Lead nurturing is all about building trust and a direct rapport with people, and giving them the reasons they need to become your customers. In a nutshell, lead nurturing represents every type of marketing and engagement activity you perform to attract people’s attention, raise their interest, create a desire for your products and services, and conclude a sale. This is the daily online battle every single company is fighting, using all the channels of communication available to them.
And one of the most powerful channels of communication of these days is the social media. Platforms such as Facebook™, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram are the most frequently used communication channels for companies to maximise the exposure of their brand image and values, to share content and to launch offers and promotions. Today we will show you some of the most effective ways in which you can add social media to your existing lead nurturing strategy.
Even if you have achieved a certain level of integration already, it is worth continuing to read this article, even if only to double check that whatever you are doing is in line with the latest rules of the ever-changing game called online marketing.
1. Add Social Media Buttons to Thank You Notes
Thank You notes should be delivered any time a new prospect interacts with your company, for example when they sign up for your newsletter or fill in a survey. Adding social media buttons to this note will not impact its design, and it won’t take more than a few minutes to add the pieces of code, but the impact will be major.
When people receive thank you notes of any kind, they are in a good state of mind and inclined to lend you even more goodwill than they’ve already done. It is highly likely that they will click on the button for the social media platform they use most frequently and follow your account.
2. Organise Fan-Only Contests and Promotions
A successful marketing campaign of any kind is that when every targeted prospect has the feeling that it was tailored just for him or her. The idea of exclusivity makes people feel special, and this is the first step towards nurturing qualified leads. Special promotions, events or giveaways should be addressed only to your followers on one of your social media pages.
In this way, your followers will perceive added value to the relationship they have with your company, by liking or following your social media profiles.
3. Include Social Media Sharing Buttons in Your Newsletters
The simplest lead nurturing strategy is offering people interesting and useful content in your newsletters. If this content is appreciated as truly helpful, people will want to share it with their friends. You should make it as simple as possible for them to do so by including social sharing buttons in your newsletter under relevant content pieces. Every share represents added exposure for your company and the implicit endorsement of the person sharing it. It is a powerful way of attracting new leads, so if you do not have social media sharing buttons in your newsletter template already, then you should add them right now.
4. Respond to Social Mentions in a Lead Nurturing Manner
Monitoring social mentions is a must for every company which wants to maintain its online reputation and identify its brand advocates. Whenever your company name is mentioned in a positive manner, you should act quickly and steer that person towards the lead nurturing path. It can be something as simple as mentioning them back in a thank you note with an invitation to subscribe to your newsletter or access gated content (such as a tutorial) by providing their email address.
5. Celebrate Loyal Customers
Case studies, success stories, and videos or photos featuring your top loyal customers and the benefits they enjoy as a result of trusting your products and services are very useful pieces of content to share on the social media for lead generation purposes. On one hand, everyone likes to be popular even for a few days on the social media; on the other hand, direct testimony is the best form of advertising.
As a parting thought, every kind of marketing activity in the present should be connected with the social media. There is no other way to reach so many potential leads in a simple and cost effective manner and it looks like social media will continue to be a driving force for brand image building and sales for many years to come.