With 2.2 billion monthly active users, Facebook continues to be the most popular social media channel. But aside from just helping people connect with friends and family, the platform has also proven to be a boon for marketers across multiple industries. In fact, 96% of businesses are actively using Facebook to engage with their audiences and market their products.

At the same time, you need to thoroughly craft a unique and effective marketing strategy that will deliver results. If you’re not sure how to get started, here are some of the most effective Facebook marketing strategies that you can use to grow your brand:

1. BUILD AN IMPRESSIVE FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE

Your brand’s Facebook page serves as the face of your company. So you need to make sure that it properly represents your brand to increase credibility. Aside from the basics such as adding a page name, profile photos, and contact info, here are some essential steps to build an impressive Facebook page:

Choose the most relevant category

Make sure to be as specific as possible so people can get the most accurate information about your business. For example, instead of just choosing “restaurant,” you can get more specific with “Italian restaurant” or “Chinese restaurant.”

Provide valuable Information

Add authentic information about your business including website URL, hours of operation, and location. This not only provides your audience with highly relevant information about your business but also makes your page more trustworthy. Write a short yet clear description of your business so people can understand what you do and what you stand for. Make sure you add relevant keywords wherever possible to improve page visibility in relevant searches.

Take advantage of CTA buttons

Facebook also allows you to add a call-to-action button on your page to help your audience visit your website or landing page. Adding this button helps your audience know exactly what you need them to do, whether it’s to “Shop Now” or “Send Message.”

2. CREATE CONTENT THAT TELLS STORIES

People love listening to stories, whether they come from a person or brand. These stories will likely be more memorable and have a bigger impact on their decisions and opinions than other types of content.  Leverage storytelling to better engage your audience in one of the following ways:

Share customer stories

Promote your product and its features by sharing how customers have benefited from it. This builds trust and makes your product relatable in the form of a narrative. GoPro does a great job of this by sharing photos and videos captured by users to tell a story about the product’s capabilities.

Tell employee stories

Show your brand’s human side through employee advocacy. This humanizes your brand and shows your appreciation from the employees, which can increase their loyalty towards you. Kimley-Horn, a planning and engineering firm, does a great job of this by telling employee stories through their #KHSpotlight. Through the #KHSpotlight hashtag to share an employee’s story with the firm, their passion, and hobbies.

3. CREATE FACEBOOK CONTESTS

Facebook contests work as an excellent marketing strategy for a number of reasons. Since there’s a possibility of winning something, people feel more compelled to take action and talk about your brand, which drives increased engagement and visibility. Here are a few ideas you can implement:

• Make sure the prize is something that will appeal to your target customers and compel them to take the desired action. And make sure your contest or giveaway follows the rules set by Facebook.
• Create a Facebook photo contest during which people share images of themselves with your product with a relevant hashtag. Your brand can get visibility among a new audience since your customers’ followers will be able to see these photos. Plus, it’s a great opportunity for you to curate user-generated content.
• Ask customers to share their stories as comments on your official contest post. This increases engagement and improves visibility with followers who haven’t yet entered the contest. While Facebook doesn’t allow you to set “sharing” as an entry rule, you can encourage your followers to share the post so their friends can learn about the contest and participate.

The Urban Pooch Training and Fitness Center created a simple contest for National Kids and Pets Day. They asked followers to share photos of their dogs and kids together in the comments for a chance to win a $25 gift card.

CONCLUSION

These are just a few strategies that you can implement to successfully market your brand on Facebook. Keep experimenting and measuring your results to see what works for you. And make sure that you’re telling stories and engaging with your followers.

Article written by: Gaurav Sharma