When it comes to online marketing, nobody doubts the huge influence of utilizing Facebook for promotional purposes. After all, almost everyone these days checks and updates their Facebook accounts and regularly browses through their newsfeed.
Facebook, on the other hand, continues to provide more valuable tools for e-marketers. With so many companies and organizations, big and small, employing this popular social media platform to endorse products and services, strengthen branding, and expand their reach, it is certainly worthwhile for you to study the ins and outs of the marketing tools on hand.
Facebook's latest offering is Audience Insights. This is one such tool that provides another revolutionary system to boost various businesses and even help out freelancers and groups in their publicity efforts.
What is Facebook Audience Insights?
Facebook Audience Insights is a brand-new tool that will allow social media marketers and business operators to discover and learn more about their target audiences--- where they live, what their interests are, their ages and genders, their purchase behaviors, the pages they like, and more.
Specifically, using Audience Insights will allow you to have access to demographics that does not just include basic info but also provides insight into lifestyle, education, household size, relationship status, and past and present jobs, among other information. You will also find out not just people's locations and the languages they speak, but you can even discover their frequency of logging into Facebook and what devices they often use to do so.
Imagine just how helpful such information will be to you when you're crafting your posts and messages as well as conceptualizing promos and other gimmicks on Facebook. These customer insights are bound to equip you well so you can make your interaction with your prospective and existing customers more meaningful.
How Can It Help Your Business or Group?
There are various ways in which Facebook Audience Insights can help your business or group when it comes to engaging your target audience, gaining their trust, and hitting them right where it's needed to make them want what you're offering.
Below are some of the specific ways you can take advantage of this new tool in order to grow your business or group:
- Reach out to those in your locality.
With geographic information within your reach, you can determine which of your target audience lives nearby. What current customers are within your locality? Knowing this simple data will allow you to reach out to them for your in-store products, office-based offers, and local events and activities.
- Speak the right language and connect better.
The lifestyle data in Audience Insights gives you mini personas so that it's easier for you to picture how the people in a particular group live. You get valuable insight about their daily activities, possible likes and dislikes, needs and wants. Hence, you can connect better with them by crafting your posts according to what you feel will best satisfy their needs and capture their interests. You can present your products and services in a way that will allow them to see how these can make their lives better.
Furthermore, knowing their demographics will enable you to speak the right language. This could mean you'll sometimes post in the local dialect, or mention a particular cultural tradition that the audience can better relate to. It may also mean that you'll use the proper slang expressions and tone of voice suitable for their age, background, and lifestyle.
Doing this should engage people more and help them to see you as someone they can trust and consider as a "friend".
- Plan appropriate promos and contests.
A lot of businesses and even organizations create promos and contests to launch new products/services, drive attention to features and benefits you wish to emphasize, increase your exposure, establish your brand, and boost profits.
With the info you get from Audience Insights, you'll be able to plan, create, and implement the most appropriate promos and contests. For example, if your target audience often checks Facebook with their mobile phones, then it would probably be more effective to come up with a cellphone-based contest such as something to do with taking selfies and sharing them on Facebook. Or if you discover that they support certain advocacies, then you could offer a promo wherein a percentage of the sale will be donated to such causes.
- Offer what they want and how they want to buy.
Because you will also discover people's usual and preferred purchases and purchasing methods, then you can employ the same if possible. If you are in the banking industry and you see that many of those in your target audience often buy car accessories and like pages of car manufacturers or dealers, then put the emphasis on your car loan offer. If you see that they usually transact through their mobile phones and make use of credit cards, then make sure to mention the convenience of online shopping and mobile transactions when promoting your credit cards.
Here's another example--- Let's say you run a huge food chain business across the globe. If you notice that most of those in your target market are parents who often purchase items for their kids, why don't you come up with a kiddie meal with free toys? You can even tie it to a children's apparel shop so that those who often buy from you can get discounts. In addition, if you notice that many of these parents actually use PayPal to pay, then make sure to mention in your posts that you have this payment option too.
- Post at the right time and engage more.
Another relevant piece of information you will gather from Audience Insights is the time that people often go online and browse through Facebook as well as how often they do it. You see, if you post at a time when your target audience is active on this social media network, then they are more likely to see and notice your posts and check them out.
When you post at the right time, there's a greater chance of catching people's attention and engaging them more.
- Share suitable images, quotes, videos, and links.
Understanding your target audience's affiliations, interests, lifestyle, educational background, and more will give you suitable ideas on what images, quotes, videos, and links to share. If they are college students, then a quote about burning the midnight oil for an exam would surely capture their attention and will likely be shared as well. If they are mostly liking the Facebook pages of real estate agents, they may be out to invest in a house so you know that sharing an article about tips on buying a house will be much appreciated.
Indeed, Facebook Audience Insights is a groundbreaking tool that offers a treasure chest filled with goodies of great value for your promotional intentions and implementations. It's a wonderful gift that you must use to your advantage in order to optimize your Facebook posts, increase customer engagement, fortify your brand, and boost your profits and benefits.