Since launching our free business consultation service in January 2015, we have assisted more than 3 916 businesses in Africa, Asia, Australia and the U.S. Not only has it been a pleasure for my whole team and I, but also an eye opener.
Okay, let’s get to it. Does this sound familiar?
A person comes up with a business idea, makes flyers and begins posting ads in buy and sell Facebook groups. This is pretty much the path that most businesses take. Sadly, this is a lot like shuttling buckets back and forth instead of using a wheelbarrow.
More than 70% of the business people we have assisted since 2015 used their personal Facebook profiles and free email addresses to promote their businesses until we had a chat with them.
This is how we explained the importance of a business Facebook page and a professional email address:
Before you advertise your business, make sure you have a logo, a slogan and a professional way in which people can contact you. As much as possible, avoid using free email services like yahoo, mail, lycos and the like. To your target market, if you cannot invest in a professional domain and email address, then you may be a little risky to deal with. To put it into perspective, would you buy an insurance plan from [email protected] or [email protected]?
After you have addressed the above, imagine your business is a new church in a neighbourhood. To get people to visit your church you will have to reach out to them and connect with them by establishing a relationship with each of them – these are known as likes or followers. This doesn’t mean they will attend your church service the following Sunday, they may need some further convincing. Others may just need a bit of time, however the fact that they agreed to establish a relationship with you means they are very likely to attend your church one day – these are your potential customers.
The more genuine likes/followers your business Facebook page has, the more affordable it becomes to advertise your services. For example, a Facebook page with 100 likes needs to do a lot of marketing and advertising to reach potential buyers. Whereas, a business page with 1000 likes/followers doesn’t need to spend a cent for advertising since all all it has to do is post the ad on its Facebook page for all its potential customers to see. The more people who see it = the higher the chances of getting a sale.
One important thing to note; each time a person likes/follows your page his or her friends are notified so they may also follow your page.
If Talina likes a page that organizes parties and events, some people among her 600 friends might also be interested in that too and in turn like the same page – as you can see, it is a never ending cycle.
Now for the best part
A business Facebook page is free, you can make one. Just take time to design it properly and configure it accordingly then you are all set. However, if you need help contact us.
Professional email addresses
For unlimited professional email accounts under one business name ([email protected]) you will have to purchase a domain name and get web hosting. You can have as many e-mail addresses as you need under one business name.