Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms in the world, and it attracts numerous businesses and marketers who want to market their products to Facebook’s massive user base.
As of 1Q19, Facebook had over 1.5 billion daily active users globally. This is a massive user base that no marketer can choose to ignore. So, if you’re not yet marketing on Facebook, the cost of missing this opportunity is just too high.
And even if you are already marketing on Facebook, it is not easy to compete with other marketers. Because there is no shortage of businesses trying to attract the same audience that you are.
That’s where these expert Facebook marketing tips can help you. These 5 actionable tips can help you stand out among your competitors and effectively target your intended audience.
Tip #1. Create a Facebook Business Page and Optimize it
If you want to promote your business on Facebook, the first thing that you need is a business page. You can’t just promote your business from a personal profile.
Moreover, a Facebook business page has its own set of advantages that can help you promote your business. It not only represents your brand but also provides a way for your audience to like and follow your page. Then they can receive updates from your page in their news feeds.
Having a business page also gives you access to Facebook advanced analytics tools, which you can leverage to track your performance.
Once you’ve created a page, you need to modify the URL to make it easy to remember, so that people can easily find your page. Take the example of HubSpot who have a simple and easy-to-remember URL: https://www.facebook.com/hubspot.
The next step is to optimize your Facebook business page to get maximum visibility and engagement.
Here are some ways you can do so:
- Provide accurate and up-to-date information on your profile, especially the contact details.
- Use a high-quality and relevant profile and cover photo.
- Use relevant keywords throughout your page content.
- Use the “About Us” section to tell your story and provide all necessary information about your business.
Your Facebook business page is like a second homepage for you and often gives people the first impression of your brand. So, make it relevant and engaging.
Tip #2. Leverage Native Video Content
Native video content on Facebook is one of the most effective types of content that you can use for your Facebook marketing. Native videos get more engagement and views than any other type of content on Facebook.
A recent study analyzed over 187,000 Facebook pages and 7.5 million posts. They found that native videos get 168% more interactions (reactions, comments, and shares) than YouTube videos.
Moreover, Facebook users watch over 100 million hours of video per day. So, if you can only post one type of content on Facebook, it needs to be video content.
Here are some best practices for posting Facebook videos that will further boost your marketing performance:
- 85% of Facebook users watch videos with the sound off, so use captions for all your videos.
- Set your video settings to prevent auto-sound-on as that may annoy some viewers.
- Use the Facebook Live feature to stream live videos directly from your mobile phone.
- Post live Q&A or tutorial type videos as they get higher engagement.
- Focus on making your videos engaging and relevant, rather than promotional.
Tip #3. Use Facebook Advertising
If you’re not using Facebook ads yet, then you are missing out on a huge marketing opportunity. Facebook ads provide very precise audience targeting options and can help you reach your intended audience with ease.
For Facebook ads, like any other ads, you will need to target relevant keywords and audiences. To get keyword suggestions, you can use a tool like SpyFu. It can help you find and select the best keywords for your ad campaigns.
To help you target the right audiences, Facebook provides advanced ad targeting options. Here are two such targeting tactics that you can use to run successful ads and beat your competitors:
Lookalike Audiences
This is a useful feature that allows you to target an audience that exactly mirrors the demographics and psychographics of a source audience.
So, the trick is to select a high-intent conversion page like your shopping cart confirmation page as your source audience. You can also use your existing customer lists to create your source audience.
Once you enter the source audience just add a location and create a lookalike audience that mirrors the source audience. Facebook will immediately tell you the audience size for this lookalike audience.
Target Competitors’ Audience
Another way to target the most relevant audience for your Facebook ads is to use interest-based targeting. Since interest is usually determined by the type of pages liked on Facebook, you can add a filter to target people who like your competitors’ pages.
If these people are interested in your competitors’ pages, they will most likely be relevant for you as well. And, you can further refine your selection by selecting geography on top of interest-based targeting.
Tip #4. Spy on Your Competitors
If you want to beat your competitors on Facebook, then you must first know what they are doing. And, there are various ways in which you can do that on Facebook.
Here are some of the ways in which you can learn about your competitors’ Facebook marketing strategies:
- Visit their business pages and check their messenger bots’ response time. You can also interact with it to check out their messenger bot marketing strategies.
- You can see all of the ads each of your competitors is running, across locations, from the “info and ads” tab on their business page.You can select the “global ads” option to see all their ads globally. This way, you can see the kind of ads they are running and take inspiration from there.
- You can also learn about your competitors’ customer complaint resolution strategies by checking their conversation threads. Look for the ones where people have asked a question or made a complaint and see how they respond to it.
- You can simply scan your competitors’ Facebook pages to see their messaging strategies, frequency of posting, and types of content posted.
Tip #5. Post at the Right Times
Every social media platform has certain times when their users are most active. Knowing the right times and days to post can play an important role in deciding how much engagement you get.
According to a study by Sprout Social, the best time to post on Facebook is between 9am and 3pm on weekdays.
Surprisingly enough, people spend more time on Facebook during the weekdays than they do on weekends. And the highest engagement rates are seen on Wednesday and Thursday during the above-mentioned (9am to 3pm) time period.
So, leverage these insights and share your Facebook posts at the right times, to get the maximum engagement.
Conclusion
These are some of the most effective Facebook marketing tips that you can start using right now. Leverage these tips to ace your Facebook marketing and beat your competitors.
Do you know of any other Facebook marketing tips that have worked for you? Please share them with us in the comments section.