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.
Tips: You can upload a photo, slideshow, or a video as your page cover
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.
Tips: Include your location where possible. Especially if you are a local business
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.
Tips: Readability is important. Keep it simple, short, and concise.
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.
Tips: Resist the temptation. Don’t go overboard by overpopulating the section with too many Tabs.
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
Tip: Brand your content by adding logo, contact information, and standard graphical theme, where possible.
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.
Tips: Maintain a monthly Calendar of content to ensure consistency.
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.
Tips: You can activate an auto-responder chat-bot to automate the first response process.
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.
Tips: You have more milestones to share than you can think of. Share the little wins, new skills acquired, new certification, etc. an auto-responder chat-bot to automate the first response process.
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.
Tips: Compare your engagement rate to decide which type of content and messaging is yielding higher response rate.
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.
Tips: Ask your Facebook Friends to share the Page within their network. This will help you make new connections with mutual contacts.
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.
Tips: Use A/B Testing to evaluate the right audience, message, and format to make the most of your Ad spending.
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.
FACEBOOK ADVERTISEMENT MADE EASY
Facebook itself may have a reputation for being obsolete and dead. But in reality, Facebook ad campaigns are still a very good source of lead generation and income. Almost all businesses new or established, big and small have a Facebook Business Page. As a result, sales through Facebook Ads and Facebook ads revenue itself has doubled.
This proves Facebook and Facebook business page is still a key player in digital marketing and that it isn’t the platform that is unreliable but in fact most people just post their advertisement on the newsfeed or the wrong target audience.
In this article, we will help you understand the best ways to advertise on Facebook and how to set up a campaign on Facebook.
To start with the basics, let us answer some common questions our clients ask:
Is it a good idea to advertise on Facebook?
According to EMarketer study, 96% of digital marketing experts consider Facebook advertisement the best-paid option out of all social media platforms. The most important reason to remember is the size of Facebook and its advantage for small businesses. It gives access to billions of users and a competitive start to small businesses.
Take a look at the advantages of Facebook advertisement:
- Easily targeted ads via Facebook data to a large group of target audience compared to other platforms.
- Easy lead generation for business profiles voluntarily submitted by Facebook users.
- Facebook advertisement is cheaper than Google AdWords.
- Better reach for smaller businesses.
Note that, Survey’s suggest “Half the marketers who use video content see an increase in shares, forwarding and better click-through rates.”
If you still haven’t incorporated video content as a part of your marketing strategy maybe it’s time to change that.
If you still haven’t incorporated video content as a part of your marketing strategy maybe it’s time to change that.
What are the different Types of Facebook ads?
There are 5 types of Facebook ads:
- Mobile news feed
- Audience network
- Desktop News Feed
- Desktop right column
What are the ways to manage your Facebook ads?
There are two ways to handle your Facebook advertisement:
A. The beginner version – Ads Manager
Ads manager is a simple effective tool that comes as you set up your business page. An ad manager makes it easy for you to manage and control your Facebook page it helps with:
- Setting up new campaigns.
- Create new ads for each of these.
- Manage your bids (or how much you’re spending on each ad).
- You can create different audiences to target.
- Optimize, enhance, or improve these campaigns while running.
- Even track and test ad campaigns, too.
B. The Pro version – Power Editor
Power editor is a more advanced version. This tool gives you a few more customisable options. Also, important to note is that Instagram ads can only run through a Power Editor tool. Consult with our digital marketing team to know more on how MarketinGROW utilizes Power Editor.
How to make effective Facebook ad campaigns?
Now that you are aware of what a Facebook ad campaign is and what it does let’s understand the basic requirements to make your Facebook campaigns a success! And by success, we mean More Reach, More Views & More profits!
It’s important to understand why Facebook advertisement fail. The main reason is that most people are just on Facebook to pass time or catch up on friends and family not to shop. So how do you get people aren’t even interested in shopping to visiting your business page? Well for that we create a hierarchy or a sales funnel, what this does is while some of the ad campaigns create awareness and interests and get the customer’s attention others just nurture. Something similar to email marketing.
Let’s go step by step
Step 1: Create a Budget
Your budget can decide your reach and conversation rates. Decide a budget that is pocket-friendly but also accommodates a few campaigns to run side by side. This is because as you read above your sales funnels will have a few simultaneous campaigns running aiming at leads, awareness and nurture. Facebook will ask you to set a daily budget aside for the promotion and calculating this will remain crucial.
Use the below-given formula to decide your budget.
Product value example 100 x Sales needed: 10 = $1000 at 1% Conversions rate.
At this rate, you will need 1000 clicks to make $1000.
Alternatively, you can opt for manual or automatic bidding here Facebook will decide how much you should spend for a good campaign.
Step 2: Creating Campaigns
a. Awareness campaigns:
Keep simple content that grabs people’s attention. Something that blends into their feed and doesn’t feel like a sponsored ad. In other words, doesn’t annoy the customer. What this does is it makes viewers receptive of your information.
Facebook places a pixel (java code) on each users’ device so this helps with retargeting ads, ever searched for something and noticed all your ad feed fill up with similar items? That is the retargeting audience with relatable ads they may be interested in. Find your audience based on interest and demographic details.
b. Consideration campaigns:
Now that you have your viewers’ attention target them with offers that help convert them from just viewers to leads. For example, shoe business from Brampton- if your users looking for new shoes on the website target them with updated campaigns of “sign up for free e-book on how to dress right with the right shoes”. The plan is to give them something for the least amount of money as possible in exchange for their information. Other examples for these kinds of lead magnets are webinars, giveaways, checklist and eBooks.
c. Conversions campaigns:
This is the final step the step where you take the stage and showcase your product. You have created the awareness and have your viewers’ attention which has led to your page generating leads, now you just send them the campaigns with your offers that seem irresistible leading them to give you a payment for your service or product!
Keep in mind to price your product a bit lower than your actual high-end price this helps a customer feel comfortable to spend on your product. Selling something for a lower value initially will build trust. This is called “tripwire” you may have seen ads on low-cost EMI or subscription rates this is exactly the that.
Step 3: Monitor and Analyse Campaign Progress
Like any other advertisement campaign, you must monitor the response each of your ad-set is receiving. Ideally, you should come-up with multiple ad campaigns and diversify your budget to analyse which ad is faring well. Ads with less text and more thought-provoking visuals typically tend to garner better response over the ones with lengthy text and standard stock image. Create A/B testing model to analyse different messages and then based on the response, you can pull your budget towards the ad set that is gaining the most traction. This needs to be an on-going process.
Although this can be a tedious and confusing process the right team and approach to Facebook marketing can still be very complicated and competitive for beginners and small businesses.
Let us help you book a consultation to know how Facebook advertisement can help your business grow.
Try adding tutorials to your blogs or simple videos showing how things work or how you make them is a great way of engaging customers and letting them “see” what you are offering! So yes blogs can have videos!
What are Video Ads? Do they perform better?
In the early 90’s-00’s while television was still a major source of entertainment and commercial ads, only second to movies and blockbuster our streaming godfather. Television ads were still in demand.
But with the average person spending more time on their phone compared to watching tv. Opting for faster broadband compared to tv subscriptions was a clear sign that large brands had to find a new way to get to their customers.
“According to Nielsen ratings, TV viewing has been dropping about 10% per quarter.
And thus ads on social media and searches started to boom.
This brought in a unique opportunity for small players as well. The growth in social media and frequent online searches meant with a few tweaks a small player could directly compete and in some cases even win over their larger counterparts. Thereby, providing equal opportunity for business of any size to reach out to its audience.
Now to the second part do Google Ads and Video ads in general perform better ? short answer it depends on your goal. If you are looking for engagement and video ads are better but in case you are looking for reach and to remain easily scannable image ads would be a better option. Although, in our experience what suits your business is only determined by your audience and target market preferences.
SERPs like Google and Bing had already begun testing video ads in 2017 and now most searches on google immediately show up a related video. With audiences and search engines both showing an interest in video content it’s no surprise companies large and small are trying to monetize and create a niche for their brand through video ads.
Video marketing helps a brand set its tone, message and directly relay the information with its customers. It helps the brand in creating a genuine connection with its customers leading to brand loyalty and better ROI.
How to create an effective video marketing content?
Creating videos for ads or as a brand content has been easier than ever before. With the right vision in mind, a marketer can convert company videos into a lead generating tool on its own. Given the current scenario where social media marketing and content marketing has redefined how we see marketing strategies. Branding and storytelling have taken the spotlight. Propelled by humanizing and adding empathy to your product and services allowed the business to connect with its customers in a meaningful fashion. Especially now where due to pandemic empathy is what will dictate how your customers see you.
Take note of these few points on how to create good video content for marketing
- Make it informative, share your story;
- Show products or services utilization;
- Showcase customer feedback, testimonials;
- Demonstrate product usage;
- Show the people behind the screen, introduce the team and staff;
- Answer customer FAQs on live sessions &
- Add an informative video as a banner on your website.
Bonus Tip : Reconsider video size and format. Different platforms have their own size guide you may have to resize or trim the video, its also a good idea to make your website videos mobile friendly and generally of a smaller size in order for it to not affect your site speed and loading time.
With the average online audience’s attention around 10 seconds(or less), it becomes critical to make the first impression the best one! Be it by adding an informative video to your website banner or creating video ads for Facebook and social media in general. The sooner you incorporate video content into your marketing strategy the better it will work.
This goes without saying but customers will look at the content as well, so rather than just making too many videos try and focus on making a set number of video content a month but with a clear agenda and motive behind creating it. This could be a campaign, a new launch or lead gen activity but it becomes momentous for the organization to know its marketing strategy and how to make it work in order to result in good profits.
To conclude, do a simple search, say for example look up “how to make Gold leaf art” and the first 5 results would be a video. With search engines looking to provide value for their users’ time and artificial intelligence learning from your behavior online be it on Facebook or Google. Your customers are sure to be shown video results or ads as a part of their daily internet browsing experience (simply based on search keywords they type). So much that they may not even realize it! And that is exactly why you will need video marketing and content for your business to stay relevant.
Need more help creating good video graphics and content in Brampton, Mississauga, and Toronto? MarketinGROW offers graphic and video marketing along with its digital marketing expertise for your business. Book an appointment or take a digital marketing assessment to know what your business needs today!
VIDEO CONTENT- MVP OF 2020
Earlier this year, One of the top predictions by Marketing Experts for 2020 was the Popularity of Video Content.
Even if we keeps the stats aside, how often have your found yourself binge watching videos or an innocent DIY search that ended up resulting in you watching cat videos at 3am? We have all been through that rabbit hole and that’s exactly what causes video content to do better!
Leading online search platforms like Google supporting video ads, while social media giants such as Facebook/Instagram & even Twitter launching their own short video features (stories and fleets respectively) this prediction seems to have materialized into reality sooner than expected. No surprise here, that given the current pandemic and longer state-imposed lock downs in place, a lot of us have been spending more time online and on social media in general. This has marketers all over the world hailing Video Marketing as their holy grail to win in terms of marketing strategies this year.
In this article we help you understand basics of video marketing, how to create a good strategy as well as video trends for 2020! Read on.
The rise of video content
When the era of digitization started off, it started off with curiosity, sharing a common interest and the need to stay connected. Decades later the radio has turned into a podcast and TV evolved into streaming and binge-watching. But what has not changed is the love for quick entertainment, engagement and immersive experience which still very much rules the way customers connect to brands, products and services.
Thanks to technology and the availability of the internet on all our devices, the online time spent by an average person has quadrupled.
It’s no longer a secret that video content demand has seen a steady rise. Effectively, creating a huge opportunity for both video content makers and video marketing.
Note that, Survey’s suggest “Half the marketers who use video content see an increase in shares, forwarding and better click-through rates.”
If you still haven’t incorporated video content as a part of your marketing strategy maybe it’s time to change that.
If you still haven’t incorporated video content as a part of your marketing strategy maybe it’s time to change that.
First, lets talk about What’s Trending in Terms of Video Marketing?
For a long period, YouTube has held the title when it comes to being the most-watched video platform. With its audience mainly between the ages of 18-49 years, it also holds the title of “platform with the highest reach” compared to cable networks.
But it’s not the only player in the game. While TikTok is gaining popularity all over the globe it’s still a few steps away from being able to help companies and influencers monetize the way Facebook and Instagram do.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Instagram have launched stories, live streaming, embedded videos and even shoppable video ads which have been gaining popularity among its users.
Take a look at some of the video marketing trends for 2020:
- Video shoppable post
- Stories
- Facebook live videos
- Interactive videos (AR / VR /3D)
- 1 on 1 video experience (google hangouts, zoom, Facebook/ insta live q&a)
- Vlogging (aka video blogs, popular on social media and YouTube)
- Video ads
- Educational videos (DIY, training or Q&A’s)
Now you may want to know Can Blogs Have Videos?
Absolutely !! In-fact we at MarketinGROW encourage our clients (irrespective of their company size) to create and share video content on their website along with their blogs and social media platforms. It’s Quick, Informative as well as engaging.
Try adding tutorials to your blogs or simple videos showing how things work or how you make them is a great way of engaging customers and letting them “see” what you are offering! So yes blogs can have videos!
What are Video Ads? Do they perform better?
In the early 90’s-00’s while television was still a major source of entertainment and commercial ads, only second to movies and blockbuster our streaming godfather. Television ads were still in demand.
But with the average person spending more time on their phone compared to watching tv. Opting for faster broadband compared to tv subscriptions was a clear sign that large brands had to find a new way to get to their customers.
“According to Nielsen ratings, TV viewing has been dropping about 10% per quarter.
And thus ads on social media and searches started to boom.
This brought in a unique opportunity for small players as well. The growth in social media and frequent online searches meant with a few tweaks a small player could directly compete and in some cases even win over their larger counterparts. Thereby, providing equal opportunity for business of any size to reach out to its audience.
Now to the second part do Google Ads and Video ads in general perform better ? short answer it depends on your goal. If you are looking for engagement and video ads are better but in case you are looking for reach and to remain easily scannable image ads would be a better option. Although, in our experience what suits your business is only determined by your audience and target market preferences.
SERPs like Google and Bing had already begun testing video ads in 2017 and now most searches on google immediately show up a related video. With audiences and search engines both showing an interest in video content it’s no surprise companies large and small are trying to monetize and create a niche for their brand through video ads.
Video marketing helps a brand set its tone, message and directly relay the information with its customers. It helps the brand in creating a genuine connection with its customers leading to brand loyalty and better ROI.
How to create an effective video marketing content?
Creating videos for ads or as a brand content has been easier than ever before. With the right vision in mind, a marketer can convert company videos into a lead generating tool on its own. Given the current scenario where social media marketing and content marketing has redefined how we see marketing strategies. Branding and storytelling have taken the spotlight. Propelled by humanizing and adding empathy to your product and services allowed the business to connect with its customers in a meaningful fashion. Especially now where due to pandemic empathy is what will dictate how your customers see you.
Take note of these few points on how to create good video content for marketing
- Make it informative, share your story;
- Show products or services utilization;
- Showcase customer feedback, testimonials;
- Demonstrate product usage;
- Show the people behind the screen, introduce the team and staff;
- Answer customer FAQs on live sessions &
- Add an informative video as a banner on your website.
Bonus Tip : Reconsider video size and format. Different platforms have their own size guide you may have to resize or trim the video, its also a good idea to make your website videos mobile friendly and generally of a smaller size in order for it to not affect your site speed and loading time.
With the average online audience’s attention around 10 seconds(or less), it becomes critical to make the first impression the best one! Be it by adding an informative video to your website banner or creating video ads for Facebook and social media in general. The sooner you incorporate video content into your marketing strategy the better it will work.
This goes without saying but customers will look at the content as well, so rather than just making too many videos try and focus on making a set number of video content a month but with a clear agenda and motive behind creating it. This could be a campaign, a new launch or lead gen activity but it becomes momentous for the organization to know its marketing strategy and how to make it work in order to result in good profits.
To conclude, do a simple search, say for example look up “how to make Gold leaf art” and the first 5 results would be a video. With search engines looking to provide value for their users’ time and artificial intelligence learning from your behavior online be it on Facebook or Google. Your customers are sure to be shown video results or ads as a part of their daily internet browsing experience (simply based on search keywords they type). So much that they may not even realize it! And that is exactly why you will need video marketing and content for your business to stay relevant.
Need more help creating good video graphics and content in Brampton, Mississauga, and Toronto? MarketinGROW offers graphic and video marketing along with its digital marketing expertise for your business. Book an appointment or take a digital marketing assessment to know what your business needs today!
