Quick & Easy Ways to Market your Publications with Facebook

 
 
facebook sharing 

Each digital publication you create needs traction in order to reach as many readers as possible. Building that traction requires promoting and marketing your content in ways it can reach your audiences efficiently.

 

In a highly competitive market such as online publishing, smart publishers are weaponizing social media for their marketing efforts and getting ahead of the competition. It makes sense when you consider that social media…

  • is free

  • gives you targeting tools to help you put your content in front of the right people

  • is convenient because users can like, comment, and share your publications from a single destination.

 

Facebook, the largest social media channel in the world, is unrivaled in its social power and a boon to any marketer’s promo strategy. Let’s look at some smart ways you can bolster your content’s exposure using the site.

 

What’s the #1 Rule for Marketing Content on Facebook?

Facebook users come from every industry, background, and corner of the world. This means you have more creative freedom in terms of your marketing approach, but your message should still remain focused. So try these methods:

 

1. Implement the “Share” and “Like” buttons. Incorporating these 2 buttons into your marketing posts accomplishes two things: (1) users can conveniently add a personalized message to links before sharing them and (2) these buttons can serve as a bridge connecting your emails to your marketing campaigns.

 

2. Try Facebook Ad campaigns. Doing so can extend your content’s reach far beyond your target audience. It’s easy once you get the hang of it. To start, click on “Create Ad” from the pulldown arrow at the top-right corner of your Facebook page. Though there are many, the 3 types of campaigns you should focus on for your publication are:

 
  • Post boosting campaigns that promote your posts and have them appear higher up on News Feeds.

  • Like campaigns that focus on promoting the number of likes on your Facebook posts and page.

  • Traffic-generating campaigns that drive more traffic to your website or custom domain.

 
facebook campaign 
 
 
 

Both like campaigns and traffic-generating campaigns let you target specific audiences by setting certain criteria (shown below). You’ll know exactly whom to promote your content to and when. So experiment and discover which campaign works best for your publication’s exposure.

 
facebook target audience 
 

How Much Do Facebook Ads Cost? It’s a commonly asked but rarely answered question. That’s because its answer is largely dependent on one’s budget and overall marketing goals. However according to Hootsuite’s Q3 of 2016 statistics, the average cost per click (CPC) of Facebook Ads in the USA alone was 27.29 cents and $7.19 for the cost per 1000 impressions (CPM). Most people will spend more on their daily cup of coffee than on a Facebook Ad!

 

3. Utilize Facebook Video Ads. Facebook experienced a 50% growth in video views ever since it introduced video ads to its platform. It’s a powerful medium for increasing your publication’s exposure exponentially because…

  • Videos tend to have higher engagement rates and more visual power than images and text

  • They do a better job at educating your audience because they comprise strong visual elements

  • They can convey a ton on information in a small amount of time and do a better job of telling a story than other formats

4. Use Custom and Lookalike Audiences: Sure, introducing your publication to new audiences is great for amplifying your social reach. However smart marketers know that reinforcing existing relationships with established clients is also a viable marketing tactic. Facebook’s Custom Audience feature lets publishers focus on promoting their content to existing customers. It lets them target their ads to specific people from any contact list they export to Facebook.

 

To begin, you’ll have to export an aforementioned list and then create a Custom Audience in Facebook’s Ad Manager, shown here:

 
facebook custom audience 

After that, you’ll need to upload your list to the Custom Audience box. Your Custom Audience will take 30 minutes to get ready.

 

Lookalike Audiences are Facebook’s additional targeting tools that search for new customers based on the preferences of your current ones. It builds off of Custom Audiences and uses demographics and interests to display ads to users who have similar qualities as your existing readers. That means your lookalike audiences will be much more receptive to your marketing, so it’s definitely a worthwhile endeavor.

 

They’re a deadly duo, but your online publication (which you can create with Joomag right now) and Facebook can and should work together to elevate your marketing acumen. Both can be used to devastating effect, so be sure to try each method outlined above and concoct your own potent marketing strategies.