How To Use Social Media To Gain More Leads

Social media is a great channel for promoting your brand since it lets you communicate directly with your target audience. Your posts can educate, inform your audience about new releases, promotions and discount codes and engage them. 

However, that engagement doesn’t always translate to sales. Find out how to use social media to gain more leads by reading this article. 

Find your target audience

The most common mistake brands make when it comes to social media is choosing social media channels based on their preferences. You can’t just start posting on Twitter expecting your audience to come to you. 

The right way to go about it is to find out where your audience is and go to them. 

You can do that with social listening. It’s the practice of monitoring social media platforms for mentions of your brand, competitors and keywords. 

This means that you can track what is being said about your brand in real-time. Data like this is valuable because it can help you understand where your audience is (which social media platforms they use) and whether they like your products and services. 

Lastly, you can use social listening to keep an eye on your competitors. Analyze their approach and find gaps in their social media strategy that you can utilize in yours. 

Once you know where your audience spends time, make sure to learn all there is to know about the platform. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the same type of content can work on all channels. 

The content you post should feel native to the platform. For example, LinkedIn users prefer longer format posts that help start a discussion, while Instagram prefers visual content with shorter text. 

Optimize your profile

Have you ever looked up a brand on social media and immediately felt underwhelmed? It could be because they have a single post which is a grainy image or because figuring out what they sell is simply impossible. 

Sometimes even the biggest brands get lazy and open a social media page they never commit to. 

Don’t make that mistake by making sure that your profiles are optimised and provide all the needed information. 

Your profile should have this information:

• A link to your website
• A clear overview of your brand, as well as the thing you sell
• A way for interested parties to contact you
  

That way, potential customers can easily educate themselves on your solution and purchase your products and services without having to speak to your customer service. 

This is a great way to create a self-serving platform that does the lead generation for you. 

However, this isn’t something you can only do once. You’ll have to reoptimize your social media pages regularly to make sure they reflect any changes in the market. 

Create engaging content

The best way to ensure lead generation on social media is with engaging content. If you’re lazy when it comes to content creation, no one will click on it. It’s as simple as that. 

The first rule of great social media content is having a great design team. If you’re selling a product, you’ll need high-quality pictures to seal the deal. Promoting services is more of a challenge, but can be done effectively with short how-to videos. 

Once you have your photos, videos, infographics and other visual content ready, it’s time to focus on the sales copy. 

It should be impactful, short and provide enough information for people to click. Of course, non of this is set in stone. The best way to figure out the exact formula that best works for you is to test different content types. 

However, one thing that is a must, no matter the social media channel or the length of your content is being able to explain the benefits of your solution. 

Does it help save time? Can it increase revenue? Whatever the benefits may be, outline them in your posts. 

Understanding how to post lead-generating posts on social media is important, but that can’t be the only type of content you post. 

You also need to create educational content that isn’t strictly salesy. The old rule was 20% of promotional content and 80% of other content. Nowadays, the numbers are a bit closer to each other. 

A great way to figure out how much promotional content you want to post is to work out a monthly content plan. It will help you understand what your frequency of posting should be.

From there work out how much educational content and low-value content like memes you will post.  

Make the most of social media communities

The more niche your products and services are, the more effort it takes to find your target audience. 

A great way to do this is with Facebook groups. Think about it - Facebook groups consist of people who are interested in a specific topic and want to learn more about it. Since there is a genuine shared interest, the engagement rate of Facebook groups is usually better than the engagement rate of Facebook pages. 

Research shows that top Facebook groups have an engagement rate of over 80%, which is reason enough for you to create your own community. 

In the start, you’ll have to do the majority of the posting, but over time, you’ll see that the members of the group will start asking questions and helping each other. 

Not only is a Facebook group great for engagement, but also for sales. You can utilize tried and tested sales techniques like scarcity and first access. 

Whenever you launch a new product or feature, make sure that the Facebook group is the first place you announce it. That way, your group members won’t just feel special, but will also be inclined to buy or upgrade. 

Also, periodically ask them for their input on your solution. That way, you’re letting them know that their opinion matters to you. 

Everybody likes to be heard, so make sure you’re letting your audience know that you value them. With a staggering 4.8 billion users, social media has become an omnipresent force, shaping the way individuals connect, share and engage in a digital era. 

Make sure your landing pages do their jobs

Once your leads click through to your website, they need to be presented with a very easy conversion funnel. 

This means that you should have a dedicated landing page for every product and service you offer. All the content on that page needs to be valuable and relevant. There is no space for fluff on these types of landing pages. 

Since the potential customers are looking to read a bit about the product or service, that information should be easy for them to find. 

Make sure you’re spending some time on the website copy. It needs to entice people to buy. The best way to do so is by outlining the benefits of your solution. 

It should be as personalized as you can make it. Write about real issues and provide examples. 

When creating the copy for your landing pages, make sure there is enough information on them for people to complete the purchase, as well as links to other pages for those leads that are still indecisive. 

Utilize lead-generation ads

Organic traffic isn’t enough. If you want to be serious about your social media pages, you need to invest a sizable budget in advertising. 

The budget will depend on your product and service, the market as well as the social media channel. While you can get a good return on investment with just a few bucks on Instagram, you’ll need a much larger budget for LinkedIn. 

The rule of thumb is - the better you can target your audience, the more expensive the ad will be. A high cost-per-action(CPA) doesn't necessarily mean your campaign isn't working well. If your ads are targeting the right audience who is more likely to take the expected action, whether it's a click, purchase, or view-depending on your goals, a higher CPA could make sense because it might bring in more profits compared to what you spent. 

Once you have your platform picked out, it’s time to focus on the lead generation ads. They are basically ads that come with pre-populated forms, making it easy for people to sign up for your service quickly. 

This helps you speed up your sales cycle. If you're targeting consumers, then Facebook lead ads are the right choice. For targeting a B2B audience, you can use LinkedIn for lead generation.

Research shows that lead generation forms on LinkedIn have on average a 13% conversion rate while landing pages average at about 2.35%. When possible, make sure that your forms allow smart message chains, which further speed up the process. 

Key takeaways

Using social media channels to generate new leads shouldn’t be too hard, especially if you follow our guide. For starters, make sure you know your audience and where they like to spend their time. 

After that, optimise your profile and start posting engaging content. There should be a good harmony between salesy, educational and fun content on your pages. 

In order to make the best of your content, create social media groups that will raise your visibility amongst your target audience. Lastly, optimize your landing pages and create engaging ads that help you convert.