Not very long ago, most people considered social media websites, and particularly Facebook, for teenagers. However, over the past few years, Facebook has evolved into a potent advertisement channel for reaching a wider niche audience.
Number of social media users worldwide from 2010 to 2021 (in billions)
The above chart shows that the number of global social media users will cross 3 billion threshold by 2021 — most of them will be using Facebook. The increasing use of smartphones and other mobile devices will further fuel Facebook’s penetration among the general public through its app.
Widely regarded as a site for social media interactions, Facebook has slowly morphed into a highly effective – and competitive – marketing tool.
Businesses and entrepreneurs who had the vision and the understanding to decipher Facebook’s marketing power in advance, were the first to tap into it for the purpose of generating leads for their products and services. The exponential scope of Facebook can be comprehended by the fact that every day, more than 3 billion goods / services are liked / disliked, and commented on through this social media website. This translates into a huge opportunity for businesses to present their products / services to an unimaginable number of people who feel connected to your brand by virtue of watching it almost every day.
Some of the benefits of Facebook online, marketing are listed below:
Cost Effectiveness
One of the most notable benefits of Facebook business marketing is that it is extremely cost effective. In fact, it is regarded as among the cheapest channels for advertising your products / services. While traditional media channels like television, radio and magazines charge a lot of money to deliver the message through your target audience / customers, Facebook does the same for far less amount of money.
Effective and Efficient
There are certain businesses that pride themselves on their after-sales service and the level of engagement with their customers. For such businesses, traditional media does not provide the tools that Facebook offers. The social media website, offers prospects of interaction between company and customers in real time. Prospective customers can also avail opportunities of obtaining information about a certain product / service. Customer queries can be noted and resolved within minutes.
Escalated Attribution
Attribution is a term that is used to denote the number of times a customer looks at the company’s brand. It is a common belief that the more a person looks at your brand, the more chances that he / she will eventually become a customer. A case in example could be McDonald’s golden arches logo.
The chart above shows that the reach of Facebook is much more than its peers. This increases your customer attribution because avid Facebook users may stumble upon your brand more often while surfing the web, raising the chances of customer conversion manifold.
Encourage Traffic
There are several ways of diverting web traffic towards your own website with the help of Facebook. For example, there is a prospective customer who has seen your Facebook page, and wants to know more about your product / service. For convenience of such customers, you can add a link to your own website in your Facebook page. This link will take them directly to your website where all the necessary information is readily available. Similarly, you can also link your blog posts.
Targeted Marketing
For successful marketers, there is nothing better than finding the right people for marketing a product / service. If a person needs to buy a vacuum cleaner, he will be least interested in the best guns available in town. Facebook allows you to identify needs of its users and carve out a niche market for your product. This saves time and efforts that may be wasted on people who are not interested at all.
Exponential Outreach
There are billions of people all over the world who use Facebook on a daily basis. This simply means that this social media website reaches billions of people within no time. The diversity of Facebook users is enormous whether geographically, culturally or linguistically offering a wide range of basic population to whom you offer your product. Such a huge and user-friendly database is a God-given opportunity for anyone who is seeking to position himself as a major producer of any given product.
Measurable Results
When it comes to Facebook page marketing, guessing is simply out of the picture. Results of Facebook marketing campaigns are easily measurable. Every click is recorded and every conversion is reported. A simple conversion add-on helps you track your entire advertisement activity. It also reports how many conversions you achieved through Facebook. Facebook does not offer you guesses. It offers numbers that speak for themselves.
Immediate Answers
Facebook is very fast — its results are concise, concrete, and timely. Once you start a campaign on Facebook, it can positively reach thousands of people within a few seconds leading to surge in customer curiosity. This translates into an increase in web-traffic towards your own website, and an increase in conversions. The best part is that all of this happens within no time at all.
Research, Insights and Analytics
Facebook is a potent and robust marketing tool. It offers amazing analytical tools that gather, analyze, and present user data in such a manner that it can be easily arranged according to their demography and preferences. You can easily segregate your target market towards your marketing campaign.
Competitor Knowledge
Facebook not only provides you with comprehensive knowledge about your own customers, it also offers information about your competitors. When you have knowledge about your competitors, and how they carry out their marketing campaigns, you get a competitive edge which allows you to be more specific in your marketing approach. This results in more conversions and increased profits.
The Final Word
Entrepreneurs are only beginning to understand the scope of using Facebook for marketing, and how it can enhance their business prospects in an ever-changing world. Smartphones and mobile devices have increased Facebook’s outreach manifold. These days everyone is connected all the time. The situation has opened new doors for marketers who are seeking ways of reaching worldwide audiences with much less associated costs. Facebook has proved its worth as a potent marketing tool. There is little doubt that it will beat all its peers in the marketing game.
