5 Marketing Strategies to Use on Facebook for Your Small Business

If you own a small business, then you know how hard it is to attract and retain the attention of your target audience. 

This is particularly true on social media platforms like Facebook where the competition to get your content viewed is fierce. 

To make matters worse, as a small business owner, your time is limited and marketing isn’t the only hat you have to wear. 

That’s why you need to understand your business with environment scanning and then utilize  innovative strategies to help you stand out from the noise and get potential customers to pay attention. 

To help you out in this regard, I’ve written this article which outlines 5 of the most effective marketing strategies you can use on Facebook to get better results for your small business.

From setting up Facebook Messenger to thumb-stopping ad creatives, here are 5 marketing strategies to use on Facebook for your small business.

1. Set Up Messenger 

One of the most effective ways to improve your marketing results on Facebook is to set up Messenger – the right way. 

You know your potential customers use Facebook to discover and research new businesses and products, and having a presence on the platform not only establishes credibility for your brand, but it can also help you take care of customers from start to finish – all on one convenient platform. 

There are over 1.3 billion Messenger users globally, and connecting with them starts with setting up your profile the right way.

Messenger will allow you to communicate directly with customers. This application has evolved from being a peer-to-peer chatbox to a full-fledged customer service platform, and today, you can use it to power a wide range of your business operations. 

Here are some tips to ensure that your Facebook Messenger is set up the right way:

• Include All Relevant Info: Make sure you add your business’s availability times, location, services, prices, warranty, etc.

• Answer Customers’ FAQ: You can also add FAQs to answer some of your customers’ most common questions.

• Include Automated Responses: Wherever applicable, use instant replies to let your customers know when they can expect a response from you.

• Include Response Time: Also, whenever you’re active on Facebook, make sure you display text telling customers exactly how long they can expect a response. The response time will display automatically as long as you visit your page at least once a week and respond to over 90% of your messages.

• Set up Greeting Text: Greeting text is different from instant replies in that it’s simply the first message users will see as soon as they initiate a conversation with you on messenger, whereas an instant reply is an away message that’s sent only when you’re offline.

Setting up Messenger this way can help you drive better business results. 

Just remember to start simple. An effective Facebook messenger presence begins with a clear goal in mind. 
So focus on your most important business objectives, and use the platform to help you achieve them.

2. Use Facebook Posts Wisely

In order to stand out on Facebook, you have to post content on a regular basis. 

But even more than that, you need to be smart about the content you post so you can maximize the results from your efforts. 

As a busy small business owner, it’s hard to find the time to continually create content every day. 

So, if you want to see real results without having to spend endless hours on the content creation treadmill, here are some tips to help you.

• Post Regularly: You must post content on Facebook at least once a day so your social media audience can feel like they know your business and that you’re part of their lives. 
  
  Use Facebook publishing tools like Kontentino to streamline your posting process and schedule the majority of your posts in advance so you can free up more of your time for the more important aspects of running your small business.

• Post Quality Content: Use tools like BuzzSumo or DrumUp to help you find and curate the best content for your audience.

• Share Unique Content: Delight your audience with behind-the-scenes photos and information about your business, employees, products, etc. This is a great way to post unique, quality content while showing your dedication to transparency.

Don’t be afraid to experiment, particularly if you’re not quite sure what your audience wants to see. 

If you want to see a unique strategy with many different experiments, look no further than what Grubhub has done to recruit more Grubhub drivers.  

While Grubhub typically showcases successful restaurants to support the industry they rely on, here’s an example of a post that shows them catering to their workforce.

As you can see, they’re showing the companies stance on supporting Black-Owned businesses, but they’re also showing that they treat their drivers well.  As potential drivers see this, they’ll appreciate what the company is doing and may be more willing to drive for them.  

Look through your own feed, comments, etc. (as well as those of your competitors) to get an idea of the type of content that resonates with your target audience. 

You can also use a tool like Facebook Page Insights to help you take the guesswork out of sharing content. 

This free tool shares valuable insights for small businesses, such as the number of people who engage with each post, how many people your content reached, and so on.

No matter what content type you choose, ensure that it’s perfectly worded. Believe me, you don’t want to risk your brand reputation on social media platforms where negative publicity spreads like wildfire.

If you lack quality copywriting resources, don’t hesitate to hire professional content experts. A little extra investment at this stage can save you endless hours in damage control from sharing shoddy content.

3. Leverage the Power of Facebook Live

Going live is yet another effective marketing strategy that will supercharge your results on Facebook by engaging your audience in an authentic way. 

Live streaming has the benefit of helping you forge deeper connections with your audience because it’s as close to actual face-to-face interactions as you’re going to get with your online marketing. 

Here are some tips to help you plan a great live broadcast:

• Choose a Focus in Advance: And whatever that focus is, make sure you repeat it intermittently as additional live viewers come in. 
• Choose Your Title Carefully: This is what viewers will be shown as a notification once you are live.
• Use a Device With Great Audio: You need a great audio setup or mic so your audience can hear you clearly.
• End with a Strong CTA: You need to end your life broadcast on Facebook with a compelling call to action, such as “Shop Now”, “Sign Up”, “Learn More”, etc. so your fans can take the next step.

Once they’ve acted on the CTA, you can use an email marketing platform to build out an email sequence that not only educates them, but encourages them to purchase your product, software, or service. 

When Streaming live videos on Facebook, make sure you keep your audience engaged by using tactics such as broadcasting Q&A sessions where you answer some of your fans’ most pressing questions. 

You might also give your audience a peek behind the scenes where you take them on an adventure to discover exciting new information about your business and brand. 

Alternatively, you might plan a how-to video that outlines insightful, actionable advice on how your fans can further their goals starting right now. 

This medium offers intimacy and immediacy that give your viewers the sense that they are getting a look at the real you. This is great for maintaining higher engagement levels than regular video.

4. Get Your Customers To Do the Talking

If you have ever taken a close look at the social media page of a successful brand, you will find that there is a lot of engagement. 

Conversations are initiated from both sides, and it’s not a one-way monologue with the brand trying to prove how awesome its products or services are. 

Communication breeds trust and you can boost conversation on social media through contests and questions. This can be anything that is quick and simple to set up, such as: 

• Quizzes
• Polls (e.g vote on your favorite design, character, etc.)
• Tweeting Contests
• Or even captioning Contests like the one below:

The prizes you give away don’t need to be huge or expensive, but you can make them exciting to your target audience (such as a discount for your product). 

People will be more likely to take part if they find the prize appealing. 

A particularly effective way for you to get your audience to communicate more is to handle customer service through social media.

Social media is quick, and platforms like Facebook allow you to handle issues in a timely way before they blow up and become a PR nightmare. 

Plus, people are always going to be sharing any grievances they have with your business on social media anyway, so why not get ahead of it by creating a dedicated page for customer service so you can quick-fix problems as they arise?

Furthermore, when other customers see how quickly and professionally you respond to problems or complaints, that will give them the peace of mind of knowing that if they were to become customers they can expect a quick response from you via social or business email. This gives them peace of mind that they’ll be well taken care of, too.

 The absolute best part about conducting your personalized customer service on social media is that your audience will share exactly what they think about your product and you can immediately interact with the already existing or prospective customers.

This includes:

• What they like about it
• What they don’t like
• What they wish it had
• Possible improvements you can make

… and much more.

For a small business owner, this is gold. 

It’s information that you don’t have to pay for that can potentially help you improve your offering.

Enter Facebook Ads.
Running Facebook ads is a great way to boost your organic reach and guarantee engagement.

The good news is that Facebook has an intuitive ad platform that makes it easy even for complete beginners to get started running ads.

When it comes to Facebook Ads for small businesses, there are certain tips you can follow to make sure you get the most out of your ad spend, a few of which are listed below.

Facebook Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

• Grab Attention First: Always begin with an attention grabber – an element to stop the scrollers and encourage them to focus more of their attention on your ad. Remember, on social media, every second of your audience’s attention counts.

• Use Motion Graphics: Human eyes are naturally drawn toward motion, which makes motion graphics an effective eyeball magnet for catching wandering eyes. 

• Use Bright Colors: Try to use bright colors in your ads so they’ll immediately catch attention. It’s even better if you can use ads that contrast with the newsfeed.

• Use Videos and Carousels: This allows you to share more information than from one image. Facebook also favors carousels and videos over static images.

• Use Text Overlays on Videos: Text overlays help boost engagement and allow viewers to follow the message being shared in the video.

• Add a Strong CTA In the Headline: This will help your conversions if readers don’t have the time (or patience) to go all the way to the bottom.

You can also try using the word “free”. This has been proven to increase click-through rates and supercharge results. 

After all, who doesn’t love free?

A great example of this is in the screenshot below.

OneHourProfessor.com has built an online course that’s completely free for users to get access to.  Facebook ads lead users to the site itself and then they sign up for the free course.  This ultimately leads to a paid online course as well as affiliate earnings with an email autoresponder that brings them through a marketing funnel.

Conclusion

Facebook continues to be one of the most important marketing tools for small businesses. It offers multiple tools for promotion and it will help you make connections that matter and share your message with a global audience in the most effective way possible.

By using the tips outlined in this article, you will be able to leverage this powerful platform to help you achieve your business objectives.