Social 
media marketing is very cost effective – if you do it right. Most businesses opt to invest in Facebook™ marketing, because this is the platform where the most representative age group is formed of people over 30 – adults who are in the target of any business. Since competition is high, bidding prices for Facebook™ ads can run high. And with the utter death of organic reach, even regular posts and shared content has to be boosted to reach the intended audience.
Such being the conditions of Facebook™, you should start building a marketing funnel – an ongoing strategy involving boosted posts and ads to reach out to people who have never heard of your brand and turn them into loyal customers. First of all, let us understand the elements of a marketing funnel.
What Is a Marketing Funnel?
Imagine the actual shape of a funnel – wide at the top, very narrow at the bottom. This is what happens to the target audience of your ads: you reach out to a large group, and at the end a few of them will become loyal customers.
For the Facebook™ marketing funnel, the various phases can be described with the acronym ACCR, standing for:
- Attract
- Convert
- Close
- Retain
Each of these phases has a role and must be executed carefully, otherwise your prospects will lose interest and stop following your social media accounts. So let us move from phase to phase and detail how to build your Facebook™ marketing funnel.
Attract Strangers to Your Page
At the beginning, you are addressing a group of strangers. They have not have heard of your brand, or they have only vague ideas about what it does. At this point, what you really have to do is make them aware of your brand and attract them to become followers.
Trying to sell or prepare offers at this phase is out of the question. You should focus on boosting posts which can help total strangers become familiar with your brand:
- General purpose ads to get them to visit your website and/or Facebook™ page;
- Blog posts with tutorials and other types of useful and informative content;
- Social media posts which create conversations;
- Premium content: ebooks, videos, white papers.
Convert Followers into Prospects
A significant proportion of the strangers you targeted with the types of content described above have become your followers. They are participating in conversations, and liking and sharing your posts. But they are still not ready to become customers. They know what your business does, but they do not know if they can trust it.
It is time now to start building your reputation with other types of promoted content:
- Cheat sheets, checklists or how-to guides
- Customer cases
- Training courses
- Webinars or podcasts
- Infographics
The purpose of these types of content is to show your followers that you understand their problems and needs and are capable of solving them. Again, this is not about selling, but about building trust. Something like a relaxed business lunch before you start dealing and negotiating.
Close the First Sale
When your followers are both aware of your brand and confident that it is professional and can solve their needs, it is time to move on to the sale. It is not easy at this stage, moving people from passive admiration to the active purchasing of your products. But, if you have executed the previous steps correctly, at this point many leads are primed for trying your products.
This is the point when you should share:
- Invitations for a demo or trial version of your product
- Welcome discounts for new customers
- Free initial sessions for your service followed by subscription offer
There is no need to tell you that you should make the deal as sweet as possible. Your leads need to be persuaded to make the momentous decision of parting with their money.
Retain Your Customers
The first sale should be the start of a long and successful relationship with each customer. But, of course, you cannot keep giving them discounts, or else you will never make a profit.
Instead, focus on promoting:
- Early pre-orders for loyal customers
- Referral programmes – discounts for bringing a new customer to your business
- Satisfaction surveys – helping you improve your products and services
Of course, this marketing funnel is just a basic sketch. You should adapt it to your specific niche and to the customer personas you are targeting. Good luck!