Social Media for Lead Generation

Lead generation is a term used to describe a simple concept: information shared by a potential customer with the consent and expectation of receiving a follow up. The role of a marketer is essentially to generate leads: creating a valuable exchange with the aim of turning potential customers into actual customers. What role does Social Media play in this process?

So, where does social media fit into all of this?

Well, social media is a highly effective method of generating leads. When deciding upon your social strategy, key focal areas often include brand awareness and engagement. Think of lead generation as the third element to a successful marketing mix. Through social media platforms and with careful, strategic planning and execution, it's possible to generate a higher quality and quantity of leads than elsewhere (including email marketing, content marketing, website, customer relationship management and search engine optimization).

If you’re looking for facts that show the potential of this medium, consider this: social media has reduced business costs by 45% on average and increased revenue by 24%. These platforms are not just for sharing and branding purposes, but also present a powerful channel to reach potential customers.

But remember, quality trumps quantity and this means that the interactions you create, need to be positive and the information exchanged needs to be of quality - i.e your offer needs to be satisfactory and their information needs to be accurate. This can be tricky in times of privacy concern, so you need to build trust and keep the data secure.

Your business needs to analyse these potential customers. They’re the people who are interested in your business (or don’t yet know that they’re interested). It’s your job to collect these ‘leads’ and offer them something of value in order to stay in touch with them. Once you have identified who your audience is, research to find out where they and how you can find them in the digital world. This, coupled with the specifics of your product or service, will help you to identify which social media channels to employ.

Once you’re in full swing, you need to ensure that you monitor all of the relevant stats carefully so that you can refine your processes for optimal results. Your primary considerations are that of effect and cost - the desired effect of the efforts you’re making and the associated costs with acquiring these leads.

Social media and leads

Generating leads

This is all about the business of acquiring new potential customers. It is not blindly targeting audiences, but ensuring that there is an exchange of information as this is where the potential for sales exists.

Nurturing leads

Once you’ve been successful in generating leads, you need to nurture them. The goal is for that exchange of information to remain (no unsubscribing or opting out). Developing these relations is key once they’ve been built for future purchases is the starting point of heading down the sales funnel.

Converting leads

This is the final step, where the potential is actualised and a purchase is made / contract is signed. Your business needs to ensure that this process is a positive one for the customer as this is what will lead to brand loyalty for sustained success.

Methods to generate social media leads

You should consider employing the following strategies to help you generate leads using social media:

Polls and surveys
Offers and promotional deals
Webinars
Gated content (such as eBooks)
Contests
Adverts

Optimal practices

Bot Automation: With highly advanced chatbots, you can streamline this process to increase your response time and manage your interactions with leads. Data can also be collected and stored so that your sales team can use any information shared during person-to-person sales interactions.
Community: Build your community, become part of relevant external communities and always encourage sharing to grow your network of potential leads.
Content distribution: The content can take many forms, from text to video, but it needs to be substantive so that it is compelling and increases your click through rates.
Account Based Marketing (ABM): When it comes to building quality leads, your targeting needs to be as precise as possible, which is what ABM is designed to achieve.
Optimisation: Your content and platforms need to be optimised so that your organic reach is optimal. Achieve this through the information you provide and the digital practices you use.
Incentives: Your incentives need to be strong enough to draw people in and add value to their lives. Failure to execute on this will result in less leads being generated.
Personalise: When trying to build the best possible relations, going the extra mile to cater to your leads can yield favourable results.

Key platforms:

Facebook: The most popular for lead generation with a reported 60 million active business pages, though it has lowest CPC rates. You can opt for one of three kinds of promotional methods on Facebook, with those being on-page, off-page and paid.
Twitter: Boost your business on Twitter with ads that make specific keywords.
LinkedIn: Arguably the best platform for B2B lead generation with more than 660 million users. You can make sure use of ads and highly precise targeting to generate leads.
Instagram: Reach thousands of people through targeted ads.
Snapchat: Depending on your target audience, Snapchat provides you with access to a younger, highly desirable audience for many brands.
TikTok: The new kid on the block, but a platform that boast incredible engagement metrics and a new, younger audience that value visual interaction.

There are a host of leads waiting for your business on social media. With the correct formula in place, these platforms can boost your customer base and grow your business. If the term ‘lead generation’ is not circulating in your social media strategy meetings, you’re missing out on profitable opportunities.

Audi Case Study

When Audi and other members of the VW Group need to sell cars in the UAE, they turn to Nexa. To promote sales of the Q3, Q5 and Q7 ranges, Nexa launched a series of campaigns to raise awareness of the car, its features enticing those interested in the cars to book test drives, and therefore, creating sales opportunities.

audi case study