How to Acquire Leads via Social Media

A great many companies these days recognize the value of social media in reaching customers, and that's why they maintain an active presence on social media. In addition to all the other benefits which can be derived by having an active presence, you can also acquire a great many more leads in less time, and using far less energy when you make use of social media.In order for you to be sure that you're going about it the right way, and that the strategies you use are the best for achieving good results, you should use some of the strategies described below. These have proven to be the most effective ways of acquiring new leads on social media, and they are likely to be the ones which are most fruitful for your company as well.

The value of acquiring new leads

Lead generation involves discovering all those individuals who have expressed any kind of interest in your business, very often by filling out a form which includes contact information, and sometimes by actively reaching out to your business. At this point, the person you're reaching out to has not bought anything from you, or had any other form of engagement with you. This is the very beginning of the buying process, and it's what leads to everything else.Veteran marketing personnel like to talk about a marketing qualified lead, which is a person who has shown great interest in your business based on prior digital activities and behaviors. Some good examples of these kinds of behaviors are how many times a person may have come to your website, or shared a post which you made on social media.To be really good at acquiring leads on social media, you should also be proficient at branding, and you should provide users with multiple opportunities to get to know your business at a level which they have not previously engaged in.

Keep your company profile up to date

First of all, you need to identify those platforms where users hang out in large numbers, who might be considered suitable candidates for your products or services. These are the platforms which you should focus on, in terms of maintaining an active presence, and trying to reach new users. Those businesses which cater to younger audiences would probably do well to maintain an Instagram account, whereas businesses catering to older audiences would probably tend to favor Facebook.

It might be necessary for you to do some research to find out what your target audience is truly interested in. Then you can keep your profile up-to-date and feature some of those same interests, or you can offer a periodic blog which references those interests. You can also share some posts which might motivate users to visit your website, and take one more engagement step toward involvement with your company.

Run contests in social media

One of the best ways of generating engagement and user interest in your company is to run a social media contest. Since all participants will be obliged to comply with contest conditions, you'll be able to acquire a number of new leads when they submit their email address to you. If you run a contest on Instagram, you could ask all contestants to post a photo in which your business is tagged, and that may trigger a lot more activity on your profile.Even though this activity doesn't usually lead to direct leads, and is more focused on branding, it could still cause potential customers to get in touch with you and to reach out to you. You could also simply have users tag one or more friends in any of your posts, to spread the word about your brand that way. You can encourage users to tell a story, use some of their favorite emojis, write a poem, or simply relate a humorous anecdote, so as to become more fully engaged.Another great way to acquire leads is to create a contact page where users can actually leave their own contact information, like email addresses or phone numbers. Contests can also be used as a vehicle for encouraging customers to subscribe to your company newsletter, and that of course will provide you with a whole slew of brand-new email addresses which you can follow up on. The whole idea behind running contests in social media is to feature your company's products or services, so as to increase brand awareness, and trigger the idea of a potential purchase.

Use re-marketing

Re-marketing involves advertising directed at potential customers and customers which have already been in touch with your company somehow, or have at least visited your business page. Whether you have a bank which is offering the possibility of refinancing, or a retail store which sells men's clothing, it's a good idea for you to encourage people to click on links which will direct them to your website.It can also be very helpful to encourage them to check out social media profiles your company maintains on various platforms. Any business which has already used Google Ads or Facebook advertising, should also be making use of the re-marketing feature. Advertising through re-marketing will present customers with a reminder that they have previously visited your business via an ad. This is a great way to acquire a number of qualified leads, and these leads are far likelier to purchase from you.

Accept direct messages from customers

Facebook allows you to use a chat feature called Facebook Messenger for Businesses, in which you can direct message with your customers. Whenever a customer clicks on your profile, a chat box would be displayed, and it will contain an automated message. When any customer answers, that message would then go directly to your message inbox. That means you already know this person is interested in your company or your products, and you have another solid lead.You can't really do the same thing on Instagram, but you do have the capability of posting Stories, in which followers are allowed to answer questions. You could pose questions to your followers this way, or have them participate in polls, and these too will end up in your inbox, which means you have additional qualified leads.