Social media has been known to be one of the greatest inventions of this era. Where it has helped people across the globe to grow their networks and get closer, it has also helped businesses both, business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) in their marketing endeavors as well. And, why wouldn’t it? Research shows that people spend 30% of their overall time online using social media.
The need for social media has grown in all aspects of life. From social uses to professional marketing and advertising, social media is considered one of the most effective marketing and advertising tools of this era. Imagine the volume of marketing and advertising, which happens through social media platforms, as by 2015 social media platforms were reported to generate a gross income of over $8.3 billion only from advertising and research shows that this amount has only grown since then.
Social Media Platforms & Lead Generation
Nowadays, more than 38% of business organizations tend to spend over 20% of their overall advertising & marketing budgets on social media platforms. Over the years, these budget percentages have only increased.
The question is “WHY”. Why are business organizations so fond of social media platforms? How is social media helping business organizations in generating leads?
See, an increasing amount of time, which people are spending on social media, has a major effect on customers’ buying decisions. This has resulted in business organizations learning and adapt to a world, where social media has become a highly influential marketing tool. Businesses are now making use of social media platforms, implementing various new marketing strategies and tips, which help them in achieving better results, as far as lead generation is concerned. Not just lead generation but in fact, social media platforms are also known to offer a 13% higher lead conversion rate than average.
Normally, business organizations are using social media marketing to boost their sales funnels. These platforms are quite helpful in offering the target audience a smooth transition from one step to the next, helping business organizations to create awareness and eventually bring in more customers.
Social Media Lead Generation for B2B Businesses
Research shows that almost 43% of b2b businesses get new customers from Facebook. Other reports show that 80% of the leads generated are from LinkedIn. Moreover, 75% b2b organizations are highly influenced by social media platforms, when they are making buying decisions. Yes, b2b platforms such as eWorldTrade or Alibaba are extremely useful in generating leads. However, other digital platforms especially social media platforms have their own significance. And, stats show that social media marketing has helped b2b businesses to generate leads in a much better manner than before.
Lead generation and nurturing have always been quite a challenge for b2b businesses. However, social media platforms, along with some well-thought-out strategies, can help businesses to achieve their goals and perform better.
The AIDA model displayed above is a typical strategy, which is formulated to nurture leads through various social media platforms, even professional networking platforms as well, which can result in increased sales.
If you are an entrepreneur in these digitally competitive times, then here are ten extremely creative ways to help you generate an increasing number of leads in the most effective manner.
Ten Creative Tips to Help Generate B2B Leads through SMM
- Don’t Rule Any Social Media Platform Out
- Focus on Optimization of Your Social Media Profile
- Always Offer Contact Information
- Call-to-Action Buttons Are Highly Significant
- Provide Website Links in Bio
- Create Engaging & Compelling Content
- User-Friendly Landing Pages Can Make All the Difference in the World
- Use Paid Promotions & Ads
- Host Online Events
- Make Use of Chatbots
Don’t Rule Any Social Media Platform Out
It is true that some social media platforms harbor a much higher volume of web traffic than others. Take Facebook as an example, this platform has more than 2.5 billion active monthly users across the globe and it is certainly considered the biggest social media platform, as far as web traffic volume is concerned. However, restricting to just one social media platform, even the biggest one, is not a viable practice. While Facebook has the largest web traffic volume, research shows that 80% of the B2B leads are generated from LinkedIn.
Similarly, there are other social media platforms, which can help greatly in providing an increase in generating leads as well. Moreover, it is extremely important for you to be familiar with the demographics of each platform, which you want to use for generating leads. It is better to have prior knowledge about the type of audience you will be interacting with on different social media platforms before you can start your marketing campaigns.
With only keeping Facebook under the microscope, you can find out easily, that even though it has over 2.5 billion active monthly users but, at least 412 million of these users are comprised of fake profiles & accounts. However, at the same time, it has also been observed that Facebook is home to the largest population of teen users.
Focus on Optimization of Your Social Media Profile
Organic lead generation for your b2b businesses through social media platforms is something, which will require you to keep everything top-notch about your social media pages. Before you even think about starting up your marketing campaigns on social media, you need to prepare your social media platform pages to handle everything in the most effective manner. See, you need to focus on creating a page, which will make your customers feel welcomed. A sloppily created social media page can probably have adverse or negative effects rather than giving positive results.
Furthermore, you don’t want your traffic to think as if your social media pages are filled with spider webs and there is no sign of any activity at all. Therefore, you must concentrate on creating posts and regularly updating your content with new posts, preferably on a daily basis.
Always Offer Contact Information
Once your target audience or customers have landed on your social media pages, the next step is for you to make them take the next step. Now, the next desirable step for your b2b organization is to have them contact you directly without having any intermediaries in between. This is something, which can only be made possible if you provide them with a clear option to contact you via your social media platform.
While, your potential customers have the option to contact you directly through your social media pages. However, it is much better if you provide them with contact information, preferably under a “Contact Us” tab. Provide your contact information on the page, starting from your email ids to your phone numbers. Offer them this information on a plate, so that they do not lose interest before they can find the contact information.
Call-to-Action Buttons Are Highly Significant
Once again, it’s all about making things easier for your customers. Moreover, it’s also about giving them the necessary nudge, which they need to move in the right direction. Call-to-action buttons are the much-needed persuasive tactics, which can help in increasing your lead generation from social media platforms. Research shows that if your Facebook pages have a call-to-action button present on them, then this would increase the click-through rates by 285%.
Furthermore, other research shows that CTA (call-to-action) buttons have resulted in an increase of 22% per quarter, in e-commerce conversion rates. So, technically CTA is not only a tool, which brings in significant positive results in lead generation but in fact, it is also exceptionally valuable as far as increasing conversion rates are concerned as well.
Provide Website Links in Bio
If you are running a b2b business, then having your website link added in your social media page’s bio is going to do wonders, as far as generating leads is concerned. Yes, social media pages are essential as far as creating awareness is concerned. However, when it comes to a detailed view of the organization and its products, the official website can provide a better insight to the customers. This requires you to create a smooth transition for your customers, which they can use to visit your official websites.
Create Engaging & Compelling Content
It’s a race to capture the attention of your target audience on social media platforms. And, with tons of content making its way on these platforms on a regular basis, you need to ensure that your content is not only unique but also extremely engaging. Research shows that 91% of the B2B marketing experts are using content to approach their target audiences successfully. With so much competition, your content must possess the quality to compel your target audiences to take your desired actions.
User-Friendly Landing Pages Can Make All the Difference in the World
It takes a lot of effort and hard work to convince your social media page traffic to click on your website links. However, once they have, then it is your responsibility to not leave them disappointed in your business. Giving them a chance to visit a highly amazing and user-friendly landing page will certainly improve your chances of generating a higher volume of leads.
Moreover, landing pages are also one of the most important tools, which are specifically designed to convert your leads as well. When your customers are on your landing pages, they are almost on the end of your sales funnel, now it’s time to reap the rewards of your creativity. The simpler and the more visually seamless your landing pages are, the higher the chances are of your customers to buy from you.
Use Paid Promotions & Ads
Facebook ads, Instagram paid promotions and LinkedIn lead gen forms are some of the most common and most useful ways of generating leads from social media platforms. Furthermore, you can track your leads from your social media platforms and integrate your social media platforms with your customer management systems (CMS) so that you can keep a close follow-up on your leads as well.
This information can prove to be quite valuable as nurturing these leads begins from this particular point onwards. Furthermore, using these lead generation methods can also lead to a much higher conversion rate. Taking LinkedIn as an example, statistics show that there is an increase of 13% in the conversion rates after using the lead gen forms on LinkedIn.
Host Online Events
According to a survey by Wyzowl, 84% of marketing professionals feel that online events such as webinars are exceptionally effective as a lead gen tool. Further research shows that customers attending webinars also have a much higher span of attention and they are more likely to take action as well. 67% of the signups are reported to have been achieved by attendees, which are only attending for at least an hour.
Statistics offer further insight into how webinars can ensure lead generation from the attendees, which is between 20% and 40%. Moreover, 5% of them are highly likely to convert and buy your products.
Make Use of Chatbots
Traffic visiting your social media pages can be greatly influenced by the use of chatbots. Chatbots or instant messaging your visitors is believed to be quite a powerful tool in generating leads. Furthermore, it is also observed that your social media page visitors are less likely to reach out to you themselves therefore if you wish to generate leads, you will have to contact them yourself and there is nothing better than a chatbot for fulfilling this purpose.
Moreover, AI-powered bots combined together with machine learning can help in a much better manner. The number of predefined responses and the ability to learn more responses through machine learning can offer your social media platform visitors a much better and more personalized experience, which increases the chances of the visitor to turn into a potential lead. You can also use this tech to profile your previous visitors and engage them through content, which is highly personalized, bringing a higher chance for better results.
Conclusion
These ten creative ways will certainly help your b2b businesses to stand out from the crowd and generate a higher volume of leads from social media platforms. Therefore, if you are looking to generate a higher lead volume of quality leads and have a higher conversion rate, then you should try using these tactics and take your b2b businesses towards newer heights of success.
John Martin is a blogger by passion and Digital Martketer by profession. With having a tech background and experience in Digital Marketing, He is eager towards exploring the modern-day tech landscape. With having interest in technology, business, marketing services.
