In online marketing, a lead means a contact with a prospect or potential customer. For many companies, a lead can be considered as any sales contact. While for some, it is already a prospective customer. Whatever the definition, a lead has the potential to be a client in the future. As such, it is the responsibility of the sales team to convert these leads into customers.
For online marketers, particularly the owners of small businesses, generating leads can expand their customer base, which will equate to business growth. It’s a fact the business growth is difficult to achieve. Therefore, having access to leads continuously is one of the means to ensure success. In marketing, a lead is a business or a person that has interest in the services or products another business is selling.
Marketers utilize a variety of methods to generate leads, one of which is through social media marketing. But marketing online is not that simple. It can be a meticulous process to ensure that every detail is studied and scrutinized. Nevertheless, when marketing on social media is properly executed, it can be a very valuable asset.
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Online lead generation
Do you have an idea why many companies are using the internet heavily for their marketing efforts? According to various statistics, more than half of internet users worldwide are using social media. A large portion of them uses social media daily, which provide huge amounts of data to each social media platform. This valuable data can be used for lead generation, so that businesses can directly reach their target audiences.
Implementing social media marketing tactics
Why do more and more marketers use social media platforms for marketing? One of the primary reasons is the relatively low cost they pay to market to their specific audience. With the availability of valuable data, a business only have to use data analysis to ensure that they can reach their core target audience quickly and measure the results immediately.
You have to understand the rudiments of social media marketing to ensure that you can develop more actionable strategies to turn leads into customers. Here’s one valuable secret. In online marketing, a lead does not only mean a person. It can be an ID, a phone number, or an address that can help the marketer to pinpoint their target market.
While it is easier to generate leads from various sources, what marketers should be after are quality leads.
After the clarifications and stating some facts, here are the steps to make your online marketing efforts generate plenty of leads.
Profile optimization
It is better if you can collect leads organically. Organic leads are the prospects who find your company when they search for answers, services or products using a search engine. They are different from the leads you can get through PPC (pay-per-click) ads or visiting your website directly. Organic leads are prospective customers who do not have any knowledge about your product or service before searching online.
Because they do not know you, make sure that you optimize your online profile and providing visitors easy access to your online shop, subscribing to your newsletter or receiving information from you.
Complete your contact information
When using social media for lead generation, ensure that you are providing web users and visitors all the pertinent information to contact you immediately. Make sure that your physical address, if any, phone numbers, email addresses, website URL, and social media links for all relevant platforms that your business uses are listed correctly.
Provide call-to-action buttons or links
Different social media platforms provide you with profile features that are unique to your business. You can use the different features to ensure that you are encouraging your prospects to act. For example, if you need more subscribers to your newsletter, you can use a ”Sign Up” button. If you provide services, add a “Get Tickets,” “Book Now,” or “Reserve Now” button. Make sure that the call-to-action button is easy to see and recognize.
Your bio should have a link
Aside from the call-to-action (CTA) buttons, you can increase the chances to visit your site by adding a link to your bio. The practice is prevalent on Instagram but it is likewise allowed on Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter. If space is available, add an explanation on why visitor should click the link and what they can expect when they do so.
Your content should be clickable
Use elements that appeal to target audience, whether it is through copy or images. Moreover, you can generate more leads by making your content clickable and that the place to click is clearly visible. Make your content appealingly dominant to stand above competition.
Your web pages should be user-friendly
Ensure that your landing pages are creatively appealing and optimized for SEO purposes. When a visitor clicks on a link, they expect to find an interesting landing page that will provide them the information they seek.
The content on the landing page should be relevant, containing the product or service information they want, which they should see immediately. Make the design of the landing page simple but direct the focus of the visitors to what you want them to see.
Boost lead generation with social lead ads
Support your organic lead generation with social lead ads to enhance your social media marketing efforts. Most of these social lead ads are bare or pre-filled forms, which you can link to your customer management system (CMS). If you do not have CMS, you can download the filled-up forms directly. Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn use forms. YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest use different methods.
Offer incentives
You can generate more leads by offering different incentives such as contests, discounts, product trial, or access to gated or exclusive content. Getting visitors to sign up to avail of the incentives you offer will provide you plenty of leads.
These are some of the steps to generate quality leads. Analyzing consumer demographics and preferences, and using the social media platforms that are relevant to your company, brand and the target audience you want to reach will help you boost your marketing efforts using social media.