Ultimate Facebook Marketing Guide for Startups in Dubai

Today, in this digital era, running a successful business requires the employment of a great length of marketing. A vast majority of businesses from around the world have joined the bandwagon of ‘E-commerce’. Ecommerce stores contribute a major share of the global sales revenue. Consumers prefer to shop at their convenience with the wide range of options available at their fingertips. This shift in consumer consciousness propelled by the digital revolution has increased the importance of e-commerce platforms.

In today’s world, an important step in setting up your business also includes the creation of an online presence of your business. The success of any business today relies heavily on the effective use of digital marketing methods. Facebook is one of the best online platforms for marketing your business effectively. This article will discuss the ultimate Facebook marketing guide for startups.

Why Facebook Marketing?

Employing Facebook as a marketing platform can be greatly beneficial for your business. Here are some of the best ways in which Facebook can give you a marketing advantage at every stage of the sales funnel.

> Wider audience reach – Facebook spans across many demographics and has over 2.6 billion users worldwide. So, using Facebook marketing allows you to present your business to a vast audience.

> Competitor Targeting – By employing Facebook you can target users who have indicated desired brands as their interest.

> B2C & B2B Businesses Alignment – Using the right targeting, ad format, etc, Facebook can be very well aligned with B2C and B2B businesses.

> Ad Formats variety – Facebook provides the best range of advertisement options available among other social media platforms.

> Multiple Form of Engagement and Full-Funnel Targeting – By using Facebook you can cater to users at any stage of their engagement journey.

> Audience Transparency – While there are other platforms with similar audience targeting capabilities, the audience reach of Facebook is the most transparent.

> Psychographic Targeting – The targeting capabilities of Facebook include a wide range that involves behaviors, hobbies, etc.

> Drive Traffic Directly to Your Site – If your ad is compelling and relevant, users will have a look at your website.

> Measurable Performance – With the use of Facebook, reporting on an extensive set of metrics is possible.

> Audience Engagement – Facebook marketing can help you grow your follower base and also keep your existing fans engaged in your business.

With a fair share of knowledge regarding the benefits of Facebook marketing, let's look at some of the ways to employ Facebook to create successful marketing campaigns and strategies.

Top 10 Tips to Create Successful Facebook Marketing Campaigns

1. Creating a Facebook business page – Creating a business page with Facebook is very easy to accomplish and requires no cost at all. You can sign up for a business page at Facebook.com/business and choose from the available business types. Next, you can add in more details regarding the company and also add images, logos, etc of your business. Adding more details like a short description of your business and also any other interesting information about your business can greatly attract potential customers. Creating a username to allow customers to contact you via Facebook messenger and adding relevant information like the location of your business, etc, can give a good impression about your business to potential customers.

2. Identifying Target audience – Facebook’s Audience Insights tool can help you get more insights into the whereabouts of your potential customers like their gender, location, language, relationship status, Facebook usage, past purchases, etc. Identifying your target audience is one of the most important in creating a successful marketing campaign. You need to gather relevant information regarding your target audience details like location, job, etc, and why your product or service is good for them.

3. Directly sell your product on Facebook – You can use Facebook as a platform to directly sell your products or services, augmenting your e-commerce store. By selecting the ‘Shop’ tab on your Facebook page you can go to the Commerce Manager’s ‘Sell on Facebook’ page. This tool lets you link business accounts, set preferences for shipping and returns, and establish payouts. You can also use Commerce Manager across Facebook, Instagram, and Marketplace with that setup. You also have the option of employing third-party platforms like BigCommerce, CommerceHub, Shopify, etc with your Facebook shop. If a third-party platform is already in use, you can set up a shop on your Facebook Page automatically.

4. Creating visual posts – Having a well-designed, visually appealing, and professional-looking e-commerce page on Facebook can ensure that your business receives much-needed attention at all times. Take the help of professionals for photography and videography of your products and also for articles and testimonials about your business and the services that you offer. Facebook Live posts, real-time broadcasts, etc, can be effectively used for creating real-time engagement sessions with your potential customers.

Video content on Facebook has been statistically proven to receive more engagement than images. Use the 80-20 rule for your Facebook marketing strategy with 80% being the Facebook posts to inform, educate and entertain, while 20% being promotion about your product.

5. Consistent posting schedule – If you intend to engage your customers and simultaneously expand your market, then posting engaging and entertaining content is vital. Committing to a posting schedule so that your audiences are well aware of what to expect and when can provide your business with a loyal follower base. Posting during peak engagement hours and tailoring your posts according to your audience responses can be very beneficial. Make it a point to create a hard calendar for posting. Facebook Insights can help you gather information regarding the best times to post your marketing content. Consistency and variety should be always given priority.

6. Announcement and promotion of products – Going overboard with incorporating a sales pitch can be a very bad idea. With that being said, occasional tasteful promotion of your products and services to generate the much-needed traffic and sales is very much necessary. Especially when you are introducing something new, it needs to be kept in mind. Any in-store promotions can be readily shared with your target audience. Take a few minutes to create and upload compelling images and also calls to action that suggests specific actions beyond engagement. Provide value to your audience, and also be open to learning about your services and products via sales-focused posts.

7. Engage with your customers – Sharing the content about your products/ services that your fans or customers have posted on their social media is a great way to create customer relatability. Promote giveaways and other free valuables to create interest and buzz among your audience, also making it a PR campaign. Focus on creating effective ways to divert your traffic to your shopping platform, so that your business pages on Facebook aren't just about the landing page views.

8. Facebook ads and Pixel – The best way to draw attention to your company is by running ads on Facebook. Establish a Facebook Ads account, wherein you pay to share your content with specific targeted audiences. Having such an account helps you convert your page visitors to buyers. It is found that over 96 percent of marketers approve of Facebook as the most effective social media advertising platform. A wide variety of options are offered by Facebook for advertisers like user engagements, app installs, etc. Setting up a Facebook Pixel account can also be used if you don't plan to use Facebook ads right away. A Facebook Pixel serves as a code snippet that is placed on your website to remarket people who have already visited your website. With Pixel, you can build targeted custom audiences for future ads, collect data, trigger cookies, etc.

9. Monitor and Re-target ads – Retargeting potential customers and monitoring ad performances are some of the important matters that determine the success of an e-commerce business. Engaged viewers who already considered a purchase, can be retargeted to ensure that they are reminded of their desire to purchase your product. You can halt or pause ads that aren’t working out well and also adjust ads to perform better with the help of monitoring ad performances. Set up Facebook’s built-in optimization algorithms to allow you to make changes to your campaigns based on performance criteria that you have set. When you spend money on your campaigns, you also need to regularly monitor their efficacy.

10. Employ Shopify and Facebook together – One of the most popular and easy-to-use e-commerce platforms, Shopify has an integration with Facebook that can help you build your site, sell in-person, track or ship orders, etc. You can use Shopify to customize your site via a 14-day free trial. You can open a Shopify account and connect it to your Facebook account to create a Shopify Facebook store called a Facebook Shop. Your Shopify store can be linked to Facebook by clicking the ‘Facebook Shop’ from the list of sales channels. Then, choose your Facebook page and connect it to your account. Your store will be reviewed by Facebook and will let you know of its decision to authorize your store, or just sign in to your Shopify store to know the result. Shopify Facebook store is involved in controlling the customer process and experience. The marketing strategies of Shopify store Facebook include running Facebook ads, referral program offers usage of affiliates, etc which can turn over a percentage of referred sales to affiliates.

Successfully running an e-commerce operation has become a task that requires skill and expertise. Having a well-planned marketing strategy, the apt usage and knowledge of Facebook marketing and advertising tools, and a customer-centric approach can greatly help your business stand out in today’s highly competitive market. Facebook can be effectively used as a marketing platform to reap huge success for your e-commerce business. For e-commerce solutions, you can contact us now.