According to the latest stats, Facebook currently hasmore than 2 billion monthly active users. Besides being a great place to connect to people, it’s one of the most profitable marketing platforms of today. As everybody and their momma (literally) has an account on Facebook, it’s the perfect platform to market and sell on.
However, as Facebook keeps evolving and new trends in digital marketing arise, using the same old tactics simply won’t cut it any more. Here are the most common mistakes in Facebook advertising that you need to avoid in order to successfully win over and convert your followers.
Pushing Your Product Instead Of Pulling In Attention
If your brand is on Facebook, your primary concern is marketing your product. However, this should not be your only focus when creating content for your users. Think about it, would you as a user want to have ads plastered all over your news feed or would you want some more authentic content? Nowadays, social media users want genuine, useful content that they can relate to.
One of the best methods for creating content on social media is the Pareto principle. It states that80% of your content should be useful, shareable content, while the remaining 20% should focus on your brand and selling it.
Source: Visual.ly
For the 80%, you can create original content that goes for the soft sell. Think of what your audience would find useful – how-to guides, tutorials, opinion pieces, blog articles, memes, infographics and more. You can also repost great content by influencers or simply ask questions to your audience to start a conversation.
The remaining 20% can focus on promoting your brand and product. Here too, you can provide value in the form of special offers, discounts or bundles. Includea strong call to action and watch those leads roll in.
Not Handling Negative Feedback
No matter what your industry is and how good of a work you do, there will be negative feedback on social media every now and then. Some larger brands get carried away in thinking there is no specific person to blame, so one or two bad comments won’t do any harm. However, it’s important to address all negative feedback properly.
Option #1: ignore negative comments. The easiest thing to do is to do nothing. As bad comments start rolling in, you can simply ignore them and let them pile up. They are anything but harmless, as other Facebook users can see them and the damage is twofold. They see the mistakes you’ve made, as well as your poor methods of dealing with feedback.
Option #2: delete negative comments. You can simply remove all complaints and negative feedback with a click of a mouse. However, you will only frustrate your followers even more, and they may vent their feelings elsewhere.
Option #3: address negative comments. By far the best option involves replying to negative feedback with helpful replies. Admit your errors and provide help to your customers. Not only will you win back a customer, you will also show other followers how you deal with complaints, andleads will start coming your way.
Marketing To The Wrong Audiences
If you’re marketing to the lump of 2 billion users on Facebook, you’re not exactly making the most out of your marketing efforts. Before you get into Facebook marketing, you should first do a properbusiness market research. Find out more about your audience - who they are, what kind of pain points you are solving for them, where their location, occupation and more.
Armed with this data, you can target them on Facebook with surgical precision. If you already have a list of your prospects’ emails, you can simply upload it to Facebook and half of the work is done for you. The platform will target those specific users with your ads, provided that their profile matches the email you supply.
Alternatively, you can build lookalike audiences using the same list. Facebook’s algorithms can recognize users with similar interests to those whose emails you uploaded and you can reach them with your ads.
Source: Clixmarketing
Finally, you can set up filters yourself. Say that you want to advertise your fitness equipment to 30-40-year-old women who live in the west of USA and follow fitness instructors on Facebook. Additionally, you want them to work in executive positions and have above average income? It’s absolutely doable. However, this is an example of a broader target audience – in order to achieve true success, go into even further detail. If you’re inecommerce marketing, you should have plenty of details on your existing customers.
With proper knowledge of your target audience and Facebook’s advanced targeting, you will put your ads in front of exactly those people willing to purchase. Posting for too wide of an audience will result in spending lots of money with no tangible results.
Inconsistent Posting
With Facebook’s new algorithm, organic reach is becoming an unattainable dream for many. It’s increasingly harder to reach your followers without the help of paid ads. More than ever, brands should post consistently on Facebook to keep their followers engaged. If you make a post every ten days, you’re sending a message that your Facebook followers aren’t that valuable to you and that you have more important business to take care of.
In order to keep your followers engaged all the time, you should post consistently. Set up an editorial calendar, either manually through Facebook or using an app such as Hootsuite or Buffer.
Not Wanting To Pay
As we’ve mentioned, getting organic views on your Facebook posts is becoming harder by the day, thanks to Facebook’s algorithms. You spend hours creating a great image or infographic only for it to get lost in someone’s newsfeed – or never even show up. There’s only one solution – pay up.
Source: Marchex
By paying Facebook to boost your post, you’re guaranteeing more eyeballs on it and more engagement. Take into consideration how much money you need to spend on increasing reach and what kind of return on investment you can get. In the end, for a brand to be truly competitive, they need to spend at least some amount of money on Facebook’s paid ads.
As Facebook develops new algorithms frequently, it’s important to stay on top of them and adapt your marketing strategy. By staying away from these Facebook marketing mistakes, you’ll make sure to have a marketing plan that works and provides excellent ROI.