I’ve updated our Facebook Marketing Infographic for 2015 to reflect the newest tactics that work in a crowded Facebook environment harder than ever to reach your fans. I debuted the original infographic back in 2011, and it’s continued to be the most popular infographic EVER at Socialmediaonlineclasses.com.
So what’s changed in 2015? Here are the 20% of the tactics you need to focus on for 80% of your results:
Attract a Targeted Fan Base
Size doesn’t matter here like it used to. Many business pages paid for cheap fans through fan farms or uber-cheap ads that got them fans for pennies, and now their business pages are suffering for it.
The goal is NOT to attract a massive fan base, but a targeted fan base. Consider running Page Like ads to those people who are most likely to buy from you.
Focus on Reach — the Gateway to Engagement
Engagement and Reach are a chicken and egg scenario: which comes first? Both really. You’ll never get engagement if you can’t reach your fans, but the more engagement you get, the more reach you get. So focus on Reach first, then aim for engagement. How? Boost your posts for higher reach, but make sure those posts are ones your fans are so excited about they’ll want to share them with friends, family, and colleagues.
Add a Call-to-Action on Your Timeline (Your Most Valuable Real Estate)
The purpose of the Timeline has evolved as Facebook has changed, but in 2015 it’s the most important piece of real estate you own on Facebook. Because the first time someone comes to your page they are curious — so hook them in with a great offer on your Timeline. Facebook released the restrictions on having a call-to-action on your Timeline, so definitely add an offer on it. You can even put a “button” on it for people to click to get your offer.
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Insights Are Your BFF
The biggest missed opportunity for small business owners on Facebook is mining their Insights for invaluable fan data. Your Insights tell you:
- which posts are the most popular (so you can do more of them and reach more of your fans)
- who your most valuable fans are (don’t try to please everyone — these fans are where your gold lies)
- what days and times are best to post
- and far more
If you’re not using Insights, you’re wasting your valuable time on Facebook by GUESSING at what works. Analyze your Insights and you’ll know immediately what your fans want, what works with them, and how to do it.
Contests Became So Much Simpler
Facebook released the restriction on contests needing to be run from a third-party app, so that has made contests far simpler than ever before to do. Keep your contest simple and you can generate new fans, leads, and sales. How?
- Use great images for your contest post
- Make entering the contest simple
- Giveaway something people want and don’t make them jump through hoops to get it
My favorite contest? Give everyone who enters a $10 gift card toward purchase at your business. They’re happy, and you get new buyers.
Be Persistent to Monetize Your Fans
I’ve discovered that most businesses think Facebook fans will see their posts and buy from them immediately.
It doesn’t work that way; analyze your own purchasing behavior and you’ll see the same trend. It takes time to build a relationship with people, and they don’t buy from you until they trust you.
You do the same thing.
Use Facebook as a lead generator, integrate email marketing, and follow up with those leads via email. Sales persistence is not a strong point for most small business owners; focus on it and your revenue will reflect it.
Get the Share and Open the Floodgates
The Share is the gold standard for engagement on Facebook, because you not only get more people seeing your posts, you get more fans, more clicks to your website, and more leads. Sharing is the engagement you need to focus on. Likes are great, comments are good, but Shares are the winner.
Give people a reason to Share your content and your Facebook page will benefit. Review your Insights for what posts have the most Shares and do more of those.
Use Ads to Reach Your Business Goals
Small business owners can definitely afford a Facebook ad, as they are budget-friendly and simple to use. Start small with a boosted post to reach more of your fans, then start moving toward more sophisticated ads to reach your business goals.
- Want more fans? Create a Page Likes ad.
- Want more traffic to your website? Create an ad for Website Clicks.
- Need leads for your business? Build a Website Conversion ad and follow up via email.
- Want sales from Facebook? Create aWebsite Conversion ad for a low-priced product.
- Want to make the most of all the above ads? once visitors become a fan, click through to your website, become a lead or make a small purchase, they are called a warm lead because they already know of you and have likely come to trust you. You can retarget those visitors using a Facebook ad, making the most of your efforts here on Facebook.