Facebook Marketing

Facebook marketing is often overlooked by small businesses because they may have tried an ad or two but not had much engagement or results. The problem can be one of several things. The most common I’ve found is that a small business has no idea who their target customer is.

As an example, a coffee shop may have an older clientele, ‘ladies who have elevenses’ anytime of day. I’m sure you’ve seen them, retired in their late sixties and older. They get together to chat and take tea or coffee either every day or once or twice a week.

They’re a loyal customer base but unlikely to be on Facebook, so unlikely to see any marketing you do on Facebook. When marketing on Facebook it’s imperative you know who you want to market to. In our mythical coffee shop, those older ladies may only be a small category of customer. maybe you have some of the ‘millennial’ crowd going in, either for lunch or on the way home, or even on the way to work, picking up a coffee and muffin to go.

These you will find on Facebook and they are worth marketing to. Coupons, special offers, special events. What special events? Well, maybe a coffee shop might do a ‘coffee tasting’ to educate people about the different types of coffee. Maybe the coffee shop has a new cake, muffin, biscuit or savoury snack they want to introduce.

This makes a great little campaign as you can advertise it on Facebook, then take pictures and get opinions on the night and post those to Facebook to show others.

Which ads to use on Facebook?

With our fictitious coffee shop above, they’d use an advert to promote the event, either clicking through to the website or, booking directly on the coffee shop’s Facebook page. Targeting the right demographic and geographic area.

Then boosting the post they put up on the page showing how the event went (always getting permission from the event attendees to publicise their photos). You can boost a post so that it gets seen by more people which will encourage people to like your page.

Think of Facebook as the place you introduce yourself and your business. It’s where you can show people who you are and what you do. It’s a place to have fun and at the same time do some serious marketing.

• Decide who you want to market to, age range, geographic area, interests
• Choose whether you’re going to send them to an appropriate page on your website, or back to your Facebook page.
• Decide whether you’re going to ‘boost’ a post or create an ad.
• Create the ad.
• Decide on your budget.
• Choose a time span.
• Submit the ad for approval.

Of course there’s much more to it than that but basically those steps are what you need. Naturally you’ll need to do research to decide who your target market is. Then you’ll need to decide what your objective is in placing the ad. Is it getting people to click through to your website? Have you got a special offer people can take up? What exactly is your purpose in placing the ad?

All of these things need to be decided before you place the ad, this where so many small businesses fall down. They just advertise their product or service and offer nothing of value for people to keep coming back to the Facebook page.

In fact most small businesses don’t use Facebook correctly at all. It’s not a place where all you do is ‘sell’. It’s about getting to know people and allowing them to get to know you and your business. So find interesting things to post, some relevant to your niche, some just about life in general. Post things to make people smile or be inspired. Only post about your business if it’s interesting or informative and only post sales messages around 2 to 3 times for every 7 to 8 posts.

Hopefully you’ve found this a little helpful, need more? Check out our services page to see if we can help you or call +44 2921 28 7350 in the UK or +1 602-334-0527 in the US.