10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

How to Grow Your Business with Facebook

How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

If you’re like a lot of small business owners, you may wonder if all the time and effort you put into your Facebook page is worth it. Or maybe the most popular social media platform has intimidated you and you’ve been reluctant to give it a try.

Dream Local Digital has been helping businesses all over North America succeed on Facebook for seven years. We’ve developed this eBook of #HoneyBadger tips to help you grow your business with Facebook.

Below are the 10 ways to do it. Keep reading to learn about each one.

1. Brand your page appropriately ..................................................................

2. Show off your personality .........................................................................

3. Be responsive .........................................................................................

4. Post relevant content ..............................................................................

5. Hold contests .........................................................................................

6. Run promotions and sales .........................................................................

7. Utilize boosted posts ...............................................................................

8. Run ads .................................................................................................

9. Analyze the “Insights” .............................................................................

10. Participate in outreach marketing ..............................................................

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How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods 2

Think of the Facebook page for your business as a mini website. As social media becomes increasingly popular, Facebook pages are often viewed just as often (sometimes even more) as businesses’ websites. That means your Facebook page should accurately reflect who you are, what you do, and why you do it.

Here are the elements to include on your page to ensure appropriate branding:

• Up-to-date logo. Make sure you use the most recent version of your logo as your Facebook profile picture. It should be a high-resolution image, sized 180 pixels by 180 pixels.

• Eye-catching cover photo. Choose an image that shows off something related to your business. The outside of your store, your employees, new items in stock are all great ideas for the photo that appears at the top of the page. This should also be a high-resolution image, sized 851 pixels by 315 pixels.

• Hours of operation. People who visit your Facebook page want to know important things about your business, one of the most important being the hours you are open. List hours for every day of the week and include any special or limited hours on holidays.

• Address. To increase foot traffic to your location, include your address and specific directions if you are located in a hard to find area. Tips on parking may also be helpful.

• Website. Direct customers and prospects to your website for more detailed information about your offerings and business.

• Products and services. Your customers and prospects want to know what you sell and why they should buy it. Include thorough descriptions for each product and service and if necessary any videos of a harder to use product. Also highlight key benefits that make your products or services stand out from your competitors’.

3How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

Brand your page appropriately

4How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

Everything on your Facebook page should reflect who you are as a business. Your posts, videos, and pictures should all work together to tell your unique story and show off key elements of your brand. For example, post content featuring:

For more information on developing your brand voice, check out our #HoneyBadgerHowTo videos on developing a brand voice and storytelling.

Show off your personality

Youremployees

Yourcustomers

Eventsyou attend

Volunteeractivities

Teamoutings

5How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

Everyone wants answers to questions right away. With Facebook, customers and prospects can privately message you with questions or concerns, or leave a public post on your page. To establish or reinforce your reputation for excellent customer service, it’s important to respond to these promptly.

Although messages are private, any viewer of your Facebook page can find out how long it takes you to respond, as the average time is noted under the “About” section.

As important as it is to respond, it’s also important to listen. There are millions of conversations happening every day on Facebook and there’s the opportunity to jump into any thread of comments and become a resource for your audience.

Be responsive

“There’s a lot of difference between listening and hearing.” -G.K. Chesterton

6How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

The best way to keep current followers and gain new ones is to post content that your target audience finds interesting. With Facebook, you have the opportunity to be a resource for your fan base by posting helpful and useful content that they value.

Your content should include information about your own business as well as information related to your industry in general, keeping in mind that it has to targeted toward your customers. Are you a clothing retailer? Post images of new items in stock and share articles on fashion trends. Are you a car mechanic? Post deals and discounts, but also provide tips on how to prepare your car for different seasons of the year.

The content that you share on your page from other credible sources will build relationships with your followers and help you stay top-of-mind when they are making a purchase decision.

Post relevant content

7How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

Contests are a fun way to get fans excited and increase engagement. We’ve all seen contests on Facebook pages (e.g., “Share this post to receive a free $20 gift card”).

Encourage people to subscribe to an email list in exchange for an incentive (a giveaway, a discount, etc.). This way, you build your list and reward lucky winners with something they want from your business.

Hold contests

8How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

Facebook is a great place to promote sales. Feature sale items with a clear photo and a link to your website so customers can purchase or order easily. The better the photo and headline and the more enticing the sale, the greater the post’s visibility will be, as more people will like, comment on, and share these posts.

By promoting sales on Facebook, you are also able to gauge the interest level and determine whether or not a similar sale would be beneficial in the future.

Run promotions and sales

9How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

You can take most promotional posts and pay to boost their reach. You see boosted posts all the time, but you might not realize that they’re paid advertising, because they look like regular native content. They blend in with other posts on the Facebook user’s regular news feed, but they’re visible to a wider audience that the business can define based on geography, interests, demographics, and other factors.

Successful types of boosted posts consist of sales, promotions, offers, events, and any other relevant content that your ideal customer would be interested in.

Utilize boosted posts

10How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

Ads are another way to increase your visibility with potential customers and turn them into fans of your page. When running Facebook ads, you can target your audience narrowly and specifically, reaching people based on their age, gender, location, interests, income level, and much more.

Among the most useful types of Facebook ads are:

All ads should engage the audience, provide them with an appealing offer,and include a relevant call-to-action that tells them exactly what you want them to do.

Run ads

Domain ads. These are simple, traditional ads that appear in the right column of Facebook when viewed on a desktop computer. They include a title, description, image, and link.

Lead ads. These provide are an easy way for potential customers to sign up for what you’re offering right from the ad. Most of the time, the form is already filled in with their information that they have shared with Facebook (name, phone number, email). The form is mobile friendly and designed for a positive user experience that allows them to reach you quickly.

Local awareness ads. These target customers who are physically near your bricks-and-mortar location in real time. They are especially useful to promote restaurants, retail sales and impulse purchases.

Page post ads. This is the most popular type of Facebook ad, commonly used to bring traffic to a specific page on a website. Page post ads typically have large images to catch the user’s attention.

11How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

All Facebook page administrators have access to the “Insights” section. The Insights tab provides analytic data such as engagement levels, page views, actions taken on the page (likes, comments, shares), demographics of your fan base, times that your fans are online, and more.

Use the Insights tab to assess the performance of your Facebook campaign. Do the demographics of your fan base match your ideal customer? What types of posts get the best engagement? Are promotional posts resulting in conversions? Keep an eye on the Insights, and make changes continually to optimize your page’s performance.

Analyze the “Insights”

12How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

Outreach marketing is engaging with other businesses and organizations by posting on their Facebook pages and entering into conversations with them. The followers of those other businesses can see your posts and, if they find them of interest, follow them to your website or Facebook page for more information. You can do outreach marketing on the Facebook pages of local media, nonprofit organizations, suppliers, customers, and other kinds of organizations.

Outreach marketing shows that your business is active in the community, enjoys being social on social media, and is willing to support and share information with others.

Participate in outreach marketing

13How to Grow Your Business with Facebook10 #HoneyBadger Tested and Approved Methods

You’re one step closer to rocking Facebook marketing! We hope you found our #HoneyBadger Facebook tips helpful. We’re certain they will help you grow your business on Facebook.

If you need assistance getting started, we’re here to help! Fill out the form for a free marketing consultation and we’ll show you how to take your marketing from ordinary to extraordinary.