6 Step Approach to a Successful Facebook Marketing Strategy

When you plan to market your business on Facebook, you want to make sure you do it right. The Facebook marketing expert, Mari Smith, teaches 6 specific steps that you can follow to ensure a successful Facebook marketing strategy.

#1 Clarity

It’s important to have clarity of purpose. Discuss this with your team when you create your Facebook marketing strategy.

• What is your Facebook Page all about? What does your company do and what are your objectives?
• What exactly do you offer and to whom?
• Who do you want to attract and why?
• What is your call to action?

It is recommended to have a Welcome page where visitors can instantly see what you’re about and why they should Like you.

#2 Content

Your content should be relevant and on topic. You can now post up to 5000 characters in your status updates.

Studies have found that photos, images and screen-shots work very well.

You need to find a frequency of posting that works for you and your fans. A good recommendation is to post 2-3 times per day, but at least once a day.

Experiment with the time of the day, inside or outside office hours. Thursdays and Fridays are good, because Facebook’s happiness index (yes they have one) spikes on Fridays.

Focus on regular and consistent content. Use different types of posts like:

• Photos
• Videos
• Links
• Questions
• Updates
• Call to action (CTA)

Use Like, Comment or Share as part of your call to action. For example: “Click Like if you agree” or “if this is of value to you, click the Share button”

Share is to Facebook as Retweet is to Twitter!

#3 Connection

Have an engagement strategy that determines the following:

• Moderation blocklist and profanity filter
• Handle negative posts promptly and courteously
• Remove spam promptly
• Decide on a response time
• Ensure adequate moderation
• Be personal, use first names.
• Admins to sign off in first names

A good engagement tip is to provide good resources and some-times direct people back to your blog for more information.

#4 Campaigns

To have more people come over to engage with your content, you need to blend online and offline. Put badges of your Facebook Page on your blog and your company stationary. Place the social Share buttons everywhere.

You can run a launch contest if you come out with a new product or book. You can run Facebook Ads and sponsored stories. What about a competition or a prize drawing? Don’t forget mobile deals.

#5 Conversion

Once you’ve grown your online presence to reach more people and the people are talking about your brand and sharing your content, you want to turn them into paying customers. You can this by:

• Having clear call to actions
• Have promotional posts after providing sufficient quality content
• Use the long URL rather than a short URL, because people can see it.
• Create a marketing calendar and plan your promotions 3-6 months in advance.
• Integrate Facebook with other marketing

#6 Culture

Your Facebook Page will have a culture that emerges over time, but it must always reflect your company values. Remember:

• Your whole team should embody your company values.
• Reward and acknowledge superfans.
• Have clear guidelines on what can and cannot be posted.

In conclusion, it is important to experiment, to track and to test daily.  Also monitor other successful Facebook Pages and find more ideas of what to use there.

Please comment to share if you find this useful.

Which of these are you applying already? How is that working for you?