14 Social Media Lead Generation Strategies That Will Drive Huge Results for Your Business

It's no secret that social media is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes. Business owners can use social media to build brand awareness and can also use it to generate leads and drive sales. So, whether you're just starting with social media lead generation or you've been at it for a while, learning new strategies to do it well will significantly improve the growth of your business.

Although many companies focus on ads, many other strategies can help you generate leads. This article will cover the processes and strategies you can start using today to maximize your results.

What Is Social Media Lead Generation?

Social media lead generation is the process of identifying potential customers on social media and converting them into leads. Social media platforms you can use for social media lead generation include Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, and even Reddit and Quora. 

Facebook has an audience of over two billion people, while LinkedIn is geared towards business networking and B2B marketing. Twitter houses content on current events, and Instagram attracts users in the younger demographic who want visual content.

By analyzing what audiences use social media platforms, you can target people on specific platforms that match your target audience. For example, if you market B2B primarily, focus on LinkedIn lead generation.

Businesses can convert their audiences on these platforms into leads by providing valuable content, such as blog posts, infographics, e-books, and more. Users can download them in exchange for an email address or other contact information, allowing you to further nurture leads with email marketing.

Why generate leads on social media? There are several reasons why social media lead generation is a good idea for businesses. Here are three of the most important ones:

Increase Visibility

Generating leads on social media will help increase the visibility of your business. The more content you regularly produce on trending topics, the more you’ll become discoverable to people in your audience. 

Double Your Revenue

According to a study by Agora Pulse, half of the respondents are either neutral or extremely satisfied with their lead generation efforts in social media. In a separate study, "businesses that actively nurture their leads through social media generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost per lead than those who do not.”

Improve Marketing ROI

Social media lead generation can also help improve your marketing ROI. Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than outbound marketing, and social media is a critical component of inbound marketing.

The 3-Step Process to Succeed at Social Media Lead Generation

The social media lead generation process doesn't have to be complicated. Lead generation specialists can boil it down to three simple steps: identifying your target audience, picking the social media platforms, and choosing your strategy and approach for each platform. Let's take a closer look at each step.

1. Identify Your Target Audience

What you need to do first is identify your target audience. This includes understanding your ideal customer, their needs and pain points, and what they're looking for in a product or service like yours.

You can be specific in looking for a target audience. Identify your target audience's behavioral, geographic, and psychographic characteristics.

For example, you could target leads that live in a particular area, work in a specific industry, or have a particular job title. Once you know your target audience, you need to find out where they hang out online.

2. Pick the Social Media Platforms to Use

Not all social media platforms are equal; some will be better suited for your business. Consider your target audience and what social media platforms they're most likely to use. Once you know who you're targeting, it's time to pick the social media platforms.

There are a few factors you should consider when choosing social media platforms, such as:

• The size of the platform's user base.
• How well the platform targets your specific audience.
• How much time and resources you are willing to invest in it.

LinkedIn is an excellent platform for targeting business professionals, while Facebook is perfect for targeting consumers. In a study, nearly 77% of respondents said that LinkedIn was their most effective platform for social media lead generation. Evaluating factors like these before starting your strategy is important when choosing which platforms to use.

3. Choose Your Strategy and Approach for Each Platform

Finally, it's time to choose your strategy and approach for each platform. This includes creating high-quality content that resonates with your target audience, using social media advertising to reach a wider audience, and building relationships with influencers in your industry.

Remember, the most crucial factor is to be consistent with your approach. The social media lead generation process takes time, but it's worth it if you're patient and willing to do the work.

7 Social Media Lead Generation Tactics That Work

The social media lead generation process should result in more sales for your business. At the very least, your lead generation efforts should result in a qualified lead you can pass on to your sales team. 

Unfortunately, social media lead generation is often misunderstood, and as a result, many businesses waste time and money on lead generation tactics that don’t work.

To make sure your social media lead generation efforts result in accurate conversions, consider these eight tactics that work undoubtedly: 

1. Direct Search

The first way to generate leads on social media is through direct search. Use the search function on social media platforms to find potential customers who might be potential buyers of your product or service. Simply enter relevant keywords and hashtags into the social media search bar and see what posts come up.

In a tutorial video produced by one of our marketing managers, we directly searched for social media posts where people were looking for our services or someone to hire for their business. For example, our Lead Mining Manager, Ken, regularly looks for posts on LinkedIn where CEOs and other hiring managers post their need to hire virtual or in-office assistants. We leave comments or send DMs to probe their interest in hiring one of our VAs instead. If they show interest, we get their contact information and have our sales team follow up with them to schedule a discovery call.

This is an excellent way to generate leads because you are targeting individuals who have already expressed an interest in your offer. Leave a comment on their post or DM them further to gauge their interest in your product or service.

2. Automated Messages

Another way to generate leads on social media is through automated messages. You can send automatic messages to potential customers or leads when they meet specific criteria or complete certain actions. The people you send automated messages to could already be following your company on social media or non-followers who match your prospect profile. You can send invites to webinars, give valuable content, or probe their interest in your product or service. 

You can also create rules for different types of automated messages. For example, you could set up a rule that sends an automated message to someone who likes one of your posts and has commented on one of your competitor's posts in the last week.

Below is an example of an automated message campaign. We used our CEO’s LinkedIn account to message other business owners about virtual assistants.

3. Lead Generation Ads

You'll need to use the social media platform's advertising tool to create lead generation ads. Lead generation ads are social media ads that specifically target people who might be interested in your product or service.

By giving them something for free in exchange for their contact info, you can generate leads that may be interested to move forward with your company. Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads are two examples of social media platforms with lead generation ad capabilities that don’t require a significant up-front cost to get started.

Consider a few best practices to generate leads with social media ads. First, you'll need to create a high-value lead magnet for your audience. This can be anything from an e-book or course to a white paper or checklist.

Once you have your lead magnet, you'll need to create a landing page for it. You'll need to include a form for people to fill out on this page. Include fields for their name, email address, phone number, and other important information that would be necessary for you to segment and nurture them.

Once you have your lead magnet and landing page, you'll need to set up the ad in the ads manager. For most social media ads, especially Facebook ads, selecting the "Lead Generation" campaign objective is vital to gain the greatest campaign insights and maximize results. This will ensure that people who click on your ad are taken to your landing page or are fed an Instant Experience within the platform.

Once you have your ad set up, you're ready to start generating leads! Just be sure to monitor your results to continue improving your campaigns.

4. Host a Virtual Event

Another social media lead generation strategy is to host a virtual event. This is a great way to generate leads because you can target a specific audience and offer something of value. For example, you could start and host a webinar or an online course and offer it for free in exchange for your target audience' contact information.

Your virtual event doesn't have to be overly complicated. It could be something as simple as a 20-minute webinar on a relevant topic. Make sure you offer value and make it easy for your target audience to sign up.

5. Promote Exciting Incentives

To generate leads on social media, you need to offer something that will excite people. This could be a discount, a gift card, a free trial, or an exclusive deal. Whatever you decide to offer, make sure it's something that will entice people to sign up for your product or service.

Create a social media post with all the details and a CTA to promote your incentive. You could write something like, "Get 50% off your first month of service when you sign up today!" Be sure to include a link to your sign-up page in the post so people can take advantage of the offer.

You could even run a social media ad as your incentive to reach more people

6. Create Compelling Content

To generate leads on social media, you need to post compelling content. This means posting content that is interesting, informative, and helpful. Create content that is relevant and resonates with them. You could post tips on using your product, share exciting case studies, or host a Q&A session. By engaging your audience, you'll be more likely to generate leads that convert into customers.

To create compelling content, start by identifying your target audience's needs and pain points. People are more likely to register for your product or service if you’ve helped them solve their problems for free. 

If you sell software that helps businesses manage their social media accounts, you could write a blog post on "The Top 4 Social Media Management Tools for Businesses." This content would be helpful and informative for your target audience while allowing you to introduce your product to readers.

7. Make Your Landing Page Convincing

Once you've generated leads on social media, you need to ensure your landing page is convincing. This means ensuring your landing page is well-designed and has a solid call to action. Your landing page is where potential customers will go to sign up for your product or service, so making a good impression is essential.

To make your landing page convincing, use images and videos to capture people's attention and ensure your clear and concise CTA. Then, include testimonials and social proof on your landing page to show potential customers that others have succeeded with your product or service.

The Post Lead Generation Process

Now that you know how to generate leads on social media, it's time to start the post-lead generation process. It is essential to have a plan in place for what to do after someone becomes a lead. The goal is to turn that lead into a paying customer.

This can only be done through the combined efforts of the marketing and sales teams. They need to work together to create a strategy to nurture the lead and move them further down the sales funnel.

1. Pass Leads To Your Sales Team

Once you've generated leads on social media, you need to pass them off to your sales team. You’ll need to decide what the system is for passing this information on. Will this process be automated through your CRM, or will you pass a daily spreadsheet to your sales team? It depends on the size of your business and lead generation results that will ultimately determine this process.

The sales team will use various methods to contact the leads, including reaching out via phone calls, emails, and in-person meetings. They will help you determine whether they are a sales-qualified lead and move them along the sales journey.  

2. Determine Back-End Tags

Once you've passed the leads to your sales team, you need to determine the back-end tags. Tags are notes or categories you can attach to each lead depending on their behavior, interests, and how they heard about your company. You can add tags to your contacts in your CRM. 

Adding tags will help you organize leads based on buyer interest and demographic characteristics. It will help you segment your audience to nurture them with more relevant content via email marketing. These tags will also help you track the leads throughout the sales process.

Some common back-end tags include:

• Source of lead (social media, website, etc.)
• Date of contact
• Type of contact (phone call, email, in-person meeting)
• Name of salesperson
• Status of lead (hot, warm, cold)
• Product or service they are interested in

3. Analyze The Results Of Your Campaign

After you've generated leads and passed them off to your sales team, you need to analyze your campaign results. This will help you determine what worked well and what didn't work well. You can then use this information to improve your social media lead generation strategy and focus on specific social media platforms that produce the most high-quality leads.

You’ll want to report on leads generated per platform, how many hot leads came from each platform you use, how many sign-ups or sales were generated, the conversion rate, what strategies worked more than others, and other insights and KPIs necessary to know for your success.

When analyzing campaign results, take note of elements that will help boost your social media lead generation strategies. Knowing when to strike to achieve the best results possible is a skill that may take time to develop.

Building a Virtual Lead Generation Team - Who Can Help You?

You should now know how to produce social media leads as a busy business owner, but you must evaluate whether or not you have the time for this. Due to bandwidth or know-how, it might be challenging to implement these methods yourself.

We propose outsourcing some of your work to a virtual assistant. We recommend hiring one virtual assistant first to manage all of your lead generation efforts. Once they start working for you for a while and start getting overloaded with tasks, you may want to start expanding your virtual assistant lead generation team. That’s when we’ll recommend hiring for specific roles, so you can maximize your results.

Here are a few people who can help you with social media lead generation:

A Team Leader

This person will help you create and implement a social media lead generation strategy. They will help you create compelling content and manage your social media accounts.

The team leader will also be responsible for training other team members on social media lead generation techniques.

We recommend hiring a team leader as your first lead generation virtual assistant, so you can designate a trainer and team leader when you decide to expand your team. At Virtudesk, we recommend hiring executive virtual assistants. EVAs have much more training than regular virtual assistants. You can hire an executive virtual assistant to do all your social media lead generation, as they are trained in administration, marketing, and prospecting. 

Then, when you hire more people to your team, they can train them on the skills needed and act as their managers.

A Data Miner

A data miner is essential for optimizing your social media lead generation strategy. This person will help you mine data from social media platforms. They will also help you analyze this data to determine what's working well and what's not working well.

Usually, a data miner is responsible for ensuring that your company reaches out to people and collects contact information from interested leads. They can leave comments on people’s posts, send DMs to people’s inboxes, and pass lead data to the sales team when they give out their contact information. 

A Lead Generation Specialist

This person will help you engage potential customers and promote your product or service. This person is essential for driving your social media lead generation campaign results and launching ad campaigns. They can help you set up, launch, and monitor Facebook ads, automated messages, and more.

Outsourcing Social Media Lead Generation to Virtual Assistants

Indeed, social media lead generation can be successful if done effectively. To maximize your results, you’ll need to evaluate the differences in each platform and how you can leverage their special features and demographics for your business. Many companies bypass the benefits they could reap from social media, but when you use the strategies discussed in this article, you’ll be equipped to generate leads at a drastically higher rate.

As a busy business owner, you might not have the time to focus on social media lead generation. To save time and money, you should consider outsourcing social media lead generation to virtual assistants. Virtual assistants can help you with various tasks, including content creation, lead generation, and data analysis.

When outsourcing social media lead generation to virtual assistants, you need to make sure that you hire a reliable and experienced team.

There are many benefits of outsourcing social media lead generation to virtual assistants. For one, you can experience significant cost savings. Virtual assistants are typically much cheaper than a full-time local employee because of the labor arbitrage and their work setup. Because virtual assistants provide their work-from-home set-up, you don't have to pay for an office building or equipment.

Another benefit of outsourcing social media lead generation to virtual assistants is that you can scale your team up or down as needed. This flexibility is essential to running a successful social media lead generation campaign.

Indeed, social media lead generation can be a time-consuming and challenging process. But with the help of VAs, you can outsource this process and free up your time to focus on other tasks. If you’re interested in learning more or leveraging virtual assistants for your lead generation efforts, fill out this form, and one of our Consultants will get in touch with you.

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