How to generate leads on social media for your business
Love more leads coming into your business? Find out how to generate leads on social media with six proven tips.
People use social media on a daily basis. With billions of people using Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., worldwide, it’s the one platform you cannot ignore.
Around 27% of social media users also say they use social channels primarily to research products. In short, social media can be your best lead generation strategy once you’ve learned how to use it.
In this article, you’ll learn six tips for effective social media lead generation. But let’s explain some basic terms first.
What is a lead?
A lead is any person who indicates interest in your company’s product or service. So, they may share their personal information with your company in exchange for an exciting offer, trial, or subscription.
From a marketing point of view, that personal information is usually a name and a corresponding email address, or a social media handle. These are important details businesses want since they allow them to keep in touch with these new leads for potential conversions.
What is the best social platform for generating leads?
If we go by statistics, Facebook is the best place to generate leads on social media. Around 82% of B2B marketers say this is the case, with the platform’s billions of active users every month.
Besides, Facebook offers a variety of tools (Facebook ads, lead generation forms, etc..) that enable you to collect qualified leads.
Meanwhile, YouTube ranks second among the most popular social networks worldwide with its around 2.5 billion active users monthly.
But these are all just general statistics. Ultimately, the best lead generation social platform for you is the channel your target audience frequents. You can take a look at your audience persona or historical data to determine this.
You don’t have to stick to one social media platform for your lead generation efforts. You can be present on multiple social platforms if you have the resources. Just make sure your chosen social channels have the same look and feel so you can maximize their use. You want to use social media for brand building as well. This is key to brand recognition.
Six effective tips to generate leads on social media
Now that you know the basics, let’s go back to our original question: How exactly can you use social media for lead generation? Here are six tips.
1) Tap into lead generation ads
Lead generation ads allow you to collect valuable information on users who clicked on them. They usually come with pre-populated forms for ease of use.
Here’s an illustration of how they work. This Clearbit ad offers helpful, relevant content to its target audience on Facebook:
An interested user then clicks on the ad. A built-in email capture form with filled-out fields pops up. Assuming the information is correct, all they need to do is click Next to gain access to the content.
For your ad to work, of course, you need an effective lead magnet. In this case, the lead magnet was the offered content that specifies how exactly you can filter the noise out of your web traffic. The lead magnet works because it’s a topic that interests marketers, the target audience of this type of ad. We’ll talk more about lead magnets in the next section.
2) Use valuable lead magnets
So, what exactly is a lead magnet? A lead magnet is something you’re giving away for free in exchange for a potential customer’s contact details. Apart from written content, other possible lead magnets include:
- Free tools
- Free product samples
- Discount code
- Trial subscription
- Webinar
Here’s an example of a free webinar from Ask Millennial Accounting. All the person interested needs to do to access the resource is enter their email address. They then get an email with instructions along with a link to the webinar.
The best lead magnet type for your business will depend on what your ideal audience deems “valuable.”
It should also be aligned with what you’re offering. So, if you’re selling email marketing software, for instance, a good lead magnet would be an ebook on email marketing trends. Why? Because it’s something marketers—potential buyers of your email marketing software–will be interested in.
If you offer an Amazon gift certificate as your lead magnet, you’re likely to attract other people who aren’t likely to purchase email marketing software any time soon.These are low-quality leads that will only end up just wasting your time.
3) Personalize
If you want the best results for your social media lead generation efforts, you need to personalize. Some 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a business if it provides tailored experiences.
You can personalize in several ways on social media.
Use targeting tools to reach the right customers. You can run impressive social media campaigns based on your audience’s interests, location, gender, occupation, or age.
You can also promote personalized offers on social media based on users’ actions on your website. You can insert a tracking pixel to track your visitors’ activities on your site. This is information you can use to create your remarketing ads on social platforms. So, if you see for instance that a specific visitor frequents your product page, you can run a remarketing ad for them that showcases the benefits of your product.
Here’s an example of a remarketing ad from Skillshare. The ad appears in the news feed of a user who frequented the site’s illustration classes page:
Make sure you include a clear call to action.
4) Use social proof
Customer reviews, stories, and testimonials can be used as social proof to help you acquire new leads. When people see their product works on other people like them, they might just reach out to you to know more about your product.
Besides, social proof can help you get Instagram likes, Facebook shares, and retweets, too. People just love success stories.
You can reach out to your satisfied customers to get these testimonials. If they were happy with your products and services, they’ll be more than happy to give you material you can post on your social media platforms.
Vaseline’s strategy is to share these positive customer reviews on its Instagram profile.
So, each post generates comments from people who might be interested in the product. These are leads Vaseline can then reach out to and nurture for potential sales.
But your social proof doesn’t have to come in the form of written testimonials all the time. You can also use statistics to boost your authority and improve your reputation for social media lead generation. For instance, you can include in a social media post the number of people who have so far subscribed to your email list (if they’re in the thousands or even millions). Make sure you also include a clear call to action (Subscribe, for example) in that social media post.
5) Complete your profile
Completing your profile for social media lead generation is key. You want to include all your company’s basic information so your social media page visitors will be interested in knowing more about you. You also want to make it easy for them to reach out to you after their interest has been piqued.
So, include your business name, your unique selling proposition, and ways to contact you in your social media profiles.
Here’s a great example of a complete bio:
The Looks by Luks’ bio communicates the brand’s USP and includes a link to its website.
There’s also room for a Sign-Up or Visit Shop button in your social profiles. Twitter even has a newsletters feature integrated into user profiles. Take advantage of this.
6) Measure and improve your performance
To learn if your social media strategy for lead generation is working or not, you need to measure your performance. Check your social media analytics and the high-quality leads you generate.
This way, you’ll learn which social media channel is the best source of qualified leads for your business. So, if you notice that Facebook outperforms Twitter, for example, it makes sense to focus your social media lead generation efforts on Facebook. It also shows that you need to up your game on Twitter.
Analyzing your social analytics results will also allow you to determine what type of lead magnet performs best. Do webinars perform better than eBooks? Then you might want to run more webinars instead.
Bottom line, measuring your lead generation efforts allows you to see what you should continue doing and what you shouldn’t. Ultimately, you’ll improve your social media lead generation.
As a final tip, make sure you compliment your social media tactics with other strategies for the best lead generation results. So, implement eCommerce or SaaS link building strategies to increase your visibility in search engine results pages, ask for referrals from your customers, and attend fairs and conferences in your niche, among other things.
How can you use social media to generate leads?
Social media can help you gather a vast number of potential leads. Social media channels offer effective, low-cost marketing to relevant audiences.
You learned six social media lead generation tips in this article. Use lead magnets and social proof to attract relevant leads. Leverage paid lead generation ads and personalize, too. Also, optimize your social profiles. Don’t forget to measure your performance and adjust your strategy accordingly.
If you follow these tips, those social media leads will keep coming.
Harry Flynn leads the digital marketing team at Twicsy, a site providing services to Instagram users. He enjoys travelling and relaxing with friends in his spare time.
