Out of the last 10 posts on your company’s Facebook page, how many of them are about your company?
The new product you plan to launch in the next quarter.
A new seminar you’re holding next week.
A new award your company has won last year
It makes sense, doesn’t it? The Facebook page is about your company, so why not make all the content on your Facebook page about your company?
After all, more posts about your company = more people see it = more people willing to buy. Correct?
But does it necessarily work like that?
Unfortunately, when we do that, we can come across as this guy.
Source: QuickMeme
A marketer’s ultimate goal on social media is to generate leads that ultimately convert into customers, but there are other ways one can generate leads through Facebook. Often, marketers are not aware that they can post other types of content on Facebook and still generate leads for their business beyond the typical “link to sales landing page with sales-y type copy” type of posts.
Not every piece of content you post needs to be directly related to lead generation. Other immediate content goals can include:
- Facebook interaction (likes, comments and shares)
- Drive traffic to an existing content offer
- Showing a relatable, authentic and personal side of your company
More visibility = more opportunities for engagement = more potential leads see your content = more lead nurturing opportunities = more potential customers to close = more sales.
Consider this quote from Brittany Leaning from HubSpot.
Source: HubSpot
Here are some other things you can do on Facebook beyond sales-related content.
- Post interactive content on Facebook
Pose a question to your audience. Some suggestions include:
- Do you struggle with a certain issue as a marketer too?
- You suddenly have an additional $100,000 in marketing budget for one of the campaigns you are currently running. What’s the first thing you do?
Such posts highlight and help you find out more information about your target audience’s pain points. Discussions in the posts comments can also help you discover how your business can solve those problems.
Interactive posts also generate comments and engagement, which lead to more interaction with your brand and more visibility on social media.
- Post an image of a content offer linking back to an offer landing page
Give away content for free that you know addresses one of the pain points of your target audience OR benefits them directly at their job.
For instance, HubSpot gave away a series of free stock photos to help their target audience (marketing departments) create content more effectively. You can see an example of such content here:
Such content was gated behind a form and became a powerful lead generation tool for them.
Source: HubSpot
(PS: Don’t forget to include an appropriately sized image to go with your Facebook posts!)
- Cover photo: 851 px wide by 315 px tall.
- Profile image: 180 px wide by 180 px tall.
- Highlighted image: 1200 px wide by 717 px tall.
- Shared image: 1200 px wide by 630 px tall.
- Shared link thumbnail image: 1200 px wide by 627 px tall.
Source: HubSpot
Be valuable to your audience, post at the right time and leads / customers will come
- Photo of an employee or your company outside of work
Let’s face it, businesses are made of people. Sometimes we marketers get caught up in the whole “I must generate as much leads as possible” mentality that we forget we are ultimately talking to people.
Source: QuoteFancy
Your company did something interesting outside of the standard work context? An employee gets recognised for something they did outside of the work environment? Perhaps these stories can be shared on your social media channels.
In a sea of sales-oriented social media posts, personable and authentic posts will stand out.
Effective content marketing through Facebook begins with understanding your target audience and providing enough value to them to solve their problems or make their life easier.
Be different, go beyond the direct lead generating posts and supercharge your Facebook posts today! For more actionable tips like these, download our eBook below.
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