With over 2.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms for businesses to publish content, market products or services, and communicate with customers.

Currently there are more than three million businesses actively advertising on Facebook.  This means the battlefield is heating up, and with more companies on Facebook, your organization will need to develop strategies that break through the clutter without wearing your audience out.

Not sure how to create a Facebook marketing strategy that can boost your company’s digital marketing success, attract new customers/clients, and raise revenue? Here are the  6 steps to develop an effective Facebook marketing strategy. With these 6 steps,  you’ll be able to take your business’s Facebook marketing to the next level.

 

1. Define Your Target Market

In order to properly engage your audience, you must first understand who you’re addressing. Ask yourself the following questions to figure out who your target audience is:

• What is the average age of your target audience?
• Where are they from?
• What do they do for a living?
• What are their challenges?
• When and how do they use Facebook?

Of course, knowing the broad demographics of Facebook users is also crucial. Take a look at Facebook Audience Insights once you’ve figured out who’s using the platform and how that relates to your intended audience.

Facebook’s free Audience Insights feature  will help you delve down into nitty-gritty details about potential clients. You can use it to look up information on things such as:

• Age
• Gender
• Education
• Relationship status
• Location
• Language
• Facebook usage
• Past purchasing activity

After all, if you don’t know who you’re attempting to reach, you’re not going to get very far.

 

2. Set Your Goals

What does brand success look like for you? Sure, it’s easy to think of the number of likes and shares as the ultimate metric of success, but if they’re not part of a broader marketing plan. Metrics like these are  even referred to as vanity metrics.

For an effective Facebook marketing plan, you’ll need a solid goal that’s aligned to your organization’s success. Every company has various objectives, but they all need to concentrate on actions that affect their bottom line.

This could involve the following:

• Obtaining leads
• Increase conversions for your website
• Increase client satisfaction

We propose planning out precise, measurable approaches to get there once you’ve decided what you want to achieve. All of your Facebook posts, comments, and advertisements should ultimately serve your objectives.

 

3. Plan Your Target Mix

You’ve defined your target market. Your objectives are clear. It’s now time to publish those posts.

It takes trial and error to find the proper mix of material, but a great rule of thumb is to follow the “80-20 Rule,” which means utilizing 80 percent of your postings to inform, educate, and entertain, and the remaining 20% to promote your business.

It’s not necessary for every post to be about how great your company is. No one likes a bragger, and this applies to Facebook marketing as well.

Instead, focus on providing value to your followers and cultivating relationships with them. If you routinely provide people with engaging material, they’ll be more receptive to hearing about your products and services when you do bring them up 20% of the time.

Whatever marketing mix you choose, the aim is to strike a balance between advertising material with value.

Pro Tip: Facebook penalizes businesses who push sales too hard. As it turns out, the algorithm isn’t fond of self-promotion. Don’t just post coupons, but relevant, interesting content should be prioritized.

 

4. Optimize Your Page Engagement

Whatever your Facebook marketing objective might be, achieving it will be difficult if no one knows your page exists.

That’s why it’s critical to attract visitors to your Page in the first place, and then compel them to interact once they’re there.

One simple technique is to utilize Cross-promotion  to help people find your Facebook Business Page. Link to your Facebook Page in your email signature and newsletter, and include Facebook Likes and share buttons on your website or blog to help followers who are already connected to you on other platforms find you on Facebook.

Make sure you are responsive to your followers. Respond to all messages and comments, provide answers to inquiries, and keep your content current.

In fact, you should schedule an audit of your Facebook Page on a regular basis to look for and remove any obsolete information.  Your About section should always be accurate, up-to-date, and consistent with the rest of your marketing efforts.

 

5. Consider Using Facebook Marketing Tools

Once you’ve gotten the hang of maintaining a Facebook Business Page, there are a slew of other options for brands to communicate with their followers beyond posts and comments.

Facebook Business Manager

if you want to take your Facebook Page to the next level, Facebook Business Manager is a must. It’s a one-stop shop for managing business tools,  assets, and employee’s permissions to these assets. How could you possibly say no?!

To put it differently, Business Manager is a platform that enables you to manage both organic and paid Facebook posts. It also allows you to collaborate successfully with team members as well as external contractors and agencies.

Facebook Groups

You may also utilize groups as an “extra credit” tool to increase interaction. In some ways, groups are similar to your local meet ups or pubs. These are online communities where individuals can share knowledge, ideas, and, perhaps, a passion for your business. It’s impossible to ignore the 1.8 billion people who use Facebook Groups every month.

You can also use Facebook Groups to demonstrate your expertise and add value to your fans by offering complementary content or exclusive bargains to “members.” This is a fantastic method to foster long-term loyalty and trust.

Facebook Chatbot (a.k.a. Facebook Messenger bot)

Every month, Facebook users send more than 20 billion messages to businesses. You might be missing out on a chance to interact with your customers if you’re not available for talks with them through this platform.

However, it’s not only about having Facebook Messenger set up. It’s all about being responsive to customer messages. According to Facebook’s research, customers want a company to reply practically instantaneously. One Facebook user who was polled stated he would only wait 10 minutes for a response before switching brands.

What’s the answer to these expectations? Chatbots are automated response solutions that are constantly available to assist an interested customer.

 

6. Utilize Facebook Pixel

So you’ve written the ideal post: the wording is spot-on, the imagery is stunning, and the subject is intriguing. Let’s hope your followers notice it.

That’s right: not everything you post on your Facebook Page will appear in the news feeds of your followers.

The Facebook algorithm, for better or worse, emphasizes postings from users’ friends and family. This implies that businesses and brands often struggle to stand out in a crowded market.

Often, your epic content may require a boost from time to time. Fortunately, Facebook Ads can help you extend to  your audience without breaking the bank.

A Facebook ad, like traditional advertising, is content that you pay to promote with a specific, targeted audience. Whether you want to increase brand awareness, engagement, or traffic, the goal is to get your brand in front of the right people.

Even if you’re not ready to dive into Facebook Ads just yet, it’s a good idea to get the Facebook pixel set up (for free!) right now.

The Facebook pixel is a piece of code that you can add to your website by doing the following:

• Track conversions from Facebook
• Remarket to people who have already visited your website
• Build targeted custom audiences for future ads

The pixel will begin collecting data as soon as it is placed on your website. That way, once you’re ready to promote, you’ll have valuable data for retargeting campaigns at your fingertips.

Conclusion

Facebook offers a lot of potential for helping businesses stand out in today’s marketplace. With a well-designed marketing strategy, you can take advantage this platform’s potential to your brand’s marketing effort. Digital marketing experts can also easily support your Facebook marketing strategies depending on what is affordable for your business.

If you need help implementing any of the above suggestions, please contact me! You know I am always happy to help.