Facebook is one of the best platforms ecommerce businesses can utilize to expand their online presence. The network has billions of users, so finding your audience on the site can dramatically increase your store traffic and may even help you to make your first online sale.
You may be missing out on a fairly easy opportunity to market your store if your business doesn’t have a Facebook presence. Fortunately, Facebook is free and simple to set up.
Developing your marketing strategy, however, is a little more complicated. Nevertheless, with some planning and preparation, you’ll soon be able to launch a successful campaign!
What is Facebook marketing?
Facebook marketing is the use of Facebook to advertise your products, promote your brand, and connect with potential and existing customers.
Ecommerce retailers can use Facebook to establish their brand identity and share important information with customers, helping shoppers get to know the business. It’s also a good platform for showcasing specific products or advertising sales and promotions.
There are two main forms of Facebook marketing. One is the traditional method, which involves creating and managing your shop’s profile on the platform. The other is paid ecommerce advertising, which displays an ad for your business to users and charges a fee whenever someone clicks on it.
The best Facebook marketing strategies use a combination of these methods.
Paid ads can be expensive, though, so you may not be able to invest in them at the very beginning of your ecommerce venture. Some small ecommerce brands often choose to focus solely on building a strong presence on the network before they buy Facebook ads.
Why is Facebook marketing important for ecommerce?
Social media marketing can be extremely beneficial for helping entrepreneurs to get customers for their ecommerce businesses. Shoppers like to look up companies before they make a purchase, and social media is one of the first places they go to research brands.
Your presence on the different networks helps consumers learn more about your business, which makes it much easier for them to decide to become customers.
This avenue also offers a very easy way to connect with your customers. When shoppers have questions or concerns, they’re highly likely to reach out to brands here. Being active on your social platforms ensures that you’re communicating regularly with your audience.
In addition, people often use Facebook and similar platforms in their leisure time. While they’re scrolling through their feed, there’s a good chance they’ll be interested in viewing some ecommerce products.
They may not be in a hurry or looking for anything specific, so it’s possible that they’ll click on your ads out of curiosity.
Of all of the social networks, Facebook is possibly the most important for ecommerce.
Statista notes that as of Q4 2020, the website had more than 2.7 billion active users every month, making it the widest-reaching social media channel. People of all ages use Facebook, so the site is likely a valuable tool for connecting with your audience.
Facebook supports several mediums as well, which sets it apart from other social networks. YouTube is all about videos, and Instagram focuses heavily on photos.
Facebook, on the other hand, allows you to easily share text posts, photos, videos, and links. You can use a wide variety of content creation strategies on Facebook, so it’s a good place to consolidate your social media marketing efforts.
How to be successful in Facebook marketing
Chances are, most of your customers are on Facebook. If your online store isn’t selling as well as you’d like, you can use the platform to expand your online presence and also find new shoppers.
Facebook can be a highly successful channel to use to market your business, but it requires more work than simply setting up a profile. As with all types of advertising, you need a well-crafted strategy for Facebook marketing.
Here are several tips to help your online store achieve success with Facebook!
1. Determine your target audience
Any successful marketing campaign starts with a clear plan. Your broad goals are most likely to attract customers and increase sales, but to make this happen, you need to identify all of the specifics.
Start by defining your target audience. You probably aren’t trying to appeal to every single person in the world, so you should know exactly the demographic to whom you’re marketing.
People of different ages, locations, and backgrounds will respond to different styles. For this reason, you need to narrow down your audience before you create any content for your marketing campaign.
You may want to begin by creating a buyer persona, which is a detailed representation of your ideal customer. Your buyer persona is a description of one person, but it should capture all of the qualities you’re keeping in mind throughout the marketing process.
Beyond demographic information, you also should define what your audience is looking for and why they may be interested in your company. How do your products fulfill their needs or wants? What are they looking for in a brand?
How do they search online for products? How do they interact with businesses online? Answering all of these questions will help you figure out how to appeal to your audience.
2. Define your objectives
Outlining your goals and objectives is just as important as identifying your target audience.
Your goals are your broad hopes for your business. Maybe you want to increase sales for a particular item, direct more traffic to your website, or get more shoppers to sign up for your email list.
Your objectives are the specific metrics that you’ll use to measure your progress toward the goals. For example, if your goal is to increase website traffic, your first objective may be to have 1,000 people visit your site by clicking through your Facebook page.
When you reach your objectives, you should feel confident that your marketing efforts are working!
Objectives should be measurable so that you can easily assess your progress. For most ecommerce businesses, objectives that are measured numerically work well. This could include number of site visits, number of followers, number of email subscribers, or anything else that can be counted.
In addition, your objectives should be time based. By setting a date by which you hope to reach your objectives, you can determine whether you’re on track to reach your goals.
If you don’t achieve an objective by your specified date, though, don’t worry!
This doesn’t necessarily mean that your marketing campaign has failed. It simply indicates that you should re-evaluate your timeline or see which areas of your strategy may need more attention.
3. Emphasize user benefits
Everything you use for your Facebook marketing strategy should have a clear and specific purpose. There’s more than one way for your posts to benefit your audience.
Some may show how your products solve a problem or add value to the user’s life. Others might offer educational information, share inspiration ideas, or make the viewer laugh.
When you create Facebook content, consider it from the perspective of the customer instead of your own. As a business owner, it’s easy to think only about how your posts will benefit your store.
Ask yourself instead how the reader will benefit from viewing the post. If you’re not sure of the answer, you may have to revise what you post to make it more user focused.
If your audience feels like they’ve benefited from your content, they’ll feel a closer connection to your brand. This may not result in an immediate sale, but it can promote long-term brand loyalty.
4. Understand that most people have short attention spans
Most Facebook users don’t commit their full attention to scrolling through their feed. For consumers, social media isn’t a task or a chore that requires total focus.
It’s instead something to keep their mind occupied as they relax. They may intermittently browse Facebook as they watch TV, stand in line at the store, or wait for their dinner to finish cooking.
Remember this as you craft your Facebook posts. Most of your audience has a short attention span and will only look at a post for a few seconds before moving on.
Your content either needs to convey its message immediately or be captivating enough at first glance that it convinces viewers to keep reading or watching.
Images usually work best to communicate information quickly, as the brain processes visuals much faster than text. Short, catchy text posts accompanying images can work well, too.
In addition, short videos can be successful on Facebook as long as they’re interesting and engaging from the very beginning.
5. Feature a variety of content
Your social media channels provide an opportunity to be creative. Although you should be consistent in your messaging, you can market to your audience with a range of mediums.
You could share photos of your products or of your business in action, or you could make informational videos featuring your inventory. Short inspirational messages, jokes, or questions for your audience to answer in the comments are all effective text posts.
Variety helps you appeal to a wider audience. Even within a small target demographic, there will be different preferences.
Some of your customers may feel drawn to images, and they might even share your image posts to their pages. Others may like text posts that spark a discussion in the comments.
By using a mix of styles and mediums, you can increase engagement and find something that appeals to each of your followers.
6. Nurture relationships by sharing content from other brands
Social media is all about interacting with others. Your Facebook page can be an opportunity to create and engage in a community. This will improve your store’s image and lead to your audience feeling a stronger connection to your brand.
Sharing posts and information from other brands or creators increases the value of your page.
Your audience will get more out of your Facebook profile if you treat it as a source for industry knowledge and news. Some people may follow your page for the content you share from other sources, but they could take an interest in your store in the future.
This is also a great way to network with other brands or influencers in your industry. Facebook is an easy method for connecting with colleagues, which could open the door for guest blogging or other types of collaborations in the future
7. Interact with your followers
Just like you should interact with other brands on Facebook, you should use the platform to interact with your followers as well.
The reason that social media is such an effective marketing channel is because it encourages back-and-forth communication. Don’t underestimate the importance of engaging with your audience on Facebook or other networks!
Check your Facebook messages regularly, and try to respond as quickly as possible to every customer. Many people reach out to brands on social media when they have a question about their order, so a fast reply has a big impact on their customer experience.
Be sure to respond to your tagged posts as well. When customers tag you in a Facebook post, it can do wonders for your online visibility. Write a personalized comment on their post, thanking them for the mention and addressing them by name.
In addition, respond to comments on your own posts as much as possible. The more you engage with followers, the more friendly and approachable your business will seem.
Final thoughts
No matter your niche or industry, you can benefit from Facebook marketing.
You don’t need to pour thousands of dollars into ads or develop a perfectly crafted campaign to use Facebook to your advantage. If you fill out your profile, offer helpful posts, and interact with your community, you’re likely to eventually see great results.
Remember to consider your audience’s perspective whenever you post. Ask yourself what your followers want to see and how you can offer something that’s enjoyable or informational while also promoting your brand.
Over time, you’ll discover what type of content works best for your audience, and you’ll be able to better refine your Facebook strategy!
