Generating leads from social media can be a challenge for many businesses. Many marketing teams and the C-Level executives that manage them don’t always see the value in allocating budget for social media. But with the explosion of mobile Internet usage and its impact on social media, it’s more important than ever for marketing teams to take their social lead generation strategy seriously – and that means allocating budget, time, and resources to these channels in 2015. According to Salesforce, 66% of marketers now rate social media as core to their business strategy in 2015 – up from 24% in 2014.
But what is most interesting about social media right now is the hold mobile devices have over it. Americans now officially spend more time on social media than they spend doing any other Internet activity (including email) and 60% of that social media activity takes place on smartphones and tablets (Business Insider). Social media and mobile go hand in hand, so optimizing all of your social marketing for mobile devices is the sure way to improve your lead generation strategy on the channel.
Build Mobile-Optimized Landing Pages
Since the goal of most of your social media posts is to drive traffic to your website, having mobile-optimized landing pages is the first thing you can do to improve lead conversion rates. 31% of all website referral traffic is now driven by social media (Forbes) – so driving traffic from social posts to your website is primary. If you don’t have a mobile-specific or responsive website yet, most modern CMS enable you to build out mobile-specific landing pages. Mobile friendly landing pages will improve the mobile user experience and help keep visitors on your website longer.
Build Custom Landing Pages for Social Media
Building custom landing pages for each social media network you promote content on is another way to improve conversion rates and generate more leads. If you are promoting a white paper, eBook, or other piece of content, building a landing page specific to the social media platform you’re promoting on will also help convert users into leads.
This holds true especially for paid search on social media. If a user clicks on the Facebook ad you are running and the landing page content is specific to Facebook and the ad they saw – they are more likely to convert on that page.
Staff Social Media Managers on the Weekend
The Salesforce 2015 State of Marketing found that consumers are most engaged on social media on the weekends – yet Saturdays and Sundays are the days businesses are the least engaged on social channels. Staffing a social media manager (or more than one, depending on your engagement rates) is key to keeping lead flow steady. Not only should these managers post new content throughout the weekend, they should also engage with users who are liking, commenting, and engaging with your brand. This helps customers trust your brand while also helping them get the nurturing and support needed to complete a purchase.
Staffing social media managers to engage customers with your brand over the weekend also means staffing sales and customer support staff to handle inbound calls. Since social media activity is primarily mobile, users are more likely to call a business (whether it be to complete a purchase or to ask a support question) after being referred to their website from social media than filling out a form.
Spend More on Paid Social Media Advertising
A 2014 study by Kenshoo found that the more money advertisers spent on Facebook advertising, the more conversions they generated. In other words, the more you spend on social advertising, the more you get in return.
The first places to start spending more are Facebook and LinkedIn – they are the top two most popular social networks, with the highest number of active users and active mobile users. Facebook has more than 1 billion users accessing the site from mobile devices every month (eMarketer), and 47% of all LinkedIn visits are via mobile devices (DMR). The tip here is simple: optimize your paid social ads and landing pages for mobile, bid higher on clicks or impressions from those devices, see an increase in social media leads.
2015 really is the year for mobile marketing optimization – across all channels. Social need not be forgotten in the mix as it continues to drive more and more traffic to websites each year. To learn more about generating leads from social media, download this free webinar about boosting call conversions from Facebook and LinkedIn.