Imagine getting a chance to set up a stall in a marketplace for FREE where millions of people roam 24/7. What a chance to boost your sales until your competitors set up better stalls and all your customers line up in front of their stalls.
That is exactly what will happen if you don’t outsmart your competitors on Facebook, and exactly why having a Facebook marketing strategy is so important.
Setting up an effective Facebook marketing strategy is not rocket science; it is all about the basic rules and attention to the details. If you look closer, all the well-maintained businesses follow some fundamental tactics to set up their Facebook pages and then deploy a few killer tactics that turn their Facebook page into a virtual business platform.
From our analysis of hundreds of successful Facebook pages, we have synthesized a killer Facebook marketing strategy for your business. To keep it easy for you to follow, we have broken down the Facebook Marketing Strategy in six interconnected segments, where each segment contributes to the overall marketing strategy. These segments are:
- Impressions (the visual overview of your Facebook page)
- Audience (getting attention from the right audience)
- Relevancy (promoting content related to your business)
- Sales tactics (selling without driving people away)
- Audience engagement (keeping the audience hooked)
- Analytics review (checking if your strategy works)
If you follow these six steps, you will create a highly effective Facebook marketing strategy and, most likely, be ahead of your competitors. This guide is applicable to all businesses regardless of their size or type. So, if you want to launch your Facebook page or redesign your Facebook marketing strategy from scratch, you’re at the right place.
So, let’s start!
Impressions Matters
Let’s agree on this point: your first impression matters no matter what you have to offer. If we can overdress for a business meeting, we can also focus more on the first impression of your business on Facebook, because your Facebook marketing strategy will build upon that first impression your audience gets after landing on your page.
How do you do it? Well, let’s break down your Facebook page into a few essential elements and decorate them following these simple yet effective tips:
- Profile Picture: Just like your personal profile, the profile picture verifies your identity on social media. Using a picture of your point of sales system or your own picture on your business page is a bad idea. ALWAYS, use your company logo as your profile picture.
- Cover Photo: Your cover photo is like a banner to let the audience know what your business is all about. But mostly, a cover photo is the visual overview of your business or your primary product or service. Facebook gives you the opportunity to use an animated cover photo where you can display multiple pictures or even a video advertisement — but remember to keep it concise.
- About: If you have an elevator pitch, where you give a one-minute or 30-second introduction to your business to your audience, then you already have your “about” section. Put that speech into words, polish it, and paste it into this section. The About section gives users a comprehensive overview of your business/products.
- Contact Information: A lot of businesses ignore this part despite how essential it is to have accurate contact information. From a consumer’s perspective, updated contact information on Facebook pages not only serves call-to-action purposes but also builds a sense of credibility. Always update your email, physical address, primary contact number, and, of course, your hours of operation on Facebook.
- Call for Action- Don’t forget to add an immediate CALL TO ACTION button based on your business goal. For instance, if you want your audience to inquire about your business, go for a "instant messaging" button or "send email" button.
If you have followed the above tips, you have the basic infrastructure of a high-end Facebook page. Now, it is time to draw some attention and increase the number of followers. In the next section, we have outlined some tips to grow and manage your follower base on Facebook.
Bring the Right Audience In
Explaining the importance of the right audience, marketing gurus often bring up the story of luxury vehicle brands like Bugatti or Lamborghini advertisements never producing any TVC because their customers do not have time to remain in front of a television. Indeed, if your products cost millions per unit, you want to attract the attention of that group who can afford such luxury.
Facebook works in the similar way. Out of a couple billion active users, you need to find the right audience groups for your Facebook page from these people. You surely do not want to waste your valuable time with an audience that does not need your service or worse, can't afford it.
But, you can’t stop and vet everyone who follows you. Well, that’s not bad either! More followers is better so long as you don’t compromise your core audience base. After all, 2.1m followers on a page looks better and creates more credibility than 2.1k followers.
Now, there are plenty of ways to increase your social media followers. If you already have a substantial number of followers on your page, it is ideal to post great, relevant content. If you have a relatively small number of followers then you might try the following tips:
- Post Content: It doesn't matter if you already have quite a lot of followers or are just starting a Facebook page, posting content regularly is one of the most significant parts of a Facebook marketing strategy. Content is what will keep your followers engaged on your page and generate more interactions. Followers also share content, which increases the visibility of a page. Content could be simple statuses, updates, images, videos, or articles. Facebook pages do have plenty of options in terms of content. Businesses can choose their content type and create materials accordingly. For instance, you can show a short video about your new product to create awareness or you can create an offer for products on clearance. An important trick here is to keep content relevant to your business. You will find more information about relevant content in the next section.
- Reshare Content: Maybe don’t share your direct competitors’ content, but sharing other pages’ content can generate followers. For example, if you are selling makeover items, sharing posts from L’Oréal or Chanel could bring their page followers to your page.
- Reach Out to Relevant Influencers: Influencers are the celebrities of social media who boast millions of followers with thousands of likes/shares for every post. Getting endorsed by the right influencer can bring you quality followers. For instance, if you have a store that sells video games, featuring in a post by a popular gamer will be highly effective.
- Embedding Social Media on Your Website: Your website should be generating a lot of traffic and that can be a great source to bring the right audience to your Facebook page. You can place a widget on your landing page or use a "Follow our Facebook” link once someone spends a decent time on your site.
- Email Hyperlink: A common practice these days to boost your follower count is to include your Facebook or any other social media account in your email signature. Just add a Facebook icon in your signature and insert a hyperlink to your Facebook page.
- Boost Your Page: Spending a few dollars is not a bad idea because it will accelerate the rate of obtaining new followers. Alongside following the above tips, you can always boost your page. If you select your audience right, Facebook will promote your page to your targeted audience.
Following these tricks can help you increase your number of followers no matter if you’re just starting out or have an established page.
Focus on Content
You have the best, fully organic, farm-fresh dairy products on earth and you are selling them for half the market price. You take all these amazing products to a bunch of lactose-intolerant people and try to convince them to make purchases...
As funny as it sounds, posting content that does not make sense to followers makes them feel the same. Relevancy is the first thing that you should consider before posting content. Does it go with my business? Does it reflect my brand identity? Does it carry the tone in which I make advertisements? Does it provide what my followers want to hear from me?
Content should be the heart of your Facebook marketing strategy. Through your content you display your product and engage with your current/potential customers. For example, if you manage a university/college’s Facebook page you should stick to education/scholarship-related content. Similarly, if you manage a teenage boutique’s page, you need to post fashion-related content.
Alongside relevancy, there are tons of factors that play vital roles in content management. You need to keep your Facebook page dynamic to keep the audience hooked. The most successful pages post content in a way so the followers do not suffocate from boredom. Here are a few tips to create content that brings an animated vibe to your page:
- Be Creative: Mundane content drives followers away. Bring diversity and creativity to your content. Do not post similar images twice, never use the same background in multiple ad images. You may reproduce content by changing minor details but that should not be regular practice.
- Be Engaging: Your goal is to create engagement. A follower’s comment on your product photo might be seen by his/her friends who might turn out to be your customers. Therefore, post content that gives your followers something to engage with. You can ask questions or create polls. You can also ask them about their preferred products or what they are planning to do this holiday season.
- Be Informative: Your followers follow your page for a reason, which is to obtain information. That doesn’t always have to be your product related. Posting about industry trends and updates can demonstrate your knowledge about the industry/business.
- Be Trendy: Being a bit trendy is not a bad thing! Jump on the bandwagon a few times with witty humor. If a topic is being discussed by everyone maybe try to design an ad based on that topic. People love trendy stuff and if it hits the right audience group, your page might go viral. And, of course, accompany your caption with proper hashtags.
- Know the Limit: While it is undeniable that posting more creates more views, it is also understandable that if you push people too much, they might lose their minds. On average, successful pages post five to six times a day at fixed intervals. Based on your size of business, you might post only two to three times, so your followers are not tired of seeing your posts on their newsfeed.
- Keep Signature Content: A good way to make a unique impression is to create signature content. That can be a #WednesdayDeals or #MondayFacts post or your business blog post every Tuesday and Friday night.
Don’t Sell Hard
Have you ever seen one of those salespeople who is always following you down the aisles of any grocery store and describing to you all the products’ specifications, followed by a proposal to buy those items? No, you don’t see it because that’s not the ideal way to sell products/services. Why should online be different?
Facebook marketing strategies emphasize the importance of soft selling. This means you will have to display and talk about your business in such a way that the audience feels interested without being intimidated. Your goals can vary from making an inquiry to redirecting them to another portal. If you are displaying your products in the right way and provide information in a clever manner, you will be able to generate enough inquiries for a product.
Selling hard can often make followers irritated. If a follower commented on one of your posts by asking more about the information, give the potential customer more information about the product or redirect them to visit that product on your website. Do not rush and send a sales pitch right after someone makes an inquiry.
Engage! Engage!! Engage!!!
The most successful sales are done through quality conversations. The salesperson first engages the potential customer in conversations, find what the customer wants, and then approaches with a solution. Through a Facebook marketing strategy, the engagement is like the conversation part.
Engage your followers and do it in a way so they feel comfortable to advance the conversations. There are two main ways to engage with followers: inbox and comments.
Check your inbox all the time. Often people will send you messages to inquire about your product or services. Or they might simply ask about any post. Answer them in a professional and polite manner with a way to continue the conversation.
“Hi, I saw that ad that says 50% off new Xbox Console!”
- Good for you, random follower (This is the wrong approach.)
- Thank you for making the inquiry, Jake. Yes, we have 50% off the new Xbox console and it is valid until next weekend. Would you like to know anything specific about the deal or the console? (This is a good approach.)
The comment box is another place where you can engage with your followers. Turn notifications on for every post and find comments that are good enough to start a conversation. You might copy/paste generic responses such as “Hey, thanks for sharing your thoughts. If you want to know more about this, please visit this link” or based on the depth of the comments, you can customize your response. Engaging with comments also brings more traffic because the commenter’s friends might be able to see your posts on their timelines too. BE VERY CAREFUL here. Maintain utmost professionalism and courtesy while addressing your followers even if they use words that we don’t speak in a civilized society. Because in the end, your followers and the world will see what came out of your keyboard, not what the other person said.
Look for Analytics
Finally, at the end of a successful Facebook marketing strategy, you want to analyze the content and the overall performance of the campaign. You can easily check the analytics on the Insights section of your Facebook page. There, you will be able to see the total number of engagements in your posts/contents, unique impressions, and other metrics to assess the performance. Analyzing posts is essential to reviewing your content and overall Facebook marketing strategy.
If any content is not producing enough engagement, you can stop posting such content for a while or modify it. Or if you see engagement from the wrong target group, you might want to tweak your campaign tactics to bring in the right audience.
Facebook analytics also let you see when content performed its best and what types of content produces greater engagements. Usually, plain text posts do not produce much engagement compared to single-image or video content. On the other hand, offers/discount posts might not produce many views but can generate a lot of inbox inquiry. It all depends on your business and your content types.
If a Facebook marketing strategy does not work, let it go and adopt a new one. Or tweak the existing one to see the updated analytics, compare, and improvise.
Feeling Overwhelmed?
Indeed, there is a lot to do in order to craft a killer Facebook marketing strategy. However, you do not need to be overwhelmed because most of these tasks can be automated, which will save your organization a lot of time and resources.
SimplyCast's Facebook marketing software provides organizations with the ability to easily reach both leads and customers over the popular social media channel. With the Facebook application, you can automate Facebook posts on your page and manage your overall audience easily.
Want to see for yourself how easy it is to upgrade your Facebook marketing strategy? Click the button below to sign up for a free demo.
