Many business owners I have met have all said: “Yeah we use Facebook advertising, it’s fantastic!”
Truth be known, they don’t really. Well, they do, but clearly not to its full potential.
With over 2.2 billion people using Facebook and 80 million businesses owners and 75% of brands posting daily to promote their products and services, can anyone really say they are taking full advantage of what’s on offer?
This year’s reports show a massive drop in organic reach on Facebook. This means simply posting to your FaceBook page is no longer a worthwhile exercise. Without investing in your business to achieve the huge potential reach Facebook presents, it’s no longer worthwhile. If you don’t advertise on Facebook, your business will be diluted by the other 80 million businesses worldwide.
It’s clearly important to keep up with the news on Facebook advertising.
As part of our business consultancy, we have heard plenty of clients using “boost post button”, however, this is very limited. Using a boost post option means you can either boost to your original followers and “likes” or you are limited to a specific audience through targeting.
Some business owners even use the old fashioned “bump” method which is simple but really not effective at all. Typing bump on a post will put it to the top of the story feed, but only to those in a group or who have previously commented.
Others are constantly monitoring their Facebook page, obsessively seeking those extra “likes” and reposting blogs and which can be effective, but is extremely time-consuming and quite simply there are far more effective ways to make the most out of Facebook!
The first lesson to learn is you’re NOT using Facebook to get likes, comments and shares. Facebook is a stepping stone to your website. It’s time to think about driving people through it, to convert them into paying customers.
The second lesson is; it’s no longer free. If you want to continue to use it for business without dipping your hand in your pocket then be prepared to sink. It’s really not that expensive, (compared to AdWords) and the returns can be amazing!
The third lesson here – Don’t neglect it. There are plenty of ways to keep the “maintenance” up on your page. Anyone visiting a page that last posted in 2017 has already been turned off.
Now we have those three important points covered let’s move onto the different ways of driving people through your Facebook page to your website.
Running Ads
The benefits of running Ads is you reach a brand new audience, not only a new audience but your exact audience.
The Facebook Advertising Platform has the most in-depth audience targeting of all the major advertising platforms online. Well, it would have considering how much information we share about ourselves on it. You can choose the gender, age, interests, location and even behaviour to target, (the more targeting filters you add, the smaller your audience so don’t go overboard).
Hey, let’s face it if your selling crochet toilet warmers then you’re wasting your money advertising to the local 17-year-old Slipknot fan!
Targeting saves you money and time!
Facebook advertising is also at the cheapest end of advertising anywhere and the fastest.
If you want to increase revenue, leads and sales then Facebook advertising should not be ignored.
Blogging
If you have a blog or news page on your website then make the most of it, if you don’t, I would advise you get yourself a blog page built A.S.A.P.
Blogging can lower your marketing expenses, it also allows you to get personal with the reader. It’s a softer approach than a cold call or the hard sell. You get to offer a whole page to the buyer, get them to relate to you and if you get it right then you will get them clicking further on your website.
You can connect your blog to social sharing platforms to publish your blogs out to all your social media accounts, daily!
So don’t think you need to post and repost day after day. One blog can last weeks and the good thing is you have just covered lesson three! Never leave your site to go stagnant.
Creative images
Photos and free online images are just not enough. The best way to promote your business in a professional way is to have clear, large images that are unique to your business.
Pick a style and stick closely with that, people like consistency.
It’s also a good idea to use your own images. If you have to get a professional photographer in, (as someone who has had this discussion with many clients) I believe the money spent is well worth it in the end.
Don’t forget, if you’re building a website or own one then you will need professional images for that as well, so you can reuse the images.
If you really can’t afford to pay a photographer then use high-quality stock images. Shabby, pixelated images will not sell your brand, at all.
What not to forget
It’s really important not to forget the simple things while posting.
Make sure it’s easy to share your content if it’s worth sharing it can go viral.
Also, optimise each post. Make sure you have a link through to your website and failing that post a link in the write up so people can get to you with ease.
A quick example: One of our clients who recently started Facebook Advertising with us shared a short video on their Facebook page, within a week they had an impressive 3.2 million views.
You may be thinking “Okay, so what, they’re just numbers, it’s not that impressive.” but you’re focusing on the wrong thing, trust me. Their previous videos only reached 2,000 views, so the increase in views is extraordinary but remember, this was a post on their Facebook page not an advert in its own right.
The reason it did so well is that we were advertising for them at the same time, it massively boosted the “likes” on their page too, increasing by over 13,000% in one week. But what about revenue? Let’s face it, that’s what we really care about right?
That was their best month since 2013.
Facebook advertising can work for all business, but use it to reach the 2.2 billion people on it and not just your page followers!
For more help with Facebook advertising and making the most out of your budget then contact us or check out our helpful social media marketing pages.
One of our friendly team members is always on hand to help.
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