As first seen on business2community.com.
When I started my first business online, trainbaseball.com, I didn’t even know how to start a webpage. Instead, I created a fan page on Facebook. One year later, I had attracted over 140,000 fans, collected over 70,000 email addresses, and generated $1.2 million in sales. Interested yet? Keep reading, and I’ll explain how you can replicate my success.
1. Start Small
Swinging for the fences on your first pitch will very rarely yield a home run in the advertising game. Start small until you can get a feel for how much true value you’ll get from your investment in Facebook advertising.
I started with a $50 budget, which was a lot for me at the time. I realized from the beginning what it would take to put together a profitable campaign using Facebook ads. Most people think they can just drive traffic to a single fan page, or product sales page, and it will be enough. But it’s not enough.
Complacency can be the death of a campaign, so banking on one objective can prove to be a waste of time, energy, and money. Before you go live with your advertising, you need to have multiple products to sell – and multiple ways to sell them.
2. Have a Traffic Control Plan
You’ve taken the steps to build a following, and your site is seeing more traffic every day. So now what?
Even before your site starts getting hits, you need to have a plan for what to do with your audience once they’ve arrived. A nearsighted plan will almost always end with the marketer losing everything he or she put into the campaign.
Initially attracting a huge audience can be a blessing or a curse. You can have thousands of fans praising you for the value you’ve provided them, or you can have thousands of fans sitting there asking, “I’m here…now what?”
Getting your fans’ attention was the easy part. Keeping them engaged distinguishes you from the other brands that are no longer relevant. Traffic is great in the short term, but the ultimate goal must be to turn traffic into profit.
3. Use Your Resources
Facebook did some homework for you and provides guidelines for advertisers, which can be found athttps://www.facebook.com/ad_guidelines.php.
I also have a course devoted to teaching businesses how to run campaigns, based on how I’ve done the same thing in a number of different markets. The course is called the Facebook Ads Academy, and more information can be found here.
By following the lessons found on these sites, you’ll be on your way to getting high-value traffic at a minimal cost by taking advantage of Facebook. Essentially, you can use Facebook’s money to work for you. Taking a few minutes to look at these sites might be the best investment of your day.
4. Let Your Fans Brag about You
The “like” button on Facebook could be the best form of suggestive advertising for your brand. Users click “like” because they want their friends to know what they’re interested in. Give your audience the opportunity to brag about your brand. By driving ads to a fan page or putting the “like” button on your ads, you can use advertising to juice your fan base. Advertise a fan page on Facebook and the like button is automatically inserted, allowing you to gain thousands of fans very quickly.
5. Get the Most Out of Your Advertising Space
What’s going to capture a user’s attention? Bright colors. Smiling faces. Red outlines. Anything that stands out will get clicked on, which lowers your cost as the advertiser. Use short copy as well. You don’t need to say much to get people interested, so don’t worry about using every single character that Facebook allows. When campaigning for users to click on your ad, less is more. Get straight to the point.
The opportunity for success is simply a click away. Facebook is a platform that can position your brand before thousands of eyes – if you take advantage of the system. The crucial part is doing your homework before you jump in, so when circumstances arise, you’re ready for them. Users are hungry for real value that they can find easily. Make your brand the source of food in the ocean that is Facebook, and you can quickly reap the benefits of a cost-effective campaign.
