In our
Guide to Social Media Marketing we discussed how you can use popular
digital platforms to reach your audience online. Perhaps the most popular platform to do this with is (yes, you guessed it)
Facebook.
According to
Statista Research Department, Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts. The company owns four of the biggest social media platforms: Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. Globally, the average user spends
almost an hour per day on Facebook. The platform is also a top news source for two-thirds of the adult population. The
statistics go on and on really, but let’s get to the point...
Having a solid Facebook marketing strategy is arguably one of the most important facets of the complete digital marketing strategy
How you approach the platform does make a difference, and it can be overwhelming. It is important to set your goals, a budget, and pinpoint your target audience before you decide which tools you want to use and how you want to use them.
Determine what your Facebook marketing strategy is designed to do
Goal setting should be your number one priority. Are you trying to build brand awareness? Is increasing website traffic your biggest concern? Are you hoping to drum up more active engagement? Find a focus for your Facebook marketing strategy and go from there.
Goals will help you set a reasonable budget
Budgeting for your Facebook marketing strategy is important. There are a lot of tools within the platform that you can spend money on, so using your goals to decide which ones are worth the spend is key. Otherwise, you may end up spending a lot of money on features that you don’t need.
Decide who you are marketing to
Once you have a basic idea of who your
target audience is,
Facebook Ads Manager can help you reach them. There, you can create a custom audience with the information you have gathered. This includes the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of your previous customers. Facebook will use this information to create a “lookalike” audience made up of users similar to your current client base.
So you have your budget, goals, and your target audience. Now it’s time to catch up on the latest Facebook marketing trends...
Facebook
advertising is becoming more challenging.
Recent changes to the algorithm Facebook uses to display ads is now putting an emphasis on the way users engage with other users, rather than how they interact with your business. This means that your ads are less likely to be seen.
Facebook is becoming
oversaturated. There are more than 60 million active business pages and
75% of brands will pay to promote posts. 350 million photos and 55 million status updates are posted each day.
The bottom line is, there is an incredible amount of content on the platform. It is becoming increasingly difficult to make your business stand out, but there are several ways you can try to fight this trend.
Content creation is key
Planning engaging and targeted content is crucial to an effective Facebook marketing strategy in 2021. Users are spending more time online, getting less attentive, and becoming increasingly demanding. And they can be! After all, they have plenty to choose from.
Quality over quantity is key. Posting everyday isn’t necessarily going to increase your brand awareness, traffic, or engagement. You must plan your content around your target audience and use
SEO strategies to help reach that audience. This will help your business meet your customers where they are, instead of expecting them to find you.
Think about how your content is being presented. Videos are a great way to get your audience’s attention. Studies suggest videos
under 2 minutes long get the most engagement.
Your content should be engaging. Your posts should encourage users to interact not only with your business, but with each other. Providing information is great, but you also need to think about how your content will get your audience talking.
Make full use of your business profile
Two out of three Facebook users say they visit the page of a local business at least once a week. Every business is different and so is every customer. Facebook offers 10 different templates for
business pages which can help you arrange your content in a way that fits your business and audience.
You want to connect with your audience through your Facebook business page. You can do this by sharing content, responding to messages and comments, and/or collaborating with customers and brands. Your business page should serve as another way to engage with your audience and fellow businesses.
Include your mission statement. Take time to write a compelling
About section. Think of your Facebook business page as a
digital storefront. This is your space to get creative, explain what your business is all about, and stand out.
Analyze what works and what doesn’t
As the phrase usually credited to Albert Einstein states: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. You need to monitor your posts and ads to figure out what content is performing well and what’s falling flat. There are several ways to access analytics through Facebook itself.
You can monitor posts on your business page through
Facebook Audience Insights. Here, you can
track paid and organic reach, learn about your current and potential audience, and see how your content is performing across the platform.
The
Facebook Ad Center allows you to do the same thing for your advertisements. Here, you can find a
summary of your recent ad performance, view detailed metrics for each specific ad, see which ads reached your target audience, and more.
Implementing a successful Facebook marketing strategy isn’t easy
It takes time and effort to market your business successfully on Facebook. Hopefully these steps can help you get started.