Your Facebook page is an important asset today.
When you’ve got a dynamic Facebook page filled with all of your customers and their friends in one place, you can easily reach them at any time you wish!
When you’re running a sale, launching a product, or simply need cash quick they’ll be there. And you won’t have to have somebody else get to these people for you.
This is the power of social media in a nutshell.
Communication is instant and responses come quickly!
Also, your competition is more than likely taking the initiative on building this audience. Right now they’ve got lots of fans liking, sharing, and commenting on their stuff thus getting a bigger page by the day.
Do you want to catch up with them and stay ahead?
Then you’ve got to stop ignoring the fact that social media is here to stay, and that it is one of the most powerful tools your business could ever have at its disposal.
First Problem: You Aren’t Reaching All Your Fans
This is one problem you may have once you start posting.
Because you only have 37 likes, only 4 or 5 people are going to see what you posted.
And they may not even be reading it…….
This could be for several reasons: they’re not engaged already, your message isn’t relevant, or your content is just boring.
I hate to say it, but lots of people are putting their audience to sleep!
Your content must be getting them excited, hungry, fascinated, mad, happy, or whatever your goal is.
When you fail to do this by getting likes or shares or comments, Facebook actually penalizes you by not letting your posts make it to the newsfeed.
That’s right. There’s this thing called Edgerank, which constantly sifts through the content posted to Facebook to see what’s most relevant to whom.
You’re competing with big pages like ESPN, George Takei, and Wal-Mart to get space on a particular user’s newsfeed.
Not only are you competing with other businesses, but the friends and relatives of these Facebook users too.
So this leads to another point……
2nd Problem: You Don’t Tell Your Customers What To Do In Your Advertising
This is also why online banner ads on some popular sites may not work.
Simply advertising to a circulation of 20,000 or more readers is not going to translate to a number of customers automatically.
More work must be done to convert them, but not as much as you think.
You can’t depend on getting free likes because it’ll take a long time to get a substantial audience.
That’s unless you’re the source of the next viral video craze like “Harlem Shake”….
It’s much easier if you start acting like a friend of theirs instead of a business.
Many businesses make the mistake of not including the “social” part of social media and constantly try to sell them on their products or services.
Think of it this way.
When you go to a party filled with friends, and you identify someone you may want to do business with……
What do you talk about to keep them talking to you?
More than likely it’s how you know the host, the latest sports news, politics if you two see eye to eye, funny stories, etc.
If you do happen to make a business connection here, it’s usually after getting past the small talk…..when the two of you feel like you know each other a little better and have some trust.
Cause hey, you’re a friend of their friends!
That’s how all business works when you think of it, and Facebook allows you to do that without going to hundreds of parties every day.
So, Facebook isn’t a megaphone for your sales message. It’s a place to have a daily dinner party or happy hour.
What You Need To Create A Facebook Page That Makes Money
Any citizen of the modern world, who’s constantly inundated with sales messages, learns to develop skepticism about the sources of those messages.
Who’s behind these messages? Should I trust them? What do they have to gain if I believe them?
A commercial claiming that a new shampoo makes your hair bouncier has less credibility than hearing your best friend rave about how a new shampoo made her own hair bouncier.
Well, duh. The company wants to sell you shampoo. Your friend doesn’t, so she gets more trust points.
To reiterate the point I’ve made before, Facebook is used mostly to keep up with what our friends are doing.
BUT if their friends are interacting with your business in some way, then that makes Facebook a very powerful marketing tool.
No marketing consultant should be getting you Facebook Likes PERIOD…….
They need to get you likes that are from people similar to those who already bought something from you.
These are the people who are likely to turn into customers for a lifetime.
And the good news is that over 1 billion people are on there now. You will definitely find more of the people you want for your business whether it’s local, national, or international.
So here’s a few of things I would help you create to get these customers:
- I will help you target the RIGHT fans, not just anyone who’s going to like your page. Too many people pay for likes and then can’t sell anything because of this.
- A content strategy that provides value to your audience and gets liked and shared very often
- A sales funnel that’ll move them from Facebook like, to engaged fan, to them giving you an email address, and then to visiting your business and possibly buying something
- A process that’ll repeat over and over with minimal effort without too much tweaking or hassle.Facebook Pages Must Be Fun, Inspiring, or InformativeYou need a way to get people to open up in the comments about their lives, or connect with them so they’ll like or share something that makes them feel good about themselves.A Facebook fan is always asking how your content fits into their lives, and you must do this work in advance.
For a business selling coffee or business services, this may seem obvious but there’s often a hidden reason why they buy from you.
It could be that your business services give them a huge spike in revenue, which makes them worry less about other expenses.
Your restaurant or café may be the only 2 hours of tranquility they get the entire day. After that they’re headed back to a hectic homelife or less-than-ideal work environment.
For another example, one of my clients is a realtor selling homes and condos in an affluent town. It’s not just a house he’s selling, but dozens of fun weekend giveaways or a new life after a lifetime of hard work.
He’s selling an experience, as well as himself.
A Facebook page is just an excellent way to communicate this.
The Importance Of Copywriting To Facebook Marketing
Copywriting is the art of crafting a sales message in words. Marketing is just the way we decide to deliver those words and finding the right audience to receive them.
That said, the copywriting part is often ignored in favor of the newest fad like social media networks such as Facebook.
I mention this to emphasize another point, which is that the need to create an appealing sales message will never go away.
You’re going to have to decide what to talk about on your page, how that content is going to reflect your business practices, and the best way to make this all turn into a sale.
Relationships Are Made With Sales Funnels
The greatest advantage that social media has is its human touch.
Ads can no longer be just a cold, distant message that says nothing more than “buy from us” because they’re tired of being sold to.
They need to feel involved with the people behind the business that they’ll actually be dealing with when they do buy something. They want to know that there’s something more than an exchange of dollars and services when they come to you.
So you will need to work to establish trust and rapport over an extended period of time.
This is why building a complete sales funnel is so important.
It’s one of the best efforts any business can make when they blaze a path for a prospect to follow.
In our case, we would build a funnel from the point where they like your page to getting the sale.
As you know by now, it’s fool’s luck to think that a like will easily turn into a sale instantly.
You will need to do many of the things I’ve suggested and more, like crafting emails with valuable information and irresistible offers.
Facebook Marketing and Email Marketing are matches made in marketing heaven. The two complement each other very well in terms of getting you that valuable trust that’ll encourage a customer to buy.
So, What Now?
Most advertising is dehumanizing, and you’ve got to avoid coming off the same way.
It pays no attention to ones mood, personal history, hopes and fears, or the particular needs they need at the moment.
That’s because they’ve never taken the time to get to know the customer. To find out exactly why they’ll come into one store and not another.
Your audience will like your page for more reasons than to just consume information or buy a product.
If you can accept this as an inevitable fact of doing business, then you will have what it takes to succeed on Facebook, and I would be glad to help.
More info will be coming to your inbox so stay tuned!
–Matthew King, Facebook Guy