Grow Your Field Service Business With Facebook

Business owners constantly look to grow their businesses with new and improved advertising strategies. Many like the idea of introducing a brand in a place with an engaged target audience. For this reason, many companies turn to Facebook, the popular social media platform, as an effective marketing tool. Numerous possibilities exist for promoting your field service business within Facebook, a platform that almost one-third of adults interact with regularly. The field service industry is relatively new to the social media scene, but that’s what makes Facebook such an exciting avenue for these businesses. Taking advantage of Facebook’s powerful marketing features can constitute a small step towards reaching a wider audience in your target market. This article outlines practical advice and resources to help boost your page audience and increase your brand’s visibility.

Create a Facebook Business Page

Start building a business Facebook page if you haven’t already done so. Within Facebook, you can create a personal profile, pages, or groups. For the purpose of promoting your business, you want to create a Facebook page, not a personal profile. Pages allow your company to utilize Facebook advertisement features, get "likes" with fewer limitations, and see valuable data from your page with Facebook Insights. However, you will need a personal, non-business Facebook profile to create and administrate your business' page. If you already made the mistake of setting up a personal profile for your business, Facebook has an easy way to convert your profile into a Facebook Page. Once you create your page, fill out as much info as you can, add a link to your website, add contact information, upload high-quality photos of your team and office, and add postings to your wall to show that you stay active.

Reach Your Business' Goals With Facebook Ads

Customers use Facebook to connect and engage with their favorite brands. To get your business’ name in front of an audience quickly, consider running Facebook ads. This paid advertisement platform makes it simple to get your message to the right audience using targeting methods that include location targeting, interest targeting, and advanced demographic targeting. With location targeting, you can make sure that you only show your ads to users within the area that you serve. With interest targeting, you can show your ads to users who demonstrate interest in specific things. For instance, if you run a landscaping company, you may find success targeting users interested in home and garden related topics. If you have a website, you can target users on Facebook who have visited your site with Facebook's pixel tracking. If you want to target specific age groups or other demographics, Facebook's advertising platform allows you to do that as well. In conjunction with Facebook's targeting capabilities, you can create ads in different formats. Take note of the following ad recommendations for creating relevant and actionable Facebook ads.

• Like Campaigns: Grow a base that you can leverage long-term with a Like campaign. Getting "likes" on your Facebook page will allow you to reach an audience in the future without paying to do so. Once a user "likes" your page, your future content and posts show up in their news feed organically (not as an advertisement).
• Video Ads: Expand your reach and connectivity with video advertising on Facebook. Optimize your video ad campaign to engage with your target audience.
• Link-Click Ads: The link-click ad format showcases an image that can be clicked upon to direct the user to a desired website landing page.
• Lead Generation Ads: Facebook's lead generation ads make it simple to capture inquiries from prospective customers interested in your services. These ads provide you with the information needed to close the deal. Keep your form short, but make sure that you capture all the relevant information you need to provide a quick and accurate quote. If the lead does convert, make sure to save time by importing their information into your field service management software.

If done correctly, Facebook advertising can give your business new opportunities and more leads. Before getting started with Facebook paid ads, you’ll need to identify the most effective Facebook advertising strategy for your brand. Set attainable goals that you want your company to achieve, determine your audience, and run a few different ad types to discover which works best.

Connect With Your Facebook Followers

Social engagement with Facebook fans online will give any field service company a higher likelihood of converting Facebook fans to customers. If a disconnect exists between your business and your audience on social media, this could play an impact on how others perceive your brand. Field service companies that add a social element to their network of followers have a leg up on the competition. Below are seven ways you can strengthen your business' Facebook page and your audience engagement:

• Promote your Facebook page on other social media accounts: Cross-promotion requires virtually no capital investment. With this approach, you can obtain a credible introduction to a new audience.
• Post engaging content: For better Facebook engagement, your team should draft up content that is not only personal but also relevant to your readers. Try not to overload your Page with sales pitches. Combine the occasional sales post with relevant posts, photos, and announcements. If you find a news article or information that you think your audience would find interesting, share it!
• Send out visual and timely updates: Experiment with your publishing times, and start posting more visual content that stands out. Facebook's new design for timelines puts more of an emphasis on visual content like videos and images.
• Write blog posts that include sharing buttons: Share individual stories about your business on Facebook. Doing so allows you to connect with your readers on a more personal level.
• Pick a great cover photo: Some companies put their cover photo to good use promoting their products, campaigns, updates, and latest offers. Create some inspirational cover designs that will attract more visitors to your business page. Try to include your company name to keep that front and center.
• Listen to your audience: Remaining receptive to feedback allows you to gain insight into how customers feel about your service. If someone posts on your wall with feedback or criticism, respond in an appropriate and sensitive way. Doing so serves as an outward reflection of your customer service and responsiveness to concerns.

Assess the Effectiveness of your Facebook Efforts

Learning what works best on Facebook for your field service business can take time and some trial and error. Monitor the results of your efforts to spot trends in what works and what does not. When running ads, try 2-3 variations to see if one approach results in more likes or contacts. Do people like or share one type of post over another? Day of the week or time of day could also represent huge factors in advertising or posting effectiveness. As mentioned before, Facebook does offer an Insights tool to chart some of this data and draw some conclusions into what your audience connects with most readily. If a Facebook lead does convert into a customer, make sure to mark that in your customer records or field service software. Tracking where your customers originate from over time in your customer database will help you make better marketing decisions and spend your advertising dollars in the most effective location.