Generating leads through social media
Jul 30, 2017 — Social Media Marketing
Before talking about lead generation, let’s first know what leads are. Leads are basically potential customers who are interested to buy a company’s product or services. These customers are the ones who provide their contact information, which one can be used to follow up with more information. Once the information is collected, it is then transferred to the sales department team to engage with them using custom-made content marketing programs.
One of the biggest benefits of lead generation on social media is about the possibility of focusing on high quality leads through advanced targeting. It means to improve the quality of leads is extremely important for B2B businesses. We look at few tactics on lead generation using social media as a source.
1. Sharing Links with Gated Content –
Gated content is a type of content hidden behind a virtual gate. Interested readers will provide some basic information in order to access certain sites if the content is valuable enough. If you are generating leads via social media, you can promote gated content by posting a link to a landing page where readers will provide their information in order to gain access. Mildly interested readers will click through a landing page without accessing the gated content but will still provide their information if they feel that the content is of some interest to them. However, great leads are those readers who are really interested and would certainly benefit assuming that your content is relevant to the product or industry. These readers will not mind filling up the landing page form. Below mentioned are few content marketing tactics that drive leads according to B2B marketers : –
2. Provide Special Offers –
We all love freebies, don’t we? So why not consider offering giveaways on social media. These are types of campaigns where people enjoy sharing on their social channels. It is a great way to capture important lead data by including an entry form. Once the form is filled, make sure to allow a way for the new, or regular members to share the offer on their social channels. In this way, participants can spread the word on the offers provided by you or your business with their own community, and help you to continue building relationship with many more readers by engaging and acknowledging their posts.
3. Polls and Surveys have huge advantage –
For the best social media leads, consider asking questions to your audience rather than assuming what they care about. If you do this, your own followers will provide you with a wealth of knowledge which should be taken into consideration. Another way is polls, because a poll offers unique ways to express their own opinions. This is a great way to understand on how people use your products, what difficulties are they finding in using your products, and what would they like to see from your future products. Polls and Surveys can be beneficial especially for B2B businesses.
4. Referring a Friend –
Referral campaigns can be a bit tricky, but if done correctly, it can be a great way to attract new followers. Most buyers buy products recommended by their friends and family, hence, referrals are a great way to generate leads. With the help of social applications, mixed with the right marketing automation platform, referral campaigns can be easily set up which can extend across major social media platforms, allowing businesses to grow their customer base. Shared messages include a special link, where the response rates can be measured, therefore in this way businesses can track the campaign progression and effectiveness and understand how prospects are helping to get work done.
5. Discount codes –
Offering discounts and flash deals can increase brand awareness, and generating leads and demand for businesses. If strong call-to-action and time limitations included, can lead to urgency for people to respond for a campaign. Many B2B companies are following this practice to boost up the abandonment rates. Discount codes allow you to get more unique consumers in your assignment, and also track your platform traffic.
6. Hosting a Tweetchat or Live Stream –
Having a live conversation to directly interact with your followers is a great way in engaging them in real time. Live chats can give you the edge over your competitors by answering questions, gathering feedback and generating awareness about your product or brand. You can also increase your traffic page by taking participants to exclusive contents, landing pages, lead management software, etc.
7. Ads on social media –
Advertising on social media are becoming a great way to boost your business. With recent updates to social network algorithms, these updates provide users a better experience in order to see less promotional contents and more of conventional contents. For good posts to be seen, marketers will need to supplement organic posts with paid promotion. Each social platform has different demographic criteria to target ads. E.g. location, age, gender, etc. While promoting a post, make sure to include strong call-to-action to generate maximum profit and generate leads. For such promotions, you can ask followers to download an asset, attend a webinar, or learn about a new product. This strategy is used by many lead generation companies.
8. Using Facebook Custom Tabs –
A business having a Facebook page is a great way for lead generation on social media. According to a study, American millennials who follow brands on Facebook, 66% users do to get discounts and coupons, and 37% users do so to participate in contests. Hence, discounts, coupons and contest are great to generate leads on social media for many businesses. Most of the standard Facebook tabs like About, Events and Photos are used by businesses with a Facebook page. However, only few businesses use the custom Facebook page tabs, which can be a great way to offer contests and offers in order to generate leads. Working with a developer can help a business to create custom Facebook page tabs from scratch. But if you are someone who has no idea on coding or who doesn’t know about social media lead generation software, there are plenty of Facebook page apps that will help you to create custom tabs.
These are some of the techniques you can use for lead generation through social media. Hope this helps you and your business.