by leadsift | Feb 28, 2013 | Blog
Engaging in social media can be one of the most effective ways to gain sales intelligence, identify leads, and drive sales. With channels like Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook continuously expanding their features for businesses and advertising, now is as good a time than ever to think about how your business can find and close leads using social media and here are six great ways that you can use social media to create and nurture an effective lead generation system using social media:
1. Blog helpful information
Since we are living in a time when there is information overload, marketers need to ensure that the information they are sharing is relevant to their audience.
Produce how-to content
People look for content that explains in a step-by-step design how to do a specific task. Connect this to your product and develop instructions about how to do something that is relevant to your audience.
Focus on the customers needs on an industry scale
Develop content that is related to your industry, not just your product or business. Presenting content that isn’t all about you can build trust and help customers connect with your brand.
Link to other useful content
It’s not all about you. One way to strengthen your relationship with your leads is to not only create your own helpful content, but also to direct people to other useful information that they may not have found otherwise.
2. Share peer referrals
Word of mouth is an old-school idea but social media has given it a new-school practice. Social media has amplified the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing, allowing anyone to find good, bad and ugly opinions about almost every product or service available.
3. Link back to your landing page for conversion
A landing page is often referred to as a lead conversion page. It’s the webpage that appears as a result of a click to an online ad or link. The landing page promotes a call to action by encouraging the visitor to do something once they arrive and it’s crucial to include links in the content you’re sharing.
4. Promote a strong call to action
If you want someone to do something you have to come right out and ask them to take a specific action.
The most effective call to actions will grab a hold of your attention with attractive and compelling visuals, witty or funny text, and also with an offer you can’t refuse, like special offers and discounts.
5. Promote offers
It’s safe to assume that visitors to your Facebook page and your Twitter followers are at least somewhat interest in your product or service. Use a relevant coupon, discount, or trial offer to encourage them to learn more about you and turn them into a lead.
6. Speak up
Nobody likes to be ignored. Always respond to people when they engage with you. Anytime someone tweets you, comments to your blog, or wants to connect with you, you should respond in return. And do it quickly. This demonstrates that you’re paying attention and that you care. This keeps you engaged with your network and helps you to build your potential leads.
by leadsift | Feb 17, 2013 | Blog
Last year, 82% of social media driven leads came from Twitter. An additional 9% came from Linkedin & 9% came from Facebook. There is no question that social media is presenting businesses around the world with new opportunities to connect with customers and make additional sales. Social media is presenting businesses with an opportunity to not only turn prospects into customers but customers into raving brand advocates.
When developing your marketing plan and strategy for the upcoming year, it’s important to think about the role social media leads will play in the mix. Social media can not only drive relevant web traffic to your site but also present an opportunity to convert those in the midst of a purchasing decision. Using social media monitoring, content marketing, influencer outreach, and ongoing networking, you will have the ability to generate leads like never before.
Managing multiple social media channels and looking out for leads can be like riding on a roller coaster. While the experience can often be filled with the excitement of closing ten deals in a row, there will be moments when you look around and can’t help but be nervous about what’s coming up next. Whether it’s a customer looking to switch service providers or someone talking negative about your brand; it’s important to keep your head on straight and always look for ways to improve your ability to close and generate leads through social media.
To help you with the ongoing roller coaster, here are 27 easy ways to generate social media leads:
– Create a Twitter account and follow people talking about your brand
– Create Content that is worth talking about & sharing
– Develop a brand presence that people recognize
– Use relevant hashtags on Twitter when sharing blog posts
– Offer products & service for free in exchange for contact info
– Focus on retaining existing customers through superior service
– Engage in relevant & organic conversation with people on Twitter
– Use Facebook as a channel to spread your message more effectively
– Share updates on discounts, offers, deals and specials
– Join conversations happening within Linkedin Groups
– Optimize your website for mobile & tablet visitors
– Blog about items that your audience will find interesting & important
– Recognize and embrace soft leads just as well as hard leads
– When sharing content on Facebook ensure that your brand is present
– Optimize your sales purchasing funnel for effectiveness
– Use Quora to answer questions about your industry, business & interests
– Measure and optimize results from various channels
– Do not limit yourself to a channel because it’s popular
– Understand & utilize Linkedin & Rapporative if you’re in B2B
– Develop a CRM process that is scalable and optimized for ROI
– Look for conversations that are tied to customer churn
– Build relationships with editors at the media channels your audience reads
– Embrace two way conversation between you and your customers
– Demonstrate the personality behind the brand through Twitter
– Answer and respond to high-risk inquiries and comments
– Use social advertising when necessary to increase brand awareness
– And lastly, use a Social Lead Generation application to make it simpler!
What are some of your secrets to generating quality social media leads?
by leadsift | Jan 8, 2013 | Blog
The big question with respect to generating, developing and converting leads, is: How do you get them to take action?
How do you get the user to provide you with the email for you to follow up with or the phone number for you to call? Without simply identifying potential leads for your business; a variety of tactics can be implemented for your business to find success. The key is ensuring that you’re not coming across too much like a used car salesman.
Here are a three ideas for you to implement and inject into your lead development system:
Provide Value First and Foremost
No matter what industry you are in, there are customers, competitors, and potential leads looking for information about it. For example if you are in the telecommunications industry, there may not be too many telecommunications blogs, but there are millions of people with an interest in your technology.Whether it’s a forum about iPhone, Android or Blackberry – There is no shortage in the number of people interested in the products you offer.
This insight is where you are presented with an opportunity to be seen as a leader and provide valuable content. Organizations that are able to recognize and embrace the idea of sharing valuable content have an easier road in driving a consumer from potential lead to happy customer. For example, consider the opportunity presented to a sales team in this industry when they are provided with a report on mobile security within governments. By simply creating this report, each sales professional now has an advantage over competition when presenting and following up with potential leads within the government.
When you have something worth talking about, people will listen. Embrace great content and arm your sales team with the opportunities they need to share value with those around them.
Embrace Social Conversion
One thing that is often missed out on is the understanding of social conversion.
Jeffrey Cohen and Kipp Bodnar, authors of The B2B Social Media Book, talk about the idea of social proof and how people want to feel safe when they have anxiety or feel uncomfortable. They explain that online, people are always anxious; they want answers, they want solutions and they want real time results. When a lead is looking for something new and shiny; it’s clear that this is a time when they’re feeling anxious. Thus, it’s recommended that marketers embrace the idea generating strong ties with their leads before trying to push them further down the funnel.
Marketers and business owners must realize that generating leads through social media is about more than simply asking a lead for their contact info. It’s about various steps to build a strong tie, establish expertise, and track/optimize for results along the way. Converting a lead on social media isn’t going to happen over night (unless you follow the instructions below). It requires effort. The most important piece of the puzzle for social conversion is establishing trust with your lead. If a lead doesn’t know who you are or what your business stands for; you will find it difficult to make the sale. Thus, you need to have laser focus on the customer problem and provide valuable content, along with a business offering that consistently demonstrates leadership and expertise.
How to Develop Expertise:
Consumers need to trust you before they buy from you. They need to believe your story and truly understand the value proposition in which your company is offering them. Before you can draw new leads through social media, you need to build a community of people who will be willing to tell your story for you. Consider it your army of brand advocates who not only adore your product but are willing to provide you with testimonials and further show your authority in your industry. To accomplish this, it’s important to create high quality content and provide a high quality service or product.
A great example of an organization that has built their expertise through content marketing is Kissmetrics. They’ve continuously published great content ranging from 4 Hot Analytics Trends That Are Effective And Profitable to The Psychology of Why Sexy Websites Suck at Sales and have been able to position themselves as one of the best in their industry.
Drive Users Back To Your Content
There has recently been a huge increase in the number of brands who simply share funny photos or memes on their Facebook pages. While we understand the importance of creating content that can go viral and spark an increase in a brands Edgerank; we also recognize the importance of converting these users into sales.
There’s most certainly a thin line between promotional content and organic content but once you find the perfect mix; you’re golden. For example, we suggest that you ensure that your twitter stream has a solid balance of both retweets from partners, clients and stakeholders. You also want your Twitter stream to be filled with content that your target audience will find relevant and interesting. When sharing this content you wan’t the majority of these posts to drive users to your own website. Your website is still one of the most important pieces in closing the sales funnel. The key is to ensure that the content on your site helps facilitate a users transition from one part of the funnel to the next.
Do you have tip, example of another approach to move leads down the funnel? Let us know in the comments below.
