Just having a Facebook Page is really just the beginning of building a successful social media strategy. But with the right formula will not only help you engage with Fans, but generate hot leads and real ROI from your Facebook following.
So the Facebook sales cycle in its simplest form is:
- Grow your Facebook fans
- Promote to gain email and phone inquiries
- Nurture those fans to convert them to hot leads
- Convert those hot leads into revenue
That is the Facebook conversion formula. In essence a blueprint for turning fans into customers
So how do you implement that process?
How to get more (relevant) fans
8.11% of all traffic on the internet comes from Facebook. The people looking for your products are already on Facebook, the question is how do you find them where they are already looking? The first step to growing your fan base is developing a user persona around your ideal Facebook Fan. You can’t find what you’re not looking for.
Traits of your ideal fan, and ultimately your leads and customers, are based on demographics, interests and likes, jobs experience and geography. Combining characteristics from each of these categories will allow you develop a usage scenario. In this case, the usage scenario is how your brand and ideal user interact on social media and Facebook in particular.
All of your usage scenarios come together to become your content strategy. Your content strategy should be broken into pillars; categories of content that are relevant to your ideal fan personas and on-strategy for your business.
Below are 5 examples of types of pillars you may develop for your persona. All of your content and posts should fit into one of these categories. Note, that these 5 may or may not be relevant to your own business.
Convert your Facebook fans into leads
A fan becomes a lead when they willingly provide contact information, sign-up for your email newsletter or otherwise opt-in to learn more about your business. This is best achieved when there is already brand affinity in-place and you have already positioned yourself as the industry expert.
To build that brand awareness and affinity, you’ll use your content pillars to create good and engaging content. In providing immense value, you will create trust and solidify yourself as an industry expert. This exchange of information will create long-term, loyal customers.
Start by encouraging engagement with your content in the Facebook news feed. According to a Hubspot Study in 2013, photos on Facebook generate 53% more likes than the average post. The more likes, shares and comments you receive, the more visible future content will be to your fans.