Recently it has become evident that digital adaptability is one of the main qualities of a company. It allows you to face communication difficulties and turn them into opportunities.

With the arrival of the pandemic, digital marketing emerged as the solution for various businesses and, above all, highlighted the importance of working on brands in the online world.

In this article you can learn how to make the right steps to use social media as a sales channel and reach new customers.

1) Create a professional page

First of all, it is necessary to create a professional Facebook page. There are still those who, by ignorance or deception, create a personal profile for their business, when the goal is to create a professional one. To do this, just click on the “+” button in the upper right corner of Facebook and create a page (this page will be associated with the profile of the person who created it, and later they can add and remove administrators or editors).

Then you will have to put all the information about the business: it is important that it is complete and interesting, to captivate users.

At this stage, you will choose the category of your business. There are business categories that allow you to have some models, such as the case of restaurants, which allows you to have a specific link in the “About” section with the menu, and you can even choose a price range. You can edit all the information on your page by going to "edit page information" and ”settings."

One of the main advantages of having an online business is the possibility of reaching new customers. So, it is essential to have several forms of contact available. For that reason, it is beneficial to make the phone number available so that people can call or text you.

2) Create an identity

The creation of an identity is often neglected. However, it is a key part of digital business, since it is the first image that people capture when they visit a company's profile. For this reason, it’s important to work on a good presentation of the brand, so that the first impression is positive.

Here are some points to consider:

• The logo, which should be noticeable and aligned with the business;
• Define brand colours, that is, try to choose a colour palette to use, in harmony with the image that the company wants to transmit, making the profile coherent and aesthetically attractive;
• The cover photo, should be able to transmit what the business is and the points of differentiation of the brand;
• When publishing, choose quality images and with the right size. Check the 2021 sizes guide here;
• Write careful and complete texts.

When publishing on social media, a common practice is to merge commercial content, in which it shows your products and services, with relational content, in which it transmits to visitors the values and concepts of your company.

3) Create business manager

Once you have created the profile and crafted the brand image appropriately, it's time for action! In order for you to create a store on Facebook you must first create an account in the business manager. from this account you will be able to create a store with all the products, you just have to fill in with the requested information. To create, click here.

Once the Facebook Ad Manager Account is created, simply go to the shortcuts and select "trade manager."

4) Create store

Once you enter the Trade Manager, you will need to click on the “Add store” button.

After clicking on "Add store" you will have the opportunity to configure the following parameters:

1. Payment methods:
   • On a separate website (if you have your own online store);
   • On Facebook or Instagram (make sure your business and bank account are located in Portugal);
   • Through messages (messenger or whatsapp).
2. Profile and account that will be the basis of the store (or if you don’t have any, create a new one).

5) Configure the catalog / import products

Once the payment and account information are completed, it is time to add the catalog. Here you can choose several types of products or services. You can choose to upload product information manually or, if you have the option, you can associate with a partner (shopify, bigcommerce, etc.).

After this stage, you will find a page with the overview of your trade manager. Here, you can start inserting the products of your store in the catalog and you can do it in several ways:

1. Manual loading - you will need to fill in the products one by one, and put the complete descriptions, including titles, descriptions, images, website, brand, product identification and prices.

2. Data Feed - you can associate a file that has all the data of the products (with the same information that you would have to enter manually), it can be an excel sheet, google sheets, or through a file hosted on the site where the management of the products is made.

   Example of a catalog in Google Sheets:

   

3. Partner platforms - if you use an external platform where you manage your products, you can associate it with the trade manager and create a catalog automatically. There are integration plugins for shopify, woocommerce, among others.

4. Facebook Pixel - if you have the Facebook pixel installed on your site, you can also create a catalog automatically.

As for the organization of your store, you will have the possibility to divide your products by categories, where in each of them you will place the respective articles. Example:

6) Facebook and Instagram store setup

After creating the catalog, the phase of customizing the stores follows. To access this section, simply click on “stores,” that is present in the tabs on the left. Here you can customize which and how products appear on your store dashboard, descriptions, colours or even buttons.

7) Manage the page

Facebook has been developing the business component and, consequently, the resources available to companies, so that they have a greater variety of options to promote their products and services.

In the “Manage the page” section there are several shortcuts, namely:

• Publishing tools, which consists of a creative studio, helping brands to produce personalized content (images or videos) and with higher quality;
• Resources and tools, which provide tips for brands to boost their communication;
• Statistics, so that it is possible to evaluate the performance of brands over time.

8) Install Pixel

An optional step, because it doesn’t make it impossible to create your store on social media, but it is very important for those who have an e-commerce.

Pixel is a very useful tool for those who work with social media because it allows us to collect information about the behaviour of users who visit our online store (e-commerce).

To install pixel simply go back to the Ad Manager and select "Event Manager,“ then you will have to click on "associate a data source," and then the type of source, whether it is a website, an app, an offline file or will be collected from a CRM platform (Customer Relationship Service). In this case, the Facebook pixel appears when we click on website, where it only requires filling in the name of the pixel and the URL of your site. After providing this information, you will need to insert a code on your website: you can choose to send it directly to the technician who is responsible for your website or put it yourself, if you know how to do it.

9) Advertise on social networks

Another advantage for those who have stores on social media is the possibility of reaching new people. What if we told you that, in addition to those who follow your brand on social media by self-interest or invitation from others, you could increase your reach nationally and internationally? This is possible by making your own ads for your Facebook and Instagram page. It can promote your products, services, store, profile page among many others.

To do so, you will need to select the “promote” button. Here, you will start by choosing the purpose of your ad. In the image below you can see, for example, the process of “promoting a publication.”.

After choosing a goal, you will need to fill in with the requested information. In the case of this goal it asks you to choose the publication that you want to promote.

Depending on the chosen goal, different actions will be required.

10) Advertise in a personalized way

Facebook and Instagram ads can also be managed in an advanced way in the Ads Manager, allowing you to choose several specific characteristics of the audience you want to reach, such as: age, location, interests, profession, among others. This is a way to enhance results and work the brand strategically, in order to have control of the investment that is made.

Now that you know the basics, you can test this knowledge and grow your business.

Did you know that Critec provides these and many other services? For more information, do not hesitate to contact us, we will answer all your questions!