Starting and owning a business is always full of surprises, even from the get-go. When you open up your store front or launch a new product, that feeling of achievement is one like no other. You want to shout to the world about it, except the world might not hear your calls—they’re looking at their phones. More likely than not, they’re probably on the number one social media channel, Facebook.

Being the third most visited website in the world has its perks. They have nearly 2.8 billion monthly active users and 1.56 billion daily active users, and that audience spends nearly an hour a day on the site. With that type of clout, no wonder businesses have been scrambling to start-and-run their own Facebook pages for well over a decade. An engaged audience used to be hard to come by.

Were you able to tell how many people visited your restaurant because of the billboard you bought along the highway? Doubtful.

Were views of the famous Volkswagen “Lemon” advertisement trackable? I think not.

Facebook changed the digital marketing game by allowing businesses one of the clearest views into consumer online habits. They managed to help companies find the demographics that frequently engaged with their brands, and they gave companies the best channel to communicate with their customers short of actually being in the store.

Leveraging your presence with Facebook marketing is crucial to maintaining an overall digital footprint. Without it, you’re squandering away countless potential and returning customers to your competition. Who would want to do that?

FACEBOOK ADVERTISING
Potentially the best way to be heard on Facebook is through their vast advertising channels. With the amount of data on Facebook, targeting a local audience has never been easier. You can publish a rotating cast of ads to specific neighborhoods, zip codes, cities, and more! For smaller local businesses, this is a game changer. Why spend money on a magazine advertisement that you can’t easily track when you can target and track a specific audience on Facebook for a fraction of the cost? Ads can be designed and published within Facebook Ad Manager to promote page likes, drive traffic to your website, or even to engage and use offers for your business. The algorithms used to determine how ads are displayed are also highly efficient, as they use a combination of your daily budget and targeted user activity to show your ads at optimal times.

ECOMMERCE
Many business owners who haven’t dabbled in digital marketing before have a qualm about the effectiveness of it. An opportunity that is sure to delight many retail operations is that Facebook offers new channels to directly help your business’s sales. One in three people currently use Facebook Marketplace, the Millennial’s version of Craig’s List, to acquire and part ways with stuff. Facebook has partnered with multiple listing platforms to help you put your inventory in front of an engaged audience. With the right setup, Facebook Marketplace for businesses can be an integral part of your sales pipeline.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS & ENGAGEMENT
What every business owner has in common is the desire for their customers to leave happy. With that in mind, most of them are absolutely in tune with customer reviews. Facebook has emerged as a prime spot for consumers to leave reviews and seek help when something doesn’t go right. This gives businesses the option to reconcile any mishaps, but also gather valuable information on what customers actually think of them and their products. This is another chance for businesses to make a great impression and land a repeat customer.

FACEBOOK ANALYTICS
You could argue that the most important thing for a company after sales is insights. And let me tell you, Facebook is full of wonderful analytics. Whether it’s a multi-faceted ad or a simple post to your page, you will have access to important numbers that will not only gauge how popular a post is, but information that will help dictate how to shape your posts and digital presence. If you can think of a stat, it is probably there. Insights for videos, photos, and streams all help guide your digital marketing strategy.

COST EFFECTIVE MARKETING
Everything mentioned so far sounds wonderful, right? It gets better. As many folks already know with all the major social media platforms, Facebook is free. The only time you’ll be swiping the credit card for Facebook is when setting up an advertisement or boosting a post. On top of that, advertising on the platform is one of the most cost effective ways to post an ad in any medium. You can set up ads to be pay-per-click or pay-per-impression to get the most out of your dollar. Depending on the type of ad you want to publish, it can cost as little as $1 a day to display on Facebook. Have you ever heard of a radio spot costing $1 a day?

Many businesses already have a page created, but how many are actively using it? How many are even taking advantage of the full suite of Facebook marketing tools they offer? Unless you have a large staff with the time and experience to utilize them, most small businesses are probably not using Facebook as effectively as they could. This is where us at Digital Lagoon come in. We can help you with your marketing efforts beyond refreshing your website. Facebook’s advertising and business platforms can be daunting. We have the Facebook marketing know-how to make sure you make the best impression wherever your business digitally lives. Contact us today to learn more on ways we can help jumpstart your Facebook presence.