For two straight years, Moving Targets has listened to adult club owners and operators share their experiences and frustrations with social media marketing via their EXPO Tradeshow booth. Here, Moving Targets’ Jenna Gross notes the hottest topics discussed at their booth this year, and how their company can help with specific areas of social media strategy.
Social media is not just a medium for posting selfies, announcing to friends where you ate your last meal (with a photo of said meal, of course) or complaining about one’s romantic life. That may be the perception, but the reality is quite different. Recent stats show that 81% of Americans have some sort of social media profile, while the “average person” spends nearly two hours on social media every day. In short, if your club wants to reach its customers, it needs to utilize social media to do it.
One company that assists club operators in doing just that is Moving Targets. An EXPO exhibitor for two straight years, Moving Targets’ expertise is in cutting edge, modern digital marketing tactics. In short, they’re experts in social media marketing; they understand how to reach your customers where they live (i.e., their smart phones), and can do so in a cost-effective manner.
We had the chance to speak with Moving Targets’ Jenna Gross, who recapped the company’s EXPO 2017 experience by noting which topics are of most interest to adult club operators, and how Moving Targets can assist them in these areas.
ED: What were the most common questions you heard at your Expo booth this year regarding social media marketing? How did you answer these questions?
JENNA GROSS: The overarching question remains, “Will Facebook allow me to run ads for my club?” That answer is always difficult as their policies regarding advertising adult content are nebulous. Facebook Advertising Policies states: “Ads must not contain adult content. This includes nudity, depictions of people in explicit or suggestive positions, or activities that are overly suggestive or sexually provocative.” Ads must also comply with their community standards: “We restrict the display of nudity and sexual activity because some audiences within our global community may be sensitive to this type of content, particularly because of their cultural background or age.”
At our agency, we run ads for about 75% of our adult clubs on Facebook, but we do have to take precautions to ensure those ads are delivered. If you violate Facebook’s policies too many times, they can deactivate your entire account. However this doesn’t happen from one “borderline suggestive” post; they will give you fair warning first. Before proceeding, make sure you understand why it was flagged and how to prevent it from happening again.
The first thing we recommended to lessen the likelihood of violating policies: set your age restriction to 21 and older. Secondly, don’t post blatant nudity. Subtly suggestive is ideal for meeting Facebook’s guidelines, in addition to being more attractive for luring guests into your club to see more. When running ads, keep the content as neutral as possible.
Another question that came up this year: “Are Yelp Ads worth it?” Overall, yes, but as with anything, take a calculated risk. In the “Smartphones & the Future of Five-Inch Marketing Seminar at the Expo” (featured on pages 56-57 of this issue), the presenters touted these benefits. Yelp does allow gentleman’s clubs to run ads, but again, the content must be a PG rating. Enhanced profiles with a call to action button average a 50% increase in traffic and customer leads vs. free profiles. Yelp has done a nice job with SEO, meaning your page will rank higher in a Google search. The user doesn’t necessarily have to search on Yelp for your club to rank high in search results.
ED: In your experience thus far, what are the specific wants/needs of adult club owners/operators in terms of social media marketing?
JENNA GROSS: Butts in seats: promoting featured entertainers, events, dances and happy-hour specials. Social-media marketing provides invaluable opportunities for clubs to connect with customers and engage prospective guests. However, many don’t have a marketing background, time or intrinsic motivation to keep up with the ever-changing world of social media.
Social-media marketing, a science as complex and data-driven as traditional marketing, is all about building relationships to drive ROI. By using content to lead prospects through a series of steps, you learn about them in order to effectively influence them to take the action you want: visit your club and spend money.
