Facebook is used by almost everyone nowadays. The number of users are in huge numbers as it is a great social media platform to connect with others. Apart from chit chat done with friends or exploring their feeds, Facebook is also used as a marketing tool by numerous people. Since the audience is huge, it is a good marketing tool in terms of gaining followers. However, it appears to be challenging as well if a proper strategy is not planned before starting up with something. Strategy refers to preparing a proper plan so as to achieve the long term objective. Hence, it is necessary to develop a proper marketing strategy to be successful. There are numerous pages on Facebook which try hard to gain more followers but are not able to and are left with only few likes. There are certain common errors which are made and must be kept in mind while marketing something on Facebook. Following are some of the things which are essential for developing and implementing a useful facebook marketing strategy:
Decide the objectives/aim
One must decide the objectives or aim. People should know why they want to market their brand on Facebook. They should analyse their needs and then proceed. Marketing something just to get those likes and followers seems to be an improper aim. The objective set should be precise and motivating enough to make you work harder. The motivation which is being talked about develops only people do something they love. Then, it’s even easy to create better content. Don’t just run behind the crowd to get those likes.
Choose a target audience
It is important to choose a target audience as the focus will primarily be on those then. For example, choosing whether one wants to target teenagers, old people or businessmen. If the target is clear in mind, it is easy to work upon it. Facebook even provides the option to set custom audiences. It will be easy to sell to existing customers rather than getting new ones.
- Phone numbers list along with email address needs to be created who are using user’s customer data
- Save the list created in TXT/ CSV format
- Tap on audiences tab under Ads Manager
- Tap on Create Audience followed by custom audience
- The txt/csv file needs to be uploaded.
- The custom audience gets ready in about half an hour.
How to use it?
- Through the Ads create tool, create an advertisement
- It can be set to display in news feed on any device
- Choose the custom audience and choose the targeting options like gender,age,location or interests
- Set a budget and then order can be placed. The ad will be displayed to the custom audience decided by the owner
- This can lead to massive improvement in sales.
Building awareness
Building awareness is must to implement your strategy. Try to build awareness among people for expanding business on Facebook. Highlight the unique selling proposition so that people show interest and get a chance to discover new things. Keep motivating the employees for sharing the Facebook page on different platforms to increase reach.
Advertisements
Staying updated and expecting a wider reach on its own is not possible. Since, there are a lot of people creating content leading to competition among them, it is a smart step to take help of advertisements to increase reach. Paid advertisements will help in getting wider reach and more engagement. However, do not depend entirely on advertisements as users tend to ignore such things generally if they are not attractive enough. It must be relevant and appealing to others.
Work on the content
Keep working on improving content so as to remain at the top among competitors. Create such content through which people feel connected to your work. This will help in boosting sales and developing people’s confidence in your work. It should be something which is useful to the users or might entertain them. Always support your content with visuals. It attracts the audience and gives a better explanation. However, people generally tend to ignore long videos. Short and crisp videos can help. Facebook has also introduced the feature of stories. This can also be used to build awareness. However, do not fill the page with promotional stuff. It might annoy people.
Stay updated
Do not remain inactive.Keep posting. Do not keep the page empty. If regular updates are not posted, people might start losing interest and trust in your brand. Do not post just for the sake of posting. Work on the content properly and give it time. It should be properly planned and then share with the audience. Staying updated will help in maintaining consistency.
Using facebook insights/demographics
Facebook insights help in analysing the viewers or followers. It presents the percentage of people engaged on the basis of different criteria such as gender, age, work, location, when fans are mostly online, organic reach, etc. It will help in knowing your followers better i.e. what type of content is liked more or what type of audience engages in. For example: Adults are on Facebook more as compared to other social media sites which can help in deciding the type of content to be created.
Post at the right time
Avoid posting at odd times such as early morning or late night as it can lead to lesser engagement. Do analyse the Facebook demographics and get to know that from which area, the page has more followers. If that particular country has a different time pattern, keep that in mind and post accordingly.
Engagement with audience
Engagement with audience is really important for a brand to grow eventually. Social media’s prime purpose is to connect with others. This must be kept in mind. One must reply to any queries posted by followers or any comment done on the posts. Do reply to messages timely and do not reply with any kind of rudeness even if there is something against the brand said as that can damage brand’s image. Keep the discussion going on until the issue is resolved. This helps in gaining confidence of followers and improving brand image. They feel that they are being valued and they matter. Hence, developing brand loyalty is very essential for a proper Facebook marketing strategy.
