Will your business be part of the Big 4%?
Volatility in the digital marketing landscape makes it vital to identify and engage qualified potential customers.
The impact is on businesses from retail, services, restaurants, B2C, and B2B. With media fragmentation and proliferation through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Google+, the competition is fierce for keeping your business relevant.
Take advantage of those who can help you reach buyers by taking a strategic approach to online lead generation. Be aware that not all strategies will work for all businesses and focus on only one or two areas at a time.
What follows are eight strategies you can use to generate qualified leads through social media engagement:
Strategy 1: Local Market
You have a unique opportunity in your neighborhood to begin an online lead generation strategy. By engaging people in the local communities where you operate, you can provide useful content related to those businesses and organizations. By providing helpful information, they will appreciate your efforts more than if it were promotional material. Most social media platforms make it easy to include links and images in your content.
These strategies will be valuable if the new social media manager is strategic in his/her approach. A social media manager must do the following:
The key is to engage your target audience.
Strategy 2: Offer Something of Value
If you can offer something of value, it will be much easier to get people interested in what you have to say. Instead of an advertisement, offer a blog post with tips on how businesses can achieve certain goals. This will be of much more value for your audience than a sales letter with a discount available to the first 50 callers!
Strategy 3: Be Witty, Not Okey Dokey
If you want to engage people in social media networking sites, avoid being boring. If you have to spend an hour responding to people’s comments, then your strategy is wrong from the start! It may take an hour to respond to all the comments, and you may not have that kind of time.
Strategy 4: Provide a Simple Call-to-Action
You want people to take one specific action when they read your post or comment. Know your goal, and make it very clear in the first few words of each post. Tell them exactly what you want them to do with an informative headline that is not a question.
Here are some options:
1. Subscribe to your blog
2. Like you on Facebook and Twitter (remember to reciprocate)
3. Leave a comment on your blog post
4. Forward the email to their friends
5. Share the content with other people on social media networking sites
Strategy 5: Have Fun!
Yes, you should be strategic. Social media is very powerful for engaging with people who are interested in what you have to say. However, if it’s all business all the time, people will tune out, and your strategy won’t matter as much. Don’t go overboard, but don’t turn every conversation into a lecture either.
Strategy 6: Be Consistent in Your Approach
The best way to do this is to integrate your approach from the beginning and be consistent with it. Don’t switch off posting on Facebook or Twitter, or Google+. If you want people to read what you have to say, stick with those channels where you have the most audience engagement.
Strategy 7: Join Groups on Social Media
One of the best ways to reach a large number of potential customers is through social media groups such as Facebook groups. You can also search for relevant forums that are centered around your products or services, but look out for spam! Forum participants will appreciate it if you provide value rather than just trying to sell something. They are generally much more tolerant of advertisements, but they would prefer that they not be the sole focus of your interactions with them.
Strategy 8: Be Creative With Your Images and Videos
Utilizing relevant images in social media posts can help engage your audience better than text alone. Video is also an excellent way to generate interest and engagement; however, keep it short! People will usually watch a video or two before moving on if they are interesting enough to skimp out on quality.
The best strategy for successful online lead generation is a combination of these ideas. These strategies have proven effective for businesses of many sizes because people love getting helpful information from people they trust.
Now you should have a better understanding of what it takes to be an effective social media manager. Don’t try to make every post and comment strategic, but do give some thought ahead of time about the best way to reach your audience. Remember that people want useful information from people they trust, not just advertisements!
