Creative Small Business Marketing, Episode 7

How do you reward your Facebook fans? Maybe you offer them discounts. Maybe you enter them into contests. Maybe you offer them exclusive content, or sneak previews of upcoming products or company news. That’s all pretty standard these days, right? That’s why I like how this Belgian furniture store has come up with something different, something a little more creative to reward its Facebook fans: parking spots! Have a look at these images:

The company, Heylen, has painted the parking spots like this at three of its stores, according to Retail Detail. And, as that article points out, it’s probably pretty tough to actually enforce the Facebook Fans-only rule on those parking spots.

But, you know what? I don’t think that matters if that gets enforced.

What matters, in my mind, is that a furniture store has found a creative way to both reward its Facebook fans and attract new ones. It’s different. It’s unique. It’s memorable. It’s the kind of thing you might tell a friend.

Heylen’s online marketing manager, Christiane Peschen, says this is just one aspect of the company’s focus on social media. They’re promoting Heylen’s social media presence throughout the store(s) as you can see in this Flickr photo set.

Peschen says the company promotes its Facebook and Twitter presence on store receipts. And they’re planning show which piece(s) of furniture have been “liked” the most — this’ll be indicated both in the stores and in Heylen’s catalog.

Thumbs up from me. I like it — especially the parking spots. Very memorable.