Elaine Topper, founder of BellaSoleil.com, will be the first to admit that the online Tuscan home décor retailer’s Facebook fan count wasn’t exactly huge. With just around 30 fans on the Page, Facebook had proved to be something of a lackluster part of the store’s marketing efforts.

In an effort to grow that presence, Elaine decided to try Constant Contact’s Social Campaigns tool. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but any reluctance she had was quickly fanned away within minutes of sending an initial message about her campaign to her email list… pun intended.

“We got 75 new Likes in the first two hours after I sent out the email,” she explains.

When her first campaign ended, Elaine’s Facebook fan count had grown by over 300% and many of those fans became paying customers. The email that promoted the campaign, combined with the “Reveal a Deal” campaign itself, led to nearly $10,000 in revenue in just 48 hours.

So what did Elaine do to bring in such admirable sales? It all came down to three basic steps.

1. Know Your Audience

Any savvy marketer knows that one of the keys to keeping customers happy is to know who those customers are. Elaine keeps track of her sales — and how customers find her website — and knows for a fact that most don’t use Facebook that often.

“We import Italian pottery and Tuscan décor, so we’re not really marketing to college-age customers,” Elaine says. “But promotional emails always get high open rates, so we decided to use our social campaign to offer a discount to all of our Facebook fans.”

Elaine’s campaign offered customers a 10% discount on any item. Consequently, she saw that customers, many of whom aren’t regulars on Facebook, ended up Liking the Page to get the deal.

2. Design for Success

Just like the building of Rome, a good social campaign isn’t launched in a day. Okay, so maybe that’s a stretch. But, to Elaine, it’s clear that templates and design matter.

“We picked a red layout for our campaign, because it went with the photograph we were showing and supported the BellaSoleil.com website brand,” Elaine explains, “but also because red reflects energy and motivates individuals to take action.”

Elaine has the numbers to back that up: An email with a red layout and a creative format generated 30% more sales than the previous email did. She always digs deep in her analytics and keeps adapting, whether it’s on social media or with her email marketing, and has seen the results from her careful analysis.

3. Don’t Sit Back

Once you launch a social campaign, the work has just begun. People don’t usually use Facebook to look for business deals; they log on to interact with friends. But if one of those friends Likes a post from a business’ Facebook Page, then all those friends can see that Like, and are more likely to find your Page.

Aside from promoting the campaign by emailing her subscribers, Elaine has kept fans engaged by posting photos of BellaSoleil.com’s wares. “The idea is to offer them a discount on Facebook, and then have all of these products that they can look at and choose from,” Elaine says. Many of those photos are Liked by fans, and as a result, the campaign keeps producing results.  “We also have to be cognizant of our email frequency so communicating via Social Media is a safe bet,” she adds.

A Social Future 

While Elaine knows that many of her customers aren’t using Facebook regularly, she notes that even that trend is changing, and her first campaign proved it. Not only that, she’s hoping to expand BellaSoleil.com’s audience to social media savvy customers looking to furnish their first homes in Tuscan style.

She views the Facebook Page as an investment, and for her, it has already paid off.