James Gilbert, CEO of GDM, presented on how The Fresh Diet uses social media, especially Facebook, to engage customers and build their brand. They focus on running frequent contests to engage customers and build advocacy. Through contests, videos, and other engagement strategies, they grew their Facebook likes from under 100 to over 66,000 in just over a year. They also use Facebook for customer service and to develop trust with transparency by sharing behind-the-scenes content. Their goal is to move customers through stages of engagement to become advocates for the brand through spending time interacting across multiple channels.

1. Presented by James Gilbert, CEO
May 21, 2013

2. • 30 year history in DM (old school > new school)
• CEO, GDM
• President Florida Direct Marketing Association
• Adjunct Professor Direct Marketing
• Author Target Marketing Group
• Return on Intelligence Blog
• Guide to Social Media - Content

4. "There is only one valid definition of business
purpose – to create a customer.
Companies are not in business to make
things… but to make customers.”
-- Peter F. Drucker

7. • The deeper the level of
engagement, the deeper the
trust/bond with your company!
• Nothing happens without engagement!
• How engaged are your social media fans?

8. • The goals of every social media
marketer...
– Engage!
– Draw them out!
– Get them involved!
– Tug at their heartstrings
– Tell a story!!!!
– Create drama!!!!

9. The 8 stages of engagement:
• 1. Brand impression
• 2. Like – casual listener
• 3. Like - engages
• 4. Super like – engages often
• 5. Minor brand advocate – recommends brand
• 6. Super brand advocate – recommends brand and sells product!
• 7. Dislike – disgruntled like of advocate – goes away
• 8. Super dislike (engaged dislike) – goes away and talks about brand in a
negative way
Goal move from 1 – 6
Goal move back from 7 and 8 to 6

10. • About
The
Fresh
Diet
• Focus on
Facebook

11. Level of effectiveness = 0
•November 2009:
94 fans

12. Level of effectiveness = 100
•December 2010:
24,195 likes
That’s a lot more than
nutrisysem!

13. Level of effectiveness = 1,000
•October 2011:
66,000 likes
That’s a lot more than
nutrisysem!

14. Building our brand via Facebook
• Our facebook page is our calling card.
• Many times we prefer to send to FB over web
• More powerful than our website
– People see engagement and want to join in
– People see happy customers and order!
• Beyond our “likes” thousands of people check
us out on FB daily.

16. How we got there – Goals!
• Main goal!
• Put a human face on the nameless faceless
corporate entity
• Distinguish ourselves from big corps
• We are real people, promoting a healthy
lifestyle
• People respond to real

17. How we got there – Goals!
• Build relationships - Build engagement
• Speak in a real voice
• Develop trust
• Give to get world
• Time spent on site = engagement
• Engagement = Sales
• Sales + Engagement = Advocacy
• I tease people, draw them out, call them out, etc

18. How we got to 66K – the basics
• Call center
• Collateral Material
• Mailers
• Email signatures
• Email newsletters
• Any place we can think of

19. How did we get there?
Facebook ads
• Can be hit or miss
• Effective in driving targeted traffic
• Target by:
• Geography
• Interests (dieting, kosher)
• Work (where)
• Education type
• Connected to people, businesses

20. Step 2 building engagement
• It started with a single contest.
– Carbometer
• We now run contests every day of the week

21. Contests mean to us
• A way to seed the market with food
• A way to have people come back and give
positive feedback
• An engagement tool
• Fun – draws people out

22. Contest examples
• Plate your
favorite meals

23. Contest examples
• Halloween costume
contest

24. Contest examples
• Motivation
poster
contests

25. Contest examples
• Fresh Diet-ize a Beatles Lyric (in honor of John
Lennon)
• Fresh Diet-ized Haiku

26. Contest examples
• Video
contests
• This
contest
coined the
phrase,
“the fresh
diet
delivery
fairies?

27. Contest examples
• Ultra secret
contests
– My excuse
to give
away food
• Any old
contests
– Banner ad

28. Contests Recipe winner

29. Any Excuse for a contest

30. • Brand + Channels = Revenue.
– The more channels a consumer interacts with your
brand in, the more likely they are to buy.
– Offering multiple engagement channels allows for
consumer self selection of preferred channels.
– Being in the right social media channels based on
your market increases channel interaction.

31. We do a lot of video

32. YouTube fun and relationship building

33. Building Traffic – Fans and Likes
Ad.ly network
allows you to buy
paid tweets from
celebrities
Gained 400 fans
in one day

34. Building Traffic – Fans and Likes
Tie ins with other
sites drove major
traffic and likes
We did this one in
conjunction with
a freebie every
day.

35. Building Traffic – Fans and Likes
Tie ins with other
sites drove major
traffic and likes
We did this one in
conjunction with
a freebie every
day.

36. Building Traffic – Fans and Likes
Paid tweets from
Heidi Montag
promoting a
contest drove
fans and contest
entries

37. Building Traffic – Fans and Likes
Using the @ sign
drives traffic
This post ran on
TFD and Holly
Madison’s FB
page at the same
time

38. • Brand + time + channels = advocates.
– Consumers spending time in multi channels
breeds customers more likely to become brand
advocates and influencers.
– This is the new multichannel marketing model for
the 21st century.
– Social media creates brand advocates and turns
peers into your best salespeople.

39. Engagement our customers take over
• In Orlando
• Customers ran contests, promoted specials
answered CS Q’s
• Our customers would walk through fire due to
the trust we have built.
• We ask people from FB to do interviews, show
up at events, etc… even be on TV.

40. Customers take over
Fresh never
frozen

41. • The exponential search factor.
– Social media increases your search engine
rankings, and when combined with your website
drives additional traffic via organic search.

42. • The new-fangled customer service
factor.
– Consumers choose their contact preferences.
– Brands not having multiple channels for customer
service risk losing customers.
– Consumers expect instant gratification and social
media delivers.

43. Facebook as a customer service tool
• Our Sales and CS people inhabit our page
• Customer service is no longer limited to the
call center!!!
• When questions get asked, we answer ASAP
– Speed and agility in a social media world
– If we don’t answer fast enough, we get grief

44. Facebook as a Customer Service tool
When issues come up
we must address them
with speed, agility and
accuracy, otherwise we
will get skewered

45. Facebook as a Customer Service tool
When issues come up
we must address them
with speed, agility and
accuracy, otherwise we
will get skewered
We took a beating due
to the snow in the NE

46. • The behind the scenes factor.
– People don’t buy from brands - they buy from
people.
– Social media puts a human face on the faceless
corporate entity.
– The biggest opportunity around social media is to
allow people to connect with your employees as
peers.

48. Bio’s of
our
employees
bring
customers
closer to
the
company

49. Build involvement and trust
Be Transparent
Go behind the
scenes

50. Bringing our customers closer
Image done by one of
our customers of our
CEO Zalmi Duchman.
He is officially Zman or
Zuperman to our fans

51. Again, we do a lot of video

52. • Trust is the new black.
– The aforementioned laws allow consumers to
build or rebuild trust if done correctly.
– Social media harkens back to the days of the
corner store where consumers and brands had a
cordial relationship.
– Social media builds relationships over time.

53. Trust? Our involvement devices
• Delivery fairies
• Fearless FB leader
• Overgiving
• We let our customers run and judge contests
• Brand everybody
• Make fun of ourselves
• Have all get involved in company
• Ask questions, involve customers (bag, slogans)

54. Building Trust – Random Freebies
• Every day we give food away randomly on FB.
• Other times we just give it away for no reason
• Is it expensive? Sure, but the rewards are
enormous
– People are always promoting us to our friends
– Another way we seed the market and drive
positive reviews

55. Build involvement and trust

56. Give to get – Random Freebies

57. • The online reputation factor.
– Whether you like it or not consumers are talking
about your brand.
– Social media is the great neutralizer.
– It allows your company to seek out negatives and
turn them into positives via reputation
management and communications.

60. • The time spent factor.
– Customers are not always ready to buy.
– Social media’s eight other immutable laws
prepares customers over time.

61. • Engagement + time + trust =
revenue.
– When we run sales on FB sales come!
– Use promo codes to track
– Customers do the selling for us.
• Must try this!

62. Video references
• Under cover boss spoof:
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm0LyuLB890
• The Fresh Diet LA Kitchen
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgD1BJp72oc
• The Fresh Diet Project - Contest winner
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ2CxvOVM_s

63. Thank You!
How to reach me…
jimdirect@aol.com @gilbertdirect
561-302-1719
Don’t forget linked in!