Alexis Kestler
What if I told you that you have a valuable marketing tool at your fingertips that you’re not using? And then, what if I said that it doesn’t have to cost your business anything to use? Would you jump at the chance to leverage the power of this tool?
Of course, you would.
That marketing tool, ladies and gentlemen, is your Facebook cover photo.
You may not think it does a lot for you. It’s just another branding tool after all, right? Slap your logo into place, and you’re good to go.
Wrong.
It’s a chance to drive action, to make a sale, or earn a like. Here’s how you can leverage the marketing power of your Facebook cover photo.
5 Smart Cover Photo Ideas
Set Your Company Apart by Making Your Profile Picture Part of the Canvas
Companies like Coca-Cola understand the value of creating intrigue on their page. They do this by getting creative and making their profile page one-of-a-kind. Here, it’s not about the cover photo itself but rather about how all the elements on the page interact with each other.
Here’s another example from Paris where the company preserves their logo in their profile picture but still makes the background look as if it’s part of the cover photo’s design.
According to Inc.com, a professional web design helps people put trust in your brand. Your Facebook page is no exception to that rule.
In many cases, your Facebook page will be the first time people interact with your brand, so it’s important that you make a good first impression.
This tactic of combining your profile and cover photo is one way to do it by creating an attractive, unified theme throughout your profile.
Point Visitors to a Profile Button
If you’re trying to draw “likes” to your page, your cover photo is the perfect tool to do that. By developing a clear call-to-action like this, you’re going to see more people take action than if you just had a generic picture as your cover image.
You can accomplish this in several ways:
- Have a picture of someone on your team pointing to the “Like” button.
- Have your cover photo mention the perks of liking your page.
- Use other design techniques that draw the eyes to the “Like” button, such as a maze that ends there or an arrow pointing to it.
Before you jump on this tactic, however, make sure you’re pointing to the action you want people to take most. If you have a primary call-to-action button, such as “Contact Us” or “Shop Now,” you don’t want to be pointing to your “Like” button and competing against the action you really want your visitors to take. However, you can use the same concept of “pointing” to a button, but arrange your cover photo to draw the eyes to your main CTA button rather than your “Like” button.
Advertise Your Latest Offer, Product, or Upcoming Event
If you’re not using this tactic, you should be. When you’re ready to launch a new product, include a picture of it as your cover photo. You might add some supportive text, especially if it’s a digital product. That way, you can entice people to learn more and sign up for your offer or purchase your new product.
To make this option more efficient, create an image that is interactive with the page. Your photo might point to your page’s call-to-action button, which you could set up to send viewers to a sign-up page for your latest eCourse, for example.
Promote Your Website
Ask yourself this:
What is the number one thing you want viewers to do once they hit your Facebook page?
If it’s to visit your website, then why not make that call-to-action clear?
Unfortunately, you can’t make your cover photo directly link up to your website. What you can do is share your web address in your cover photo to get more people to check your site out.
Point to an Offer in Your Tabs
If you didn’t know already, you now can rearrange the tabs straight below your cover photo. To do so, click the “More” tab and then choose “Manage Tabs.” From here, you can also add custom tabs. Now, decide what offer you want to advertise, and arrange it appropriately in your tabs.
Now that you have that done create a cover photo that points to that particular tab. You can call attention to it through text, arrows, or other elements that point to the specific offer.
If you have a new coupon offer, this is an excellent tactic to make that offer known. According to Lab42, promotions and discounts are the number one reason people follow business’s Facebook pages. You’re likely to drive more traffic and “Likes” by promoting your discount prominently in your cover photo and making the coupon offer easy to redeem in your tabs.
How to Format Your Cover Photo
If you don’t know what you’re doing with your cover photo, it’s best to hire a designer or to assign the task to your in-house designer. Otherwise, follow these tips to properly format your Facebook cover photo:
- Design your photo at 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall. This is the optimal desktop size, and with it, you won’t have to do any readjusting when you upload it.
- Save your file as sRGB JPG and less than 100 kb for the quickest loading power.
- Pay attention to where your profile picture lays. You don’t want to cover up important information behind it!
Here’s how your cover photo size breaks down:
With all of these ideas in mind, you can use your Facebook cover photo to make a huge impact on your page. Whether that’s attracting more visitors to your timeline through an attractive, clever design, or it’s getting more people to sign up for your offer with a prominent call-to-action, your cover photo can change the tune of your business’s profile.
Which one of these ideas will you test out first?
