You know that marketing on Facebook will get you in front of a wider audience. But if you’re making these mistakes, nobody in that audience will convert into a customer.
We’ve all heard the rumblings of discontent from Facebook marketers in recent years.
“My posts aren’t appearing in enough of my followers’ timelines.”
“I’m not getting enough sales from Facebook.”
“Facebook just isn’t an effective marketing tool anymore. The rules have changed too much.”
There’s a kernel of truth in all of these complaints. Facebook makes constant changes, both to its guidelines and its algorithms. Marketers have to alter their strategies to keep up with these changes, which can get frustrating.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not an effective marketing tool.
We’re going to look at some of the mistakes that make your Facebook marketing efforts less effective. But first, let’s look at why the platform still has value, despite all of the changes.
Why Should You Still Pay Attention to Facebook?
Let’s start with the raw numbers…
According to Facebook, the platform has 2.7 billion active monthly users. Of those, 2.1 billion use Facebook on a daily basis. Those stats show you just how deep Facebook has penetrated into our daily lives. Nearly a third of the planet’s population uses it on a monthly basis.
That stat gets even more impressive when you consider that not everybody’s online. According to Facebook, 60.6% of people who use the internet have Facebook accounts. That makes it the world’s most popular social media platform out there. And it tells you one important thing…
Your customers still use the platform.
If you’re not marketing effectively using Facebook, you’re missing out on the chance to get your brand in front of more people.
But that’s not all.
Facebook also offers businesses an enormous amount of data about their followers. This allows you to target ads on the platform. And with the right help, you can use this data to create more targeted email campaigns through the use of segmentation.
That’s a task that our Concierge Service can help you with.
This huge user base also means that content shared on Facebook has a higher chance of going viral. It’s still the place to be if you’re looking to get as many people as possible to share your content.
Finally, your competitors know just how valuable Facebook is. In fact, 80 million businesses use the platform to market to their potential customers. If you’re not competing with them, you’re practically handing customers over to the competition.
This is why it’s so important to have a Facebook marketing strategy. However, for that strategy to be as effective as possible, you need to avoid these seven mistakes.
Mistake #1 – Sharing Random Content
Yes, it’s dangerous to allow your Facebook profile to stagnate. When you’re not sharing new and interesting content, your followers will disengage.
But that doesn’t mean you should share anything and everything just to keep your page active.
People don’t connect to brands that send inconsistent messages. When you share random content, you’re telling your followers that you have nothing useful to say. They’ll stop coming to your content when they need advice in your niche.
That means you’re costing yourself potential customers.
Every piece of content that you share on Facebook needs to have some relevance to what you do. It also needs to be consistent with the messages and values that your brand espouses.
Mistake #2 – No Repurposing Content That Performs Well
Perhaps you’ve shared an article on your blog that got people talking. That’s a good result for your brand.
But don’t get too satisfied with yourself just yet. That article has the potential for repurposing and it’s a mistake to just leave it on your blog when you can also share the information on Facebook.
Now, sharing the entire article on Facebook isn’t always feasible. With so much content vying for your audience’s attention, a long article may get skipped over.
However, you could turn the article into an engaging video for sharing on Facebook.
Or, you could extract the key points to create an attractive infographic that causes users to stop while scrolling through their feeds. That’s something that Automation Agency can help you with. Just send a task to the Concierge Service to find out about our infographic design services.
The point here is that the content you create isn’t a one-and-done thing. If you have a piece that’s engaged people on one platform, you can repurpose it to engage people on Facebook too.
Mistake #3 – Relying on Organic Reach Only
Facebook has made it much harder for your content to reach your followers organically.
Marketing agency Kuno Creative ran a test to prove this. They examined the organic reach of their posts over a 30-day period and found something shocking…
Fewer than 2% of their followers saw their posts organically appear in their timelines.
Of course, this has a huge effect on engagement. When fewer people see your posts, that means fewer comments, likes, and shares. As a result, the amazing piece that you created doesn’t generate the return that you expected.
That’s why it’s a mistake to rely on organic alone when creating a Facebook marketing strategy. You need to use Facebook Ads to get your posts in front of a larger audience.
Automation Agency can help you in a number of areas when you’re creating Facebook Ads. We’ll help you to build target audiences using the data in your CRM. We can even help you to run A/B tests on your ads so that you can optimise them.
Just send a task to our Concierge Service to get started.
Mistake #4 – Poor Branding
Facebook offers you plenty of opportunities to use graphical elements to enhance your branding. Beyond the content you post, you also have elements like your profile picture and cover image to consider.
Do not make the mistake of disregarding those opportunities.
You need to use high-quality and relevant branded images for both of these things. This ensures your brand looks professional, which means people are more likely to follow your page. Send a task to our Concierge Service if you need help with creating such images.
Mistake #5 – Ignoring Negative Feedback
Your followers can see every negative comment that others leave on your profile page.
Ignoring this negative feedback is a huge mistake. It shows the person who leaves the feedback that you don’t care about their issue. Plus, it shows your followers that you’re not interested in rectifying any mistakes that you might make.
Do not ignore, and certainly not delete, negative comments. Instead, address the feedback both directly and publicly. You may not always resolve the issue, but you’ll show your followers that you care enough to follow up on it.
Mistake #6 – You Only Focus on Selling
Facebook offers plenty of marketing options but it’s not a traditional marketing platform. People use Facebook to connect with people and to find engaging content.
That’s why focusing solely on sales is such a big mistake with Facebook marketing. When you do nothing but pitch to your followers, they’ll assume you have nothing useful to say. This leads to them no longer engaging with or sharing your content.
After all, who’s going to share a sales pitch with their friends?
This is where understanding your audience and where they are in your funnel becomes very important.
You do have followers who will respond well to a pitch. However, these are the people whom you’ve already taken on the journey through your sales funnel.
Everybody else needs more prompting to move them down the funnel. Engaging and useful content is the order of the day for this segment of your audience.
Mistake #7 – Not Analysing Your Results
How many people clicked the last ad that you sent out?
How many people liked and shared the last piece of content you created?
These are the sorts of questions that you can only answer when you analyse your data. Unfortunately, too many Facebook marketers just post content without doing any sort of follow-up.
Always check the figures related to anything that you share on Facebook. They’ll show you what people engage with and what they steer clear of. This information will help you to create more effective Facebook content in the future.
Facebook is Still a Powerful Marketing Tool
Facebook has undergone a lot of changes over the last few years. But as an online marketing tool, there are still very few platforms that can compete with it.
The simple fact is that a huge portion of your audience uses Facebook. That means you need to use the platform to get your business in front of as many people as possible.
However, you also need to be wary of the pitfalls of Facebook marketing when creating your strategy. Avoiding the mistakes we’ve talked about in this article will help you to generate higher returns on your marketing efforts.
And Automation Agency can help you in a number of ways. We can create images, help with audience segmentation, and create infographics for you. Just send a task to the Concierge Service to get started.
If you’re not a member yet, you can also chat with our Right Fit Chatbot. It’ll help you to figure out if we’re the right fit for your business.
