Generate leads
Twenty years ago, the usual marketing campaign was “let’s place our ads wherever possible, and let’s hope for the best.” Now, this method practically does not work, and is also considered bad form.
In the XXI century, you can not hope that customers will see advertising and immediately go to buy your products. Customers need to actively seek out and convince them that they want your particular product — moreover, to convince them unobtrusively. And for this, they need to be turned into leads.
Who are the leads and why are they needed?
Lead is a potential customer who is so interested in the product that he shared contact information with the seller. For example, e-mail, phone number, postal address, etc.
After that, the seller has the opportunity to work directly with the lead, find out exactly what he wants and offer various options. And if the lead is really interesting product, and the seller knows how to work, then in the end the lead will buy the product and be satisfied.
Not all leads are equally useful. The lead that gave his e-mail is much better than the lead that subscribed to the account in social networks. At least because targeted e-mails can be sent to e-mail, and all users see your posts in social networks. And ignoring posts is much easier than writing.
Therefore, working with leads in social networks should be a two-step process – in addition to generating subscribers, the SMM manager must also convert them into full-fledged leads.
How it looks in practice
You can read about how this works in theory in any of the 28,000 articles on this topic. It will be long, boring, incomprehensible and without any specifics. Instead, I propose to analyze the practical situation and on its basis draw up a work plan for the SMM manager for lead generation.
Generating subscribers in Facebook
First, the group needs to be issued.
1. Choose a classification (only on Facebook). We have – Company, Organization or Institution. We fill the provided fields with relevant information.
2. Choose a good URL. For example http://facebook.com/domashev
3. Load the logo. For Facebook, we also make a picture-cover.
Fill the page with content.
Good, regular content is half the success. Therefore, we make a content plan. It is desirable for two or three posts per day. For example:
1. At 8:00, post funny video, where the child can not cope with a large and uncomfortable vacuum cleaner. You can try to promote your product, like “With us this does not happen!”. Or you may not promote it, then there is a greater chance that readers will make a repost.
2. At 13:00 we post a link to the article in the blog “Technique that works forever.” The article is not ours and does not promote our product, but it is in the subject and at least some of the subscribers will be interested.
3. At 20:00, an amusing advertising picture. Not just “Here’s a product photo,” but something unusual. An example from another industry.
All posts are a) varied so that the reader does not get bored and b) are designed to be shared with friends, and friends will come and subscribe to our account.
The content plan is prepared one month in advance, in the last week of the current month – although this is more of a recommendation than a requirement.
The second half of success is the promotion and promotion of the group. Here you will need cash investments and / or a lot of creativity.
1. We order repost in adjacent groups. We find in the social networks of the group “Cooking delicious”, “Homeliness” and others related to our subject. We agree with their owners that the groups will repost two of our posts per day. We pay for repost at least as long as we do not have a sufficient number of subscribers for independent growth.
2. Create a brand identity. And we make it interesting so that even those who are not interested in our subject matter start to subscribe to us. Anything can be a chip, even black professional humor – but at the same time it should be really funny. For inspiration, look at Sonic and Wendy’s Twitter accounts . The first successfully uses memes and other people’s advertising campaigns. The second is not shy about engaging in skirmishes with other fast food chains and their fans. Both have tons of subscribers who follow each message while waiting for the next bomb.
3. We hold contests. Playing promotional codes for discounts and the technology itself in exchange for likes and repost. You can also enter a permanent discount on accessories for subscribers of the group, but this is usually outside the competence of the SMM manager and requires coordination with management.
Subscribers generation on Instagram
Instagram structural unit image. And the image is not simple, but bright, juicy and artistic.
Therefore, we will post here:
1. A photo. “Glamorous” pictures of our technology and the result of its work. For example, a gorgeous smoothie, cooked on our blender.
2. Stories . The story on Instagram is a slideshow with captions telling a story. Therefore, we come up with interesting stories from the life of the company, take pictures and post. For example:
a) Inside out . We show the build process of our new device, from beginning to end. Naturally, we make pictures as Apple – stylishly and with intrigue.
b) Education . We tell how to make the same smoothie.
We will promote the page in several directions:
1. Hashtags We go to Websta and start collecting hashtags with a popularity lower than three million. Every week a list of 100-200 hashtags that we can use and mark each post with 30 suitable ones. Next comes the exploitation of shortcomings in the Instagram tag system. One day this life hack will stop working, but for now you can use it.
a) After five minutes, we delete the first 30 hashtags from the description and put the next 30 in the comment.
b) After half an hour – put another 30 hashtags in the description. This will allow us to promote photos on 100 hashtags.
c) After 3 days, delete all hashtags in general, so that our new posts do not compete with the old ones.
1. Mutual following. Be sure to subscribe to all who liked your first photo. Most will sign up in response and will form the basis of our group.
Generate followers on Pinterest
Pinterest is more difficult than other social networks – its audience is obsessed with fashion, food and handicrafts, which means it’s almost impossible to promote something else Therefore, we post a photo of delicious food and, possibly, crafts made on our equipment. First, do it yourself, then collect from subscribers.
1. The perfect illustration for Pinterest: 2: 3 aspect ratio, good lighting, warm colors. No faces – only the product.
2. Ideal description : 100-200 words, with 2-3 hashtags and one link (for example, to a recipe, e-book or landing page for mailing).
Converting subscribers to leads.
Subscribers in social networks are good, and often they even become clients. True, any of your posts will be seen by all subscribers, which means you can forget about targeting individual users. And this is bad, because targeting gives the best results.
But you can’t just take and ask for e-mail addresses in order to start targeted marketing. Therefore, we coordinate actions with other departments and drive our subscribers to their lead generators. For example:
1. Mailing List. Say, “How to tidy up the house effectively.”
2. eBook . For example, “The coolest dishes that can be cooked on an electric furnace.” Naturally, in exchange for the link you need to enter your e-mail.
3. Corporate blog. The blog should have its own e-mail newsletter with updates.
After subscribers turn into leads, they are placed at the disposal of the person responsible for e-mail marketing. Most likely, advertising messages, newsletters from the company’s blog and promotional codes begin to arrive in the mail. In general, there is a typical client wire through the last three steps of the sales funnel .
Conclusion
SMM is more of an art than a science. There is no one recipe that will allow you to take and generate leads. The rules vary depending on the industry, audience, corporate image and many other factors.