There's no doubt that Facebook itself and content on it sells like hotcakes right now and is fetching more and more recognition by the passing day. It has gone from being just a social networking site to a communications system that is difficult for the entrepreneurs to be able to ignore for using it as a platform for marketing.
Facebook can be helpful in expanding the customer base, enhancing visibility and eventually develop your bottom line. Nonetheless, reaching out to each user on Facebook in not possible and neither do you want to. A rightly researched campaign targeted well could augment the efficiency of the advertisement.
1. Clarity in the message and design
The business page at Facebook is not for socializing, rather it's for marketing. Many marketers commit a mistake by creating a page for their business that is more like an ordinary social page out there. To facilitate advertising, the design has to solely revolve around the business and its offers. Irrelevant posts at the wall, irrelevant images in the photo album should be discouraged strictly. Moreover, important information of your business like contact information, coupons, discounts etc. shouldn't be kept hidden.
2. Call for action
All of the marketing done for a business in the world goes waste if there is no strong call for action. The very common mistake done by those new to the world of advertising is they forget to have a call to action that is strong. People themselves would not waste time to bother thinking on what to do next after they are done reading an advertisement. People want to be directed what to do next. Usage of strong phrases such as "Click here to buy!" or some text along those same lines is helpful. The visitors of your page should be directed towards exactly what you want them to do.
3. Incentives for the visitors
A fan page becomes very successful when the page has a very hefty coupon or some other kind of offer right in the front and centre of the page, that visitors get to see right when they get to see the page. People have to be given a reason that has to be alluring enough to act along with being directed to act. Having discounts, special memberships, special offers, discount codes, customized discounts and more on offer would be a grand way to persuade visitors to take action. In addition to that there could be applications that would get visitors to hit on the Like link so as to take benefit of the available offers, in the process letting you confine other information about them which in return helps the business house to more accurately plan their target demographically.
4. Capturing leads
As already mentioned in the previous point, the business house has to be in the look out of getting the visitor's information by doing everything possible. Getting location, age, sex, age, status and the likes would be great for narrowing the demographic but being able to get the email address and other contact information is real jackpot. After having that, marketing to them again and again becomes easier. There are applications and software that can enable the visitors to opt into the mailing lists and much more.
5. Use of images
Pictures attract better than words, specifically over the internet. There should be an attractive image instead of having a block of text as the first thing a visitor gets to see when they get on the page. An attractive image should be given at the little profile space on the left and one bigger eye-catching image in the front and center. As discussed earlier this could be an image for advertising a special offer or something of the same nature. Having this image as the face of the call to action would also do a great deal since the call to action should feature above the break, as a lot of visitors wouldn't care to scroll down.
6. Targeted advertisement
The advertising tools at Facebook facilitate targeting the ad to specific demographic groups. This would help in promoting the product, service or organization to the specific group which might be interested in it more than the general Facebook users. The funds for advertisement should not be spent on Facebook users in countries outside of the reach of the organization. Rather, the market should be analyzed well and the advertisements should be targeted on more specific Facebook users.
There is a whole lot of significant information about users available on their timelines. A target audience could be selected for the Facebook ad according to the location of the users that can narrow down to the zip, education, ages, employers etc. Specific potential consumers could be targeted based on gender, status, interests and the likes. The more specifically the ad gets targeted the more effective it would be.
7. Marketing to the current followers
If the organization already has a Facebook page, the campaign should be started by advertising to the existing followers. This advertisement would be potentially the most effective since the audience targeted already would have an interest in the product or service on offer. Connections targeting should be simply selected while the ad for Facebook is getting designed. Only those people already following the page or those along with their friends could be targeted. Outreach to potential consumers, who probably share related interests and demographics with the existing followers, could be broadened by targeting the friends of connections.
8. Multiple ads
Social media is an opportunity to design many rotating advertisements on the website. Advantage of this option should be taken since it allows identifying which advertisements are the most effectual. Different text and images should be used to figure out which advertisement attracts the most interest. Different advertising strategies could be used to determine the target audience and recognize the most efficient ways to build the database of customers. Multiple rotating advertisements also could keep the interest of the users hooked.
9. Advertisement manager
The advertisement manager on Facebook allows constant evaluation of the effectiveness of the ads to help you make necessary changes in accordance. Advertising Performance Report or Responder Demographics Report could be exported to learn more about the performance of the advertisements. More detailed information like age, gender and location about the users clicking on the ads could be found out. To evaluate trends, the performance of the ad over a period could be checked by assessing the number of clicks the ad created. The information extracted from the advertisement manager could help in strategizing the advertising plan for a long term period on Facebook and other social networking sites.
Using the available advertising tools smartly and effectively can make advertisement on Facebook successful. The ad should be targeted at specific users on Facebook. Constant evaluation should be done to check the effectiveness of the ad in order to boost the profile. Using Facebook as a platform for advertising is an interactive process that benefits both the consumers and organizations selling products and services.
About the author - Claudia is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on luxury and technology. She recently read an article on social networking sites that attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on designs promoting green living.