To generate leads through social media, it is important to understand the benefits and functions of various social media platforms. This article will enumerate the top ways to generate leads with social media, as well as which social media platforms provide the greatest return on investment.
Learn how to lead generate with this easy-to-use guide. We put the most common tactics Includes a section on lead generation best practices and which platforms are best for generating leads.
Here are the key objectives of how businesses use social media as part of their lead generation process.
- Increase brand awareness: There will be 3.02 billion social media users worldwide by 2021. With more & more people taking to social media to research and sound off on brands, getting your target audience’s attention is easier to create brand awareness.
- Reach out to new customers: The best way to build an active audience on social media is to focus on the people who already know you best. By sharing relevant content, promptly interacting with them, and acknowledging their feedback, you can expand your audience and strengthen your relationships.
- Increase website traffic: The social media sphere is home to more than 3.4 billion active users. Social media is a great source of driving traffic to your website. They bring in ample opportunities to gain business visitors and convert into leads.
Social media lead generation vs lead nurturing
When we talk about lead generation through social media, it has a few important components. They are as follows:
Social media lead generation
It refers to the activities undertaken by businesses on social platforms to acquire new leads. Feeding leads into the sales funnel, qualifying the leads through different channels (chatbots, email, social, phone, meeting, or sales call) and then converting the prospects into actual sales.
Social media lead nurturing
Nurturing leads is about building relationships with potential customers even if they are not currently looking to buy a product or service. They may have signed up online to receive your newsletter or follow you on social media, but they aren’t necessarily ready to make a purchase.
Social media lead conversion
Conversion is the final stage of social media leads. It refers to the process of converting your potential prospects so that they make final purchase decisions.
Social Media Tools You Can’t Ignore If You Want More Leads
SentiOne
Want to attract customers? You have to listen to them and know what it is they’re looking for.
Social listening is one of the most powerful tools we have to do this, as platforms provide a more open means of learning more about our target audience and responding in real time.
SentiOne is part social listening platform, part reputation management solution.
What makes SentiOne stand out in the crowd of competitors is their actionable insights.
You can see your most engaged community members, identify influencers (“opinion leaders”), discover when your brand is most actively discussed (to monitor more carefully at that time and day), etc.
It’s a great way to work out a more effective strategy when it comes to being present, engaging and posting.
Socedo
Most social media platform tools are aimed at customer driven leads. But what about those brands that have a B2B focus?
Socedo is a lead generator that brings you warm valuable possibilities from across the globe, based on your company’s needs.
Socedo helps you treat important social media users as leads allowing you to search a social media user base, interact with them (via public and/or private messages) and monitor your conversations with lead generation in mind:
- Search using an array of advanced search options
- Compare your interactions to improve efficiency
- Segment your contacts
One unique aspect is that they have a plan specifically aimed at startups, which is helpful if you only need some of their features and don’t want to pay for the ones that would be more relevant to a traditional business model.
Pricing is on request only.
Craft Better Social Media Updates
Serpstat
Now form a more integrated content strategy to go along with your product.
Your Google stats will go up alongside your social ones, which is only going to help you build better leads from one end to the other. This is one of the more versatile tools that will do the work you put into it.
Serpstat shows you all kinds of popular related phrases and more importantly, groups them into subtopics, allowing you to expand your content and craft a more diverse social media updates improving your social media discovery.
How to generate leads from social media
Now let’s find out how you can generate valuable leads using social media:
Launch compelling lead magnet offers
The right incentive can often compel people to freely share their information with you. For this, you’ll need to create enticing lead magnet offers that people want. This could be anything from a research report to a free tool. You could also offer discount codes, case studies, webinars, whitepapers and more.
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions promoting a free LinkedIn Insight Tag tool is an excellent example.
Forrester Tweeting out a GIF with a prediction for 2021 and encouraging people to download its Predictions 2021 report is another way to raise interest around gated content.
Share testimonials as social proof
Customer stories and testimonials can give you the social proof you need to acquire new leads. Showcasing how clients have benefited from your products and services to demonstrate your brand value.
According to Wyzowl, two out of three people are more likely to buy something after watching a testimonial video that demonstrates how a business, product or service has helped someone like them.
IBM often shares engaging video testimonials of how people have benefited from its products and initiatives. The following Tweet tells the story of how its P-TECH initiative is preparing a student for a career in STEM.
Create targeted ads with special offers
A paid social media advertising strategy is highly effective for generating leads on social media. With this strategy, you can use the highly specific targeting options of paid social ads to show your audience offers that are tailored to capture their interest. Try promoting content on specific subject matter, special discounts and limited-time offers on your products and services through these ads.
For instance, The Economist used Instagram ads to target relevant audiences. When someone clicks on their social media ad, they get an offer for 50% off on their first 12 weeks, an enticing deal that makes the ad’s audience more likely to subscribe to the publication.
Conclusion
Are you looking for ways to build brand awareness or generate leads? If so, social media is a great place to start. This article explores the types of social media and provides tips on how to make them work for your business.