The Facebook cover photo is the large background “header image” on your Facebook page. For businesses, it can be a great piece of visual real estate to market with or can become a missed opportunity if not utilized for anything beyond brand consistency.
Planning Your Facebook Cover Photo
When marketing on any channel, you want to have a specific goal, a clearly defined message, and a call to action. All of these things lead into each other when thought through properly.
Setting The Goal Of Your Facebook Cover Photo
Is the goal of your Facebook cover photo just to reenforce your branding? Then all you need are your branding guidelines to prominently display your logo and brand identity with your tag line and value proposition.
If you have a more tangible goal, such as driving engagement or sign ups of some kind, then you’re Facebook cover photo needs to have a different message beyond just branding.
Your Facebook Covers Photo’s Message
You’ll want to clearly communicate your message using very short and direct text (your cover photo is meant to be a visual piece of content, not a letter). Along with your copy, you’ll want visual elements that align with that core message. Whether it be photos, graphs, charts, or an illustration, make sure they are relevant and immediately recognized as correlated to your core message.
A Call To Action In Your Facebook Cover Photo
Lastly, a call to action for your Facebook cover photo. Now that you have someone’s attention, and they understand your message, you want them to take action and do something to build upon that momentum. Send your viewer to a landing page (can be a custom Facebook tab or on your website) where they can be engaged, and bring them along the customer buying process. It can be for an email newsletter sign up, a free download of a premium piece of content (such as a report or ebook), or any number of things you may have targeted as your goal.
Facebook Cover Photo Bonus!
When you update your Facebook cover photo, it will show up in your audience’s newsfeed. This means if you are taking advantage of your cover photo to send a marketing message, more people will see it in their newsfeed as well. And we all know that photos drive the most engagement in the Facebook newsfeed.
How Do You Use Your Facebook Cover Photo?
Do you leverage your Facebook cover photo for customer engagement and potential business opportunities? Leave your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.