When it comes to marketing and promoting businesses, Facebook is among the top social media platform preferences of business owners all across the world. With thousands of users joining the platform each day, Facebook online marketing can really help you get your business on board and increase your sales and revenue through a number of online marketing strategies. According to a report released by Facebook in June 2021, Facebook registered an annual growth of 57% in the past year.
Facebook has especially been a popular marketing platform for small businesses. And it is for all the right reasons! As a small business owner, with limited resources and finances in the initial stages of your business development, Facebook can prove to be a truly profitable social media for getting your business the right audience. Another report released by Facebook revealed that Facebook is the largest social media platform as far as the number of monthly users goes!
But that is not the only advantage. If you are a small business owner and are still contemplating putting your time and energy into Facebook marketing, give this article a read. We have enlisted some amazing benefits that Facebook online marketing can offer you that are surely going to convince you to start using Facebook for your business efforts right away!
Benefits of Facebook Online Marketing
Statista has revealed that the highest number of Facebook users is in India with the numbers crossing over 320 million users. We have enlisted some key advantages of using Facebook for your business and it is because of these benefits that the majority of big and small businesses all over the world have flourished and managed to succeed in their commercial endeavours. Read below to know more:-
1. Exposure To A Large Global Audience
Being one of the most popular social media platforms amongst consumers of all ages, Facebook can help you get your business across to a huge audience at a global level. The audience at Facebook is not restricted by any particular categories and spans to several demographics. This can be truly helpful as no matter which groups of individuals you are creating your products and services for, you will for sure get an audience.
While the audience is of all ages, the audience over 60 years of age is growing rapidly while the 14 to 36 years age group has the least number of users. Nonetheless, you are still likely to find an audience worth your efforts even amongst the young adults. According to HubSpot reports, the Facebook population accounts for 43.2% females and 56.8% males.
2. Boost Engagement and Creates Brand Awareness
As a small business owner, one of your priorities is to boost brand awareness. The more engagement you have, the greater is your brand awareness and vice versa. And Facebook can really help you achieve these goals. Buffer revealed that Facebook is a host to over 93% active business accounts.
While you can always add your website to the platform that would give your customers all the necessary information about your business, a Facebook Business Page can give your audience the same information in rather engaging ways without much effort. Plus, you can upload plenty of value-adding content such as PDFs, blogs, third-party information, useful industry links that can boost your engagement rate!
3. Word-Of-Mouth
Facebook allows you to carry out the word-of-mouth marketing extremely efficiently and easily. This is possible by sharing posts and pages of your business with the potential leads of your business and the audience that visits your pages. As your business starts getting noticed on the platform, further engagement is created in the form of likes and comments on your posts.
What’s even better is that Facebook allows you to view the users that are engaging with your posts and page right then and there without going through complicated metric reports, and simply by a click! This can help you get a better idea about the audience interested in your products and services. Another report by Buffer revealed that 35% of marketers report successful influencer campaigns on the social media platform.
4. Market Research
To facilitate market research, Facebook has a great feature – Facebook Page Insights. This can give you in-depth analytical reports on your page’s performance and also the performance of each post, whether it is free or paid. This is related to the previous point in the sense that Facebook provides demographic information about your viewers.
This information related to age, gender, job titles, educational level, languages, and more can help you get a better understanding of the needs and preferences of your potential customers. Accordingly, you can tailor your posts and make essential changes in your page and approach towards customers. According to reports by Rivaliq, the median engagement rate accounts for 0.08% across all the industries on Facebook.
5. Variation In Advertisement Formats
Amongst all currently active social media platforms, Facebook offers the maximum variety when it comes to advertising options. There are 10 different types of advertisements you can choose from but the most widely used are the photo and video formats. Social Insider has revealed that Facebook video ads have a low CPC amounting to $0.55.
To add to the ad benefits, all formats are inclusive of visual elements and text that can be used to describe your product, service and/or business better. All the stages of the marketing funnel have some specific formats available to them so you get to use a variety of advertisements that can boost your engagement. HubSpot has revealed that Facebook ads have the highest ROI as compared to all other paid advertisement channels.
6. Drives Website Traffic
One of the most ideal ways of driving traffic to your small business website is through Facebook marketing. Now, you can do this in multiple ways. From creating really engaging content to posting discounts and offers, as long as you uniquely utilize the available space on the platform, you can drive direct traffic to your website as your audience may want to view your products.
Another way to drive direct traffic is without a doubt through advertisements. There are some Facebook advertising options that allow you to drive referral traffic to your online store. If your ad truly stands out and has an impactful vibe and a compulsive appeal, users will visit your website to check out your products. According to reports by SMPerth, the highest traffic on Facebook occurs on Wednesday and Thursday midday.
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7. Low Expenses
For small businesses, finances in the initial stages of development are limited. If you are unable to set up a website or wish to invest in that after your business has started flourishing, you can make use of a Facebook Business Page for the same. This would incur much less expenses while at the same time solving all your business needs. Reports by Hootsuite have confirmed that there are 90 million SMBs on Facebook.
You can display all essential information there and make use of Facebook ads to grow your business too. Facebook ads are not very expensive and charges vary according to the type of ads you are using for your business. Again, prices are decided through different charging methods out of which two widely used methods are CPC (Cost Per Click) and CPM (Cost Per Million).
How can your small business use Facebook for Online Marketing
Now that you have understood the importance of using Facebook for your online marketing initiatives, it is important to understand the various ways in which you can use the platform. Below mentioned are some of the proven effective techniques through which you can build your online presence on Facebook.
1. Facebook Live Events:
Small businesses have the option to host virtual events such as product launches, Q&A sessions, or behind-the-scenes tours. Live videos can be engaging and enable viewers to interact in real-time. This can help you build relationships and foster community around the brand.
2. Use Facebook Groups:
Small businesses can set up a Facebook group to allow them to interact with one another. This is a great way for your business to create a loyal customer base, solicit feedback from customers, and offer support.
3. User-generated Content
Facebook allows small businesses to utilise the power of user-generated content. As a business owner, you can use your business page as an avenue for adding comments and opnions of your consumer about your brand. This will encourage trust and inspire other users to post user-generated content to your Facebook page. User-generated content can be important social proof of your business among the audience which is online.
4. Offer exclusive Facebook deals:
Small businesses may offer special deals or promotions to their followers on Facebook. This can increase your Facebook followers and drive sales.
5. Facebook Messenger:
Facebook Messenger can be used as an important support tool for your business to communicate with your consumers and audience. This provides your users access to a platform where they can raise their concerns and queries and get them resolved.
6. Collaboration with other businesses:
Small businesses may be able to work with other small businesses in their field to promote on Facebook. This is a great way for small businesses to reach new audiences and establish relationships with like-minded companies. This way you can create relationships, foster community and drive sales. Small businesses can experiment with various tactics to find the best strategy for their brand and audience.
7. Interactive Content
To increase engagement and encourage participation, small businesses can create interactive content via Facebook. This is a great way to establish relationships with your audience and gain valuable insight into their preferences.
Final Words
We hope this article was useful in understanding the importance of Facebook Online Marketing for small businesses. Big or small, businesses always have a scope for growth and more revenue. And one of the most ideal and convenient ways is Facebook online marketing which if done right can truly help you upscale your business!