Your brand might already have plenty of weekend warriors on Facebook, but it’s the super fan you want to attract. In terms of purchasing power and word-of-mouth promotion, one super fan trumps a dozen weekend warriors.
Moontoast’s “Anatomy of a Fan” infographic identifies different Facebook fans by their level of engagement:
Here are four ways to start moving your fans through the ranks.
Anyone who doesn’t care deeply about your product or service will not become a purchaser, much less a super fan. Your advertising should target high-value fans, not more weekend warriors.
Engagement ads promote links within Facebook, like events or apps — or in this case, your page — to users selected based on interest, demographics and other targeting data. All a user has to do is hover over your ad and click “like” (the link’s included in the ad) to start seeing your updates in their News Feed.
To create an effective engagement ad:
Word-of-mouth advertising is a cost-effective and powerful way to move engaged fans up the ranks. Unfortunately, you can’t buy it — you have to earn it.
Contests are a great way to generate authentic word-of-mouth activity. Assuming you’ve already used Facebook ads to attract more high-value fans, then you can bet that many of your fans’ friends share similar interests.
Every time one of your fans interacts with or promotes your contest, they’re reaching pre-qualified leads for you by exposing your contest to their friends ― and this word-of-mouth advertising is completely free to you. It sounds easy, but most Facebook contests fail because they offer the wrong incentive.
Back to the running shoe store example, let’s say you hold a contest to give away an iPad. You whip your fans, and their friends, into a frenzy — everybody loves a high-tech giveaway. But when it comes time to promote that hot new running shoe, your conversion rates are disappointingly low. Why?
When you give away prizes that are extremely popular, like an iPad, but are completely unrelated to your niche, you attract a bunch of people who want to win something — not fans you can move up the ranks to super fan status. Instead, when designing giveaways and contests, choose specific prizes your ideal customer would want.
You might already have a welcome tab — a landing page for users who haven’t yet liked your company. At a minimum, welcome tabs need a call-to-action. Ask users to like the page, and then include a brief video or copy introducing your company and page.
Users go to your page because they want a solution to a problem, or an answer to a question — so give them one, in exchange for their name and email. Offer valuable content on your welcome tab that shows you’re an expert, such as a free tutorial or video series giveaway.
Selling on Facebook is an art and a science. Most users are on the site for both personal and social reasons, so it’s a space where loud salesmanship rarely succeeds.
But providing targeted value will work — and the best way to do that is with content.
If you’re new to this, start small. Guide your fans to your best content with short CTAs, like:
Good CTAs are content-rich, engaging, and promise something better outside of Facebook. This moves the relationship to your website, where you can convert fans to buyers using your existing sales funnel.
To turn potential fans into super fans, you need to start with the right kind of fans — those who are truly interested in what you have to offer. Then you can focus on generating buzz, nurturing your list and moving that relationship off of Facebook to the point of purchase.
If you consistently provide stellar content and real engagement, you’ll develop a core group of super fans to show up, bring their friends, and be your cheerleaders, come rain or shine. The only question is, can your brand afford not to have at least a few super fans among its ranks?
Moontoast’s “Anatomy of a Fan” infographic identifies different Facebook fans by their level of engagement:
- Potential fans
- Engaged fans
- Advocate fans
- Purchasing fans
- Super Fans ― the best of the best. They are the fans that have given you data permissions, purchased from you, and sparked other fan’s purchases.
Here are four ways to start moving your fans through the ranks.
1. Attract Your Ideal Fan With Engagement Ads
Anyone who doesn’t care deeply about your product or service will not become a purchaser, much less a super fan. Your advertising should target high-value fans, not more weekend warriors.
Engagement ads promote links within Facebook, like events or apps — or in this case, your page — to users selected based on interest, demographics and other targeting data. All a user has to do is hover over your ad and click “like” (the link’s included in the ad) to start seeing your updates in their News Feed.
To create an effective engagement ad:
- Target the right audience. Leverage Facebook’s massive trove of user data to laser focus your targeting. For example, if I sold running shoes and I wanted to grow my fan base, I’d probably target people who have already liked my competition’s page, because their leads are leads for me, too. I would also target Facebook users who have any mention of running in their profile.
- Incite action. Your 25-character headline should prompt action or ask a question to grab your potential fans’ attention. Check out this example from a NYC personal trainer who targets women between the ages of 23 and 35.
- Grab attention with a real image. Logos get you nowhere on Facebook. And a smiling, happy face works better than an abstract photo. Remember, Facebook users are exposed to lots of ads. Your headline and image are your one shot to get them to specifically click on yours.
- Measure performance. Facebook’s self-serve advertising system provides you with plenty of feedback. Run multiple ads at one time to find out which one is performing the best. You can change your ads as often as you want, so monitor their performance closely — and adjust as you go.
2. Create Word-of-Mouth Advocates With Contests
Word-of-mouth advertising is a cost-effective and powerful way to move engaged fans up the ranks. Unfortunately, you can’t buy it — you have to earn it.
Contests are a great way to generate authentic word-of-mouth activity. Assuming you’ve already used Facebook ads to attract more high-value fans, then you can bet that many of your fans’ friends share similar interests.
Every time one of your fans interacts with or promotes your contest, they’re reaching pre-qualified leads for you by exposing your contest to their friends ― and this word-of-mouth advertising is completely free to you. It sounds easy, but most Facebook contests fail because they offer the wrong incentive.
Back to the running shoe store example, let’s say you hold a contest to give away an iPad. You whip your fans, and their friends, into a frenzy — everybody loves a high-tech giveaway. But when it comes time to promote that hot new running shoe, your conversion rates are disappointingly low. Why?
When you give away prizes that are extremely popular, like an iPad, but are completely unrelated to your niche, you attract a bunch of people who want to win something — not fans you can move up the ranks to super fan status. Instead, when designing giveaways and contests, choose specific prizes your ideal customer would want.
3. Grow Your Lead List While You Grow Your Fan Base
You might already have a welcome tab — a landing page for users who haven’t yet liked your company. At a minimum, welcome tabs need a call-to-action. Ask users to like the page, and then include a brief video or copy introducing your company and page.
Users go to your page because they want a solution to a problem, or an answer to a question — so give them one, in exchange for their name and email. Offer valuable content on your welcome tab that shows you’re an expert, such as a free tutorial or video series giveaway.
4. Convert With Calls-to-Action
Selling on Facebook is an art and a science. Most users are on the site for both personal and social reasons, so it’s a space where loud salesmanship rarely succeeds.
But providing targeted value will work — and the best way to do that is with content.
If you’re new to this, start small. Guide your fans to your best content with short CTAs, like:
- “Click Here” — Link to your latest blog post.
- “Watch This” — Link to an entertaining video.
- “Check This Out” — Post an interesting stat.
Good CTAs are content-rich, engaging, and promise something better outside of Facebook. This moves the relationship to your website, where you can convert fans to buyers using your existing sales funnel.
The Bottom Line
To turn potential fans into super fans, you need to start with the right kind of fans — those who are truly interested in what you have to offer. Then you can focus on generating buzz, nurturing your list and moving that relationship off of Facebook to the point of purchase.
If you consistently provide stellar content and real engagement, you’ll develop a core group of super fans to show up, bring their friends, and be your cheerleaders, come rain or shine. The only question is, can your brand afford not to have at least a few super fans among its ranks?
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