Do you want to generate inbound leads for your business? Are you unsure about where and how to focus your efforts to meet your lead generation goals?
If you’re looking to generate sales lead successfully, you need to go where the people are. And currently, everybody seems to be on social media. At first glance, social media looks like a place for friends and family members to share pictures of their daily outings – which is true to some degree – as social media is about connecting people digitally through conversation. With the average Facebook user spending 6.35 hours a month on the social platform, and 260 million active users on Twitter, you cannot afford to avoid social media.
Social media is possibly the single best way to promote your brand. If you do the right things, social media will let you create genuine relationships with your prospective customers – and drive massive product and service sales. At least 58% of brands who have been using social media for three years or longer state that it has helped them boost sales.
Here are 5 secrets to help you generate huge returns from social media
1. Know and engage with your audience
People join social networking websites to socialize. They don’t want to be bombarded with advertisements. You should treat your social media accounts like you would your mailing list. Be personal, be engaging and be human. Always remember to reply to customer comments. On social media, you need to talk with people – not at them. By engaging with your audience you can build a real relationship with them. These relationships lead to sales – if people like you and trust what you say, then they’re much more likely to buy your products or services. Pay attention to what your fans are telling you. Talk with them online, help them out, solve their problems and answer their questions. Your goal is to let people know that you care and have something of value to offer. Be passionate about this – if you show a genuine interest in your audience and let your personality shine through, your followers will pick up on this and respond the same way.
2. Focus on benefits, not features
There’s a saying in the marketing world – sell the sizzle, not the steak. When you talk about your products or services, focus on benefit your customer would receive from choosing your brand, not the characteristics or features of your product are service. Your audience wants to know what you can do for them, not how many buttons it has. It is difficult at first to really understand the distinction, so to get this right, it is crucial that you spend time getting to know your audience and what motivates them. If you’re selling to consumers, show how your products make their life better. If you’re selling to businesses, talk about how your products solve business problems. For instance, the gas mileage on a car is a feature; the amount of money you can save on gas is a benefit. Pockets on the front of a sweater is a feature, having a place for your keys and keeping your hands warm in the winter are both benefits. Every one of your features can be turned into a benefit with a little practice and doing so will also help you better understand what your audience is looking for in a product like yours. This will assist you in reaching your audience, making sure they understand your message and ultimately this helps you sell your product or service.
3.Use images and video
People on social media crave great visual content. A stunning image or an exciting video has a much bigger impact than even the best-crafted copy. For instance, let’s assume you want to sell skateboards. Shoot a video of some skateboard geniuses pulling off amazing tricks down at the park, or even make a video of a dog riding on one of your skateboards. This is the kind of content that can go viral. Post it on YouTube, then promote it on Twitter and Facebook. Everyone who watches the video is another potential follower – and another potential customer.
Incidentally, the dog on the skateboard is a real story – his name is Tillman, and the video of his antics has had over 21.7 million views on YouTube.
4. Utilize advertising and promoted posts
When it comes to planning where to spend your marketing budget effectively, advertising on social media is one of the best investments you can make. Advertising can be complex; it’s never a set-it-and-forget-it process. Testing, checking, and experimenting with all forms of advertising offers the best chance of showing you what is truly effective, but social media recently became the most effective digital advertising channel for driving impressions, clicks, and conversions. These days, businesses are allocating on average 28% of their spend towards it.
Advertising on social media plays nicely with your existing social media activity. While your social media strategy may be focused on educating your market, increasing awareness and nurturing prospects, ads are there to catch those who are ready to convert today.
5. Exclusive deals and competition
One great way to keep people coming back on social media is to give them deals that they can’t get elsewhere. For example, publish discount coupons on your social media channels. Make these deals truly exclusive – don’t offer them anywhere else – and let everyone know about them well in advance. In fact, if you really want to get traction, make your best deals available only on social media.
Contests are another great way to get attention on social media. Don’t just make it another boring lottery. Ask your readers to submit personal stories or funny anecdotes for a chance to win. Share the best entries on your social media channels, and give away a prize for every one that you share. You’ll get great content for the cost of a few giveaways, and you’ll create incredible engagement.
In conclusion….
In addition to generating leads and increasing revenue, being active on social media allows your brand to connect with your customers in a way never before possible. Sharing information and participating in the conversation already taking place online about your brand is an important part of keeping your brand relevant. It makes your brand more approachable, gives it a personality and allows you to effectively market to niche markets instead of broad advertising that may or may not be reaching your brand’s key demographics. You are connecting on a more personal level, where relationships can be fostered. This gives the potential for life-long customers, business partnerships and the creation of new leads.
