The Ultimate Facebook Marketing Strategy for Small Buisnesses

Facebook marketing is still one of the cheapest and most effective forms of online marketing to date.

While being very easy to set up and run on a small budget, most small business struggle to create effective campaigns on Facebook that convert visitors to customers.

They eventually give up on Facebook marketing only to discover that platforms like LinkedIn and Google search marketing are very expensive and not budget-friendly for small businesses.

So what could have gone wrong? Why can't small businesses create Facebook marketing campaigns that are cheap to run and get a decent return on investment?

There are several reasons why people experience little to no return on investment using Facebook marketing but the Goliath of them all is trying to sell directly to your audience on Facebook.

But I thought that was the whole point of selling your products and services to your audience Facebook?

Yes, but there is a strategy to it. 

Knowing how the strategy works will help you create effective Facebook marketing campaigns and lower your overall advertising budget.

More on the strategy later but first, let us take a look at some of the mistakes you are making in your Facebook marketing that is hurting your investment and making you lose sleep.

Common Facebook Marketing Mistakes you should avoid

If you have ever run a Facebook marketing campaign and are guilty of any of these mistakes, it is time to make the necessary adjustment to help you benefit more from your Facebook campaigns.

Selling directly on Facebook

Trying to sell directly on Facebook is the biggest mistake most small businesses make when creating their marketing campaigns.

Sadly, I am also guilty of this mistake but I learnt sooner than later that this was a horrible mistake and here is why.

1. People dislike being sold to.
2. People avoid direct advertising.

If you are still struggling to understand why people act that way, let me explain what social media is if you've forgotten so soon.

Social media is where people come to connect with friends, find new friends, engage with entertaining content to like, comment and share what they find most interesting.

Nobody comes to social media hoping and praying to see your ad or engage with your business or buy your product. It is the direct opposite.

And what is Facebook? You guessed it right, it is a social media network.

Now that you know that you can't advertise directly, what then can you advertise on Facebook? We will get that in just a moment but first, let us take a look at some of the other mistakes you could be making with your Facebook marketing.

Not using Facebook Pixels

Facebook pixel is an integral part of the Facebook marketing lifecycle and it amazes me how often people neglect this simple yet important aspect of Facebook marketing.

So what is a Facebook pixel?

A Facebook pixel is a small piece of code that is installed on your website or landing page to help you track user events relevant to your business and matches them with their profile on Facebook.

Some of the common user events you can track include things like; 

1. People who visited your website or landing page
2. People who bought a product from your online store
3. People who signed up for your email newsletter

You can also track custom events unique to your business like people who visited your contact us page or people who read a particular blog post.

Can you imagine how less effective your Facebook marketing campaign will be without being able to identify people on Facebook who has shown interest in your business?

Running a Facebook marketing campaign without a Facebook pixel is like throwing your bowl of spaghetti at the wall and hoping some stick.

Don't do it.

Using Wrong Creatives That Don't Add Up

Another common mistake I see often with small businesses using Facebook marketing to promote their business is the wrong use of creative materials such as images and videos.

Using the wrong creative material can mislead your target audience and squash their expectations when they interact with your ads.

While this has minimal impact on the overall performance of your Facebook marketing campaign, it is worth noting that a carefully crafted marketing creative can improve your advertising engagement on Facebook.

There are some other Facebook marketing mistakes I would have loved to touch on but that will make this post excessively long. So without taking too much of your time, let us take a look at the ultimate Facebook marketing campaign.

The Ultimate Facebook Marketing Strategy

Facebook marketing is very rewarding if you know how to develop a strategy that works for your business.

While there is not a one-size-fits-all approach, the concepts discussed in this Facebook marketing strategy guide will help develop marketing strategies that are specific to your needs.

I've outlined below the 5 steps you should take when developing your marketing strategy on Facebook. This strategy is especially useful for small businesses that have little to no prior exposure and want to improve their Facebook marketing ad spend and maximize their campaign budget.

This is not a guide on how to set up your ad campaign on Facebook, if you need help on how to set up a Facebook ad, click here to learn directly from Facebook.

Step 1: Get a website for your business

Every serious business owner should understand how important having a website is for their business. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Most small businesses focus on growing their social media presence with the expectation that it gives them the necessary platform to attract new customers.

The greater my followers, the more I can sell they think. Well, not quite.

While it is very ok to run and operate your business without the need for a website, It is 100% important if you want to take advantage of Facebook marketing to get more customers and increase your sales.

Why because you need a place to install the Facebook pixel needed to track your audience and create effective Facebook marketing campaigns.

To give you a better understanding of how this works in the real world and why you should pay special attention to owning your website, let us take a look at this example. 

Imagine Sarah stumbles on a Facebook ad that you are promoting to sell hair products. She takes a keen interest on a particular product, clicks on your ad only to land on your Instagram or Facebook page.

This is not bad because you can engage her immediately and get her to make a purchase.

But let's look at the flip side of this scenario.

If Sarah had landed on your website that has a Facebook pixel installed, here is what would have happened instead.

1. Facebook will identify Sarah as a visitor on your website and match her profile with that on Facebook.
2. If she makes a purchase, Facebook will log that information and use it to find people similar to Sarah. This is called a lookalike audience.
3. You can retarget Sarah with a different Facebook campaign if she viewed the product but didn't buy.

With a single visit to your website, Facebook can start to optimize your target audience to suit your marketing objectives.

This will help you reduce your cost per conversion and improve the quality of customer you attract on Facebook.

Ultimate Facebook Marketing Checklist for Small Businesses

Grab our ultimate Facebook marketing checklist for small businesses and start creating effective Facebook campaigns. Download it now

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Step 2: Install and Use Facebook Pixel

In the previous section about the common mistake, small businesses make in their Facebook marketing.

I had defined what a Facebook pixel is in that section so if you need a refresher, please scroll back up.

Once you have step one sorted out (creating a website for your business), it is time to set up your Facebook pixel to track user events relevant to your business.

You can tell if you have Facebook pixel properly installed and set up by installing the Facebook pixel helper chrome extension for Google Chrome browsers which you can get here, and take a look at the events you are currently tracking.

By default, the Facebook pixel will track all page views on your website but you can track other events like purchases, leads, initiate checkout etc.

You can also create custom events unique to your business like when a visitor visits your contact us page or fills a form and he/she is redirected to a thank you page.

The events you track will help you create Facebook marketing campaigns that retarget people who have taken a specific action or find people similar to those that have performed a specific action.

Step 3: Content Marketing and Lead Generation

Once the first two steps are done and dusted, the next step in your Facebook marketing strategy is creating valuable content related to your business.

If you don't know what content marketing is, it is simply a strategic marketing approach that focuses on creating and distributing valuable and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience - and ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Content marketing can take several forms like a blog post, a video uploaded to Youtube or other video hosting platforms, a PDF guide or worksheet.

The basic concept of content marketing is really to provide valuable information to your audience to get their attention.

This information should be able to solve a specific problem people have and must be directly related to the service you are offering.

Going back to our previous example of Sarah who stumbled on your ad on Facebook, rather than promote your hair products directly to her hoping to score a sale, you promote a blog post that explains a common hair problem and how Sarah can solve it using homemade remedies. 

Sounds easy enough right.

The basic idea is to provide valuable information to people like Sarah and earn their trust. Not to sell directly to them.

If you've provided real value, the next step in the equation is to add a lead form to collect email addresses of interested potential customers.

This is known as lead generation. You can learn more about lead generation strategies here

Simply put, this is a form on your page that asks a visitor for their email address in exchange for more daily tips, a free download or a free trial of your products.

Email you said? Oh yes

Your business is only as valuable as the number of direct leads you have of your customers.

Imagine two businesses, one with 50k followers on Instagram and the other with 50k email addresses. Which of them will you consider more valuable?

I will let you decide on that in the comment section below.

Step 4: Retarget With More Value on Facebook

Once you have your content marketing strategy in place, the next step is to retarget the same audience on Facebook with more value.

You can't get to this step without having a website in place for your business, a Facebook pixel installed and finally, attention-grabbing content to hook your audience with.

If you've been following our subject example in our Facebook marketing strategy so far, that is Sarah, you'd agree that by now she will be more comfortable with our business.

Why because we have given her real value by helping her solve a common hair problem using homemade remedies.

We are the hair experts in this case and that's how she is going to see us.

A quick side note, did you know that retargeting ads on Facebook are a lot cheaper than starting a new ad? #foodforthought

At this stage, you can retarget your audience (Sarah, going by our example) to show more commitment by taking an action that is directly beneficial to your business.

This could be joining your Facebook or WhatsApp group or joining an exclusive members list. The idea here is to get more commitment from your audience while still providing real value.

The more you engage with your audience and care genuinely for their needs (which you will help them solve eventually), the more they trust you and believe in your products and services.

And the more they trust you, the easier it is for them to buy from you.

Creating retargeting ads on Facebook is very simple. Like I mentioned before, you can retarget people who visited a particular link on your website or people who download your free resource.

In a future post, I will be showing you how to create Facebook retargeting campaigns using the pixel data your website has generated.

Step 5: Sales

At the final stage in this Facebook marketing strategy is the sales part of your campaign. Exactly what every business needs to survive.

Your prospect is a lot more comfortable with your business and they are more willing to buy from you.

In other to help speed up their buying decision, you can offer discount coupons or time-bound limited sales opportunity.

Since this article is not about selling, I won't go over some of the sales triggers you can deploy and there are quite a handful of them.

But if you understand how to close a sale at this stage, your conversion rate can quite literally shoot through the roof.

If some of your customers still don't buy your product or service at this stage, you can always retarget them using the techniques you've learnt in stage four of this strategy with more value-based Facebook marketing or Email marketing.

Don't be scared to bring out your big guns for the sale cos you've put in the hard work and your business deserves a higher reward.

Conclusion

Facebook marketing is still the most effective and budget-friendly online marketing tool for small businesses but you need to put in the work.

It's a lot easier to promote and sell products that people are already familiar with and are in high demand. These are products by big brands that have put down a ton of money for marketing so you don't have to.

That said, if you're a small business trying to get customers off Facebook, you need a marketing strategy like this to guide you and help you save money in the long run.

If you learned something new in this post, please drop a comment below and share this post with your friends on Facebook.