Looking to market your business at a low budget? It looks like Facebook could be the answer you have been searching for. At a low cost you could market and advertise your business to millions of Facebook users.

“Facebook can help you to reach all of the people who matter most to your business” (Facebook 2015)

Academics have commented that “most commercial companies need to do marketing in social networks in order to introduce their goods and/or services.” (Forouzandeh, Soltanpanah, Sheikhahmadi, 2014). So ask yourself, do you fall within this category? Are you missing out?

Business marketing through Facebook is utilised by many companies; so much so that Facebook itself provides step by step guidance on how to successfully accomplish it. Facebook kindly highlights a 5-step guide which you can see in full here. In a nutshell they advise that you:

1. Set up your page – make yourself discoverable.
2. Identify your audience – think about who your ideal customers are, their age group and location. As well as think about what your business could do for them.
3. Create compelling content – Facebook suggests the three ‘be’s that will put you on a road to success: Be authentic. Be responsive. Be consistent.
4. Advertise – create an advert and use fine-tuned targeting to reach the people who matter most to your business.
5. Measure and adjust – discover whats working well in order to maximise the impact of all posts and advertisements. (Facebook 2015)

Want some more tips or clarification without reading the whole guide on the link above? Watch this short video on ‘7 Amazing Ways To Promote Your Business On Facebook’

Sounds pretty straight forward right? Not only is it simple to set up, but it has a bucket load of benefits attached to it. Some of these benefits can be similar to those that you would get from having a website, however some are unique to Facebook such as:

• Talking to existing or potential customers – it is just as beneficial to listen as much as you talk as this can give you profitable insight into what the market thinks about your business and products.
• Facebook can steer traffic towards your website.
• Promote positive word of mouth by using the ‘Like’ button.
• Targeted advertising – Facebook analyses the information provided by millions of users on their profiles, and as a business page you have the option to pay to utilise this information to distribute targeted advertising to a specific group.
• Ability to offer deals through ‘Facebook Places’ – business pages automatically earn the right to be included in the Facebook Places directory. (Queensland Government 2014)

To see the full list of benefits click here.

FACEBOOK MARKETING MIRACLES:

Success stories – AKA Facebook marketing miracles! They really aren’t miracles as there are so many of them, but doesn’t that sound better than ‘success stories’! To see a full range of these not-so-miracles see the Facebook for Business site. One example is Graze, who deliver healthy snacks in the post as a tasty substitute for sugary sweets:

Graze discovers healthy results:

Health food innovators Graze used a conversation lift test to discover that its last-click attribution model was detecting only 72% of the online subscriptions driven by Facebook 

9.8% lift in online sales through 2 weeks after the end of the campaign

 

(Facebook 2015)

THINK YOU’VE HEARD EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO HEAR?

Don’t rush off before you have the whole story! Now while this all seems like sunshine and rainbows, the answer to all your prayers in the form of Facebook; things may not be what they seem. Yes, Facebook can be a low cost way to market your business. Yes, it is simple to set up; AND yes it can come with a list of benefits as long as your arm. However, like most things it can also have its drawbacks.

THE CONS OF FACEBOOK MARKETING:

Many companies use Facebook to market and advertise their businesses. However academics have commented that in some cases, “advertising and marketing methods in social networks are not correct and the resulted advertisements are boring and tiring to users and they might ignore them without noticing. Such advertisements will be considered as spam and will be annoying to network users.” (Forouzandeh, Soltanpanah, Sheikhahmadi, 2014).

A study in 2014 showed that when marketers were asked whether they agree with the statement ‘My Facebook marketing is effective’ only 43% agreed (34% agree, 9% strongly agree). Meaning the other 57% were unsure or disagreed (Stelzner, M. 2014):

Feel your hopes come crashing down around you? RELAX! Am I saying that Facebook marketing won’t work and is a waste of time? No. If you take a close look at the pie chart above you will see that only 21% disagreed with the other statement. The other 37% were just uncertain on how to tell if it was having an effect, and the number of people who agreed with the statement increased in 2014 from 37% (in 2013) to 43%. With time companies are becoming more familiar with social media and are learning what to do and what not to do; leading to more and more success stories.

Now, back to that uncertain 37%… Facebook for business kindly offers information on Facebook Measurement Basics giving you insight on seeing how people respond to your Page and adverts, allowing you to make informed decisions about reaching your customers. Click on the link above for more information. As for the ‘boring’, ‘spam’ adverts we can assume this is down to poor advertising skills, please see here for tips on how to create successful Facebook newsfeed ads, for example ensuring you create multiple lists of audiences that you want to target (Baldassarre, 2014).

READY, SET, GO…

Okay, so now you have all the information. Cheap, simple to set up; BUT proceed with caution! Ensure you aren’t publishing boring advertisements and make sure you are clued up on how to measure your Facebook marketing campaign. It is easy to be put off when reading the drawbacks of something and fall into the mindset of “it won’t work for me”. However, with the right tips and information there is no reason that you can’t have a Facebook Marketing Miracle of your own!

REFERENCES:

Baldassarre, R . (2014). How to Create Successful Facebook News Feed Ads. Available: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-news-feed-ads/. Last accessed 15th April 2015.

Forouzandeh, S; Soltanpanah, H; Sheikhahmadi, A. (2014). Content marketing through data mining on Facebook social network. Webology. 11 (1)

Facebook. (2015). Success Stories. Available: https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/success/graze. Last accessed 13 April 2015.

Facebook. (2015). Facebook Measurement Basics. Available: https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-ads-measuring-results. Last accessed 14th April 2015.

Facebook. (2015). How to Use Facebook for Business Marketing.Available: https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/overview. Last accessed 15th April 2015.

Queensland Government. (2014). Benefits of Facebook for business.Available: https://www.business.qld.gov.au/business/running/marketing/online-marketing/using-facebook-to-market-your-business/benefits-of-facebook-for-business. Last accessed 13th April 2015.

Stelzner, M (2014) Social Media Marketing Industry Report. How Marketers Are Using Social Media To Grow Their Business. Social Media Examiner. Viewed 13th April 2015