Facebook Marketplace anyone?

[SignDesignLady]

I have been in the business for 11 years and I know I still have a lot to learn, especially about marketing, which is why I come here to learn from the more experienced veterans in the industry. I am the creative in the business, I am looking for ways to generate more business because I don't understand much about marketing. I have worked with a few SCORE mentors who were a little helpful but some were just extremely out of touch with what works in todays marketplace. I have tried several different venues, none have worked. I get most of my business through referrals and repeat customers. New customers say they are either a referral or they found us on Google. I have a young college student working with me part time and he is suggesting I use FB marketplace. Has anyone here ever used this platform to get business? If yes, care to share your advice/experiences?

 

[CanuckSigns]

I never have, I always associate FB marketplace with low ballers and fly by night shops,I would never buy something that needed to last from there.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

As a small business, you have to do hands on sales and make time for it.

 

[James Burke]

I always associate FB marketplace with low ballers and fly by night shops.

Yes, for the most part.

But with that said, I still throw out posts on the free local buy/sell pages to help maintain a presence.

For me, the paid ads have only seemed to help make Meta wealthier.

JB

 

[Boudica]

I have been in the business for 11 years and I know I still have a lot to learn, especially about marketing, which is why I come here to learn from the more experienced veterans in the industry. I am the creative in the business, I am looking for ways to generate more business because I don't understand much about marketing. I have worked with a few SCORE mentors who were a little helpful but some were just extremely out of touch with what works in todays marketplace. I have tried several different venues, none have worked. I get most of my business through referrals and repeat customers. New customers say they are either a referral or they found us on Google. I have a young college student working with me part time and he is suggesting I use FB marketplace. Has anyone here ever used this platform to get business? If yes, care to share your advice/experiences?

No to FB. Build good relationships with profitable repeat businesses. Word of mouth, networking and reputation will keep you busy. If you know your product and do it well.

 

[MikePro]

i feel like your time would be better served at farmer's markets or starving artist events, than doing work on fbmarketplace where all the scammers&lowballers lurk. Heck, even pinterest&etsy are flooded with competition but people still make a living on those platforms.

It may be different for others, but we've generated zero business via fb ads. However, we continue to do it on occasion to celebrate local businesses' projects/refaces since getting our name in the local newspaper lacks any form of luster anymore.

 

[Splash0321]

Paid ads for the most part are a break even investment or you dont make enough to feel its worth continuing dishing out the money. If you are running ads or marketing yourself in any capacity you need to put yourself where the buyers are. Your buyers are not the FB marketplace buyers. Establishing relationships with local businesses, schools, churches, real estate companies, construction companies, etc. Local companies...those are going to be the bread and butter clients because they are the most likely to be returning customers and they need to see the advantage of using you over the people they currently use.

 

[petepaz]

i have used FB market place for personal use to buy and sell things but haven't tried it for business purposes. i do post jobs on my social media accounts and have picked up business from friends and family that way.
i would say social media and or FB market place are just another outlet you can use to drum up some business. it's free so what does it hurt. i wouldn't invest a ton of time with it but it should be fairly simple and shouldn't take much time
so as a free advertising platform if you get one sale or no sale it didn't cost any money so no loss

 

[SignDesignLady]

All good points everyone. I have a couple of younger folks working with me and I was trying to get their ideas for increasing sales and this was one they came up with. I personally do not care for social media and think it is a big time suck, but unfortunately a necessary evil these days. I have never been that impressed with the marketplace and wanted to get the views of others in our industry. I appreciate all the responses and food for thought.

 

[Stacey K]

Facebook and FB Marketplace are two very different things. A FB PAGE is for advertising. Marketplace is for selling.

I have a very strong FB page where I post many finished jobs. I "announce" new businesses and the owner then shares the post and so does his mom, and sister, and wife and friends. It's a win for both of us! If I do apparel orders for groups, I also post them on there for people to spread around - another win for me and the group. I had one post that reached 20k people...only one but it was quite exciting LOL

I would NEVER try and sell something on MARKETPLACE. That is mostly for personal items and low-ballers.

I would suggest starting a FB page and post finished jobs on it. People enjoy quick videos also. Instagram seems popular these days but I personally don't use it. My sister is trying to get me to do quick tik tok videos...IDK about that yet...

VERY IMPORTANT::::::: Assign another administrator, even if it's your high school kid. If you ever post or like anything that Mr. Z doesn't agree with you can permanently kicked off - and your business page will be GONE FOREVER. If you have a second admin then that person can still get on the page and post.

 

[unclebun]

FB Marketplace works if you are trying to sell items, like your baby bed or a used car. Signs don't work that way.

The best I have found historically was advertising in the yellow pages. People don't even think about sign shops until they need a sign. Therefore all the traditional marketing/advertising methods don't work except being in the place where people go to look a business up based on what they do. Nobody uses telephone books any more, but the equivalent of yellow pages is online search ("Google it"). So concentrate on making yourself findable online and looking respectable and trustworthy online. That means having a properly built and attractive website with all the SEO and linking necessary for good search placement, a verified Google My Business page and profile, and a facebook business page which is regularly updated with work examples that link client facebook pages.

Then when someone calls and wants a sign, do your best to serve them and leave a positive impression. You will be able to gain that client and their referrals to other businesses. And that builds a business clientele.

 

[gnubler]

i would say social media and or FB market place are just another outlet you can use to drum up some business. it's free so what does it hurt. i wouldn't invest a ton of time with it but it should be fairly simple and shouldn't take much time

'Should be' simple, but it's not. There's a reason some businesses pay 3rd party firms to manage and keep their social media accounts up to date - takes so much time to create quality, effective posts. Professional photography/video, interesting content...you're going to turn people off if all you do is flood your pages with sales-y crap. I worked at a place that was spending $1200/mo to keep all the corporate pages current just because it's now standard and looks "professional" to have all the social pages. Ridiculous. They got zero interaction and value from those pages. For my business, the only benefit of having social media pages is higher ranking in Google.

I'm with Boudica on reputation and word of mouth, and showing up local service directories and Google searches.

 

[petepaz]

i agree reputation and word of mouth will be the most productive and i am not saying you should go nuts or spend days of valuable time and or money to promote on social media but....
again it's free so use what you can with the minimal amount of time and see what happens. if you get one sale you are a head of the game.
i just post finished jobs to my personal account so only my friends and family see it and over the years i have gotten a few jobs from that.
not saying you have to do it this way and are there better ways sure but again ...FREE advertising so it can't hurt

 

[Zendavor Signs]

You will be judged by your online presence. We have gained a number of customers that state “I liked what I saw on your website”. So make sure your website is current and professional looking. If you are a designer, you should be able to use Wix or Wordpress and create a clean, simple and attractive site pretty easily. I copy the same post to FB, IG, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google Business page. I try to post every couple of weeks. Social media posts help with your search rankings, as well as inform your friends what you do. I have had many people tell me in person “I had no idea you did that type of work”, etc. Posting a nice photo of a sign you did, along with a simple note. It doesn’t need to be elaborate.

 

[Stacey K]

My sister and I went through all my posts one week and we found that between 1-3pm was the best time to post based on the click data. I take an hour every couple weeks and schedule posts for FB starting at 1:05pm going to 3:00pm. No sense in posting before noon or Friday/Saturday nights. Use those time slots for the work that you don't like but feel obligated to post LOL

I think for me, being in a small town gives me an advantage with FB. Everyone knows everyone in town and I do a lot of work with the school and post all of that. It goes around quickly and generates a lot of extra jobs for me.

 

[garyroy]

Try sending a marketing mailing to 100 local businesses that need what you sell.
The following month, send to the first 50 again, then the following month send to the second 50 on your list.
If you really want to do some serious marketing, follow up the mailings with a phone call.

The way young people market these days is by just posting online. They are afraid generally to call and ask someone if they need anything.
That's how to get some customers, call businesses. Then weed out the good ones from the bad ones.

Another way is to drive from business to business in your area 1 day per week. Leave each business with a flyer that tells them what products you offer.
You'll meet people who need your products when you do that and you will get sales.

 

[SignDesignLady]

Thanks everyone for all the pointers. Marketing is not my strength but I am trying to learn what I can. I do know that what worked 20 years, even 10 years ago, doesn't necessarily work today. I am going to give these ideas a shot and see what happens. Once again, thanks.

 

[gnubler]

I do know that what worked 20 years, even 10 years ago, doesn't necessarily work today.

There was a time not that long ago where the main marketing chores for small businesses involved choosing how they wanted to appear in the Yellow Pages (actual phone book). Like, once a year, set it & forget it. Now it's a constant daily bombardment of marketing tasks with all the options out there....maintaining the website, emails, social, reviews, online ads.

I miss the olden days.

 

[gnubler]

Just spotted this in my inbox.

Many Signshops Still Don’t Have a Website or Social Media, but Why?

We take a stab at a reader question inspired by findings from our Big Survey.

signsofthetimes.com

 

[Royal Signs and awnings]

Facebook marketing for sign businesses? Not so great, in my experience. People just aren't searching for signs there. But if you're ready to ditch the marketing and focus on sales, try out usnationalleads.com , they only focus on marketing for Sign companies, and they only work for one sign company per city.

not bragging, but i got 53 new leads from Houston area from them, this month alone.