Market Your Shop With Facebook: 5 Simple Steps

Why market your shop with Facebook?  Have you heard the old phrase “money doesn’t grow on trees?” Some shop owners tire of teaching their employees that concept, but if you market your shop with Facebook, money can seem to grow on trees.  Shops have endless opportunities to expose themselves to potential customers without having to spend a dime.  Follow these 5 simple steps to market your shop with Facebook and earn a piece of its 2.27 billion  active users.

Step 1:  Set up a business Facebook account

In order to market your shop with Facebook, you will first need a personal account, and then you can set up a business account.  You can get your business page done in minutes by following this link and click on “Create a Page” in the top right corner.  For repair shops, we suggest clicking “local business”.  Certainly add a page “button”.  This page button allows potential customers to contact you directly through Facebook rather than having to be directed to your website to find contact information.  A simple way to contact you means less friction, and less friction leads to greater success in marketing.

Step 2:  Fine tune your branding

When setting up your Facebook marketing business account, you will need two images:  your profile picture and cover photo.  You will want to choose pictures that best represent your business. Size matters on these images, so take advantage of free software from Canva for help sizing your images correctly. For your cover photo you might consider a picture of the front of your shop, or a picture of your bays full of big rigs under repair.

Step 3:  Assign someone to be in charge

Once you have your page set up, someone will need to monitor it.  It is important to respond to messages quickly and consistently.  This person in charge of monitoring your Facebook page should start following other business and customers.  Create a community of your biggest fans, and they will help you get exposure to new ones!

Step 4:  Go for it – it is time to market your shop with Facebook

Start posting content. Since Facebook is a social platform, your audience wants to connect.  Are you having an office party?  What exciting things are happening in your shop today?  If you have mobile techs, post a picture of your mobile units. Show followers that you just added a new diagnostic machine to your shop.  Your images and words should show excitement about what you are doing in your shop and how your service is pleasing your customers.

Once you have a consistent posting of content, you can watch your audience grow.  Avoid the temptation to pay for likes. Focus on slow, steady, high quality growth. Keep in mind that your Facebook content will differ from content you post on other platforms. Facebook fans show strong interest in real-time content, relatable moments, and lifestyle and cultural commentary.

There are many different content delivery methods; quotes, graphic quotes, info graphics, videos, or just text.

Try them all out and learn what works for your followers.

Step 5:  Know your audience

Finally, Facebook has free analytic reports accessible under “Insights”.  Then, you can learn all sorts of details down to what type of posts get the most engagement, gender of followers and the times they are most likely to be active on your site, their location, and more!  Use these reports to know what works. Most importantly, at the end of the day, what works should ultimately drive what you do, when you do it, and how you do it.

Bonus Tip

Check out this comprehensive guide on why you should not buy Facebook Likes when starting a new page!

While you are on Facebook, don’t forget to follow Fullbay!