There’s a trend I’ve noticed increasing over the past 18 months which worries me. And it’s not just something I’ve noticed with Tasmanian businesses on social media, but businesses around Australia in the digital space.

The trend is paying for radio, television and newspaper advertisements (nothing wrong with that, by the way), but sending that traffic to their Facebook page.

What’s wrong with sending traditional traffic to your Facebook page?

The problem is, Facebook’s algorithm has now reached a point where on average Facebook will only show your content to 2% of your followers.

That means, if you pay to send 100 people to your Facebook page, only two of those are ever going to see your content regularly.

The other way Facebook’s algorithm works is that a follower also needs to `like, comment, share or click a link’ on your content consistently or Facebook will decide that follower isn’t interested in your content and simply stop showing it in their newsfeed.

To actually guarantee to get your message in front of those people on Facebook, you need to then pay for Facebook advertising.

Now, I’m not knocking Facebook ads. Far from it. I LOVE Facebook ads – they can be highly targeted, incredibly inexpensive and super effective. They certainly work for me.

However, paying twice to get the same customer doesn’t make much sense to me.

This all makes traditional advertising sound like a horrible waste of time, doesn’t it?

Also, you might want to think about what happens in your own life when you open up Facebook. Yep, expect to get sucked into the Facebook vortex, only to come up for air two hours later wondering what on earth it was you were going to Facebook for in the first place. Anyone else?

Should you be using traditional advertising?

Well, if traditional advertising is part of your marketing strategy and it works for you, stick with it. But instead, look at driving traffic to your shopfront – ie your website. Or give them your phone number or physical shopfront address if you have a bricks and mortar business.

Now, if you’re sending them to your website, the next step is to have something on your site to capture their details and allow you to continue nurturing a relationship with them. Then, when they’re ready to buy or use your service, you’re top of mind because you’re regularly on their radar, providing them with quality content. You’ve also already built up the `know, like and trust’ factor.

If you don’t have a call to action (ie sign up), then you drive a heap of traffic to your site, they don’t take any action (ie buy from you), they leave and you lose them forever.

Take a look in my sidebar or at the end of this blog post if you want an example of how to capture people’s email addresses. The one below is about how to shift your blog (or website) into a tool that attracts your ideal client and converts them into a customer.

Why should you use email marketing in your business?

The best thing about having those people in your email marketing system – rather than Facebook – is you have complete control and ownership of your website and email database. No one can take these away from you.

Facebook, on the other hand, could fall over tomorrow and you would lose all those followers you’ve spent money to build up. If you’ve been relying on those Facebook fans to generate income for your business, your business could also fall over.

Scary, right?

The same rules apply here with any other social media platforms. You need to capture the details of those followers, turn them into leads and then convert those leads into customers.

In other words, you need to get them OFF social media, into your email database and then build up a relationship with them by providing quality content that solves their problem so, when they’re ready to buy, they instantly think of you.

Sound like a plan?

Are you using your website and email marketing together in your business?