Online Marketing Help: Wish

Oh, Facbeook—where would marketing in 2015 be without you?

In just a few short years, Facebook has transitioned from a social network for college students to a worldwide social platform with 1.5 billion active users. The icing on the cake—marketers can reach their target audience for little to no monetary investment.

Marketers no longer need convincing that Facebook is worth their time, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to succeed. Here are the tricks and tips to give you a competitive edge without spending any more money.

In case you need more proof that you should be marketing your business on Facebook, here are a few stats:

73% of consumers believe Facebook is the most important social media platform for local businesses.

61% of small businesses use Facebook for marketing.

50 million: Total Facebook pages

40 million: Total of pages of which are small businesses

75% of brands promote their posts

70% of monthly active users in the U.S. and Canada are connected to a local business on Facebook.

25%: Growth since February in the number of active advertisers on its platform. There are now 2.5 million advertisers using Facebook.

70% of Facebook traffic comes through mobile devices.

87%: Increase in people visiting the landing page among those who were exposed to sequenced ads compared with those who were exposed to the non-sequenced ads on Facebook.

1.49 billion: Facebook’s monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2015.

8.71% vs 5.77%: Between October 2014 and February 2015, videos received organic reach of 8.71%, compared to a reach of 5.77% for text-only status on Facebook.

Now that we’ve convinced you, get ready for the tactics your competitors can only dream of having. Your secret is safe with us. Download the infographic to get all the tips you need to gain edge over your competitors without spending any more money.

Enable reviews on your Facebook page: Confirm that your page is set up under the category, “Local Business” and make sure you’ve got a physical address entered for your page.

Create an interests list: via the “Add Interests” button.

Add strategic call to action buttons: Free to set up and lets you send Facebook visitors anywhere you want.

Use new analysis tools like Topic Data to see what your customers are talking about.

Test and measure the results of your Facebook advertising efforts to create better campaigns in the future. Use tools like Conversion Lift.

Use local awareness ads with the “Get Directions” and “Call Now” call-to-action buttons.

Use new tools to manage and respond to messages on your business’s Page. Pages that respond to 90% of messages and have a median response time of less than five minutes will now have a “Very responsive to messages” badge on their profiles.

Use a sequence storytelling ad approach to inspire action.

Make a profile of your target audience using Audience Insights.

Use a Best Practices approach when making a video ad: Tailor your story to your audience, invest in production, use the first few seconds wisely, and focus on storytelling, with and without sound.

Provide value to your audience—content that they can learn from, share, and engage with, and use a social media content calendar to organize posts.

Create urgency: Give people a reason to come back to your Facebook page timeline. Share giveaways and special offers that expire within 24 hours of posting.

Add Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and other tabs to your Facebook page.

Post at non-peak times (10 PM-3AM).

Show behind-the-scenes content and ask questions.

Understand how Facebook uses relevance score: “Relevance score is calculated based on the positive and negative feedback we expect an ad to receive from its target audience. The more positive interactions we expect an ad to receive, the higher the ad’s relevance score will be. The more times we expect people to hide or report an ad, the lower its score will be.”

Facebook Marketing Tricks Your Competitors Wish They Knew [INFOGRAPHIC]

Can you make this go viral

We have no control over what goes viral. It is the audience, the internet user, who makes something go viral. If it is catchy and timely it may go viral. If we could figure out the equation to what people are going to go nutty over we would be kings!

Can you guarantee me $10,000 in sales each month

No, just because Social Media Marketing and Advertising is a new platform the rules don’t change. It is still Advertising and Marketing – sales depend on if your product is in demand, if the consumer needs or wants your product – we can’t predict the needs and wants of the consumer (yet!) It is no different than Target or Walmart being unable to predict if your product will fly off the shelves. The only thing we can do, as in any campaign old or new, is put it out there creatively and entice people to make the purchase.

My customers aren’t using Social Media.

Recommended for YouWebcast: Video Marketing: 3 Building Blocks to Get You Started

Are you sure about that? 77% of all American adults are active Facebook users. (Pew)

The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is the 45 to 54 age group. Basically, the majority of people in all age groups and income brackets ARE using Social Media.

I used a Social Media Marketer before and they promised 3 times my return on investment and it didn’t happen.

Again, no one can predict what consumers will purchase. Products and services must be wanted or needed by the consumer. Seasonally your products may increase in sales, but overall the best we can do is put your products out there as creatively as possible and entice people to purchase. Social Media is the major avenue to advertise these days – if you want to be seen and considered you must be there. If a marketer is “promising” you a specific ROI walk away.

My business is too serious to post these silly pictures and stories.

Then your business is too boring to be acknowleged on Social Media. Advertising and Marketing by selling directly to people is no longer how it is done. Providing your audience with interesting and relevant content that they will take notice of is how you will gain customers. If you think you are too serious participate in Social Media then you are missing a valuable opportunity to grow your business.

This is too expensive – all you do is post silly cartoons and stories.

With 71% of Consumers more likely to make a purchase based on Social Media Referrals and 74% of Social Media users encouraging their friends to try products (Forbes) it is a serious marketing tool that takes time, knowledge and experience. Social Media Marketers (good ones) are not just slapping up a cartoon, they are curating content and posting strategically as well as monitoring your accounts for conversations and engagement. It takes time.

Many business owners don’t blink twice at pending thousands on an ad that sits in a closed phone book that does not have much of an ROI yet freak when they see monthly marketing and advertising costs. It is time to take Social Media seriously and shift that budget over to what works.

My daughter/son/wife/niece/nephew spends a lot of time on Social Media, they can handle posting on my business page.

Just because someone uses Social Media a lot does not mean they know how to effectively market. A successful Marketing and Advertising Campaign takes experience and knowledge. Just because your niece spends a lot of time reading medical journals you wouldn’t let her operate on you. Spending a lot of time on Social Sites does not make someone an expert.

Social Media is a fad for kids– it will all end soon.

If you still believe this then you are going to be hard pressed to find customers in the future. While the actual Social Sites (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) may not be around in 10 years (or will they) online marketing and advertising is how it is done these days. Laptops, tablets, mobile phones – people are plugged in and getting their information via the internet. You need to be there so that they get your information.

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Author: Laura Donovan

Laura Donovan is the President of The Word Pro, a national digital marketing company. She is a graduate of North Central College with a degree in Organizational Communications, a discipline that has proved valuable in her Social Media endeavors. Laura been managing Facebook, Google+ and Twitter pages for small and… View full profile ›

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