5 Reasons to Promote Your Business with Facebook Marketing
Facebook is a great place to market your business online. It is the most widely used social media platform with over 2.8 billion users worldwide. Still, out of all the places you could choose to promote your business within the digital marketing space, why should you choose Facebook?
Because it is a widely adopted platform, you can reach a lot of people fast, and even target specific pools of audiences. Also, while there are options to pay for advertising, setting up a profile and publishing content is free, making it both valuable and inexpensive. Facebook shares insights with businesses, including how people are interacting with your posts and who you are reaching. And finally, paired with great strategy, a Facebook presence gives your business the platform to introduce yourself to a new customer and lead them to buy.
Facebook comes with a lot of helpful tools for the active business wanting to grow online. Here are 5 reasons you need to incorporate Facebook into your digital marketing strategy to promote your business.
#1: So Much Exposure
In addition to being the most used social media, two-thirds of Facebook users say they view a local business Facebook page at least once a week. That’s up to 1.8 billion people reading about a business, viewing their pictures, watching their videos, and possibly even going to their website to shop, every week. This explains why over 200 million businesses use Facebook to promote their business. And you deserve to be one of them.
This exposure comes in a variety of ways. Here are three opportunities to gain exposure on Facebook as a business:
Facebook business page: People can come across your Facebook business page from a Google search, Facebook search, or the page could be suggested to them if your page is liked by their friends or contains a subject they are interested in.
Organic posts: You can gain exposure simply by posting regularly on Facebook. People could find you from the hashtags you use, when your content is liked or shared by their friends, or from a search on Facebook.
Paid posts and advertising: Every digital marketing strategy comes with the opportunity to use money to boost your exposure. You can run advertisements on Facebook to expand your reach. These posts can show up in a number of places including on a user’s Facebook feed as they scroll, in a video they play, or while viewing stories, depending on where you choose to run your ad.
#2: Inexpensive Yet Valuable
Some digital marketing strategies cost a lot of money. And while there are some paid opportunities on Facebook, you shouldn’t have to spend a lot to see a return on your efforts. And there is a lot you can do without any paid promotion. Overall, Facebook marketing is an inexpensive digital marketing strategy to use that still gives great results.
Think of your Facebook page as a mini website. The tools and page setup Facebook provides make it easy to operate your page like a company website. Consider the following parts of a Facebook page:
● Business name
● About your business
● Call to action button
● Page profile and cover photos
● Reviews
● Contact information
● Business location (if applicable)
You can share all of this and more. People can easily assess who you are, what you do, and contact you all within a few seconds of visiting your page. The ability to pack all of this information in an organized space you can utilize for free makes Facebook an extremely valuable digital marketing tool.
But this value doesn’t stop with your home page. Posting and sharing on Facebook is free as well. And it helps grow your audience. When people come across a business on Facebook they want to see that they are actively posting and interacting with their community on Facebook. This builds trust, teaches them more about your business, and ultimately convinces them they should buy from you.
Still, there are paid promotional opportunities on Facebook. Paying for posts and advertisements is less expensive than many digital marketing options out there. And, when used strategically, the return on investment is worth it. You can target a very specific demographic and type of advertisement on the platform, making it a very flexible advertising option.
#3: Targeting Depth
Each person in the world is unique. We speak different languages, like different TV shows, have different hobbies, and live different lives. Part of your role when marketing your business is to narrow down all of these elements into an ideal client. Your ideal client could be any woman over 40 who loves plants and home decor. Or it could be any man under 35 who loves hunting, fishing, and outdoor adventures. Once you know your client, you need to find them and introduce yourself. That’s where Facebook comes in yet again.
Facebook’s in depth targeting means you can choose a very specific person to promote your business to, and your posts will only be sent to people who fit this chosen profile. With nearly 3 billion people on Facebook, there should be no shortage of people to market your business to. This extremely targeted advertising is a valuable marketing tool.
Here are a few ways you can target your posts on Facebook:
● Location
○ As broad as a country, as specific as a neighborhood
● Demographics
○ Age
○ Gender
○ Education
○ Occupation
○ Etc.
● Behavior
○ Insights into what they’ve purchased or interacted with in the past
● Connections
○ Whether or not they have connected with your page in the past
● Interests
○ Hobbies
○ Likes and dislikes
○ Stage of life interests such as parenting or dating
Facebook has it all: both billions of people and the ability to narrow them down to a very specific audience. All on a platform that, at least to join and post organically, is free to build on.
#4: Insights
As a business, you want to know where you stand at all times. You should be asking questions like:
● Are my sales increasing, staying the same, or decreasing?
● Who has visited me online? Did they buy something?
● Where are people finding me?
● Are my digital marketing strategies effective?
You can answer these questions and more by studying the insights Facebook provides on their platform. The more information you have about your previous marketing efforts, the better decisions you can make for the future. Facebook insights will tell you how every post performed. You can gain insights on:
● How many people interacted with your post
● Your top performing post
● How many followers you gained over a specific time period
● How many people you reached in total over a specific time period
● The demographic profile of who is interacting with your posts (to give you insights on your ideal client)
When used wisely, these insights can inform who you choose to target in the future, what kinds of posts you should stop making and which you should make more of, what time of day and week you should post, and more. Having efficient and effective marketing means less money wasted and more money gained. And Facebook’s digital marketing insights help you do just that.
#5: Building Trust and Sealing the Deal
There is a series of steps a customer goes through before they purchase from any business. They need to go through a journey from a point where they’ve never heard of you before to trusting you and making a purchase. You can use Facebook marketing to lead a person through this entire journey to close the sale.
This journey can look different for every company, but here’s a general summary and how you can use Facebook within each step:
Awareness
Customer becomes aware of company, product, or service for the first time. It could be through a brief commercial, social media post, email, a friend’s recommendation, or other form.
Benefit of using Facebook: On Facebook someone may see your business in an advertisement, one of your organic posts, or from a friend sharing your content.
Interest
The customer is intrigued by the business. They become curious and engage with a few posts, emails, or other forms of content. They may come to this step immediately after the first time they hear about the business, but most likely they have been exposed to the business several times before this curiosity and engagement happens.
Benefit of using Facebook: On Facebook a customer can scroll through your posts, interact with videos, comment or like your content, and may continue to see your targeted advertising as they progress down this customer journey and move on to consider making a purchase.
Consideration: Customer begins to consider buying. They may keep an eye out for a sale, or go to the page out of curiosity as they ponder whether they should buy. They may look at reviews to tell them whether or not this is a good business to buy from.
Benefit of using Facebook: You can target potential customers like this with an ad for a sale, or push out quality sales content that explains how your business works and why someone should buy. Generate fantastic reviews by encouraging customers to write one for your Facebook page.
Intent: Customer shows signs that they intend to buy at some point. Maybe they click through an online store, favorite items, or even add them to their digital shopping cart.
Benefit of using Facebook: Depending on the kind of business you own, you can utilize a Facebook feature that allows users to shop directly from your Facebook page without even leaving the site. This makes conversion and closing the sale easier for you. They may also like, save, or share posts that feature something they are thinking about buying.
Evaluation: Customer may be targeted by competitors, research similar businesses and compare prices, quality, and service. They intend to purchase, but they haven’t settled on exactly where to purchase.
Benefit of using Facebook: Keep in mind that your competitors can target users who have interacted with your page and try to close the sale first. The Facebook user may review other businesses similar to yours if they aren’t yet convinced to buy from you.
Purchase: Customer commits and makes their purchase.
Benefit of using Facebook: Easy shopping through your Facebook profile or you can direct the user to your website within your Facebook profile.
You can use any number of tools to lead customers through this journey. Facebook allows you to build trust and walk someone through every step of the way.
A Great Starting Point
Facebook is a great place to market your business. You can take this progress one step further by employing strategies to send people to other marketing efforts. From Facebook, encourage people to visit your website, read your blog, or subscribe to your newsletter.
On Facebook, you can gain traction as a business quickly, reaching people you wouldn’t be able to find otherwise. You can continue to build this relationship on Facebook. And you can build it off platform as well.
Marketing Your Business on Facebook
What began as a small website for college students to connect has grown into an app used worldwide. Facebook has dozens of tools for businesses wanting to grow a presence and a following. Whether you choose to stick with the organic posts or explore the paid promotions, advertising your business on Facebook can be a confusing path to forge. Check out my course today and grow your business using Facebook.
