Facebook Marketing
Facebook is one of the most popular social networks for both individuals and businesses to socialise and connect with each other. Facebook was created back in 2004 and now has over 2 billion active users worldwide! For this reason, Facebook has opened up a huge opportunity for advertising and can help businesses to increase their brand awareness.
Although many brands have a Facebook page and use the platform to upload content, they do not see any results from their marketing on the platform. There are many reasons why this may happen; one of the most common mistakes marketers make on Facebook is to use the platform without having set up a Facebook marketing strategy where they have defined goals and use insights to find out what is and isn’t working.
There are different types of Facebook marketing that can help target different demographics and reach a wider audience. If you use Facebook for your business but don’t find you’re reaching business goals, we can help!
Here are our top 11 Facebook marketing tips.
Create a Content Calendar
Posting on Facebook without a plan is a bad idea; there are factors to take into consideration such as the best times and days of the week to post, which content you should create to engage your target market and whether you are uploading consistently.
Creating a content calendar for Facebook allows you to schedule posts that will have the potential to gain the biggest reach, impressions and subsequently, engagement. A content calendar for marketing on Facebook is also a great idea because it allows you and your marketing team to have a clear, organised vision of what is planned so you can efficiently keep track of what is being uploaded to your Facebook business page.
Make Sure Your Facebook Page is Updated
You could have an incredibly engaging post that leads users to click your Facebook page but just one outdated link or a struggle to find vital information could lead to the loss of a customer. We live in a fast-paced world where consumers are used to getting the information they need in a few seconds, so if they struggle to find this on your Facebook page, they are likely to give up and leave.
It is so important to regularly check that your Facebook page has all of the vital business information clear for potential customers to see after a couple of clicks, as well as links that are visible and working. Your Facebook page should also have a call-to-action button that asks users to either call, email or visit your website, depending on your marketing goals.
Another influential part of your business page on Facebook is how fast you reply to messages. Facebook can work incredibly well as a social network for customer service, giving both new and existing customers a fast and simple way to get in touch with you or your team. If you are good at replying to the messages you receive, your Facebook page will earn a badge that states you are ‘Very responsive to messages‘. Aim to get this badge on your Facebook business so people can see you care about your customers.
Ask Customers to Leave Reviews
Facebook pages that have a large number of good reviews visible for followers and fans to see are much more likely to gain business and likes. One way to build your Facebook business reviews is to provide your existing customers with a link to your page and ask them to leave you a review if they were happy with your service.
This should continue through your emails and any contact you have with customers that have purchased your product or service. If your customers were happy with your business then they are likely to use Facebook reviews to help your company out. Remember to be responsive and reply to any reviews you receive online.
Boost Posts
If you use Facebook to post, as usual, your photo or video will only display to those that have chosen to follow your page. To find new customers and increase your page’s followers and fans, you should begin boosting posts so that you appear on more people’s news feed.
Boosting a post on Facebook will send your photo, product or video (depending on what you have posted) out to a larger number of Facebook users. You can target certain audiences on Facebook so that your posts appear on the news feeds of those that would be interested in your business. It is a good idea to start with a small budget and boost a few posts so that you can measure their performance and find out which worked best for potential fans.
If your content is engaging enough and your target audience like what they see, you will be sure to receive more followers that could potentially turn into customers.
Test Out Different Facebook Ads
Paid ads are highly recommended as part of your advertising campaign if your customer base uses Facebook. Ads Manager is a platform that allows businesses to produce an ad campaign with targeting options so you can ensure your ad placements capture your target market.
You should set up a few different ads with different settings so that you can keep track of which perform best and which are worth leaving behind. The aim is to have potential fans click on your ads which will either take them through to like your page or an external link such as your website. You can choose a budget for your ads dependant on what you are happy to spend, so make sure you spread your budget evenly across all of your advertisements. Paying to advertise on Facebook will allow you to reach a wider audience and help with your overall business marketing strategy.
Create Audiences for Ads
To get started with Facebook Ad Manager you should already know which people you would like to target. If you’re not sure, you will need to carry out research on the audience that is most likely to use your business.
Create a Facebook ad that can target people who are most likely to convert with you or help you towards reaching business aims. Once you have set up audiences using Facebook Ads Manager your content will reach many more people, depending on your budget. Save the audiences you set up so you can choose them easily when using Facebook advertising in the future.
Follow Trends
Following trends on Facebook is a great idea as part of your marketing strategy. You should continuously stay up to date with the newest content trends, and try your best to get involved. Uploading a trending post, such as a funny video, will make your brand seem up to date and help you to get more fans for your business.
Marketing online requires a great deal of monitoring and watching what is popular and what isn’t. You can also search online to find out what is trending to upload posts that will get a larger engagement.
Add to Facebook Stories
Facebook stories are a relatively new feature, set up in 2017, and allows a brand to add images or short videos to a ‘story’ that will disappear within 24 hours. Stories are a great way to post regularly but not have to take up valuable space on your page or fill up people’s news feed. Posting too much can lead to you losing followers, so you need to make sure you only post the most relevant content at the right time.
Posting every day on Facebook stories is a good way to upload a post that may not be important enough to your business to have sit on your page permanently. Some people may also have notifications turned on for Facebook stories, which means that when you post some of your followers will even get notified!
Set Up a Product Catalogue
If your business sells products, Facebook offers a product catalogue that can help people to purchase with you much easier and faster. Get started with a product catalogue on Facebook by heading to the Business Commerce Manager. You can then build a catalogue and add items to display on your Facebook. You should use the catalogue as part of your marketing plan if you sell products online that can be delivered.
Create and/or Join Facebook Groups
A great thing about Facebook is the ability to be part of a community. Facebook pages and groups allow people to converse and are usually used as a base for help; users can post asking for help or recommendations and others can reply.
Joining a group as your brand can be a great way to advertise as you can leave a reply on posts that need help within your industry, or are looking for exactly what you can offer! You could also start up your own Facebook group as part of your marketing plan to get your brand name out but make sure you engage and listen to people; Facebook groups aren’t about obvious marketing… they are about conversation and support. If you can be a source of support or conversation then people are likely to visit your brand page anyway.
Regularly Check Insights
One of the most important tips for marketing on Facebook is to regularly check your page and post insights. You should keep track of metrics such as likes, impressions, reach, engagement and link clicks to find out which posts and ads are most successful and which didn’t work so well.
This will give you the information to understand which content performs best so you can increase your Facebook post engagement in the future. Ad Manager insights will also allow you to create an ad that is much more likely to perform, rather than wasting money and time on ads that don’t help towards your goals.
Bonus Tip
Set up a Chatbot
Chatbots are quickly becoming a popular choice for businesses of all sizes, but especially for smaller ones that don’t have the resources to hire a customer service team. Bots are more than capable of helping keep your customers happy and can work around the clock. They’re also highly effective at answering the kind of direct, simple questions that can easily be dealt with in a single message.
This blog “How to Chat on Facebook in 5 Different Ways: The Simple Guide for Marketing Beginners and Pros” from MobileMonkey is a great guide on how to get started with chatbots.
Marketing on Facebook
Facebook is an incredible platform to use to develop your brand. It can be difficult to market on Facebook if you don’t have the time or know what is best for your brand. Luckily, here at The Social Network we provide social media training so that you can grow your community, engagement and following on Facebook and Twitter. We also provide social media management services to take your business to the next level online.
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