So you want to generate leads through social media, but you don’t know how. Or maybe you have a strategy in place, but are looking to improve it. Thankfully, Social Media Today and SharpSpring have partnered up to bring us the latest findings from their State of Social Lead Generation report.
Whether you’re a big corporation or a small business, here are the key takeaways you must know about generating leads through social media.
Strategy:
In order to improve your business’s lead generation, it’s important to include three key components, regardless of different business objectives.
- Offers: Offers are beneficial towards lead generation as they offer an incentive for potential consumers to interact with your brand. Offers don’t have to be discounts, and instead can be anything that generates added value, such as white papers, access to online events, and more. Social Media today suggests combining an offer with a call to action to “expand the relationship beyond generic social engagement.”
- CTA’s: CTA’s are essential since they serve as a guide for consumers to behave the way you want them to. The saying goes, if you don’t ask, the answer is always no. CTA’s provide the opportunity for increased engagement with your brand by asking consumers to take the next step is towards conversion.
- Follow up Messaging: Follow up messaging is important since it helps businesses continue establishing their relationships with potential consumers. It’s important to have a defined follow up process, depending on different types of responses that potential consumers may have. Things to take into consideration when creating this process are follow up frequency, as well as tone. One other recommendation from Social Media Today is to maintain a personal tone while following up with your audience.
Social Media Platforms:
- While different platforms may be better suited for different business objectives, over all Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram were the top performing social media platforms for lead generation. Facebook took the lead with 82% ranking, while LinkedIn ranked at a 48%, and Instagram ranked at 43%.
- Snapchat held the lowest position at 4%.
- Facebook’s success can be attributed to best ad options and tools for generating leads.
- LinkedIn’s high ranking can be attributed to its appeal to B2B audiences.
Content:
- According to this report, the best type of content for generating leads are still images, videos, and blog posts.
- 41% of people reported that still images were the most effective content type for lead generation, with video following behind at 40%
- 11% of reported stories to be their most effective lead generation content type. While this ranking is relatively low to still image and video, it is predicted that stories are on the rise for lead generation.
- For websites, blogs and videos were closely tied for types of content with more lead generation. Blog posts held 40% of votes while videos held 38% of votes.
The social media landscape is everchanging, and as we adapt to the future of social, it’s important to stick to what we know while maintaining an open mind to new findings and insights. As we wait to see what new technologies and tools will be available to us to improve our lead generation, it’s also important to truly understand what tools we have at hand and how we can best use them to reach our target audiences. As long as we take a strategic approach that is aligned with our business goals, messaging, and values by establishing processes and best practices, there is plenty opportunity for growth and improvement in this area of marketing.
source: www.socialmediatoday.com