How do you feel about paying for endorsements of your consignment, resale, thrift shop?
This is from facebook: FACEBOOK FANS! GET A 50% OFF COUPON FROM [name deleted] AND HELP US OUT TOO BY JUST GOING TO OUR WEBSITE [url deleted] AND LEAVING GREAT COMMENTS IN OUR GUESTBOOK. FOR EVERYONE THAT LEAVES US POSITIVE FEEDBACK YOU WILL GET A 50% OFF COUPON FOR OUR STORE. SO, PLEASE GIVE US SOME POSITIVE FEEDBACK!
Is this something you’d be comfortable with? Or not?
Is giving a coupon for a compliment a bribe...
...or is offering a coupon for a compliment a thank-you gift?
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
Just reading up on whether to give a Discount % or dollars off for a new facebook fan after I asked my facebook friends to help me out. I came accross this instead.
I want to surprise her with a gift! I would do the same in the shop too: give a token, gift or discount to customer or prospective for giving me feedback or support that I want.
Do NOT USE getmorepopular.com they don’t give any results, they lie about giving refunds. I’ve lost over $1000, and in my opinion they are a scam. I couldn’t find bad reviews about them when I looked before I went with them, only to realise now that they flood every place they can find with false positive reviews. They try to put you off, promising refunds that never come – I am writing this to hope that other people don’t loose money to them like I did.
I’ve been using Facebook for my store for about 9 months and have over 1,000 friends. I often post that we have a specific discount for FB friends only and they must mention that they are our friend to receive the discount. This works wonderfully for me. In fact, just yesterday I had a new customer from a different county tell me that she knew of my store only through Facebook. And, Facebook Friends comment to my family and friends regularly about my posts. I know fewer than half the people that have become a friend of my store. It has been a GREAT advertising tool for my store and its free.
The consignment world needs to wake up! Weather you like it or not, business is business and that means you do what it takes (within reason) to win! You’re simply a fool if you think that consignment shop down the street is anything but a competitor. Believe me, they would like nothing more than to see you close. Sure, they maybe be friendly and suggest some joint marketing events but in reality they don’t want you around! So, if you need to bribe someone to join a list or fan page then so be it. The only people you need to listen to are YOUR CUSTOMERS! Believe me, they’ll tell you weather they like the idea or not! It’s a dog eat dog world and it’s only going to get worst. Only the fit will survive. It’s never been more critical to ramp up your marketing efforts and crush the competition!
Email is such a tricky thing. Different people will take the same sentence a different way. As I told my boss one day he asked why people were saying he was yelling at them I asked him if he was using all caps and he said yes. I said that is why. Caps is yelling.
I always send a thank you email to my customers when they buy from me. Sometimes I will ask them if they would mind giving feedback on their experience with Recycled Refinery Consignment Boutique and for doing so I will give them a 10% discount.
Paula
Good point! Perhaps the wording, compelling communications, could make all the difference. What would YOU suggest?
Hi
It is in the way it is worded that I don’t like. I would use something similar as a thank you gift for them leaving me feedback when I requested it.
Paula
Thanks, Betty, for your reply. I lost the info on whose it was. Thanks for providing a platform for discussion and I am thrilled with your feedback.
Got any idea how many of your FB readers (numbers or %ages) responded to your request? Have you gotten a chance to work on your business listing re the previous blog suggestions about all those conglomerate sites? Has it worked? More visitors in the shop, to your site, to your FB page?
Would love your professional feedback!
It would be nice to know first that you were going to post my facebook post in your blog. Customers love it. I did not know Aunt Kate was going to turn it into a survey.
I see no difference in offering this and offering a coupon by telling fans to stop in and say they are a facebook fan to get a discount, or between coming in on a certain day and getting double stamped.
I appreciate it if before you make my post into a survey you let me know so that I can give you our feedback. Might make a more interesting blog for you
I am comfortable with buying fans. In fact I’ve done it….more than once! At first, I was a bit skeptical, but tried it anyway. Some sites are pure scams (they just take money but don’t deliver anything), others are legit. I don’t want to sound like i’m promoting anything, but I might as well give props to http://facebook.getmorepopular.com cuz they really delivered more than I expected. I ordered 500 fans – boom a week later I had more than doubled my fan base…been using them for a while now and they haven’t disappointed yet.
I don’t know what the big deal is anyway? A fan is a fan, whether you bribe them, buy them, or acquire them in some other way. Who cares? It’s all about perception anyway. The more fans the better your look!
Jim
What’s the point of simply having a big number of “fans”? Isn’t that like getting your high-school yearbook signed by every classmate? makes you feel popular without doing anything for your success? Isn’t buying fans rather like, you should excuse the expression…”renting” love?
Now, lots of real-life fans…people who like the way you do business, who deal with you, that’s a real fan. No just someone who clicks a “like” button, no matter the terminology, that’s not a real fan.
But that may be just me. I don’t choose the movies I see, the books I read, the friends I make based on their popularity, AKA “number of fans.” But then again, I never go look to see how many fans an entertainer, a brand, or a store has.