If you have a Facebook business page, you should read this. It could save you a lot of money.
I’ve sometimes seen marketing coaches talk about the “likes” on your Facebook business page being a modern-day equivalent of your customer email list.
The truth is, this is merely what Facebook WANTS you to think.
It’s NOT remotely true, and believing it can actually be quite dangerous for your business.
It is true that you can often get better reach and engagement through Facebook than through email. There’s no reason not to use a Facebook business page for communication. But don’t be fooled into thinking it’s equivalent to your customer email list.
Here are the ways it’s different.
1) You can’t export your “likes.”
If you have a list of customer email addresses in your CRM, you can export them into another CRM if you ever decide to switch. You can even import those leads into Facebook as a “custom audience” that you can target with your Facebook ads.
Can you go the other way, and bulk-import your Facebook “likes” into your CRM? No.
When you gain a Facebook “like,” the only way you’re EVER going to be able to reach that lead is through Facebook. (And no, Instagram doesn’t count!)
2) It will ALWAYS be more expensive.
I don’t care how expensive your CRM is. Basic economics has it that Facebook will ALWAYS be more expensive than contacting customers through email/SMS/etc.
Here’s why.
It costs you the same to email someone who gets thousands of emails a day, as it costs you to email someone who gets a handful of emails a day.
But with Facebook, every spot where YOUR post appears is a spot where someone else’s post is NOT appearing. That represents an opportunity cost for Facebook, which drives up the price for your paid ads (and drives down your organic reach.)
3) You’re practically DONATING to your competitors.
Let me repeat. When you send out a post to your Facebook “likes,” you practically DONATE those “likes” to your competitors.
Facebook lets your competitors target the “likes” on YOUR page with THEIR paid ads.
In other words, when one of your “likes” gets a post from your business in their Facebook news feed, they might get an ad from your competitor immediately alongside it.
And there’s nothing you can do to stop it!
Can you imagine sending out an email to your customer list, being FORCED to include ads for your competitors inside that email, and not even getting paid for them?
If every business owner were to put their foot down and refuse to donate to their competitors like this, Facebook would lose most of its content, users and revenue.
Most business owners don’t realise (or don’t have a choice), so Facebook gets away with it.
But, when you become a member of The Online Economy, you’ll get access to 10-steps of training for promoting your business through a NEW kind of social media.
That is, social media that PAYS you a share of the ad fees that your content is generating.
Because, if your competitors are accessing YOUR audience, you should get fairly compensated for it.
If you haven’t joined The Online Economy yet, go to: https://theonlineeconomy.com