Want to generate leads for your business on social media?
Then you’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, we’re going to talk about why social media is one of the best places for generating leads, and then we’ll give you a step-by-step plan for executing your social media lead-gen strategy.
(It’s not as difficult as you might think)
Onward!
The Undeniable Power of Social Media for Lead Generation
By far the most constant challenge that marketers mentioned (61%) in a HubSpot survey was “generating traffic and leads”, followed by “proving the ROI of our marketing activities” and “securing enough budget”.
There’s no denying it.
Getting people to pay attention is a challenge.
Getting the right people to pay attention is even more difficult.
And while social media isn’t an end-all solution to that common problem, it is one of the best places to generate leads… if you know how to do it.
After all, social media is host to billions of users.
In the U.S. alone (which has 328 million people), there are about 223 million social media users.
The good news, then, is that your target market is almost certainly on social media…
… because darn-near everyone is on social media.
But lest you think that those numbers represent empty lead-gen potential, consider this brief compilation of statistics…
So it’s not a question of whether your business can generate leads on social media or not, it’s a question of how you can generate leads on social media… systematically so that you don’t have to rely on random bursts of motivation or creativity.
That’s what we’re going to talk about next.
Here our 5-step process for systematically generating leads on social media.
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Step 1. Choose Your Platform(s)
Most people talk about social media marketing as if it’s one thing.
But that’s not really true.
There are a lot of different social platforms where you could generate leads for your business.
Which platform should you choose?
Well, each platform attracts a different audience, encourages a different style of content, and ultimately, is good for generating different types of leads.
If you’re marketing for a B2B business, then LinkedIn is the king of lead-gen.
If you’re marketing for a B2C business, then you might consider generating leads on Facebook and Instagram (the most general of the social media platforms) — those would also work for a B2B business.
Pinterest, on the other hand, is ideal if you’re targeting women…
…in the following niches…
Twitter, like Facebook, is a bit of a generalist platform and would work for most types of lead-gen strategies.
TikTok is new to the social media landscape but has had viral growth over the last year. Its platform is made up mostly of young people. However, since TikTok is seeing such massive success, advertising on the platform is a bit more expensive than some other social media channels.
Which platform or platforms are you going to use for your lead-gen strategy?
The answer depends on the type of business you’re trying to promote.
Choose the platform that will get you in front of your target market most consistently.
And be honest about your bandwidth — if you don’t have time to manage content creation for multiple platforms, then just start with one.
You can always add more to the mix later.
Step 2. Create Your Lead-Gen Sales Funnel
Anyone could use social media to generate a few leads here and there…
But that’s not what we’re after.
We need to build a system for generating leads over the long-term. One that is easy to manage and gets real results with the least amount of maintenance possible.
That’s where your sales funnel comes in.
What’s a sales funnel?
Don’t get overwhelmed — it’s just a series of pages that are crafted to systematically guide each visitor toward taking the action you want them to take… in this case, becoming a lead.
So while we call it a “sales funnel”, it’s more of a lead-gen funnel. 😉
This is what we specialize in here at ClickFunnels.
The real beauty of a sales funnel is that, once it’s built, all you have to do is drive traffic from, say, social media, to the first page of your sales funnel.
So long as your funnel is built to convert (we’ll help you with that in a moment), then you’ll generate leads on autopilot so long as you keep driving traffic!
We recommend building either a Squeeze Page Funnel or an Application Funnel (if you need more detailed info from your leads).
(You can click on those hyperlinks to claim your free sales funnel, by the way!)
A Squeeze Page Funnel consists of just two pages: the squeeze page and the “Thank You” page…
To make this as effective as possible, you’ll want to include a compelling “bribe to subscribe” on your squeeze page — this is just a free gift or downloadable resource that solves your audience’s most immediate problem.
(Consider giving your audience a free checklist, how-to guide, audio lesson, or consulting session, for instance)
Here’s an example…
Then you thank the person for signing up and send them the free gift via email!
Easy as pie.
But remarkably effective.
An Application Funnel is similar to a Squeeze Page Funnel — the main difference is that the Application Funnel includes a quick application so that you can acquire more information from your leads.
Ready to get started?
- Click HERE to start building your Squeeze Page Funnel
- Click HERE to start building your Application Funnel
Once you’ve created your sales funnel, there are at least two different places you should place it on your website.
First, as an in-content CTA throughout your blog posts…
And second, as an exit-intent popup…
ClickFunnels can also help you do that 😉
Step 3. Optimize Your Social Media Accounts
You know which social media platforms you’re going to use for lead-gen and you’ve even built a sales funnel that will automate a lot of the lead-gen process.
But before you start publishing content and driving traffic, you should optimize your social media profiles.
This shouldn’t take you super long, but there are a few things that you’ll want to make sure you do to set yourself up for success.
Add Your Sales Funnel Link To Profile Pages
Imagine that someone sees your content for the first time, loves it, and wants to learn more about you. So they visit your social media profile page. From there, you want to make it as easy as possible for that person to become a lead. So include links to the beginning of your sales funnel on your profile page.
Create a Consistent Brand Image
You don’t want people to visit one of your social media profiles and not recognize your brand. So stay consistent. The colors, logos, and even images you use on your website and social media profile should be as similar as possible.
Fill Out Your Entire Profile
You also don’t want people to feel like they stumbled across a poorly put together social media profile. Take the time to add a photo, cover image, bio, and other important elements.
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Step 4. Create a Social Media Content Schedule
Now it’s time to start publishing content.
This is arguably the most difficult part of building a social media lead-gen system.
You can’t just create a sales funnel, share some links, and hope for the best.
You have to consistently create new content… content that resonates with your audience, builds trust for your brand, and encourages click-throughs to your sales funnel.
Sound like a lot?
It is.
But it’s not so much that you can’t handle — and you can scale your content publishing schedule to whatever is reasonable for your bandwidth.
(Sharing content on your social media channels once per day is a great place to start)
We highly recommend using a tool like Trello, Asana, or Notion to create a content schedule.
And you can use a tool like Buffer to schedule social media posts all at once!
There are a few different types of content you can share as a part of your overall strategy. Let’s briefly go over those.
- Website Content — This is the content that you’ve published on your website (blog, podcast, etc) that you’re sharing with your social media followers. This is the most beneficial type of content for lead-gen because you’re pointing people back toward your website where they can opt-in to become a lead.
However, this type of content also takes longer to create. So you might only share this type of content once or twice per week.
(Remember to include opt-in forms to your sales funnel within your blog content so that people can systematically become leads!)
- Social Media Content — This is social media content that doesn’t point to any external websites or resources. It’s simply there to engage your audience, add value, and build brand awareness. It’s easy to create and will likely be a big part of your social media marketing strategy.
- Other People’s Content — Sometimes, if you’re out of ideas and don’t have anything unique to share with your audience, it’s not a bad idea to share other people’s content. If it’s good content, then your audience will still look to you as a great source of information.
It’s likely that your social media sharing schedule will include all three of these types of content.
So don’t be afraid to do a little of everything.
Publish your own content once per week, share social media content five times per week, and share someone else’s content once per week.
As your bandwidth increases, you can lean toward sharing your own website’s content more often.
But here’s a question…
What should your content be about?
Ideating content is often one of the most difficult parts. So here are a few content creation questions to get you moving in the right direction…
- What Questions Does Your Target Market Have? What are the common questions you get from your target market? Answer those questions in a blog post or podcast!
- What Story Can You Tell? Tell a compelling story that will resonate with your audience, a story that they can relate to.
- How Can You Inspire Your Target Market? Share a quote, idea, or case study that will inspire your audience to grow and take action.
- How Can You Engage Your Target Market? What is a hot-topic issue that your audience really cares about? Ask the hard questions and get them talking!
- How Can You Add Value For Your Target Market? What are the main things that your audience struggles with? Help them with it in a detailed blog post or with a quick social media post.
You can return to those questions whenever you’re struggling to come up with content ideas.
Pro Tip: You can also repurpose your blog content or podcasts into social media posts. Sharing quotes, video snippets, or infographics from your existing articles and episodes is a quick and easy and easy way to create content for social media.
Step 5. Give Your Content a Boost (Paid & Unpaid)
So you’ve got a content schedule and you’re consistently publishing content on social media.
That’s awesome!
But it’s not the end.
Creating content takes a lot of effort — particularly blog or podcast content.
So naturally, you want to drive as much traffic as possible to every single article or episode that you publish.
And while sharing the content on your social media profiles is a good first step, it’s not enough — you should also consider paying to boost your content’s reach or doing so organically.
You can pay for ads on pretty much every social media platform — Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, and TikTok.
Just make sure you’re targeting the right people, staying within your budget, promoting content that drives people toward your sales funnel, and monitoring results.
Here’s an example of what this can look like from our own Facebook ad campaigns…
That link takes them to an article that provides free value. While they’re there, they can sign up for a ClickFunnels trial or download one of our free resources.
And most importantly, since we’re paying Facebook, that content is reaching more of our target market!
Consider setting a budget for advertising each piece of content (even $10 is a good start!), monitoring results, and continuing to advertise content that is generating leads.
(You can also advertise straight to your lead-gen sales funnel if you want to generate leads more directly!)
But what about giving your content more reach without spending more money?
Here are a few ideas…
Ask For Shares — Email or message people who you think might be willing to share your content with their audience. Commit to messaging a certain number of people for every piece of content you create (100 people, for instance). Below is an outreach script that I’ve used with pretty good success…
Hello NAME!
First of all, I LOVE your twitter feed. Following!
I just published an article on my own blog that is similar to some of the other content you’ve shared — I usually don’t reach out like this but I’m really proud of this article and I thought you might like it, too.
LINK
If you do, would you mind sharing it with your audience? It would mean a lot 🙂
Either way, glad to make the connection!
SIGN-OFF
Include Influencers — One of the easiest hacks for getting more shares on your content is to include influencers in your niche within the content. Reach out to them and ask for contributions (most of them will be totally game for it!) and then, when the article is published, message them, thanking them for their contribution and asking them to share the article with their audience.
That’s exactly the strategy that was used behind this article, for instance…
Share in Niche Communities — Most social media sites have niche communities where people gather around a common interest. These communities comes in different formats, however. There are Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups, Instagram hashtags, and Pinterest Group Boards. Share your content in these areas to get additional reach for no extra cost!
Ready to Generate Leads on Social Media?
Social media is a powerful tool for generating leads.
And you can follow the above steps to start moving in the right direction — choose your platform, create your sales funnel, optimize your profile, create a content calendar, and give your content a boost.
That’s the process.
Follow it and you’ll be generating leads through social media in no time!