Many small business owners complain saying, “I’m on social media, but it doesn’t work.” Usually, when I dig deeper, I find that they’re just not using it properly. More than likely, their lead generation system is not set up correctly or they don’t have one at all.
When done correctly, social media marketing is one of the best lead generators around and a great way to drive traffic to your website.
Here’s How:
- Post links to your blog and product pages incorporated with tips and advice on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and even Pinterest. By doing this, you’re getting “link love” — a search engine optimization (SEO) term for qualified backlinks to your site. These also help your ranking in the Google search engine.
- Build curiosity by using catchy phrases or questions, to entice your followers to click on the links.
- Provide good quality content that encourages your followers to share it with their followers.
- Put links in video and picture descriptions on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and other sites. (Note: links don’t work on all platforms the same.)
- Make sure your website link is in every profile description in ALL the networks you belong to.
Now, that you’ve driven potential leads to your site, it’s up to the site to capture the leads. Otherwise, it’s all been a futile effort. There are 3 Black Holes into which leads can fall, and if you don’t fix them, you’ll waste valuable time and effort and not get sales.
The 3 Black Holes of Lead Generation Loss
Lost traffic – how many came and went? It’s possible that what was promised in the post wasn’t delivered by the website. This increases your bounce rate which affects your SEO.- Lost leads – how many visitors didn’t convert right away? Did they get lost in the site and then just give up? Did something on your site turn them off?
- Lost customers – captured leads who were not nurtured properly – aka, lack of follow-up. Email automation will solve this problem.
When a visitor lands on your site, it should be clear what you want them to do. Don’t make them think! You have only a few seconds to capture their attention and keep it! Don’t make them work either!
What’s the Call-To-Action (CTA)? Where is it?
The CTA should be easily visible when you first land on a page. Visitors should not have to scroll down to see it. View your site on different devices to see what the visitor sees (different browsers, laptops, tablet & mobile phones, too). There should also always be a CTA at the end of a blog post.
If you don’t tell people what you want them to do, they won’t do it!
The idea is to capture the lead’s information – email address, name, and possibly phone number. Some folks may be reluctant to give out their numbers, but they’ll give you their info if they think they’re getting something of value.
Here are some ideas for lead generation CTAs
- Buy Now – if you’re offering a product, send the lead directly to the product page in your shopping cart. If you just send them to the website, they’ll get lost.
- Download a free _____ (ebook, whitepaper, report, webinar, video, tip sheet)
- Get a free ______ (sample, consultation, quote, giveaway, trial, membership)
- Subscribe to _____ (newsletter, blog, email list)
- Register Now
- Follow Us
- Click here for a _____ (coupon, discount)
Once you’ve captured their information, the leads have to be nurtured. Consistently feed them. Use a drip email system. But don’t overdo it.
Don’t let them fall through the cracks!
Regularly evaluate your site’s analytics – at least once a month. Review your email marketing reports. Take note of which network(s) is driving the most traffic to your website, your click-thru rates, and your conversion rates. If 100 people clicked on a link and only 50 converted, where did the other 50 go?
And there is such a thing as too many leads! If you’re doing social media right and don’t have a marketing automation system set up to capture, feed, nurture and follow up with the leads your social media efforts are generating, they’ll never convert into sales.
Get it on Amazon Kindle!
