A budget-friendly guide to Facebook marketing for small businesses

Securing sustainability might be one of the most challenging tasks for small businesses. Growing your customer base and generating leads is crucial for the future of your business. A platform such as Facebook can help you do this. Focus your marketing efforts on a few key areas and you’ll grow your brand and attract paying customers.

The differences between organic and paid social media

The comparison is similar to organic search vs. paid search. Organic social media refers to any activity carried out without a paid promotion. It uses free social media tools to build a following and engage with customers online. Anything on social media that is influenced by advertising dollars is considered paid social media. In other words, sponsored posts and advertisements that brands pay a social media platform to display to audiences beyond their followers. Cost-per-click (CPC) is one of the most common ways to charge for this type of promotion. It is best to combine paid and organic social strategies to engage and nurture your audience and followers to extend your brand’s reach.
Both organic and paid social media tactics can be helpful in achieving your goals. The difference lies in the exposure your content receives and the speed with which results are delivered.
Boosting your Facebook post or running an ad quickly after placing it is an excellent way to get results with paid social. Once your social media budget is depleted, your exposure ends.
While organic methods can take a little longer, the results are usually more lasting.
Investing in online marketing can be expensive, so you need to maximize the return on your investment. You can achieve excellent results by combining organic strategies with paid methods that return the best ROI.
Here are seven tips for growing your brand on Facebook.

1. Create an optimized profile page

Many businesses online don’t optimize their profiles properly. A poorly optimized social media profile does not drive traffic, increase email subscribers, or boost sales. It tells users nothing about your brand or who it caters to, which hurts its growth.
Optimize your profile page and provide your audience with as much information about your business as possible. Make sure your contact information is accurate and current and if you have a local business that it matches your GMB listing.
Be sure to choose a suitable vanity URL once you’ve reached 25 followers. The vanity URL is the custom page address for your business page. Typically, this will be your business name or a phrase associated with your brand.
You should link your profile page to your website, and you should also make sure that your website links to your profile page. Use your logo as your Facebook profile picture and create a banner for your cover photo.

2. Create a Content Calendar

Posting content regularly is essential to a successful Facebook marketing strategy. In order to ensure this, you should create a content calendar that includes:

industry and social events,
Seasonal and holiday trends,
Popular viral topics,
and interactive content that can be shared.

Maintaining bidirectional communication will also encourage people to revisit your profile.
When planning your content, determine what keywords are being searched for in your field and create content based on those terms. You can also use a tool like Google Trends to discover the hottest topics in your niche. This is exactly how we came up with this subject.
After building your keyword list, you can use Facebook Creator Studio to schedule your content ahead of time. This will save you a lot of time by planning all your content for the month at one time.

3. Intent-driven posts

In the marketing world, intent-driven marketing has become very popular recently, and for a very specific reason. Intent-driven marketing aims at bringing tangible results to online businesses. A variety of things can happen, such as sales, new customers, reviews, website traffic, brand recognition, and partnerships. Businesses can use intent-driven marketing to pinpoint the factors that drive people to buy by analyzing their expectations and behaviors.
Keeping your site updated regularly is important, but don’t overfill it with content. In order to maximize your return on time invested, make sure your posts have a purpose.
Prepare your content by thinking about how your customers will perceive it. After all, you are posting it for their benefit. Be friendly, informative, and engaging.
You will not make any sales by writing a valuable post unless you can get your audience to take action. It’s crucial to include a clear, strong call to action – and you shouldn’t forget to include a website link.

4. Keep an eye on your competitors

Your small business isn’t the only player in the Facebook marketing game. Keep an eye on your competition so that you can benchmark your efforts against theirs. Make use of any additional research you may have that your competitors don’t.
As part of benchmarking, you should also look at what is working for your competitors: what types of posts get the most engagement for them? Which paid advertising efforts are delivering the best results for them? How much money are the top players investing in paid advertising?
An ad spy tool can assist you in following what your competitors are doing. A good rule of thumb is that if they have an ad campaign running for more than 30 days then it is working as no company would continue to pump money into an ad campaign that isn’t achieving positive results.

5. Build your community

Create a Facebook group centered on your customers’ interests. If you create a tight-knit community, people will become more trusting of your brand. It’s not necessary for all small businesses to create a Facebook Group, so think first about if your audience needs it, then decide what kinds of topics will engage them.
Why would they want to join your group? Everyone likes to have a dedicated area that they can use. Find ways to support your community and give back to it. You’ll soon see an increase in brand loyalty and you might even find some brand ambassadors!
Make sure you are also involved in other groups in your community. Building a loyal following will translate into sales as well as brand equity when you position your business as an authority.
We regularly post in other Facebook groups, and do not engage in Spam but in providing helpful content and answers. You would be surprised at our R.O.I for doing this.

6. Create custom retargeting audiences

The purpose of Facebook retargeting is to reach users who viewed your brand but did not convert. It begins with finding people who have engaged with your business.

Prepare a list if you know the people you’d like to retarget.

Install the Facebook pixel if you want to retarget your website visitors.

A Facebook pixel is a small snippet of code that you, your website engineer, or a Facebook Business Partner can paste into your website code. It keeps track of the types of actions people take when they interact with your brand, including any Facebook ads they saw prior to visiting your website, the pages they visit on your site, and the items they add to their baskets.

Here’s how to use custom audiences:

Go to your Facebook Ads Manager
Select Audiences.
To create an audience, choose Custom Audiences.
Then pick a target audience from the dropdown menu.
This will create a pixel code that you must then place on your website.

The Custom Audiences feature allows you to retarget your email and eCommerce lists. Additionally, you can display ads to a custom audience created from your email lists.

7. Boost posts whenever possible

This is somewhat controversial but because Facebook doesn’t display your posts to your entire following when you post content. Boosting content will cost you a small fee, so businesses are motivated to pay. It may sound like an odd business model, but you can use it to your advantage. Spending five dollars to boost a valuable piece of content can help you grow your following and generate leads. Do not forget to invite people to like your page and follow your brand when promoting a post. You can get a great return by investing just a small amount.

Using Facebook to maximize your results

More than 2.6 billion people use Facebook every month, making it a robust platform. People spend so much time on Messenger, in groups, and even just browsing their feeds that your business’s target audience may also be on Facebook. If so, then turn them into paying customers with an effective marketing campaign.
When it comes to using Facebook marketing for your small business, you should combine organic and paid methods. Track your metrics and compare your methods and results to those of the top players in your market.
Over 80% of businesses are active on Facebook, so why let someone else take the extra revenue? When combined with a solid Facebook marketing plan, your small business website can generate leads and sales even on a smaller budget.
In addition, you’ll strengthen your relationship with your audience. The result will be greater business authority and higher conversion rates.
We can help you maximize the results of your Facebook ad campaigns by taking care of the work for you. Our advertising optimization tools will find the people you’re looking for and leverage your ad spend most effectively to drive results for your business once you tell us your business goals and determine who you want to reach.
Feel free to contact us if you would like some Facebook Marketing Help.