miércoles, 16 de noviembre de 2016

5 Strategies: The Power of Social Media to Generate B2B Leads

To define the high-quality leads, you need to weed out the bad ones. Don’t waste time collecting on unqualified leads. You always want to concentrate your efforts on the leads that are most likely to say “yes” to your product or service.

With several social media platforms continuing to rule internet marketing and lead generation world, they are one of the most consistent ways to gain high-quality potential customers you should be devoting your attention to.

With this reassurance, how do we now proceed with lead generation through social media? Here are 5 strategies to help you get started.

1. Align your business with the right social media channel

Not all social media platforms will be compatible with your business. The ideal social media for you depends on your target demographics as each social media platform also has their specific audiences. First determine which platform is best for your business and select just one to start with. If you try to focus on too many networks at once you will find it very challenging to achieve consistent results. Once you find what work then you can scale it and move on to the next one.

2. For B2B leads, start with LinkedIn

It only makes sense to concentrate your B2B efforts on LinkedIn given that it is the platform most professionals network and connect on.

To generate high-quality leads, you will need to grow your own network by connecting with others as you would in other social media channels. The difference here is that, unlike Twitter or Facebook, you are not here to socialize as is anyone else. LinkedIn is where professionals go to further their careers or business, and not connect with people who share a similar hobby.

Optimize your profile with a professional-looking headshot. A white background would be ideal. Corporate attire is recommended but smart casual works as long as you look clean and put together. You don’t need a trained photographer as most camera phones these days already take impressive photos.

Polish off your profile with an impressive “professional headline” and well-structured summary that is easy to read and engaging. Just because this is a professional network doesn’t mean your summary needs to be lacking in personality.

Create your own group:

Do you sell products to retail companies? You could create a group for leaders in the retail industry.

Are you a supplier to local businesses? You could create a group that has your location in the group name.

Do you sell products to marketers? Create a group for marketers.

Once you’ve created a group, you will need to target the right people to invite to your group. Invite potential leads, and eventually, you can connect to their connections who are likely to be from the same industry.

Breathe life into your group by posting relevant content.

Creating your list of high-quality leads:

LinkedIn has a little under half a billion users. It’s not impossible to challenge yourself to compile a list of 500 – 1,000 potential customers. To find them:

  •    Click the “Advanced” link located on the side of the search bar at the top
  •    Narrow down your results by Title, Location, and Industry

What you’re looking for are CEOs, Founders, or even Marketing Managers – anyone who holds a high enough position to make judgments on switching suppliers or vendors.  

B2B marketing comes with plenty of challenges and reaching the actual decision-makers of a company is one of them, but this is where your efforts on LinkedIn can pay off.  

Remember that group you created earlier? If you were to reach out to your list of leads now with your title to say that you were the founder of the group that they are now also a member of they will perceive you as more of a peer vs. someone trying to sell them something.

3. Connecting with your potential leads directly. Offer freebies of your product.

For your LinkedIn prospects, open with a convincing message inviting them to connect with you. Mention that you feel that your connection will be beneficial to both parties. Alternatively, you can check out their profile first and find something you have in common. It could be that you went to the same university or live in the same state.

Once they’ve approved the connection, continue to engage with them. When you feel the time is right, offer them a free sample of your product or service.

4. Investing in lead-generation on Facebook

Generating any usable leads via Facebook is going to require you to spend. Fortunately, Facebook ads are half the price per click compared to Adwords. Sure, there are free services you can use on Facebook that can help you reach your target market but just like any other method, you’ll get optimum results with their paid tools.

Facebook’s paid advertising process, when done right, can generate valuable leads for you. This method identifies your target market based on everything from age bracket, gender, location, educational level, and profile interest.

You decide if you want to promote your products or services directly or simply create a lead generation sales and marketing funnel. Lastly, you can split test everything from your ad messages to interests and images.

5. The new player in lead-generation – Twitter

Twitter may not be the favored channel for B2B lead-generation but there’s no harm is covering every angle. Twitter now allows businesses like yours to show specific Tweets to your target audience even if they don’t follow you.

The catch? You have to pay. Consider it advertising.

And to make it interesting, Twitter urges businesses to create ads that Twitter followers will most likely favorite, comment on, and retweet by introducing a quality score.

Much like Facebook, Twitter offers target marketing. Your ad will be seen based on your specified criteria. You can reach a specific audience by choosing the “add tailored audiences” under “add interests.” Tailored audience will allow you to create a list of ideal users that you can target on Twitter. Adding that tailored audience to your campaign settings mean you can now target them with specific Tweets.

Conclusion

You can expect to generate substantial leads when your practice the strategies we’ve mentioned. Lead generation with social media isn’t about luck, hoping that the perfect leads will be at the right place at the precise time that you post your ads. It is about doing the research and formulating a plan based on a combination of proven tactics that will work for you and your business.

If you have anything to add or need to learn more about lead generation and social media, feel free to connect with us here.

Jason Gordon, Founder – Strong Social



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