Why Your Small Business Needs A Facebook Business Page
Updated: Jul 3, 2021
I often hear from clients all the reasons they don't have a Facebook Business Page, or why they don't think they need a Facebook Business Page or why they don't like Facebook. But the truth is, Facebook continues to be a great tool to help grow your business.
Facebook is a platform that excels at building strong engaged communities, it really helps us connect with our perfect audience - when used correctly. Connecting with our ideal audience helps create awareness for your brand, establish trust, and build credibility.
Did you know... 77% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands they follow on social (source - Sprout Social)
Here is the thing though... it is NOT a magic bullet.
You can't expect to create a business page, add some photos, and then BAM! You have hundreds/thousands of engaged followers. As with anything, it takes time, work, and keeping the page about your audience - NOT YOU!
It will not transform you business simply by having a page, but if you have a great strategy, targeted at the right people, with the right messaging, you can grow your business exponentially using Facebook.
Facebook currently has over 2.32 billion active monthly users and it gives your business the ability to connect with your perfect customers with a laser like target - if used the right way. That is powerful and I am getting excited just talking about this because from a marketing perspective - that is pure gold!
Think about Facebook like a networking event where you have access to all the attendees bios, likes, interests, BEFORE you even get to the event.
Think about the last (pre-COVID) networking event you attended. You show up, you circle the room, you hand out a bunch of cards, you listen intently when the introductions go around to see if we can find that perfect person to connect with, but you still don't know much about them and if they really are your ideal client.
Facebook on the other hand has and provides you with a wealth of knowledge and access to your ideal prospects and customers. This helps you provide more value to your followers and better engagement for you and your brand.
Why does your business need a facebook business page?
There are 4 main reasons:
Brand awareness making sure people know you exist.
It helps you start conversations to start connecting with the community around you.
With the right strategies it helps you get people in your store or on your website to buy your amazing products and services.
It also helps you to gain a better understanding of what your customers want – which means you can make better products, provide better service, and bring more value to your customers.
So now you know why your business need a Facebook Business Page, so let's dive into the how to create an optimized page that attracts the right people.
How to Get Started & Get Connected with your new Facebook Business Page.
Getting started is always the hardest step when learning something new. But once you start, your journey gets easier and you will start to see results.
When I work with clients, I often will break down the execution of their Facebook strategy into smaller steps in the beginning. A little bit each day to push their plans forward. This helps make it feel less overwhelming.
The first question I ask is...
What are you trying to accomplish by being on Facebook? Some examples of specific goals you may have are:
Increase traffic into your store?
Sell more products online?
Increase engagement?
Help people find you?
Drive more traffic to your website?
Increase your subscriber list with quality leads?
Whatever your specific objectives are, identifying your goal before you start planning will help you understand what you need to do in order to achieve that goal.
This is important - To be successful you need to understand Who YOUR audience is.
Not everyone is your customer.
Focus on the one customer we wish we could have 100 of - The one person that makes your business better. That inspires you. That you connect with. That you are able provide the most value too.
Then you can start to create a picture of who they are.
Here are some examples of questions you will want to ask - these are just a few to get you started.
How old are they?
What do they do?
Where do they hang out – are they on Facebook?
What do they like?
What are their interests?
What values do they have?
What beliefs do they hold?
What problems do they face?
You can then start building your ideal customer persona. This will help you paint a picture of the perfect customer you are looking to connect with.
A great way to start learning about your target audience? Join some groups and communities on Facebook where they hang out!
Listen to the conversations, understand what they are asking, why, how… you will start to see what really matters to them. You may even get some ideas on how to improve your business to serve them better - maybe your competitors are missing out on a specific need or problem that you can now help them solve!
Now we are getting somewhere! The next step? Make a solid plan - and stick too it!
One thing that I learned early on in my corporate career was something that has served both myself and my clients well... you need to have a solid plan in place to keep you on track and focused.
There is no such thing as a good off-strategy idea.
Planning is critical to your success. If you "plan" to just go out and start posting a bunch of random things you hope your audience will love or like, you are likely to be disappointed with the results.
You need to use the information you have about your prospects and customers to build a content plan that delivers value to them, throughout each stage of their journey with you.
Keep it simple to start. Set out to create realistic strategies that you can measure and improve upon.
At minimum you want to be able to answer the following.
How will you start to start to connect with your community?
What types of posts do you want to share?
How often?
With who?
How will you measure success?
Each step will have different tactics to achieve your goal. If you are looking to build awareness, your plans will be different than if you are nurturing relationships to build trust. Always circle back and check that your strategies align with your audience needs and your overall objectives.
Be heard above the noise
There is so much advertising and marketing noise out there. Across Facebook. Other social platforms. Emails. It’s everywhere.
It's your job as a business owner to find a way to target your audience and get them to stop scrolling and start clicking.
Create valuable content that your audience is looking for. Create awesome branded visuals to engage them. Hire a graphic designer to help. Awesome visuals will help to inspire your audience and capture their attention.
And as always, make sure your content and design assets align with your goals, strategy(s) and your target audience’s needs.
If in doubt about your design? Start with an image. People love pictures.
Choose the right one and you can really get some great traction, reach new people, and hit your goals. Images - your cover, profile pic, ads, or your posts, all need to be 100% clear on the message you are trying to convey.
You have less than 5 seconds and the faster you can convey your message visually, the more impact you will have and the better results.
Videos are also a great tool and drive your engagement and consumption. They educate, they inform, and they definitely entertain.
Did you know that over 85% of videos are watched on Facebook without sound?
If you are creating a video where the message needs to be heard, create subtitles to help those audience members with the sound off to be able to enjoy the content.
Encourage engagement and build awareness through social sharing and networking.
Share links, posts, promotions, news and other awesome things you are working on. Pay it forward and share news, events, and achievements for the local community, your partners, your customers.
You can give shout outs, share news, share events going on. Support other local businesses. This is a great way to connect and promote each other!
The 80/20 rule is great to help you decided what content you should be sharing. 80 percent helpful and interesting for every 20 percent of content that’s selling your product.
As always, align what you are sharing with the interests and needs of your target audience. It’s finding things that they find inspiring and engaging.
You can find inspiration all around you by spending some time checking out your favourite brands and companies to see what they are doing. And don’t forget your competitors! You can see what is working, what isn’t, and then build out your plan.
Last but certainly not least, how we will be able to build trust and check that third strategy off is to focus on measuring, improving, repeat.
Measuring your success (or lack of) will help you create a solid content strategy
Every single post will tell you if something is working, not working, or needs some tweaks. The more you do it, the better you will get at it. This will help to refine your strategies, grow your following, and increase your sales.
Facebook changed its algorithm to prioritize “meaningful interactions” from family and friends over content from brands.
This makes it more difficult for brands and businesses - like yours - to get organic content in front of our customers without using facebook ads - unless you have an amazing content strategy that delivers high value content to an engaged audience.
Insights are one of the most powerful tools from Facebook. I love them. I actually look forward to sitting down on Friday mornings with a cup of coffee and taking time to review the week’s insights... But I am a self proclaimed marketing geek so you may not find it as enjoyable. 😜 And that is ok.
BUT It’s real time feedback to help you understand what is working and what needs to be tweaked or abandoned. I’ve found putting 15 to 30 minutes aside each week to review, saves me a ton of time and money in the long run. Because I don’t waste time on things that don’t work and I can focus on the ones that are working - generating engagement and sales!
Another plus is it helps you build trust with your new community by telling them you are listening. You hear what they are saying. You are constantly making an effort to improve their experience and provide them with more value.
You can use the data to set new benchmarks for your audiences and their experiences. Strive to be better each time. I could go on an on about insights, but I will save that for another time... another blog 😀
No matter what your goals, make sure that all your marketing, design and sales efforts are working together.
Link your social accounts. It’s a great idea to send out a post every so often to remind people you are also active on other channels and support cross channel engagement.
Include call to actions that tell people to sign up, click the link and drive traffic to your website or landing pages. Tell them what you want them to do next. Don't make them guess.
Create a campaign that aligns your marketing initiatives with your sales initiatives. Whenever you can have all your efforts working together your results are going to be so much more impactful.
Create a cohesive brand experience. Stay on brand with your visuals. Use free tools like Canva to build strong branded custom content for your audience.
With each of these strategies, make sure you are capturing contacts contact info such as email addresses on a platform. Remember on sites like Facebook you don’t own the data, they do. So if one day it isn’t there, you can still connect with them.
I encourage you to create your business page and strategy today.
Research your audience. Develop your personas.
Set your goals and follow through.
Share your passion for your business and deliver high quality content - Be you. Be memorable. Be inspiring.
We have put together a FREE Facebook for Small Business Workbook to help walk you through the steps and engage with your perfect audience.
Let us know what you think about the workbook and if you have any questions. We are always here to help out our fellow small businesses, entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs. And always be memorable and inspiring. 💕
~ Melissa