Facebook has quietly announced a new feature called Offers which will replace check-in deals. Facebook Offers are coupons a business can post to its wall. When someone claims an Offer he or she will receive an email that can be shown in-store to redeem a discount.
Offers are free for brands to create and free for consumers to redeem.
So far Offers have only be rolled out to select brands; however, it will soon be available to everyone so here’s the scoop!
Components of a Facebook Offer
From your Business Page you will see a new Share button for Offers.
Add a headline, image, expiration date and terms & conditions as prompted.
Example of a Facebook Offer and its enticing discount.
Facebook Offers are automatically optimized for mobile redemption. Mari Smith blogged about her experience with Offers and posts this example:
Example of a Facebook Offer being claimed through the mobile Facebook app.
Launching a successful Facebook Offer campaign
Creating an offer is a lot like creating a Facebook Ad. You’ll need to:
- Choose an image that directly represents the product you are promoting. For example, Einstein Brothers Bagels shows a sandwich (not a bagel, coffee or even a delicious Bagel Dog) in their Offer for a Buy One Get One Free sandwich.
Einstein Brothers Bagels does a good job of matching image with Offer. - Create a strong headline by immediately saying what the exciting offer is. Some ideas for offers: Buy One Get One Free, free item with purchase, a certain percentage off (example: 20% off) or a certain percentage off with a minimum purchase amount (example: 15% off when you spend $50 or more).
- Choose an expiration date for the Facebook Offer. To create a sense of urgency it’s best to choose an expiration date only a few days after you launch the Offer. You can always create another Offer later.
- Create offers around current events. Make your Facebook Offers extra compelling by targeting them around specific events. For example if you are a bar you might offer a discount on beer for St. Paddy’s Day. If you sell maternity clothing you might offer a Mommy To Be discount on Mother’s Day and so on.
- Encourage your community to Share the Offer with their friends.This will increase the reach of your offer.
- Create Sponsored Stories to run during your Offer campaign. When people see others they know claiming a Facebook Offer they will be more likely to check it out themselves.
And of course you’ll want to track how many people claim your offer. You’ll need to do this in-store by tallying up how many Offers come through the door, or you can set up a special code in your point-of-sale computer to track this for you.
Right now Facebook Offers appear to only be available to brick-and-mortar retailers. How long before they’re available for online shops? Hopefully not too long! We should hear more about Facebook Offers over the next few weeks as they roll the feature out to more users.
Questions about Facebook Offers? Leave a comment below and I’ll try to answer them!
