‘But it’s only September!’ we hear you cry. ‘Surely it’s not the time for holiday marketing yet?’ You know for us at SoVerve, it’s never too early to get into the holiday spirit and that includes holiday marketing. Trust us, the season will be upon us faster than you imagine. When that happens, you want to be ready to rock and roll!
So, why the focus on your Facebook Page? We’ve seen in recent years how business owners have veered away from Facebook, preferring to focus on Instagram or other platforms. However, Facebook is not something you should ignore. After all, it owns Instagram, you will still find tons of clients and customers active there, it’s a way to create a community.
If you’re already utilizing Facebook, well done! Whether you are or not, prepping your Facebook page for the holidays is a vital step in your holiday marketing. And who knows? You might fall in love with Facebook along the way!
So, let’s have a look at our top tips to help you beef up your Facebook page for the holidays.
Tip #1: Analyze what people are doing on your page
Before you do anything else, you need to know what people are doing on your Facebook page. Without that data, it’s impossible to make changes that have a real impact on your holiday marketing (and your business in general).
How can you analyze Facebook activity? A great way to do this is by placing links throughout your page and connecting that with Bitly. You can add customized links each time you update your Facebook cover photo or profile picture, for example. Put a customized link in the description of the image.
Then you can see whether people are clicking that link. If loads of people are following that link, you know lots of people are opening up your cover or profile pics. That way you see that it’s a good place to add some marketing. If not that many people are clicking on it, OK, no problem. You now know to put your advertising real estate elsewhere.
The data you gather through these strategic links will be the magic fairy dust to help you with our next two tips!
Tip #2: Maximize the potential of your About section
One of the most important additions Facebook has made recently is the About section that’s replaced things like the mission statement. This little section is key marketing real estate but often Facebook Page owner doesn’t use it as they should.
Don’t simply use this About section for basic contact info and a one-liner about your services. You can do so much more there! It’s the perfect place to add engaging content about your vision, the story behind your business, highlights from your product or service range, any calls to action. You can even add in photos or branded images in there to make it extra attractive to your followers.
Remember that if someone’s new to your page, the About section is likely to be one of the first things they click on (confirm this with your Bitly links first, of course!) so you need to make sure the information there is helpful and relevant. Pay attention to the copy; keep it short, simple and effective. We know that you’re so proud of your business that you’ll want to include tons of information but stick to showcasing your USPs or the most inspiring things about you.
How can this help you with your holiday marketing? Well, you can give your About section an extra-special holiday makeover. Include any holiday offers, seasons greetings to your customers or information about your Giving Tuesday campaigns.
Tip #3: Pin the best
We’ve been talking about the most viable sections on your Facebook Page: how you identify them and what to do with them. In this case, a key piece of content that shouldn’t be ignored is your pinned post. When people are scrolling your page, that’s what they’re going to see first, so you want it to be solid.
In our case, we always pin our latest blog (maybe that’s even how you found this blog you’re reading now!). For other businesses, it might be upcoming events, product announcements or the latest podcast episode. Now we’re coming up to the holiday season, you might want to add in information about your offers, or perhaps something to share your holiday spirit with your community.
Think of your pinned post like your MVP of that moment. It’s something that provides a touchpoint for visitors to your page that represents what’s best about your brand and your business.
The last thing you want to do as we get into full-on holiday marketing mode is forgotten our Facebook page. People might get there via an ad, a recommendation or through your website – however, they get there, they want to see an up-to-date and informative page.
If you start now, we know you’ll thank us come Q4! Happy holiday marketing!