Whether you’re just getting started or if you’ve had a business Facebook Page for a while, it can be a murky, confusing place to try to find customers and generate sales. But all is not lost. I’ll show you some of the steps to take to define your goals, grow your audience, and ultimately your business.
Prioritize Your Business Objectives
If your business is on Facebook, it’s there for a reason. Ultimately, your goal is to increase business; however your specific strategy will depend on the nature of your business. Do you want to build awareness of your brand? Are you launching a new product? Driving traffic to a physical store? Looking to drive online sales?
Before you jump into creating or overhauling your Facebook strategy, nail down which outcome will be most beneficial and keep that in focus throughout your planning. The rest of this article will be most helpful if your objective is to generate leads and sales online.
Build Your Facebook Audience
If they can’t find you, they can’t like your Facebook Page. You need to make sure that your page is discoverable as possible, both online and off. The first thing you’ll do is make sure that your page is complete as possible. Fill in all of the information boxes that you can, including a business overview, and upload compelling cover and profile photos.
To get those first few likes, invite your own contacts. You may already have an audience interested in what you have to say, if only you ask them. Be sure to ask your staff to do this as well. Did you know that can you can also use your email list to invite contacts to your Facebook Page? Always be conscious though, that you’re not inviting the same person multiple times.
To complete your Facebook discovery homework, incorporate the link in all of your other marketing: your website, newsletters, storefront, receipts, etc. You want to make sure that it’s easier for someone to like your page than to not know it exists.
Develop & Focus Your Content & Lead Gen Strategies
Now that you have your audience you’d going to need to start feeding them content. But what kind of content? And when? How often? How will that content turn your reader into a potential lead?
I’m a fan of providing content such as blog posts, eBooks, and checklists but these aren’t the only types of content you can use to entice readers to give your their contact information. Maybe your business lends itself to videos or photographs instead. Use these larger pieces of content as the basis for your Facebook posts.
Champion Value Creation
With each piece of content you create, ensure that it’s providing value to your reader. You don’t want to always be selling. It gets annoying really fast. But it doesn’t mean that you can’t include direct lead gen posts in your mix, just make sure that you’re also providing a good amount of valuable content that isn’t behind an email wall.
Your content should also always align with your overall page goals. At this point, you’ve decided on your main business goal for your Facebook Page but you also want to include some secondary “fluffier” goals such as customer satisfaction, reach, entertainment. These will help round out your social content and make it multi-dimensional.
Maximize Customer Acquisition with Advertising
Unfortunately, the free lunch days at Facebook are long gone. These days, it’s a pay to play environment so if you really want to reach those who might be interested in your message, you’ll need to run some ads. As more and more businesses get on board, the ability to organically reach even those who’ve liked your page has decreased.
Advertising on Facebook is also an important way for you to reach those people who use the platform but who aren’t already a fan of your page. With powerful targeting you get quite specific in who sees your post. Exactly what kind of ad you run will depend on what your specific goal is.
Be Helpful, Be Balanced
Just remember, the content you post on Facebook should be tied to one of your business goals and be valuable to your audience. Keep a healthy mix of direct and indirect lead gen content and you’ll see your audience and sales increase.
Want to learn even more about how to effectively use Facebook to find customers and increase your sales? Contact me about my Facebook Marketing Training and Coaching
For more Facebook marketing for beginners tips on making the most of using Facebook for your business, you may want to read the following:
How to Attract Customers To Your Business On Facebook
