The secret ingredient for posts (and ads) your audience will love
If I had a dollar for every time someone told me “Facebook doesn’t work”…
I’d be somewhere between Mark Zuckerberg and the Queen of England on the wealth scale.
Okay, maybe the money wouldn’t add up that quickly, but I wouldn’t go hungry, that’s for sure.
Most business owners think that Facebook doesn’t work because they haven’t seen the results for themselves. They’ve:
- Put up some Facebook posts
- Maybe even created an ad
…And they’ve gotten precisely zero new leads.
Zilch.
Zip.
Nada.
But here’s what’s important to understand…
The problem isn’t with Facebook. It’s how Facebook’s being used.
Over the years of working one-on-one with clients, I’ve seen one common mistake that stops Facebook from generating leads.
Once you understand this mistake, you’ll know the missing piece to create your own compelling Facebook posts and ads — ones your prospect won’t scroll right past, but actually click and engage with.
The mistake that can kill your Facebook posts and ads
When it comes to Facebook, there’s one element that can make or break your success.
It’s the ad copy. If the copy doesn’t connect, the prospect won’t click…no matter how sexy the graphic is or how great the targeting is.
And compelling copy comes down to just one thing: knowing your prospect.
You need to understand exactly what they want, like, need, and struggle with in order to write posts and ads that speak to them.
The secret ingredient to high-converting copy
There’s a tool that makes creating posts and ads your audience will love very easy.
I’d like to introduce you to the customer avatar.
Your customer avatar is essentially a fictional character you create who is your absolute perfect customer. It can be based on a real person or completely made up — your choice.
Your avatar helps you understand your target customer so you can relate to him/her on an emotional level. It helps you answer questions like “What posts should I share?” “What educational tips do they need?” and “What pain points should I speak to?”
Scroll-stopping posts and ads always focus on emotion over logic. Emotion is what moves someone to take action. It’s also what your customer avatar helps you define.
Before you write another post or Facebook ad, you need to get clear on your customer avatar. It’s not hard to do but it takes a time commitment from you.
So let’s do this! Get comfy. Pour yourself a cup of coffee (or glass of wine). Pull out a pen and paper and let’s define these four areas for your ideal customer:
- Demographics
Why it matters: Knowing your avatar’s demographics will help you choose your post topics and target your Facebook ads (more on this below).
Here are a few things you want to get clear on to define your avatar’s demographics:
- Age
- Gender
- Marital status
- Number and ages of children
- Location
- Occupation
- Job title
- Income
- Education level
If you only work with women, for example, you’ll be guided to post content that females resonate with. If they have children, you’ll include references to having kids in your posts. The more you can show your audience you know them, the more engagement you’ll get.
- Goals and Values
Why it matters: Compelling copy paints a clear picture of a prospect’s goals and values.
In order to motivate a prospect to click on your ad or engage with your posts, you need to show you understand them. That means addressing both their “before” (what their life looks like today) and “after” (their dream scenario). The transformation is what ultimately gets people interested.
What does your avatar want more than anything? What do they dream about? What does that look like? Define THAT picture in this exercise.
- Sources of Information
Why it matters: This will give you clues on what your audience likes and how to best reach them.
By understanding who else is speaking to your audience, you’ll understand how YOU can reach them, too. This will also come into play when it comes to researching your avatar (more on that in just a minute).
Think about your avatar and write down all the sources of information they consume. What are their favourite:
- Books?
- Magazines?
- Blogs?
- Websites?
- Conferences?
- Gurus or experts?
What sort of content are those Facebook pages sharing? What posts get the most engagement? If your ideal customer is engaging with those posts, chances are they’ll enjoy seeing something similar on your page.
- Challenges and Pain Points
Why it matters: Agitating pain is the best way to make someone take action.
Humans are more likely to buy painkillers than vitamins. It’s just how we’re wired.
The truth is, if you can’t tap into pain with your ad copy and some of your posts, you’re not going to see results. Make sure you understand what your avatar is struggling with, what challenges him/her, and what is bringing pain into his/her life. Then position working with you as the solution to that pain.
The little-known trick for creating your avatar using Facebook
Not many people know this, but you can actually use Facebook to research your avatar.
When I’m creating customer avatars for my one-on-one clients, I use Graph Search within Facebook to mine the data and make sure I’m building a realistic, three-dimensional avatar.
To access Graph Search, just type my formulas below right in the search bar of Facebook. You need to type these formulas in WORD FOR WORD. Otherwise, Graph Search won’t work correctly.
Pages liked by people who like [[page name]]
If you know one interest of your avatar, you can search for other things they like. You can also type in your business page name if you already serve a lot of dream customers. Or you can type in the name of a competitor who is successfully reaching your dream customers.
Let’s pretend I know my avatar likes the television program Everybody Loves Raymond. I’ll use that insight to use Graph Search to find out what else they like, and add these to my avatar description.
You can also double up and type “pages liked by people who like [[page name]] and [[page name]]” to track overlap.
Pages liked by [[gender]] who like [[page name]]
This lets you dig deeper to specifically study interests of men or women.
See? We’re getting slightly different results from women than the group as a whole. This lets us get specific about our avatars.
Pages liked by people who are older than [[age]] and like [[page name]]
If you want to target a specific age group, try this search term to see what they like.
Pages liked by people who like [[page name]] and live in [[location]]
This one is especially helpful if your business serves a specific geographic area. Get to know your market with this search term.
You can go deep with graph search and combine these, too.
Try things like “pages liked by women who like [[page name]] and live in [[location]]”. Look for trends among genders, age groups, ages, locations, and even multiple pages!
Click-worthy Facebook ad copy comes from writing to your ideal customer avatar.
So many business owners skip the avatar step and just start writing. But they’re throwing dollars down the drain!
By investing a few hours into understanding the pain points, desires, demographics, and interests of your ideal customer, you’re on the track to Facebook ads and posts that get results.
If you want to move just beyond collecting leads and into collecting customers…we should talk.
…Specifically over the phone, during your free Marketing & Sales Strategy Call.
In just 30 minutes, you’ll tell me about your business, your goals, and your ideal customer. And then I’ll go away and create a Marketing Blueprint based on our conversation.
I’ll tell you exactly what you need to do to turn strangers you meet on the internet into paying customers.
This call is normally valued at $1,000 but this month, we’re giving away a limited amount for free! Don’t wait…
Click here to sign up for your FREE Marketing & Sales Strategy Call