Tracey Wallace
There are more than 1.4 billion people on Facebook. That number alone is a good enough reason to put some marketing dollars toward advertising on the platform. Whether you are wanting to drive traffic to your site, increase your social following, gain some brand awareness or just increase the customer satisfaction of those who are already your tried and true audience, here’s how you can leverage the largest social network on the planet to scale your business.
Generate Interest for Your Brand
When people are already familiar with your brand, they are much more likely to buy. We recommend starting out your ad campaign with the goal of generating interest in your brand first. Beyond getting more traffic to your site and potentially increasing your sales and revenue, Facebook is the perfect platform for brand discovery and awareness.
Instead of looking exclusively at sales numbers in relation to the Facebook ads you are creating, measure brand awareness by applying a goal of getting as many impressions from your target audience as possible at the lowest cost.
Check out how online store Onzie uses Facebook to engage with their active audience and find new fans through hashtags and athletic photography.
Showcase Your Best Products
The best-performing products on your website typically perform the best with advertising. See which products have the highest number of sales, or which products have the highest website conversion rates. Product price points between $ 10 and $ 99 also work better for Facebook advertising.
Take home retailer Caden Lane, for instance, which identified an industry trend when showcasing their latest bedding on Facebook.
Inspire Activities
No matter the season, be sure that the products you are using to advertise on Facebook inspire action from the audience. Is spring right around the corner? Start advertising those floral dresses –– and get a boost in conversions from customer excitement of upcoming warmer weather. In the summer, feature a pair of headphones on a jogger, showcase earrings on a chic sunbather or accessorize a black dress with brightly colored accent jewelry. Be sure to craft your ads in context of the current seasons and activities with which your audience relates.
For one of their latest Facebook ads, Grady’s Cold Brew took advantage of the hot summer weather to help market their iced coffee concentrate, served with a scoop of a fellow retailer’s ice cream.
Celebrate important milestones
From graduations to weddings, Mother’s Day to Hanukkah and Christmas, the year is full of special holidays and life milestones that are likely relevant to your target audience. Advertise to your audience with these in mind in order to increase brand trust, awareness and overall conversions. People like connecting with brands that understand who they are and what they care about. So use these moments to connect with people by speaking to the holiday lifecycle –– from the planning and preparation to the celebration and clean up.
Look at how online fashion retailer Loren Hope crafted a promotion around the Fourth of July holiday and included a themed product photo in their Facebook ad.
Provide product incentives
Are you experiencing slower sales than expected? Is your store in a summer slump? Are the first few months of the new year not causing products to fly off the shelf? Retailers often experience slower seasons or months, and these vary based on the business itself. You can counter these trends, though, by providing more enticing offers, especially around milestones or holidays that occur during your lower-selling months.
See below how Pink Lily Boutique used a contest to increase sales on a Monday. Any time or theme can work as a way to publicize promotions and discounts to sell more inventory.
Do you have advice for other SMBs on how you’ve increased your brand awareness, sales or customer satisfaction via social media advertising? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo: Flickr, Maria Elena
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