Facebook’s New Suite of Marketing Tools for SMBs
Although it is hard to believe, the annual holiday shopping season is just around the corner. Small businesses hoping to boost sales during this time should waste no time planning a holiday marketing campaign. Fortunately, Facebook is ready to assist SMBs with a range of new marketing tools.
Recently, the social media juggernaut discussed several new tools designed to help startups manage operations, build creative advertisements and communicate with customers more effectively. These tools could help companies across all sectors chart a path to success during the fast-approaching holiday shopping season.
When Does the Holiday Shopping Season Officially Start?
We’re all familiar with the holiday shopping “season” as a measure of the period that generally falls between Thanksgiving and the end of the calendar year. However, it may surprise you to know that, based on a study commissioned by Facebook, almost half of U.S.-based consumers began their shopping earlier than expected. Many of those surveyed stated that they start the process before November. Even if they aren’t melting plastic to stock the living room with gifts this early in the season, chances are they are already window shopping online. Therefore, startups are currently sitting in the prime calendar space to get the advertising ball rolling.
Facebook’s New Holiday Marketing Resources Are Ready to Deploy
Facebook launched several tools to help small businesses capture the most consumer attention leading up to, and during, the holiday season. Here is a snapshot of the potential benefits they may offer small businesses:
1. Advanced Customer Service and Business Management Communications
No matter what customer profile your business targets, chances are they will interact directly with you via social media posts, or even directly through Facebook Messenger or Instagram Direct Messages. Facebook’s new communication toolset allows startups to engage with customers and manage essential business functions including:
- Order fulfilment
- Instant customer response functions through social media
- Data organization tools with labels, folders and more
2. Customized Advertising Templates
Crafting well-written, actionable content, catchy videos and hard-hitting social media updates often requires SMBs to spend extensive resources. To ease this burden slightly, Facebook crafted a wide range of customizable ad templates ideal for integration across Messenger and Instagram. Businesses, regardless of sector, can easily adapt these marketing templates to fit their needs and, potentially, get products and services in front of potential customers early in the shopping season.
Facebook’s Running Series of Tips and Tricks to Boost Holiday Sales
Facebook is also gifting a series of marketing tips and tricks to small businesses early this season. The initial six tips in this ongoing series of posts include:
- Creating holiday gift guides
- Adding holiday flair to backgrounds, stickers and emojis
- Building unique holiday-specific visuals which incorporate products
- Sharing gifts in a variety of price ranges
- Planning a holiday event
- Inspiring customers to share their own holiday cheer
Beyond this series of advertising tips, Facebook also plans to open its doors (literally) to small businesses across the world for one-of-a-kind training events. Slated for well over 200 free events across several major cities, these sessions are designed to stimulate local economies, help new businesses launch and build a collaborative space.