Reserve with Google
This is a guest post by Oscar Cruz.
As a marketer or entrepreneur, you’re not just on social media to post dog videos and cat memes. You’re there to build your brand, establish yourself as an industry leader, grow your following, and generate leads. Ultimately, your goal is to sell more of your products and services.
Since a third of the world’s population uses social networks regularly, 83% of marketers are actively pursuing social media marketing strategies. And, so should you. Why? Reports indicate that 66% of marketers generated quality leads from as little as six hours a week spent on social networks.
Not convinced? Another study claims that social media marketing has reduced costs for 45% of business. It further reveals that using social media for lead generation has increased revenue for almost a fourth of businesses.
But, what strategies will help you achieve this impact? Without further ado, here are some tactics you can implement to generate leads on social media.
1. Find your Target Audience on Social Media
You’ve done your research and profiled your target consumers diligently. You know their ideal demographics, interests, pain points, and the like, but where can you find them? Use social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and other popular social media sites to find them.
The people you’re looking for are sharing content relevant to your products and services. They are posting about what goes on in their lives. They’ve joined groups that can help them with their daily challenges. You can utilize the information available to not only find them but get to know them on a deeper level. So, listen.
2. Promote Gated Content
Gated content is a great way to generate leads. By gating your highly educational and valuable content, you’re asking visitors to provide their contact information to access it.
Share links to gated content on your social networks, along with a short description of what they can learn. Not everyone in your network will click through and provide their information, but you’ll be sure that the ones who do are actually interested, and that’s a high-quality lead for you!
3. Host a Contest
Social media contests are highly effective lead generation strategies. However, it will only be successful as a lead generation strategy if your prize fulfills two important criteria.
First, your prize has to be valuable enough that people are going to want to join. Second, your prize needs to be useful to a particular group of people – your target audience – and no one else.
If your prize is something everyone would want such as the latest iPhone or gadget, then you’ll probably have hundreds of people joining the contest. You’ll generate hundreds (or thousands) of leads, but only a small portion of them actually fit your buyer persona.
When hosting a contest, try to offer an extended trial of your product, an upgrade of your services, or some of your physical products.
Choose a social network where most of your target audience is, whether that’s Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Make sure that each person who enters your contest will provide their contact information.
You can have them enter by liking, retweeting, or sharing your post. You can also direct them to a landing page where they can provide more detailed information about themselves.
4. Invest in Paid Social Media Advertising
It’s not free, but social advertising nowadays is more targeted than they were before, as you can choose who to display your ads to with parameters such as demographics, location, interests, and more.
While this may lead to a potentially smaller audience, you’ll be sure that your ads will only be shown to people who really fit your consumer profile. Leverage the right platform, and you’ll be sure to generate high-quality leads.
5. Post Exclusive Discounts and Promos
Make your followers feel extra special by giving them exclusive promo codes and special discounts. Not only will it make them feel good about following your page, but they’ll also look forward to more exclusive offers. It’s a great way to increase brand awareness and engagement. Of course, you can also generate leads from it. Assign unique codes for each social network so that you can determine which channel directed the most traffic.
You may not always get a sale from every click-through, but when people click through to your website to check your exclusive promo or discount, you’ll know who’s interested. You can then follow-up your leads through email or remarketing ads.
6. Use Custom Hashtags
Have you ever noticed how a specific hashtag keeps popping up in your social media feed? Afterward, you notice how people you follow are also using the same hashtag. You then start to wonder what it’s all about. When you search for that hashtag, photos and posts related to a certain brand start coming up.
A custom hashtag is an effective way to spread brand awareness and establish your brand personality. A lot of people discover new brands this way.
Furthermore, unique hashtags will help you stand out from your competitors. Make it fun and short so that people will remember it easily. Just imagine the new leads you’ll get just from using a creative hashtag.
7. Engage with your Followers
Some brands consistently post content on their social media accounts, but they fail to engage with their customers. Social media marketing doesn’t stop at posting content. You need to answer comments, messages, and engage with your followers.
For instance, you find a user who used your brand’s hashtag or mentioned you in one of their posts. Say something! React positively to show people that there’s a real person behind your brand.
If you’re not leveraging the power of social media for lead generation, then you’re missing out on a ton of opportunities!
Author Bio: Oscar Cruz is known to be a man of few words. But when it comes to SMS Marketing, he’ll talk about it all day and night. With his undying passion and dedication, he aims to bring Semaphore to bigger industries and larger platforms.
