Facebook is the most popular social media network on the planet, and with over 1.71 billion active users, it's also one of the only websites that can boast a regular audience that totals more than a quarter of the total world population. But, for toy retailers and gift shops, Facebook offers more than a means of communicating with friends and sharing cat photos, it's an opportunity to market to parents who often spend more than their fair share of time surfing the web.
A Quick Look at Parents On Facebook
The easiest way to market to someone is to understand them and why they are using the platform. Facebook is the most popular social network for parents according to the Marketing to Mom's Coalition, with an estimated 73% of moms and 68% of dads using the platform. More importantly, 61-80% visit Facebook more than four times a day, with the highest visit rates for millennial moms between the age of 26 and 35.
However, some parents are typically looking for different things than others. Stay at home parents typically scroll through their feed quickly and notice photos, offers, and solutions, are short on time, but do want to be entertained. Working parents typically notice interesting items such as jokes, solutions, inspiration, and even news, and want something that they can share with stay at home parents to add value.
Invite Your Customers
Most of your customers will be more than happy to follow you on Facebook, especially in return for an incentive. You can choose to print out flyers with links, a Facebook QR code, or other details to hand out with each purchase to invite consumers to follow you. Good examples include:
"Follow us to see updates, special discounts, and new stock"
"Like us on Facebook for a 10% discount on a your next purchase"
"Like our page to see when 'X Item' is back in stock"
It is important that anything you promise to encourage a like is something that you will consistently deliver on. Why? If your customers follow you for one reason and they don’t get it, they will just as quickly unlike the page.
Data shows that parents actually want to connect with brands they like on social media, and your brand is no different. If you have something to offer, customers want to follow you. Why connect with existing customers? Customer lifetime value is the concept of how much a customer will spend with you during their lifetime as a customer. Connecting with them via social media allows you to increase their lifetime value by reminding them of your products, offering deals to get them to purchase again, and by remaining a steady presence in their feed. Plus, most parents will comment on quality posts, which their friends can see, and which will gain your page more exposure.
Ask for Reviews – Modern parents look for peer recommendations, and Facebook allows you to collect them right on your page. Offering discounts or other incentives in exchange for a review can garner you a lot of positive reviews, especially if you are offering great quality customer service and great toys at the same time.
Use Photo Based Posts to Create Interest and Engagement
The Marketing to Moms Coalition shows that photos are the most engaging medium on personal pages, and this holds true for marketing as well. Facebook posts with photos get approximately 87% of all Facebook engagement, making them the clear choice for your primary post type.
Product photos – Offer sneak peaks, pictures of new products, highlight hot selling items, and highlight the best toys for gifts. You should use these sparingly and should try to use lifestyle photos with the products in use rather than simple stock images. If you can't get lifestyle images, make the photos less boring by adding personal text, talking to your followers, or inviting a response.
Banners – Useful for announcements, offering coupons and discounts, giving information, and much more. These are often purely informative, and should only be used when you have something interesting to say. For example, "Holiday opening hours", "Limited stock on X item", "25% off your in-store order with this coupon", etc.
Humor – Memes can be a great way to boost the engagement on your Facebook page and to take some of the focus off of yourself. What's appropriate? Family safe humor aimed at parents and parenting is usually a good option. For example, a meme of a toddler who has just made a mess would be a relatable and funny post for most parents.
Lifestyle – Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, recommends that you only make 25% of your content about yourself and your products. This is a good thing because it allows you to engage with and connect with your audience rather than simply trying to sell to them. Remember, even the most dedicated parent won't be interested in purchasing 24/7, you have to give them another reason to follow your page. Parenting articles, tips, advice, toy care, toy repair, and other lifestyle information can add value and interest to your page, even if you don't create the content yourself.
It is important that you either create all of your images yourself, or use Community Commons images on social media to ensure that you are not infringing on copyright. However, most promotional toy photos do use a media license that allows retailers to share them. You can search for lifestyle images that allow for commercial use on websites such as Flickr (use advanced search), Google advanced search, Pixabay, and many more. You can also purchase images using ShutterStock and other stock image sites. If you want to create your own banners and media, you can use free tools like Canva.
Using Facebook Ads to Generate Leads
Facebook allows you to set up sponsored posts using their Pay Per Click advertising program to target and connect with users on the platform. Unlike many other advertising platforms, Facebook allows you to target users based on social media data including age, interests, location, likes, and other data. Facebook also has parent specific category targeting which can be invaluable for toy stores.
Combining age-specific targeting with location targeting allows you to choose to market age-appropriate toys to parents inside of your location, offer deals that they will be interested in, and drive traffic directly to your physical store.
Tip: Target your ads as much as possible, focus on creating great ads, and put up more than one version fo the same ad at once so that you can test to see which is the most effective. You also shouldn't use the same ad for more than 6 weeks at a time, as parents are unlikely to click on an ad if they haven't for the first few times seeing it.
Offer Customer Service Through Facebook
Facebook is a powerful customer service tool that you can use to offer near instant responses to customers. In addition to chatting live, you can share photos, quickly collect information, and access everything from any device you are using. Your goal should be to respond quickly, professionally, and politely to every customer.
Messenger Code - Facebook also allows you to create a simple Messenger code similar to a QR code using their Messenger app that allows customers to simply scan the code from their app to instantly message you. If you don't have a website, adding this code to your receipts can help you to reach customers more quickly in the case of an issue or question.
Conclusion
Facebook is a powerful tool and you can use it to connect with customers, new and old.
- Connect with existing customers to increase their lifetime value
- Use sales and discounts to drive sales during slow periods
- Use Facebook to market and highlight new products and hot selling toys
- Use ads to connect with highly targeted groups of parents in your area
- Research and highlight your best selling toys, or the ones kids are asking for the most
- Target parents and remember that most are short on time. Be informative, helpful, or funny, but keep it short.
Facebook is a platform that allows you to quickly and easily reach out to customers, generate leads, and drive sales. However, it is crucial that you remain consistent, post regularly, and understand why you are posting anything you put online. Good luck with your Facebook!
License 2 Play manufactures and distributes toys around the United States. Follow our blog for more lifestyle, business, and retail information tips.