Oh boy, do we know how daunting social media can be.
There are so many platforms, demographics, marketing trends, and pitfalls out there,
though we're afraid to report that sticking your fingers in your ears
and singing away your woes isn't an option.
Social is crucial for your business. Don't believe us?
Just consider the fact that user numbers
are likely to approach 4.4 billion globally by 2025.
That's a juicy pile of potential leads!
So with heaps of users at your fingertips,
how can you capture their attention and encourage sales?
As well as posting regularly and launching traditional paid ads,
a killer lead generation strategy will
help you target your biggest fans and maybe attract some new ones.
Hey guys, it's Cam here from Neighbourhood
where we help brands find, sell, and keep their people.
If you're a newbie to the field of social media lead generation strategies or are
struggling to attract active user interest, don't sweat it.
The world of lead generation
is super fun if you're able to wrap your head around it. To give you a cheeky head
start, we've painstakingly collated a handy guide to social media lead
generation to ensure your digital strategy is the envy of all competitors.
So what is social media lead generation?
A lead is the data used to identify and engage with potential customers.
You know the drill, email address, phone number, job title, that kind of stuff.
Social media lead generation involves
using your fav social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook
to capture information about interested users.
Generating leads in this way is one
of the best kept secrets of digital marketers, with 66% reporting stellar results
after spending only 6 hours a week on social media.
Pretty good if you ask us!
So, why is social media so powerful when it comes to attracting leads?
Nope, it's nothing to do with memes ratios or celebrity pile-ons.
There are some pretty sweet benefits like being able to boost brand awareness
and build trust with social media being by far the best channel
for connecting with audiences and winning them over.
Keep in mind you'll need trust to collect
that all important data, not just for finding the one on Tinder,
social media helps you identify your target audience.
All social platforms contain special tools that help businesses target users based
on information such as age, location, occupation, and more.
You may be thinking, "okay, so what?".
Well, this is a great way for B2C and B2B
marketers to win excellent leads with minimal effort.
And of course, social media acts as a great wingman by adding teasers in your
social post to gain web traffic and qualified leads.
Whatever the size or scale of your operation,
social media lead generation strategies will help to attract new prospects
and make your customers feel like you love them, which you obviously do.
Wondering how to buff up your all important base?
We've got you covered.
Here are a few handy strategies that won't break the bank or take forever.
Number one, launch paid ads for lead generation. Unless you've
been living on another planet for the past few years, you'll know that businesses can
run lucrative paid ads on social media platforms.
From Instagram to Twitter,
paid promotions dominate our screens and represent one of the fastest and most
effective ways to engage with highly targeted markets.
In fact, PPC or pay per click
social ads are so efficient at boosting
audience numbers and engagement that 88% of marketers invest in them.
Of course, you shouldn't buy paid ads
simply to feel part of this cool gang of savvy marketers.
If you're hoping to generate leads,
your paid ads will need to contain eye catching CTAs or call to actions
designed to capture data. Grab yourself a cuppa and relax.
The good news is that social platforms are happy to do the hard work for us.
They've managed to speed up the process
using legal data capture tools like LinkedIn lead generation forms that are
available as sponsored Inmail or messaged ads.
LinkedIn uses the profile data of users to prefill certain sections of forms,
increasing the likelihood of completion and conversion.
For Facebook, we've got tailored lead ad formats designed to collect prospect data.
Leads collected via these promoted forms can be synced with your customer
management system, making follow ups simple and fuss free.
You might also want to note that Facebook
retargeting tools are effective for nurturing leads.
Instagram lead generation forms are similar to Facebooks and includes sections
such as name, email address, and phone number.
So for YouTube, we've got TrueView
for Action. YouTube TrueView for Action campaigns can be used to add headline
text overlays, and eye-catching CTAs to your video advertisements,
meaning you can link CTA buttons to the site of your choice to collect data.
When setting up your YouTube ads, remember to select 'leads' as your goal.
Other social platforms, such as Twitter do not offer specific
lead generation formats, but if it were us, we wouldn't cancel them out.
You can still use other advertising options to boost leads in less direct
ways, so we recommend diversifying your ad spend across several platforms.
For number two, we recommend automating lead generation with a chatbot.
Automated chatbots and instant messaging
services have become powerful tools for connecting with prospects
and collecting data while reducing employee workloads.
Platforms including Twitter and Facebook offer chatbot services
to engage with customers directly using a range of predefined responses.
Want the no nonsense version? We thought you might.
Bot services are becoming very good at deciphering visitor intent
and nurturing leads without the need for human intervention.
If this sounds like the plot of a sci-fi
movie, you may be surprised to learn that the technology behind it is spookily
simple. Chatbots use the interaction histories of past users to develop
targeted customer profiles to deliver personalised messages, relevant content,
and even product suggestions in a seamless transition.
Think of them as a close friend who somehow remembers everything about you.
Number three is enhancing your profile to collect organic leads.
Enticing prospects with a carefully
constructed profile, it's easy and best of all, totally free.
At the very least, your social media profile should include
all the information your customers need to get in touch
with your team, shop for your products, and sign up for your newsletter.
Here are some key ingredients to chuck in: CTA buttons or links!
Different social platforms offer different
profile features, with some such as Facebook,
allowing businesses to add special sign up buttons.
Whatever your niche,
it is vital that you at least add one CTA on each of your social profiles.
Common prompts include, "Book
an appointment", "Get tickets", "Try a demo", or "Buy now".
We think this is a no brainer, but a lot of people don't make this easy to find, and it's contact information.
It's easy to overlook the obvious things, but make sure your public contact details
are stated clearly across your branded social media profiles.
This could include phone numbers, email addresses, or live chat information.
If you can't squeeze all this information
into your profile, add a link to your contact page on your
site and on the note of links, add a link to your site or store.
Pretty simple, but just as a friendly
reminder, adding a link to your site will drive traffic and boost leads.
Next at number four is to promote special offers with targeted ads.
Want to know a secret?
You can collect tonnes of valuable
customer data by teasing social media users with special offers by paid ads.
Here are just a few examples of offers
that will turn some heads for your services.
Loyalty Point Schemes: People are pretty
predictable deep down and most love to feel part of a special
or exclusive group, particularly if it means they gain material rewards.
Encouraging people to sign up for a loyalty scheme will supercharge
purchases and help lock down a loyal fan base while offering bonus points
for signing up could also enhance lead capture.
What's not to love? If you're looking
to build your mailing list, then we'd recommend discount codes.
Why not offer customers a 5% discount or $10 gift card on their first purchase
in exchange for a simple email address. As well as building your pool of leads,
this strategy will boost the number
of first time customers and help spread the word about your brand.
If you wanted something quick and easy,
then competitions represent one of the best routes to capture heaps
of customer contact details in a short space of time. To be
in with a chance of winning, prospects will need to provide an email
address or alternative form of contact information.
Promoting competitions on social media
often doubles up as a great way to raise brand awareness,
particularly if you encourage users to share details on their profiles.
But, make sure to offer one or more rewards of genuine value
because if your lacklustre $20 gift card is what's up for grabs, then it isn't exactly going to be the best
look for your brand. Something we all love
hearing other than the word food is the other F word...
FREE. Free workshops or demonstrations helps drive leads and engagement
by offering zero dollar virtual demonstrations of your products.
Then the next one goes out to the students
strapped for cash.
Student discounts are a go to for retailers to capture data and boost sales.
If you deliver goods or services that may appeal to young people,
why not offer a 10% student discount in exchange for an email address?
Anything to help them off that two-minute noodle diet!
This is not a comprehensive list of special promotions
of course. You know your customers better than anyone else.
Come up with something that will make their eyes pop.
Oh, and remember to get their hearts racing by attaching a time limit to your offer.
For strategy four, we recommend making the most of retargeting.
Retargeting is a form of paid social advertising designed to reengage lost
prospects, say, for example, someone clicked on one of your ads,
reached a landing page and left the site without submitting a contact form.
With retargeting, you can push out more ads that nudge them into signing up.
If you're worried that this approach could seem pushy or hectoring, don't stress.
Research shows that retargeted ads boost
a click-through rate ten times higher than regular display ads.
If you're not keen on retargeting those
who have failed to complete an action, you can also retarget people who have
visited your site by organic search methods or read your blog post regularly.
To maximise the success of your retargeting strategy,
we recommend setting up a sequence of ads that align with prospect's journeys.
An effective sequence could include the following: an initial ad designed
to raise brand awareness and address customer pain points,
an ad containing testimonials to win the trust of prospects or a lead capture
containing a simple data collection form. Coming in at number five and something
Neighbourhood gets around is hosting a virtual event.
If you haven't noticed already, Zoom has become a place to hang out
in recent months due to the virus that shall not be named.
Audiences around the world have flocked
to the virtual events and social media conferences to stem their lockdown
bordem, providing marketers like you with tasty promotional opportunities.
Virtual events generate prospective leads by requiring attendees to sign up
with an email address or alternative pieces of personal information.
Such events tend to be much easier and less costly to organise than in-person
events as they don't involve travel or accommodation expenses.
Even better virtual conferences can help
to build a buzz around your brand, particularly if you set up hashtags
for participants to use and encourage them to share their thoughts online.
Who knows you could even get your brand name trending! Don't get click happy
on Eventbrite just yet, though. Organising a successful online event
requires time, effort and a little creative thinking.
So we've collated a few tips for ensuring your participants have a ball.
Firstly, organise a panel discussions that speak to the audience interests.
If you work in a technical B2B sector
for example, this could involve indepth discussions about complex topics.
Secondly, invite recognisable speakers.
Hiring big name speakers for your event will ensure word spreads then,
and most importantly, add value by offering actionable tips and advice.
Your attendees will want to gain something
genuinely useful from a conference or talk.
Avoid disappointment by scheduling
sessions that will engage key demographics and help them in their everyday lives.
Finally, test your technology before going live.
This should go without saying, but you must must must test your audio
and video equipment before going live with a virtual event.
Technical slip ups could alienate your audience and harm your brand image.
Number six is monitor conversations between your followers.
Ok, this may sound a little creepy at first,
but hear us out. Monitoring followers is a great way to see what people are saying
about your competitors or hot topics relevant to your audience.
Over time, monitoring conversations will help you identify and implement
lead generation opportunities for your business growth.
Let's say, for example, you notice someone complaining about
the failings of a product sold by one of your competitors.
Why not suggest your product as a superior alternative?
People love proactive brands willing to engage with users on a personal level.
As well as helping you collect relevant leads,
this approach will help you nurture
a positive and endearing brand image on social media.
If you're unsure where your key
demographics hang out online, try searching for relevant keywords, brand
names or hashtags across different platforms.
Next is number seven.
Leveraging your online content with social
media. You may be tired of the phrase, "Content is king", and trust us,
so are we.
But it's just as true today as it was several years ago.
Producing regular articles, blog posts, testimonial videos,
podcasts, and email marketing is one of the best ways to drive organic traffic,
keep customers engaged with your brand and entice high-quality leads.
However, relying on search engine optimization alone in the marketing funnel
is unlikely to revolutionise your marketing strategy.
Social media also plays a vital role in boosting your business leads
and conversions. As well as allowing to drip-feed external
gated content to a keen group of followers,
social media helps you create bite-sized
content such as polls, posts, images and more.
Start by identifying your marketing goals
and the expectations of your customer base.
From there, you can start creating a content strategy designed to maximise
brand exposure and catch the attention of relevant prospects.
Like with most things,
don't expect to hit the ball out of the park the very first time.
Creating a content marketing strategy that makes waves is all about tracking
vital social media metrics such as engagement or impressions,
and using this data to optimise your reference. Number eight,
don't forget your landing pages. Picture this,
you clicked on an attractive branded link
via social media and are keen to see what it's all about.
To your horror, however,
the company's landing page is sloppy, bland, and pretty rough to read.
You're left wondering who designed this stuff?
While this may sound like the stuff
of legend, it's all too common for marketers to focus on capturing clicks
and forgetting about the corresponding landing pages.
So how can you ensure your landing pages
generate those precious leads and conversions?
Our top tips are:
Create scalable content that is easy to read and get straight to the point.
Next, is if the landing page involves
a form key questions to a minimum and don't ask for sensitive details.
Then, definitely pay attention to graphic design.
Ugly forms or images will almost certainly increase bounce rates.
And our final strategy coming in at number
nine is to consider sponsoring popular channels.
Sponsoring digital channels and content
creators popular with your audience members is a smart way to attract leads.
YouTube personalities are a great place to start, as they can chat about your
brand or offerings for a couple of minutes at the start of their shows.
Sponsored video segments are definitely
more engaging than a static paid ads, as viewers feel like they are being
addressed by their fav online personalities.
Instagram influencers are another
fantastic option, particularly if your audience is on the younger side.
If you're a Boomer, you'll have to trust us on this one.
There's a big opportunity
here as likeable content creators also double up as a form of social proof
for your brand, reassuring users that you're legit
and they can trust your products and services.
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delivered every week to your inbox. Before we finish up,
it's worth covering a question we get a lot.
What is the best platform for lead generation?
There is no simple answer to this question as each business has a unique audience.
If you run a B2B business for example,
you may have more success with LinkedIn compared to say, Instagram,
where the audience tends to be younger and more susceptible to flashy ads.
We recommend trying the following popular platforms.
We'll cover Facebook first because, as you probably already know,
Facebook is the mother of all social channels and a great place to generate
leads via the likes of paid promotion, being that paid ads are perfect
for generating instant results and are often reasonably priced.
Then we've got on-page promotion where you
can create a compelling profile page to garner potential leads.
Finally for Facebook, you have off-page promotion.
This effective strategy involves generating leads by posting in Facebook
communities and groups and can help to spread your social media content,
far. Next is Twitter.
Twitter ads can target highly segmented
user groups according to factors such as interests, hobbies, age, and language.
The platform also allows businesses to set
daily budgets for their paid ads, and as time of speaking,
they are trialling out integrating contextual ads into their conversations feature.
Next up, Instagram! Did you know that 80%
of Instagram users follow at least one business account?
If you want to generate leads,
you can gain access to a large pool of interested users.
Here are a few ways we'd recommend to capture interests.
First is action buttons,
which allow businesses to add CTA buttons to their profile pages.
Second, is Instagram lead capture ads.
These ads are specially designed
to capture user data and help brands learn more about customers.
Third is Stories,
which are digestible content montages that are easy to access and view.
They also tend to be more enticing than
bio links and buttons, so make the most of them.
Finally, is LinkedIn.
Now, if your audience members are likely to be hanging out on the world
of LinkedIn, which would seem likely for B2B brands,
then you must make the most of the platform's lead generation tools.
As well as offering segmented targeting options for ads,
LinkedIn provides flexible pricing options perfect for businesses of all sizes.
You may be thinking, "Ok great, I've got the results to work with,
but how do I measure the success of my lead generation strategy?".
Tracking analytics relevant to your lead collection strategies will help you refine
your practices and ultimately grow your business.
Start by setting up goals
in Google Analytics that measure leads to your website.
This will elucidate which social media platform produces the highest number
of leads pointing to them which platform to focus on.
You can also compare the success of strategies within single platforms.
You may discover, for example,
that competitions are much more successful than webinars or online events.
Once you've been tracking the success
of your social media lead generation strategies for a few months,
you'll start to know your potential customer base as if they were old friends.
Use this to your advantage in creating
effective digital marketing plans based on their quirks.
If you found this video helpful, feel free to share it with someone who you
know needs a hand with their social media marketing lead generation.
You can also subscribe to our blog where
you'll find a bunch more tools, tips, and templates to help you fine,
sell, and keep your people just like Neighbourhood does.
So that's it from me, happy marketing!