How to use Facebook to market your small business effectively

by James Agate

Digital marketing types may have convinced you to use Google AdWords and chances are you will be enjoying some excellent results with it. But did you know Facebook can be an alternative or even an accompaniment to your current small business marketing efforts? WeLoveBusiness.co.uk guides you through how to get the most out of the social network.

PPC advertising (pay-per-click) is a fantastic way to drive prospective clients to your website or blog. Google is the real leader in paid search marketing through their AdWords platform but many small businesses are unaware that Facebook provide their own similar self-serve advertising platform which can be really successful when marketing your small business.

Facebook has over 400million users which, if it were a country, would make it one of the largest in the world by population. This means that there are fantastic opportunities for marketing your small business. Chances are, your target market (or at least some of it) will be Facebook users.

Granted, Facebook is nowhere near as successful as a platform for direct response advertising because unlike Google users who are most likely actively looking for a product or service to buy; Facebook users are just spending time on the net.

That isn’t to say that Facebook won’t play a crucial part in your marketing efforts because it is a great way to build awareness of your business and build a relationship with your potential customers… a relationship which goes beyond merely being a ‘buy once’ customer.

Part of being successful with Facebook marketing is to understand that the users are not looking to purchase now but they are looking to:

• Associate with brands, businesses, tribes and individuals which represent their social status and aspirations.
• Possibly buy in the future and chances are your Ad will be serving to remind, persuade or inform them of their need to purchase at some stage in the future.

In certain situations however, direct response/direct sales advertising will work on Facebook. In fact, research has found that users will go to their social network when purchasing items like laptops, netbooks and other ‘big purchase’ consumer electronics – having your ad run alongside conversations like this will inevitably prove to be a winner.

OK so marketing through Facebook doesn’t just involved paid advertising; you can also create a fan page for your business or brand. This allows your ‘fans’ or customers to subscribe to updates on your wall. You can then post useful links, special offers and other newsworthy items to your fans’ Facebook streams. It can be used in much the same way as small business users currently utilise Twitter.

But let’s start with ‘How to successfully market using their ad platform’:

• Head to Facebook.com
• Create a page for your business using the link in the bottom right corner of the home page
• Once you have done that, hit the promote with an Ad link in the top left corner of your new page
• Begin to design your advert; bear in mind that you get an image, a headline and a short body of copy so be selective and clear in your message.
• Then you have to select targeting. Facebook allows you to target by 11 different factors which include location, age, gender, birthday, keywords, education, workplace, relationship status, sexual orientation, language and connections.
• Facebook advertising can be uber-targeted which really does help you to save a load of cash because you are only targeting the users that matter to your business.
• Finally, you get to select your daily budget and whether you wish to pay on a CPC (Cost per click) or CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis. There are advantages and disadvantages to both of these pricing methods and results vary from industry to industry so my advice would be to experiment which gets you the best results for minimum investment.

Some top tips for Facebook advertising

1. Target accurately – segment your market and be prepared to create adverts which cater to your individual segments.
2. Relationship before sale – With Facebook, you do have to get personal before you sell to them. Consider building a relationship (via a fan page) before going in with the hard sell
3. Monitor your advert performance – adjust your efforts accordingly.
4. Always go for an honest headline – Facebook users are far less forgiving than Google users when it comes to hitting up a misleading landing page so don’t waste your cash.
5. Don’t hyper-target your market – Balance up intimate advertising with respect for privacy. Facebook users might not think that information like sexual orientation and their birthday are made available to advertisers and will probably be just a little creeped out by your ultra personal advert.
6. Use their Ad Help Centre and resource – these will really help you to make the most technically and financially from Facebook advertising.

Setting up a Facebook fan page is relatively straightforward so we won’t guide you through the process. Instead, here are a few tips for getting the most out of your fan page:

• Use FBML – this is a Facebook application which allows you to add custom HTML functionality to your page like newsletter signups, RSS feed subscriptions or even downloads and giveaways.
• Make some of your content on Facebook exclusive to Facebook – give your fans a reason for being so loyal, reward them for becoming a fan.
• Understand your market – be clear about your target market and try to understand their Facebook habits. This will help to tailor when you are most active i.e. posting links. Remember that not all your fans will proactively go to your wall and look for new content, they will want it to appear in their stream. If you post links and other content at a time when your target market aren’t likely to be on Facebook then you risk your stuff being relegated to the bottom of their news stream by the time they log on and see what’s happening. If you’re not sure when your users are usually on Facebook, experiment a little; see when you get the best response to your posts.
• It’s all about engagement – there really are a plethora of applications out there which will help you to connect with your audience, be sure to utilise them. Videos, polls, giveaways, discussions… all this extra engagement will serve to build a deeper connection with your audience which is what marketing is all about.
• Promote your Facebook presence everywhere – never miss an opportunity to promote your Facebook fan page whether it be on an email signature, website, brochure, poster, shop window wherever. Having an active fan base is like internet marketing gold, they will act as your open email list.

Developing that last point; I strongly believe that in the future, businesses will be built entirely around Facebook fan pages instead of an old-fashioned email list. Why not? Nearly everyone has Facebook, you can connect with them more often, people check in more often than their email inbox, you can send them your newsletter and special offers and the barrier to entry for the consumer is lower; people are wary about giving up their email address nowadays so when they do, it tends to be a secondary, tertiary or just an address setup as an overflow account. What’s the chances of meaningfully connecting with then?!

In conclusion, Facebook will undoubtedly play an increasingly important role in marketing but it is important to remember that the platform is more about deep connections rather than instant sales; if you don’t understand this going into it then you are likely to come out of it with a much lighter wallet and not much to show for it.

Sponsor Message

If you are looking for office furniture try Euroffice – the UK’s largest supplier of stationery and office supplies online.