Regardless of what kind of business you are running, it is safe to say that your target audience is on Facebook. Why are we so confident about that? Well, because over 1.62 billion users visit Facebook on a daily basis, and some of your potential customers already hang out there. It’s just a matter of reaching them. And it’s not just the young people or the millennials which are using it, either. Research shows that users 65 years and over are the faster-growing group on Facebook. Sure, a lot of them are doing it to keep in touch with their family and friends, but they are still potential customers.
In case you are interested in Facebook marketing, you will be happy to know that the average price for Facebook ads has gone down 6% in 2019, despite Facebook ads being more competitive than ever. Whatever the case, this means you can get the most out of your marketing dollars by including Facebook marketing into your overall strategy. With that in mind, let’s take a look at our list of 20 powerful Facebook marketing tips you can need to start using today.
1. Create a Business page as Opposed to a Personal Profile
A lot of small businesses make a mistake of starting their Facebook presence with a personal profile. Creating a business Page is a superior option for a number of reasons. You get access to different tools that are available to brands and businesses. The customers will also be able to like your page, after which your content will appear in their feeds, which is not an option with personal profiles. And if you’re already made a profile for your business, don’t worry, because Facebook allows you to convert it into a business Page after the fact.
2. Have an Eye-Catching Profile Photo
While having great content on Facebook is crucial, and we will get to that later, leaving a good first impression in the visual sense is just as vital. Since the profile picture is pretty small, you don’t get a lot of real estate to play with, but that doesn’t mean that you should post an old photo of yourself, in case you are running your own personal brand. Your photo should look professional, and if you are operating as a brand, the best course of action would be to create a logo which is pretty minimalistic and streamlined, and which features your company colors or color scheme.
3. Adopt the Same Principle for Your Cover Photo
Your cover photo provides you with a bit more room, 851 x 315 pixels to be exact, and will arguably capture even more looks than your profile picture. Of course, you will want to create a photo that is specific for this very purpose, instead of simply cropping an existing one, and therefore omitting crucial bits of information your audience would have otherwise received. Make sure that it tells your customers what your business is all about.
4. Create Your Vanity URL
Your vanity URL enables people to find you more easily on Facebook. One of the reasons why you should claim yours right now is because someone else might. Not only will you not be able to have a URL that complements your business, but also because they might post inappropriate content that people can mistake for your actual content. When choosing your vanity URL, make sure that it includes your brand name, and that it’s if possible, user friendly. Keep your URL consistent across all social media platforms you are on.
5. Fill In Your “About” Section
This applies to both the actual section and the preview since the latter is one of the first things that people see when they visit your business Page. The content inside the “About” section preview should be concise, but informative, so that it provides visitors with all the essential info about your business, such as a brief description, and if applicable, phone number, website, price range, as well as business hours. In case you are running a restaurant, you may also want to include a link to the menu, as well as your location on the map.
6. Add a Call-to-Action Button
One of the most useful features on Facebook for businesses is the addition of a call-to-action button. You can choose between several different options that are available, such as “Sign Up”. “Shop Now”, or “Book Now”. Just choose one whichever reflects the type of your business best and link it to any of your websites or landing pages with which you want to reach a certain goal. For example, if you want to take your customer to a landing page that sells your product or service, you would use a “Shop Now” CTA button and link to that landing page or your online store.
7. Add Custom Page Tabs
When you set up a Facebook profile or business Page, several tabs will be added by default, such as Timeline, About, Photos, and so on. However, you can create additional, custom tabs that are more aligned with your business. You can basically create an equivalent of a landing page on your Facebook, as well as custom pages where you will showcase content such as case studies, research, as well as promotions, sales, discounts, as well as job offers. You can pretty much add anything that will help you flesh out your business in more detail.
8. Put Quality First
Although it’s important to have an active Facebook presence, that doesn’t mean that you should be posting as much as possible. Posting frequently will not necessarily result in a higher reach. The most important factor that determines the visibility of your posts is the quality of the content inside them. Facebook has algorithms that are built to tell apart relevant pieces of content from irrelevant ones and to display those the former to the people following your page. Less is more, at least in terms of quantity, is the way to go. However, this goes only if your content is top-notch.
9. Share Your Best Blog Posts
Having a blog allows your business to beef up its SEO and to become an authority resource in the niche. However, you can also drive more traffic to it by connecting it with your Facebook account. You can post links to your best posts manually, or you can use one of numerous tools and platforms which enable you to automatically post to Facebook every time you publish a new piece of content on your business blog. However, while some sharing and posting can be automated, you will still need to engage with your fans as a human being.
10. Delete Links from Post Copy
Lengthy links in your post’s copy not only mess with the overall visual impression and take up more space on the screen, but they are also redundant. As you have probably already noticed, every time you paste a link into your new posts, Facebook will automatically generate a thumbnail and a link to the same URL, which means you can remove it from the copy and keep everything nice and clean. Once you have published your posts, users will be able to click on the title or the thumbnail, and they will be directed to the URL.
11. Post Engaging Visual Content
You may have noticed that your timeline is filled with image and video content, which is not a coincidence since those types of posts generate more engagement. Even if your post is all about the text, you should always make sure to pair it up with a relevant photo, infographic, or video. As for how you should create visual content, there are plenty of stock photo websites out there, but we wholeheartedly recommend that you come up with your own original content, even if they are just screenshots or graphs. They just need to be relevant and fit the topic of the post.
12. Find the Right Posting Times
Let us say right off the bat that there is no definitive answer, simply because there is no one-size-fits-all solution here. The right posting time on Facebook depends on a lot of factors, such as the location of your business and your target audience, as well as other regions that you may be targeting. It also depends on the kind of business you are running, since every business has its sweet spot in terms of posting times. Your goals also influence this, since posting time might be different if you are after clicks vs. shares, and so on. However, some times, such as 3:00 PM on Wednesday or during the weekends 12:00-1:00 PM are always a safe bet.
13. Provide Customer Service via Facebook
You can easily use Facebook to get in touch with your audience, engage them, and forge a more meaningful and personal relationship between the two of you. But, you can also use it to address different types of customer issues and provide timely and direct customer service. The tricky part is that you need to be able to reply within minutes since that’s what Facebook users are expecting. But, if you can do that successfully, all of your good work and efforts will be public, which will help your reputation, and you will even be able to diffuse some situations and turn them into your favor.
14. Try Boosting Your Posts
One of the best ways to reach more of your target audience without breaking the bank is to use the Sponsored Post option on Facebook. For instance, you can get thousands of paid clicks through boosted posts and pay as little as $0.02 per click, which is very affordable. Since Facebook, just like every other IT giant, changes its algorithm every so often, this approach can help you regain some of the lost organic traffic and connect with your real target audience. However, you should use this method as an addition to the measures we have described above, not rely solely on it.
15. Try Using Facebook Messenger Bot
We have mentioned that Facebook users expect an almost instantaneous response. Since you have a business to run, you can’t handle all of those requests and questions manually. Sure, you can hire some help, but even they can get overwhelmed at times. In order to answer some of the more generic questions, you might want to try using a Facebook Messenger bot, which can be trained to answer basic information about your business, such as phone number, location, business hours, website, as well as questions about pricing and inventory.
16. Schedule Your Posts in Advance
Your target audience expects you to be consistent, both in terms of quality and quantity, but also when it comes to posting times. Regardless of how hard you try, there will be situations where you will be prevented from posting a new piece of content on your business Page, which is why you should rely on some of the third-party solutions to schedule your posts in advance.
17. Use Facebook Insights for Data
Facebook Insights is a great tool provided by Facebook which enables you to track and analyze just about every single aspect of your presence on the platforms. This includes page visits and insights, which should help you determine what sort of content works best for your business. You can easily access this feature from the Admin Panel of your Page.
18. Try Out Different Ad Formats
While Facebook ads are highly-targeted, you can still make those ads even more effective by experimenting with different ad formats, which is something that Facebook’s ad creator allows you to do, provided that you take the time to understand all of the available options. Try both static and carousel ads, which introduce a level of interactivity.
19. Post Video Content
People love video content, which is why you should definitely introduce some video content into your Facebook marketing strategy. However, there is one type of content that Facebook ranks above all other types of content, and that is live video. Live video is especially useful during the whole pandemic situation, since it may be the only way for you to showcase your products and services, in case your brick-and-mortar store is closed.
20. Follow Facebook’s Official Blog
While not exactly a Facebook marketing tip, following Facebook’s blog will allow you to keep up with all the latest development, news, and update to the platform and its algorithms, which can help you gain an early advantage over your competition.
Final Word
And there you have it, 20 useful Facebook marketing tips that you can start using today. Good luck!
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