Conceived by Édouard de Laboulaye and designed by sculptor, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, with the help of Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, later to be known for the design of his famous tower in Paris, the Statue of Liberty was a colossal undertaking. Built in France between 1875 and 1884 and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in 350 pieces and 214 crates. The statue was held in storage for almost a year while Joseph Pulitzer helped raise over $100,000 ($2.8 million in 2022 dollars) from 120,000 of his readers need to build the pedestal for the statue. The statue was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland on October 28, 1886.
The Statue of Liberty is one of the most instantly recognizable statues in the world, often viewed as a symbol of both New York City and the United States. The statue is situated near Ellis Island, where millions of immigrants were received until 1943. Because of this, the Statue of Liberty has always represented hope, freedom, and justice. The Statue of Liberty on its pedestal stands some 305 feet tall.
Why are we talking about The Statue of Liberty on an optical news and fashion website? Well, it turns out, the average American scrolls the equivalent of 305 feet on Facebook alone each and every day. Yes, the average American scrolls the height of The Statue of Liberty on their 6-inch smartphone every day.
So what are you doing to stop the scroll and get them to pay attention to your social media posts?
Facebook for all its problems, for all its issues, is still the number one social media network in the world. Facebook has 2.895 billion monthly users. Instagram, owned by Meta (formerly Facebook) has 1.393 billion monthly users, while Twitter registers a comparatively paltry 363 million monthly users.
Advertising on Facebook? It is no secret that organic posts on Facebook receive very little engagement. The average organic Facebook post sees just .07% engagement. That means a good post can see engagement as high as ½ of 1%. Not a very heartening statistic is it? Paid Facebook advertising can see anywhere from 1% to 5% engagement. While that might not sound huge, in the world of digital unaffiliated advertising, a 2% engagement rate can bring your store or practice a lot of new patients and customers for very little expense.
There are three main elements to making your Facebook advertising work.
GRAPHICS
You need imagery that will stop the scroll. Keep in mind that over 80% of the scrolling done on Facebook is done on mobile. Compound that with the fact that people scroll faster on mobile devices than on desktop or laptop computers. A poorly conceived image of a pair of even the coolest new frames in or on a showcase might excite an optician, but rarely a patient or customer. In many cases, the eyewear manufacturers spend a great deal of money taking professional still-life and lifestyle images of their eyewear. When you go to Vision Expo this week, be sure to ask your vendors to share those images with you.
COPY
While a picture is often worth a thousand words, the words you choose to use for your Facebook ads are what will sell your store or practice to your prospective customers or patients. You have a limited amount of space to interest people in your product or service. Use your independence to your advantage. Be sure to use your location. No one wants to drive 40 minutes just to look, so make sure to let people know your neighborhood which positions you as the local place to go. 88% of consumers do a local search on their smartphone before deciding where to shop.
Make sure your headline grabs attention. Don’t be afraid to shout your offer in your headline.
TARGETING
As we just listed in the body copy, make sure to target your prospective audience correctly. Know what the market is for what you are trying to sell before creating your ad and spend any money promoting your product or service. 18-year-olds may be a great market for brand-name sunglasses like Oakley or Ray-Ban but are pretty much a waste of time and money when selling $500 fashion eyewear.
Most of any retail store’s sales are generated within a 10-mile radius of that location, so don’t be afraid to micro-target. If you are selling a brand-name product that is available most anywhere, don’t waste money trying to get someone to drive for 45 minutes to your location when they will pay the same price 5 minutes from their home or office, or even worse, pay less for online. While most Apple phone users have opted out of allowing Facebook to follow them everywhere, there is more than enough information in everyone’s LIKES to form a very good demographic profile with attributes you can pick from to target. The more precise your target the better your cost per click is going to be.
Don’t be afraid to experiment. A/B testing is a great way of figuring out what appeals best to your target market. Be bold. Be innovative. Be creative. Be fun. People want to shop at fun shops.
It takes a lot of time to scroll the length of the Statue of Liberty. You want to do what you can to stop your prospective customer or patient just long enough to plant the seed about what you have to offer. Pay attention to ads that make you stop, no matter the product or service, and notice what made you stop, to learn from and emulate. Now go sell.
