Are you selling products online? Then you’ll want to capitalize on the platform with the most users in the world. That’s right, I’m talking about Facebook. With 2.9 billion monthly active users spending roughly an hour scrolling the app every day, it’s time to get serious about building a profitable Facebook shop.
Facebook is rolling out its integrated Shop feature, and the forecast for 2022 points toward a shoppable marketplace directly from the app.
Related | Selling on Facebook: 5 Ways You Never Thought Could Work
If you haven’t gotten the Shop feature yet, you can
still optimize your business page to drive sales to your website or e-commerce
store. Like most new ventures, your success boils down to a few key strategies.
When employed, you’ll garner more visitors to your Facebook store and see a
boost in revenue.
One report found that 78% of U.S. shoppers discover new products and make purchases through Facebook. Clearly, Facebook is a profitable sales funnel with massive potential, but first, you need to learn profit-boosting strategies that actually work.
Ready to sell? Read on for a roadmap for building an income-generating Facebook store in 2022.
#1. Identify Your Audience With Facebook
Insights
At the start of every new business is an ideal
audience. For instance, if you’re selling athletic gear, then your target
audience likely includes active individuals. But that’s not enough. Your
audience is intricate and specific, not broad or general.
So, let’s get to work identifying your audience.
Lucky for us, Facebook has everything we need to do this.
Use Facebook’s Audience
Insights Tool
Your goal is to create a profitable Facebook
store, right? The best way to do that is to market directly to Facebook users
who already align with your brand.
Facebook Insights is an excellent business tool because it gives you demographics overviews, lifestyle features like location and relationship status, and consumer interests. Arming yourself with this information will help you gauge what kind of content your audience likes and dislikes.
Read | The Digital Marketing Basics Every Entrepreneur Needs
From your Audience Insights panel, view
demographics like age, gender, relationship status, education level, job title,
and location.
Use Facebook Insights to…
- Define your target audience.
- Create content that resonates with your audience.
- Reach new demographics and attract them to your store.
- Create campaigns that generate results based on tailored, customized, value-rich content.
Take a look at American made hemp clothing brand, Jungmaven. The shop targets progressive, eco-conscious consumers. The branded layout is effortlessly cool. Every post is optimized with product tags and calls to action. Head to their Facebook store, and the breezy shopping experience continues.
Each product is fully optimized with a
description, images, and website links. The brand is built on the foundation of
a well-defined audience, and you can do the same!
Want to maximize your reach? Then let’s talk
about visuals.
#2. Create High-Quality Imagery
Facebook Shops is a newly integrated feature
enabling shop owners to list inventory directly on their Facebook page.
Shoppers can easily browse products and checkout with a few clicks.
That means that some buyers might never make it
to your website. But that doesn’t mean they should miss out on your store’s
branding and identity. Treat your Facebook store as you would a professionally
designed website. How?
Customize your page’s design to capture the
essence of your brand. Focus on creating a seamless layout with high-quality
imagery and media.
Start With Your Logo
Don’t have one? No problem! Use a free logo maker like PosterMyWall. Browse a vast collection of aesthetic designs to find one that personifies your store. Customize the fonts, colors, and imagery to match your store’s branding.
Create A Facebook Cover
Photo That Turns Heads
Your store’s cover photo is a shopper’s first impression, and you want it to grab their attention. Since you’re already creating your logo in PosterMyWall, check out their Facebook cover templates.
Need an engaging static image for your mobile
car wash? Or perhaps you want an interactive video cover photo to grab them in
seconds? Choose a template, personalize it in the editor, and within minutes
you’ve nailed the first impression.
The key is to create high-quality imagery that
exemplifies your distinct branding and products. Thanks to its integration
across Instagram and Messenger, your sales channel just got a whole lot
broader, so make it pretty.
#3. Reach The Right Audience With Targeted Ads
Once your Facebook page and store are up and running, you’ll want to bring in new customers by targeting your ideal audience. Facebook advertising is an excellent way to create campaigns and fine-tune as needed to yield the best results.
There’s experimentation involved, but minor tweaks and edits go a long way. Use Facebook’s targeting feature to build audiences based on insights, and create campaigns that reach them.
Rather than targeting everyone on Facebook, zero
in on niche demographics.
Experiment With Ad
Campaigns
Say you’re launching a new women’s fragrance.
Create an audience of professional women in their 20s-30s who also like pages
like Sephora or Ulta Beauty. Choose imagery and language that speaks to them,
and offer a 15% discount as an incentive to buy.
Include active calls to action to direct them
toward your store. Then observe how the ad performed.
Were you hoping for a bigger bite? Create a new campaign with minor tweaks to the audience, text, colors, and imagery. Test out different ad designs using ready-made Facebook ad templates. Which ad performed better? A little experimentation goes a long way with Facebook ads, but no matter how successful the campaign, you’ll want to send out retargeting campaigns.
Focus On Retargeting
It’s common for shoppers to add items to their cart without checking out. That’s where retargeting comes into play. Head to your ad panel and choose to retarget shoppers who have previously interacted with your store or website.
From there, promote the products they showed
interest in to nudge them back toward your store.
Considering about 75% of shoppers abandon stores or carts, retargeting is crucial. What results can you expect?
Remarketed ads can lead to a 70% increase in potential conversions. Bottom line: people are busy, and the competition is fierce. Retargeted sends them a kind reminder of the products they liked, encouraging them to proceed with their purchase.
#4. Create A Seamless Shopping Experience
A Facebook store is a legitimate business, which means you need to approach it with marketing strategies proven to boost profits and raise awareness. Above all, you want to create an enjoyable shopping experience so that people will come back.
The more steps shoppers have to take to buy a
product, the less likely they will do so.
Tips for Creating a Seamless
Shopping Experience:
- Include descriptions on each product page, just as you would on a website.
- Post high-quality product images and videos for every product.
- Like Instagram, Facebook is rolling out shoppable product tags. Tag products so that people can click on them and shop directly from your posts, like this example from Everlane.
- Offer shopping support via messenger. Stay active and respond to inquiries quickly. The more active and present you are, the easier it is for shoppers to enjoy your store.
- For U.S. stores: Enable the “checkout” feature so that buyers can place orders without having to leave the app.
Creating a seamless shopping experience — from
browsing to checking out — encourages repeat business. How else can you drive
sales to your Facebook store?
#5. Energize Your Facebook Store With Value-Rich
Content
Social networking is an advanced sales funnel and marketing machine. You have an opportunity to turn a social app into a sales page that builds awareness, increases conversions, and boosts revenue.
Best way to do that? Energize your page and store with value-rich content that keeps your audience interested.
Here’s how:
- Post consistently to keep your content in front of viewers’ eyes.
- Mix up news feed posts with shoppable posts that drive sales.
- Build a streamlined, positive shopping experience that encourages repeat buying.
- Use targeted ads and remarketing to incentivize buyers to return to your store.
- Build a beautiful store. Create diverse, rich content that resonates with your audience, including videos, engaging photos and galleries, and branded Facebook cover photos.
Ready to get more from your Facebook store? Use
these five strategies to invigorate your Facebook store with content that
builds an engaged audience and boosts profits. Not a bad way to kickstart the
New Year!
