Facebook Marketing: Guide for small businesses
When I started using Facebook in 2009, I would never have predicted how influential the platform would be to becoming a business.
Gone are the days when Facebook existed only as a place for updates (slightly banal) from your friends about how their days are going. When used correctly, Facebook has the potential to be a great marketing asset for small businesses.
However, the process of setting up a Facebook marketing campaign can be confusing, since in reality there is almost too much information. How do you know what to publish? How often should you post? Where do you start?
This guide exists as an attempt to simplify that process. Here you will learn:
What research do you do before you start?
How to create a Facebook page for your business.
How to grow your audience
What and when to publish
How to track whether your marketing campaign is successful or not
It may feel overwhelming, but after reading, you should have a clear idea of the steps you should take to create a Facebook marketing campaign for your small business. Then let's get started.
1. Paint a clear picture of your existing customer base and your target audience
Before immersing yourself in Facebook marketing, take some time to get a clear picture of your existing customer base and establish an idea of the ideal customer you want to target. Having an idea of who your client is will help you adapt the content so that it specifically suits them.
Know who your customers are
To know your customers, you will want to do a little market research. Who are your customers? What is your average age range, gender, location? What do they like, what do they hate, what are their interests?
You have probably already done a lot of this work during the startup process, but be sure to revisit it before continuing. One of the biggest mistakes you can make with your marketing on social networks is that you do not take the time to get to know your audience. The clearer the sense of who they are and how they are, the easier it will be to create content that resonates with them.
Creating an ideal client
In addition, you will want to spend some time creating a user person, if you have not already done so during the start-up process of your business.
Ideally, the new Facebook marketing campaign you are starting will attract new customers and fans. Just as knowing that your existing customers help you adapt your content to your tastes, creating a person based on your ideal client will help you create focused and focused content that feels unified and cohesive.
If you are interested in going deeper into the subject of marketing people, Buffer has a great guide on how to create them.
2. Create a Facebook page of your business.
To begin with, you will need to have your page ready to work. These are the steps you must follow before moving on to the finer details of your Facebook marketing strategy.
Configuring your page
First, you must set up your Facebook page, if you have not already done so.
For this, it is better to go directly to the source: Facebook itself has information on how to set up your company's Facebook page, including a video tutorial. This step is very easy and should not take more than 10 minutes to complete.
Add basic information
Do not even think about setting up your page and leaving the key areas blank! The first step to a strong Facebook marketing strategy for your small business is to make sure your Facebook page is detailed and complete.
You want to do the following:
Complete your "about" section
During this step, you will also select your unique domain (note that this can only be changed once)
Upload a profile image (of your store, product, staff, logo or similar)
Add relevant information about your business, such as hours, location, etc.
Create a cover photo (I would recommend using Canva for this if you are not working with a graphic designer)
Optimize your cover photo with a call to action
At this point, your Facebook page is functional and ready to go, although it's still pretty simple. From here, you will create unique publications for your page and create a strategy to gain followers.
3. Help your Facebook page find a hearing
Therefore, your Facebook page is all set up. Should I create content first or try to find a hearing?
Ideally, you will be working on this step and in the next step simultaneously, it is a situation a bit like that of an egg and a chicken.
However, for the purposes of this guide, we will focus on finding your audience first.
Inform your current customers about your Facebook page
This tactic is quite intuitive, but it is important. Here we show you how to make sure your existing customers interact with your new Facebook page.
Add "like" buttons to your website
You will want to add these buttons to your existing commercial website so that customers can "like" you on Facebook. Wired has a guide on how to do this, and here's another one. You may also consider adding social media buttons to your website.
Broadcast your new Facebook page through your other social channels and add it to your email signature
Do you already have a Twitter or Instagram account? Tell your followers that you have just started a Facebook page and include the link to your page.
If you are sending a newsletter by email, add a mention of your new Facebook page to the next one (with a link), or create a newsletter specifically for your customers to know that you have started a Facebook page.
Put small signs or leaflets in your company if you run a brick and mortar store.
If you have a physical location, create a screen, a flyer or a card that invites customers to find and "like" their page on Facebook. My article on where to find the best offline marketing materials will be a good resource here.
Be sure to place these items prominently and call them to the attention of your customers. For example, if you run a hairdresser, you can place a small stack of cards at the reception desk where customers can take one while they pay, and you can ask the receptionist to also deliver them.
Increase your audience base
Now that your current customers have found you on Facebook, it's time to expand your reach.
To increase your audience on Facebook, you must develop a solid content strategy. The publication of high-quality content that your customers want to see will be key to build a follow-up.
In the next step, we'll see what to post on your Facebook page, but here are some strategies that will help you increase your audience beyond your existing customers.
Cross promotions with other brands.
Creating relationships with other small local businesses can be an excellent way to put your page in front of new customers. By establishing a reciprocal relationship with another local business, both get a new exposure.
Once you have found a business to partner with, you can develop a cross-promotion strategy. Share the publications of others, mention others or consider collaborating on a project (a series of videos, an event in the store or similar). To continue with the previous example of our beauty salon, perhaps the salon can reach a boutique below with a similar customer base.
Encourage your employees to post on their Facebook page
Make sure everyone's personal account is linked to your company's Facebook page. Ask your employees to add their place of work, and they may also share content from your company's Facebook page on their own timeline as well.
Add your Facebook page to your email signature
You probably send countless work-related emails every day, and your email signature offers valuable marketing assets. You can take advantage of this by adding a "like" button to your signature, or a link that takes readers directly to your Facebook page.
Here is an Outlook guide on how to add a Facebook button to your email signature, and here is one for Gmail.
Use Facebook ads to promote your page.
If you are interested in paid marketing, Facebook will put your page to the front and to the center for a potential audience by using the paid promotion. You can visit the Facebook guide to promote your page to get more information on how to set this up.
However, you may want to suspend the paid promotion until you have accumulated a little more content on your Facebook page. We will return to paid advertising later in this guide as well.
4. Develop a content strategy.
This is the important part: create content that will resonate with your audience, help you get new followers and make them want to follow your Facebook page and share what you post.This section will be divided into several different subsections since there is a lot to cover here.
Create a mix of different types of content
To some extent, the content you post depends on the type of business you are running. However, in order to illustrate some of the things that could create, we will stay with the example of hairdressing.
Content-based on images
The images reign supreme, and there is really no doubt about it. In a study conducted in 2014, publications with images had an interaction rate of 87%, and all other content types reached 4% or less.
So, clear and simple: you need to publish images. But what kind of images should you post?
We are going to use our beauty salon as an example. They could publish:
Images before and after large cuts and colors.
Photos of new products in stock.
Shared images where customers have labeled the business (maybe encourage customers to upload a photo and tag it after using your product or service?)
Images of staff members at work or funny pictures of staff accompanied by a short biography.
Photos of events held in the room.
Video content
Video content can go two ways: sharing external content on your Facebook page or creating your own.
We can create your own videos in a later post (stay tuned for my next article on using YouTube to market your small business), but here is a brief look at some types of video content you can share.
Our hairdresser could share:
Tutorials from your favorite YouTube beauty gurus on how to create braids, updos and more
Small video clips that show a finished color or hairstyle, like a video version of before and after.
Viral videos that resonate with your audience in particular and fit your brand image
Short text clips, store updates or other content "suitable for refreshments"
Posting updates on Facebook is a bit different when it comes to your business instead of your personal account. While it will not publish personal updates, having a short, text-driven content remains an intelligent part of its publishing strategy.
Here are some suggestions for short text updates of our hairdressing example:
Publications that inform clients about a special promotion or sale.
Publications that welcome new staff members (which, if the staff member allows, will also appear on their timeline)
Fun publications for customers to respond (true or false, fill in the blank, etc.)
Publications that detail any change in hours of operation or need information to know (it's not all fun and games when it comes to Facebook content, do not forget this information!)
Links to long-form blog content
If you have a blog, you will also want to share content from your blog on Facebook. It will encourage customers to interact with you in a variety of spaces and attract traffic to your blog.
It goes without saying that I could not list all the strategies for creating Facebook content in this article; Facebook is a giant of social networks, and more than any other platform lends itself to various types of content.
The greatest advice? Keep your content offer varied and make sure your choice of content and tone of voice fits your audience (more in one-minute voice tone).
5. Strategically schedule your Facebook posts
Now that you have an idea of where to take your content strategy, we'll go into the most accurate details of posting content on Facebook.
You do not want to publish at random, especially when you have a great knowledge at your disposal on how to make your Facebook posts seen by as many followers as possible.
How often do you post on Facebook
When observing the strategies of publication of the best brands, it has been found that the average is one publication per day, with the optimum point between "enough to participate" and "annoying" that is in the range of five to 10 publications per week.
In terms of publication several times a day, there is a noticeable decline in commitment after the first publication, but not enough to suggest that publication, for example, two publications in a day is necessarily a bad idea. However, it is not necessary.
Ultimately, your strategy for the frequency with which you post will depend not only on industry data but also on your audience. Depending on your business, you may be more successful posting several times a day, but you will never know unless you plan strategically and track your results. We will review how to keep track of what works and what is not in step eight of this article.
See also: Can a Facebook contest help you grow your business?
What schedules to post on Facebook
As with the frequency of posting to Facebook, the date of publication on Facebook will vary based on your audience. Ultimately, this may mean publishing at a variety of times to start and keeping track of which publications receive the most participation (in the form of likes, comments, and actions).
It is important to keep this in mind as your audience will vary a bit from the general average. Therefore, determining exactly when your audience is most active on Facebook can serve you better than simply relying on current best practices.
However, there are some findings that can be a good starting point for your business; For example, Thursdays and Fridays from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. have been more active on Facebook for companies.
For a more detailed description of the best time to post on Facebook, see the previously linked article, as well as this Hubspot, which delves into the times of publication by platform.
6. Automate your publication on Facebook
I could be sitting there thinking: "There's no way I have time to access Facebook several times a day to post updates and play with different publication times!"
If that is the case, or even if you simply want to optimize your social networking processes, it's time to study automation. Essentially, automating your Facebook post means that you can create and schedule all your Facebook posts at once, and they will be published at selected times during the week, without you having to log in every day to do it manually.
When it comes to automation publication, there are several options. Here at Bplans, we like Coschedule and Hubspot. However, your needs and budget will largely determine which SaaS automation tool you will choose.
You can read more about our favorite marketing tools here. If you want to start for free at the beginning and update later, consider this list of free and open source marketing automation software products.
7. Immerse yourself in the world of Facebook ads (or not)
Facebook ads were, at the same time, a great strategy for companies; If they are still worth it, it is a point of discussion.
In general terms, the common consensus seems to be that Facebook ads are a very expensive advertising medium and that an effective Facebook marketing strategy, realistically, is fine without them. Since there are so many free ways to expand your audience and use Facebook to promote your business, paying for advertising on Facebook should be quite low on your list of priorities.
However, if you are interested in immersing yourself in the world of Facebook ads, it is possible to get something with a fairly limited budget. This Buffer article details what they can produce $ 5 per day, which serves as a good starting point if you want to try a low-cost Facebook ad campaign.
See also: Tired of Bland, boring Facebook ads? How to create an attractive advertising campaign on Facebook
8. Track engagement metrics and refine your strategy as necessary
Throughout the process of establishing your Facebook marketing campaign, keep in mind that you can not configure it and forget it. To get the most out of a marketing campaign, you must track key metrics and have a clear idea of what works and what does not.
This means having an idea of what metrics you would like to track for your Facebook marketing campaign (are you focusing on increasing followers? Do you want your posts to be shared more? Are you trying to get more likes by posting?? See how Facebook really increases your leads, your sales, etc.? And then track how you're doing. Start by getting an idea of what social metrics matter, determine what you'd like to focus on and find a tool that helps you track
Here at Bplans, we use several different tools to track social metrics, including real social metrics, Google Analytics, Buzzsumo, and Summer. What you use will depend to a large extent on your budget and needs.
The important thing to keep in mind here is that in order for your Facebook marketing strategy to be as effective as possible, it is important to keep track of what you are doing and whether it is working or not. In this way, you can continue to refine and revise your strategy, so that it is as effective as possible.
Clearly, the process of creating a Facebook marketing campaign for your small business is quite involved. However, if you follow these steps, track your success (or not) and adjust your plan accordingly, you will have a Facebook marketing strategy that will attract customers and help establish a strong presence on social media for your brand.
