Facebook marketplace is probably the most underrated feature of the community website. Especially if you are an early-stage company. That is because the marketplace is a prime venue that can make a sustainable impact on your business. Also, irrespective of your industry, you can leverage its power to advance your project.
To some extent this new addition, to its ecosystem is more powerful than Amazon. Indeed with its more than a billion users, the number one social media platform offers an incredible opportunity for any serious marketers or entrepreneurs.
Step by Step guide
Time needed: 1 minute.
The following checklist can help you get started.
- Do you have a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?
This is the first step of any business that wants to be out there. Typically, it can be an app, ebook, physical product, service, or digital product. Truly, it doesn’t have to be perfect that is because you are going to iterate to meet your customers’ demands. Perhaps, you are not familiar with the concept of agile methodology in lean startup management. The concept of the Minimum Viable Product is better explained by Henrik Kniberg. Here is an excellent video that illustrates the entire concept and its relevance.
- Define a target audience
If you don’t, no worries. That is actually perfect, that is the reason why facebook marketplace is so strategic. However, you need to start with your initial assumptions. Nevertheless, you can utilize the value proposition canvas framework by strategyzer to sketch out a profile.
- Do you have a facebook Marketplace profile?
Create a Facebook marketplace profile. Then utilize the geolocation and common interest groups for indexing. It is a perfect playground to find out if your business idea or product will get traction.
- What is your minimum marketing budget?
Run Facebook marketplace ads with a minimum budget. Typically, starting with $10 you should reach 300 to 1k people. Run the campaign for 2 to 3 days.
- Run your online marketing campaign
Collect initial information and feedback, then stop. Analyze and review all information collected to refine the product and run a new ad. Repeat the process until you get at least 30 people to buy or utilize your products.
Feature
The beautiful thing about this user-to-user feature is the funnel. You can get direct feedback, chat with your customers, and reach instantly millions of potential customers. In addition, most of the profiling, segmentation have already been done. It is definitely one of the best low-cost, risk-free AB testing opportunities in the market. True it doesn’t work for all products and categories. For instance, services are not eligible yet.
Nevertheless, if you fall within the category, it would be worth your time, effort, and money. So don’t hesitate to check some online tutorials. Nonetheless, learning how to leverage this unique opportunity for AB testing will go a long way to validate some of your marketing assumptions.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/51163273/facebook-marketplace-screenshot-1.0.png)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/51163273/facebook-marketplace-screenshot-1.0.png?resize=739%2C492&ssl=1)
With this new development, Facebook is looking to get a piece of the e-commerce global market value at more than USD 9.09 trillion.
Revenue diversification
The feature was launched in 2016 in an effort to keep people hooked on the company’s digital channel. Around 84 percent of Facebook’s overall revenue is generated from smartphone users, and as of July, the company has more than 1 billion daily active users on mobile.
Moving forward, Facebook wants to provide more assurance to its investors. In fact, this e-commerce focus strategy will ultimately drive more traffic to the site by creating a meaningful way for people to connect. It wouldn’t surprise me to experience a new revenue model emerging aside from advertisement.
Even though, the new feature is still miles away from the main competitors, Facebook can count on its massive monthly active users and a well-developed ecosystem that can integrate smoothly.
Furthermore, they are reports of people taking home a substantial among of money with facebook only. Consequently, after testing on facebook, you can build your entire business with the platform.
Additional resources:
- Value proposition canvas framework to sketch out a profile.
- Minimum Viable Product is better explained
