19 Lead Generation Ideas For Your Next Social Advertising Campaign
However, less is more.
It’s far too easy to become bombarded with a host of ideas & strategies that leave you in a daze and unable to take action because you’re locked in decision shock.
Today, we want to cut down the number of ideas & strategies to include the ones that will have the highest impact for your efforts.
But first…
Laying the foundation
The foundation must be built around the efforts you place into your social advertising so it all ends with a result (in most cases we want people to make a purchase).
There are key factors as to what goes into the foundation before you do any work on the social side:
Understand your audience-type – Find out how these individuals have stumbled across your brand, what information interests them, ways to demonstrate value, and creating a checkout process that feels trustworthy and exciting.
Keep those eyes on the numbers – Your gut instincts won’t help much when you start rolling in the numbers. Do you know your top referrals? Which pages people exit? The average time people spend examining the product? Frequency of a shopping cart bounce? This is information you should gain through analytics (and other forms of user tracking) so that all areas can be optimized.
Back it up with content – People aren’t going to hop from a Tweeted link to a seemingly bland page showing a product saying “buy me now.” People want to dig into what the business/brand has to offer to build a level of trust before they decide to buy. Work closely with your team on creating fantastic landing pages that are supported through additional content found through the site.
Leverage the social proof – Since so many individuals can sell products online it can be scary for many that aren’t frequent shoppers. One way to remove this barrier of distrust is to show off your earn social signals such as companies you’ve worked for, testimonials, number of shares/Tweets/etc, and even video testimonials. All of this lends to credibility and once the individual feels you have a solid reputation they are far more likely to go in your direction.
Enough about all that (though it is important for all other work therein after); let’s get to the good stuff.
Generating those leads
Now that we have the foundation in place, you will find your lead generation methods have a streamline funnel; you are looking at the bigger picture rather than focusing on just the idea and implementation.
With that being said, the best foundation isn’t doing anything if you’re not driving the leads, so let’s look into twenty-five different ideas that your business can do when using social advertising campaigns:
Blog consistently about topics such as new product developments, exciting stories of people that have used your products/services, better ways to get the most from your offers, and other insights. This content is the fuel for your social media sharing and can be sponsored when you notice interaction and set it rocketing to reach more people.
Find FB pages that are doing really well in your industry or niche and sit back so you may take notes about the type of content they produce and how they interact with their audience. Replicate their style of posting (on a small scale) to see how it works for your audience. Greater engagement increases your Edgeank which means you’ll reach a wider audience with each new post.
Contests are a fantastic (and relatively cheap) way to draw attention to your brand well outside your normal audience range. Offer something enticing (such as a product, gift card, or complimentary service) and you’re in game. Collect those emails and get them to share. In due time, it’ll spread like fire and the 10-or-so minute contest setup will have already paid for itself in brand awareness.
Twitter allows for advertising options which connects you with hundreds of millions of users. You can use their platform to customize the target audience, set it directed toward specific individuals, make up a budget, and let it ride. It may take some tweaking and practice at first, but with a platform this large, there isn’t a reason why you shouldn’t give it a try.
The Facebook advertising platform is very flexible and easy to use. For the majority, sponsored posts are the way to go because it can be done in a few moments once you have a post you feel will do well with the audience. The other options really allow you to target specific individuals based on location, interests, liked pages, and more. Each campaign can teach you a lot about the platform; once you land on a few that do well it’s time to ramp up the budget.
Other social platforms from LinkedIn to Pinterest give you options for creating great communities and connecting with brand ambassadors. The main thing you need to do is simply being active within these channels and make connections, join groups, and start discussions. Surely along the way you will be given the opportunity to promote your brand and what it has to offer.
Give webinars or hangouts a shot sometime. Google+ has a great platform for rounding up interested parties where you can talk about any number of topics, dish out advice, connect, network, and pitch ideas and products to those attending. The webinar is straight forward in that you are doing a presentation with a Q&A (generally) afterward. Keep their attention, explain the benefits, and those hungry viewers will want to learn more.
Try out starting a branded hashtag to collect and build an audience around an interesting topic, piece of news, or a movement. Reuse this hashtag across other social channels so that it becomes synonymous with your brand. As it trends, it is bound to have others take notice and that awareness could send people into the eventual sales funnel.
Get creative and begin searching (or creating) engaging creative. Creative (the imagery) is what draws attention on social media platforms so if you can have something pop out at them then they are likely to dig a little deeper into the copy accompanying it.
Become an expert (not just on your website and social channels) but on Q&A type platforms such as Quora or Reddit. Both of these channels always have individuals seeking expert advice and insights; showing your experience builds credibility and it’s that credibility that can have them coming to you when they are ready to make a purchase about said topic.
Learn to love video. Video is where we are going because it’s easy to consume. You don’t even need to create it in a professional manner for most businesses. Video can be used to show off products, behind-the-scenes at work, share goofy videos, interesting thoughts, and more. Make YouTube part of your social media marketing and advertising (along with advertising on competition).
Get on the phone and start calling your locals. Start with the locals because they are the ones that may already have known of your business but it’s never part of their daily thoughts. Once you’ve left your mark on the locals, begin to spread in a radius. Start owning your backyard. You would be amazed at the fever you can build when just a couple hundred locals get behind your brand and aid with your social media marketing efforts by liking, sharing, and commenting on them frequently.
Overcome your fear of speaking in front of an audience and sign up for a speaking gig at a local (or industry-wide) event. You know what to do in your business; the barrier is that fear of conveying those ideas to others outside of your comfort zone. A great video has the ability to spread like fire and with it comes a reinforcement of other, complimentary social campaigns you have in the mix.
Don’t be afraid to use a pop-up or exit survey on your website. You don’t want it to be used as a paywall (forcing someone to sit through an advertisement like so many seem to do). Instead, have it pop up about 15 – 20 seconds after they’ve landed on the page or triggered when they’ve reached the bottom of the content. Here you can solicit names and emails which will fuel the data when developing campaigns.
Have fun (and learn something about your audience) by creating and sharing quizzes as part of your social campaigns. Quizzes are easy to do, fun to share, and has an intrinsic nature for gaining curiosity when others are doing it. You could form one around the difference in your business and competitors, keep it fun and silly, or use it to educate your audience about your products or services.
Get in touch with your best customers to see if they would be willing to aid in developing content for your website and social campaigns. The customers that love you should be more than willing to hop on camera, do an interview or Skype, or provide feedback for a written piece. Ask their permission to use their information and an image and now you’ve humanized the community (which will have that person sharing it with everyone they know, as well).
Create an incredibly helpful guide or series related to your industry (such as an ebook, video series, or online course). Put everything you can into its work to make it a definitive ‘must read’ for those in the industry (and those that follow it). You could release it for free, but your best bet is to put it behind an opt-in to collect contact information. Once you see the trickle of leads come in and their feedback, it’s time to up the budget and begin advertising it across multiple social channels.
Monitor discussions based on keywords and phrases related to your industry. Hop into the discussion when you can to leave thoughtful insights and ideas. You don’t want to necessarily push the business at this time – only bring about brand awareness. The more you’re active in these discussions the more chances you’ll have at piquing someone’s interest to learn more about what you have to offer.
Try a number of advertising channels that aren’t just the main social networks. Get out there on forums, art communities, DIY networks, local meetups, and more, to sponsor an event or to merely get an ad to these specific, niched individuals. Collect that data and use it when you’re on the larger social channels to refine your audience (based on feedback from these smaller groups).
Feeling a little overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work one must do to see a positive ROI with social media advertising and marketing? We would like for you to look at our post about finding a social advertising agency but if you’re itching to start today then the clear choice is to get in touch with us at adQuadrant where we can get you on the social fast-track.
Image by geralt
