What is Facebook Marketing? Here's all you need to know

The digital age has changed the way we look at marketing. You now have access to a wider audience to generate leads for your business. For small and mid-sized business owners, using social media for marketing is a more economical option to reach out to potential customers as well.

Facebook is the pioneer of social media marketing. Using the different options of marketing, your business on Facebook can do wonders for your brand. To begin with, it helps you interact with customers directly and understand the requirements that you can cater to.

Here is everything that you need to know to build a successful Facebook marketing strategy that leads to more conversions.

What is Facebook Marketing?

Facebook is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to businesses today. With close to 1.56 billion active users on the website each day, you can become an extremely influential brand by using simple strategies and features that Facebook allows.

Facebook marketing, in simple terms, is using this platform to gain more visibility for your brand, generate leads and improve conversions.

Benefits of Facebook Marketing

• 2/3rds of the world’s adult population is on Facebook. So, you instantly have a ready audience.
• The average amount of time spent by users on Facebook each day is 1 hour. This gives you a lot of time to draw attention to your brand.
• Using filters on Facebook helps you reach the right audience who can bring you revenue.
• Facebook offers various options like in-streaming advertisements in your content to generate additional revenue.
• Marketing on Facebook is much cheaper than traditional marketing. You can set a fixed budget each month as well.
• You have the option of reviewing your strategy to understand the reach and the results that it has produced. This real-time information helps you improve strategies efficiently.
• This is a direct platform to interact with your potential customers.

Getting Started— Setting Up Your Business Page

The first step to Facebook marketing is to set up a business page. This is quite different from a personal page as it offers more features to promote your brand. In addition to that, using a personal page to run a business also runs the risk of getting shut down. To start your business page:

• Go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create/ and choose between community, public figure and business depending on what type of business you are.
• Choose a name and category for the business.
• Add your profile picture, cover picture and a description for your business. Make sure that this is attractive and represents your brand well.
• Choose a unique username.
• Assign roles to different members of your organisation on the page. This will dictate who manages the content on your page.
• Make sure you add a call to action button with the correct contact details including phone number, address and email ID.
• Go to Settings > General and click on Page Verification. A verified page is more credible on Facebook.

Types of Content for Facebook

Now that you have your profile page in place, the next step is to understand what kind of content you can post.

• Status Updates: This is a simple text update that you can use to communicate any important information.
• Images: Posters and other visual content is known to generate 2.3X times more response. This includes your profile picture, cover picture and pictures that you share on the wall. Make sure that the images are consistent in terms of colours and style so that your brand gets an identity on Facebook.
• Videos: From explainer and promotional videos to 360-degree videos and live videos, Facebook allows several options to keep your audience updated about your products and services.
• Facebook Links: Posting links to your blogs or website is a great way to generate leads through Facebook as well as drive more traffic to your blog or website.

Creating a Facebook Marketing Strategy

There are three important aspects to creating a successful Facebook marketing strategy:

1. Create Great Content

Use a mix of different types of content to keep your audience engaged. Here are some tips to make your content engaging and useful:

• Use a standard template for all your content to create a brand identity.
• Humour has the best response. Try to make your content light and fun whenever possible.
• Provide content that users benefit from. DIY videos, hacks and tips are great options to engage with your audience.
• Use visuals and videos as much as possible.
• Keep videos short to retain the attention of your viewer.
• The tone of your content should be consistent.

2. Identify the Right Audience

If the content that you put out does not reach the right audience, it will not create the effect that you want. The right audience will also help you create content that is specific to them. Here are some options to understand your buyers’ persona:

• Study the content put up by your competitors. Whom are they targeting?
• Use the Audience Insights feature when creating any Facebook Ad. This helps you categorise your customers based on the location, age, marital status, interests and other parameters.
• Review your existing customer base to understand what type of people are most drawn to your products and services.

3. Schedule Your Posts

Scheduling your Facebook posts will get you maximum views and visibility. A general thumb rule is to post between 1 pm and 4 pm on weekdays and between noon and 1 pm on weekends.

However, this is not a universal law. You can use the Post Insights feature to check when most of your audience is active and publish posts accordingly.

Creating a calendar every month with details of the type of post and the time to post will help you plan accordingly.

Promoting Your Content on Facebook

Under every post that you put up on Facebook, you will see a Boost Post option. This helps you increase your reach.

You can use Facebook Ads to promote Facebook and Instagram. The latest AI features also allow you to advertise using Facebook Messenger. Chatbots interact with your customers and even help drive sales.

Facebook Ads allow you to select specific objectives like lead generation and take you through a series of procedures based on the goals.

Track the Results

How do you know if your ads or your posts are working? Facebook Analytics is the answer. You get detailed insights about every strategy that you apply. At the top of your page, you will see the Insights option. Just click on it to get a detailed review on post reach, page reviews, actions on the page, page likes and more.

Tips to Get More Likes and Fans for Your Page

• Be responsive. Reply to customer queries as soon as possible. Using Facebook chatbots is the best way to improve your responsiveness.
• Invite people that you know to like your page.
• Post content that is relevant, interesting and engaging.
• Provide links to your Facebook page on your website, blogs, WhatsApp promotions and as many platforms as possible.
• Link your Instagram page to your Facebook page to share content easily.
• Highlight offers through landing pages, cover pictures and other high-visibility content.
• Make use of Facebook Ads whenever possible.

Also read:
What is Digital Marketing? Scope, Opportunities & more
What is White Label Marketing? Everything you need to know
What is Instagram Marketing? All about Instagram Marketing
LinkedIn Marketing: Everything you need to know
All you need to know about Email Marketing

FAQs

Q. Do I need a personal profile page to create a business page?

Ans: Yes. You need to have a personal page to create your business page since you need an admin to manage all the content on the business page.

Q. Why can’t I promote my business using my personal page?

Ans: According to the Facebook guidelines, you can only share information about your business on the personal page. You cannot use the latter purely for business promotions. There are two disadvantages to doing so. First, your personal page may be taken down by Facebook when only used for business. Second, you do not have several useful features that are available on the business page.

Q. How do I get a blue tick for my page?

Ans: Usually, most businesses only get a grey tick mark upon verification. Facebook provides a blue tick mark based on the activity on your page and its popularity. You cannot request for a blue tick mark directly.

Q. How much do Facebook Ads cost?

Ans: The budget for Facebook marketing depends on how much you are willing to spend. You can either select a daily budget or a lifetime budget for a given period of time for your ad. The cost for your FB ad can be as low as $0.70 per click.

Q. How often should I post on Facebook for maximum views?

Ans: There is no rule for this. You need to try different options to see what works best for your region and the nature of your business. Focus more on the quality of the content and not the quantity of content that you post on FB.