Why Your Business Needs a Facebook Page

This post is going to focus solely on Facebook pages for bricks and mortar businesses, with strategies to benefit both Retail and Professional Service industries.

This post assumes you have a Facebook page running for your business. If you don’t, please contact us and we can direct you to some fantastic articles and free eBooks that take a step by step approach to help you get started.

Ask everyone – “Why not like us on Facebook?”

Once you have set up your Facebook Page it is important to let your clients know and to ask them to like you on Facebook.

• Print a small strut card and place it on your reception counter or at your register
• Update your business card with your Facebook page name
• Email your database to announce the launch of your Facebook page
• Add a Facebook news feed on your website homepage

Building up your offline clientele in your online space gives you the ability to extend your brand and promotional message so that it is regularly in front of your customers, keeping you top of mind.

What should your business “do” on the business page?

• Use a profile picture of your shop front if you are in retail
  • This acts as a visual cue for your clientele. It reminds them who you are when you pop up in the newsfeed and when they walk past, too.
• Use a profile picture of your staff if you are in professional services
  • This reminds your clientele they know you personally when you pop up in the newsfeed and reminds them of the one on one relationships they have built up.
• Communicate in a style and tone that reflects your bricks and mortar business
  • Don’t be overly casual just because it is Facebook. Your Page is still a reflection of your brand and should align with your overall brand strategy.
• Post photos of new stock that has come in, stock that is on sale and people interacting with your stock.
• Post videos that are created in the workplace featuring staff and clientele.
• Educate your clientele by sharing relevant articles, think of the magazines you keep that are relevant, now look for those sorts of articles and spreads online and share.
• Boast a little! Announce any awards you have been nominated for or better still, have won, congratulate staff members on achieving service milestones or on new qualifications. Keep building the sense of community.
• Announce events and invite clientele to attend

5 Ways your Business can benefit from a Facebook Page

1. Pushing Offers through Facebook

Bring people to your business by creating an offer they can claim in-store and share with their friends. Creating a relevant offer on Facebook has the possibility to increase your sales by reaching existing and new customers, as well as getting people talking about your business due to their ability to be shared. When offers are claimed by the people who like your Page, their friends may see it as a story in their news feeds.

The impact of your offers can also be easily tracked when people claim and redeem them, enabling you to measure the success of the promotions you have created.

2. Check In’s

“Check In” is usually done on an iPhone or Android phone whilst at a location. A user goes onto Facebook and selects the place they wish to “Check In” and this then broadcasts their presence across their newsfeed.

This means your business is promoted to the network of your client. To take advantage of checking in, make sure when you set up your page you selected “local businesses and places” as your page category and entered in your full address. This allows your clientele to find you when searching and can then “Check In” when at your place of business.

Encourage “Check In’s” by offering special discounts and offers for clients who check in.

“If you “Check In” today, you’ll get 10% off”

We have developed process cards to take staff and clients step by step through the check in process. Get in touch if you would like a copy.

3. Call to Action Buttons

Designed to bring your business’s most important objective to the forefront of its Facebook presence, call-to-action buttons link to any destination on or off Facebook that aligns with your business’s goals. You can select from a group of call-to-action buttons — like Shop Now or Sign Up — to add to the top of your Page. The seven calls to action buttons currently available are:

• Book Now
• Contact Us
• Use App
• Play Game
• Shop Now
• Sign Up
• Watch Video

4. Geographical Targeting

Another benefit you can tap into as a business with a physical location is geographical targeting. You can create a Facebook Ad campaign and target a radius around your business (smallest is currently 10 mile, which is 16km). This means your ad only shows to those who have selected their location and it falls within the radius you select. Instead of running an ad to everyone, or for example, shoe lovers, where there will be a lot of wastage, you can run your ad to shoe lovers within 16km of your retail location.

5. Reach Clients Outside of your Location

Finally your business can benefit from having a Facebook Page by using it to extend your reach outside of your location.

Upload albums of your new arrivals, sale stock, most popular, offer free postage and free exchange for any Facebook orders. You may find you attract some new clients that your retail store could never service before, whilst also increasing the convenience for some of your existing clients to shop from home.

It is important to keep up-to-date as the rules of Facebook Pages are always changing; these tips are current at the time of publishing. I will endeavour to update this post as changes occur.

Need help with your Facebook for business strategy? Contact us to discover how we can assist with developing a Marketing Plan that can cover all elements of your marketing mix and give you strategies to grow that you can start working on immediately.

How do you use Facebook for your business? What you would consider changing after reading this?

Stay tuned for our revision of G is for Google.

Mary-Anne