How to Maximize Outputs from Facebook Marketing

Increasingly business owners are turning to Facebook to increase their sales and market presence. Social media has become a powerful way to find new customers and maintain the existing ones.

Facebook offers small business a level playing field with their larger competitors.  Whether you’re big or small, you can portray a professional image, outline your range of products and / or services and it presents an excellent platform for your clients to provide testimonials about your company  – it is a place where referral markets thrive.

It all comes down to your network of followers.  Having a clear Social Media strategy is important in expanding your network of followers.   Assuming you already have a Facebook page setup, here are a few tips for implementing a Facebook marketing strategy that will help you get the most out of your Facebook Marketing.

1.    Identify your goals –

Avoid the impulse to start using Facebook without a clear strategy just because everyone said you should.  To ensure that both your time and monetary investment pays off, start with a clear idea of what you hope to accomplish by implementing your Facebook marketing strategy. Whether it is to improve customer service, get repeat sales, up sell new products/services, increase word of mouth, or stay in touch with your customers, make sure that you identify your goals and build your strategy around it.

2.    Decide on your Facebook Content Strategy –

Largely your content strategy will be dependent on your goal. For example, if your goal is to improve customer service, then sharing content that provides additional support to your customers, running polls, asking for feedback and engaging one on one with customers will be a good start. As with anything else, it is something that requires regular attention.  Make sure that you respond to your customers promptly.  For optimal results you need to continue and monitor your results over a period of time to see what is working and what’s not and make adjustments accordingly. Other content includes, sharing links, videos, photos and inspirational quotes that may be of value to your community.

3.    Get your customers to Like Your Page –

Now that you have identified your goals and have your content strategy in place, it is time to get fans to your page.  If you are starting by focusing on your existing customers and friends, ask them to like your Facebook page.  Next add it to your email signature and if you send out a newsletter make sure you are also adding your Facebook details.  If you have a storefront, create a sign or poster that encourages your customers to Like your page.

Also make sure you are giving people an incentive to like your page and spread the word about you.  Run a competition and give people the chance to win something in return for a like of your page.

4.     Humanize your brand –

One of the keys to success while using Facebook is to give your page a personality by humanising it. This is your opportunity to build a stronger connection with your customers by showing them who you are as a company and as individuals.  Use your name, post pictures of your office, the company team members and Christmas parties.

5.   Be Engaged –

A study conducted by Social-Bakers found that an astounding 95% of brands are unresponsive on Facebook.  Don’t be one of them.  Monitor your page throughout the day, respond to inquiries or complaints in a timely manner, keep a consistent posting schedule and most importantly, get your customers to stay involved.

6. Use Facebook Insights –

Facebook insights located on the left side of your Facebook page is a great tool that provides you with stats to help you gauge your results on Facebook so that you can see what is working and what is not working. Stats include things such as the number of active fans, gender, age group and interactions per post or overall number of interactions. Access to this information is gold, because it allows you to analyse your campaigns and make improvements in order to maximise results and performance.

Have you launched a Facebook marketing strategy? If so what are some of the tactics you are using to get results? Leave your feedback below.