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In this article:\nLearn the 5 key elements of an effective marketing strategy for your independent bookstore\nOptimizing your online business presence\nEngaging with customers and getting involved locally\nWhat’s an appropriate ad spend, and where?\nHow small business software can save you time and effort\nLet’s face facts: Amazon changed everything for bookstores, and has killed off nearly all of the huge, national booksellers. Barnes & Noble is the sole remaining national chain, but recently faced serious management troubles, was hemorrhaging money, and was sold to an investment management firm in August 2019.\nIf you run an independent bookstore, you may applaud or mourn these giants’ demise, but you should take careful note and work to ensure your business offers something that Amazon (and the former big chains) can’t provide.\nIf your independent bookstore is doing well, it may be tempting to forgo budgeting for advertising or developing a solid small business marketing plan. Traditional thinking leads a lot of local bookstore owners to believe that being an edgier, quirkier, or hipper “alternative” to Amazon is all they need to thrive.\n\nThat may have worked in the pre-digital market space, but to survive today bookstores need to do more than just “be there.”\nNow, that doesn’t necessarily mean spending a lot of money. You can never hope to outspend Amazon, who last year spent over $10 Billion on marketing trying to win even more of your local customers. \nBut if you spend some time implementing the steps outlined below, a small investment in marketing can go a surprisingly long way. Let’s get started.\n1. Optimize your independent bookstore’s online business presence\nDespite Amazon transforming the marketplace by combining the seemingly incongruous components of online shopping and real, paper-and-ink books, independent bookstore owners sometimes feel that a robust online presence is not necessary or relevant to them.\nNothing could be further than the truth. Studies show that today’s local customers overwhelmingly search for everything online, and we mean everything. Did you know, for example, that Amazon is now the nation’s top retailer of \nauto parts\n? \nWhen people look for places to spend their money locally, or talk about the best places to buy locally, that conversation now takes place online. 97% of people read online reviews for local businesses, and most consumers trust those reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family. \nWhat’s more, one bad online review can cost you 30 new customers, and a one-star drop in your business rating can result in a nearly 20% decline in revenue. These things MATTER.\nSo, even you are the very indiest of indie booksellers, the first step in your marketing plan absolutely must be claiming your business profile on all of the major review sites. Click the links for our helpful how-to articles on how to claim your profile on \nYelp\n, \nGoogle\n, and \nTripAdvisor\n. \nYou should also claim, monitor, and remember to update your profile on Facebook, Foursquare, and on independent bookstore websites like \nIndieBound.org\n and \nNewPages.com’s\n bookstore listings.  \nRead our article on claiming your \nfree business listings\n for many more.\n\nClaiming your profile on these sites, updating any incorrect info (including hours of operation, location, contact info, etc.), and monitoring them regularly is essential, because this is the number one way people find your store… and people are leaving reviews for your business there, whether you want them or not. Plus, research shows that businesses that claim their listings on multiple review sites make up to 58% more money!\nThis brings us to the next step.\n2. Engage existing bookstore customers online \nHow do you feel when you text, message, or email a friend and you get no response? Not good, right? That’s how your customers feel when they take the time to post a review and you don’t let them know you appreciate it (or offer to fix any problems they bring up).\nSmart local booksellers read and respond to all their online reviews and develop plans to get more reviews (click to learn the right and wrong ways to \nget more reviews\n in our in-depth article).\nResponding appropriately to all reviews starts attracting more customers to your bookstore and enhances your online reputation. (For our primer on \nhow to deal with negative reviews\n, click the link.) \n3. Get involved in your community and capitalize on the “buy local” movement\nSmall, independent local bookstores are gaining traction, despite Amazon’s attempt to take over the market. The biggest advantages you have over the Goliaths is you can provide the unique ambiance, positive customer experience, rare/used book selection, and personal attention to detail that huge online retailers and big box stores don’t have a hope of matching.\n\nWith some effort, you can develop fanatically loyal customers who will become your strongest online (and offline) advocates. The key is to help them feel a personal connection with you and your store.\nSo, get more involved in your community! Host local events such as book signings, poetry readings, slam poetry nights, coffee klatches (assuming you have the facilities), or anything else you find interesting. \nPost notices of these events and give or send physical, text, or email invitations to your customers. (63% of customers say they want more invites to local events, but only 12% report getting any).\nConsider working with local schools’ English departments to facilitate or sponsor reading marathons or book fairs. Volunteer for and/or sponsor the local symphony, arthouse cinema, or independent music scene. Maybe collaborate for a “taste of the town” event with your favorite local restaurants and retailers. Try to think outside the box.\nThe main goal is to become a landmark and champion for local business in your town. When people feel personally connected to a business, they visit more often, spend more, and tell more people about it.\n4. Invest wisely in targeted advertising \nNow that you’ve laid the ground work, you are ready to start spending some dough on marketing. But how much should you spend, and where?\nWe recommend you spend approximately 7-8% of your gross revenue on marketing. This aligns with advice from the U.S. Small Business Administration.\nIf that seems like a lot, consider the fact that the average small business spends 10% of their gross revenue on marketing, the typical large company spends 13%, and many businesses spend \nup to 50%\n. Yikes.\nSo where should you spend?\nFor small businesses, email marketing is by FAR the most efficient, powerful, and effective marketing tool, having an unmatched return on investment (ROI) of up to 44 to 1. In simple terms, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, it brings in up to $44. (Get more details our \nemail marketing\n article.)\nIf you’re worried about getting branded as a “spammer,” consider that 86% of customers say they actually want promotional emails from businesses they like. Relevant, timely emails are welcome, not hated.\nA simple email receipt with a “thanks for your visit,” happy birthday wishes, or special deals or offers delivered to a customer’s inbox can go a long way. Email marketing software can be a huge timesaver here (see #5 below).\nEmail is also a great way to notify your customers of those special events we discussed above. \nConsider Facebook and Instagram\nOne of the best ways to advertise without spending a lot of money is through social media. \nIf you’re not familiar with advertising on Facebook or Instagram, it’s very straightforward and pretty easy. Just visit \nwww.Facebook.com/business\n or \nbusiness.instagram.com\n to find all kinds of resources, as well as simple steps for creating your business account, creating ads, and all the other information you need to get started. \nDecide what kind of “persona” you want your bookstore to have, and use that persona in establishing the voice and personality of your social media accounts. \nThis helps your customers establish a personal connection with your business and become more engaged. \nWhen it’s time to spend money on targeted advertising, pay careful attention to the types of people visiting your bookstore, then use that information to dial into a similar audience when you spend ad money via Facebook or Instagram. \nFor example, if you have a lot of young mothers coming in with their kids to browse and buy books, you might ask Facebook or Instagram to target women ages 25-35 with children at home. \n\nIf you find your initial ad spend results in more traffic to your store, you can ask Facebook to create a look-alike list from that original advertising campaign and push it out to a different, broader set of people who match that description.\nThis is an effective way to expand your marketing to new people, while sticking with the type of demographic that has shown to be effective for your particular store.\nIf you can, hire a professional photographer for half a day. Using high quality pics in your ads and social posts helps boost social media engagement and ad effectiveness.\nThis could be photos of your books, your store, comfy reading nooks, your employees, whatever you think relevant and eye-catching. \nPosting regular photos of yourself and the other people who work at the store is a great way to help potential customers get to know you and feel like they’re a vital part of your small business family. \nPartnering with other local businesses for promotions and giveaways via Facebook or Instagram is also a great opportunity to leverage your social media accounts and get information about your store in front of a wider set of people. (See the section about community involvement above).\n5. Maximize your efforts and save time with small business software\nAlthough the four steps above are free (all it costs is your time), very few independent bookstore owners have the time or resources to dedicate to managing their online presence, collating and responding to reviews, gathering customer data, sending reminders or invites manually, etc. \nSo if this all seems a little overwhelming, consider automating as many of those critical tasks as possible with software specifically built to save local businesses time, facilitate customer reputation management (CRM), and increase revenue.\nThe right platform can help you visualize key revenue trends, benchmark against your local competition, send email reminders and promotions, and automatically request reviews from your happiest customers.\nFollowing these tips can help you grow your independent bookstore into a treasured local landmark. \nSources:\n
\nhttps://searchengineland.com/88-consumers-trust-online-reviews-much-personal-recommendations-195803\n
\nhttps://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/\n
\nhttps://deloitte.wsj.com/articles/who-has-the-biggest-marketing-budgets-1485234137\n
\nhttps://www.spinutech.com/digital-marketing/paid-media/sem/how-much-does-amazon-spend-on-digital-marketing-2018/\n

How do I market my independent bookstore? Top 5 tips

In this article:\nThe problem with Facebook ads\nCreate and claim your Facebook business page\nTry boosting Facebook posts before you pay for ads\n“You should get some ads running on Facebook!” How many times have you heard that from your friends or business associates? Facebook is astonishingly popular for private individuals as well as businesses, and it’s understandable to want to boost your business’s presence there. But there are some little-known issues you need to be aware of. Here’s what you need to know before you advertise your small business on Facebook.\nThe problem with advertising on Facebook\nFacebook’s massive popularity is also a potential sticky wicket for small businesses. 7 of 10 US adults (roughly 240 million Americans) use Facebook, and 74% of them check the site at least once every day. 97% of business-to-consumer marketers use Facebook. In short, pretty much \neveryone\n uses the platform. \nWhy is that a potential problem? It’s a huge market and it’s hugely crowded. That’s a lot of eyes and a lot of high-value, fast-spending businesses clamoring for customers’ attention. Simply throwing “an ad” up “on Facebook” isn’t going to get you any local customers, unless you’re extremely lucky.\nIn fact, 62% of small business owners feel their paid Facebook ads don’t work. In another poll, half of small business owners don’t feel the time they invest in Facebook is worth it.\nHow can you help ensure the time and money you spend on Facebook will pay off? First, define your expectations, and have a plan.\nMake sure you have a plan\nFirst, think hard about what you actually hope to accomplish with your Facebook ads. Are you trying to build brand awareness? Convert more customers from your website? Get more in-store visits? Build customer loyalty for valuable repeat visits? Spread the word about a big sale?\nPaying for Facebook ads with no plan for tracking goals, measuring success, or creating specific messaging for the result you are seeking is literally throwing money away. Facebook overall doesn’t have a stellar conversion rate (meaning how many “viewers” of ads actually end up purchasing). So you need to really think about what you are trying to accomplish, and have distinct ways to track and measure the success of your efforts.\nIf you don’t feel like you know exactly what you’re hoping to accomplish, or you aren’t sure which groups of customers you should be targeting in the first place, you might consider hiring a social media marketing expert or firm to get the ball rolling until you learn the ropes.\nTry “boosting” Facebook posts first, before paying for ads\nIt might be a good idea to try “boosting” your company Facebook posts for a while to improve views and engagement, rather than spending on Facebook ads specifically. The most successful small businesses know how to use social media as “free advertising.” This can only happen once they have a large, loyal following.\nWhen you pay Facebook to boost a post, you are essentially creating an advertisement that gets shown in the Facebook feeds of audiences you select. \nHave you seen “sponsored” posts in your online news feed? These are frequently boosted Facebook posts. \nWith boosting, you choose a specific audience with location targeting, gender, age, financial profile, and interests. Then you set your total or daily budget, length of the boosting, and add in your payment information. It’s pretty easy and not very expensive. \nIt can be useful to spend a little of your marketing budget boosting your posts to win more followers as a first step, and then use quality, high-interest, high-value Facebook posts as the primary means of “advertising” on the platform.\nCreate a Facebook business page\nObviously the first thing you need to do is create a business page on Facebook if you haven’t already. You will need to have your own Facebook profile to get your business page created. Here’s a \nquick tutorial\n to get you started. \nMake sure you include:\nYour store’s name (this should be the same as what you list on your \nGoogle\n and \nYelp\n business profiles)\nStore address\nPhone number\nOpen hours (including any special holiday hours)\nDescription of your store\nWebpage\nEmail address\nProfile picture \nCover photo or video (a picture of your storefront or product spread would be perfect)\nProduct types and price range \nCreate your own ad campaigns with Facebook Ads Manager\nWhen you’re ready to try Facebook ads, you can either pay an outside marketing firm to create and manage the ad campaigns for you, or you can try it yourself first with Facebook Ads Manager. \nAds Manager allows you to choose a goal for your campaign (like brand awareness, increased reach, getting more traffic, lead generation, conversions, or  store visits). Then you can set up your own ad with your created messaging, images, video, etc., and choose a target audience for the ad campaign. \nThe budget is set in a similar way to boosting your posts. You can set a spend limit based on clicks, impressions, or by date.\n\nSet up your Ads Manager account\n with these simple instructions. \nSources:\n
\nhttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-stats-for-marketers/\n
\nhttps://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/06/01/facts-about-americans-and-facebook/\n
\nhttps://www.manta.com/resources/small-business-research/poll-business-owners-devote-little-time-facebook-april-2017/\n
\nhttps://smallbiztrends.com/2017/01/do-facebook-ads-work.html\n
\nhttps://neilpatel.com/blog/small-business-facebook-ads/\n\n


Facebook ads for local business: Read this first!

In this article:\nWhat is an online forum?\nFind top-quality groups to participate in\nCheck back often and follow up\nAvoid spammy practices\nChoose discussions wisely\nStand out from the crowd\nOnline forums have been around for a couple of decades, but people are starting to rely more on these sites for answers to their questions as they dive into internet searches. This creates a good opportunity for small businesses to stand out and market themselves effectively.\nIn most online forums, anyone can ask a question that they are seeking the answer to, and then, generally speaking, anyone with an answer will respond. \nYour business can develop an online persona via which you can be answering questions that are relevant to your industry. \nYou can help guide consumers toward your business as an online resource and start to stand out as an authority in your market.\nLet’s go over what online forums are and how you can best utilize them for your business. \nWhat is an online forum and why should you care?\nAn online or internet forum is a website where people can have discussions about various topics. \nOften a forum will be specialized to one particular area of interest, such as Mopar automobiles, Sonoran cuisine, Pudelpointer dogs, vintage Apple computers, Finnish death metal, or whatever else you can think of.\nCurrent forums are the descendants of the early dialup bulletin board systems and Usenet groups of the 1970s and 80s, but are far more robust in features and usability.\nIn your industry specifically, there may be several websites or forums dedicated to online discussions relevant to industry news and topics. You name it, there’s probably a forum dedicated to it.\nFurthermore, there are huge, more general forums where you can find “subforums” or groups dedicated specifically to your industry.\nkeyboard with forum button for small business marketing\n\nSome examples of popular, large, diverse forums include Reddit and Quora. Even within broad forums such as these, you can often find topics related to your industry that you can get involved with.  \nContributing to the conversation on these forums is a great way to help spread your brand awareness and establish your business as a leader in the industry. We’ll guide you through some best practices to help you along the way. \nFind a few “top-quality” groups\nAs you are making the business decision to start participating in industry forums, you need to decide which forums you will participate in. There are tons and tons of forum sites out there, so don’t spread yourself too thin by trying to participate in every one possible. \nInstead, pick a select few that seem like good options for your business. Do your research to determine which forums are the most relevant to your industry. \nAsk these questions to help you decide which forums to use:\nWhat is their visitor traffic like?\nAre people asking questions relevant to your business and industry?\nWhat forums are your competitors participating on?\nWhat forums are other industry laters conducting discussions on?\nTop-quality forums will have a lot of traffic with people asking all of the questions that you know how to answer well, and other industry leaders and businesses will be active on those sites. \nOf course, if your business is very esoteric or specialized, there may only be one or two “main” forums relating to your particular specialty (such as the tongue-in-cheek \nmongolian underwater basket weaving forum\n), so modify this advice as appropriate.\nAnd if there isn’t an existing forum relating to your particular industry, perhaps you should consider starting one!\nCheck back often and follow up\nWhen you start engaging with industry forums, it’s important to keep that engagement up. You don’t want to go through the trouble of getting your forum membership approved and answer someone’s question and then find out three months later that they asked a followup question that you neglected to respond to (or even worse, one of your competitors responded to it). \nThat’s why it’s important to check back on the forums that you engage with often and follow up with the people you’ve had discussions with to see if you were able to solve their problem. \nOn most forum sites you can set up email notifications to be informed when someone comments on one of your posts or engages with one of your comments. Set up these notifications so you can promptly reply. \nAlong the lines of checking back often, you should also set yourself up to receive notifications when new questions or relevant posts are published so that you can be Johnny-on-the-spot and get the first response to these posts. \nDon’t be spammy; be forthcoming\nNo one likes spammy practices, so just don’t do it. One of the most common ways that people are spammy on forums is by posting links in the comments (usually to their own websites). This used to be a common practice to help websites get backlinks to their websites for SEO purposes. They would just spam links in the comments of forum discussions to get more links to their site. \nWell, our advice is to not do that. It makes your business look spammy, it doesn’t reflect well for your online reputation, and it doesn’t help you rank better in the search engines. Google can see right through spammy practices like this. \nWhat’s more, this type of practice is often frowned upon by forum administrators, moderators, and members.\nThat doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t ever post a link in a comment or forum post. When you have some valuable information or resources that are relevant to the discussion, then by all means, share it. Just be careful about the number of links you are sharing as you get involved in these discussions, and don’t just provide the same rote answer to every question. \nTake some time and actually participate in the forum and develop relationships of trust with members.\nIn addition, we recommend you be forthcoming about your business, including your forum “avatar” and persona. Make it very clear that you own a business and include links and info about it in your forum profile.\nYou will be much more likely to be accepted and recommended by long-time forum members if you are up-front about your business purposes rather than get exposed as a “company shill.”\nMany forums prohibit blatant commercial posting, but many also allow forum sponsorship, and/or provide additional posting privileges to businesses who sponsor the forum.\nSome even provide dedicated sub-forums for businesses who are authorized forum sponsors. This can be an effective method of advertising to your specific audience, particularly for businesses that sell goods and services online.\nChoose your forum discussions wisely\nJust like you should choose the forum websites that you participate on wisely, you should also be smart about the specific discussions that you choose to engage with. \nOne thing to look for is how active and recent the discussions are. If there’s a discussion with a question that you could easily answer, but it was posted several months (or years!) ago and the discussion has died off, then you won’t want to waste your time with that one. \nIf you just run a global forum search and start “bumping” old threads that are related to your business solutions, you’ll anger the membership and get banned quickly.\nbanned stamp from industry forums for small business\n\nFocus on discussions that currently have active participants so that your company is gaining good exposure and actually providing value to the conversation. \nSet yourself apart as an authority in your industry\nAs you participate in discussions with a lot of participants and activity, it will be important to make sure your comments stand out from the rest. If people are not reading, liking, and/or upvoting your comments, then they will fall to the bottom of the list and won’t be as likely to be seen. \nMake sure your contributions offer some unique value to the conversation, whether that’s a differing perspective than everyone else or a new solution that is proprietary to your company. \nEvery business and person that comments on any discussion wants their comments to stand out so you’ll have a lot of competition here, especially on high-traffic forums. Do your best to set yourself apart from the crowd so that you can become a thought-leader for your industry. \nClaim your online business profiles and participate in related forums\nSeveral \nonline business listings\n host their own online forums. As you are setting up your online business profiles, check out the additional features offered on those sites. Will their online forums be of value to your business and relevant to your industry? If so, then use them!


Best practices for small business participation on industry forums

In this article:\nCan I remove a Facebook review?\nShould I remove Facebook reviews?\nWhen should I remove Facebook reviews?\nHow do I remove reviews from my Facebook business page?\nBest practices for Facebook reviews\nOnline reviews are an important part of reputation management for any business, including small local businesses. Consumers look to online reviews on Facebook and other sites to see if their friends like your business and what others are saying about you. \nSometimes, however, the reviews that we get on Facebook are less than ideal. Whether they include false claims or come from a disgruntled customer, bad reviews are never fun to get. We’ll walk you through a few different scenarios in which you may want to remove a Facebook review. \nCan I remove a Facebook review?\nLet’s start by answering this question: Is it even possible to remove a Facebook review completely? \nThe answer is yes, but this process doesn’t come without its challenges. Some reviews are easier to remove than others. \nFor example, if the review clearly violates Facebook’s policies, whether it be spam, hate speech, and any other discriminatory content, then Facebook is usually pretty good about removing these right away. \nSometimes false reviews can go undetected though, and that’s where you may need to get involved to take the review down. \nman giving thumbs down gesture for negative facebook reviews\n\nShould I remove Facebook reviews?\nBefore we get into how to remove Facebook reviews, let’s talk about whether or not you should try to remove every bad review that comes across your business’s Facebook page. \nNot all bad reviews are necessarily bad for business. Sometimes a bad review, if legitimate, can even be good for business if you handle it well by responding and resolving the issue with your customer. \nBad reviews can provide valuable feedback, bringing to light issues with your products, services, staff, or facilities that you might not hear about from other sources. \nAnd if you take the opportunity remedy the situation, this often results in a more loyal customer than one who doesn’t leave a review at all. \nSo, to answer the “should I remove negative Facebook reviews?” question: if the review is legit and from a real customer, you should probably not try remove it. \nThis brings us to another good question. \nWhen should I remove Facebook reviews?\nWhen a Facebook review seems suspicious, fake, or spammy, that’s when it is a good idea to try and get it removed. \nHere are some tips for spotting fake Facebook reviews:\nThe description is vague (no specific detail about the business offerings)\nThe reviewer is connected with a competitor\nThe reviewer is connected with a former employee\nRead more: \nHow to spot fake online reviews\nHow do I remove reviews from my Facebook business page?\nThere are two main ways to remove reviews from your Facebook page: reporting the review to Facebook or turning off reviews and recommendations on your Facebook page. \nWe recommend the first option because turning off your reviews completely isn’t going to help your online reputation. Customers expect to be able to read reviews, and if you don’t allow them, it may seem like you’re trying to hide something. \nSo, let’s go over the process of reporting reviews. \nHow to report reviews on your Facebook page\nIf you are fairly certain that a review is fake, then you should definitely report it. To report a review, go to the review on your page and click on the exclamation point in the comment box icon. \n(Image)\n\nFrom there, you will have the option to tell Facebook what about the review goes against their policies:\nNot relevant to the company\nUnfair review\nNudity\nHarassment\nViolence\nSuicide or self-injury\nDrugs\nHate speech\nSpam\nMore often than not, if you are reporting a false review it will fall under “not relevant” or “spam.” Select the reason that fits best, and then click “Send.”\n(Image)\n\nFrom there, Facebook will determine whether or not the review qualifies for removal. And that’s about as far as you can take it on your own. \nIf you personally know who left the review, you can also reach out to them and ask that they remove the review. \nHow to turn reviews off on your Facebook page\nThe other option is to hide your reviews from your Facebook page completely. The benefit of this is that no one can leave false reviews on your Facebook page. The downside is that no one can leave any reviews on your Facebook page. So, if possible, try to avoid this option in order to provide a better experience for consumers who are researching your business. \nTo turn off Facebook reviews, follow these instructions:\nGo to your Facebook page and click Settings. 
\n(Image)\n\nOn the left menu bar, click Templates and Tabs.
\n(Image)\n\nScroll down to the Tabs list and find Reviews. Click Settings. 
\n(Image)\n\nClick the ON switch so it says “OFF” and then click Save. 
\n(Image)\n\nIf you’d like to remove Recommendations from your business page as well, you can follow these same instructions for Recommendations. \nBest practices for Facebook reviews\nThe number one best practice that we can give you for Facebook reviews is to always respond to them. Even if the review is clearly fake, you still need to wait for Facebook to check your report and remove it. In the meantime, respond to the review letting the reviewer (and all who read the review) know that you don’t have a record of them as a customer. \nWhenever a review comes in—good, bad, or fake—leave a prompt response that shows you acknowledged the review and, if bad, are working on fixing the situation. \nLearn more: \nHow to respond to negative reviews\n\nA few easy best practices to keep in mind when it comes to Facebook reviews:\nAlways respond\nRespond quickly\nRemind people that you appreciate their feedback to encourage regular reviews\n

How to remove Facebook reviews from your local business page

In this article:\nCreate a Facebook / Meta page \nAdd lots of photos\nGet customer reviews\nPost regular content\nBuild your following\nBoost posts and create ads\nCustomers are increasingly reaching out to businesses via their Facebook (now Meta, but who are we kidding... everyone still calls it Facebook) pages. Consumers just like to use Facebook as “social proof” before they commit to doing business with a salon they haven’t tried before. \nIf your salon isn’t on Facebook, you could be missing valuable opportunities to gain new customers. We’ll walk you through some of the main ways you can promote your hair or nail salon on Facebook. \nCreate a Facebook / Meta business page\nIn order to promote your salon on Facebook, you first need a business page to promote. Does your salon have a Facebook page already? If so, make sure that you have access to it. \nIf not, follow our step-by-step guide: \nHow to create and claim your Facebook business page\nOnce your Facebook page is set up, you can now start communicating with customers via messenger and engaging with your community. \nIn order to provide the best information for your salon, be sure to include all of the following items on your Facebook page:\nThe name of your salon (this should be the same name that is listed on your \nGoogle My Business listing\n and \nYelp listing\n)\nAddress\nPhone number\nOpen hours (including holiday hours)\nDescription of your salon\nWebsite\nEmail address\nProfile picture (use your logo to enforce your brand)\nCover photo (this can be a picture of your salon or stylists while doing their work)\nServices and prices\nAdd tons of portfolio photos to your Facebook page\nIt is vitally important for salons to add photos of their work on their Facebook page (and all of their social media accounts and review site profiles). Most customers want to see examples of what you can do for them before they ever decide to step foot in your salon. \nMake sure you show off all of your best work on your Facebook page, and be sure to include plenty of variety. Pictures of the range of hairstyles, colors, and nail art that your stylists can do will only help you to attract more customers. \nThese photos also add an extra element of trust and show customers that you really can do what you say you can do. It may be worth it to hire a professional photographer for a day and shoot a lot of pics. If that’s too much of an investment, we’re betting you have a teenage friend, niece, or nephew going through a “photography phase” whom you can bribe.\nGet reviews on your salon’s Facebook page\nOkay, so you have a page, you’ve added photos and info to it—now you need some customer recommendations. Recommendations and reviews on Facebook are very powerful. \nFor one, Facebook will let users know when their Facebook “friends” have left your page a review. And if they have, that is worth much more than the anonymous review of a stranger. \nThe more positive reviews you have on your page, the better opportunity you have to convert the customers who land on your page. \nHere are a few ways you can get some new reviews on your Facebook page:\nSimply ask for reviews. Provide excellent service and go the extra mile, then ask your customer for a review on Facebook. Happy customers don’t always think to leave a review and just need that little bit of encouragement. Remember, never ask for a positive or good review, or offer discounts or free stuff for a good review. Simply let people know that you appreciate their feedback online.\nAdd “Rate us on Facebook” signs in your salon. These can be on the checkout desk and on the front door/window. This is just another little reminder for customers that you are on Facebook and would love to hear from them. \nInclude QR codes or instructions to leave a Facebook review on your receipts. \nPost regular content\nNow that you’re on Facebook and customers are starting to engage with your page, it’s important to post some valuable content. \nThe best way to get more followers and customers from Facebook is to show off your work and provide valuable tips. \nHere are some ideas for some great content you can post to really get your followers to engage with your page:\nThe work that you do–hairstyles, haircuts, hair colors, nail art, etc.\nTips for how to do a specific hairstyle or nail technique\nHair care/nail care tips\nVideo tutorials\nEmployee features\nSpecial deals or promotions\nIncrease your Facebook following with boosted posts\nYour Facebook page isn’t going to take you very far if no one can see your posts, so it’s crucial to build up your page’s following. \nBeyond getting new reviews and posting content, one powerful way to increase your salon’s Facebook following is to boost your posts to local audiences. \nWhenever you create a post on your Facebook page, you have the ability to “boost” this post as an ad. That means that you can pay Facebook a small amount of money to share your content with specific audiences in your local community. \nWith Facebook’s targeting capabilities you can choose the age, gender, interests, and locations of your intended audience so that your ads are only shown to those who are likely to do business with you. \nThen you can select a budget and how long you want your add to run, and watch it take off!\nOnce you’ve boosted a post, you’ll likely start getting reactions on it from community members—especially if they recognize someone in your post. When people “like” your boosted posts, you can then easily invite them to “like” your page. \nThis is a great way to increase your following and spread awareness of your salon in your area. \nSet up Facebook Ads Manager\nIf you want some more customizable Facebook advertising options for your salon, you would benefit from setting up an Ads Manager account.\nFacebook Ads Manager allows you to set specific goals for your ad campaigns, like getting more conversions or spreading brand awareness. You can customize your ad copy, use videos, or add in more custom images. \nThen, similar to how you would for a boosted post, you can select your budget, duration, and target audiences for your ad.  \nLearn how to \nset up your Ads Manager\n account. 

6 ways to promote your hair or nail salon on Facebook

In this 8-minute read:\nFree ways to advertise your restaurant online\nFree ways to advertise in your community\nLet’s be real here, advertising can get expensive! We know it, you know it, everyone knows it. But it’s also so important for gaining exposure, and ultimately more customers, for your restaurant. We don’t believe that you must have a huge marketing budget to gain some awesome reach, though. Here are 20 free ways that you can advertise your restaurant locally as you’re starting out. \n1. Claim your online business profiles\nThe internet is a wonderful place where huge companies like Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor have created free platforms for businesses to list their information in order to create the best user experience possible. So take advantage! These online profiles determine how your restaurant shows up in these different search engines. Help your customers and your business by claiming your online profiles. \nWe even have some tutorials ready for you:\nHow to claim your Google My Business listing\nHow to claim your Yelp business listing\nHow to claim your business listing on TripAdvisor\n2. Get and respond to customer reviews\nOnline reviews are crucial nowadays for converting new customers. Keep up good business practices, have great customer service, and serve awesome food and you should have no problem getting some really good reviews. But happy customers don’t always think to leave good reviews and sometimes need a little nudge in the right direction. \nHere are some ideas to get new reviews:\nAsk for them! (Especially after you hear someone raving about their favorite menu item.)\nPut up a sign that encourages customers to leave reviews (just try to avoid incentivizing customers with gift cards or giveaways because Google does not like that). \nInclude a link to your online review platforms in their email receipt\nInclude instructions to leave a review on all receipts\nOnce the reviews start coming in, it’s important to respond to them too. Interact with and engage your customers! This shows that you love what you do, and ultimately that’s what most people want from their restaurant experience. Plus, research shows that businesses that regularly respond to reviews earn up to 49% more revenue!\n3. Post your restaurant on free listing websites\nThere are tons of free advertising sites for restaurants out there. Take advantage of this and start getting your restaurant listed on these websites. We’ve even got your first list of 25 restaurant listing websites ready to go!\nClick here to read \n24 free listing sites every restaurant should be on\n. \n4. Create a free website \nDisclaimer: Websites are never 100% free if you want to own your domain or need it to be hosted, but they can come pretty close to it. \nWhile free websites aren’t always the most desirable, they are great when you’re on a budget crunch. And there are plenty of ways to create a pretty nice looking website for free. \nHere are a few of our favorites:\nWix \nSquarespace\nGoogle My Business\n (this one can be completely free)\nCustomers typically want to see menus, pricing, photos, and to get a vibe for your restaurant before making the decision to sit down and eat there. Include all of this on your website and make it easily accessible in your online listings.\nToo busy for a website? With a free Solo profile, even the smallest local restaurant, pop-up, food cart, or hole-in-the-wall can have a helpful, functional SEO-friendly online presence for free. Building and maintaining a traditional website is simply too much for many restaurant owners to deal with. This is one reason a Solo profile can be such an amazing benefit. \nYour customizable Solo profile can list your business’s location, relevant contact information, links to your social pages, and any business details you want included. Sign up at\n \nSolo.co\n.\n5. Boost your SEO \nGet your website in front of more customers with the help of search engine optimization (SEO). This is basically how you get any website to show up on Google and other search engines. Claiming your Google Business listing and other online listings sites are a great first step. \nClick here for some more \nfree ways to boost your local search rankings\n. \n6. Participate in forums\nOnline forums like Quora and Reddit, and especially local community forums, can help to promote your restaurant. Create an account and search for questions about things that are relevant to your restaurant, maybe “how to cook the perfect pizza” or “best ways to boil an egg.” Post some helpful answers and at the end add an invite to come try out your restaurant. \nYou can also write up your own articles or post entertaining how-to videos on these platforms. If that kind of content goes viral, you’ll have people coming from all over just to see the cool place that produced that content (and of course to try your awesome food). \n7. Write a blog\nBlogs are great for boosting SEO as well as providing helpful content that promotes your restaurant and gives value to online users. \nHere are some blog ideas you can use for your restaurant:\nShare photos from a community event you participated in \nWrite a helpful how-to article (how to boil an egg properly, perhaps) \nCreate a video tutorial \nShare recipes (no secrets, of course)\n8. Build up your social media presence\nMake sure your restaurant is active on social media. This is an incredibly beneficial way to promote brand awareness and to take advantage of the power of “shares” and “likes” on the internet. Setup a Facebook business page, Instagram account, YouTube account, Snapchat, etc. and go crazy. Just make sure that you have someone who is actively posting to these whatever accounts you choose—at least a few times a week is a great goal to have here. \nSome ideas for your social shares:\nYour food, of course\nNew menu items\nSweet deals\nEmployee favorites \nCustomer favorites (tag them!)\n9. Join your local chamber of commerce\nMost communities have a local \nchamber of commerce\n. Find yours and ask to get your restaurant listed on their website. They typically provide some free resources for local businesses like promotional materials and marketing tips to help you get your restaurant off the ground. \n10. Host local events at your restaurant\nHave you ever done a paint night or slam poetry contest? Try hosting some local events to give community members a fun night to look forward to. Blast that event on social media, share with everyone you know, and post about it on your blog! Not only do these events excite customers, but they’re likely to buy food and drink while participating and come back for more events.\nHere are some ideas for events you could try:\nPaint night by a local artist \nKaraoke night\nLive bands\nArt galleries\nWine tasting\nHost a fundraiser\n11. Ask customers for feedback\nBeyond asking for online reviews, you can send out surveys or ask customers for feedback in-store. You could even have a customer feedback jar or box in the restaurant. This might not directly promote your business publicly (except when customers see your jar full of feedback), but it can help you know where you can improve and what your customers already love about your restaurant. \n12. Start a loyalty program\nWho doesn’t love a good deal? Start a loyalty program to provide dedicated customers with some awesome incentives to keep coming back. There are a few free resources out there, like Loyverse, or you could always start with the punchcard route. \nCheck out \n6 elements of an effective customer loyalty program\n to help you get started. \n13. Host a webinar\nEmbrace the live video capabilities of Facebook and YouTube and host a webinar for your dedicated followers (and maybe even gain a few more). Host a Q&A with your head chef, do a tutorial on how to plate food with perfection, or share the fun history of how your restaurant got started. \n14. Volunteer in the community\nGet major brownie points with some good ole fashioned philanthropy. Customers love to see the restaurants they frequent out and about in the community. Volunteer at 5k in the summer and hand out drinks and snacks from your restaurant, join community holiday parades, or host a fundraiser at your restaurant.\n15. Host a cooking class\nShow off your skills (without giving away your secrets) by hosting a cooking class at your restaurant. Share it on Facebook, post flyers, and get the word out. Show off your fun side and that you want to be involved.\n16. Celebrate funky holidays with sweet offers\nEver heard of “National Doughnut Day”? Krispy Kreme is a prime example of going above and beyond to celebrate their national holiday with free doughnuts at all of their locations on National Doughnut Day. Find the national day that resonates best with your restaurant and do something fun, whether that’s offering a fun discount or giving away free treats to people who dress up a certain way. And share it on social media and your website!\n17. Print out flyers and hand them out like crazy\nNever underestimate the power of flyers. Design some for your restaurant that promote an upcoming event or fun deals or just that you’re new to town and want to get to know the community. You could even ask local college students in a graphic design program to help out—it’s good portfolio piece for them and free promotional material for you. \n18. Make a free promotional video\nMake a fun promotional video and post it on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, your website, and anywhere else you can think of. Cool resources like \nBiteable\n will help you create a free video that is sure to impress. \n19. Post on Craigslist\nCreate a comical Craigslist post to give your restaurant some more exposure. Things like this can go viral and keep the customers wanting more. Look to find other opportunities for free local online classifieds, too.  \n20. Let local organizations/groups use your space\nEveryone wants a cool place to hold meetings. Let book clubs, community board meetings, PTA meetings, and other local groups reserve a space at your restaurant to have their monthly meeting. They’ll order food and tell others where they hold their meetings, leaving more people wanting to do the same. \nTry some or all of these tips and see what works best for your restaurant!

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