In this segment, Joe talks about utilizing Facebook ads to reach customers and the ABC’s of small businesses to become more successful.
Welcome to the Being Found Show. I’m your host, Cloud Wise Joe, with my co-host, Chauncey. We’re the local business guide to being found by more buying customers.
Chauncey: It’s been an exciting year for small businesses. I always think about how on New Year’s Day everybody thinks we get a clean slate or a fresh start as though everybody is going to forget our trespasses of last year. This year we have made a few resolutions of our own. You just have to remind yourself daily to follow through on them. So I’ve involved myself in my social media more, getting things automated and such.
Joe: So a lot has changed in the past few months even. We are learning what kind of things Google has figured out, what new things people are doing. And before we got into all that I wanted to talk about what we think businesses should be doing in this new year. What trends did we see coming, with social media as a great example? For instance, it is becoming more challenging to be found on Facebook without paying for ads while many businesses are still posting regular things on their pages in hopes of attracting customers. A lot of it’s not being found anymore.
Chauncey: I have a friend who has a restaurant here in town and he was asking me a little bit about marketing and stuff like that. The advice I gave him was that Facebook is really trying to compete with Google. Even $20 a month to boost your ads on Facebook will go quite a long way compared to $20 on Google which gets you nowhere. He can pick a finite area of people who obviously make enough money to eat at his restaurant and for a very small amount of money, he can really hit that market.
Joe: I think Facebook ads scare people away a little bit because it can seem complicated and frankly it is a bit frustrating. It is complicated to work with it, but it is inexpensive. $20 goes a long way on Facebook, and it is well worth learning how to utilize that platform. I manage several Facebook ads, and I am surprised how much traffic I can drive for $50-$100.
You can do a better job of getting the audience to tune in and managing who sees your ads on Facebook than on Google. So Facebook ads are something local businesses should be looking into in the new year and beyond.
A.B.C’s of Success for small business: e-commerce and local business
A: Available where people want to find you. Where are people looking for me and am I there? Am I on Google My Business? Facebook? Pinterest? You don’t have to be everywhere, just where your customers are.
B: Be found by the right audience. Once you’re available where you need to be, are you doing what it takes to get your products or your services seen?
C: Cultivate or amplify what is working for you. Once you are being found, you start putting money into the things that are working, like Facebook ads if that is what is drawing in the customers. Start looking at what your customers like and dislike about what they found and start making changes around those things.
If this year, small and local businesses focused on the ABC’s, everything would turn around for them. If you’re doing what you need to, putting yourself and your business out there, you may not get blasted with e-mails from prospects but you are moving in the right direction, and over time, you will see results.
Being where your customers are and giving them what they are looking for will ensure your business success. Check out the full show at Being Found Show Episode #43
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