Small businesses are the backbone of the UK economy. They take up 99.3% of the total business population, which is around 5.94 million companies in the UK alone. While they are a force to be reckoned with – there is a significant gap between them and their medium to large counterparts. Small businesses often lose when it comes to their workforce, resources, and marketing strategies.
The best way to even the playing field is forgoing traditional advertising methods. Do away with the expensive investments in print ads, billboards, and flyers. Instead, look to digital marketing techniques to get ahead. The algorithm might be tricky and unforgiving, but it is your best shot at capturing your target market on the most personal level.
Before you jump into developing social media campaigns – let’s go back to the basics. Here at Red Rag Marketing, we will cover the benefits of Facebook marketing for small businesses:
- What Is Facebook Marketing?
- Facebook Marketing Statistics
- Tips: Facebook Marketing For Small Businesses
- How Can Red Rag Marketing Help Your Business?
What Is Facebook Marketing?
Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms in the world. With over 2.7 billion monthly active users, who wouldn’t want to tap into that market? Facebook marketing allows you to expand the organic reach of your posts and also create targeted ads.
You can exponentially increase your online traffic and sales with an optimised social media campaign? You are sure to generate high-quality leads, increase brand awareness, and brand relevance – which can be a game-changer for small businesses.
Facebook Marketing Statistics
Let’s look at the numbers behind Facebook marketing:
- Facebook has 45.94 million active users in the UK. It ties with Youtube as one of the most used social media platforms in the county.
- You can reach out to 71% of adults in the UK via Facebook. You can target specific sectors of the community for high quality leads
- 39% of global Facebook users follow business and company pages for additional offers and freebies.
- 94% of Facebook’s ad revenue comes from mobile ads.
- As of the third quarter of 2020, there is a 35% increase for Facebook ad impressions.
- In 2017, 62% of small businesses believed their Facebook ads were failing.
Facebook marketing has plenty of opportunities available for small businesses. It is a matter of bringing out the right qualities of your ad.
Tips: Facebook Marketing For Small Businesses
Let’s go through the step-by-step process of Facebook marketing for small businesses. Whether you hire a trusted social media agency like Red Rag Marketing or you create your social media team from scratch – these are tried and true methods that are guaranteed to work with the algorithm. After all, you’ll need it to carry your campaign and bring it to the right target audience. Here are marketing tips for small businesses on Facebook:
Setting Up a Facebook Business Page
6 out of 10 businesses believe that a Facebook business page contributes to their long-term success. Create a Facebook Business Page that has all relevant information like your address, contact number, and list of services. When you properly set up your business page, it makes for easy discovery and interaction. Instead of Facebook users being redirected to another website, they can explore your page for everything they need to know.
Setting up a Facebook page also allows you to generate an audience. In the best-case scenario, these followers become customers outright. In the worst-case scenario, you have the opportunity to remarket to them. Either way, it is a win-win for you.
Getting Facebook Likes and Followers
When your page is up and running, work on creating engagement. Facebook’s algorithm looks at follows likes, page visits, shares, reactions, and comments. The better the engagement, the better the traffic.
Getting Facebook likes and follows is all about creating the right kind of content. Be a presence that people look forward to when they check their newsfeed. When it comes to brand awareness and hype, nothing works better than getting likes and follows.
Types of Facebook Posts
There are several types of Facebook posts you can use to diversify your page. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses. Here are some you can use for your Facebook advertising campaign:
Images
Whether it is a photo, infographic, or a meme – images keep your engagement up. They are a quick way to attract users’ attention. Among all the different types of Facebook posts, they are the most flexible.
Videos
Short videos are a great way of interacting with your target market. Your video may opt to inform or entertain users. So what kind of videos do you post? You have several options. You can feature user-generated videos or video ads.
You can also opt to post more informative material that can be a resource for other people. You could do a behind the scenes look, go live with a Q & A, or simply present industry information. As long as it is related to your business, it should be fine.
Links
If images and videos are supposed to make you stay, Facebook link ads are all about redirecting you to another website. They have call to action buttons like Click Here, Get Now, Learn More, Sign Up, Book Now, etc., that prompt potential customers to look into your business’ products and services.
You can link blog posts and landing pages to topics that might generate interest. For example, a bakery might have a link ad to a blog post about the top 10 cakes or a landing page to their best sellers. Link ads are a great way to generate high-quality leads.
Augmented Reality
With the development of AI, Facebook ads have integrated augmented reality. You can engage your audience and give them an up-close and personal experience. Facebook’s augmented reality ads vary according to your business. A makeup company might allow potential customers to test out different shade colours, while a small bed and breakfast might have a 360 tour. Regardless of your approach, your Facebook ad is sure to catch people’s attention.
Other Content
Events, community pages, questions, quizzes – there is plenty of other content that can engage your audience. Your Facebook page should have a little bit of everything. Some claim that the best ratio would be 70% video, 20% image, and 10% link posts – but there is no formula. The content varies according to your industry and what your customer base wants to see, so don’t be afraid to experiment.
Converting Leads Into Customers
Now that your ads are ready to go, it’s time to turn your leads into customers with your sales funnel. Just as its name implies, all marketing campaigns start with a large audience that dwindles to your actual customers. Only 2% of your impressions result in sales.
You need to be able to draw in as many people as you can in each phase. Let’s take a closer look at the sales funnel.
You cast a wide net with your posts and ads. While they are targeted, you cannot expect everyone to respond. If people are interested in your post, they explore your Facebook page and see what else you have to offer.
You need to woo them outright with your simple language, compelling copy, and dynamically formatted posts. You want them to stay. Even if they do not become customers, they are in a pool that you can remarket to in the future.
After they go through your post, it is the moment of truth. Will your leads respond to your call to action or not? If they do, congratulations! You have new customers! If they don’t, you have to consider remarketing ads so that you do not lose the lead. You need to be able to catch them again within the first 90 minutes or else the lead goes cold, and you have to go through the process all over again.
Take control of each set of the sales funnel. Facebook allows you to customise these steps according to your goals. For an optimised Facebook marketing strategy, it is best to work with an experienced agency like Red Rag Marketing to manage your ad campaign.
Creating a Content Calendar
Maintaining your business page is all about keeping the momentum. After you get past the bottleneck, your page will receive a ton of new visitors. You wouldn’t want to drop the ball there! You have to keep releasing content or else end up starting your marketing campaign from scratch.
When you create your Facebook page, you should create a content calendar. There are several templates available online, but it depends on how complex you want it to be. It would be an excel file, Google sheet, or Google calendar that plots out the deliverables you need for your business marketing strategy.
A content calendar keeps track of all of your posts. It allows you to schedule ad campaigns and posts in advance. With everything laid out, you should be able to post every day consistently. Content calendars also allow you to see the bigger picture. When used properly, you can better scale your Facebook ads. Essentially, it acts as the game plan for your social media team.
Tracking & Measuring Results with Facebook Analytics
Churning out posts and ads won’t make a significant difference until you optimise them. Facebook analytics provides you with all the insights you need to improve your ads. It tracks your customer’s journey and allows you to see if there are parts of your sales funnel that you are under-utilising.
Every part of the sales funnel has a corresponding metric, and these metrics can be tracked via Facebook analytics. Your A/B testing is dependent on the information you gather from it and handling data tends to be tricky. Instead of wrecking your brain trying to figure it out, work with Red Rag. Red Rag Marketing is well-versed with using Facebook analytics and uses the results to adjust your Facebook page and ads for you.
How to Advertise on Facebook
Compared to traditional marketing methods, Facebook offers excellent returns on investment (ROI). The site offers a ton of opportunities and tools. It can be very overwhelming at first, but you can condense it into 2 parts dealing with the algorithm and dealing with the people.
Dealing with the algorithm is straightforward since they clearly outline the dos and don’ts. Red Rag Marketing’s approach summarises this:
- Research
- Strategy
- Optimisation
- Results
However, dealing with people – is another story. You cannot cram content down their throat. You need to consider user experience. Here are marketing tips for small businesses.
- Learn how to approach your audience:
- Limit the number of posts you upload every day.
- Consecutive posts feel like they are coming off a conveyor belt – too mechanical and inorganic. Instead, give time in between posts. There are multiple points in the day that have decent user traffic, so don’t be afraid to spread them out.
- Interact with your audience. Like comments or reply to questions in the comment section. Even when there aren’t many people, the little bit of acknowledgement can go a long way.
- Diversify the type of content on your Facebook page. Your audience will get bored if the topics are too similar or if the format is the same. The people want to see new things so switch between images and videos or host games and giveaways.
By following these marketing tips for small businesses – you won’t stay small for long. It is only a matter of time until you need to expand your workforce.
The only thing standing in your way is time-consuming work. There is a learning curve that you have to deal with when you use Facebook for business – it is very different from using your personal account. Since there is a lot at stake small business Facebook marketing goes straight to the experts.
How Can Red Rag Marketing Help Your Business?
Red Rag Marketing allows you to maximise your Facebook advertising. Compared to old school methods – you can have a competitive edge against medium to large enterprises while still working with a limited budget.
We are committed to helping you with your Facebook Ads Management every step of the way. After we launch your Facebook marketing campaign, we continually optimise our strategy to ensure you get the best results. So what are you waiting for? Grow your business with Red Rag Marketing. To see our Facebook marketing tips in action, contact us now!
