3 reasons your Facebook marketing isn’t working

​I’m going to start this article with a story.
 
Back in January 2017 Dom and I (Andrew) had just launched AD HOC and were busy running around Auckland finding any opportunity possible to speak to businesses about Facebook marketing.
 
One day, we were called in by an established New Zealand business who were interested to hear more about the world of social media. It wasn’t something that they’d ever used and they asked if we’d come in and speak to their General Manager to explain how it all works.

We arrived at their offices, set up our laptop and spent the next hour talking him through the merits of using social media to build an online audience and then engage with that audience over time.  

He listened, he nodded at the right moments and he asked some good questions. He seemed genuinely intrigued and we sensed that he was keen to engage our services. 

It was all looking good....

And then, just as we were packing up and getting ready to head for the door he turned and asked a question which has stuck with us ever since. 

He said…..

“Guys, this all sounds great. Now tell me, how long will we have to do this for”?

To which I responded….

“You have to do this forever. It’s not like a radio campaign which has a start and finish date. Social media marketing is most effective when you commit long term. The value comes over time”.

At that point he laughed. He honestly thought I was joking.

Except I wasn’t. I meant it. This is core part of our thinking. 

Using social marketing to grow your business can be hugely effective. However, it doesn’t happen overnight. Like most things in life it takes time. 

And that’s reason no. 1 why many businesses fail with Facebook marketing. They’re not giving it enough time. 

Reason 1: Think long term
When we set up AD HOC we immediately started to produce content.

And guess what…..? Very little happened. 

No huge surge of leads, no enormous audience, no line of customers banging down the door wanting to work with us. 

In fact in the very early days it was quiet. 

But we persevered. We followed our own advice and we continued to produce more and more content over the course of 2017. 

And it worked. 

Leads started to come in. Initially it wasn’t very predictable but as time went on it became more consistent. 

And the beauty of it was that the enquiries came from a weird and wonderful collection of referral sources which in most cases we could never have predicted. 

Now, 12 months in, we have a steady stream of enquiries which make their way into our inbox every week. 

Yesterday we got 5 new leads. Each was a result of the network which we have been nurturing via social.

In every case the one thing that each enquiry has in common is that either the enquirer, or in many cases the referrer, always tell us that they’ve seen our content. 

It’s taken time, consistency and a lot of hard work. We’ve only just started but we are testament to the fact that building a brand online using social marketing can generate consistent enquiries. 

The important thing to remember is that people won’t recall who you are and why your product is so amazing the first time they see your content. 

Every piece of content you put out there is an investment and helps you to build brand equity. 

If you can produce engaging content over time which consistently shows people why your product could be of benefit to them, eventually you’ll start to see some break through. 

Just don’t expect it to happen in 5 mins. 

Reason 2: You’re probably selling too much
We adhere to the jab, jab, jab, right hook school of marketing. 

This means that the vast majority of content that you produce should be engaging, educating content rather than promotional content. 

We mix up our content through a mix of awareness, consideration and conversion campaigns. 

• The goal of an Awareness campaign is to introduce your business & offering to a completely cold audience. If you try to sell at this stage you’ll probably see little success. Try to tell your story and convey the “why”. 
• The goal of a Consideration campaign is to educate. If you understand the internal questions or pain points of the user you can show them how your offering could be the solution they're looking for. 
• The goal of a Conversion campaign is to gain some kind of commitment from the user. This won’t always be a sale (although it can be in some cases). It will likely take the form of an opt in (webinar, ebook download etc), an event registration or a 1 to 1 consultation etc. 

If the majority of your content is based around conversion, you’ll trip up. A blend of the 3 with a focus on engagement is what we suggest. 

Remember, people typically don’t like being sold to. You have to earn the right to sell and you do this by producing engaging content which adds value to your audience. 

Reason 3: Try new ideas. It’s OK to fail. 
You never know what content is going to engage with your followers. We believe you should just get started, try new content formats and then measure, measure, measure the results.

We’ve tried out several formats that haven’t worked for us but that’s OK because through trial and error we’ve found others that have been incredibly effective. Sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs. 

The Facebook Ads Manager has a great dashboard which gives you so much data to analyze. Always look at your campaigns and see what learnings you can take. 

Test and iterate always. 

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I hope this helps. If you need help with your FB marketing, drop us a line. We offer affordable support on an ongoing basis.