For a long time, B2B brands have disregarded the business value that social media offers. They would frown upon networks where funny cat video reigned supreme. Well, those days are gone. Social media has evolved into a booming marketing frontier, where businesses of all shapes and sizes flock.
Among the main reasons for this boom, lead generation stands out. According to Hubspot, social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than inbound marketing, which is rather impressive. The only problem is that setting up your profiles and then waiting for prospects to come to is a strategy that does not cut it.
Social media is a tumultuous landscape that never sleeps— conversations take place around the clock. These interactions are also built on the foundations of mutual trust and benefit. Thus, if you really mean business, you have to take action and form a solid marketing plan. The main objective is spur not high volume of not just any leads, but sale-ready, qualified ones.
Here is how to make it happen.
Fine-tune your profile
One of the first things to do is to optimize your profile page.
First of all, make it easy for people to find and reach you out. Typically, businesses add their addresses, working hours, brief summaries and other information to the “About Us” section. Upon doing that, they proceed to highlight their compelling value proposition and killer calls-to-action (CTA).
The good news is that networks like Facebook allow for an easy integration of CTA buttons.
Furthermore, engage in some search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure your page shows up high in SERPs. Confirm that the business name you are using is the one that most clients associate you with and check whether it matches the URL. Include links to your website’s landing or product pages to create a powerful synergy between two prime pieces of digital real estate.
If you struggle to grasp any of the technical requirements or implement different tactics, make sure to sift through the leading digital marketing companies, learn from them or even ask for help. You should be able to boost your brand visibility, consistency, and recognition. In other words, investment at this early point pays rich dividends down the road.
Targeting with laser precision
Moving on, take advantage of advanced targeting tools, as well as social listening and management platforms like Google Alerts. They are highly effective in picking up conversations, hashtags, keywords, and brand mentions.
The goal here is to obtain pertinent information, one that enables you to craft buyer personas — profiles of ideal customers and traits that define them. That way, you gain a much-needed context and are able to offer your expertise, products, or resources at precisely the right moment.
Note that you can include a wide array of elements into personas, such as occupation, education level, demographics, content preferences, online habits, size of the company, etc. The more specific you manage to get, the better it will be for personalizing your marketing.
Once that is sorted out, you can launch paid social programs geared toward high conversion rates. For example, come up with enticing offsets and promotions: offer a freemium version of your product via social media posts. This is a great way to prove you care about customers and have real value to show up for it. If you want to further increase your reach and drive more results from your paid social programs, you can use a tool like Rebrandly URL Shortener to grow your retargeting audience with people who have never been to your website. The way this works is by adding a pixel to any link that you share, and regardless of whether or not it’s pointing to your website, anyone who clicks on that link will be added to your retargeting audiences.
Besides, if the product is good, it will basically start selling itself but it can’t hurt to get in front of as many people as possible.
Content marketing
Recent years have proven that cotenant marketing is of the most reliable ways to pierce through the immense noise out there. But, before you start crafting it, notice that you have to back your efforts with data. Namely, do a thorough research and build a content strategy around real needs and wants of people, topics they find important and relevant.
The ultimate trick is not only to add value to people’s lives, but also to gain something in return. The method which allows you to do that is called content gating. Namely, you set a certain condition for users to gain access to your content. Most commonly, brands require people to provide contact information, which is invaluable to the process of fostering leads.
Just bear in mind that gated content could put some clients off and reduce your readership. Hence, it is a good idea to strike a fine balance between gated and public content. Bottom of the funnel is better suited for delivering gated content, especially if it comes in the form of webinars, eBooks, and data sheets.
One other thing to realize is that reading an article or watching a video usually does not ignite a burning desire to purchase a product. This is to say that content is just one stage of the buyer journey, typically aligned with the top of the sales funnel. To keep things moving toward a purchase, use acquired information to target prospects with personalized emails and offers.
Contests and giveaways
Social media contests are another vital tool in the digital arsenal, complementing most marketing initiatives. When equipped with interesting hooks, they are highly effective vehicles for improving brand recognition, extending marketing reach, and generating a ton of leads.
From the standpoint of the latter goal, you should embrace a target instead of a scattergun approach once more. Consider sweepstakes and giveaways and let only those who have handed over contact information take part. Another fruitful tactic is to encourage people to submit their own content and receive rewards for that.
In all these instances, ponder ways of creating buzz and interest around the event— carry out well-target paid promotion. At last, make sure you come up with prizes your audience actually finds alluring. Giving away free iPhone is sure to strike a chord better than offering a few months of free subscription.
And if this seems like too much, remember that the benefits of contests and giveaways are two-fold. Firstly, you get a chance to drive engagement and see prospects turning into your brand ambassadors. Secondly, you gain a pool of user-generated content you can draw statistics and insights from and then use them to improvise your future campaigns. You could say it is a true win-win.
Conclusion
Those seeking to take their lead generation efforts to the next level should not look further than social media. This cost-effective lead generation platform has the potential to amplify your messages and extend the reach of your efforts.
Check out: Efficient Ways to Generate Leads with Social Media [The Ultimate Guide]
To come on top, though, there is a lot of ground to cover. Start by optimizing your profile pages and learn to listen to what is going on in your B2B sector. Develop a deeper understanding of your target audience and use crucial insights to address pain points and solve practical issues. Join in on the conversations and offer a steady stream of content.
Feel free to explore novelty and innovative tactics like contests and giveaways. Remain flexible and see to it that marketing and sales teams are working hand in hand, with the same goal in mind. Following these critical steps, you should be able to unlock the full power of social media.
It is time to maximize the ROI and elevate your bottom line.
Daniel Bishop
Content Consultant
Online consulting was perfect for him as he is very social and loves to travel. Settling down in Europe, for the time being, he finally found his place as a junior editor for Design Rush a B2B marketplace connecting brands with agencies. Always searching for new opportunities, he loves sharing ideas with other professionals in the digital community.