Lead nurturing is the voodoo we all do to place a potential customer into the proper funnel and guide her to a sale. Rushing prospects too quickly can drive them away. Too soft a sell makes it easy for them to walk.
When you attempt to acquire customers with passive adverting, it becomes imperative for the dynamic items on your landing page to quickly identify if the lead generated is “interested” or “sales-ready.”
On the other hand, social media advertising is the dollar spent that does double duty. It identifies potential customers who have a likelihood of being interested in your product or service, and follows up on that interest if they don’t complete the sale process. And best of all, it does this with measurable results.
Still, simply diverting dollars from passive advertising to social media advertising isn’t going to help your bottom line if you don’t have a clear grasp of the chain of events that creates a sale of your product or service.
Here’s a checklist we like to call: The Anatomy of a Well-Nutured Lead.
Use Your Voice
Successful social media advertising and lead nurturing requires teamwork. Writing copy, creating campaign strategies, defining workflows, and monitoring performance are just a few of the processes you’ll need to create and update.
Social media advertising lets you make the most of your interactions with prospects in their natural habitat on social media platforms within their preferred devices, and today there are plenty of automation and analytical tools that make sure these interactions are personalized and tailored so you’re making the most of your marketing resources.
Use Their Eyeballs
There’s no question that social media sites accelerate sales. When research from Epsilon examined what prompted shoppers to try new brands and products, retailers’ social media usage was the number one influence at 29%.
While a social media account including your brand’s page, its posts and community is great for brand building, social media advertising is the tool you use to break through initial barriers to sales, whether they be from lack of awareness of your company or a reluctance to hear your offer (or, you know, an algorithm not working in your favor).
Offer a Helping Hand
One way to make social media advertising pull more weight is through careful retargeting campaigns.
Retargeting tracks people who visited your website and displays your ads when they visit other sites, including sites like Facebook. It’s a way to keep your brand front and center for prospects and can shorten prospect-to-customer transition time.
Retargeting in social media advertising works best when it includes a clear, simple call to action that attracts the eye. It’s even more impactful when the ad displayed showcases a product or offer that person might’ve been “window shopping” on your site or complementary products to ones they’ve purchased previously.
Retargeting may not be traditionally considered lead nurturing, but perhaps it should be, since it’s personalized and provides a steady drumbeat of brand and product awareness.
The Legwork Comes Last
Once your social media advertising has delivered the lead, you can observe and tweak what drives conversions. Do you collect data for personal follow-up calls? Make a direct sale? Add them to retargeting? Or a combination of these?
If you collect data, make sure your emails and follow-ups feature more specific actions. If you’re not converting sales, consider A/B testing to find better performing calls to action, ad creative, or landing page elements.
Nurtured leads make purchases that are 47% larger than non-nurtured leads. By nurturing these leads with social media advertising, you have multiple opportunities to convert them. By *not* nurturing these leads with social media advertising, you’re missing out on an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with qualified prospects who are already in your funnel.
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