When you think of a lucrative industry, book binding probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.

“There’s a select number of fish in our pond,” Michael Chrisman admits. Michael is the founder Bookbinders Workshop, which provides binding services and supplies to clients around the world.

“I thought that everyone already knew who we were,” Michael says. But that was before he tried his first social campaign. “Boy, was that a wake-up call.”

A $15,000 wake-up call.

Finding a bigger audience

When Michael launched the Bookbinders Facebook Page in January 2012, he wasn’t impressed with the results. He started off by telling his friends about it, which boosted fan count to 51, but then got stuck in a rut.

“I didn’t know what else to do, until I found Social Campaigns and thought, ‘uh huh, that’s it,’” he explains.

Michael decided to offer any fan who bought $300 worth of bookbinding leather and supplies a free, 248-page, hardcover book about bookbinding.

“Our educational resources have always helped differentiate us from the competition, so I wanted to promote that,” he says.

He initially sent an email about the campaign to his contact list, and also promoted it on the Facebook Page through Simple Share.

Before long, word began spreading about the offer. Michael was suddenly getting new clients through Facebook. “I had universities emailing me and saying ‘We’re so glad that we found you!’”

That little bit of exposure was a valuable experience for Bookbinders Workshop – the campaign netted the business almost 600 new fans and about $15,000 in revenue.

Taking the time to create and innovate

When Michael thinks about the success of his campaign, he says that it all has to do with time spent.

“If you’re going to reap the rewards, you have to sit down and think hard about the campaign you make,” he says. “I’m not a techy person. One of the fanciest things I can do is scan and email images. But business people overprice their time, saying ‘I’m worth X.’ So they don’t take the time to actually learn the strategies.”

The next steps

Michael is far from done with Social Campaigns. His first one earned him the Constant Contact Spotlight Award and he’s already planning the launch of his second one.

This time, he’s hoping to either like-gate an exclusive video about bookbinding and offer customers benefits for loyalty. The goal is to keep showing fans the exclusive leathers and educational services that Bookbinders Workshop can provide.

“Running this social campaign taught me that there are a lot of potential clients out there who haven’t heard of us,” he says. “But now my next campaign will reach even more people, and the message can get spread even further.”

Have you held a successful social campaign on Facebook? Let us know below!