If it's not getting new customers through the door, it's customers not returning often enough. These are just some of the many challenges that local small to medium businesses are constantly trying to tackle. Well, after some detective work you can determine whom you want to reach and how you're going to engage with them on Facebook – the best news is, 10 minutes is all it's going to take!
Whilst we all know Google is still the number one tool for searches, Facebook is slowly moving up the list. If you think improving your Facebook marketing strategy involves increasing your fan-dom, you're wrong. Metrics mean nothing if you're a small business in England with 100 likes on your picture from people in China.
Facebook itself is great to solve this problem – there are many tools available on the platform itself, which can help anyone who may be struggling with local business enquiries. Let's go through some things you can use to make your Facebook campaign more efficient:
Setting up your local Facebook Page
Start with the simple. The first step you should take when starting ewith Facebook is to create your own Facebook business page. If you're new to Facebook, use our beginners guide to help you create a page for your business. This puts you in a better position to connect with a specific audience within the local area. Here's a few things to keep in mind when creating your page:
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Pictures: You can connect with an audience closer to you by producing and sharing images that mean something to them – posting pictures that include something to do with the local area. This will make your company resonate with them, and the variety of photos will help to keep your business at the tops of people's minds.
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Word of mouth: A local business page is a great way to showcase your brand. As long as it is well optimised, you can use it to entice a local audience through your content; who in turn may share it with their connections.
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Link your page: Link your business page to your personal page. This is a quick and easy step that you can get some great results out of. Doing this makes people who you know aware of you, and with the facilities available on Facebook, it will show your business on their profile page which will make their connections also aware.
Facebook local awareness ads
You can also use the new ads to provide local customers with directions and to tell them about special sales and offers. Read through our step by step guide which tells you exactly how to set up your Facebook Advertising campaign. Specifically, the new initiative shows Facebook users certain Local Awareness Ads if they live in the targeted location based on their Facebook profile’s “current city” or based on their most recent device location, per their mobile device’s GPS signal.
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Specific: The tool is designed to be able to grab any important data such as location, age, gender, interests and other factors. It then puts your ad in front of those specific Facebook users, allowing you to segment your audience.
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Dayparting: Within your Ad campaign you have the option to be able to run at certain times that you feel work better. This could be dependent on the times that you feel you will get more clicks from the right audience.
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Evaluate your progress: You can monitor your metrics to see how well your Ad is doing and set up campaigns. It also gives you the flexibility to be able to turn your campaigns on or off at any time.
Whilst the Internet may have made people see businesses focus more on a global level, local business can be a lot more easier to dominate – if you know what you're doing. What you really need in order for you to attract your local community to follow you on Facebook is value. You can do this by offering quality content that doesn't just put your product out to them, but also offers a solution to their problem. Does your business have a successful Facebook strategy? What tips do you have to share about leveraging your Facebook marketing? Leave your comments below.
