AD | When the marketing agency I worked at for nearly 11 years made me redundant, after a lot of sleepless nights, I decided to take the plunge and go self-employed. I’m not a natural salesperson and having to go out and find work for myself, instead of being handed projects on a plate, quite frankly filled me with fear. But I’ve been freelancing as a Content Creator & Blog Writer for nearly two years now and I absolutely love it! One of the best things about my job is that I’m always learning something new and I love being able to pass on the knowledge and tips to my clients. Facebook engagement is one that I’m always being asked about so hopefully, this article from Emma* might be useful to you as well.
How to increase your Facebook likes
If you’re a digital marketer too, you might already know that email marketing comes with a much higher ROI than that of social media advertising. But using social media to supplement your other existing strategies will maximise effectiveness. You don’t need to set aside a huge chunk of your marketing budget for targeted Facebook posts, but it’s still important for brands — especially local brands — to have some kind of valuable Facebook presence.
One of the easiest ways to do this it to insert a Facebook like button in email campaigns. We’ll look at how to do this in this post, as well as review some example campaigns that got it right.
It’s always a good idea to put your subscribers first. Think about what they want and need so you can deliver relevant and valuable content to them at all times.
Google found that leading companies were 1.5 times more likely to employ an integrated marketing strategy to provide subscribers with personalised content, something that 61% of consumers expect already. And yet, less than 40% of brands and businesses are using data and research about their audiences to arrive at decisions.
So, rather than bombarding your subscribers with the same email campaigns, or throwing dozens of emails at them every week, you should be sending emails with quality content as part of an integrated marketing strategy.
Adding a Facebook like button in your emails is the first step.
Facebook is an excellent place to start because the platform provides marketers with so many additional tools for reaching their audience with relevant and valuable traffic.
Plus, it’s hard to ignore the hard fact that over one billion people actively use Facebook with the platform boasting 1.49 billion active users every day. To put that into perspective, Gmail has over one billion active users each month.
Most email service providers make it easy for you to insert a Facebook like button in email campaigns. For example, you can include social share links at the bottom of every email you send.
Alternatively, you could create a Facebook like button for email with an easy-to-use, free graphic design tool like Canva*. Then you can insert them with an attached hyperlink into your email campaign templates. This email from Not on the High Street highlights their social share buttons at the bottom to encourage engagement.
Templates from your email service provider should also make it easy for you to embed your best Facebook posts directly into your emails. This is a great way to show subscribers what you’re up to on other channels – such as posts for any recent promotions and specials, or a blog you’re really proud of.
By segmenting your audience, you can select Facebook posts that are the most relevant to different subscribers. It’s like using the Facebook audience insights tool, but more likely to deliver results because you’re targeting audience members through email where they’re in control.
This email from Broadsheet doesn’t embed a Facebook post into the email, but instead it includes a link to RSVP to the event directly on Facebook to encourage social engagement.
Image Source: Really Good Emails
Form a private Facebook group exclusively for email subscribers
Most marketers have noticed by now that the Facebook algorithm stopped working in favour of brands — specifically small businesses — a long time ago. Now, Facebook displays more posts from paid advertising, family members, friends, and groups.
However, marketers and businesses can still take advantage of the algorithm by engaging with subscribers through groups.
Start by sending out a newsletter encouraging subscribers to join a private Facebook group. But don’t forget to provide some incentive: let them know you’ll offer special deals there and they’ll have the opportunity to provide feedback about your products or services.
This is great for customer retention too – you can get one-on-one interaction with real customers who can provide you with detailed feedback. Plus, inviting customers to something “exclusive” makes them feel truly valued.
Hold a contest for subscribers who follow your page
When done correctly, Facebook contests provide a stellar medium to engage your audience and develop brand awareness. Of course, the key is to know what type of contest will be a hit with your audience and which type will flop!
Here are a few ideas:
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Photos: ask subscribers to take a photo that relates to your branding and submit it on your Facebook page.
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User-generated content: ask for recipes, product suggestions, enhancements, or unique ways subscribers use your product.
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Keep it simple: ask subscribers to like your page and submit their email (so you can keep track of entries).
If possible, try to keep the prizes brand-related. Gift cards and free products always work well, or offering a unique VIP experience provided by your company could also be an option to consider. Sephora ran a contest for a trip to Paris, where not only did they offer a great prize, but they also encouraged subscribers to interact with their social media platforms.
Encourage subscribers to rate your business on your Facebook page
Giving out any kind of incentive for Google or Facebook ratings is risky, so it’s probably best to avoid discounts or free products entirely.
There’s no harm, however, in simply asking your subscribers to let the public know what they think about your brand with a rating. Why not send out an email campaign with a custom image that links to your Facebook review page? And of course, don’t forget to include a Facebook like button in the email, too.
Test and repurpose content on each platform
Thanks to its versatile posting options, Facebook makes the perfect medium for testing or repurposing your email content. Did an email campaign perform well? Maybe that content is also worth a sponsored Facebook post. Facebook makes it easy to transition emails into posts with different templates to highlight products, images, text, links, and plenty of other unique calls to action.
Final thoughts
If you’re planning to insert a Facebook like button in email campaigns, that’s a great first step to boosting your Facebook likes and engagement. A strategy that integrates social media, email campaigns, and other methods is important because that’s how your audience wants to interact with brands. And, the more you give them what they want, the more they will embrace your brand.
This post from Emma has really given me food for thought. A lot of the tips in here are ones I’d been aware of for some time, although the stats were news to me. If you Google “most popular social media channel” then Facebook is the top of the list, by a considerable margin. What do a 60 year old woman in Europe, a 35 year old man in the United States, and a 15 year old girl in Asia have in common? All of them are active Facebook users. Facebook is convenient, great for communication and organising events, entertaining, informative, and personal. Really, why would any brand, business, or blogger not want to tap into this?
* This is sponsored post and contains affiliate links – please see my Disclaimer.
This is a really interesting post, Lisa! Over one billion active Facebook users each day is a crazy amount! I recently created a Facebook page for my blog but haven’t given it much attention since, I think I might go and keep it updated a bit more often now 🙂 I also think including social media buttons on e-mail campaigns is such a handy idea and increases the likelihood of more people clicking over to the page, instead of just ignoring and deleting the message. Holding a contest is such a clever one – I entered a ‘share your cute pet photo’ competition at my local garden centre the other day, I participated and followed their Facebook page without giving it a second thought. It’s a very smart marketing strategy! Thanks for sharing lovely, fab post, very well written and informative! <3 xx
It’s a jaw-dropping number, isn’t it? Quite scary in fact! I struggle with Facebook myself, to be honest, I find it the hardest platform to grow. As yet, I don’t have an email newsletter but researching this article has made me think seriously about one – maybe a gardening tips one… And yes, I completely agree about the contest hook, if it’s something you’d be interested in anyway then there’s no reason not to like and follow, is there? Thank you for your lovely comment, I’m glad this was helpful 🙂 xx
This was really interesting. I haven’t been focusing on Facebook.
Jennifer
Neither have I, but I will do so more from now on!
This is such a great and interesting read! We really need to put more of an effort into Facebook because I think we forget how big it is! Will be saving this to read over again!
Jessica & James
I do struggle with FB but when I find facts like this I realise I need to try harder than I have been doing to date! 🙂
I have a facebook page but have been quite inactive lately. Same with my newsletter. But these are great tips and i would like to increase likes on facebook so i am gonna try all those tips!
Researching for this post has made me realise that (a) I need to try harder with FB and (b) I need a newsletter! I’m glad it was helpful 🙂
This is amazing advice thank you, I’ve bookmarked this too!
I’m so glad it was hepful, thank you 🙂
This is such a helpful post with great tips. I find my blog’s Facebook page the hardest one to grow. Most of my likes come from when I first created it and invited ALL my Facebook friends to like it and most of my likes also came from my Book Blogging days. It was more prominent on Facebook!
Jenny
http://www.jennyinneverland.com
I do too, I really struggle to grow it. Maybe I need to get a bit braver and invite more friends to like it – I’m not sure some of them even know I blog, haha! 🙂
This is a very interesting post Lisa. At the moment Facebook isn’t a platform I’ve been using for my blog. I haven’t got a Facebook page for my blog and don’t post to my personal page either – I used to, until a colleague asked me about my blog in real life! It made me anxious at the time, lol. So Facebook is definitely something I could focus more on. I do have Facebook like buttons on my blog – on each post and the main page. I didn’t realise you were a freelance Content Creator and Social Media Manager! I’ll going to have a look at your client page shortly.
Thank you, I’m glad this was helpful 🙂 I don’t think I’ve ever posted blog stuff to my personal FB page, that’s a good idea (although sorry that it didn’t work out for you!). I’ll bear that in mind. And yes, researching for articles like this is really helpful for my freelance life too, win win! X
This is such a useful post, after working in Social Media I gave up hope a bit with Facebook because the algoirthms were so hopeless and everything was just pay to play; these are such great tips about how to incorporate Facebook and make it work in a strategy all of its own! Competitions that feature User Generated Content always do so well, plus its so nice to build a community online! Great post full of super smart tips!
Kate x
They are good ideas, aren’t they? Making Facebook’s algorithm work for you for a change. Researching for this article has been so useful for me in my freelance capacity, but now I need to put it into practice for my blog as well 🙂 x
Oh my goodness this is such a helpful post! Once I’ve written and promoted a post over social media I find I haven’t got any time left to do any other time of promotion. It’s definitely something I’m looking to work on this year (alongside actually working on a mailing list) so I’ve bookmarked this so that I can have a proper in-depth walk through when I come to it- thank you! x
I’m so glad it was helpful 🙂 I know what you mean about finding the time, it’s hard running a blog alongside work and everything else 🙂 A mailing list is something I’d like to work on too this year – fingers crossed! x
This is some serious food for thought! I don’t have a Facebook presence at all, personal or blog, but I’ve been thinking about setting up a new blog page for a while now. I like the idea of including events etc in your emails and the private group sounds great for building a real community! x
Sophie
http://www.glowsteady.co.uk
I’m glad you found it helpful – I was quite amazed by the Google stats. I want to make this year the year I try and grow my Facebook page, it’s clearly the platform to focus on! x
Such an interesting post! I don’t really use Facebook that much for my blog but it’s definitely something I should focus more into. These are great tips xx
http://new-lune.com
Facebook is my biggest challenge, I’m going to focus on it more this year too. I’m so glad this post was helpful! xx
What a thorough and interesting post! I only have a Facebook page for the sake of my family to keep up with my blog – otherwise, I wouldn’t use it at all. The same goes with Facebook in general, though. I’d like to delete my account altogether. That said, maybe I just don’t really know how to use it for my blog and that’s where my frustration is, so this has definitely given me some things to think about. Thank you for sharing, Lisa!
I struggle with FB a lot, I find it the hardest platform to grow, I much prefer Twitter. But when you read statistics like this, it’s definitely food for thought. I mean 1 billion people can’t be wrong, haha! x
Such a helpful post Lisa. I need to work on my email subscription. I find it a little difficult. Besides also need to work on social media share buttons. I will message you if I need help. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. 🙂
Via | http://glossnglitters.com
Thank you, Via, and you’re most welcome – I can’t claim to be an expert but of course I’ll try to help 🙂
Thanks for sharing this post, it’s very useful. I must admit I don’t even have an email newsletter for my blog. Maybe it’s something I should look at.
I’m so glad it was helpful – and you’re not alone, I don’t have a newsletter either – yet! 🙂
This is so interesting. I will try to apply most of the tips you mentioned. Thank you very much for sharing this valuable information.
You’re welcome, glad it was helpful 🙂