Dropshipping is becoming more and more popular.
More and more e-commerce businesses are choosing this supply management method because it costs less to start up and run because there is no need to store the products.
Because of this, about 27% of retailers already use dropshipping today.
With this growing success, you can also see that competition is growing, since many dropshippers sell goods from the same supplier or wholesaler and have to fight for customers.
And what is the best way to get the attention of a customer?
Social media sites, of course.
Many dropshippers use Shopify or WooCommerce, which lets them connect their shops to social media and send customers to their e-commerce websites through social media.
One of the most popular social media sites for this is Facebook, which is also a great place for running ads and sending customers to your online shop. Because of this, we’re going to show you how to build an effective sales funnel on Facebook in the next article.
How Well Does Facebook Work for Dropshipping?
Using social media to promote your web-based company may seem like a brilliant plan to you. More people will see your brand, and your visibility will increase significantly.
However, there are many challenges to overcome when constructing a sales funnel on Facebook for a dropshipping business.
Obstacle #1: There Are Limits
As a culture, we have come to view social media as infinite. In principle, you can sell to whoever you want, wherever they may be, and in whatever market you choose.
The truth is quite the opposite.
Facebook’s buy and sell groups and marketplace make it easy to show off your wares to the world. However, fewer than 50 countries actually offer access to these services.
As a result, you will be restricted to conducting business within your immediate area.
Obstacle #2: You Need to Work with Your Niche
Building a successful Facebook sales funnel, like any other marketing strategy, requires identifying and catering to a specific subset of the target market.
The average cost of similar products in your market segment is something you should know about, as is the prevalence of competing businesses in your industry.
If you try to reach everyone with your Facebook sales funnel, it will fail. It’s safe to assume that not everyone will want to buy Lord of the Rings movie prop replicas, for example.
Obstacle #3: Budget
Facebook ads, which can end up costing a lot of money, are not within the reach of every dropshipper.
Therefore, a lack of funds can prove to be a significant barrier when attempting to build a successful Facebook sales funnel, meaning that you will need to rely on other marketing strategies that are suitable for this social media platform.
Obstacle #4: Facebook Ban
In 2018, Facebook imposed a number of restrictions that many dropshippers were already aware of. The move was made in an effort to rid Facebook of fraudulent websites. Facebook users also frequently complained about subpar goods, prompting the social media site to take action.
So, any company operating online and employing the dropshipping supply management method runs the risk of being banned from Facebook, either for promoting counterfeit goods or for posting low-quality content.
Avoiding Obstacles and Building an Effective Sales Funnel on Facebook
When it comes to creating a sales funnel, dropshipping businesses will find that Facebook is vastly different from Instagram and other social media platforms. There are a number of problems that could arise and cause this plan to fail.
The good news is that you can take steps to circumvent these challenges and construct a functional sales funnel on Facebook.
Audit Your Audience
Knowing one’s intended market is the first step in any successful marketing campaign. If you want to build a successful sales funnel on Facebook, it’s no different from any other platform: you need to understand your target market in order to capture their attention.
Follow along as we use a sample Facebook audience audit to illustrate how it’s done.
Let’s say you’re in the business of selling Parks and Recreation-themed T-shirts. You already sell items on Etsy, but you’re thinking of utilizing Facebook as a second sales channel.
There are a number of crucial measures you should take to audit your Facebook audience before constructing a sales funnel.
Launch a company page
Starting with a Facebook page dedicated to your company should be your first order of business.
This is necessary if you want to keep from being banned from Facebook, as that’s where you’ll have to go to get in touch with the company’s representatives in the event of any problems.
Audit Facebook interest groups
After launching your brand’s Facebook page, you should investigate related Facebook interest groups and fan pages to find an audience that shares your enthusiasm for your products.
You can become a member of these groups to learn what kinds of content are most well received. PickWriters’ marketing strategist Jeffrey Phoeler recommends this as a cost-effective method for promoting your business on Facebook. Insights gained about the groups’ members’ preferred topics will guide your decision about which Facebook ads to run, ultimately leading to a more fruitful sales funnel.
You can learn more about your target market’s likes and dislikes by posting in some of the groups you’ve joined and observing the reaction of the group members and potential customers. You can monitor your site’s activity and traffic if you publish content with backlinks.
Within a couple of weeks of posting about Parks and Recreation-themed products in a few of these groups, we saw a significant uptick in traffic.
People who have never been to your website are called a “cold audience.” You don’t get any social information from them, and you don’t know how old or young they are. You can still advertise to them, but only if they have at least one interest in common with the warm and hot audience groups.
So, if you sell Parks and Recreation T-shirts, you can tell your cold audience about them in the “TV show merchandise” or “movie and TV show merchandise” categories.
Warm audience: These people haven’t been to your store, but they’ve seen your product in other places.
For example, they might have seen your post in a group for Parks and Recreation fans, clicked to read it, or watched your video.
These are people who have been to your online shop and may have even bought something from you before. This is the group of people who are most interested in what you do and who get the most updates about your products.
With this information, you can keep building a good sales funnel for your dropshipping business on Facebook.
Audit Content Options
Now that you’ve done an audience audit and divided your audience into “cold,” “warm,” and “hot” groups, it’s time to talk about content choices for your Facebook ads.
There are different kinds of funnels on Facebook, including:
Video ads are great for products that need to be shown or explained in more detail. For dropshippers that sell merchandise, like the one in the examples above, videos can be used to show off new product collections in Facebook ads.
Image ads are a must for dropshippers who sell things like clothes, shoes, accessories, and so on. Such information is self-explanatory, but the quality of the image affects how the ad is seen, since such products need to be shown in detail.
Messenger ads: This funnel lets a dropshipper and a customer start talking right away. But this choice only works well in a small number of situations.
For example, it might work for your “warm audience,” which includes people who were about to buy your product but had questions about it, so they left it in their shopping cart. With Messenger ads, you can reach this group and invite them to talk to you directly so they can solve the problem they were having.
Video and image funnels are also available on other Facebook alternatives for dropshippers. However, the Messenger funnel gives dropshippers the option to re-engage inactive parts of their audience. So, Facebook makes it possible for dropshipping businesses to set up a sales funnel that effectively reaches out to different types of customers.
Create the Funnel
As a result, you can now choose your funnel based on the audience analysis and content audit.
When making the funnel, you can choose your audience and make the ad target, for example, people who have only watched 25% of your video or looked at your product somewhere.
Dropshipping e-commerce startups that only start advertising their products on Facebook can start spending most of their money on ads that target people who have never heard of them before. By doing this, you’re kind of putting things to the test to see what works for you.
You can change your sales funnel as you move forward and build your warm audience. So, the nature of your Facebook ads will change, and you’ll start to target people who already know about your product.
Try out different lengths of time to see what works for each audience group. If you want to save money, the time doesn’t have to be too long. Your main focus should be on what brings in traffic and keeps people interested.
Over to You
Facebook can help dropshipping businesses build an effective sales funnel in a lot of ways. The only thing that matters is that you do it over and over again.
Audit and divide your audience, find out what kind of content they like, and work on building a funnel that matches their level of engagement.
Don’t forget that, in addition to learning about your audience, you also need to find a trustworthy source. Someone who can find the products you need and get them to your customers quickly.