Tom Welbourne
Helping Small and Medium Businesses Achieve Their Full Marketing Potential | Digital Marketing Expert
How To Use Facebook For B2B Marketing
- March 8, 2019
- , 12:30 pm
How to use Facebook for B2B Marketing
According to The Content Marketing Institute’s recent survey, 86% of B2B marketers use Facebook for content marketing purposes, falling the 3rd most popular platform behind LinkedIn and Twitter for B2B.
Facebook, the platform originally introduced for connecting and sharing with friends and family, is often overlooked as a tool for B2B marketing.
However, Facebook has targeting and advertising solutions that could be highly useful for B2B marketers and considering the platform is often underlooked for B2B which = less competition!
There are a few simple ways B2B Marketers can use Facebook:
Sell your product/service through Facebook
Capturing emails from lead generation or content you put out
CEO’s and Founders can create personal profiles to share promotional messages and leverage personal profiles
In this article, we will discuss how you can leverage the 3 points above to grow your small business.
Sell your product/service through Facebook
We assume you have a product or service that you are looking to sell to people…
Good, because you now have a platform that is optimised for this job. There are two ways to sell your product or service via Facebook, one costs money and the other is completely free.
The first method is through the ad platform, where you will run Facebook ads where you will target people with your ad.
The second method is for businesses who already have a following and have people ready to buy or at least consider buying their product/service by just posting to their businesses page.
Typically, you have to use the first method of running Facebook ads to reach the level where you can sell through your page via posting. It is very hard to grow a Facebook page organically if you’re business is not already known because let’s face it, what are the chances that people are going to randomly search your business name in the search bar on Facebook?
The good news is that once you have reached this level it creates a snowball effect where people will share your posts and page which means you will be more likely to generate more sales.
Capturing emails from lead generation or content you put out
There are so many opportunities on Facebook to capture peoples email so you can add them to your subscriber list.
What are the benefits of capturing peoples emails?
The big one is that you can then send them emails that provide value whether it be free tips, updates on your business or offers.
People love to receive this sort of information because they’re getting something out of it and if they’re an email subscriber then they’re going to be the first to get this information directly sent to their inbox.
You can capture peoples emails by running surveys, running competitions or giving out a free ebook that your audience is going to find useful. Make sure you give them something first before you start asking people for their email address because we as a society are becoming more and more reluctant to hand over our email without having the incentive to do so in the first place.
Using CEO/Founder Profiles To Increase Trust + Credibility
One great tactic of Facebook marketing is using the said CEO/Founder profiles to tell stories for Customer Experience or Social Advocacy.
By having such a senior figure using Facebook, this tells the potential customer that there is a level of transparency to the business, increasing trust in the customer.
We all know the Virgin brand but we also probably know better who is owns the company, Richard Branson. It could be argued both ways that Virgin is bigger than Richard Branson and vice versa.
One thing is for sure though, Branson’s presence as the Founder of the Virgin brands has helped the brand significantly and we have learnt to trust the Virgin brands because we know who the founder is and what his views are.
As the owner of a small business, could you potentially put yourself out there into the limelight to add credibility to your brand?
It is something worth considering because if you have views of your own about how the industry you’re in should be run then you may want to think about putting content out with your face/name on it…
Bonus Features of Using the Facebook Platform For B2B Marketing
The personal approach to Facebook allows customers to be able to ask questions allowing your business to connect with potential clients and offer advice. It also gives you a huge advantage as a small business owner to learn what’s good and what’s not so good about your brand
The instantaneity of Facebook means real-time answers for the potential buyer which reduces the friction for the prospect when they are thinking about purchasing your product/service
Summary
Facebook is especially beneficial for smaller B2B companies as they’re better able to reach the small business owners who need your product, and therefore you can get a good return on your Facebook ads investment + save on wasted advertising spend.
Despite the misconceptions, we believe Facebook is right for B2B marketing. As it’s underutilized by B2B marketers there is ample opportunity for you to grow your business through Facebook.
Already got a strong existing client base?
Then start engaging with them by offering them expert advice and friendly assistance.
Once you’ve mastered this, you should have established a successful Facebook page, so you’re in a great position to plan and execute your first ad campaign, watch the leads roll in and brand awareness skyrocket!
If you want to grow your business page or you already have grown your business page and are just looking to take it to the next level by running Facebook Ads then we can help you. Schedule a call with us now by clicking here.
