Whenever you read anything eCommerce related, there is a big chance you’ll eventually bump into an article about Facebook marketing tips. After reading a dozen of them, it should be clear how to create a fantastic Facebook marketing strategy and reach all potential customers. But it’s not that simple, right?
Well, one of the reasons might be constant changes in Facebook news feed algorithm. You start implementing known strategy, and you realize that it is not working anymore. Keeping up with constant changes is far from simple, so the key is to be up to date and have the mindset that you’re learning rather than wasting money on Facebook.
Today, 9 respected marketers share their Facebook marketing tips and insights on how to reach full potential regarding generating valuable leads and sales. Read on to find out what is hot right now.
What type of Facebook content generates the most traffic to the website?
If you’re looking at content purely as a traffic driver, then a simple image is often better than a video.
This is particularly true if you run a ‘clicks to website’ campaign. In fact, you’d be mad not to use that campaign type as Facebook does a very good job of prioritizing views to people most likely to take your desired action. However, clicks cost more than other campaign types. Why? Because you’re taking people away from Facebook and that carries a price premium. So instead of focusing on clicks in the first instance, reverse engineer your strategy.
Video is much better at keeping people on Facebook and engaged with your content. Furthermore, you can remarket to people who have watched 25, 50, 75, 95 and 100% of your videos. For me, that’s the opportunity. Drive video engagement and views for pennies, then advertise to those engaged at least 50%, but preferably 75-100%, with a click to website campaign. This does two things; it enables people to pre-qualify themselves by viewing your video and greatly increases the likelihood of your clicks to ‘site campaign achieving a higher CTR and lower CPC.
Videos are viral. When a Facebook user is scrolling through the News Feed, he/she will most likely stop at a video and click play. Videos provide a more animated well-rounded experience for an audience. Although images and photos may catch a user’s attention at first glance, sometimes photos can be limiting to conveying the message clearly. Videos allow more creativity, enables voice and provides a visual simultaneously. When your audience absorbs your message clearly, they are more likely to connect with your brand and will be curious or interested enough to visit your website.
If you just share a great picture or video on Facebook it will generate a lot of buzz and engagement. However, that doesn’t always translate to more traffic, since people can just like it and move on. If you want to create brand awareness (that will generate traffic later) go for live videos, since they are generating the most engagement among all content types. If not, case studies and blog posts can get you traffic immediately.
Bite-size content that can stand on its own does extremely well on social. Whether it’s a video clip, an image, or a quote, if it’s something that provides instant value, even though it isn’t the “whole” piece of content, it will get more engagement. If you have a 45-minute presentation you gave and it’s on YouTube, take a really strong 30 seconds from that presentation and break it up into its own social post. Then within that post, link users to the blog post/video where they can view the whole thing.
Due to the decline of organic reach on Facebook, it’s great to apply carousel website click ads for traffic. The visual element captures attention and the ability for the user to scroll through a selection of images works a treat on mobile. You also have the chance to apply enticing CTA buttons on each image. Canvas ads on Facebook are another excellent traffic generator. With Canvas, you can create a similar experience to a story book which draws the user in. It’s a fullscreen, mobile journey where videos can also be utilized. Again, use awesome CTAs to entice click-throughs.CTA buttons on each image. Canvas ads on Facebook are another excellent traffic generator. With Canvas, you can create a similar experience to a story book which draws the user in. It’s a fullscreen, mobile journey where videos can also be utilized. Again, use awesome CTAs to entice click-throughs.
While I am a big believer that every business must create their own strategy to engage and enhance their unique Facebook followers, I have found that using branded graphics that share smart, funny or insightful quotes or ideas tends to gain the most response on Facebook. With each graphic, I always include my website URL and logo, as well, and include a link in my posts, also, that lead them back to my website. These quick images with quick thoughts provoke the audience just enough to want them to gain more from our website – almost acting as a tease to what they can really gain if they click and move forward to our unique URL.
What is your top one advice on how to use Facebook to generate sales?
Answer your customer’s questions. Answer them on Facebook, write content on your website to answer their questions and link back to it, solve their problems and answer their questions. For most businesses, you aren’t trying to “sell” on social media, you are trying to give. Give a lot, build some relationships, and people will gradually start to notice who you are and what you do and they will start to fill out the forms on your site, contact you, and buy from you. Give value till it hurts, and try very hard to never ask for the sale (it comes eventually, but hold off and let them ask you for the sale).
The best way to drive sales using Facebook is to produce epic content of +5000 words on a monthly basis, publish it on your blog, and then spend as much as you can advertising that content to Custom Audiences of your email database and Retargeting Audiences from your website. The key here is to produce content that demonstrates your expertise and positions you so much higher than any of your competition that your prospects can’t help but do business with you.
Utilize Facebook’s updated Offers tab. Vouchers, deals and coupons are great incentives to drive sales. Every customer is looking for the best quality deal out there. Facebook makes this easy for your brand and your customers to access your deals on your Facebook Page. Your customers can easily save coupons they see from your ads and navigate directly to your site to purchase. Now that this feature has recently been updated, it is definitely something worth checking out to boost your business.
You can only generate sales from Facebook if that’s a social platform used by your current customers and prospects. If they are using other social platforms, then you are wasting your time on Facebook. If you can connect with potential customers on Facebook, the best way to turn them into customers is by answering their questions about your product/service, let your existing customers use your page to tell everyone why they love your product, and, if necessary, offer a social incentive to get them to try you (e.g. a Facebook 15% discount).
Don’t sell – at least not as your opening move! Look at social media and native advertising as playing a game of chess. Your moves should be strategic with the end goal ‘checkmate’ insight, but not the priority for your early moves.
Build your audience by targeting them with relevant content first, and then use the plethora of remarketing and audience targeting options at your disposal to drive conversions.Combine this with your Analytics data, such as your best-performing demographics, and you set yourself up for a win.
It’s not the quickest win, granted, but it’s a more efficient and scalable way to turn cold traffic into leads and sales.
Over to you
All things considered, to succeed in Facebook you always have to be valuable and genuine to your potential customers and community you’ve already build. Nothing generates more relevant traffic and sales than people who love and trust what you do. As it was mentioned before, the best way to engage with them now is through videos, but no one know’s what’s the next IT thing going to be!
