4 Facebook Strategies To Start Your Marketing

By Joshua Botello

Getting into the foray of Facebook marketing is every aspiration of the new business owner. They jump into facebook to access those 1 billion users, only to find out it's harder than it looks and nothing they do works like what they have heard about. Using Facebook for marketing is all about strategy and using it as a tool requires some planning and business knowledge to be successful. Here are 4 easy strategies to get started on your Facebook marketing journey. 

But first...

There are 3 requirements you must have before you start marketing your business on Facebook:

1. You have to know your customer. Knowing your customers will let you know what they want and what they are looking for.
2. You have to know the funnel. Knowing what customers are looking for and knowing that at each stage of the buying process will inform you of the content you will make and how you can get them to buy.
3. You need a business page. You really do. You can advertise, get analytics, and do so much more with a business page for FREE. Just trust me.

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Content Marketing

Depending on the industry, content marketing for your business can build your reputation and authority with your customers. There are two approaches you can take to make the most of your content to get customers.

1. Sharing - By far the easiest way to use the content for your marketing on Facebook is to share it. Why? If you're not a writer or you are just starting out, sharing content like articles or inspirational quotes to build interest and find out what kind of content your prospects are going to like.
2. Create - If you are comfortable trying to create your own content or would like to try it out, you can write your own targeted articles to the people you want to attract. If you don't know what you would write about, don't worry I got you covered. Use the same topics and styles you have been sharing. If your prospects responded well to the content you shared, chances are they would respond well to the same stuff you produce if it aligns with your audience.

Stories Marketing

Instagram stories have been all the rage in the last year and Facebook has gotten in the program as well. Why? Approximately, 80% of the monthly active users on Facebook are Millenials, and 80% of that - or about 300 million - have adopted Facebook stories.

So how would you use it? That depends on your industry. Stories are primarily used to give quick timely updates that are only available for 24 hours once they're posted. How can YOU use it? Well, the most interesting way is as a vlog or a video diary. This gives your customers behind the scenes look at you, your staff, and the business as a whole, so they can follow your story (no pun intended). Stories as a strategy can humanize a brand so people can know, like, and trust you enough for them to be customers. Period.

Photo by Perry Grone on Unsplash

Groups Marketing

This is the most recent strategy that has come around since advertising on Facebook has become even more competitive in the last year or so. Facebook groups were once just a nice way to meet like-minded people to hang out with online about your favorite shows or crocheting. It has now become a secret weapon for building a prospect pool without spending huge amounts of capital on advertising. 

How? Let me explain. 

1. Having people in the group already is a captive audience. These people are joining and want to be there. 
2. Once they are in the group you are engaging with them exclusively and gathering information to use for your messaging. 
3. You can use the minimal amount of advertising to get people into this exclusive group based on the demographics you already have. 

Just remember, this isn’t an excuse to pitch all day every day! Asking questions, producing live streams, making contests are all additional tools you can use to gather data and make those members into even bigger fans. You will undoubtedly get some sales out of it.

Video Marketing

Getting into video marketing in general or on any social platform may seem daunting, especially if you have never done a video before. The key to good video marketing, as with all marketing is figuring out your sales funnel. Why’s that? Knowing your sales funnel gives you two distinct advantages. 

1. Knowing what your prospects are thinking and how you will move them along the process is invaluable when you need them to buy your services. For example, if a prospect stumbles on a video about how great your product is but don’t know anything about you or your company they may not believe all the claims you make if you are some random person on Facebook
2. This will save you from burning out. If you are only creating content that matters (quality) and not just random stuff every day because that is what gets eyeballs (quantity), then you won’t be scrambling and chasing prospects. You can be more strategic about what content you make and when you make it.

Video is one of the most versatile strategies, you can use the content you find or make and turn it into a video; you can use videos for stories instead of pictures to tell a better story, and you can even use video to either market or share content within a Facebook group. This is why I am personally passionate about using video for business marketing. 

Remember, the point of these strategies is to plan and not just shotgun content or ads. As I mentioned before: Think about who your customer is, what they might be looking for, and tailor your strategy or content around that. These are the simplest strategies to get started with and you can even create more complex strategies with aspects of each of the ones above or others. The sky's the limit. Good luck with your Facebook marketing journey!

Funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.