The internet was started in 1983 and since then the world has changed drastically. Even though at the beginning it was a basic network, in 1990 the World Wide Web was invented and it represented an important milestone in the development of the online world. Little by little, IT companies were started, such as Google in 1998, Facebook in 2004, YouTube in 2005, Twitter in 2006, and Instagram in 2010. And this is how social media was born.
As technology develops, new software and tools are developed and invented by talented people and businesses. Social media eases your life, offering you the perfect context to reach your friends at any minute of the day. It allows you to get informed on topics of interest, find events you want to be part of, and get updates on what your friends are doing.
As the name suggests, social media eases communication between people, making it accessible to anyone on the globe. You can interact with people on the other side of the planet, organize online meetings, and greet each other through a video call. Technology and social media are getting better, as they are deeply connected.
But even though some might think that social media is just for some people, more and more businesses, companies, shops, freelancers, or artists use social media to promote their work. Every month, there are new tools integrated into social media platforms that allow businesses to establish their shop and sell products online. At the same time, they can promote their products or services online, where most of the people spend their time nowadays.
Facebook is the largest social media platform, and it is also well-developed for promotion. It has a complex system of ads that can help you target the right audience. At the same time, Facebook Business Pages or Facebook Shops are free for everyone, so more and more people are considering using Facebook to promote their shop.
However, Facebook has reached 1.69 billion users this year, which is quite an impressive number. Even though this social media platform seems full of people and promoting opportunities, the competition is fierce. Many businesses try to convert their visitors into customers and each of them is using a combination of many marketing techniques.
To catch the attention of your target audience, make it visit your Facebook Shop, and enjoy the experience of facile shopping, you need to understand how it is working. On top of this, you need to learn not only how to sell products through your Facebook Shop, but also promote it and find the best ways to market your business.
About Facebook Shops
Facebook Shops is a new feature Facebook developed in May this year. As the world pandemic affected the activity of many small businesses and people stayed more time inside, the social media environment became the medium where everyone is spending his time.
Setting up Facebook Business Pages was the solution many shops and businesses came up with, and it indeed proved to be a saving one. Facebook supports the development of businesses around the world, so Facebook Shops is exactly what you need.
Facebook Shops is an accessible tool that can be used by any business for free. It allows you to make your online shop, feature the products you want to sell, link your Facebook shop with Instagram shop features, and interact with your customers.
Facebook Shops make the shopping experience even easier by saving customers’ card details so that they do not have to enter them every time they buy. They can choose their favorite products and also interact directly with brands and businesses via Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or Instagram Direct. And Facebook said that they are working on improving the support small businesses receive by partnering with Shopify, Channel Advisor, or BigCommerce.
Establishing your Facebook Shop is pretty intuitive and basic. But promoting it and reaching a wide audience might be more challenging.
How to Promote Your Facebook Shop
Your Facebook Shop is an online store, linked to your Facebook and Instagram Business Pages. You can feature a lot of products and customers can sort and choose the right ones for them. What’s more, Facebook Shops can easily be used on mobile devices, making the entire buying experience smoother. So, taking into consideration that more than 98% of social media users access it from mobile devices, using all the tools and features Facebook offers you to promote your Facebook Shop is essential.
Choose Your Target Audience
You need customers to make your Facebook Shop going. But how could you attract more customers and make your brand known to the public? Facebook offers many marketing tools that let you target ad campaigns which can increase followers number, engagement with the brand, and sales.
But the most important step is choosing your target audience. It is clear that your products are not suited for all kinds of people, but most respond to the needs of a specific sector. Knowing your target audience helps you target your promotion and increase your sales.
Facebook has designed a tool that allows you to have a look into insights about your audience, called Facebook Audience Insights. It gives you the data you need about your audience, how it is interacting with your brand, and which their needs and desires are.
You should have details about:
- Their demographics: where they live, their age, gender, marital status, education, and other details that might be of help to you
- Language: the language your target audience speaks
- Past purchases: if your audience has purchased products on Facebook Shop
- Facebook behavior: how they use Facebook and the frequency of its usage
According to a marketing dissertation help, these details about your target audience will help you create customized ads and increase the visibility of your Facebook Shop.
Create Targeted Ad Campaigns
One of the great promotion tools Facebook offers to businesses is the Facebook Ads tool. Now almost all businesses have a Facebook Business Page where they aim to increase brand awareness and sales. Thus, catching the attention of your audience might seem difficult, especially when there are so many ads that want to capture it.
Facebook Ads allow you to target your audience based on the details identified before. You can target it based on their demographics, interests, and needs. So, this is a great way to promote your Facebook Shop and enlarge your audience. Targeted ad campaigns usually are included in marketing strategies as ways to increase the number of likes and interactions with your brand.
Many businesses assume that they do not need to promote their content to people who have already liked their Facebook page or shop. Because as long as they like it, they will see all your promotions and content. But this is not necessarily the case, as people like a lot of things on Facebook, and Facebook’s algorithms select the content users see based on their activity.
This is why it is important to consider targeting people who already follow you. They will use your Facebook Shop if they trust you and feel a special connection to your brand. Which brings us to the next point.
Run Promotions and Giveaways
Marketing specialists have noticed that promotions and giveaways are a great way to attract followers, increase your brand awareness, establish a connection with the visitors, and convert them into customers. And this will eventually happen. Why?
Because promotions and giveaways do not require users to do something out of the ordinary. The less they will have to do, the more the number of participants will increase.
Most giveaways require people to like their page, a product in their Facebook Shop (this is also a great way to attract more visitors to your Facebook Shop and have them engage with your products), tag friends that might be interested in the comments, or sharing the giveaway post to their feeds or stories.
It is up to you how you set your giveaway or promotion requirements, but organizing them helps you promote your brand and Facebook Shop. When starting working on a giveaway, you need to know that you cannot organize it alone on Facebook. This means that Facebook does not offer you tools or features to follow the number of your likes, so you should use a third-party tool.
Many tools can ease your task of organizing contests on Facebook. Woorise is one of the tools that give you what you need. A tool that helps you design the best Facebook contest and gives giveaway analytics that allows you to track the performance of your contest. Many other tools allow small businesses to use them for free, while others require you to pay a fee. When choosing the best contest tool, you need to pay attention to its features, and if they meet your needs. But because technology is developing, you will surely find software suited for you.
Customer Interaction
Converting visitors into customers can turn out to be a process that takes time and dedication. You need to build your online presence to make people trust your brand and feel close to it. A thing many businesses that have the purpose of increasing their sales on Facebook Shop overlook is exactly this special bond with customers.
Selling without selling is a popular concept among Facebook Shop owners. It states that to increase your sales, you do not have to post solely about promotions and new products. People will not bond with a brand that shows it is only interested in increasing sales. Instead, they will choose a personal brand, that cares for more than increasing sales, and that listens to its customers’ opinions and feedback.
The domain of customer interaction is very important in promoting your Facebook Shop. Many businesses think it is not, but in a world made up of ads and new flashy and colorful things, increasing your customer base can be a real challenge.
The way you interact with your customers and followers is important. Many new visitors will read your reviews and post. So, the way you answer and handle customers’ demands can influence the conversion of new visitors.
It is therefore important to answer your customers’ comments, questions, and reviews as quickly as possible. There will also be negative comments and reviews, but the most helpful thing is, to be honest, and admit if you have mistaken. Do not take anything personally and be open to finding out more about their problems so that you could find solutions and not lose those customers.
Customer interaction is very important because it is your chance, as a brand who promotes its Facebook Shop, to connect and delight your customers. So, how to improve your communication with customers?
- Talk like a human and not like a soulless entity – people do not want to interact with a business that keeps its formality when is no longer the case. Be authentic, personal, and show your personality. It is a great way to stand out from the crowd.
- Be genuine, honest, and transparent – people are pretty reticent to brands that are not transparent and are not open to accepting their errors, so make sure you avoid this type of communication
- Be empathetic and show gratitude – the world we live in is pretty chaotic and harsh, and this is why many mental disorders are on the rise. Your customers do not need someone to critique them. They need a brand to understand their struggles and issues and treat them with respect and gratitude.
- Be consistent – just answering a few comments or questions a day is not enough, if you have many brand interactions. Consistency in answers and your attitude towards customers will make them loyal to your brand and will be more inclined to choose you over another similar one.
Is There a Perfect Recipe?
Well, even though the technology and marketing worlds are continuously improving and evolving, there is no perfect recipe that promises an instant increase in customers and sales. Thus, promoting your Facebook Shop might seem daunting, especially when there is so much advice on the internet.
Facebook Shops are a great way to increase sales, promote your products and your brand. But there are a few more tips every business needs to consider to build a good promotion strategy. Choosing and getting to know your target audience will allow you to build target campaigns and ads.
This will increase your brand awareness and will attract a large pool of visitors which you can convert to customers. Promotions, contests, and giveaways are a good option to make products on your Facebook Shop more visible to the public. While constant, empathic, genuine, honest, and transparent communication with your customers will increase their loyalty and bond to the brand.
Combining all these tactics will be efficient and will help you promote your Facebook Shop. Find your perfect recipe!
