We run a live Social Marketer Q&A session every month! Here’s a quick actionable area to focus on from the latest session.
Facebook marketing: Is it worth doing? What can I do in this area myself?
We love that more people are coming to us and saying ‘Let’s try Facebook ads!’… it’s great to see such enthusiasm. One thing we do advise is that we need to make sure it fits the overall picture. Set your expectations. Things are changing instantly and you need to make sure it’s a fit for your firm and target audience, rather than jumping in headfirst just because it’s new.
When done well Facebook ads can produce amazing results.
Not only can you do adverts, and retargeting through Facebook – you can now use Facebook Messenger. It’s brand new and is changing everything.
As you know, the number of people using social media is huge, but the number that use messaging apps like Slack, Whatsapp and Facebook messenger is ever bigger. There’s a lot of opportunity here which Facebook has opened up.
Facebook Messenger lets people message you in a chat box, rather than via a public post or email and you can reply instantly. You save anyone who’s messaged you into a list to message in the future. This is similar to email marketing as they could be a potential customer.
There’s a much higher chance they’ll open the broadcast from Messenger – around 80% compared to an average 20-30% open rate on email.
To build up and manage this list we use a free tool called manychat.com, which is also brand new! You can tag the contacts and segment by industry, location etc. If you use this to send the message out, we’d recommend using the paid-for version (£7 pm) so that you don’t get the tool’s branding on the message.
Tips to build up your social database:
- Share good content, be relevant and helpful then your audience will find you.
- Share longer-form blogs and ‘authority articles’ of 2,000-2,500 words to boost social shares
- Tie into financial dates like year end or tax season. Send a messenger broadcast with a link to a landing page specific to those topics with helpful information.
- You could add Facebook to your contact area so people can just message you with their questions quickly. This is really appealing to those looking for immediacy, a theme we’re also seeing with live chat on websites. Even if they have to leave the message and you come back to them in a few hours, it feels more current than a contact form.
With the integration of content marketing and social media, many well-known businesses are not even asking for an email address for a download. Their email database may not be their highest priority anymore. We’d say it’s still good to have one, but be conscious of the future and build social databases so when email does become defunct you’re ready to go on social.
Can you use Facebook Ads without a personal profile?
No it needs to be attached to a personal profile, although nobody but you will see that. If you change the terminology and think of it as an account rather than your personal profile it can help to overcome issues with some of the team.
Many accountants use Facebook for friends and family rather than business: that mindset needs to change and you need to get comfortable with the cross over. You could have new leads come to you on Facebook, but that’s not a bad thing. If that happens, simply message back and ask them to contact a relevant person or set up a call?
To run retargeting ads on Facebook you need to add the Facebook Pixel to your website so that anyone visiting could potentially see your ad in the future, and you can keep in touch with them. We’d recommend adding that pixel even if you don’t want to run ads at the moment.
Facebook Ads: Think about it before you jump in.
There’s a lot to consider before jumping into Facebook Ads as you could waste a lot of money if you don’t get the basics right.
Here’s the main points:
- 1: Your targeting! Know your ideal clients – the type of people you want to attract. Go as far as targeting by gender, age group, location and interests. A lot of the time, when Facebook campaigns don’t work it’s down to the targeting not being exact.
- 2: The offer! Make your offer appeal to your target market. If people aren’t amazed with the offer then it’s not right for the audience.
Offer + perfectly matched to target = GOLD
Where to start with the offer?
If you’re an accounting firm targeting charities, try offering a free guide or video for them. Start off with a £5-per-day budget and see how it goes, and adapt and be flexible with messaging or the offer. Nobody knows the results before you test and see what happens.
Make a note of the things people are asking you about: their bookkeeping, growth strategies, Xero how-to guides etc. Then pick one topic and turn it into a piece of content, and base the targeting on the type of client that ask you the question.
The Facebook algorithm is getting so much smarter, displaying your ads to the right people and removing those your ads not relevant to. It optimises itself and is becoming really tailored for great results.
Do you have other social media questions?
If you’ve got any questions you’d like us to answer, feel free to get in touch on Twitter or through our Profitable Firm slack channel.