Today brings answers to recent reader question and a common theme. Working with solo personal trainers or fitness centers who are “on” Facebook to promote their business or communicate their message but seeing very little results there is that constant little voice in the back of your head asking, “Is this worth it?”
Let’s answer that.
Yes. If you do it right.
And yes, what I tell you is right today will be general. What will be true now and in the future is that things will change.
The bleak truth is that if you have a business page about 2% or fewer of your fans are seeing your posts. Unless you crack some code, send some love (boosting? Is not the right kind of love. This is crack that FB makes easy to get a hit of. It’s telling you- oh, this one’s popular, don’t you want to make her the homecoming queen? A strategy is what you’re after.)
What is a strategy?
- Increase your fans and followers with targeted and engaging content. Every post has a purpose.
- Sometimes purpose is data collection. What do they like, what do they comment on, what do they share? What do they ignore?
- You follow up with more of the former and less of the latter.
- You have ONE marketing expert who quarterbacks your strategy and posts, tracks, is responsible for what’s going on.
- Marketing is 70% of your success…or failure. Never put someone who “hates sales” in marketing.
- Realizing that no matter if you are “not selling” you are selling. You are selling someone something better than life on the coach, in pain, with disease. Are you kidding me? Yes, you are selling.
- Realize that even if you don’t have a product or service this is an industry of people who do spend decades to learn more about serving and for them it is a very real business and income. What did you do before you did this? Would you take seriously someone who entered your career or asked to be your doctor or nutritionist who had a “certification” that took less than a year to attain? No degree?
- Realize that you are facing competition: the couch, the thousands of recipes for snicker cake, Oreo frozen dessert, taste-of you name it… the very people who follow you – do you ever go to see what they have? A mix of messages for motivational fitness and then five cake recipes! You have competition for what’s easy, what’s norm (70% STILL aren’t exercising enough) so we have to make it look fun, easy, sexy, and simple to start.
When you have built up a page that is engaged and loves you, if you do have a service, a product, then you target them with advertisements. Until then you don’t throw your money away.
Let’s first talk about throwing money away.
You don’t want to buy Facebook ads? It’s supposed to be “free”? and so now you’re mad? and no way are you going to do that?
You’re hurting yourself if you’re thinking that way. Facebook ads done well can reach your ideal customer better than any newspaper, radio or TV ad. And they can do it for $0.7 cents each lead to $1.70 per lead. Depending on what you’re selling… isn’t a qualified lead (someone perfect for your product or service) better than an blanket toss to 5000 people of whom are not a direct target they’re just out there…and maybe we’ll catch a few?
If you’re follow up path is good and you believe in what you’re doing… this is a cheap way to advertise. If you’re brand new to the concept, here’s the comparison.
A newspaper ad – full page can cost $1000 and then it’s gone… in the garbage tomorrow. If I was not home or I had to snow blow the driveway when I would have read the paper… too bad so sad but I didn’t see it.
A radio ad? More for 30 seconds and no one does one. You contract that for a season of football games or a year of bumpers to a selected show. Thousands of dollars for Vegas- like odds.
TV? You’ll hate the ad when it comes out. You’ll cave in and instead of telling a story that really works in 2016, you’ll do an ad reminiscent of the 90’s that shows your beautiful consoles of treadmills, bicycles, and ellipticals. Shiny dumbbells just convince the woman who needs it that you are not for her. $10K for a good ad that runs during the nightly news. Guess what? No one watches commercials anymore.
So back to building your Facebook page and followers for “free.”
- Share the best information with a specific audience. What adds value for them?
- Ask them to comment. Ask questions. Stop telling and preaching.
- Speak to the age and the values of the gender and age that you want. (If you have a high school student do your posting, an intern who hasn’t spent time away from home attempting to talk to professional white collar audiences? this is hard)
- Tell your readers what to do next
- Know why you are posting
- Don’t look at this like a popularity contest – more isn’t better. More of the right people is better
Be consistent. Same frequency, same time of days. You may go on vacation but Facebook does not.
Give your best content on Facebook by sharing blogs (that are already getting seen liked commented on), podcasts, videos, free gifts.
Remember that bring your fans to your email subscriber list is the ONLY strategy worth pursuing with consistent effort.
Remember that your customers are not who you’re talking to on Facebook. You are talking to people you WANT to become your customer. They’re inactive. They’re eating ice-cream right now. They aren’t connecting the dots between “healthy” food on a menu at a restaurant and their condition of overweight pain.
If you need better strategy for pulling video, audio, blog, articles and content of your own and of others to your page to build a following and either create a movement… or create a business … that helps others you’ll love this.