How To Generate Leads Through Social Media Without Ads
Knowing how to generate leads through social media is crucial for any business. However, while most brands know how to use social media platforms for brand awareness and engagement, few can generate leads effectively. And without consistent lead generation, revenue growth takes much longer.
Regularly collecting leads will help your company find and nurture interested consumers – people who are just about ready to buy. The important thing is knowing where to start and what to do, which is the purpose of this article.
1. Optimize Your Social Profile
A lot of businesses miss the mark or fail to archive the desired result with profile optimization. Before posting any content, ensure your profile is complete and has everything in place that you’ll need to collect leads.
Specifically, your company profile should provide the information people need to contact you or engage with products or services.
Ensure every social profile includes:
Your contact information – make sure it’s clear and easy to spot on your profile.
A clear call to action (CTA) – ensure it’s visible on the profile. The amount of flexibility you’ll have will depend on the given social media platform features. For instance, Facebook allows companies to edit the CTA button, which appears on the mid-right side of the profile.
Think about what you would like users to do and create or edit your CTA accordingly.
For example, you may want more email subscribers. In that case, adding a sign-up or subscribe link is appropriate. Similarly, if you wish to book more appointments, then link to your scheduling page.
A bio link or URL to a page on your website – this is something you can do on some social networks if CTA features aren’t available. For example, Instagram and Twitter allow users to embed links within their biography.
Ideally, you should include a CTA right before the link, so people know why they should care to click – and what they should expect to find. For instance, an
eCommerce store can use Download Your Free Fashion Guide Now at [Insert Link].
Fashion Nova does the above very well on its Instagram page.
2. Use Instagram Locations to Locate Local Users
Instagram has some great local search functions that can help you generate leads through social media when used correctly.
Use Instagram locations to identify content from people in your region. At that point, you can interact with relevant Instagram posts (e.g., comments, likes), including DM (direct message) individuals or brands – your call.
Here’s how to get started.
From your profile, tap the Search function located at the bottom of the page – it’s the little magnifying glass.
Then tap the search bar to reveal additional options. Instagram will show you the ‘Top,’ ‘Accounts,’ ‘Tags,’ and ‘Places’ search categories. Select the appropriate one and perform your search.
For this tutorial, select ‘Places’ and then click on ‘Nearby Places.’ If the Instagram app has geolocation permissions on your smartphone, it will auto-populate results based on your current location.
That also means if you’re currently in another city, posts from that location will show on the search results. If that’s the case, you can manually select the city you want by searching for it.
Instagram’s search function is impressive, so don’t restrict yourself to cities or regions. You can also find content from Famous landmarks and local businesses.
3. Use Gated Content to Grow an Email List
Gated content is one of the easiest ways to generate leads through social media. It refers to providing free content in exchange for a small ask – something users can only get after completing the desired action. For example, you can require that users subscribe to your email list or a webinar to gain access.
Here’s that idea in action from Imperva.
When people click the link, the user gets the following landing page with a CTA.
When that’s clicked, a lead-capture form pops up that the prospect can fill.
It’s essential that the content you use is fantastic and compelling. That’s because most of the consumers you’ll find on social media are either in the discovery or consideration phase of the sales funnel.
These people won’t provide information without a concrete reason, let alone leave the social media platform. Users are more focused on entertainment or building relationships depending on the network.
The title of your content is also critical. It should entice the target audience enough that individuals wouldn’t mind exiting Facebook, Twitter, etc., to get it. For example, “Learn How You Can Make $150,000 in One Day” is far more compelling than “See How We Increased Revenues by 20 Percent in One Day”.
The goal of gated content isn’t necessarily to get a sale. Instead, the purpose is to persuade the target audience to take the desire action you want.
Use gated content sparingly – only when you have something truly remarkable to share.
4. Click-Worthy Content and Landing Pages
As you might know by now, you can’t generate leads through social media without compelling content. And such content is click-worthy, meaning it’s interesting enough to warrant a click-through.
From the images to the copy, everything must be of excellent quality and include a CTA. And once you manage to convince someone to click-through, don’t disappoint them with a sub-par landing page.
Landing pages are website pages created for a specific campaign or marketing initiative. Your landing pages should nail the following aspects.
- Relevance. Always meet the audiences’ expectations and never mislead. If someone expects to find a free eBook after clicking your link, make sure it’s there.
- Aesthetically pleasing, visually seamless, and easily scannable. The landing page should be well-designed and provide a clear path towards what to do next. Additionally, according to a study by the Nielson Norman Group, scannability is a must-have; 79 percent of users scan new web pages.
Wrapping Up
You can generate leads through social media without the typical stress involved. The key is knowing what to do and doing it right to level up your business.
It’s also essential that you focus only on the networks your customers use for best results.
That noted, Facebook is the best site to generate leads through social media, according to one eMarketer study.
Apply the tactics discussed here to start generating leads through social media channels without paying for ads.
Free PDF: 9 Tactics Agencies Use to Grow Social Media Followers Fast
Use tactics right from our playbook to grow your Instagram followers quickly!
