So, you’ve decided to ramp up your marketing strategy and explore the labyrinth of social media lead generation.
Maybe you’re one of many brands who’ve hit a dead end and are struggling to generate high-quality leads.
Luckily, you’ve come to the right place.
In this post, you’ll discover:
- Why social media lead generation is the real deal
- Six kick-ass strategies to boost your leads and smash your social media marketing goals
- Examples that’ll help you implement each tactic into your master plan.
So, are you in?
Let’s go!
What is a Social Media Lead Generation?
Social media lead generation is the practice of collecting leads from a social media platform.
Essentially, any activity performed on social media that captures a person’s information. It could be an email address, name, occupation, or even how many pets you have.
Why is Social Media Lead Generation Important to Your Marketing Strategy?
So, why is social media lead generation important?
Simple. It works.
Social media lets you interact and engage with your audience to understand their needs and provide content to convert them into a potential customer. It’s becoming a cornerstone in today’s marketing strategies.
In fact, a recent industry report from Social Media Examiner found that 66% of marketers generate leads from social media channels.
Besides that, of the 66% of marketers, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram were their primary sources.
But that’s not all.
TikTok is being adopted by many marketers, with 37% planning to increase their activity on the social media platform.
Also, more brands are looking to leverage Instagram to generate leads. It’s not surprising as approximately 90% of Instagram users follow a business page.
If the opportunity does not convince you by now, I’ll throw one final statistic at you:
Over 1.6 billion people are connected to a small business on Facebook!
So, ensure you have a solid social presence to capitalize on the opportunity and generate leads on social media.
The 6 Best Strategies To Help Boost Your Social Media Leads
It’s stressful when your brand is suffering from a lack of leads.
You have the answer in social media, yet where do you start?
How can you take advantage of this incredible opportunity?
Let us help you build a solid social media strategy to generate a new source of leads for your brand.
Shall we dive in?
1. Ensure Your Social Media Accounts are Optimized
The first social media lead generation strategy on our list is to ensure your social media accounts are optimized.
An optimized account maximizes your chances of gaining a prospect’s information at a minimal cost.
But, which areas of your account should you focus on?
Your Profiles
Ensure your profile photo, username and bio represent your brand and are consistent across each social media channel.
Check out this example from Social Sprout.
Notice how they create visual consistency across Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
It builds trust and maximizes your chances of capturing a lead.
Also, did you notice the link embedded in the bios?
It’s crucial.
If a prospect has clicked through to your social media profile and can’t find a link to your landing page or website, they could bounce.
In addition, if your landing page is not optimized, all your hard work getting that initial click from social media could be for nothing.
Your Posts
First, find out when your target audience is most active.
Luckily, most social media accounts have built-in analytical tools to tell you.
Instagram Insights allows you to see when your followers are most active by hours and day.
So, now you understand when your audience is online, the next step is to master your posts by creating engaging, click-worthy content.
HubSpot took a creative approach for its Instagram post back when we were in the height of the coronavirus pandemic:
They nailed it.
“Take what you need:” creates curiosity, the accompanying copy focuses on a clear benefit, and they reference their call to action link in their bio.
Sign me up!
2. Entice Your Audience With Lead Magnets
The second strategy on our list is to use a lead magnet to foster quality leads.
But, what is a lead magnet?
It’s a resource given freely to prospects in exchange for their information. It could be anything, but it should provide value to your target audience.
Gated Content
First up is gated content.
Basically, content locked by a gate until you have the key — your contact information.
Think eBooks, templates, free tools, mini-courses, etc.
If you already have quality content that resonates with your audience, great, chuck it behind a gate and promote the hell outta it on your social media platform.
If not, start brainstorming some ideas.
You could take this opportunity to run a social media survey to see what clicks with your audience.
Once you have your content, why not create a series of posts using snippets of information from it to entice readers to click that call to action.
Check out WordPress.com‘s recent Tweet for their free courses:
They entice readers with a free course in exchange for a potential lead. They then upsell by offering a community to discuss what prospects learnt in the free course with peers.
If this was WordPress.com’s primary lead magnet, they could pin this tweet to their profile and create a banner to support it to generate more leads.
Trial Offers
A free trial is a great way to establish potential leads on a social platform.
And, who doesn’t love something for nothing?
Like gated content, you should ensure you provide an offer that appeals to your audience and promote it to entice readers.
For example, Onboardly offers a free 14-day trial to their human resource management system.
Notice how they haven’t asked for your credit or debit card information?
An email address works best in this scenario as you don’t want to alienate your prospects.
3. Give Back Via Virtual Events
Our next strategy is to use virtual events to drive organic traffic and generate a ton of new leads.
But that’s not all.
Ongoing virtual events like webinars or conferences can boost your authority in your industry.
After all, if you provide your audience with endless value, you will become the “go-to guys” in your niche.
Virtual Events
So, what role does social media play when hosting a virtual event?
For a start, you can host a Facebook live or Twitter space. These avenues create a highly engaged environment, ideal for sniping leads.
Also, you can create a buzz leading up to an event. Use your social channels to post updates, nurture your leads and engage with your audience.
Ann Hadley did a great job promoting Marketing Profs online B2B Forum earlier this year.
She instilled a sense of urgency by prompting readers to sign up as it’s their last chance before the event kicks off.
Finally, if you’re a savvy marketer, you can repurpose content right off the back of the last virtual event.
For example, the B2B Forum could record the event and provide these to anyone who missed it via gated content.
Social Media Contests
Give readers another reason to join your ranks through social media contests.
They incentivize users to part with their contact details for the chance at a grand prize.
Who doesn’t love a gamble?
Not only will they create hype around your brand but contests can increase your social media reach and engagement if done correctly.
Neil Patel takes us through some tactics and tools to get the most out of this strategy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qfccvWhjEI
Once the contest is over, don’t forget to nurture your leads and convert them into that all-important sale.
4. Offer a Referral Program
The next strategy is to run a referral campaign to elevate your leads.
Essentially, you leverage satisfied customers to share your product or service with their friends.
And, where do people share with their friends?
Social media.
But, there is a catch.
Some will willingly share a positive experience while others require an incentive.
Reward Your Referers
One of the best practices is to offer double-sided rewards — rewarding both the referrer and your new lead.
But what should you reward?
It’s down to you and your budget.
HelloFresh offers existing customers to bring their friends and family onboard.
They can either send a free box or opt to send their friend a discount code. In the process, they secure a $20 credit when their friend signs up — win, win.
Promote Your Program
So, you have a referral program, but how do you promote it through social media?
Simple.
Regularly post updates to remind your audience of the benefits of your program.
If you want to spice it up, opt for a creative approach.
Check out MeUndies simple, yet creative Instagram story for their referral program:
They offered a double-sided reward — “invite your friends to get 20% off their first order and get store credit in return.”
What will you do?
5. Empower Your Brand With Social Media Influencers
Having the right social media influencer on your team can be worth your weight in gold.
They can extend your reach, improve engagement and generate high-quality leads.
Great, but which should you choose and how do you find them?
Types of Influencers
First, let’s discuss some of the different types of influencers you could employ. There are five dominant categories:
- Mega
- Macro
- Micro
- Nano
- Employee
Each has its benefits and drawbacks.
A mega influencer has millions of followers they can tap into, yet they command a high fee.
Whereas a nano influencer has under 10,000 followers but offers higher engagement with their audience.
Imagine your audience’s reaction if you secured the services of one of your industry’s favorite influencers…
Your leads would excel.
How to Find an Influencer?
That’s all well and good but how do you find these elusive influencers?
You could use good old-fashioned hard work and scour Twitter to see who is a prominent figure in your niche and reach out to them.
Or, you could use a marketplace:
Active is a leading influencer marketplace that allows you to define, find and optimize your relationships with influencers to achieve your desired results – more leads.
6. Supercharge Your Results With Social Media Ads
The final social media lead generation strategy is to take advantage of social ads.
We will focus on two main types to generate new leads for your business.
Lead Ads
Multiple social media platforms offer easy-to-use, customizable lead ads. For example, Facebook ads and Twitter ads.
Facebook ads even have a social media lead generation form built in, saving you precious time and money creating an optimized landing page.
Essentially, Facebook lead ads do most of the hard work for you, so you can focus on the content.
But, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.
You need to consider your cost per click (CPC) to see if your Facebook ad campaign is worth it — more on this metric later.
Targeted and Re-Targeted Ads
Another avenue you can explore with social media ads is targeting and re-targeting.
They allow you to target or re-target a specific group, audience, or demographic to generate high-quality leads.
Couple that with creative content that will blow their socks off then you’re onto a winner.
For example, Morning Brew set up two target markets through TikTok ads. First were users interested in news, technology, and finance. The second were US and English-speaking people between 18 and 55.
Their goal was to acquire subscriptions to their newsletter at a low cost. They gained an incredible 70,000 subscribers at the cost of just $0.21 per follower.
Track Your Progress With Social Media Metrics
Social media metrics allow you to track, measure, and alter the course of your social media marketing campaign to reach your goals.
In this case, social media lead generation.
We’ve already touched on some metrics – cost per click (CPC), click-through rate (CTR) and reach.
But there’s so many more you should pay attention to — engagement rate, impressions, follower growth rate etc.
But which should you focus on?
With so many available, it can be overwhelming. It can cause you to freeze when you should take action.
So, when you’re ready to learn more, jump into The 10 Best Social Media Metrics to Track in 2024 (+ Quick Tips).
Which Social Media Lead Generation Tactic Will You Choose?
So, you’ve made it through the labyrinth of social media lead generation.
But, now it’s time to choose which tactic you’re going to weave into your marketing plan.
Will you boost organic leads through optimizing your accounts or dive straight into paid traffic via a social media ad?
Whichever you choose, start by implementing one at a time.
Measure your results, adjust your social media marketing efforts and always remember to provide value to your target audience.
