Smart Ways to Supercharge Lead Generation Using Social Media & Meetup

Generating targeted, quality leads has become a lot more challenging for today’s B2B groups and marketers.

Merging the right activities delivered at the right time in the customer’s journey will result in a successful lead generation strategy. Fill your sales funnel with quality leads that will convert and reward your business with brand loyalty.

According to Duct Tape Marketing, proper lead generation goes more like this…

1. Hey, here’s the real problem you need to address.
2. There are a couple ways you might start to think about that problem.
3. Here’s one specific way to solve that problem and…
4. This is why we might be the right one to help you fix that problem

Below are a few B2B lead generation practices you can start using to create a steady stream of highly qualified leads. Whether you have a marketing department or plan to outsource your lead generation activities, these tricks will help you.

Quick Online Lead Generation Stats:

• Before finalizing a product purchase, 94% of B2B buyers research online. (Marketing Profs)
• More than 79% of marketing leads don’t convert into sales with the lack of lead nurturing as the leading cause. (MarketingSherpa via HubSpot)
• 68% of B2B companies are still struggling with lead generation. (CSO Insights via Lattice Engines)
• 61% of B2B marketers find generating high-quality leads as their biggest challenge. (B2B Technology Marketing Community)
• Strategic landing pages are used by 68% of B2B businesses to acquire leads. (Marketo)
• The three most commonly used B2B lead generation strategies are (Demand Metric Research Corporation via Direct Marketing News)
  • Email marketing (78%)
  • Event marketing (73%)
  • Content marketing (67%)

Generate Leads From Top 4 Social Networks

When making a purchase, 75% of B2B buyers use social media for their decision-making. Social engagements bring about ways to generate leads that create a momentum. The likes, follows, retweets, shares and other forms of lead generation in the social network will follow as you reveal more about the authenticity of your brand.

Below are tips to leverage activity on social media to foster greater endorsement of what your business does and what it stands for.

Social media lead conversion rates are 13% higher than average. -HubSpot Click To Tweet

1. Facebook – Social Media Giant

Contests: competitions are one of the best ways to increase page likes and generate leads. It is also an effective way to draw a lot of attention and gather emails. Make sure to choose a prize that will appeal to your target audience. You mostly want to get their email addresses, location, gender and age group. Try to keep it simple because too many questions may turn people off completely.

Offers and Special Codes: Facebook enables brands to offer products from their page or the ads creation tool. This encourages advertisers to create substantial discounts and use engaging images to echo some buzz in the store. Fans love codes or secret password that open doors to savings, special offers or events.

Customers as Brand Ambassadors: Expand word-of-mouth marketing in a social context. Ask questions and encourage existing customers to be active on your page. Thank them for participating and provide relevant content they can share with others.

Calls to Action: Don’t overwhelm your audience in sales posts only. Mix a right combination of lead-generating content and overall engagement. Calls to action or CTAs can be included in posts, images and any other update you share.

49% #B2B marketers generated leads through Facebook. -Pinpoint Click To Tweet

 

2. Twitter – Real Time Conversations

Twitter is the top social platform for B2B brand mentions. In 2013, Twitter released its Lead Generation Twitter Cards. This allows you to get emails in the same way that you’d get emails from your website landing pages.

Tips for using Twitter Cards:

• Use high quality and eye-catching images
• Statistics help
• Make the best of 140 characters for your copy

Events Hashtags – hitch a ride! There’s always an official hashtag whenever there are huge industry events or global appeal like the World Cup. B2B and marketers can take advantage of these hashtags by joining in conversations and sharing insights.

Ask Questions: From time to time, ask for input and feedback from your followers. Ask them about their daily challenges or ideas and share those tweets to see how your fan base might respond.

Host Email-gated Contests: Vote, photo, or even a video contest can entice participation with a great prize. Gain extra leads by making email the field of entry.

73% of #B2B brand mentions happen on Twitter. -Brandwatch Click To Tweet

3. Instagram – Best Visual Marketing

Showcase Products or Services: Give your actual products and/or services a visual showroom. Excite your potential customers by showing off and sharing interesting pictures about your business.

Share Social Outreach and Responsibility: Reflect the human side of your brand by participating in corporate social responsibility initiatives. Take and share photos of your team engaging in these activities.

Share Team Photos: Take advantage of your employee activities by sharing photos on Instagram. This is a real demo of teamwork and unity that can go a long way toward lifting your brand image.

4. LinkedIn – Best Professional Network

62% of B2B: #LinkedIn is the most effective platform for our business. -CMI Click To Tweet

Smart networking: Make new connections on LinkedIn and build relationships with the old. Don’t hesitate to ask one of your contacts to introduce you to someone they know. Most people like doing favors like referrals and networking.

65% of B2B companies considered lead generation from LinkedIn successful. Click To Tweet

Join in Group Discussions: Look out for the most relevant groups you can join in to boost your brand. LinkedIn groups give you an opportunity to provide expert opinions to users who constantly seek knowledge.

Publish Articles on Pulse: Publish articles and ask for feedback among your connections. A single Pulse article could entice followers and potential leads from those who are already interested and invested in your industry.

Focusing more on #LinkedIn is a priority for 77% of B2B marketers. -SME Click To Tweet

Generate Leads From Group Events

For many B2B lead generation environments, the most effective tactic involves in person education through events like seminars and webinars.

MEETUP

Like LinkedIn, introductions and referrals can go a long way. MeetUp.com is the world’s largest network of local groups. The networking site has been around for over 12 years now and is popular among enthusiasts. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one in which people meet in person.

Ways to Utilize Meetup:

1. Create Own Business Target Personas
2. Start a Meetup Intended for Each Persona
3. Start Forming Connections
4. Join Meetup groups and meet members.
5. Build an Email List

The overall goal is consistently offering to loop a prospect back into consuming more content and info from your website. What you need to do is employ numerous lead generation tactics, working together, in order to create lead momentum and turn them into paying customers.

Sign up for our upcoming free webinar: Learn More on How to Use Meetup to Promote your Business, featuring Ken Varga, who has developed multiple businesses which he’s sold for over 9 figures.

Because of their expertise, lead generation #outsourcing is 43% more efficient than in-house. -FearlessCompetitor Click To Tweet

Virtual Assistant Talent (VAT) has teamed up with Ken Varga to come up with a proven set of activities that will deliver growth and promote any type of business or industries using Meetup.

Highly-skilled Virtual Assistants (VA) will perform proven Meetup tasks and activities that will leverage your business to the next level. Learn more at Meetup Marketing Program.

62% of B2B companies #outsource their content marketing. -DemandMetric Click To Tweet

 

References:
www.cio.com
www.ducttapemarketing.com/
sproutsocial.com
marketinginsidergroup.com/
www.ironpaper.com/