If you’ve tried Facebook Advertising, and didn’t see great results, this blog post is written for you. It’s easy to get caught up in the technical troubleshooting guides to help you optimise your campaign, but we want to take it one step back.
Sometimes the highest quality pictures and the most cunningly crafted ad copy bombs abysmally. Why is this? What went wrong?
Let’s put aside the finer details of the disaster ad itself and investigate your campaign from the source. And no, this time we’re not referring to having great pictures at the ready.
Today we explain the four questions you should ask to achieve business success, and why they are key to successful advertising. These are the secret tools you want to have in place before you ever click the ad “Create” button on Facebook.
Question 1: Who
Your “Who” is knowing your target market or who exactly you are going to market to.
Someone once said: “If you market to everyone, you market to no one.” and this statement is true even of digital marketing where there is potential to reach millions and millions of consumers.
The more specifically you can drill down your ideal customer, the easier it will be to craft a compelling advertisement that will capture their attention.
Take some time to picture an average day in the life of your ideal customer. The trick with this activity is to literally imagine a real person.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
What gender are they?
Where do they live?
What do they do for a living?
What is their age and level of health?
What do they drink?
Where do they shop?
Are they parents?
What do they do for fun?
What do they value?
Where do they hang out online (what type of websites/social media do they follow?)
And keep going until you have a crystal clear picture of who you are talking to.
When it comes to the style, tone and message of your ads, it is crucial to speak to this one person. It sounds contradictory, because we are all selling to several different ideal customer types (avatars) but just work with us here.
Once you have your ideal customer avatar (ICA), you can advertise to just them.
If you have more than one avatar and want to advertise to a totally different type of person from the first, that’s totally fine. As long as you understand that you will need to advertise separately to each group, in a way that speaks to each avatar’s unique characteristics.
As Seth Godin puts it: “Everyone is not your customer.”
Here’s an example of what we mean:
Let’s say you are trying to advertise your Tuesday-night cooking classes.
Take a look at these two types of people whom you might want to attract as potential clients:
1) A 34-year-old busy working mom who will attend the cooking class to have a “night off” from the kids. She wants to enjoy a glass of wine whilst cooking up a delicious meal with her girlfriends.
2) A 21-year-old bachelor who wants to learn how to cook so that he can impress his new girlfriend.
Now ask yourself, would your advertising message be identical for these avatars? Would you use the exact same images and words for them, and do you think your approach would resonate in the same way for both types of people? Of course not!
The smart approach would be to craft an advert to speak to each avatar’s unique position and perspective. This is what we mean by speak to only one person per ad campaign.
Question 2: What
Before you start advertising to your ideal customer, you need to understand what they need.
Ask yourself:
What problems are they facing?
What would relieve their problem?
Issues and frustrations come in a million different sizes and shapes. What one person brushes off as a non-event is an absolute catastrophe for another. This is why keeping your ideal customer in mind as you progress through the four questions is so important.
Sometimes your ICA already knows something, but isn’t sure quite how to execute or maybe they just want some motivation. Find the opportunity for your business to be the one to fill this gap.
The Big Domino Marketing Blog, for instance, was created for enthusiastic entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to embrace digital marketing, and need to learn the basics as quickly as possible.
Often your ICA will have a specific problem that they need resolved, and your product or service is the very solution they are looking for (although they don’t know it yet!).
Question 3: Where
The “Where” question is two-fold.
Where are you taking your company?
This question asks that you consider where to next as a business owner. As digital marketers, we know that the advertising landscape is constantly changing, so this question serves to prompt you to be on the lookout for your next angle.
You might craft a fantastic advert that resonates with your ICA and brings in tons of leads and sales, but you can’t rest on your laurels because ad fatigue is a real thing.
You need to constantly innovate, improve and stay ahead of the pack as you play this wonderful game called business.
Where do you want to take your client?
The second part of the “Where” question focuses on your client. Ideally you want to take a person from being disgruntled and frustrated to someone who has found the perfect product or service to resolve their issues.
And they are ecstatic about it.
You want to enhance this person’s standard of living and quality of life, yes, even if you own a brick-and-mortar business.
You ultimately want to leave this person delighted with the product, service and full customer experience they receive when dealing with your business.
Do this right and your happy customers might become fierce ambassadors for your brand, promoting you to anyone they come in contact with (hello social media!).
Question 4: Why
Now we get to the deep work.
You might have started your company or currently work your tail off because you’re driven by the promise of earning more cash. One of our many freedoms includes the freedom to earn, but if you don’t have a greater motivation driving your business besides money, no amount of success will fulfil you.
The reason your why is so important is because it is the fuel that will keep you pushing forward when times get tough. All businesses experience setbacks. Mistakes or big contract that aren’t renewed can immediately result in a drop in cashflow and profits.
If money is your only motivator, how inspired are you going to be when you lose your biggest client through forces outside your control?
How will you stay the course when your competition seems to be shooting past you at lightning speed?
Your inner why is how.
We don’t care if you bake cupcakes for a living, or run a multi-million-rand empire; you need to find your why.
Your deeper why could be a combination of personal reasons – to set a great example for your children, to buy a house for your parents, to be able to retire without being a burden to anyone.
And your reasons can also be altruistic in nature – to be able to uplift people, to help people solve x problem, to be a force for good in the world, to be able to donate to charity.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to earn heaps and heaps of money. In fact, we encourage you to fully acknowledge that you’re in this to earn some serious dough.
But unearth your deeper reasons as well, because they are the ones that really matter.
If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to watch the great Simon Sinek’s “Start with why” TedxTalk:
The Takeaway
This blog is more philosophical in nature than our usual posts, but we think sometimes we need to pull our eyes away from our social media feeds and really think about the big picture of why we do what we do, and who we are doing it for.
Armed with these four powerful questions, you now have an opportunity to deeply explore the factors that will affect every aspect of your ad campaigns, giving you a greater chance of success.
The intention behind your work really matters, so share this with your team. Sit down and see if you are all on the same page. You might find that you need to realign the ship and head in a better direction.
Take the time to work through and answer the four questions, because your business will find great strength in a unified vision.
