Facebook marketing strategy for a small business.
Facebook as a marketing platform
Facebook is a social media platform, not a marketing platform. Right?
Yes and no!
Although Facebook started out as a way to connect online, it’s now become an internet giant, encompassing the roles of multiple platforms all in one site.
In 2017, Facebook made more than $40 billion in revenue. 89% was from Facebook marketing alone. That’s gigantic. Something anyone in the business of marketing should be aware of.
The magnitude of Facebook
As of 2018, Facebook had 2.375 billion active monthly users, and the site adds 500,000 new users every day (Brandwatch, 2019). Of those users, there are over 60 million business pages. That’s roughly the population of Italy!
Using Facebook as a marketing tool
Facebook doesn’t necessarily work as a marketing tool for everyone, but where it does, it works wonders. So, if your business could viably advertise through Facebook, then this is something you should think about doing.
According to Hootsuite (one of the leading social media management platforms):
- 30% of marketers think Facebook offers the highest digital ad ROI (Return on Investment);
- An average Facebook user clicks on 8 ads per month;
- E-commerce click-through rates have tripled in the last two years;
- 150 million people are using Facebook stories; and
- 66% of monthly Facebook users use it daily.
Hootsuite Blog, 2018
Looking at these figures, it’s clear that the audience and ROI potential of the Facebook platform is enormous. In the rest of this post, we'll share our best marketing tips for getting the most out of this mega-platform.
How to develop a Facebook marketing strategy for small business
As with all social media marketing, there's a process to follow to create the right Facebook strategy for your business.
Identify your goals
What are you using Facebook for, primarily?
Facebook categorises marketing goals into six primary groups in which to:
- Build brand awareness;
- Promote your app;
- Grow sales online;
- Get more in-shop visits;
- Generate leads; and
- Retarget existing customers.
Knowing your ultimate goal will help you — or Ketchup! — to create your targeted marketing plans.
Strategy should always be goal-oriented so it is vital you are clear about your aims for before you start to develop any marketing campaigns.
Identify your audience
For the same reason, you shoud know your audience. After all, there’s no point targeting 15-year-olds with a mortgage brokerage service! Targeting your marketing efforts ensures the greatest ROI.
So, how do we identify our audience?
Facebook categorises audiences into three groups:
- Core audience – audiences that are targeted using Facebook data;
- Custom audiences – audiences that are targeted according to your existing list of leads, ie. people you already know or know you want to advertise to;
- Lookalike audiences – audiences that are targeted by Facebook analysing your custom audience and looking for profiles that share the same characteristics.
This means you can control how you target your audience on Facebook. Many people don’t realise that Facebook can target leads you already have.
When it comes to your Facebook marketing strategy, you’ll see this platform can be highly bespoke.
Core audience
Core audiences can be defined according to a data set that you control. The four categories you can customise are:
- Demographics – age, relationship status, career;
- Location – where a person or business is based;
- Interests – a profile’s consumer or personal interests, ie. their online activity;
- Connections – the engagement of a profile with your business page eg. likes, shares, and follows.
Identify best posting times
Identifying the best posting times for your business takes a little trial and error. You should make sure you’re posting content at times when your target audience is most likely to engage. This can vary from company to company.
However, it’s easy on Facebook to analyse what works. Try posting at different times and on different days and track the levels of engagement each post generates (likes, shares, follows, comments).
Timing is another one of those marketing tips that's easy to follow. As a guideline, the Hootsuite blog recommends that B2B brands post between 9am and 2pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays. B2C brands usually see most engagement around 12pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Developing your Facebook marketing strategy
So, now we know who we’re targeting. What’s next?
Build your business profile
Create a place for customers to connect with you
This is the first step.
Create a business page on Facebook. All you need is:
- Your business name and description;
- A profile photo and cover photo;
- A call to action (a button at the top of the page inviting users to get in touch, buy a product or carry out some kind of action).
Make sure both images are clear and professional. Your business Facebook page profile photo will usually be your company logo and your cover photo should be professionally designed.
Aim to make your brand instantly recognisable. Matching your theme to your website can help build this brand recognition.
Update your details
Here, you need to complete the ‘About’ section on your business page. This is an opportunity to give your customers as much information as possible about your company. Make it as easy as possible for potential customers to find out about you, your business and to get in touch.
‘About’ fields include:
- A description of your business
- Your industry category/categories
- Phone number
- Website
- Email address
- Physical address
- Service areas
- Opening hours
- Price range
- Products
- Privacy policy
You can decide which fields to include and which to hide. However, the more information you provide, the easier it is for your customers to find and engage with you.
Engage with your audience
Engaging posts
A massive part of any social media marketing is content, and Facebook is no exception.
Provide a regular stream of high-quality posts on your Facebook page. This content can include news and updates from your company and should also include informative posts to engage the reader. See our page on strategic marketing for more information.
Most studies agree that posting at least once a day is the best frequency to get results.
Engage audiences with rich media
Rich media is media that is interactive and/or engaging. When we talk about rich media, we’re usually talking about videos and audio. However, rich media also includes things like interactive banners, pop-ups, surveys, games and custom cursors.
“…comparing Rich Media banners with standard ones, Rich Media had a 267% higher CTR.”
Adform Blog, 2014
Go organic
What is a Facebook story?
A Facebook story is a full-screen, rich media snippet from your business. They’re usually photo collections or videos that are used to engage audiences in a more immersive way. But, unlike usual posts, they’re only visible for 24 hours.
This type of self-generated content helps with your organic rankings in the search engines (ie the listings that you don’t pay to be placed in).
Stories allow you to share moments from the life of your business in real-time. Users can film a snippet from whatever activity they’re participating in and share it immediately with an entire audience.
Why use Facebook stories?
Facebook stories are more visible than regular posts. Unlike other posts, which appear in the general newsfeed, stories appear at the top of a Facebook feed. This makes it easier to catch the attention of your audience.
They also feed into the modern trend of businesses with personality. Today’s audiences are drawn to authentic and engaging businesses. By posting stories, you’re giving that two-way feed that users find compelling.
Use Facebook groups
Facebook groups are online public forums where audiences with a common interest can connect. Facebook groups allow you to create a community around your business where members can discuss industry trends, their favourite products or service experiences. They can ask for tips and advice and generally benefit from being involved.
For example, a builder’s merchants might create a Facebook group for home DIY-ers. A Facebook group would be a great place for people to ask ‘What’s the right product for the job?’, ‘How do I ...?’, ‘Where can I find…?’, ‘Does anyone know…?’.
This gives your business a chance to engage by offering your knowledge, an opportunity to sell by posting relevant product and service links and an opportunity to gain insight by monitoring the thread conversations.
Facebook Live
Facebook Live is a live stream in real-time that lets you connect with your audience. They’re great opportunities to offer Q&A sessions, to talk about new products or services or to show a member of staff doing something a bit crazy!
You’re also able to use a suite of creative tools to add extra features to your content, such as masks, filters and text.
What’s more, streaming live videos have been shown to result in a direct increase in traffic to your site or page.
This blog from Hubspot gives examples of Facebook Live business success stories. Inspired? We are!
Facebook 360
Facebook 360 is rich media on steroids.
There’s only a degree of separation between Facebook 360 and virtual reality (VR). Facebook 360 is a form of photography that captures, as the name suggests, a 360º view of the setting.
Users hold up their phones and as they move the screen, the image follows the captured setting. Twist your phone up, down, side to side… you’ll see the image as if you’re in the place yourself.
What’s more, people can even view your captured image with a VR or Oculus headset. Is there any better way to truly engage with your consumer than to bring them into your world?
When to use Facebook 360
Facebook 360 can be used in so many ways. For example, you can use this feature to show off a venue. Perfect for estate agents, wedding venues, showrooms and more.
If you’re a builder or decorator who’s done a magnificent job on a new design, why not put your customer into the very room you’ve worked on? Show them every detail of your success.
Facebook 360 video
You can also use Facebook 360 for video. However, this requires much more production editing so may be best left to those with video editing experience. It does, however, put your consumer straight into your world, so it is best used to showcase those moments of triumph, joy or innovation.
Imagine putting your customer in the middle of your Christmas party or let them share a morning in the board office!
From the horse’s mouth
For tips and tricks on how to create the best 360 videos, why not read Facebook’s own advice page? Alternatively, let Ketchup use its expertise to create something that’s sure to capture the attention of your audience.
Use Messenger
“20 billion messages are sent between people and businesses on Messenger each month.”
Social Media Today, 2019
Facebook Messenger is instantly available when you create your business page. It’s a free instant messaging tool that allows you to connect with your customers. Messages sent on your Facebook page can go directly to your phone or desktop, so you can respond in real-time.
In contrast to phone calls, Messenger has additional capacity to share photographs, videos, and files. This makes it a great way to communicate with your clients easily and effectively.
Advertise and promote your business
There are plenty of organic Facebook marketing strategies for small business. However, sometimes paid promotions are best to expand your reach.
How does this work on Facebook?
Use page promotions
Page promotions are paid promotions you create from your business page. These are different from the ads you create in the Ads Manager. But more on this later.
This is arguably the quickest way to create an ad online. Facebook will usually suggest text and images pulled straight from your page. You can then set your audience criteria (see the start of this post).
Budget
One of the other great aspects of page promotions is that they are budget-friendly. The minimum investment is £1 a day for a minimum of a single day. This means you can increase your reach for as little as a pound!
What’s more, results tracking is done automatically, so it’s incredibly easy to know which posts are successful and which have fallen flat. Not to worry—page promotions can be ended early.
Types of page promotion
There are eight types of page promotion you can choose from:
- Boost a post;
- Boost an event;
- Promote your page;
- Promote your call to action button (CTA);
- Promote your business locally;
- Get more website visitors;
- Automated ads;
- Get more leads.
Customisable
The text and images on a promoted post —or ‘boosted post’ —can be automated by Facebook or chosen by you. While the automated option is a great choice for novice marketers, you can get even better results by using marketing professionals to create ads that encompass your greater marketing goals. Contact Ketchup to find out more.
Create targeted Facebook ads
With Facebook, you are able to create an advertising campaign in Ads Manager that relates to the Facebook strategy for your small business.
There is a hierarchy of how campaigns work. They involve ad sets and ads, as follows.
Options
Your options are set individually for each level of the campaign—the campaign level, the ad set level and the ad level.
- Campaign—select your options for your ultimate marketing goal;
- Ad set—set your criteria for the ad: target audience, placements, budget, schedule;
- Ad—choose the format, and copy and images you want to include.
How do I know which options to choose?
This all comes down to your strategy. But don’t worry, Ketchup can help with that. Contact us today to find out more.
Use audience network
Audience network allows you to share your Facebook posts outside of Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. This increases your reach.
What’s more, the audience network has automated tracking that allows you to monitor the success of your direct response marketing efforts.
Targets
Audience network campaigns can fall into one of four goal arenas:
- Increase traffic;
- Increase app installs;
- Increase conversions;
- Catalogue sales.
Depending on which of these is your main goal, you may be able to publish your ads on mobile only, or on mobile and desktop.
Where will my ads appear?
“Apps account for over 90% of internet time on smartphones and 77% of internet time on tablets.”
eMarketer, 2018
When you use audience network, your ads may appear as placements on others’ websites. This may be incorporated into the design of the existing webpage of that site, or they may be full-screen pop-ups that appear when a user transitions between pages on a website. Your ad may also appear as a website banner.
These ads will primarily appear in mobile apps.
Why should I use audience network?
Audience network not only allows you to increase your reach, but generally does so at a lower Cost Per Click (CPC) than other online placements.
Offers
Facebook Offers is an ad type that is formatted in a way that is made to stand out from other posts. It also allows you to track the uptake of your offer and will notify interested parties when the offer is about to expire.
You can create offers that are valid online only, in-store only, or valid in-store and online, depending on where you want to drive traffic.
Page offers
You can create offers on your business page for free, and boost them (create a sponsored ad) for a CPC fee.
Ads Manager offers
Alternatively, you can create offers in Ads Manager. These work like regular targeted ads. You can customise your budget and target audience. These won’t appear on your page but will appear on relevant news feeds.
Offers can showcase basic or rich media. Videos and slideshows are proven to draw more interest and create greater engagement, so it’s worth putting in the extra time to create compelling media for offer posts.
Additional features
A Facebook offer can have all the same features as a traditional print coupon. Terms and conditions can be specified. You can also provide discount codes that are redeemable online or in-store.
Use Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace is an online shop where you can create a storefront for your business. Marketplace can be used for ad placements or for selling your goods and services. In this way, it can be used as either a marketing tool or a sales tool. Or both!
Tracking your results
There is no shortage of data you can gather from Facebook to see how well your campaigns are working and give you insight on new tests and trials to improve upon what you've already done.
Facebook Measurements
Data and insights
Data is the numerical information and statistics we can study to measure ad performance. Insights are what we can learn from this data.
For example, if the data shows that 68% of engagements are coming from women, our insight is that if we target more women, we’re likely to get a higher number of engagements.
Reporting
Reporting is when Facebook compiles data into figures and infographics that make it easy to see how your ads are performing at a glance.
Measurements
This is a more detailed type of report that aims to pick out key information about performance from reports. For example, how many people who clicked your ad then went on to make a purchase?
Knowing the conversion rate of ads is key to knowing if our Facebook marketing strategy for your business is working effectively.
Ads Manager
All of this information can be found on your business page’s Ads Manager section, alongside so much more.
Facebook Pixel
The Facebook Pixel is an analytical tool that plugs into your website and feeds consumer data back to your Facebook business. It's a simple piece of code that tells Facebook when a page is opened, button is clicked or video watched, as well as who did all of these and where they arrived from.
As a result, Facebook is able to better target your ads according to consumer activity on your site. It can even target specific users who visited your site.
Split Testing
Facebook Ads Manager allows you to split test your adverts. Put simply, this means you can create two separate ads which are different on one or two criteria; for example, demographics or slightly different content. These two ads are run simultaneously and the results compared.
This allows you to analyse which type of ad performs better so you can create more successful ads in the future. This ensures better-targeted marketing and a higher ROI.
Ketchup as your Facebook guru
Facebook is a social media platform, not a marketing platform. Right?
As this post has proven, this statement is far from true. Facebook is a social media platform, a marketing platform, a sales platform and an entertainment hub. It’s everything all in one place.
What we have learned, however, is that it is an essential platform for promoting your brand and driving traffic to your site. It’s an incredible tool for reaching wide —yet highly relevant —audiences with total control.
Time investment
Knowing how complex Facebook marketing can be, you’ll understand that it requires a significant investment of time. Not only do you need to create the content for your posts, stories, groups, and other engagements, but you need to be constantly analysing the results and streamlining your marketing efforts.
In this way, Facebook Marketing can become a full-time job entirely on its own.
The solution
Let Ketchup help take the burden. As expert marketeers, we understand the complexity of Facebook marketing and know what it takes to create a successful campaign.
Why not contact us at Ketchup today to find out more? We can be your fully-outsourced marketing department, or we can support your existing team on an ad-hoc basis. Whatever your requirements, we’re ready to hear from you.