Social media is a critical platform for digital marketing in today’s day and age. Not only does social media give you an active audience of followers to interact with, but it’s a great way to drive people to your website. While frequent posting is a basic way of generating leads via social media, there are also uncommon ways that drive leads too.
Social Media-Based Customer Service
Engaging with customers directly through social media to give them answers to their questions is an excellent way to set your company apart from the rest. Not only do customers prefer a responsive customer experience, but it’s also a great way to give your business a unique voice. Many companies use social media as a way to further develop their brand image through how they react or interact with their customers.
This may not seem like an uncommon tactic, but it depends on how your company decides to approach its customer service. For example, you can set yourself apart with a voice or 'personality' that is unique to your company.
Another way to develop a memorable customer service experience on social media is by creating interactive videos to answer FAQs, instead of a written FAQ section. This can showcase the human side of your business and remind customers of the people supporting their needs.
Free Online Courses or Guides
Creating valuable content attracts interested customers by demonstrating your knowledge and expertise in your industry. One of the best ways to do this is to create an online course or a guide. A free online course is something you can give your customers in exchange for their participation that also furthers their trust or interest in your company.
Useful content such as your case studies, eGuides, checklists, or other content for download is a great way to gain leads as well. Make sure this content is gated, meaning it requires users to fill out a form before they can access the download. Gated content is still free content to the user, but you get to capture important customer information such as an email address, in exchange.
Decide in advance what you want your audience to learn and how this will help move them from prospect to customer.
- How does this content drive them to your products and services? Consider linking your content to your product/solution pages. This will help drive consumers to the products/solutions that are relevant to the content's topic.
- What are your customers' FAQs or pain points throughout the entire customer journey? Create content that answers or solves these issues so you can appeal to and attract consumers in all stages of the buyer's cycle.
- What content are your competitors putting out? Make sure your takeaways are different than theirs to provide value and to set yourself apart from the competition.
Rigorous promotion on all of your social media platforms is essential to ensure you’ll reach as many customers who are interested in your business as you can.
Interactive Contests
Everyone loves entering a contest. Social media accounts that host interactive contests see a greater amount of customer engagement than the ones that don’t.
Choose a budget you can work with and decide a prize that is most likely to hook customers in and generate leads. Continue to promote the contest on your social media to keep customers coming back time after time to your company’s page to seek updates.
Make sure to set a timeframe for your contest and clearly communicate that to your customers. This helps create urgency and encourages users to enter before the deadline. If your contest runs for too long, consumers may not feel the immediate need to enter and can ultimately forget about it.
Video Content
Consumers love visual content especially on social media. Creating short, engaging videos can help generate leads and pique the interest of customers who follow you. If you equip your videos with the right keywords and hashtags, you can reach new potential customers and grow your company's following of marketable leads.
Mastering social media marketing requires time and energy to get to know your audience and how to best engage with them. With these uncommon yet successful strategies, you’ll boost customer engagement and start generating more qualified leads.
