0% APR, seriously reduced lease payments, 2 years of free maintenance, and we gave away 25 42" Samsung Plasma TV's

Questions:

• Will a full marketing campaign push the TV's out the door in a single day?
• Will a follow-up campaign where the brand of the TV's is a little more respected have the same affect with only Social Media marketing?
• Is the offer so compelling that it doesn't matter where the ads are?

Week 1 marketing:

• Website special on exact inventory pieces (thousands of views per week)
• Blog articles on a multitude of different Toyota and Checkered Flag websites (thousands of views per week)
• PR Announcement
• facebook notifications
• Email blast to entire Checkered Flag Toyota ownership base (sent to over 15,000 people in varying time increments with 0 unsubscribes)
• Television ad with HUGE frequency
• CRM campaign pushing sales & BDC agents to call customers

Week 2 marketing:

• Only facebook
• Television with half the frequency

Outcome:

• Week 1: 68 sales & TV's gone by 11:00 AM Saturday
• Week 2: 63 sales & TV's gone by 11:30 AM Saturday

There are a lot of holes in this test. Did sales agents hold customers over during the week to get the TV on Saturday? Did the residual marketing from the first week spill over into the second week?

Then there are a slew of other questions:
Does this prove that Internet marketing has very little effect next to traditional TV advertising?
Does this prove that facebook has just as much a presence as the other online venues?
Does this prove that no matter how much marketing is done a compelling offer will sell itself?

I have no answers here, and I lived it. If anything I'm more confused now than ever.

 

[MattScalcione]

I'm no Science major but I think you just have too many variables here to form any reliable hypothesis.

Also as you alluded to, I think the strength of your promotion was just too powerful. Those TVs were going out the door one way or another (especially the Samsungs).

Maybe try a more vanilla promotion and break it out into a shorter timeline; only 1-2 days per "experiment". If you can replicate the results of your research on a smaller time-line with less variables I think you'll be on to something.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Of course, but we still need to sell cars. I'll think up a better experiment.

 

[MattScalcione]

On second thought, this comparison might be inherently flawed.

Facebook and social media platforms are really pieces of your Marketing strategies that should ultimately serve to promote your website / brand and funnel traffic and future purchases to your website by building visibility and trust with your consumers.

I think that you'll consistently see Facebook under-achieving when stacked up to your traditional marketing because its your social presence that enhances and promotes your traditional marketing. There's cross-pollination there that can't be quantified.

Did that make sense? :p

 

[joe.pistell]

Of course, but we still need to sell cars. I'll think up a better experiment.

Alex,

Try a FB exclusive offer.
For example, for an April direct Mail promo I am building right now, I just grabbed www.TradeinBonus.com. Shopper registers for exclusive $288 tradein bonus certificate they can redeem after they get our best offer.

Your FB spin could be www.FaceBookFanTradeinBonus.com Hahahaha... You get the idea. Throw them a bone and see if they bark!.