Facebook for Business: Everything You Need to Know
Every small business can benefit from a Facebook presence. With more than 2.91 billion monthly users, Meta – the Facebook company’s new name – gives small businesses many ways to promote their services, increase customer support, and boost sales and recognition through their Facebook platform.
Using Facebook for your small business may seem challenging because the platform’s rules and algorithms change frequently. However, with the right strategies, Facebook is one of the best ways to use social media for business.
One of Facebook’s biggest strengths is allowing you to target a specific audience through paid campaigns and advertisements. The platform maintains a significant amount of information about its users, which can be advantageous when targeting ads. In addition, creating a Facebook Business Page can be an effective small business marketing tool.
Did you know? Facebook’s business offerings used to be grouped under the Facebook for Business umbrella. Now, these business tools are called Meta for Business, reflecting the company’s new branding.
Create a brand & logo
Don’t be fooled by how simplistic this first tip may seem. Widespread brand recognition is your ultimate goal, and your business needs to inspire credibility and persuade others to spread the word about your work.
You need to create a brand you can build on from the start. Start by taking inventory of your business’ unique value proposition, its personality, and the values that define it. Then you can start to think about your visual brand.
Hiring a design firm may be costly, but there are popular design services on the web, that can provide a selection of custom logo designs for your brand, and at an affordable price. You can even create a logo using an online logo maker if you’re on a very tight budget. Your visual brand may evolve with your business, but you need to start with something on which you can build your business’ reputation.
Offline to Online Marketing Success Stories
1. Tin Pot Creamery.
California-based scoop shop Tin Pot Creamery was making a strong impression on customers with their brick-and-mortar locations where they were making the bulk of their sales. But when the COVID pandemic forced their doors closed, they needed to breathe new life into their online marketing.
“Before COVID-19, we told our brand story in our scoop shops and through our product packaging. Every time I saw our website, I just knew it didn’t capture what I wanted to communicate about our brand. I quickly went from feeling embarrassed about our website to proud of it.”
Changing ecommerce platforms made it easier for Sunseri to rate the effectiveness of Tin Pot’s shift to online marketing and advertising. An ecommerce-enabled website provided the opportunity to reach a larger audience outside the scoop shops through social media, email lists and a more “giftable” online presence.
“We started taking orders right after our website went up, and now it’s easy to see where orders are coming from and whether or not our ad spend is actually working for us,” Sunseri said. “It’s also changed how we think about marketing and advertising and allowed us to make a more intentional first impression with our customers — wherever they live, since we’re no longer limited to our local market.”
2. Sara Campbell.
This Boston-based clothing company had no online presence at all until 2020, despite their thriving offline brand. When they needed to create and launch an online store quickly when, like Tin Pot Creamery, their physical stores were shuttered, they turned to BigCommerce.
In addition to providing a new sales channel, they also realized they had new avenues for marketing on their online store. Courtney Harris, Director of Operations at Sara Campbell, describes how they began advertising on social media to reach new customers.
How to Promote an Online Store FAQ
How do I decide which marketing strategies make the most sense for my online store?
There are many ways to use marketing to promote your business; however, which strategies you should employ will depend on your business and your goals. Here are some questions to ask: does your offline brand provide you a strong email list? If so, maybe start by getting the word out that way. Does the audience for your products flock to certain social media platforms? If so, those channels would be a good place to focus on. Is your main goal to reach new customers who are currently unaware of your brand? You may need to boost your organic traffic based on an SEO and content strategy.
How do I gain more organic traffic to my ecommerce website?
The key to driving organic traffic to your website is SEO. You need to make your site easy to find for people who aren’t familiar with your brand, but who are in need of your products. Make sure all the content on your website follows SEO best practices and consider producing additional content as part of a content marketing strategy to reach new customers.
What SEO best practices will help my ecommerce business?
Overall, your SEO strategy should encompass all of the following: keyword research, site architecture, on-page and technical SEO, content marketing, link building and some form of success measurement. While it can be tempting when starting out with SEO to try to stuff key words into everything, make sure you’re writing for humans as well. Think about what people who might want your products are searching for. Let that inform the key words you use in your content. Make sure the meta tags, descriptions and URLs provide an accurate description of what the user will actually find on the page.
How do I find influencers to talk about my brand?
The best influencer marketing strategy is genuine. Therefore, the best way to find people who can speak authentically about your brand is to search for those who are already talking about it or who are at least experts in your niche. Research content creators who have a following specifically related to your target industry and audience.
How can I measure the effectiveness of my marketing campaigns?
Before you launch any new marketing campaign you first need to figure out what your goal for the campaign is. What KPIs (key performance indicators) will let you know if you are successful? Is your goal to increase traffic? To improve your conversion rate? To increase revenue? Once you have a set goal, you can measure the success of your marketing campaign against that goal to determine its effectiveness. Make sure you have structured the campaign in such a way that you can determine attribution.
What social media platforms should I market my online store on?
This is a question that can be answered with another question: what social media platforms are my target audience on? Do market research and create personas if you aren’t sure about your target audience’s preferences.
How do I encourage more people to review my products?
User-generated content and product reviews are incredibly important. Because shoppers can’t see and feel the products in person, they rely on third parties to give their opinions before making a purchase online, particularly if they’ve never shopped with you before. You can encourage customers to review your products by creating and automating the process of asking for reviews and following up. Make it as easy as possible for customers to leave reviews such as by providing a template with questions to answer.
What are best practices for email marketing?
If you have a strong email list already and are interested in expanding your email marketing, here are a few tips. First of all, you only want to reach out to people who want to hear from you. Don’t buy lists, clean your list regularly and make it easy to opt out. To improve open rates, write concise, but engaging subject lines. Personalize the email as much as possible based on the information you have (name, previous shopping history, etc). Keep the main message short, on brand and with the call-to-action above the fold.
What are best practices for pay-per-click advertising?
PPC advertising can be an effective way to bring your ecommerce website in front of fresh eyes. Consider targeting longer tail keywords with high intent for conversion. Even if there is a lower search volume for a more specific phrase, you may also have less competition and are more likely to reach the exact audience you’re looking for. Make sure the ad copy is very compelling. Another tip for PPC campaigns is to make sure to follow the data to see what’s working and what’s not so you can tweak accordingly.
What are best practices for content marketing?
Content marketing is creating valuable content designed for your target audience. It can be a good way to build brand awareness, educate customers and potential customers and to drive organic traffic to your website. When developing a content strategy, make sure your content provides authentic value to readers and isn’t overtly trying to sell to them. Find creative mediums to deliver content. Also, be consistent (and realistic). Don’t make it part of your strategy to publish a blog every other day, for example, if you have a one-person marketing department.
Sources:
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7761-facebook-business-guide.html
https://entrepreneurhandbook.co.uk/how-to-promote-your-business/
https://www.bigcommerce.com/articles/offline-to-online/promote-online-store/