With over 2.2 billion people actively using Facebook,the social media platform officially has a greater population than China. It is therefore hardly surprising that most businesses want to run their marketing campaigns here.
The only problem is that 62% of small business owners claim that their Facebook marketing campaigns fail to hit the mark. And this list includes interior designers. Now, no one in their right mind would want to throw money on a marketing campaign that does not generate results.
And some might even go on to question the benefit of having such a massive pool of potential customers at hand if they cannot be reached!
Thankfully, there is a simple solution to this problem. We call it marketing strategy. And ‘Hope’ has nothing to do with it!
Most interior designers rely on faith when it comes to Facebook Marketing. They find a post gaining traction (likes, comments or shares) and start hoping that it continues to reach out to a larger audience base.
However, belief is not doing any good to this designer in terms of new clients gained or earning higher profits through measurable units, and that is precisely where most businesses go wrong. A marketing strategy that does not rely on raw data to measure progress can never deliver quality results.
But is Facebook Marketing to Blame?
Not at all! In fact, certain businesses seem to be doing quite well through Facebook ads. The real question is, where are interior designers going wrong?
In order to answer this question, we need to address seven basic problems that lie at the root of every failed Facebook Marketing Campaign.
1. A Lack of Knowledge of How Content Marketing Works
Lack of experience contributes to most interior designers failing to set the ball rolling. Now, do not get me wrong. You might be the best in your field of operation,but that does not necessarily guarantee your expertise in running a business.
Facebook ads are nothing like your run-of-the-mill newspaper ads where you pay to get your content printed and forget about it. Unless you are extremely lucky, a fundamental knowledge of content marketing is required to gain success via Facebook Marketing.
There are numerous strategies that you can use in this regard.However, the fundamentals of each revolve around trial and error.
Start by creating multiple campaigns,each with its own set of objectives and target audiences with varying levels of intent.
The next step involves further fine tuning the strategies and figuring out how small changes contribute to the results.
This is where Facebook comes to our rescue by offering a multitude of objectives, each with its unique set of targets.
If you are looking to overcome low sales figures, start with conversion campaigns and make sure all the basics are covered. Create a tripwire and scale down complex areas. Your primary focus should be on creating a simple and straightforward strategy to overcome the hurdles.
The simple solutions are always the best when it comes to marketing.
2. The Complete Absence of a Strategy and Measuring System
We are not saying that learning about content marketing guarantees success!
We also understand your time constraints in learning a new trade.So, before you try anything new, it is important to figure out the goals that you plan to achieve through Facebook marketing.
There are three primary goals that any budding interior designer plans to achieve.
a. Generating awareness about their business
b. Attracting new customers
c. Improving customer retention
Now once you have your goals in place, think about how you are going to monitor progress. An engagement benchmark will help you decide whether or not to proceed with paid promotion.
The simplest way to create a benchmark is to note down your current number of followers, past engagement rates, and compare the figures to your competitor’s engagement.
Build a content strategy around your goals, keeping in mind the kind of audience that you want to target.Creating a deeper understanding of your customers’ requirements will help you develop engaging content.
Once your campaign starts rolling, the only way to figure out whether the strategy is working is to test it continuously. Click To Tweet3. Lack of Investment – Time
This is a major problem with most Facebook marketing campaigns, as the lesser time you invest in Facebook marketing, the lesser impact your ads are going to make. Simply because of the sheer volume of Facebook ads posted every second.
Imagine how quickly your ad disappears from the News Feed if you post just once per day.
A stale business page with little or no activity is doing you more harm than good, as people that come across your inactive page may wonder whether you are still open for business.
However, there is a problem with oversharing too. Posting too much content multiple times a day will put people off to a point where they might start tuning you out of their News Feed. The right frequency for an ad is three to eight appearances per person throughout its life-cycle.
4. Lack of Investment – Money
According to an independent survey, an average business owner spends less than $50 on a Facebook campaign. In comparison, successful Facebook marketers set aside 26% of their overall marketing budget for Facebook ads.
Even though the amount varies in the end, we can assure you that it is a lot more than $50. The same survey also made the shocking discovery that a majority of business owners do not want to spend money on an ad campaign.
Investing in an ad without knowing whether it will work is like burning your hard-earned money, we understand. But the good news here is that you can experiment with organic posts to understand what content resonates better with your audience, before spending money on a marketing campaign.
Take a look at the engagement rate of your current posts. If you find a post that is popular with your audience, you can borrow the content for your paid promotion.All ads on Facebook are basically regular posts. The difference is that you are paying Facebook to maximize its reach.
The reach of an organic post is deliberately limited by Facebook, and with every new algorithm the situation is getting worse. Furthermore, you cannot target your audiences with regular posts.
Simply relying on organic engagement via free posting to promote your business is a confirmed road to failure. You might as well pack your bags and take a vacation.
5. Not Targeting the Right Audience
The primary objective of any marketing campaign is to increase ROI through greater awareness. Your ads might garner a lot of attention and increase traffic to your website. But it makes little difference if all this attention fails to convert into sales.
The most common reason behind an unsuccessful Facebook campaign is the lack of audience targeting. As an interior designer, if your ads reach out to kids in the 10-18-year-old age bracket you cannot expect any ROI.
You need to streamline your content to reach people that are old enough to look for an interior designer and resourceful enough to afford your services.
Simply relying on Facebook to know your target audience is not enough. You need access to relevant insights to understand the interests of your target market. Defining your audience based on age, gender and income does not work anymore.
Splitting your audiences based on their interest work better than segregating them on demographic data. Listen to what people are saying about your ads, and tune your content accordingly. Regular updates are a great way to keep your audience hooked on to the ads.
6. Going in for the Cold Sale
In the age of social media, you cannot expect to ride the wave of cold sales. That simply does not work anymore. Socializing is important! You need to offer people something of value before you can ask them to commit to your business.
Convincing people to buy something that they do not need is a lengthy process, and requires a certain expertise. You need to build a relationship with your audience right from the beginning, wanting nothing in return, but feeding them information about the benefits of hiring a professional interior designer to brighten up a home.
Here is an interesting article on what is a Sales funnel and how to design one, to give you a better marketing insight. Retargeting plays a major role in generating leads, as people who are aware of your brand are more likely to trust you with their money. So, stop trying to jump to the sales pitch from Day One. No one hangs around on Facebook looking to make a purchase!
7. Not Realizing that Facebook is a Business
Most business owners are unwilling to take the risk of investing in Facebook ad campaigns.You will often hear people asking for guarantees that their ad campaign will work, before investing a dime!
What these people forget is that Facebook is a business, and it needs to be treated like a business partner. The only way that you are going to get returns, is if you invest in it.
For example, linking a Facebook pixel to your e-commerce website can be hugely beneficial for you.It also benefits Facebook as they gain access to a huge pool of user data. You might be uncomfortable sharing such details with Facebook. But at the end, if you do not provide profit to them, either monetary or through information, they do not have an incentive to help you succeed.
Facebook is not some new kid on the block, and has proven its prowess at being one of the most affluent marketing platforms currently in existence.If you are looking to create a Facebook Page for your business, here is our guide to get started in eight easy steps.
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