Social media is a very lucrative channel to generate leads. After all, social media provides a way for brands to reach a niche group of the billions of consumers who are using social media.

Chances are, if you’re not currently using social for lead gen, your competitors are. Not to worry though, this post will get you to a point where you can instantly start gaining leads.

Of course there are both paid and organic strategies to gain leads. The paid avenues are more typical so in this post we will focus on the organic strategies for lead gen.

Leads make marketers usually think about B2B brands. Of course the strategies that we outline work for B2B brands. But, B2C brands also need to fill their funnel and get new contacts so if you are part of a B2C brand, this post is for you too!

Social media efforts to gain leads go hand-in-hand with other strategies. For example, social works in harmony with your website since a lot of what you need to do is use social to direct potential consumers to landing pages. Social media for lead gen also relies on email marketing. Once you’ve gathered your juicy new leads, you will nurture them with engaging emails.

Webinars

Webinars convey thought leadership and are a great way to drive leads. The perfect way to reach new audiences is to promote your webinar on all of your social channels. 

You can read all about webinar best practices here. The main thing to note is that webinars should have a landing page with a lead capture form in which your audience fills out their name, company and email address to attend.

Take it a step further and put social share buttons on your webinar landing pages so that attendees can effortlessly share your event with their own audiences.

Downloadable Content

Save your best content ideas to utilize in downloadable pieces of content. Unlike blog posts which just live in the digital universe, eBooks, white papers, research reports, etc. are enticing enough to be gated with a lead capture form.

Use all of your social media channels to point your audience to the landing page that houses your downloadable resource. 

Create engaging posts that “tease” your audience about what is in store for them when they download your content.

Case Studies

Case studies offer the “social proof” that your target consumers crave when making a purchase decision. 

Promoting your case studies via social media adds credibility to your brand more than any other form of content. Read more about creating case studies here.

Typically, case studies are not gated with a lead capture form. So the best plan is to have a CTA on social media to read your case study and then a CTA on your case study page that entices readers to fill out a form.

As you can see, sometimes generating leads via social is sort of like a path of bread crumbs slowly leading your audience to your brand. There may be a few steps.

Special Offers

Post special offers that can only be found on social. This will build up your followers as they have a reason to join your network.

Your special offer posts can be anything from discount codes to coupons to free shipping. 

Create a sense of urgency by having the special offer convey a short shelf life. Afterall, social media posts become irrelevant really fast!

Influencer Partnerships

Influencers are trusted by their audience. They also have a very large audience. Wouldn’t you love to get your brand in front of an influencer’s followers?

If you’re interested in influencer marketing check out this post.

Partner with influencers to create thematic posts about your products or services. They will share their experience with your brand all over social. And because these are paid efforts, you get a little bit of control over the messaging. So be sure that they link to a landing page or a spot on your website that converts. 

Influencer partnerships can also be paired with some of the other strategies that we already listed. For example, you can have influencers link to your landing page that houses your downloadable content.

Quizzes

Quizzes offer a fun and interactive way for your audience to engage with your brand.

Think of BuzzFeed and all of the quizzes they offer. Wouldn’t you like to jump on the bandwagon with this proven strategy?

Your quiz should be relevant to your industry, and more importantly, relevant to your buyer personas.

With quizzes, the lead gen component happens when they answer the questions and then enter their email address for the results of the quiz.

What does this have to do with social? The best way to promote your quiz is on social media. And if you’re strategic about it, you’ll have social share buttons on the quiz landing page so that your quiz takers can share their results with their own followers and perpetuate the amount of people who take your quiz.

Referral Campaigns

With 84% of consumers reporting that they trust a brand recommendation from a peer, referral campaigns are a natural fit with your lead gen strategy.

Be sure to offer incentives to your clients who refer their contacts to you to ensure a lot of amplification.

Of course a referral campaign involves email marketing, it also involves social media. Your contacts who refer your brand will share their recommendation on social. You can also promote your referral campaign on your brand’s own social channels. 

Contests/Giveaways 

A lot of brands have had a lot of success with gamification.

Offering contests and giveaways is a fun way to generate leads. Not to mention, contests and giveaways make for great social media posts.

In order for someone to enter your contest or giveaway, they need to perform an action. This can be signing up to receive email from your brand or inviting their own connections to follow your brand on social. All steps that trickle down to lead gen.

How do you generate leads on your brand’s social channels? We’d love to read all about your insights in the comments below!