Even if your business has an enormous presence on Facebook, you may still be struggling to get new clients. Why is this? Well, in part, it’s because you’re not doing a good job of turning those fans into actual paying customers. You have done a great job with the first step in the process, which is attracting people on Facebook and ultimately building a raving fan base. Now is the time, however, to take that next step of turning those fans into people that actually pay you money for what you have to offer. Here are four strategies to consider that will help turn your fans into customers.
Be Consistent with content
In the overall scheme of things, it’s important that you keep your Facebook fans engaged and keep your brand in front of them at all times. To that end, it is very important that you, as a business owner, maintain a consistent approach to the content you are publishing for your followers. A good practice is to put something out there once a day that is likely to be shared or liked a lot. Not only will this help your content go viral and get in front of more people, but it will also establish you as an authority in your industry.
Examples of content that you can post on a daily basis are how-to articles, tips related to your industry or even interesting photos that your fans may want to see. The key is to make this content as engaging as possible so that it keeps getting shared and it keeps your fans coming back for more. Now, when one of your fans needs the service or product you offer, who are they going to call? They will call you because they know who you are and consider you an authority in your industry.
Reach More of Your Fan Base
In order to convert more fans into customers, first your fans actually have to SEE what you are posting and promoting so they have the opportunity to become a customer. One of the most recent dramatic changes Facebook has made is to decrease a brand’s organic scope, which basically means that only a mere fraction of your fans will, now, see your updates in their newsfeed.
According to Edge Rank Checker as of March 2014, it was estimated that you reach about 6.5% of your fan base with every post you make on your fan page. There’s a number of ways you can increase your posts visibility within your fans’ newsfeed, and one of the best ways is to promote your posts.
A promoted post starts off just like any other post you’ve made on your fan page. You simply choose a post you want to promote, like a special sale or a story you want to share about your business. Then you set a budget, and the post is shared to a set number of Facebook members depending on your budget. Your post will be seen by your fans and even friends of your fans depending on your budget. Promoting your posts is a very inexpensive way to ensure you get maximum visibility.
Another way to ensure your fans see your updates is to educate your fans that they can ‘Get Notifications’ from your Page. Most of the time, users aren’t even aware that they aren’t getting your updates. Simply by telling them how they can stay better informed with your business’s special promotions will boost the number of people that will actually see your posts.
Create Offers with Urgency or Scarcity
If you want to turn more of your Facebook fans into paying customers, you are going to have to market to them – plain and simple. Now, a common and effective practice to use is to post offers on Facebook that have an element of scarcity or urgency to them in order to get people to act right away. In other words, why not post a coupon limited to the first 10-people who claim it for a certain percentage off your service? Or what about a special offer on a service that expires in 24-hours? Make the offer something that your fans can’t pass up and the phone will begin to ring! That said, once you finish driving your fans from Facebook through your doors, it’s your job to keep them coming back. Use these special offers as a way to get them there – it’s up to you to keep them there.
Another way to reach your audience with a special deal is through Facebook Offers. This is a form of paid advertising where you can create an ad to target specific people with a special offer that will fit their needs. Once the ad is created and displayed, a “get offer” button will appear. When a user clicks this button, they will be directed to an area where they can claim the discount offered by your company. The thing that makes Facebook Offers unique and very powerful is that they will actually email the person that claimed the offer to remind them to use it. In other words, they will do some of the dirty work for you to ensure that the person actually becomes a paying customer!
Drive Fans to Your Email List
Having a robust fan base on Facebook is great and can be very profitable, but there is an even better way to engage these people to turn them into customers. What is it, you ask? Simple – it’s email. If you are able to drive your fans to your email list, you will be able to communicate with them on a whole other level.
Email newsletters are still the best way to communicate directly to your audience. Think about it for a moment. Not only are you engaging them within Facebook, but now you are also engaging them within their inbox. This is very powerful as the more “planes of engagement” there are between you and your potential customers, the more you will see your bottom line increase. The best part about building that email list from your Facebook fan base is that it’s easy! You simply need to drive your fans from Facebook to an email opt-in form on your website or to an opt-in form right within Facebook. There are many apps out there that make it really easy to create these lead-capture forms right within Facebook so the fan never has to leave if you don’t want them to.
Please keep in mind that people will only opt-in to your email list if you give them a good reason. Don’t be afraid to offer a discount or some other valuable form of content to ensure they sign up right away!
Show Them Some Love Too
Show your fans that you love them too by sharing content on Facebook that your fans have produced. This will create a feeling of reciprocity between you and your fans and also show that you are just a normal person too – not a corporate machine. People love being engaged within social media. If you take a few minutes each day to engage with some of your fans, you will see that investment on time come back to you tenfold. All of a sudden a normal fan will become a raving fan just because you reached out to engage them. Who do you think that person will do business with when they need what you have to offer?
All in all, getting your Facebook fans to become paying customers is easy if you know what you’re doing. Just follow the strategies that are outlined above and watch your business take off like you never thought possible!
