Facebook Marketing is a great way to boost your brand awareness and engage a different or broader spectrum of the population. Almost 1.2 billion people use Facebook everyday and about 60 million businesses own a dedicated page over this acclaimed social network. It offers numerous promotion strategies and advertising options to choose from. This allows businesses of all types and sizes to implement practices that best suit their needs and budget.
Whether you aim to increase website traffic, sell stuff, or acquire leads, Facebook is a promising platform to start from or add to your list. Many organizations treat it as a tertiary form of marketing place and don’t invest enough to surpass marginal profits. Effective Facebook marketing requires a bit more attention and doesn’t even cost much in the long run. By providing a Facebook presence to your company, you can engage with the public on a more personal level compared to other marketing paradigms.
Facebook is used by people of all ages, gender, opinions and interests; majority of users also claim to use it for professional purposes. Compared to an official website, your Facebook business page can be more casual and expressive. Company websites are bound to be strictly professional and laconic, whereas on Facebook the team of an organization can be candid by infusing their own style or personality in posts. In fact, countless small-scale localized businesses have built their brand entirely through Facebook; it is their sole point of operation and proved highly successful.
Now that you’re obviously interested in how Facebook Marketing works, I am obliged to provide you a comprehensive step by step guide…
Creating a Business Page on Facebook
The first condition to creating a page for your business is that you already have a personal profile on the website. Only through a personal account you can get the option of creating, controlling and managing a page. Do not make the mistake of turning a profile into a company page, because they are technically different; users have done this and they were eventually banned. Personal profiles can be added to your contact list and are hence suitable for family and friends. Business pages have a subscription framework, allowing public to ‘Like’ and become fans/followers.
Don’t be reluctant to create a page from the profile you’re currently using because no connection between the two will be visible to public, unless you choose to do so. When you click “Create a page”, you will be shown six categories to choose from; select the one that applies to you. Next you will be required to provide a name for your brand/agency, which has to be unique (not the same as another page that exists). In case you’re a startup that hasn’t finalized a name, you might encounter issues changing it afterwards.
Piece of advice: Your company name should be simple, easy to pronounce and catchy, in order to resonate.
Adding the Visuals
Just like a personal account, your business page will need a profile picture which will be symbolic to your brand. It is best to utilize this space for displaying your company’s logo; get one if you don’t have it yet. The standard size for the profile photo is 180×180 pixels, so it is recommended to use an image that is slightly large, but the ratio should remain constant. Let this image be high-quality and relevant to your business, because it will be the key component of your whole brand image.
The Cover Photo is a place where you can try different things and update regularly. Instead of stagnant photos, this space can be occupied with a video, slideshow, gif/moving image etc. It is ideal for showcasing promotions, discounts, new arrivals, leading products or anything seasonal to attract customers, clients or leads.
Defining Your Business Page
The ‘About’ part of your page is fundamental and here you will have to insert a killer description regarding what you do. You’ll have to keep in short and straightforward because the limit is 155 characters.The description should give a clear idea of what you’re trying to sell or accomplish, otherwise you might not attract the right audience. Insert popular keywords that are relevant to your services, without overdoing it. Apart from that, remember to add all your basic company details such as contact numbers, email, physical address, and so on.
Let your username + url speak the name of your page, enabling fans to easily find you. Business pages owned by well-established organizations usually need to be managed my multiple persons. The individual who creates the page has authority to set levels of permissions for the rest of the group. As administrator he/she can decide to create one or more co-admins, assigning them equal rights for managing the page.
You probably must have noticed tiny blue/grey ticks next to many Facebook pages – these are called verification badges. Most businesses are eligible for one, so you can opt for it via the settings menu. It is not mandatory, but slightly helpful in developing trust among potential clients/customers. When you provide personal details for acquiring a verification badge, a Facebook rep will call to give you a code (only if you qualify).
Getting Likes
Everybody knows that winning Facebook is directly proportional to the number of likes. Therefore, the greater the number of likes, the higher the chances for your brand to succeed. When people like your page, it signifies that they want to keep up with what you will be doing in the future. Subsequently, your posts will appear in their Newsfeed where they can comment and share it with others. Accumulating likes isn’t painless, it demands outstanding content and consistency.
Many businesses opt for the shortcut which involves buying likes. This seems like a quick and clever technique for increasing the social status of a page, but in reality it’s not. Likes that are ‘paid for’ are sold as cheap packages, abundantly available online. They are basically generated from fake accounts that have no credibility and will never engage with your page content. Shortly, suspicions will arise and your company could end up with a bad name, or the page could get terminated by Facebook itself.
Effective Facebook Marketing compels real likes, so you can start by promoting your page. The most convenient thing to do is get everyone in your social circle involved first. Share your page with everyone in your contact list: friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances and anyone else. The people who know you are more likely to support you and have the potential to be a medium leading to more connections. Furthermore, you can share the page with different Facebook groups or communities that you are part of. Nonetheless, avoid constant nagging because it will annoy users and force them to report you as spam.
Posting Content
Focus on uploading intriguing content including interactive blogs, thoughtful images and interesting videos. If your official website has a blog, integrate links in your Facebook posts and divert promising traffic towards it. At the beginning, it is good practice to post something daily and then reduce the frequency once you’ve achieved over a thousand fans. If you’re running a personal website, keep in mind to add links therein to your Facebook page as well. Do the same with your marketing emails and other social media accounts; let the word spread that you have an awesome thing going on everyone’s favorite social network.
Among the latest trends is Facebook Live Video, which enables live streaming for users via smartphones. It is frequently being used by brands to provide a bigger and more authentic experience to their customers. Another great tip for enhancing your videos is to add captions or subtitles to it. As you know that Facebook videos are muted by default, adding text can give the viewer a better insight of what’s going on and possibly develop an interest to watch the whole thing. The first few seconds of a video are regarded as prime real estate, so make sure to make the best of them.
Another way to increase your post views is by implementing ‘Facebook Instant Articles’. This is a great feature for bloggers as it makes their readable content more accessible for mobile users. By providing a mobile-first format and quick loading, more people feel comfortable reading on their phones. Outside of this topic, you can pin your most popular posts at the top of your homepage as a ‘lead magnet’. You can also schedule posts, so that you don’t have to manually upload content at ‘peak times’ while you’re busy with other stuff.
Understanding Your Audience
The most convenient method for knowing about the audience that will most likely support your brand, you need to carry out a survey. Check out pages that are offering similar services or products as you, and are actually good at it. This way you will also learn what kind of content is more beneficial and when is the optimum time to post it.
If you’re aiming for a deeper insight on targeting the right audience, you can always use “Audience Insights”, a free analytics tool that is part of Facebook’s Ad platform. With this tool you can create and customize a target audience by specifying fields like Location, Gender and Age. You can also monitor the progress of your page by checking out various sections of the ‘Insights’ tab on the top of your page. The data displayed will let you recognize the most favorited activities on your page.
Integrating Chat Bots
Facebook Chat Bots are an incredible representation of the power of AI (artificial intelligence). It is impossible for businesses to efficiently answer customer queries when they are receiving a lot of them. Messenger Chat Bots can generate automatic replies 24/7 and simplify the process of booking orders. They’re immune to human errors and fetch useful info way faster than human beings ever could.
Facebook Advertising
And now, the cherry on top – paid ads on Facebook. Only after checking/ putting a tick against topics previously mentioned, it is feasible to pursue this direction. Facebook advertising is certainly the most affordable paid channel that yields substantial leads. Once you’ve opted for an ad campaign, Facebook will request you to define a few areas, including your budget.
The amount of money you’re willing to spend on Facebook advertising should be relevant to the scope of your business and the circumference of your audience. It is preferable to start at the bottom, which is usually as low as $5 per day. You can also choose between daily budget or lifetime budget, again depending on your goals.
After you’re done with the budget, you have to select a format that feels most appealing in relation to your ad content. It’s up to you to make your ad look as tempting as possible. Be creative with your headline and visuals, in order to get attention of maximum users.
When your ads are finally live, observe their performance via Facebook ad Manager. You get an idea of how frequently it’s being published, noticed and the overall cost. Ads that have a very high frequency, but very low click rates are not good for you. It’s better to get rid of them or replace them with something new.
The ads you see before a video you actually want to watch are the next big thing in Facebook advertising. Even though they may seem annoying, it’s a clever strategy to be seen by more people. If the beginning of your ad is capable of evoking interest, viewers might sit back to see it till the end. However, always let your ads be skippable, because enforcing something never works in your favor. Moreover Ads should be short, ideally between 5 to 15 seconds. Advertisers who imply lengthy adds (as much as 3 minutes!) that cannot be skipped, are the spawns of devil (nobody likes them!)
Endnote: Now that you know all that needs to be known about Facebook Marketing, go ahead and utilize it well.