Tag: leads

Categories
Social Media

10 Killer Ways Social Media Can Help Brands Build Traffic and Leads

socialmedia-top-10-ways

Social media has become an integral part of modern marketing strategies.

It is a way of offering businesses a powerful platform to build their brand, drive traffic, and generate leads.

Here are the top 10 ways social media can help businesses achieve these goals:

Increased Visibility and Exposure:
A well-executed social media marketing strategy can lead to increased visibility for your business. When you create interesting, relevant content, people will share it with their followers, which will increase your reach and exposure

Brand Building and Thought Leadership:
Social media allows businesses to become thought leaders and stand out from their competitors, establishing themselves as industry leaders through engaging and relevant content. Sharing valuable insights and expertise can help build brand authority and trust.

Engagement and Relationship Building:
Social media provides an avenue for creating a visual brand, allowing businesses to develop an identity and voice to showcase their brand values and engage with followers. Building and maintaining brand loyalty through engagement and relationship building is crucial for long-term success.

Content Distribution and Traffic Generation:
Social media is an effective platform for distributing content and driving traffic to a business website. Engaging social media content can pique the interest of followers, leading them to explore the business’s website for more information.

Lead Generation and Social Selling:
Social media can be leveraged for social selling, combining elements of social listening, lead generation, and sales practices. Engaging with potential leads and customers on social media can lead to valuable business opportunities.

Customer Insights and Targeting:
Social media provides businesses with the opportunity to learn more granular information about their customers’ interests, needs, behaviors, and desires. This insight can be used to tailor marketing efforts and target specific audience segments effectively.

Visual Branding and Content Creation:
Visual posts are more engaging than plain text, and social media provides an easy avenue for creating a visual brand. Businesses can use creative and visually appealing content to showcase their brand values and engage with their audience.

Thoughtful Content Sharing and Engagement:
Thoughtful content sharing on social media platforms can help businesses establish themselves as thought leaders and contribute to substantive industry-related conversations, ultimately driving engagement and brand recognition.

Social Listening and Industry Insights:
Social media platforms offer valuable insights into industry trends, customer sentiments, and competitor activities through social listening. Businesses can leverage this information to refine their marketing strategies and stay ahead in their industry.

Content Repurposing and Performance Tracking:
Businesses can repurpose content across different social media platforms to maximize its reach and impact. Tracking the performance of content can provide valuable insights into audience preferences and help refine future content strategies.

BONUS! SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT TOOLS:

We love Metricool and Agorapulse.

MetriCool is our favorite right now. It is a social media management tool that offers a range of features for scheduling, analyzing, and managing content across various platforms. There are others you can try, like Hootsuite, Buffer and Coschedule. (We have tried them all)

Here’s a quick summary of Metricool:

All-in-One Platform: Metricool provides a comprehensive suite of tools for social media management, including scheduling, analytics, and reporting, making it a convenient option for businesses looking for a single platform to handle their social media needs. Easy to look up competitor’s data and analysis.

Affordability: It is relatively affordable compared to some of the more established social media management tools, making it an attractive option for small to medium-sized businesses with budget constraints.

User-Friendly Interface: Metricool is often praised for its intuitive and user-friendly interface, which can be beneficial for businesses with limited experience in social media management.

IN SUMMARY…

Social media plays a pivotal role in helping businesses build their brand, drive traffic, and generate leads by providing a platform for increased visibility, engagement, content distribution, and valuable customer insights.

These strategies above and with specialized tools, when implemented effectively, can contribute to the overall success and growth of a business in the digital landscape.

Want to learn more?

Categories
PPC

8 Tips To Avoid Sales Teams Bitching About Poor Adwords Leads

sales teams bitching about leads adwords ads

How many times have you come across this situation?

Your sales team (one or several) complains daily about crappy quality leads or no leads at all. And, they keep nagging about your online advertising strategies…are they working? (with a frown).

“How am I supposed to close sales and grow this business when you cannot deliver leads I can work with?”

SILENCE.

PPC (Pay Per Click) is a powerful online advertising model to drive traffic and get quality marketing data for further optimization (SEO, anyone?)

TRUTH BOMB: Most of the advertising campaigns tend to fail.

Especially in the beginning.

Google’s revenue from ads is BIG (graphic from 2001-2014) *source

advertising revenue google 2001-2014

Google Adwords celebrated 15 years, and it’s interesting to check popular searches from 2001 … failure, you said?

Let’s dig in…

Potential consumers for your products and services are searching the net for solutions to their problems every day. It’s very “intent” driven.

AdWords is a perfect method to get in front of these customers at the exact moment in their buying cycle.

In fact, AdWords can be one of the greatest sources of new leads for your business, small or large when used correctly.

When speaking of AdWords, many newbie advertisers assume that the consumer will click on their ad, show up on the site and convert into a lead for their sales team.

But, as mentioned …it doesn’t happen this way in reality.

Even though AdWords is an awesome advertising method, it is also one of the most complicated systems that take a great deal of effort for a newbie marketer to succeed.

In fact, there are so many marketers where obtaining a new lead causes dread instead of excitement because they find the lead isn’t qualified.

This is why it is important that you learn some of the most important current PPC tips to obtain highly qualified leads from AdWords.

This article provides a comprehensive overview of 8 current PPC strategies to get quality leads from AdWords in any niche.

1. Keyword Research

If you are getting unqualified leads from your AdWords campaign, your keywords are the first thing that you should take a look at.

There are so many paid as well as free tools available to do keyword research.

The AdWords Keyword Planner is an easy to use and free tool for this purpose.

STEP ONE:
Brainstorm a list of keywords that you think is relevant to your market. You should be selecting general keywords as well as keywords that are specific to the market that you cater to.

STEP TWO:
Dump this list into the Planner, and you will get an expanded list of keywords along with important data such as how often consumers search for them and how competitive the keywords are.

STEP THREE:
Review this list carefully and eliminate all keywords that aren’t relevant to your business. This is the basics of keyword research when planning your AdWords campaign.

IMPORTANT:
Most of the time, newbie marketers go with broad-match keywords, which is one of the main reasons that they get unqualified leads.

The broad match keyword “bicycle bell” can cause your ad to show if someone searches for variations like “bicycle bells,” “buy a bell for a bicycle,” and “bell reviews for bikes.” (Google)

This keyword type offers the search engine a great deal of leniency in determining the “relevancy” of the searched queries.

If a marketer bids on “red shoes,” the broad-match could show your ad when a customer searches for “ruby slippers.” This makes perfect sense since ruby is considered a shade of red and slippers would go on your feet just like shoes.

The search engine algorithm can get away with such type of match when the marketer has selected the broad-match option in his or her AdWords campaign.

This is a sure-fire way of landing unqualified leads on your webpage.

This is why it is important that you go with the exact-match option whenever possible.

Adding terms that are not relevant to your business as “negative keywords” is also a good practice to get quality leads from your AdWords campaign.

2. Organizing Similar Keywords Into Ad Groups

Do not just throw in the researched keywords in AdWords. Make sure to create a good Adwords structure.

good adwords structure chaosmap

You need to organize them into campaigns and ad groups properly. You also must test the ads, and against each other (A/B testing).

Segmenting your keywords into campaigns/ad groups will make it easier for you to analyze the data later on. Make sure your ad text is specific to the keywords within an ad group.

This means, you should get ready to write a lot of ad group specific ads.

Each ad group should have an ad text which specifically mentions the topic of that ad group.

This is very important to improve the Quality Score of your campaign, which will help attract more targeted customers to your business. At the outset of a campaign, you’ll do a lot of testing and it should never stop.

3. Proper Geographic Targeting

If your business is operating within a specific geographic area, make sure to set your campaign to show your ads to the searchers within that specific area.

If not, you are going to end up paying for clicks from customers who you cannot provide the service.

Excluding unwanted geographies from your ad campaign is important to improve the lead quality.

4. Showing Your Ads At The Right Time

Think in terms of your potential customer.

When will they most likely search for your product or service? It can be during the morning hours, while they are at work or after work.

For example, if you operate a plumbing service, it can be during any time of the day or whenever a plumbing emergency is discovered.

If you are in the B2B (business) environment, you might test during morning hours and certain business hours and not on weekends. But, you should test this. Always.

This is why you need to set your campaign to show the ads at the right time so that your targeted customer can see the ads. This will definitely help improve the quality of leads you get from the AdWords campaign, and it will help budget management (the fee you pay to Google).

5. Avoid Misleading Ads (Or “Corporate Speak”)

There are many examples of misleading AdWords ads on the net.

The majority of these ads are not targeted to the keywords that the marketer is promoting. Such ad copies are a complete waste of your advertising dollar.

Be careful about creating too much “brand conversation” (keywords or ad copy that your searchers don’t use). Understand your audience, and make sure to speak to that conversation.  Often we see experienced leaders in marketing succumb to this, and their ad campaigns fail.

You will definitely attract unqualified leads under such circumstances.

Make sure you have your main keyword in the ad title as well as ad copy. The ad should be enticing and inviting the right customer to click on it and explore your website.

Continue testing, and understand that you will not have success overnight. Patience is a good keyword here, pun intended!

6. High Quality Landing Page

Many marketers lose highly targeted leads due to disappointing landing pages.

If your ad makes a promise, make sure that your landing page delivers on that promise.

If your landing page promises a free consultation, you should make sure that it is given to the potential customer.

These are very important points to generate highly targeted leads to your business.

While you A/B test ads, you should also consider testing pages. How will you know what the best ad click to landing page conversion rate should be for your market? Test it.

7. Qualifiers On Your Ad

You can filter low quality leads to a certain extent by adding qualifiers on your AdWords ad.

A qualifier can be a simple sentence on your ad such as “We only lend to customers with at least a 15% deposit”. This will help filter the low quality leads and pass highly targeted leads to your landing page.

Structure your headline, description and display URL according to text limits. Check the make up of adwords ads.

max length adwords ads characters

And, make sure to not engage in bidding (cost per click) wars either. You’ll lose.

8. Optimizing For Mobile Platforms

This is the latest trend in the industry. Mobile has overtaken desktop devices where customer searches are concerned.

Optimize your AdWords campaign for mobile devices since it is easier to convert mobile users who click on your AdWords ads compared to traditional customers.

CONCLUSION:

This article provides a comprehensive overview of eight current PPC tips to get high quality leads from your AdWords campaign.

Review these for your Adwords programs:

1. Keyword Research
2. Organizing Similar Keywords Into Ad Groups
3. Proper Geographic Targeting
4. Showing Your Ads At The Right Time
5. Avoid Misleading Ads (Or “Corporate Speak”)
6. High Quality Landing Page
7. Qualifiers On Your Ad
8. Optimizing For Mobile Platforms

Your sales teams will start to breathe a little easier now.

It will also help increase your ROI and profits in the long run.

BONUS: Get the free lead generation guide that will show you how to quickly get more leads from traffic. Includes 2 bonus strategies not found in this post.

Categories
Social Media

Social Based Lead Generation – 5 Tips You Should Know

Social media is a treasure trove of lead generation, and many marketers are catching on to the possibilities. According to an infographic by Wishpond, 77 percent of business-to-customer marketers say they have used Facebook to acquire a customer, while 34 percent say the same thing for Twitter. Meanwhile, LinkedIn has proven to be 277 percent more effective than either Facebook or Twitter, according to the infographic. Despite these strong returns, many marketers and business professionals are unsure of the best methods for extracting this value from their social presence. If you’re wanting to turn your social platforms into a wellspring of leads, here are five essential tips.

Start a Conversation

The primary value of social media is communication. For businesses looking to generate leads, this often entails starting and encouraging conversations with prospective consumers. Interactions with online users and their engagement with your social properties can be part of the process of producing a qualified lead. Even one-on-one conversations can have value because of their highly visible nature — on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, conversations between a business and a potential lead can be seen by other users and increase your company’s exposure, according to Social Media Examiner. And if you’re engaging customers in a positive manner, your superior customer service will continue to bring in leads.social media leads globally

Invest in Social Advertising

For many businesses, lead generation involves paying other companies to produce qualified leads on customers. But many businesses don’t have the financial resources to make this type of investment. An insurance company, for example, might have a limited advertising and lead generation budget, but the success of that business still depends on gathering the best insurance leads available.

Fortunately, social media makes some of this lead generation both easier and more affordable. Social advertising on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms has been developed to provide cost-effective advertising options even for small businesses, according to SteamFeed. And because the targeting metrics of these social platforms can be used to refine your ad exposure, the ads can help businesses generate leads among their most likely consumers. Invest in social ad campaigns scaled to fit your budget, and strong leads should come your way.

Use Prominent Link Placement to Bring Social Users to Your Website

Social properties can generate their own trickle of leads for businesses if they drive traffic from those profiles to your website. Most businesses geared toward generating online leads have websites that feature landing pages, fillable forms and other features designed to appeal to consumers and take in information. SteamFeed recommends building social profiles and pages that prominently feature links back to your website, whether you’re trying to drive traffic to landing pages or other properties. Effective link placement will be easy for consumers to find and use, resulting in greater website referrals and an organic stream of leads.

Streamline Your Web Presence for Mobile Device-Convenience

It can never be overstated that social media and business networking is becoming increasingly more of a mobile experience. Having your website optimized for mobile devices is of utmost importance. And with significant differences in usability between devices — both smartphones and tablets — understanding how your audience connects to your site and social properties is a critical first step. Keeping your site’s technology current is also key as cellular providers are making it easier and easier for users to upgrade. For example, T-Mobile’s JUMP program gives smartphone users the ability to switch devices, and stay current, at any time for an added $10 a month. With each smartphone model offering a slightly different user experience, business owners must pay attention to the target audience and the platforms they’re using to connect.

Activate Your Followers

As Business2Community notes, social media users are typically focused on other interests than making purchases. But this isn’t as big of an obstacle as it may seem for lead generators, because lead generation doesn’t require a purchase. In that sense, businesses can craft content that offers a call-to-action because the immediate goal isn’t transactional — it’s all about opening up a greater line of communication, which social networking is ideal for. When you post and share content — or even put it on your website — include a call-to-action that appeals to your social followers. This simple addition to your social posts can encourage greater engagement and organic leads for your business.

photo credit: woodleywonderworks | cc