A field of change: contemporary marketing.
The marketing landscape is a perpetually changing scene, the only constant in this industry is that it will inevitably change. What once was an in-print advertorial is now a lifestyle blogger with 300k Facebook followers capable of mass promoting a brand by posting a single photograph with a #hashtag. It’s challenging to stay current in this dynamic environment to say the least.
A relatively new frontier is the social media sphere. A sphere where one in seven people in the entire world reside. Take a moment to think about that, one-in-seven human beings on this planet utilizes social media platforms, like Facebook. Now how are you going to harness the power of this considerably large group of potential customers?
Most marketers think of social media as a way of building a brand. While they are correct, this methodology is limiting the scope of reach available to businesses worldwide. A steady flow of leads most definitely can come from social media, it is far more than just a way to build a brand and engage with your community. Social media is still one of the most powerful channels for building a brand and generating buzz, and now it is progressively used for lead generation.
The efficient marketing dollar.
Social media is a cost effective method of generating leads. Bringing people into your sales funnel is what lead generation is all about. Lead generation is very similar to an intelligence agency gathering data on their users. As marketers, this data about the leads is used to find out who the target audience is, which products you could sell to them, and how you can eventually turn them into paying customers.
Today, methods of generating leads include distributing gated content, email opt-ins, viral video marketing, and social media – all aimed at landing the leads into your sales funnel. With the ability to execute these tasks online, it is now quicker, more effective, easier to track, and cost efficient.
Ready, set, goal.
By now I hope you’ve gathered social media is a powerful lead generation platform that runs on minimum cost with maximum benefits. But, you can’t start any type of marketing without a goal. This is an opportune time to sit with your team, a diverse group of employees from different departments preferably, and create a set of lead identification goals.
Specific questions to ask:
- How many leads and in what period of time?
- Who is your lead, who do you want as a lead?
- What does a perfect lead look like?
- How would you attract this perfect lead?
Once goal parameters are initiated and decided upon, it’s time to focus on a strategy on how to get those leads.
Content content content.
Before embarking on the quest for more leads, you must first chart your plan, in other words you need to create a content strategy. Said strategy should focus on creating content for your website, blog, and all social media channels. But not just any content will do. Create content that is purpose driven; content created for content’s sake not only diminishes the credibility of your brand, but wastes time. Instead of turning out 5 blog posts a week, write 1 great post – the time spent on it will reflect the caliber of your business. Every team member involved in writing content should be a part of the content strategy creation plan, this will motivate everyone to create content that is purpose driven. A lead generating plan will be less successful if the quality of your content is questionable or not purpose driven.
Share great content.
Capturing leads on social media is not as simple as posting a newsletter signup link on your Facebook page. If you want to turn a lead into a prospect, you’re going to have to dedicate work to it. And that means creating and sharing great content. Great content implements imagery, graphic design, video, audio, is relevant to your audience, and inspires them to engage with it.
Use social media to tell stories. You’ve already outlined in the content strategy plan that you intend to create great content that will generate leads. How you deliver this content is just as important. The unique thing about social media is that it’s, well, social. People are sharing, telling stories, shouting their accomplishments from their virtual rooftops. Take advantage of this by crafting and delivering your content in a way that mimics what is already happening on the social channel. Tell a story. Don’t talk at people on social media, talk with them. Ask for feedback, engage with the community in an organic way, and your content will perform better.
Peer-to-peer.
With one in every seven people on this planet on social media, there’s inevitably going to be a lot of sharing. Social media is a place where most people feel safe to share information. People readily share information from an array of subjects – from whom they’re voting for to what type of organic peanut butter they’re into.
Marketers have the ability to cater each campaign to a very specific group of people based on this open sharing platform. But with more information comes a big change. Social marketing is shifting away from company-to-buyer messaging. The new shift is in the empowerment of the individual, where influence reigns supreme. Peer-to-peer influence marketing is where current customers become brand advocates. Leveraging the power of this communication delivers increased brand authenticity at little to no cost to you, and it is one of the most credible forms of advertising.
Facebook news feed.
Facebook’s news feed uses an algorithm to determine which posts get displayed on a user’s news feed, their personal homepage on the network. Why is this important? In order for a lead generating campaign to be successful, you have to get your content in front of the people you created it for. It doesn’t matter if your team spent 20 hours crafting an award winning promotional video, if it doesn’t land in your potential leads news feed, there’s a big chance it will be missed entirely.
So how do you get your posts to appear? This algorithm is under constant construction, but like Google, it always responds to the users engagement. The word engagement is thrown around social media frequently, it’s importance is highly underrated. Engagement with your content is what will make your content, well, for lack of better words, more engaging. Basically, the more users interact with your content, the more it will show up on the news feed, where more people in their networks will be able to see it, and in turn, engage with it themselves. If engagement with the content is low, Facebook drops it from the news feed, where it will then live in your business page forever, or until you delete it.
Here are some other factors that the algorithm considers:
- Affinity: How close is the relationship between the user and content?
- Weight: What type of action was taken on the content?
- Decay: How current is the content?
- Post Types: What types of posts does a user typically interact with?
- Hide Post/Spam: What types of posts does a user usually hide or mark as spam?
- Clicking on Ads: Do users interact with the ad?
- Device Considerations: Can multiple devices handle your content?
- Story Bumping: A post may be older, but is it still being interacted with?
When creating your initial content strategy, take this news feed scenario into consideration. Don’t overcomplicate it. The type of content you create should relay your message, but consider making it fun, engaging, and native to the social channel.
Boosting your visibility.
So you must be wondering, can we buy our way into the news feed? Why, yes, yes you can. You can promote a post aka boost it. The amount you invest in boosting depends on how many people you want to reach. In this case more is not necessarily better, it depends on your content strategy, and marketing objectives.
Not only does promoting your post boost visibility, it extends the life of the post. With more visibility, comes more responsibility, and that means making sure there is a strong call to action in the post. A strong CTA can be anything from asking followers to download an asset, or fill out a quick form, or engage in a contest – whichever the CTA, just make sure there is one.
Invest a little more.
Facebook was launched in 2004, advertising on the platform was introduced one year later. Facebook advertising is a unique method of digital advertising, as no other portion of your marketing budget can mimic the potential value of social advertising. The concepts we touched upon earlier, like peer-to-peer influences, current customers becoming brand advocates, word-of-mouth, are all intensified through advertising. When someone sees that a friend already likes a product or service that came across their news feed, the barriers to entry are lowered, and trust in the brand is increased.
Facebook advertising is most effective when marketers take what is already being said about the product, and scream it from their proverbial virtual rooftop. It is word-of-mouth, propelled. With Facebook ads, users see the ads on a regular basis, they also get to see if their friend likes it too. Over a short period of time users get to see your ad multiple times, developing familiarity with your brand. This builds a level of trust and comfort, ultimately relieving some of the pressure for your website or landing page to deliver the message and immediately perform.
Facebook ads make people talk about your business. It creates brand advocates, influencers, and builds word-of-mouth. The ads on Facebook not only help you generate leads, but they help you build a long-lasting trusting relationship with your customer.
Lookalike audiences and predictive analytics, it’s fun stuff.
You know how when you own a minivan, all of a sudden you see hundreds of minivans on the road? Lookalike audiences is Facebook’s way of re-creating this phenomena. When you create an advertising campaign on Facebook, you have the option to reach people similar to your known audience, using a technique called “lookalike” audiences. Using your customer relationship management tool (CRM) to import a database, or list, of prospective clients, this tool allows you to create a segmented list composed of qualified identification information, like social handles and emails. Facebook then creates a “lookalike” audience using fancy algorithms. From there, you and your team can craft a specific marketing campaign to this lookalike audience, and tailor it however you’d like. Technology, man.
I bet you’re wondering where the bulleted tips section is? See below.
Quick tips for social media lead generation
- Organic traffic needs help; don’t be afraid to invest a portion of your marketing budget into social
- Develop incredible content
- Create strong and friendly call-to-actions
- Always add value
- Never forget that social is a two-way street
- Tag relevant influencers
- Post your content in relevant groups and communities
- Develop a strategy before posting content
- Know your target market
- Engage, respond to comments, questions, and messages
- Use industry leaders as guest writers to help build your content
- Cross promote from your page, your other social channels, from partners, and at every chance you get
- Reach out to industry partners, develop sharing partnerships
- Take analytics seriously
Fun and sophisticated.
Social media platforms are becoming more and more sophisticated. Marketers now have an immense amount of opportunities to strategically attract leads. Gone are the days of simply building a following. The appeal of social media marketing is focused on turning those followers into warm leads, and these leads genuinely trust what you have to say, and are interested in hearing from you. So go get ‘em tiger!
Need help with your social strategy? Our team at Ajax is here to help you in using social media to generate leads. Contact an Ajax Union representative today!
