Facebook has become one of the most popular platforms worldwide not just for consumers, but for companies and brands to promote their products and services. The main appeal to Facebook is that you do not need an extensive team of marketers to set up a business page and start promoting your content, even running paid Facebook Ads.
The platform is easy and intuitive, doesn’t have a steep learning curve as other advertising tools out there, and considering there are around 15 million active users in Australia alone, the potential target audience is also quite large.
However, not everyone will get to reach their goals through Facebook unless they have a strong strategy behind it. These days, a lot of Facebook marketing tips seem to focus exclusively on ad campaigns, but there are actually a lot of things you likely need to take care of before you get to paid advertising.
Below you have some of the best Facebook marketing ideas that will help you improve your page and reach your targeted audiences.
1. Set up Your Page the Right Way
Setting up a Facebook business page is relatively easy, though it’s important to give a bit more attention to the elements it’s made up such as:
● The profile picture
● The cover photo
● The page description
● Contact information: website, email, phone number, physical address, etc.
All of this makes up your digital presence on Facebook just as much as your posts and advertisements do. Facebook users often turn to the page description to find more information about a brand, and if they need to learn more they will click on the link to your website.
The cover photo and profile picture are often the first things a user sees on your page, and you want to make sure both are representative of your brand but are also high-quality. This can mean:
● Ensuring both photos respect Facebook’s dimension requirements: 180 X 180 for profile pictures, but keep in mind that the picture will be round cut in the end, so ensure your elements are placed in the middle so that they are not cut off. For cover photos, Facebook recommends at least 400 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall;
● Using them to reinforce your brand – uploading just any photos here is not appropriate. Usually, brands will use their logo as a profile picture, then use the cover photo to display the most important features or promos;
● Add descriptions to them – all photos on Facebook can come with their own descriptions, visible the moment a user clicks on them. You can use these descriptions to promote additional landing pages or offer users more information.
2. Share Your Content
If you’re also running a content marketing campaign, Facebook is an amazing tool to share your content with an audience, and get them to visit your website.
Facebook allows you to directly share links to your articles on your page, and will display users a preview of the article using the metadata:
● Meta title – make sure it’s eye-catching and makes the user want to read the article;
● Meta description – keep it short to 1-2 sentences, and reinforce the ideas from the meta title.
Apart from articles, other types of content you can consider sharing includes:
● Landing pages to products or services you want to promote;
● Promos, sales, and other offers that are time-sensitive;
● News or changes in your business your target audience should know about.
3. Post Multiple Types of Content
Don’t rely just on links when it comes to your Facebook marketing efforts. The social network has a lot of different types of posts that can help businesses keep their audiences engaged, and indeed it’s worth combining multiple forms of content within the same strategy.
Let’s quickly go through the main types of Facebook content, and what are their benefits.
The Simple Post
This is just a piece of text posted on your page’s timeline. Usually, you should include pictures or videos to catch a user’s attention while scrolling, though in some cases you may use the simple test post for small announcements, especially those that must be posted right away.
You can also pin these posts to the top of your page and ensure they are the first thing a user sees when they visit your Facebook Business page. But, as a general rule, don’t rely on these types of the post too much, as they are not the best at engaging users.
The Image Post
This is, perhaps, the most common type of Facebook post you’ll see on the social network. It is essentially an image that is accompanied by a text post, though you need to ensure the image itself is representative of the message you want to transmit.
You can even add some text on images to reinforce your message and make sure you get people’s attention.
Video
Video content is the most difficult to create in comparison with other types of content, but considering Facebook’s algorithm and the fact that it pushes for it, it’s a good idea to invest in the making of a few videos.
Video content is great at captivating audiences while simultaneously helping to promote your products and services. For the best video results, consider:
● Posting vertical videos, to ensure they appear correctly on mobile;
● Making sure the video has captions or makes sense without sound. Facebook will automatically play a video for users, but they have to turn on the sound manually;
● Investing in quality – focus on storytelling, captivating imagery, and avoid pixelated footage.
Facebook Live
Another form of content the algorithm pushes is Facebook live. It’s a way for you to address your audience in real-time, and when used right, live videos can prove quite beneficial.
Here are some ways to use Facebook Live to your advantage
● Announcements, product reveals
● Q&A sessions
● Live demonstrations
● Follow along type of videos, such as exercise routines
● Tutorials, etc.
● Facebook Groups
Though not a form of content, it is an extra section of your business page you can use to promote your Facebook posts.
Businesses can create Facebook groups and encourage their followers to join, and even add to the discussion. It’s an effective way to both make sure your post reaches your audience and increase their interactions with you.
4. Get to Know Your Audience on Facebook
Knowing your target audience isn’t the same as knowing your Facebook audience. A Facebook audience comes with a lot of different interests and demographic information provided by the platform through its Audience Insights tool.
If you research your target audiences and find out more about them, you can create personalized content that speaks directly to them, increasing your chances of converting them later on.
Internet users want personalized experiences, and Facebook audiences are no exception. For example, your research could unveil that your target audiences are divided between two major sectors: young mothers, and sports fans. Though both sectors are linked because they follow you, addressing both of them with the same message can only work up to a point. It’s much more effective to cater to the specific needs of each category instead.
5. Monitor Your Organic Stats
It’s essential to keep a close eye on your Facebook Insights tab and see how your page is performing organically, meaning outside any paid advertising. Some stats to watch out for can include:
● Organic reach
● Engagement rate
● Pageviews
● Actions on the page, etc.
This is information regarding how your page is performing and can be used to improve two things:
● How and what you post on Facebook – for instance, if you notice video posts perform better than image posts, you can invest in making for videos;
● Running better campaigns – if, for example, you have problems with user engagement, you can run campaigns with the goal of attracting new, engaging audiences.
6. Start Running Facebook Ads Campaigns
You can absolutely grow a Facebook Business page organically, with just the tools that are freely available to you. However, organic growth, no matter the platform, takes a lot more time, and for many businesses, time is a luxury they cannot afford.
So instead, you can run Facebook ads campaigns that can bring the results you want faster. We recommend you start diving into paid ads only after you optimize your Facebook page and its organic results to ensure that new users you reach through your ads have enough reason to stick around and follow your page.
Facebook ads come in different formats, such as image, carousel, video, and more, but the most important thing here is to choose the right goal. These can be:
● Awareness – brand awareness, reach, local awareness;
● Consideration – increasing traffic, engagement, app installs;
● Conversion – store visits, product catalogue, etc.
Choosing the right goal sets the stage for the entire campaign because it tells Facebook the type of user you are interested in. For example, if your goal is to increase website traffic, then you need users who usually click on external links through Facebook. But if your goal is set to brand awareness, Facebook may take your ads to the wrong users.
It is easy to create a Facebook page and start running a paid ad. But to truly get the results the social network can bring, businesses need to put in a lot more effort than they think.
Australian Internet Advertising Is Here To Help
If you need help improving your Facebook marketing efforts and create an effective strategy to reach your business goals, we are happy to assist in anything you need. Australian Internet Advertising’s Facebook marketing team will support you in navigating the platform and truly leverage it to your advantage.
With us, your Australian business is in the right hands. Book a free 30-minute strategy session with us to find out more about how we can help, or give us a call at 1300 304 640 to talk to one of our Facebook Marketing specialists directly.
