It can be difficult for B2B companies to generate sales leads from their social media outlets, but it isn't impossible. A recent article by Rebecca Corliss on the HubSpot Marketing Blog offers some suggestions specifically for B2B business looking to increase leads from social media.
1. Make use of landing pages: Landing pages really are square one for lead generation, so make sure there is at least one form on every one of your landing pages. You should have multiple landing pages, each with their own offer, and a form for collecting information on leads. Create E-books, "how-to" guides, demos, etc. and then create landing pages and forms for each. This will give you a good jumping off point for your social media lead generation campaign.
2. Make it as easy as possible for visitors to convert on a landing page: When someone sees your Facebook profile or a recent Tweet, you want it to be as easy as possible for them to be funneled to a landing page. The first step to doing this is to place calls-to-action on everything you publish on social media. If you are linking to a blog post on your Facebook page, make sure there is a CTA on the blog post that leads to a landing page. The second step is make sure your homepage funnels visitors to landing pages. When people find your company via social media, often their first step in learning more about you is to visit your homepage. Place CTA's for compelling offers and links to content on your homepage so you can funnel those visitors to forms.
3. The 10-4-1 Rule: The B2B Social Media Book by Kipp Bodnar and Jeffrey L. Cohen, lay out the basics for the 10-4-1 Rule of balancing social media content publication. Basically, for every 15 pieces of social media content your publish (Facebook updates, Tweets, etc.) 10 should be someone else's content, 4 should be your blog posts, and 1 piece should be a landing page. This ratio will help you extend your reach, by sharing other people's content, generate leads, and increase your web traffic.
Your goal with a B2B lead generation campaign is ultimately to acquire and develop leads into prospects and sales. Utilizing direct mail, email marketing, media advertising, and other, more traditional, strategies shouldn't be left behind. But if your social media outlets are still floundering, then you could consider a demand generation service. A good demand generation service will leverage social media research to locate, identify, and connect with prospects.
Topics: Marketing
