With an estimate of over a billion users, Facebook is a bandwagon with gigantic reach. Whether you’re a small business owner or a multinational company, you cannot afford to not be present on this platform. It would almost be like how Nokia missed the smartphone bandwagon. And that’s no exaggeration.
Facebook has used its popularity to their advantage- it has come out with insane features that make it quite adaptable for different businesses. It’s time you used Facebook for business advantage. The answer is Facebook marketing.
There are essentially 2 ways to use Facebook for marketing- advertisements and pages. If it wasn’t obvious, they require entirely different strategies.
- Facebook pages are like profiles allowing users to ‘like’ and ‘follow’ your page.
- Advertisements on the other hand would redirect to your site urging them purchase your product or service.
How to utilise Facebook for Business benefits for your business
The main aim of Facebook pages for businesses is branding — Brand interaction, Brand recall and Making the brand more accessible to your audience.
Let’s begin with Facebook marketing hacks for pages.
1. Getting the basic layout right
Your Profile picture should always be your logo as your audience will always identify your page based on your profile picture. It’s important that you keep it consistent. Your cover photo is always the brand image as it takes a lot more space on your page. It is beneficial and important to have something attractive, eye-catching and creative that communicates what your company does.
Provide all the necessary contact details and relevant information in your ‘about’ section. It is always smart to rather allow a team to manage your social media as running a business will take time and concentration. You could also divide page roles such as — admin, editor, advertiser on Facebook
It’s also a good idea to get your page verified (you can apply for this in your general settings tab). It will surely make you look a lot more credible to those looking at your brand.
2. Be responsive
At the core of Facebook marketing is customer (potential) engagement. The more engaged you are, the more Facebook puts your page on users’ news feed. This has seen to be the single most important thing for digital marketing success. Engage in the comments section, have engaging posts that push people to comment and most definitely, reply to all messages.
3. Making posts engaging
Do not over do your posts otherwise it will lead to spamming your audience which will then lead them to no longer finding interest in your page. Choose a posting frequency that works best for likes and comments. Ideally 4-5 days a week. You could use the option to schedule posts for better consistency. Use platforms such as Hootsuite, Buffer or Social Report. Questions, contests, photos and videos are seen to be the most engaging by far.
4. Share testimonials
Sharing how your customers feel works wonders through a personal medium like this. They are likelier to resonate with its authenticity.
5. Call-to-action (CTA)
One of the biggest reservations to the efficacy of social media marketing is translating popularity to actual sales. The CTA tab on your page allows you to urge people to actually do something. This could be to purchase something, make a donation or even make use of your services etc.
Advertising on Facebook
Facebook is the next best alternative to Google AdWords — and cheaper! There are five types to choose from:
- Inside the news feed on desktop
- Inside the news feed on mobile
- Right-hand sidebar on desktop
- Audience network on mobile
- On Instagram
While you slowly build your audience through pages, there’s also a quicker, more targeted way to advertise. Most businesses that use ads though, already have a Facebook page.
Choose your objectives carefully
Plan your CTAs. What do you want to gain out of this ad? More people to install your app, engage with your brand, watch your video, generate leads? Are you planning to expand your reach or bring in awareness? Pick your objectives on Facebook before designing your ad.
CTAs could be like:
- Page Likes
- Learn More
- Sign Up
- Contact Us
- Apply Now
- Shop now
Using the right visual
The ad should be almost entirely visual. No one is going to be interrupted from what they were already doing by unnecessary text. The visual should convey a feeling. Have contrasting colours, keep the images as minimalistic(otherwise catchy) as possible.
3. Picking the best optimisation
Most people tend to choose the optimisation option on Facebook in line with the goals of the ad. It’s quite the paradox, but this is not too successful. Optimize the ad to get more clicks to your site at the first try. Shift to your objectives after this is achieved.
I’m sure by now you must’ve had at least one thought on how “This looks easy” or “this doesn’t look too tough”. Indeed.
Facebook ads are easy to implement and the intuitive design helps first-timers to figure it out super quick. Try with smaller budgets in the beginning — $10 would also do! after some hit and trials in the first few days you’re sure to figure it out for yourself on what works and what doesn’t for your awesome business. Let us help you improve your online business performance!
