9 Tips For Spring Cleaning Your Local Business Facebook Marketing Strategy

I work with a lot of local businesses who feel they should have a Facebook presence.  Very often they set up a page, start posting content, some even get a good core of Facebook Likes but struggle with what they should do next.  If this is you it’s time to spring clean your Facebook marketing strategy.  Here’s my tips for making it work for you.

1. Design

When someone lands on your page for the first time what impression do they get?  Do you have an inviting cover image? Does your profile image represent you well? Just like your shop window your cover image should attract people and show what they might find inside.  Designing an attractive header image doesn’t have to cost money.  Online photo editing tools like Pic Monkey make it easy to create collages and to crop photographs to fit the right size.

2. About Page

Is your About page up to date? Does it have your right contact details? Does your map appear and are you marked at the right spot? If you are having problems getting your map read here for the solution I found.

Once you have a map you also have the opportunity to add sub categories. There doesn’t seem to be a definitive list to choose from so it can be trial and error in order to find the right one for your business. Your sub category must appear in the drop down menu when you start to type to be valid. (see video below)

3. Who Are Your Target Market And Do They Like Your Page?

Our first port of call for getting people to like our page is usually our friends. This makes sense, our friends are invested in us and our business, they want us to succeed so that we can buy a round next time we are in the pub.  They are also excellent at supporting us and spreading the word about our business.  Many will not  fit into our target market however.  Take a look at the demographics for the people who like your page and check that you are reaching enough people of the right age group/gender and location.

Whether you are currently reaching the right people or not you need to start thinking about attracting the right people to your page.  Start to think about what sort of content you can create that will appeal to them.  Make a list of their interests, activities and where they live. Get this right and you are giving people interesting and compelling information to share that will get the right people interested in your page.

4. What Is Your Strongest Selling Point?

Ask yourself why customers come to you. Is it because you are the cheapest? Is it because you are exclusive? Do you have knowledgeable staff? Is it the quality of product or the friendly welcome?  Once you have defined this you can use this asset in your marketing strategy. Make sure your Facebook marketing compliments your strengths and becomes an extension of what you do in store.

5. What Is Working Already?

Take a look at your insights page and at the insights for each post. Which posts are getting the most engagement? What type of post are they? What time of day are you posting them? Are they relevant to your business. Likealyzer can help you with this too.

If there is a particular kind of post that gains most attention try and work out what it is about that post that works and replicate it. Warning – It’s still important to post a variety of content so that you reach the maximum amount of people.  For example maybe links don’t have as large a reach as status updates but if they are relevant to your target market and particularly if you are linking back to your own website you need to include them occasionally.

6. How You Can Reach Your Existing Customers?

Your existing customers should be the second easiest group of people to reach with your Facebook page after your friends. Start to think of ways that you can encourage them to Like your Facebook page.  Make sure you advertise your page in-store and give people a reason to Like it.  For example will you be sharing tips & information.  Will you post special offers? New stock as it comes in?

Think of a competition that will attract them. Can you work something in-store into the competition, maybe create a sweepstakes where the question to enter is related to something in your shop. Then advertise the competition in store as well as on your Facebook page.

Make sure you abide by Facebook’s promotional guidelines when you set up your competition or you could be in danger of loosing your page.

7. Get Your Customers Involved

Traditionally word of mouth marketing has always been the best kind of marketing. Being recommended by your existing customers will bring you new customers Your Facebook page is an online tool that can help facilitate word of mouth marketing. Keep your customers informed about what you do, what services you provide, what makes you special and you are give them content that is interesting, informative or entertaining that they will want to share.

You can also involve your customers in what you do. Ask them questions about what stock they would like you to carry, ask their opinion on something. The more you can get them involved in these decisions the more invested they will feel in your company and the more they will want to see you succeed.

8. Devise A Content Strategy

This should bring together all the points above. You need to decide what you are going to post and when.  How often will you post? What sort of content, what is the desired result? Some posts will be aimed at gaining reach and audience others will be sales posts. Make sure you are including a variety of content too, status updates, photos, videos and links.

I find it best to put these into a document so that I can quickly see what I need to post and prepare content in advance.

9. Measure

Don’t forget why you are doing Facebook.  Before you start on your new content strategy you should set yourself some very definite goals  for what you want to achieve. Make these SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time Sensitive.

Measure your success against these SMART goals and adjust your strategy accordingly.

I’ve just scratched the surface with these tips. What have I missed? What do you do when you review your Facebook page?

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