THE PERFECT E-COMMERCE STRATEGY FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS
Thinking your small business needs an e-commerce store? Do you feel its time you own an eCommerce store to match demands or access new audience? MarketinGROW presents Strategic approach to help ease planning and launching your eCommerce site.
But first, Let us assure you, you are on the right track! It’s the 21st century and everything you need is on the internet. Favorite snacks from your childhood or a bridal dress everything is one click away.
Next, you may be looking for an easy e-commerce strategy to help you get started, hence this blog. Before we get started, it’s important keep in mind global audience means global competition. Even if you are not trying to compete with them, the customers may lean towards an outsider’s product due to a variety of reasons like: better website, easier checkout or better online ratings. The perfect eCommerce strategy considers all relevant factors that may directly or indirectly affect your business.
MarketinGrow provides an easy way to keep your existing customers and attract new ones to keep reading to know more.
How to set up an e-commerce site for a small business?
- Pick a niche and Research your market
- Pick a niche product(s)
- Create a brand and business
- Get an online store
- Attract your customers online
- Time to Advertise and marketing
- Post-launch care tips
- Pick a niche and research the market.
First things first, whether you are an online or offline store, you need to know the market. Research if it’s a good model for an e-commerce store and what is your competition like?
Consider the below points as crucial to making a profit on your investment;
- Are you able to warehouse the product?
- Will it be drop shipped or periodic shipping?
- Will the product need a special license?
- Is it easy to market and advertise?
- Are there buyers looking for the product with no good purchase options?
- Who does this product target?
- What are the price and the options your competition offers?
Pick a niche product
Apart from the basic research, it’s also important to start off simple start with few products or a single product scale up when you see the demand rising this helps avoid unnecessary expenses and gauge the market without investing heavily in it. Take for example Kylie’s lip kits the brand started off with a single product and limited Colors and now has spanned into a whole range of skincare and skin products. It’s a classic example of niche product testing.
Create a brand and business
Your brand has to be ready to take on the online scene. At the 11th hour, you can’t afford a copyright issue with the logo or an investment into a brand image that doesn’t match the target audience that you are selling too.
Follow the checklist below to start with;
- Pick a business name
- Register your business
- Get required registrations such as employment ID, tax number, licence and permits.
- Keep a list of suitable vendors ready
- Create a logo
- Create visuals that resonate with your brand image and it’s persona helping your audience relate and engage with your brand.
Get an online store.
The majority of the population today purchases a product after searching for it online and looking for reviews. Notice how bloggers “review” products all the time? That’s because there is a demand by customers to educate themselves before they make a purchase.
Creating an online store is easy. There are multiple websites that let you use a template and choose the URL you think best. Usually, these websites would charge upwards of $100 for basic features and design.
Alternatively, you can opt for Marketingrow’s $45 /m plan that lets you cancel anytime and provides a custom design and SEO content helping you gain better visibility.
Attract customers to your online store
Many small businesses struggle with this. We often get asked “how can i attract customers to an e-commerce store for small business?” or a new venture.
The answer, there is no simple method that will just get you customers over night. But there are some pointers that help your store operate and attract customers-
- Develop keyword driven strategies – if a customer is not able to find your product via a simple search engine search they are most definitely visiting the next best option. Aka your competitors. Pictures, content and the store itself needs to be Search engine friendly so it is easy to track and navigate.
- Have a website– having a website let’s you add more information about your business, engage with customers and over time add more products that they can navigate and shop through. This also helps in making your store rank better and stay more visible online.
- Content marketing- although the goal is to sell, your site needs traffic and for that it needs to have relatively good content that can drive traffic and lead to conversions.
Time for advertising and Marketing.
No online effort is ever complete without Digital marketing. How do you get your product noticed online? How can you get more sales on a e-commerce website? Or how to generate traffic on to your website? Digital marketing answers all of these queries.
Digital marketing helps a business gain popular among its audience and constantly stay visible and in the minds of the public so they are motivated to make a purchase.
Let’s talk about what does digital marketing and it’s strategies offer for e-commerce?
- E-mail marketing – helps create a list of leads and mailing addresses you can can connect and engage with time to time with offers, discounts and new products.
- Social media marketing– through FB ads and engagement over social media your product gathers high visibility to your niche audience. Keep in mind every business is very different and social media offers various platforms to reach them. For example LinkedIn for B2B and Facebook for B2B and B2C.
- Google and online search– google ads, google my business page, reviews on online portals and search engine optimization. May sound overwhelming for a small business owner to do but that is exactly what digital marketing agencies like MarketinGrow provides to its customers, all round optimization for best results.
- Back linking – anything from related sites reviewing or talking about the advantages of your product and services to listing it on pages that already has good traffic is a good start. Back linking basically does this for your business.
Feeling ready?
Now that you know how to get started with an e-commerce site. What are you waiting for? Alternatively, you can get in touch with us or book an appointment. All you have to do is have an idea of what your website and brand persona is so we have a clear idea of the persona and it’s target audience. Leave everything else up to us from research to marketing we will do it for you.
Also check out lite.marketingrow.com to buy your website and have it up and running in less than a few weeks time!
MY MARKETING SUCKS! WELL, ARE YOU LOOKING AT THE RIGHT PLACE TO BEGIN WITH?
The past few months have turned the world of business as we know it upside down, forcing those who followed more traditional concepts to consider new ways to evolve and survive.
Business owners have come up with some of the most creative ways to generate business. From using apps like Zoom and WhatsApp to follow up on leads to social media live streams to keep their audience engaged throughout the lockdown.
Even fast-food joints & cafes, something we consider as an outdoor activity came up with new DIY coffee/donut kits for you to experience your favourite treat from the comfort of your own home.
This brings us to our topic today. What about you? Are you focusing on the right areas to market your product and services? Do you still think your marketing sucks? Even after putting in all the efforts and financial resources that you thought would be enough?
Although the above-mentioned examples may be the work of a brilliant team or a very enthusiastic employee. Irrespective of what you do, there are a few common denominators among all of these examples that lead to a successful campaign and most importantly provide a good ROI.
So, let’s talk about the most common question we hear “why is my marketing not working?”
The answer to this isn’t as simple as you would think.
Given the burst of competition and different platforms, a number of reasons can affect your marketing strategy and numbers. Today, you need a holistic approach to marketing with multiple touchpoints to reach out to your target audience. The fundamental of marketing need to be in place before you can truly evaluate if the marketing campaign is working or not.Take a look below for some common factors you should consider for the poor response:
1.What is your buyer persona?
Identifying your buyer persona is a big part of marketing planning which unfortunately many small and medium businesses fall short on. This is the first place to look at while evaluating your marketing campaign. You should identify your buyer persona with granular detail and only then go after that target market. This will not only save you time and cost but also significantly enhance your conversion ratio. Identifying the market persona is a discovery process that includes understanding the market, conducting research, and evaluating who will benefit the most by your product/service. Define the person by demographic information such as location, company size/annual income, title, interests and more. Once you have defined the persona then identify where and how are you able to connect with the target persona. For instance, which social media is that demograph more likely to use, what events they attend, which online resources they trust for industry news and more. These intel should dictate your marketing planning, activities, and budget.
2. Your company has a social media account and a website. But that’s it!
Most brands today start off with a website and a social media handle. That’s not enough. Irrespective of your company size creating a buzz is still a very “marketing friendly” thing to do in order to create business opportunities. Yes, an aesthetically pleasing social layout and witty tweets can get you some traction. But focusing on adding value to what you share online, keeping it genuine and replicating the same offline at events or expos or even a night market helps get those leads, create actual sales and customers.
3. Single platform presence.
Consider this, your product best suits the needs of teenagers today. But your brand has a profile on Facebook and nowhere else. While single platforms are a good way to start off it has to be based on the demographics. This means, where your target audience spends the most amount of time is where you should be as well! In this case, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.
4. You haven’t created a Holistic Marketing approach.
A holistic marketing approach is done through various channels. This includes
- e-mail marketing
- lead generation strategies,
- social media platforms, and
- reaching out to contacts.
This allows you to cover more ground. Thereby, giving you a larger lead generation pool.
5. You haven’t implemented online “and” offline strategies.
While online marketing may seem easy and tempting (after all it does allow you the comfort and data all through a few clicks), the traditional marketing approach still holds its value. Applying both online and offline strategies for a business is very important. Notice any large company you see on a day to day basis. While they have a good online presence, they still come up with offers and value services that are aimed at winning their customers over.
Create marketing strategies on two primary goals –
- To get sales and leads, and
- Develop brand value in the minds of customers
6. Motivators and Demotivators
What factors influence decision-making for your target market? You should observe and identify key motivators and demotivators. Don’t be shocked, as harsh as the term sounds it’s not. Those who offer high prices for a quick service for example the express shipping for a faster delivery are motivators. They could also be the ones who run on a scarcity tactic that leads customers to think they will miss out on an opportunity (example a sale that says “limited stocks”). Whereas, a demotivator persona offers lower prices and a longer wait period on the service.
The issue with your marketing could simply be that you are targeting customers who want the service quickly or the opposite, who are willing to pay and wait for a better service.
7. You expect an immediate ROI
What’s important to remember even before we get on to the technical aspect of what works and doesn’t work for your business, it is setting the right expectations. Marketing strategies are a long-term aspect of every business operation. When the company starts off in its cycle you can’t expect it to be a success overnight. But through persistent efforts, dynamic management, and the right strategies these investments pay off. The same applies for marketing, invest in a long-term plan for your business. This can help in more ways than you could imagine. From understanding customer preference to nurturing leads that convert into customers all of this is a part of the process that comes with time.
8. Lastly, your brand doesn’t have a persona
Is your brand telling your story? Every business is an entity. In the eyes or law and more so in the eyes of the customers. When they interact with your employees when they buy a product or service the brand voice and vision should have an active role in it. Your website should be at the front of this as the door to your business. It’s design and content should align with the offers and message you wish to convey. Social media presence should also be aligned with it so should all your other digital marketing campaigns.
When you have something good to offer it’s equally important to let your audience know who you are.
Show them
- your brand can be trusted (brand authenticity),
- it’s well recognized (brand voice), and
- the brand image they can associate the product with.
All of this can be brought together by investing in a good marketing strategy that defines and analyses the market, it’s trends and your current strategy. Based on which experts will then suggest what method or approach will work best!
SEO- THE HERO OF YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
SEO can make or break a brand well sort off, not to be dramatic but SEO does have a huge impact on small businesses and in this blog, we try to help you understand exactly why is that. Read on…
What is SEO?
With over 90% of online content created in the past 3 years, digital marketing heavily relies on tech that balances between getting its customers the most accurate content and its client justified visibility.
As technology & algorithms evolves, search engines also upgrade their tech making the need to be in sync and up-to-date with your SEO efforts more important than ever if you want to make the most of your web and digital media efforts.
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization“. Every time you search for something online and visit a website, you are counted as “traffic” for that website and the search that lead you to the results are called SERPs which stands for “Search Engine Result Page” here content with relevant information is ranked in an order of most accurate to least accurate. SEO helps create such content that helps your page rank on the first page of search engine results there by creating traffic and create awareness on your brand. Bots called “spiders” crawl through the web pages to analyse and rank content based on keywords and SEO that best suit the search made by the customer.
In simple words, SEO creates keywords and content that bots called spiders identify as valid and accurate information for the person searching for something online and then provide a list of such web pages on SERPs through which you access the website thereby getting counted as traffic to that website.
What are the Types of SEO Formats?
Most people think SEO only applies for written content, but that’s not true. Written content is one of the may different forms of SEO that are available for your business. All of them are listed below:
1.Written SEO– as they name suggests, it’s the content on the website and blogs that is optimized to meet the search engine bots’ criteria. Most importantly, content should have well placed keywords, accurate data and original content so that SERPs can feature it on their first page and this way the website will not be penalized for plagiarism and copied content. If content is copied, the search engine will recognize this and penalize the website with lower ranking and a search engine ban.
2. Voice SEO- with voice searches making up to 50% of the total searches online, it can be considered an important step to optimize your content to stay relevant to voice searches.
The reason written and voice search optimization are different is mentioned below:
- Voice searches are conversational– unlike written search which is shorter and keywords based, voice searches are made by people talking to their search assistant thereby asking for a full question instead of just keyword phrases.
- Voice users want results– unlike other searches these searches are aimed at immediate results. When you optimized your voice search add a call to action button since users may or may not visit your website but a call to action button to book an appointment or call the office of a local business will directly create lead generation instead of users going through their website and then contacting you.
- Voice searches are local– 22% of the voice searches show users look for local content, which is great for any business trying to boost its local presence.
3. Image/Video SEO– image search is another way through which visual SEOs are changing. For any written content it is always a good idea to add some sort of visual content to your blog or website.
Keep in mind the following tips-
- Add a high-quality image / video
- Try to use original image in place of stock, add captions to videos
- If you have to opt for stock search for more genuine pictures
- Compress the picture or video so it loads faster on the website
- Add descriptions
- Add meta titles
- Use relevant images to content
- Apply image responsiveness so it matches all screen sizes (use srcset)
- Add image alt text
- Provide context to your image
Different types of SEO
Mainly there are 4 types of SEO that a business must incorporate for a well all-rounded SEO approach:
- On page SEO – any technique that can be applied directly on to your website to improve your ranking is referred to as on page or on-site SEO. Some of which are Keyword, meta data, alt Text, https/SSL, title tag, title tag, URL structure, internal linking.
- Off page SEO – off page or off-site SEO are factors outside of the website,like back-links and social media that have created awareness about the website. Some techniques of off page SEO are:
- Back-links (links to your website on other blogs and websites)
- Social media
- Influencer reach
- Guest authors
- Brand mentions
- Forums
- Technical SEO– this refers to method that can help a website perform better, helping it make easy for crawlers (bots for search engines like spiders) to go through websites and help them rank better. It also includes making a website faster/ easier, help bots for a search engine understand it better.
- White and Black hat SEO – often SEO practices can be classified as black and white hat practices. While white hat SEO aims at guideline accepted approach to SEOs. Black hat breaks search engine rules in order to get higher and better SEO ranking.
Black hat SEO is aimed at bots and crawlers and doesn’t count as organic results. White hat SEO is aimed at a more human approach to create organic and high traffic for website through human’s interaction as it’s priority.
What are the best SEO practices?
Now that you are aware of SEO and how to utilize it for your business here are some best practices to incorporate:
- Research your keywords
- Optimize your website design
- Create compelling content (blogs, website landing pages)
- Add a good description and title
- Add meta data
- Understand your audience
- Add off page and on page SEO
- Add images and videos
- Add a call to action with high ranking web pages on the website.
What does SEO Do for My Business?
A small business can gain better target audience and crate an online brand Image through the right SEO approach. As a long-term approach here are the advantages of SEO for a small business:
- Higher business visibility
- Better traffic
- User friendly content
- Turns traffic to customers 80% better than any other technique
- Primary source of leads
- Greater user experience
- Brand credibility
- Encourages local visitors to physical business outlet
- Cost effective
- Small businesses are able to compete better through SEO.
Stats for SEO
- SEOs get the highest amount of organic traffic to a website.
- SEO drives 15% conversion rates.
- 75% users don’t scroll past the first page of a search engine result page.
- Search engines drive 10x more traffic to e-commerce sites.
- Sites that make the first page of search results hold 1890 meta words.
- There has been a 30% rise is voice-based search in the past year.
- Mobile searches have seen a steady rise and by the end of 2020 in the USA alone, 221 million users will search through their mobile devices.
A QUICK GUIDE TO “HOW SHOULD A SMALL BUSINESSES NAVIGATE ECONOMIC CRISIS
While large business houses have a disaster management protocol and team in place proving that companies that have been around for longer have an idea of how to navigate through a downturn in their industry or market.
The same for a small business, can be a challenging task. Given that small businesses are usually single-person entities or local enterprises. Knowing the exact protocol becomes all the more important in order to respond during and after the crisis situation.
Just like the 2007-08 Global Recession, the current CoronaVirus threatens to bring another global financial downturn. In this article MarketinGrow provides a tool kit that small businesses can apply during crisis management and after.
The Crisis Tool Kit.
A crisis Tool kit is nothing but a list of tasks and approaches that a business can lay down to navigate through a natural or unnatural disaster that may have caused a loss in their business.
- Research and Asses the situation
Know about your customers and your local market, how will the situation adversely affect them and the impact it may have on your business. Research on how long will the impact lasts as per government and expert opinion. This gives you an idea about planning the short term and long-term plans for your business accordingly. - Look for government subsidies and help
In most situations, banks and governments offer support to small businesses by offering subsidies and lower interest rates in a time of crisis provided that the crisis has affected a large number of small businesses. - Outline a crisis management plan
Once you have an idea about the financial impact of the situation on your business, outline a protocol your business can effectively follow-
- Educate stakeholders and customers- during a large-scale crisis panic spreads easily, use your platform to assures and contact partners, leads and customers to educate them on the crisis and ways to manage it. Since the crisis would have affected a larger group of people staying in touch with your customers and partners assuring them that the business has a plan of action ready and in place helps in building trust in your brand.
- Show empathy – if the situation has affected a larger group of people or an entire community reach out and drop a mail or post share and support the community and tell them what your business is doing in the given situation. Whether it is discounted prices to help consumers or community outreach programs let your customers know you care.
- Get the core team together- for United efforts meet with departmental managers or heads to make sure the core team of the business is on one page this includes the HR, Finance, Marketing and Administration.
Adapt to the Situation and Improvise
If you are a small business, chances are the effect of the crisis can have a severe impact on your business. Staying positive and adapting to the situation is one of the first things that will help your business get through the situation. For example, in the current situation where most businesses are shut and customers are quarantined figure out ways to engage with customers and lead instead of a sales pitch, offer services at a lower price or through other means that help customers or B2B services survive the crisis.
Improvise and Survive
The silver lining to the current situation is that you may be unable to physically meet or interact with your customers but that doesn’t mean “out of sight is out of mind”. In fact, it’s very much the opposite of that. There are a number of ways you can navigate a rough patch given you have the right marketing resources and approach some of them are:
Maintain a media presence
The major advantage businesses today have is that they can stay active on social media or through e-mail marketing and websites and pursue their customers directly. Here you can clearly share their visions, goals and past achievements and answer customers queries through various social media platforms. Follow the below-given tips for a better media presence:
- Educate your customers about your digital presence.
- Stay available on WhatsApp, we chat, Facebook messenger and Skype or Zoom to make your business more accessible to its clients.
- List out helpful posts and tips that your business can offer.
- Be a Good Samaritan and help your community (it’s Goodwill for your business).
- Don’t send sales pitch E-mails that spam, send relatable useful content to your readers.
Start an E-commerce platform with a payment gateway incorporates – e-commerce platforms are a must-have for any small business. Are you’re a cookie maker? Or a hairstylist? Or even a tailor. E-commerce can offer custom websites some even with AI integration to help understand what your customer is looking for and help to make a purchase without leaving the comfort of their home. This also helps a business make a better profit since it can offer a variety of services based on the preferences of its customers.
Start a blog
Not selling a product? No problem talks about your past achievements and how your service can enrich your customers’ life and make it easier. A well-written blog is as good as a brand ambassador or a great ad for your business
Promote your business through social media. Or just engage with followers.
No matter what age group your customer falls in, everyone has a phone or some level of social media presence. Engaging with customers and followers can bring in new customers too. You can have an online shop on Facebook or Instagram and link the same as a shoppable post to your pictures. You can promote your services or see what your competitors are offering and up your antic.
While the given situation isn’t the best to be in, we understand it can be a testing time for small businesses and local entrepreneurs. But with the right approach and a positive mindset, this too shall pass.
From everyone here at the MarketinGrow team, we wish our readers health, success and safety.
FACEBOOK PAGE BEST PRACTICES FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Digital marketing has been growing at an all-new speed. Thanks to easy usage and customer awareness reaching out to your audience couldn’t have been easier. Facebook opens access for small businesses promote their offerings to a wide-audience of an estimated 2 billion+ users. A Facebook Business page is a must for most businesses whether you are a local pizza store, an e-commerce site or a well-established business operating world-wide. But how exactly does Facebook Business page works and how can you use it to grow your small business? Let’s explore: First, what is a Facebook Business page and can u create one without a personal account? A Facebook business page is a separate profile created with an intention to promote, sell online or create customer awareness about your brand. Say your business is a cupcake shop who takes online orders from Brampton and Mississauga. You can set-up a Facebook Business page to promote your offerings. Businesses share their stories by posting images, videos, and blogs on their “timeline” to grow and keep their Facebook followers updated. Businesses can also promote their Page through paid advertisements on Facebook. For businesses looking to sell online, Facebook offers online store options where your customers can shop and pay. Other advance features include sharing an ideal target demography with Facebook and then using its analysis tools like “Pixel”, Facebook displays your paid promotions to users that match your target demography. When you promote your posts and get more “Likes” and Followers, this is called “Reach”. Do you need a personal account linked to create a business page? Facebook lets individuals create Facebook pages via “Business Manager”. Facebook usually requires that you set up a business account as an added page via your personal account. But a Facebook business manager is a free tool for individuals who either do not have a personal account or don’t wish to create one. Therefore, users create a business page without the need for a linked personal account. In short, Facebook’s business manager allows companies and individuals to handle their ad accounts without any personal account needed. Let’s get started! Assuming that you have already created a Facebook business page either via business for Facebook or through your personal account, here are some points to keep in mind to get the best out of your business page: Choose from your type of business While creating a page you may be asked to select one of the below-mentioned options that you feel works best for you. Keep in mind that this can be modified to your reach, and in the long-run also help filter more relevant leads for your business.
- Local Business or Place
- Company, Organization or Institution
- Brand or Product
- Artist, Band or Public Figure
- Entertainment
- Cause or Community
Is it a good idea to advertise on Facebook?
Digital marketing has been growing at an all-new speed. Thanks to easy usage and customer awareness reaching out to your audience couldn’t have been easier. Facebook opens access for small businesses promote their offerings to a wide-audience of an estimated 2 billion+ users. A Facebook Business page is a must for most businesses whether you are a local pizza store, an e-commerce site or a well-established business operating world-wide. But how exactly does Facebook Business page works and how can you use it to grow your small business? Let’s explore: First, what is a Facebook Business page and can u create one without a personal account? A Facebook business page is a separate profile created with an intention to promote, sell online or create customer awareness about your brand. Say your business is a cupcake shop who takes online orders from Brampton and Mississauga. You can set-up a Facebook Business page to promote your offerings. Businesses share their stories by posting images, videos, and blogs on their “timeline” to grow and keep their Facebook followers updated. Businesses can also promote their Page through paid advertisements on Facebook. For businesses looking to sell online, Facebook offers online store options where your customers can shop and pay. Other advance features include sharing an ideal target demography with Facebook and then using its analysis tools like “Pixel”, Facebook displays your paid promotions to users that match your target demography. When you promote your posts and get more “Likes” and Followers, this is called “Reach”. Do you need a personal account linked to create a business page? Facebook lets individuals create Facebook pages via “Business Manager”. Facebook usually requires that you set up a business account as an added page via your personal account. But a Facebook business manager is a free tool for individuals who either do not have a personal account or don’t wish to create one. Therefore, users create a business page without the need for a linked personal account. In short, Facebook’s business manager allows companies and individuals to handle their ad accounts without any personal account needed. Let’s get started! Assuming that you have already created a Facebook business page either via business for Facebook or through your personal account, here are some points to keep in mind to get the best out of your business page: Choose from your type of business While creating a page you may be asked to select one of the below-mentioned options that you feel works best for you. Keep in mind that this can be modified to your reach, and in the long-run also help filter more relevant leads for your business.
- Local Business or Place
- Company, Organization or Institution
- Brand or Product
- Artist, Band or Public Figure
- Entertainment
- Cause or Community
Add a great cover photo Create a well designed and high definition picture for your business page cover. Your customers land on the page and should have a great first impression. A grainy picture or one that is not relevant to your business looks sloppy. Make use of this space by leaving a great first impression. Consider the Cover page as the store front banner if you were to have a brick and mortar store for your business. It matters! A well-organised shop with good ad works and promotions gains more popularity in the offline world. Similarly, when your business creates an online profile follow similar steps that would help you gain your customer’s trust.
Create a good URL Once your Facebook business page is set up, Facebook provides your page with a random URL name. To make your page easy to find and more shareable create a recognizable URL that customers can relate your business to. Example, Facebook.com/pages/BramptonCakeMasters.
Keep your “About” section optimized Who are you, what do you do where are you located and how you provide the said service? Your profile’s “about” section is one of the first places any customer will go to in order to look for all these answers. A well-written introduction can help boost the customer’s interest keeping them on your page for a longer time. Provide a short description on the preview tab and a full-length detailed understanding under the About tab.
Create Custom Tabs Tabs are basically landing pages inside your business page to help users navigate. Say for example you provide HR services in Brampton. You can add a custom tab for “Jobs” which will list all current openings for those of your viewers who are interested. The default tabs on your Facebook page include a timeline, about, photos, likes and more. But Facebook lets you add tabs as per your requirements.
Quality matters when it comes to content Pictures, videos, and blogs. Make sure to put your best foot forward. For blogs, share the most relevant blogs with your followers and use a thumbnail and caption to introduce the topic. This standard of posting is likely to get you more response in comparison to just copy/pasting a link. For videos, try live videos, or high-quality engaging videos that explain your work or aim at advertising your services or products. For pictures, Facebook provides different sizes to optimize your post use clear graphics and pictures with or without a message. Below are some of the sizes that work best for Facebook pictures. Cover photo: 851 px wide by 315 px tall Profile image: 180 px wide by 180 px tall Highlighted image: 1200 px wide by 717 px tall Shared image: 1200 px wide by 630 px tall Shared link thumbnail image: 1200 px wide by 627 px tall
Stay consistent Post regularly! Recycling your best working blogs or ad campaigns is a good idea but should be implemented with care. If you are not sure how much time you can give your Facebook business page, you can use a scheduler to post on given times on your behalf. Regular content allows your page to stay visible and compete in a very saturated online market. This will also affect your insights and views so it is better to keep a good idea in advance of how much and how often can you create posts and content for Facebook.
Try to win the Engagement badge An Engagement badge can be earned by quick responses. That is when a user leaves a message reply and respond with a quick and accurate answer. Facebook then records your response time and over-time can award the page with a badge that shows up on your page along with your business profile that could read “typically replies in XX mins”. This lets a customer know that the business is responsive and helps with enhanced customer engagement.
Add Milestones Did your business win an award for the best work in its field? Add this to your milestone list on Facebook. This lets a user know how the company is faring in real-time. To add milestones, click on the “Timeline” section of your Page, and click the “Offer, Event +” option in the page update composer near the top of your page.
Use Facebook Insights Facebook insights are Facebook’s analytic tool. This tool helps you measure and analyse your Facebook reach and presence. Insights give you a good understanding of all your posts engagement and efforts, helping you decide what works best and what doesn’t work with your Facebook followers. Thereby helping you customize content and alter it to match the needs of your viewers.
Ask for Reviews, Likes, and Shares Ask your Friends and Followers on your personal page to come Like your business page and share it with their network. This creates momentum for your page and activity.
Create Engaging Ads Facebook allows multiple ways of boosting your business page from lead generation ads to boosting a product or campaign or just a newsfeed article. Each time you can use and experiment with different ad options according to your need. Example, Facebook business page for your antique shop in Kitchener can talk about its event and promote it as an ad and newsfeed or lead generation ad asking people to sign up for the event and share their details to RSVP.
Overall Facebook ads and business page is a good start for any small business with limited promotional budget and reach. Right content, engagement and ad tools can help your business grow and reach out to potential customers. MarketinGROW help small businesses generate leads and enhance customer engagement by launching and managing a target Facebook Ad. Whether you already have a Facebook page or are new to it, we can help you! Book a consultation to know more.
