25 Marketers Share Their Favourite Way To Generate Leads Via Social Media
Kalo Yankulov, Encharge
LinkedIn and Facebook engagement posts is how we managed to get 3,000 leads in less than a month. This post (here) generated 109,806 views and 951 comments and helped us generate thousands of leads.
The premise is simple — you offer a free value bomb relevant to your audience, share a part of it for free, and ask your social media following for their email to send the rest. These posts work similarly to a lead magnet squeeze page, except you don’t ask people to go to a page. Everything happens with minimum resistance inside of the social network.
The best part is that you don’t need super crazy engagement, nor do you need to go viral to generate qualified leads. A niche relevant resource that targets your specific audience can attract a small but precise group of leads.
Of course, you’d need an established social presence and engaged followers for this approach to work. Also, you need to actually provide value — unique insights, actionable case studies, huge lists, free tools, etc. Packaging a brief and boring blog post as a “value bomb” could attract some people but you will quickly lose their trust.
Roxana Motoc, SocialBee
My favourite way to generate leads off social media is by hosting live webinars and events each week. We either host them directly on a social network or go live on a dedicated platform and share the videos afterwards.
Whether it’s a simple demo of our social media management tool (SocialBee) or themed social media events with special guests, this has been a great initiative to attract new leads.
Also, we make sure that with the webinar, we urge them to download a resource or act in such a way that we can also get their email addresses. This way, we can nurture the leads later on through a full workflow of emails meant to push them down the funnel.
Such resources that we offer are usually extremely relevant to the topic of the webinar, and they come as an extension of what was already discussed live. Hence, contextual resources offered at the right time have a higher value and are more appealing to our leads.
Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media
Social media is the world’s greatest phonebook. You can find almost anyone you can imagine. So we use it for research and outreach, but only when we have a very strong offer. That means high value and low commitment.
First, we create some original research specific to an industry. Then we put it into a presentation format and schedule a webinar where we’ll present the research. Next we make a social media video invite and send it in legitimately personalized messages to some first degree LinkedIn connections, inviting them to attend.
We usually send 30-40 message and get 20 attendees. At least 5 will schedule a follow up call with us about our services. We land 1-2 new projects each time on average. It’s usually a 30 hour effort and it’s totally worth it.
You could call this “account based content marketing” and it works like a charm.
Chris Thomas, Talkative
When attempting to generate leads via social media, it’s a great idea to start by shifting your focus to generating relationships.
While one-off link requests might land from time-to-time, finding similar marketers to yourself with an active guest-blogging presence will prove a lot more fruitful. If you’re writing guest blogs on a variety of sites, you’ve got several locations available for quality links – which can be offered to those who can deliver the same in return.
Of course, the main thing to be aware of here is the marketers you’re creating relationships with. Don’t settle for any substandard quality blogs or writers. Only develop relationships with people creating great content. The good news is, the people creating the best content are usually the most polite, the most helpful, and the most receptive to working to the same goal – the sharing and support of quality content and quality writers. Or, in other words, building links that actually deserve to be built.
Hope Dorman, Kajabi
Affiliate marketing is one of our top strategies to generate leads via social media. With your own social media following and paid social ads, you can only reach so many people. But by leveraging affiliate marketing, we incentivize our customers to spread the word about our product to fresh people. We empower our affiliates within the Kajabi Partner Program by sharing recommended marketing content that they can leverage to entice their audience to check us out.
We of course pay out a commission with our affiliates, but with the nature of affiliate marketing, we only pay when someone converts into a customer, so we know it’s an efficient use of the marketing budget. One additional thing to consider is only allowing existing customers to be affiliates for your brand. This way, the affiliates are familiar with the product or service and can speak about it from experience, and it’s more like a referral program.
Shaurya Jain, Samurai Marketers
Social Media helps generate leads when done right and if you’re on the right platform, where your target market usually hangs out and is most active.
We’ve been generating leads via social media thru the following:
- Sharing valuable content or informative posts for our target audience.
- Connecting to people and building relationships.
- Building social proof by sharing case studies and testimonials.
Corina Leslie, ZeroBounce
Our favourite way to generate leads through social media is by sharing helpful, educational content. Inbound marketing is a proven tactic to increase brand awareness, trust and authority. We’re big fans of it at ZeroBounce and love to use content to attract leads, just as much as we love consuming great content from other companies.
Here are three things we do that have helped us generate leads via social media:
- Producing gated content: e-books, infographics or videos. Having a piece of content gated behind a simple registration form is still effective in attracting leads long-term.
- Sharing educational landing pages both organically and via paid advertising.
- Connecting with our audience directly. We encourage conversations and are eager to get to know our community. That builds rapport and familiarity, two things we don’t take for granted.
ZeroBounce also runs periodic direct marketing campaigns on social media. These campaigns focus on generating immediate results, so they’re framed differently. We use both approaches and continue to test and adjust for the best results.
Miklós Kovács, OptiMonk
You can’t spare time for researching and getting to know your target audience. Use Google Analytics and Facebook Ads to analyse what is the ICP for your product. Share testimonials from other users, use them in the creatives, and see what is working.
Don’t forget, you have to A/B test a lot of variations first. After that, you could create laser-targeted ads with special offers just for their needs and you should set up sequential retargeting ads.
Eshan Shukla, LeadSquared
We generate leads from Social Media in the following ways.
- Informative posts:
We help our audience through social media posts by sharing valuable insights for sales, marketing, product, and different teams across various industries.
We use CTA to redirect them to our website to generate leads.
- Paid campaigns
We use social media to run ads and generate TOFU/MOFU/BOFU Leads. We use platforms such as Linkedin/Facebook/Twitter to run ads and generate leads.
- Podcasts and Webinars
We share our podcasts on social media to create brand awareness and general leads in the longer run.
We also use social media to promote our webinars and generate leads.
- Content Redistribution (Customer Testimonials/Articles/Ebooks/Case Studies etc.)
Social Media acts as one of the essential sources for content redistribution. We use social media (primarily LinkedIn) to share our articles, ebooks, case studies, and customer testimonials which helps us generate leads.
Rakesh Kumar Sharma, Scalefusion MDM
Share testimonials to build social proof.
Social proof is based on the idea of normative social influence, which states that people will conform in order to be liked by, similar to, or accepted by the influencer (or society).
Customer stories and testimonials can give you the social proof you need to acquire new leads. Showcasing how clients have benefited from your products and services to demonstrate your brand value.
Two out of three people are likelier to buy something after watching a testimonial video demonstrating how a business, product or service has helped someone like them.
For a lower-lift solution, you could collect customer reviews and turn them into an animated video to share as social proof.
Todd William, Reputation Rhino
The best way to generate leads via social media is to STOP trying to generate leads by social media and focus on providing information and insight of value to your audience.
It is easy to tell the difference between education based marketing, where you try and lift the knowledge of your audience and sales, where you try to sell to your audience, and on social media it is even more obvious. Be a helpful, thoughtful, knowledgeable expert and leads will come naturally.
Sneha Nair, Social Media Specialist, Beaconstac
- Running Facebook and Instagram ads to get leads:
This is one of the most popular and my favourite ways to generate leads. You can either setup a lead form within Facebook or redirect traffic to your webpage wherein they can input information to get to a free resource you are providing. This is also the quickest way to generate leads from social media.
- LinkedIn company page:
Although LinkedIn has the option to run lead gen ads, it can sometimes turn out to be an expensive affair. But recently, LinkedIn has enabled the option to collect leads directly from the company page. You can set up the lead gen form by clicking on the ‘Edit page’ button. If your LinkedIn game is strong, you’d see a constant flow of leads being generated this way.
Sneha Nair, Social Media Specialist at Beaconstac
Erkki Muuga, Influno
If you’re looking to generate leads for a B2B product or service, then there’s one effective way to achieve that using social media. Like with any type of lead generation, it’s important to first understand who specifically is your target customer. Then, create a webinar event tailored exactly for that target. For example, let’s say they are sales people in construction industry.
Next, find Facebook and LinkedIn groups that are made for the construction niche and the one where sales people could be.
It’s important to offer some value up front. Long format native posts work great. Part of that would be inviting people to join your webinar to learn about the subject in more detail.
That would ensure you’re targeting exactly the right type of leads.
Antonio Velinov, MarketingPlatform
With the use of email marketing, you can easily generate an audience for your social media advertising. There is always a part of your newsletter subscribers that do not interact with the emails you send them. So why not try to reach them on social media? All you need to do is segment your inactive audience and export it from the email platform. Then upload them in the ads manager on Facebook or LinkedIn.
That’s it. Many email platforms can do this automatically. So by running remarketing campaigns towards those inactive customers who are already on your email list, but never convert, you get a second chance to re-engage them with special offers and get them to buy more.
Oksana Chyketa, Newoldstamp
Whether it’s B2B or B2C, content remains one of the most effective marketing channels for attracting and retaining a clearly defined audience. Content marketing shows your authority and expertise in the field, and at the same time it helps you to reach customers at different stages of your lead generation funnel.
No matter how great the content is, it’s useless if no one sees it. That’s why we follow a 20/80 promo ratio – where 80% of the total time investment goes to promotion.
According to Hubspot, social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than inbound marketing, which is rather impressive.
Thus, using social media for content distribution is an effective way to generate high-quality leads.
It also works for the old content. Don’t worry about sharing the same post on the same social media platform multiple times (with some time intervals, of course). Neil Patel shares same content multiple times a day, but re-words each post so it doesn’t look like duplicate content. According to Neil, “sharing more than once is an essential part of providing your audience with the value you promised them”.
Andrea Shirey, One Nine Design
My favourite way to generate leads via social media that’s been working for over five years (algorithms be damned!) is to tease out my most valuable content and drive traffic back to my website. I use my analytics to determine the top 5-10 blog posts for the month and then break those posts up into smaller snippets for social media content.
By giving the audience a little of the information upfront but leaving enough details out to foster curiosity, I’m able to drive traffic to the full blog post, where readers can get more information, browse my template shop, or reach out to schedule a call.
This strategy doesn’t require me to stay on the hamster wheel of always creating content! Instead, I’m using existing content that I know already resonates with my ideal audience and just repurposing it!
Chris Makara, Bulkly
If you want to generate leads for your business, then Facebook and Instagram are the best social media platforms to use. These two platforms have features that make them great for lead generation.
For example, users can create a custom ad/promoted post that are targeted towards specific audiences using a lead gen form. When someone clicks on one of your promoted posts and completes the lead gen form, you will receive an email notification letting you know about their interest in your business and promoted content. If you happen to send your ad traffic a to a page on your site, be sure you install the FB pixel so that you can track your ad performance and see which ads are generating the most leads.
Either way, leveraging this approach on social media you’ll always have fresh leads coming into your business’ inbox!
Shivbhadrasinh Gohil, Meetanshi
At Meetanshi, we use a systematic way of lead nurturing to ensure that no stage of the marketing and sales funnel is remaining unnourished. Some of the best digital marketing strategies we follow for nurturing leads are:
Interactive Content: Today, customers are being crunched under a pile of content that is copious, monotonous, and uninteresting. They expect something more interesting — something that is not meant for mere consumption. We are leveraging interactive content for the top part of our funnel, i.e. for creating awareness and driving engagement and it has generated massive results. It has greased the wheels of the shopping carts in our online store.
If you are providing with valuable insights about your product, you can easily showcase them. You share this piece of valuable content to social media and can easily generate social media leads.
Brooks Manley, Brooks Manley Marketing
Social media is a great channel for lead generation. I take a pretty simple, three step funnel-like approach.
First, I want to make sure I’m building a following of relevant prospects who see me as an authority. So I’ll post valuable, relevant content at least once or twice a week that I know those in my target industries will find useful. Think of this as the top of the social media funnel. Then, about once per month, I’ll share a case study with some notes on how I achieved the results. Think of this as the middle of the funnel. Lastly, probably once every two or three months, I’ll post an invitation for a free 30-minute consultation or audit on social.
It’s a simple, low effort, and free approach to generating leads on social media.
Tarun Gehani, Pure Visibility
Generating leads from social media can be a mix of art and science.
Obviously, success will depend heavily on the type of business you are in, which audiences you are targeting, and which platforms you’re on, but certain fundamental principles remain: show your value, convey authority and authenticity, and expect nothing in return. It may sound counterintuitive, but if you focus on providing value to your audience and worry less about making a sale, you are likely to drum up more business over the long term. Some of our best clients at Pure Visibility have come from our outreach and social media efforts.
Our CEO has made a name for herself and our brand awareness has increased exponentially as a result, which, in turn, helps solidify our market share, and also increases our visibility in other areas such as organic search.
Tufan Erdogan, Jotform
My favourite way to generate leads via social media is by building strong relationships with my prospects. As a digital marketer, it is a crucial point to continue the relationships you’ve built with your prospects as well as making new connections. Thanks to social media, we are able to reach out to countless people who could be potential customers/partners.
I love connecting with people through social media channels such as LinkedIn. These channels allow you to not only determine your potential leads, but also get in touch with them in a different environment than work. It is much easier to connect with people through shared connections and generate more leads when you have a strong network. That’s why my favourite method of generating leads through social media is expanding my connections and building strong relationships that will last a long time.
Steve Hawky, Get Results Link Building
My favourite way of generating leads via social media is sharing relevant, data-driven infographics on social media profiles. I prefer this strategy, as it provides everything to the readers if they are interested in your business niche.
However, you shouldn’t just copy/paste the most common stats and place them on a good-looking picture. You need to do your research thoroughly and find fresh data that can show your potential customers metrics that they should care about. Even if you don’t want to get all technical regarding your business niche, there are many creative ways to help your readers better understand the importance of stats, all packed in a beautiful, easy to read infographic.
Do this properly, and the results, as well as the leads, will come in no time!
Parul Thakur, SocialPilot
“Social media has become the most valuable channel to generate leads if you know how to use it right. Here, people wait to see long-form content. But are impatient to consume as much as possible in a short time. Unless your social media content is engaging and snackable, it won’t get people to visit your site.
So, the first rule towards generating leads from social is to create captivating social media copies.
However, we cannot underestimate the power of quantity on Twitter. Even if you post every two hours, it will only be on the audience’s feed for 18 minutes. Essentially, consistency is the key to success on this platform. And as a social media marketer, I cannot imagine my life without a robust tool like SocialPilot! It is one of the best HootSuite alternatives in the social media marketing space.
It saves me a lot of time and energy, from creating and scheduling content, to managing multiple channels and accounts from one place.
Another tactic I can swear by is testimonials on social media. A good review from other customers will build trust among your audience and leave a positive impact which can result in a conversion.”
Tenny Jesse, Pearl Lemon Group
Lead generation via social media is tricky, and people get offended easily.
An unconventional way to generate leads on social media is through social listening using a tool like Awario, which works across most platforms. Twitter is the best place to start; monitor the conversations relevant to your product using targeted keywords and hashtags, and most importantly, don’t forget to stalk your competitor; their user complaints are your lead gen mines. Once you have found a relevant discussion, simply join it by responding politely and contributing value by offering a freebie or discount with a lead magnet to collect contact information or maybe just resolve a competitor user’s query by sharing how easy it is to deal with your product.
Voila! Forget the lead generation stage; the conversion rates would jack up, not to mention the free PR.
Hori Tran, SEO Booster
Is your company selling things online? Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have eCommerce solutions built in that you can utilize to generate sales directly from your organic postings.
You may use Facebook’s Commerce Manager to access the shopping capabilities on Facebook or Instagram. Begin by establishing a new shop and selecting a payment method. Customers may check you out on Facebook and Instagram, as well as your website. Then, make an inventory of everything you wish to offer on social media. You may manually enter inventory or use a third-party platform like Shopify to automate the process.
Customers may visit your store from your Facebook page or Instagram profile once Facebook authorizes your shop and catalogue. You may also tag items in organic posts, stories, and reels, generating a direct connection to the product page in your shop.
For example, the @hori Instagram post, here, includes a shoppable product. Customers may view or buy the product featured in the post by tapping the View Shop button or the product tag. Both links direct users to the brand’s Instagram shop, where they may make a purchase without leaving the app.
