Marketing is not a single isolated event, it is a continuous process that begins the second you place that order for that product. Marketing can be described as the “process of generating interest in an entity or product, and communicating that interest to prospective customers.” So to properly market a product, you must begin the process before your customers even know that you exist.
Nowhere is this process more evident than on social media. With over 1.86 billion active monthly users, Facebook alone accounts for over 27% of all social media traffic. It is the largest of its kind, and it continues to grow.
So it comes as no surprise that businesses of all sizes are beginning to focus on the giant that is Facebook. Whether you are just beginning to explore the online space or you have a brand new Facebook page, you can begin strategizing how you want to market your business on this platform.
Here we will discuss how to sell your Facebook marketing services in a nutshell. We will cover everything from digital marketing to social media marketing, traffic generation, and paid versus organic reach.
Set A Budget
One of the first things you should do before even considering marketing your business is to set a budget. Just because you have a lot of money to spend on marketing does not mean you will automatically get great results. You need to consider how much you are willing to spend on marketing, and how much you can afford to spend. Setting a budget can be difficult, especially if you are completely in the dark about what exactly marketing is costing you. Consider breaking down your budget into smaller chunks so that you can more easily track where your money is going and what you are achieving. For example, if you estimated that your marketing costs $5,000 per month, consider setting a monthly budget of $1,000. Then you can track your progress on a monthly basis. This way you can easily see whether you are achieving your goals or whether you need to adjust your strategy.
Determine Your Target Audience
Another vital part of any marketing plan is to determine your target audience. Who is the person you will market to? Consider finding out the demographics, psychographics, and digital behaviors of your ideal buyer. You can do this through market research, or you can use a tool like HubSpot’s Target Market Segmentation to discover the demographics, psychographics, and digital behaviors of your ideal buyer.
- The more you know about your ideal buyer, the easier it will be to tailor your strategy to meet their needs.
- Not sure what an ideal buyer is? Get inspired by asking friends, family, and coworkers who they think would be interested in your product.
- Use that interest to find the people most likely to buy your product. Then you can segment those individuals and tailor your strategy to reach them.
- Learn from successful businesses around the world.
- Create buyer personas and use that to flesh out your strategy.
- Decide whether you will use paid advertising, or whether you will rely on “organic” reach.
- Once you have determined your target audience, it’s time to decide whether you will use traditional, digital, or a combination of both.
- Consider using micro-tasks to engage with your target audience. For example, will you send out weekly tips or offer a free trial or discount to anyone who subscribes to your newsletter?
- Create short-term and long-term goals for your marketing plan.
Create A Marketing Plan
After you have a clear idea of who you are targeting and how much you are budgeting you can begin to create a marketing plan. The purpose of your plan is to lay out a strategy for reaching your target audience using the most modern, effective, and affordable marketing tactics.
Your plan should include a combination of traditional and digital methods. For example, you could start with a paid social media campaign followed by an e-mail marketing series.
You want to find the right mix of tactics that fit your budget, and that aim to generate the most leads (or conversions) for your business. Your plan should also include ways to track the effectiveness of your campaign, and determine whether you are reaching your target audience.
Your plan should be a living, breathing document that you can refer back to at any time. Make sure that you add new strategies to it as you learn additional marketing tactics, as well as adjust your plan as necessary.
Paid Advertising
You have determined that paid advertising is part of your strategy, now it’s time to determine how much you will spend on this strategy. There are four distinct types of paid advertising you will encounter:
- Advertising on desktop websites.
- Advertising on social media platforms.
- Display Advertising (aka “Banner Ads”).
- Product placements (aka “Promoted Posts”).
Deciding which type of paid advertising to use is not as easy as it sounds. It all depends on your goals. If you are looking to immediately gain sales, then consider using paid advertising on social media platforms.
Paid advertising is not as effective as organic social media marketing, but it can be a quick and easy way to generate some buzz around your business, product, or website. You should probably not expect to get great results from paid advertising alone, but it can be helpful when your budget allows you to test out different advertising strategies without risking a large chunk of cash.
Organic Social Media Marketing
If you have decided to go the organic route for your social media marketing, you should already have a clear idea of the platforms you will use. Bear in mind that not all organic social media marketing is created equal, there are several strategies you can use to make sure your social media accounts are generating real results.
Here are five tips to give you a better understanding of what is working and what is not with your organic social media marketing strategy:
- Set a budget and stick to it.
- Create content that is valuable to your target audience.
- Build a community.
- Monitor your mentions.
- Measure and track your results.
- Adjust your strategy as necessary.
In plain English, setting a budget and sticking to it means that you are not going to spend more than you can afford to. It also means that you are not going to waste your time with campaigns that are not producing results. Setting a budget and sticking to it might not be as easy as it sounds, especially if you are entirely unaware of what “results” look like. Consider using a tool like Google Analytics to track the results of your strategy. This way you can easily determine whether you are reaching your target audience and if the methods you are using to reach them are yielding the desired results.
Combined Marketing
If you are reading this article, it is most likely that you have already determined that paid advertising and organic social media marketing are two sides of the same coin. The difference is in the medium: paid advertising is delivered “organically” through social media. Consider how much more effective your strategy is when used in conjunction with the other.
For example, if you have a paid social media campaign running and you wish to continue to grow your audience, it is a good idea to also include content on your website and in other places online that is relevant to your target audience. When used effectively, combined marketing can be extremely powerful.
Measure The Success Of Your Marketing Efforts
As a business owner, manager, or marketer you should be aware of how much your marketing activities are costing you. One of the first and most important things you should do before creating a new strategy is to consider how much you are already spending on marketing. You need to set a benchmark and determine whether you are reaching your target audience. There are several ways to go about this, but one of the simplest is to use a tool like Google Analytics.
By entering a few keystrokes you can have a complete understanding of how much traffic you are generating to your site, social media channels, and emails. Then you can compare that to the amount of leads you are converting into customers and determine the success of your efforts.