Are you making these marketing mistakes on Facebook?
When I meet with dealers and marketers in charge of developing a dealership’s marketing
strategy, I ask, “What is your Facebook strategy?”
Every single time I am told how they post “status updates” or “photos” on Facebook. Which is great, however, Facebook offers excellent “marketing” tools that should be part of every dealer’s social media marketing strategy.
FACEBOOK ADS DON’T WORK. REALLY?
I think the fable started that Facebook advertising does not work when GM pulled their ads from Facebook.
So here are the facts, if you are a marketer and you have a tool that reaches 69 per cent of the total Canadian population, one that is also the second most visited website and people spend more time on this platform than they spend with radio, TV, newspaper and magazines combined, then let’s just leave it at we don’t have all the facts!
Our results have been exemplary in terms of driving traffic from our clients’ Facebook pages to websites, landing pages and videos. It does take some thought, work and testing to make it work, but all digital, social advertising and marketing requires testing. You have to always be testing since just when you think you’ve grasped it, customer behaviour changes.
THE FACTS DON’T LIE
Facebook advertising is one of the lowest cost and most targeted advertising platforms available today. Before I begin to explain how to capitalize on Facebook advertising, I want to you to put Facebook in the correct perspective.
• Facebook has over 960 Million users worldwide;
• 69 per cent of the Canadian population is on Facebook;
• The largest age group on Facebook is 25-34 followed by 18-24;
• 35-54 is the fastest growing age group;
• Average advertising cost is $0.10 CPM or .91 CPC; and
• Facebook is growing eight per cent every 30 days in Canada.
Facebook offers a unique opportunity since it is a social platform and not a shopping portal. Individuals are spending time on Facebook communicating with friends, family and making new friends.
Facebook represents real everyday life; it’s just online. Look at it in this perspective. If you were invited to tag along with a group of new friends for a night on the town, which included dinner and a movie, what could you learn about these individuals? A lot!
You would learn marital and family status, music interest, hobbies, movie interest, food interest, ages, education, employment, other friends and so much more. All of this information and more is available on Facebook when you are building your advertising campaign. It is all there for you to create one of the best advertising strategies you have ever been part of and it puts an entirely new meaning to my favorite term when I talk about mass media “spray and pray.”
TARGETING NEEDS
Repeat after me: “People love to purchase but don’t like to be sold.”
Think about it? If a couple are newlyweds, there are a couple things that will most likely happen. A new car and a new home is what come to mind. You can even target expectant mothers or mothers with children of various ages. When expecting a new child, the sports car or the little compact car often has to go. It’s time to start shopping for a vehicle that is safer and has room for the child seat so I would call this an opportunity to create a sale. I am not telling you to advertise cars on Facebook since you have to be much wiser than that. Don’t ever forget people are on Facebook to be social, not to shop. They are very willing to learn if they are being taught in a non-sales pitch way.
Consider what a person is really looking for, what the problem is they have and how you can provide a solution, or answer to the question they have.
The various interest levels available on Facebook allow for so many opportunities to increase your sales, if you think strategy and behaviour.
It’s so simple and exciting to think about all the ways you can drive leads with Facebook interest categories. You can even target an individual that has just moved to a new area.
One that comes to mind for me is people that have moved to a snowier climate and will need a vehicle with AWD, or at a minimum will need a winter tire and wheel package.
You can target an individual based on their place of employment or chosen profession e.g. real estate broker and what does a real estate broker need, i.e. a nice four door car that will ride that new couple to see a house. You can target people that like Ford, Nissan or Toyota. There are so many opportunities for the taking, they just require some work and thought.
STOP SELLING AND START COMMUNICATING
Don’t fall into the trap of saying, “buy this car,” it will not cut through the clutter. You must answer problems with a direct answer to the question. You must become a problem solver by presenting the facts so people can gather the information and then contact you to fix the problem. This is where true marketers must become experts in psychology, sociology and human behaviour.
NEXT STEP
Check back next issue when I will share a step-by-step process of building your campaign out to reach Facebook users in a new and exciting way for your sales and service department. I will even be sharing some campaigns we have used successfully. The opportunities are endless and keep in perspective that with Google pay per click you build the relationship “After The Sale.” With Facebook you build the relationship “Before the Sale.”
