How Brands Should Think About Facebook: a Loyalty Program

A few years and several billion dollars of ad spending into the era of Facebook marketing, it’s getting clearer what it’s all about for big, established brands — a loyalty program rather than a customer-acquisition tool.

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Research by DDB Worldwide and Opinionway Research finds 84% of a typical brand’s Facebook fans are existing customers. That makes marketing to the fan base much more like a customer relationship management program than a customer-acquisition tool for most brands, said Justin Kistner, social-media products director of web analytics firm Webtrends.

The problem, he said, is that many marketers still don’t see Facebook this way. Speaking in a recent Web Analytics Wednesday talk in Cincinnati and a follow-up interview, he said many brands with the biggest followings, such as Coke with nearly 34 million fans, are in high-frequency, low-ticket categories where CRM has never held center stage. And, in part because Facebook ads — thanks to their placement and lack of graphic frill — look like search ads, marketers and agencies often think of them like search ads, Mr. Kistner said.

“Search is a customer-acquisition tool,” Mr. Kistner said. “Facebook really isn’t.” But while search is largely about people discovering new products and brands, Facebook “is really about staying in touch with the people we know,” whether that be real people or brands and customers, Mr. Kistner said. That also makes it very much unlike that other digital darling — Groupon.

“Facebook is really the anti-Groupon,” said Mr. Kistner, because it’s more about preaching to the converted than getting new converts. Ironically, Groupon is also the exception to the Facebook as loyalty program rather than customer-acquisition tool, he said, since it’s been Groupon’s single biggest source of new members.

But while most established brands don’t have big app-user bases like Groupon’s 1.3 million, they increasingly are getting much bigger Facebook fan followings than Groupon’s low six-figure total. DBM/Scan’s Facebook fan tracker now counts 117 brands with at least a million fans, with more than 40 on pace to join that club within a year.

Those big groups of fans would seem ripe for targeting by rival brands, but Facebook doesn’t really allow that. Marketers can use Facebook ads to target consumers who declare affinity to rival brands in their profiles, but few consumers list brands in their profiles, Mr. Kistner said.

Facebook doesn’t let marketers target people who just “like” other brands, and for obvious reasons. The social network has used free brand pages as an inducement to get brands to advertise in order to build fan bases. Were those brand fans then subject to targeting by rivals, that could fast become a counter-productive investment for the brands (and maybe Facebook).

That leaves brands primarily marketing to their own fans. And what surveys show Facebook fans want from brands are the sorts of things loyalty programs typically deliver — special offers, access to members-only events or programs and advance word on new products — Mr. Kistner said.

Both Facebook and some marketers show some signs of moving in this direction. On the offer front, Facebook recently added Rockfish Interactive‘s Coupon Factory tool to a manual used to train its sales force on how brands can use Facebook, according to Rockfish. The tool, which lets marketers create, syndicate and manage their own online coupons either on their own sites, Facebook blogs or elsewhere, already is being used by such brands as Mentos, Lone Star Steakhouse and Big Red soft drinks on Facebook.

Facebook already has fast eclipsed that other staple of digital loyalty programs, the brand website, with visits to the average website of a Fortune 100 company down 23% last year from a year ago, Mr. Kistner said. Fan counts of brands such as Starbucks or Coke are now 10 to 100 times higher than their websites’ monthly unique visitor counts.

Limitations or no, Facebook is by far the highest priority in social-media marketing, Mr. Kistner said. In all, he cited figures showing 51% of people in the U.S. have Facebook accounts, compared to only 8% who have Twitter accounts and 4% who have accounts with one of the geo-location networks — whose members are almost entirely in major coastal urban centers, he said.

(The latest ComScore unique monthly visitor data peg Facebook’s reach at 52% and Twitter’s at 11% of the U.S. population.)

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iContact Celebrates Reaching One Million Users for Its Email and Social Media …

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Company Marks Continued Growth Across Its User Base, Revenue and Feature Set to Help Small and Medium Sized Businesses and Organizations Grow and Succeed

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RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — iContact Corp., a leading email marketing and social media marketing company, today announced its one millionth user has signed up for an account.  Since the company’s founding in 2003, iContact has grown its user base and revenue at a double-digit pace year-over-year while continuing to enhance its feature set.  The company’s one millionth user comes on the heels of recent key announcements including enhancements to social media tools within iContact for users to easily engage with subscribers and fans via Facebook and Twitter.  iContact also recently launched iContact Free Edition, a no-cost version of its flagship email marketing and social media marketing tool.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110413/CL82281LOGO-b)

iContact’s co-founders met as students at the University of North Carolina and joined forces to re-launch an existing email marketing system into what is now iContact.  Their first client, Mountain Brook Cottages, came to iContact looking for an easy way to communicate with prior and potential new guests for its vacation cottages.  Eight years later, the company has continued to meet and exceed customer expectations with its award-winning email and social media marketing tools.

“As the first iContact user, I am very excited to see how the company has grown from two entrepreneurial students to a global organization with one million users,” said Michele McMahon, owner, Mountain Brook Cottages. “iContact has been there for me since the beginning to help Mountain Brook Cottages grow and keep in touch with our guests. I look forward to seeing the company’s continued success as it adds many more millions of users.”

iContact Co-Founder and Chairman, Aaron Houghton, added, “It is a pleasure to work with great entrepreneurs like Michele at Mountain Brook Cottages. As a company, we’ve tried to keep a laser focus on helping our customers succeed by making online marketing easy and we’re proud to have earned the trust of customers such as Michele for nearly a decade.”

iContact received a $40 million Series B strategic growth investment from JMI Equity in 2010 and has built out capabilities across its product and resources to foster continued growth and expansion.  The company’s user base spans multiple countries and industries from retail and professional services to non-profit organizations, banks and technology providers.  During this time of high growth, iContact continues to help customers succeed by making online marketing easy.  The company also leads the movement for how businesses can contribute to social good in the world as a certified B Corporation, awarded to companies that meet stringent environmental and social standards.

“We are proud of how our products and services help companies and causes succeed online,” said Ryan Allis, Co-Founder and CEO, iContact. “With an enhanced offering including robust social media tools and services, we look forward to continued growth through 2011 and beyond and expanding our footprint as one of the leading providers of email and social media marketing.”

To learn more about iContact and sign up for a free trial account, please visit www.icontact.com and follow iContact’s blog at blog.icontact.com.

About iContact

Based in Raleigh, NC, iContact is a purpose-driven company making email marketing and social media marketing easy for small and midsized companies and causes to grow and succeed. More than one million users have iContact accounts and the company maintains B Corporation status, a certification awarded to companies meeting comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards. As part of its ongoing social mission, iContact applies the 4-1s Corporate Social Responsibility Model, donating 1 percent from each of its payroll, equity, product and employee time to its local and global community. Visit us online at iContact.com, on Twitter @iContact, at iContact LinkedIn Group, and on our Facebook Fan page.

For media inquiries, contact Davida Dinerman or Michael McDonough, Schwartz Communications,
781-684-0770, icontact@schwartzcomm.com.

SOURCE iContact Corp.

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