I hear it said all the time: “I've NEVER bought ANYTHING on Facebook!”

That's right. Many people don't, and won't buy anything on Facebook. But they might consider becoming our client or buying from our website or physical store in the next 7 to 70 days if we can earn their trust.

We earn a prospect's trust on Facebook exactly the same way we do offline. Facebook just gives us the opportunity of earning the trust of significantly more people in our target market. A chance to build an audience of ‘fans'.

The challenge for us then really just comes down to the publishing – but before you get put off, remember this:

EVERY piece of content we share on Facebook (or anywhere on the web for that matter) forms part of our ‘web' – another chance for our ideal prospect to enter our sales funnel.

Okay let's do this Facebook thing properly and start getting some results!

Firstly we need to…

1. Stop Them in Their Tracks

We stop our Prospect in their tracks by crafting effective Headlines. This is a fine art (and science), but if you follow the formulaic approach set out below you'll start noticing changes immediately.

This is what effective Headlines usually do:

• Cut to the point
• Name (and expose) the pain
• Give an immediate, and easy solution

It doesn't matter WHAT industry or business we are in – effective Headlines do one or all of these 3 things.

You could stop reading this Post right now and just apply the points above and you'd probably start enjoying more success with marketing your business on Facebook but read and learn a little more and you'll be on your way to turning Facebook into a ‘Revenue Contributor' for your business.

Effective Headlines also:

• Show our Prospect that we recognise and understand their pain,
• and ‘Force' them to give reading our content a go.

Headlines are something we need to practice and get good at (it's really not that hard if you follow the formula below).

With all the noise going on inside Facebook we need to make sure our Headlines are firstly seen, and secondly clicked (given a chance).

Here's a simple formula for creating Headlines that get seen and clicked more often…

• Focus on (1) single benefit.
• Target a (your) specific market.
• Give them an advantage.
• Use words and phrases that conjure up clear pictures in your prospects mind. Words or phrases that either (a) highlight the main benefit, or (b), agitate their pain (or both). It's about connecting our Prospects with the feeling (the emotion) of their pain either continuing, or ending as-of-now.

Start with the first 2 – that's the single ‘Benefit', and the Who (the ‘Target Market') – the ‘Advantage' and the ‘Right Words' often follow naturally.

Let's pull apart the Headline of this Post…

3 Steps To Taking Facebook From ‘Waste of Time' to Revenue Contributor

• Single Benefit = ‘Revenue Contributor'
• Specific Market = Businesses who are frustrated with Facebook – they see it working for other businesses but feel (or fear) they are wasting time using Facebook in their business.
• Advantage = Only 3 steps (to turning Facebook into a ‘Revenue Contributor') without wasting any more valuable time or resources.
• Words and Phrases that conjure up clear pictures in our prospects mind – highlighting pain, pleasure, solution, ease or simplicity are ‘3 Steps' (ease and simplicity), ‘Waste of Time' (pain), ‘Revenue Contributor' (pleasure/solution)

So you can see Headlines are REALLY important, not only on Facebook, but everywhere we are reaching out to our market.

How to practically apply this Headline formula in Facebook:

Your Headline itself will actually be the ‘Title of a Post' that you (your company) OR someone you respect in your industry has already published to the web. If published by you (your company), it will ideally have been published on your own self-hosted WordPress Blog or company website.

[Referencing other people's content on Facebook is fine – especially if it going to add value for your new Prospects and existing Fans. It's about positioning yourself as the authority within your industry or field. It's recommended you reference respected peer's content as well as your own on Facebook. Don't be ‘salesy' on Facebook, instead add value and build trust and credibility.]

Step 1. Copy the entire URL of your own (or your respected peer's) already-published Post from your browser's address bar.

Step 2. Now paste the entire URL into the update box at Facebook and add the first 1 to 2 paragraphs of the post into the update box as a ‘teaser'. End the last line with (…) – like this…

This will entice your prospect to visit your referenced site or blog to get the complete information you have for them.

If they've clicked through on our Headline link, and you have referenced your own site or blog, we now have our Prospect's FULL attention – now we need to keep it…

2. Give Freely

Now it's time to provoke, educate and engage our prospect.

But first, we need to ‘make THE connection' — only when we make THE connection will-we get a real shot at becoming one of their  ‘trusted sources' of information or perhaps a supplier of their much-needed solution(s).

Making the initial connection could be as simple as reassuring our Prospect that what they've always suspected is in-fact is right, but, it's not their fault – and they're not alone.

The opposite can also work – that is; demonstrating  to your prospect that what they've always believed, been told or suspected is in-fact false (thought provoking). But again, we need to communicate that it's not their fault and that they're by no means alone.

This can also make the connection.

They now ‘get' that we understand their predicament, pain, challenge or frustration.

Next we need to give our Prospect VALUE.

Note: VALUE does not mean immediately launching straight into a ‘bargain' offer.

It means educating them. Taking the time to give them some really valuable information for free. Completely for free – without even asking for an email address.

This builds trust and begins forming a relationship like nothing else, and the other thing is: 90% of your competitors won't be doing this.

Pitching and prices may get some business, but establishing ourselves as someone that understands our prospects problem(s) and taking the time to take them from confusion to clarity will get us twice as much business in the end. This is how we position ourselves an authority in our marketplace.

Educating our Prospect can take the form of a really informative Guide, Whitepaper, Short Email Course… a series of really helpful Blog Posts that help them solve one or two of their main problems… even some kind of free event – you could hold the event every fortnight or month and REALLY build your following – as people are ready, they will enter your ‘Sales Funnel' – maybe on the spot, maybe later.

Free Events can work for Butchers holding BBQ's, Consultants or Artists holding Workshops, right through to Cafes, Hotels and other venues hosting Discussion Groups, Meetings and more – you get the idea.

There are lots of low-cost things we can do that will help our Prospects ‘have a win' – think about what you could do – or what you could give away that would deliver your ideal Prospect extreme value – a win – and one or two good reasons to buy from you, or become a client of yours in the next 7 to 70 days.

Remember: this needs to be something that you plain give away – they'll know where to find you by this time, don't worry.

Once you've given your prospect a win or two and provided them with some unquestionable value, they'll be ‘champing at the bit' to get more from you.

Now is a good to collect a ‘Like' and/or an email address. And you've now earned the right to just plain ask. Ask at the closing of your whitepaper, guide or blog post – or get them to on the spot at your event like this:

“Okay everyone did you get something out of that? Excellent, now get out your phone and go to Facebook.com/YourAddress and click ‘Like' and that will ensure you get lots more good, useable stuff from us/me.” (This works really well if you get someone else to say/do this too).

It's still a good idea to give your Prospect an incentive for ‘Liking' you on Facebook, or for them giving you their email address by offering them more free help – perhaps a helpful PDF, a video or coupon of some kind…

…they'll be busting for more content from you now because YOU will have educated them – taken them further along the path to purchasing or commitment – taken the time (and the care) to open their eyes to the possibilities.

All this goes a very long way, but all will be a waste of time if we don't…

3. Make The Next Step Super Obvious At All Times

No matter what your industry or business, in the noisy digital world, more than anywhere else, your directions need to be crystal clear. Clear calls-to-action need to become part of the furniture in your digital marketing.

Here are some ways you can do this in just about ANY industry or business…

1. Display your phone number in bold at the top right of every web page or blog post you own or control.
2. Consider including a relevant call-to-action above or beneath your phone number such as: “Call us now to discuss your ……”
3. Place your contact details and website link on EVERYTHING you publish and produce.
4. Include an enticing call-to-action at the closing of every blog post – example: “If you enjoyed this post, may also enjoy our free guide to XYZ” (“free guide to XYZ” would be a link to the guide itself, or link to a “squeeze page” – that is, a page that asks for our Prospect's name and email address in exchange for information/education that would be of VERY HIGH value to them).
5. Use strategically placed buttons that communicate clear calls-to-action. Example: ‘Get Started Now', ‘Book Now', ‘Buy Now', ‘Reserve Your Spot', ‘Talk To Us', ‘Find Out More'.

You've probably already realised, the scatter gun approach to Facebook doesn't work.

To get Facebook working for you as a ‘Revenue Contributor' (and not a ‘Time Waster') will take some concerted effort in the beginning, and some consistent effort going forward, but, the only real cost is the time – and in the grand scheme of the life of your company or business, this won't be a huge amount of time.

In the world of Digital Marketing, a consistent output of high quality, useful content is a wise investment that you can expect a good return on.

When comparing doing Facebook well (that-is in conjunction with solid content strategy) with the cost and effectiveness of many other marketing and advertising ideas and channels, Facebook stacks up very well. A good return on a relatively low investment can be seen fairly quickly.

If you would like more help from me on any of the above, perhaps in getting a content strategy together in view of generating more leads and revenue, click here. Or, if you would like to see what other businesses and companies are saying about the help I've given them, you can visit the testimonials page.