Aligning PR and social media campaigns allows you to reach your target audience and generate positive brand awareness. Effective social media campaigns also help to maintain a solid, organic pipeline of leads you can convert to loyal customers.
With 67 percent of B2B purchasing managers buying online, there isn’t a better time to get your creative social hats on. But, you must first consistently share and promote relevant content that attracts and keeps your ideal audience invested enough to convert.
This article will show you how to get leads using social media. Let’s dive in!
What is social media lead generation?
Social media lead generation is a marketing strategy that captures qualified leads via social media.
Using social media to generate quality leads benefits PR marketers as it allows them to identify the audience interested in their business, making PR stronger and more effective.
You can capture high-quality leads in several ways, such as through emails and questionnaires. However, it’s one thing to generate leads and another to put them to good use. You must maximize your lead gen efforts with social media marketing proposal templates during outreach for the best results.
That way, you’ll not only capture high-quality prospects but also manage to convert them into customers.
Here are three sure-fire ways to generate leads on social media without hassle.
1. Run lead generation ads
Lead generation ads on social media allow you to collect potential customers’ data when they click on your ad.
It includes already-populated forms, allowing people to easily sign-up without doing so from scratch. Prospects can fill these forms using information from their social media accounts. You save time, accelerate lead generation, and significantly increase conversions.
Some social media platforms allow you to run these ads seamlessly by providing resources for businesses. LinkedIn, for example, improves the lead generation experience for marketers by providing pre-filled forms that work with sponsored content and message ads.
The gathered information gives you a cohesive customer database you can use for lead nurturing. That said, before you embark on your social media lead generation campaign, keep the following in mind;
Target the right audience
PR campaigns previously targeted influential individuals such as business partners, shareholders, investors, etc. Social media, however, enables you to target a range of different “kinds” of people, which is crucial to the success of your business.
This makes your PR campaigns more friendly and warm and, by extension, attractive to targeted prospects. By expanding your target group to include buyer personas interested in your company, you build a relationship that you can leverage for your lead generation strategy.
Create relatable and engaging ads
Engaging content is the bedrock of social media. For this reason, it only makes sense to use them in social media advertising to attract and intrigue potential customers.
AdExpresso knows its audience is Ad creators. As such, they tailor their ads on social media networks to resonate with the audience they’re trying to attract.
In addition, run different testing on your ads to learn the ones with the best results. You can apply A/B testing and other multiple variant testings for these ads. This way, you know what ads are more appealing to the audience and optimize.
Ensure to drive prospects to a landing page or a valuable resource on your website with a convincing CTA in your PR ad. Afterward, collect their data through lead gen forms to nurture them further.
2. Leverage special offers
For lead generation to be effective, offer the right incentives to entice people enough to share their information freely. Tailor these incentives to fit the needs of specific audience segments to get the best results, then promote them using paid social ads.
Depending on the PR campaign objective, your incentives could be special discounts, ultra-tailored industry reports, content on specific subject matters, or limited one-time offers for your products and services.
You can get potential leads with the following offers:
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Gated content offers
Gated content offers are a give-and-take strategy. Potential customers give you their contact information to access a special piece of content. You must understand your customer persona thoroughly to ensure this lead generation tactic works for them.
For instance, a C-level SaaS executive may have no interest in an ebook that discusses the manual application of LinkedIn marketing, but a junior-level executive might. Similarly, startup founders or small business owners might be interested in a case study of how to start a business from scratch.
Gated content offers include reports, whitepapers, ebooks, and content upgrades.
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Free trial offers
Offering free trials increases your brand engagement. It influences customers’ purchase decisions and gives them an idea of your offerings before paying for your services.
Rather than offer trials requiring card details, allow customers to use trials in exchange for personal details. This type of offer increases users’ confidence and encourages them to visit your company’s website, generating more leads.
See how Skillshare uses a free trial offer to attract customers.
Since many users want to see a product in action before using it, they likely won’t mind giving their information in exchange for a free trial.
Again, the kind of gated offer you provide depends on your offerings and the target market. So, if your company offers website development software, your social media ads could target a company with a portfolio of B2B manufacturing websites because it’s relevant.
3. Use testimonials as social proofs
Testimonials and customer stories are your best source of social proof for acquiring new clients. Demonstrate your brand’s value by displaying how you’ve helped previous clients.
This social media lead generation tactic makes it easy for prospects to trust and convert quickly. For example, MizzBloom, a vegan skincare brand, uses in-ad texts on Facebook to showcase a customer testimonial.
You may create posts dedicated to customer testimonials and run ads based on them. Also, consider collecting customer reviews via surveys for your social media campaign, or get social media influencers to indulge relevant audiences about your brand.
In closing
PR is so much more than traditional press releases and cold emails. Aligning social media channels with PR harnesses the power of both strategies to generate new leads and acquire new clients.
Entice and engage your audience with relevant content, deals, and offers. Avoid being too formal to build a cordial relationship to leverage for your social media lead generation efforts.
With the lead generation ideas discussed in this article, you’re sure to crush your lead generation goals and fuel business growth.
