Facebook Marketing: Attracting Your Ideal Audience

September 5, 2014 by

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This Old New Business Podcast with Jeff Korhan

This is Episode 7 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan.

I have to be honest. I have not been a big fan of Facebook for marketing my business. However, this conversation with Mike Gingerich changed my thinking, and it just may do the same for you.

Mike genuinely likes to help people, so listen in as he share’s a wealth of information that will help you better understand Facebook, including how it differs from Google+, why Facebook does some of the crazy things they do, how to get more engagement on Facebook, and how to use Facebook’s ad network to hit your ideal target audience.

Plus, you’ll learn a few tips for integrating Facebook marketing into an overall digital marketing strategy.

Our Featured Guest: Mike Gingerich

Facebook Marketing: Attracting Your Ideal AudienceMike Gingerich is best known as the co-founder of Tabsite, a leading Facebook Page app platform for contests and lead capture. He is also a Facebook marketing speaker, strategist, and writer for notable business publications.

Mike hails from the Hoosier heartland of Indiana, and therefore is naturally an avid basketball fan. His small business digital podcast is appropriately named Halftime Mike.

Facebook Demographics are One of a Kind

When the Facebook Like feature was released in early 2010, many of us got excited about it’s possibilities. We realized Facebook was gathering rich, contextual data that businesses could use to attract and engage their ideal audience.

That reality still exists, except we have to work a little harder to leverage it’s possibilities. The good news is that the demographics of Facebook are like no other. As we discussed how Facebook compares to Google+ and the other social networks, Mike notes that unlike the others, every demographic is represented on Facebook, with the 50+ age group being the strongest. 

The majority of businesses are targeting people between the ages of 20 and 60, and you can find them all actively engaging on Facebook.

How to Increase Engagement on Facebook

Like so many other things digital, Facebook is an ongoing experiment for businesses these days. Mike suggests starting with Facebook Insights on your business page to learn when your audience is most active online. Then experiment with a variety of posts (photo post, text only post, link post, etc) to learn what favorably moves the needle.

Mike’s Facebook strategy is dedicating 50% of his Facebook content to either solving problems or entertaining. Yes, it is true that for the most part Facebook is for showing off. The idea behind this approach is sharing relevant content that builds likeabilty and trust. In other words, attraction and engagement create the potential for capturing leads.

If you devote half of your efforts to attraction and engagement, they will be there for you when you make your business offers.

Facebook Advertising Explained

If you are not getting results with Facebook advertising it may be that you do not clearly know who you are targeting. There is no question that Facebook’s ad network is a great way to hit your target audience, but only if you can define that audience well.

It should not come as a surprise that Facebook wants you to advertise, so they offer different means for accomplishing this. If you want easy, then boosting a post is for you. There is also the Facebook Ads Manger and the browser based Power Editor.

As the name implies, the Power Editor is for those that want access to the latest and most powerful features. You can find it here and learn how to use it here.

Lighting Round Tips and Advice

Mike’s Top Sales or Marketing Advice – Know your ideal audience and speak directly to them in your messaging.

His Favorite Productivity Tip – Use Feedly and Buffer for consuming and sharing content. Learn more social media efficiency tips from Mike here.

A Quote that has Inspired Mike’s Success – “Be distinct. The alternative is extinct.” Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, authors of In Search of Excellence

Key Take-Aways

  • The Facebook ad network is by far the best way to hit your ideal target audience, provided you know who that audience is.
  • You have to experiment with post types and Facebook ads to attract your audience and keep them engaged.
  • Here is the link to the 3 Key Elements of a Digital Marketing Strategy post that Mike mentioned.
  • Join Mike and leading social media experts next week for the online Doable Social Summit. Use code jeffkorhan and save $97 on your registration! Valid for regular or VIP pass.
  • You can find Mike online at MikeGingrich.com and on Facebook.
  • Check out The Halftime Mike Podcast Show .
  • Learn more about the Tabsite Facebook Platform

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How is your business using Facebook marketing to attract your ideal audience?

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

Stories Are Valuable Marketing Assets

June 2, 2014 by

www.jeffkorhan.com

In a world in which content is clearly king, one of your most valuable business assets are stories that validate its capabilities.

Stories can not only express how your business can help potential customers, but also the vital human qualities that differentiate it from look alike competitors. Consider that your business made a considerable investment to earn its stories. In fact, sometimes the best stories are the result of persevering through costly circumstances to ultimately prevail in the end.

“Look at the bright side; you’ll have a great story to tell.” You’ve heard this expression, right?

So, the question for business owners is this: Knowing that stories are invaluable for differentiating a business, why are most companies not taking the time to mine the value of the investment they have already made?

The following three steps will help you to accomplish this.

#1 – Inventory and Care for Your Stories

The stories that every business needs to capture are its beginnings, core beliefs or values, and unique capabilities. Ideally, this information is summarized on the company website.

This may earn the initial attention of a prospective buyer; but then what?

To engage buyers and move them through the sequence of getting to know, like, and ultimately trust your business, there has to be a whole lot more.

The solution is to inventory your stories by categories, such as the type of buyer, product or service solution, and customer challenge or pain point, to name just a few.

If a business does not hold sufficient inventory to serve new customers, they go elsewhere. The same holds true when responding to social media and direct sales inquiries.

The idea is to have the stories for successfully serving your current customers ready for the next similar opportunity when it comes along.

#2 – Use Stories to Educate and Engage Buyers

If you have founded a business you know that getting that first customer is crucial, because then you have a result to point to when the next inquiry comes along, and the one after that, and so on.

However, not all customers are alike, so it helps to organize your stories to share the right ones with the right prospects. For example, a small project is not going to resonate with a high-end buyer that needs a complex solution.

Conversely, the entry-level buyer will be put off by grandiose projects. They may rightfully assume your business will not give them the attention they deserve; or they may reason your business is only interested in more lucrative projects.

Thus, you need stories in your back pocket to handle these concerns and objections. For example, when I owned my landscape design and construction business we were often asked to justify our prices. Here is the formula we used to handle that, and every other objection.

1. Identify the pain point
2. Offer a solution
3. Back it up with a story

We explained that roughly 50% of what a landscape customer pays for is hidden underground. This includes the root system to a locally grown tree, the proper base for patios and walls, quality valves for the irrigation system that will last for decades, as opposed to years, etc.

Then we would share the story of one of our many clients that wished that had come to us first, because the investment they made with another company was lost after most of it failed to perform as promised.

Here is the story lesson: You cannot evaluate pricing without fully understanding all of the hidden qualities that contribute to the integrity of a project.

Pulling back the curtain to educate buyers builds trust, plain and simple.

#3 – Stories Cut Through the Competitive Clutter

In my opinion, there is no better way to differentiate a business than with stories that are the result of direct experience with real customers.

There are many reasons for this.

  • Real stories are credible
  • They can be validated with names, places, and dates
  • Stories make emotional connections with buyers
  • They are personal, often memorable, and tend to build trust
  • A story lesson is easily shared
  • The challenge is to inventory your stories, practice, test, and refine them, and always be ready to use them well.

Traditional marketing is being replaced by social selling and relationship marketing, with stories being the cornerstone for executing both well.

Is your business ready?

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business – (Wiley)  

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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