- Dealer Marketing Magazine

The days where Facebook was solely used to connect with old pals, share pictures, and chat with friends is over. It has developed into much more, a vital resource for your business success.

Every day, 135 million people explore the pages and profiles of Facebook. Facebook is where people spend a higher percentage of their time compared to other social sites such as YouTube, Google, ESPN, etc. Yes, even those avid sports fans need their Facebook fix.

Facebook is where people spend a higher percentage of their time.

Let’s face it, Facebook is addicting. Whether it is the first thing people look at before they get out of bed or their escape during a lunch break, Facebook continues to be on the mind of your consumers. Over the years it has become a highly effective marketing channel and a vital avenue for businesses to attain more customers and leads.

If your business has a Facebook page, you need to engage with customers daily and take advantage of every feature Facebook has to offer. Your competitors are doing it, so why aren’t you?

Whether it is In-Market Targeting, Custom and Lookalike Audience options, promotions, giveaways, creative posts, or simply staying active on your site, there are plenty of ways to reach and engage customers on Facebook. You will reach the people you want and achieve more leads.

1. Use Facebook’s Targeting Capabilities More Efficiently

If Facebook has a way to reach who you want to reach, why not use it? You can target Near and In-Market shoppers by focusing on demographics, location and interests of shoppers most likely to take action. Facebook’s targeting capabilities allow you to locate these people based on specific criteria you choose.

Target the right people

Near Market buyers are those not ready to buy, but are considering their options. You need to show these buyers you exist and what sets your business apart from others. With this group, you’ll want to target new page fans to gain potential leads.

In-Market buyers are people who are in search of a new product and are ready to choose which business to buy from. These people need to develop a preference for your business so encourage them to visit you in store to make a purchase. You can target these buyers by seeking out page fans or visitors to your website.

Targeted Post

One travel company uses targeted posts to reach customers interested and more likely to participate and purchase trips. With one promoted targeted post, they had 5,967 impressions, 85 Facebook actions (shares, posts, and ‘likes’) and received 114 clicks.

One BMW dealership implemented In-Market targeting to promote a sales event and drive qualified shoppers to their website to see their vehicle inventory. With a $500 budget, they received 1,590 clicks with the average cost of $0.31 per click. This targeting feature brought 1,590 people to their website, bringing these fans one step closer to purchasing a car.

2. Take Advantage of Custom and Lookalike Audiences

Although you do want to reach new potential buyers to increase your revenue, it is important to keep current customers interested. Use your customer database to let these customers know about your events, sales, and service opportunities so they can take part in all the opportunities your business provides.

Keep current customers engaged and find those like them.

Take advantage of those who already know your business by tailoring messages based on your goals.

Match your data with Facebook to find the people interested in becoming repeat buyers. Foster loyalty with these customers to generate revenue in your future.

Facebook uses these current customers’ profiles to find more relevant people like them who may not know about your business. Use Lookalike Audience Targeting to reach more people, spark interests, and generate leads.

Targeted Post

A Toyota dealership created a highly relevant target group using their customer database, and In-Market and vehicle targets to promote three of their key seasonal sales events. As a result, they drove over 4,500 clicks to their website to view their inventory at $0.68 per click. Using their customer database, they increased their response rate by 50%.

3. Offer Giveaways, Promotions, and Discounts Regularly

Do you love free things? So do your customers.

Whether it is offering a free tumbler for checking-in on Yelp, giving away concert tickets for Facebook fans, or providing a discount for a service or product, your customers will be interested.

Giveaway Post

By having these giveaways regularly, preferably monthly, you are keeping your current fans engaged and are more likely to see these customers through your doors.

A Mercedes-Benz dealership offered a discount for service to get current owners into their dealership. With a $500 budget, they reached 500,000 potential customers resulting in over 670 offer claims, new customers, and new page fans.

4. Be Active and Consistent

The truth is if you’re not engaged, they won’t be either. The key to keeping your fans engaged on social media has a lot to do with how active your business is on your social sites.

When customers visit your social sites, they want to learn about your business, ask questions, find out about events, deals, and specials. It is very beneficial to provide this type of information in your social posts while responding to any questions and comments that are posted on your page. Questions and comments on your page can be turned directly into leads if responded to.

For instance, if someone asks “What are your hours?”, you could respond with the answer, but take it a step further and ask what specifically they are looking for and provide a link to your website. Taking advantage of these situations where fans are interested while keeping your goal in mind when responding will help your business reach more success through social media. These customers will receive notification of your response and return to your page.

Responding to your customers will not only lead you to buying customers, it makes your fans feel appreciated and important.

5. Spice up your Content

#FunFact Post

If you’re having exciting events, new product releases, sales, events or discounts, your customers want to see this!

Keeping your social pages active with multiple posts a week is a significant part of keeping your fans engaged. Although you may be sticking to this rule, what matters most is not the amount of posts, but instead the content within these posts.

To have an increased engagement with fans, you must attach photos to these posts. It is proven that photo content has the most engagement with an 87% interaction rating from fans compared to posts with no photo, a link, album, or video.

Photos are more likely to catch the eye of a consumer leading them to share, like, or comment on the post. Along with these photos, use hashtags, ask questions, or provide a fun fact to switch up the content on your pages.

This will increase the reach of your posts to friends of the customer, starting a cycle of engagement.

Facebook’s features provide your business with a wide range of options to achieve your objectives at any stage of the buyer lifecycle.

You can drive action to your Facebook page and business by taking part in targeting specific audiences, offering giveaways, responding to comments and reviews, and enticing fans with creative posts. Spread awareness and keep fans up to date with events and sales. Delight and excite your customers and get them talking about all that your business has to offer.

Giving current and potential customers the opportunity to engage with your business will encourage them to visit you, buy your products, and increase your sales.

Alane Boyd is the vice president of Chief Ingredient, a company offering a turnkey platform that enables a wide range of organizations to manage social media, direct marketing and reviews. More information is available at www.chiefingredient.com.