Imagine this: after hearing countless social media success stories, you’re curious to see what all the fuss is about.
You set up company social media accounts across all the trendy platforms.
Soon enough, you amass a following who likes your posts and occasionally comments.
Even so, your bottom line has barely budged. No matter how many love reactions you get, the ROI is minimal.
Chances are, you don’t need to imagine this scenario – if you’re part of the 44% of marketing professionals struggling to tie social to business outcomes, you’re living it.
In this article, I’ll guide you through transforming mere social media activity into strategic lead generation through conversion tactics. I’ll delve into advanced insights that promise not only to enhance your understanding of the digital landscape but also to arm you with future-focused strategies designed for the B2B market. From unveiling the nuances of your target audience through advanced segmentation to leveraging AI for personalised marketing, this article is a blueprint for success in the evolving social media sphere.
Understanding your target audience
You might have somewhat of an understanding of your target audience. But if you’re struggling to convert, it’s most likely because you need to dive beyond basic demographic information. You also need to know:
- their interests and hobbies
- the way they talk and behave
- the spaces they frequent (online and offline)
- the people they trust and follow
To gather this information, you need to harness the power of advanced audience segmentation and personalisation
AI in B2B social media marketing: advanced audience segmentation and personalisation
By using AI and machine learning, marketers can now segment audiences with great accuracy, considering behaviour, interactions, and purchase history, not just demographics.
Tools from companies like HubSpot and Sprout Social use AI to analyse social media activity and predict the best content for your audience. Similarly, predictive analytics from GA4 or Salesforce Einstein can forecast future trends, helping you stay ahead of your audience’s needs.
This approach not only keeps your brand relevant but also boosts engagement and conversions by delivering highly personalised content. Advanced segmentation and personalisation mean creating content that directly addresses your audience’s specific interests and challenges, leading to more effective engagement and quality leads. In short, tailoring your content strategy with these insights fosters stronger connections and drives growth.
What’s the best B2B social media platform?
When selecting the right social media platforms, it’s essential to consider their unique features and how they align with your target audience and goals.
Here’s a list of B2B social media platforms:
- Facebook, with its extensive user base and robust advertising options, is suitable for reaching a wide audience and running targeted ad campaigns.
- YouTube, with its 2 billion+ logged-in monthly users, offers a broad audience base and the ability to target specific demographics through tailored advertising and SEO-optimised content. Video content allows businesses to demonstrate their products or services, share expert insights, and build brand authority, fostering trust and establishing a connection with prospective leads.
- Instagram, known for its visually appealing content, is ideal for brands looking to showcase products or services through captivating imagery and video content.
X’sTwitter’s real-time nature makes it suitable for engaging in timely conversations and sharing updates or announcements.- LinkedIn, on the other hand, is a professional networking platform, making it perfect for B2B lead generation and establishing thought leadership within your industry. For an overview of the importance of social media for B2B marketing, check out this article.
After selecting your platform, it’s crucial to consider how Account-Based Marketing (ABM) can be integrated into your social media strategy, especially on platforms like LinkedIn, known for its professional network.
Account-based marketing on social media
ABM is a focused approach in B2B marketing where marketing and sales teams collaborate to target and engage specific high-value accounts with personalised campaigns, rather than targeting a broad audience.
Implementing an ABM strategy on social media involves identifying and targeting key accounts with customised messaging and content. This tailored approach ensures that your marketing efforts are directed at prospects most likely to convert into customers.
Through its advanced targeting features, leveraging LinkedIn for B2B marketing is an increasingly popular ABM strategy. It allows you to reach decision-makers within specific industries, company sizes, or even named accounts directly. By using LinkedIn’s comprehensive data on professional roles and industries, marketers can create highly targeted ad campaigns that speak directly to the needs and interests of their chosen accounts.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into what you really came here for: the best ways to generate leads on social media.
How to use social media for B2B lead generation: strategies for success
Social media seems easy in practice: post and the engagement shall follow.
But, as we discussed, engagement ≠ qualified leads.
So, what are the components of successful lead generation? From enticing prospects with valuable resources to leveraging social proof and strategic partnerships, there are countless ways to attract, engage, and convert users.
Let’s explore how to use social media for B2B marketing, from the most effective tactics to examples of businesses that have done it successfully.
Lead magnets
How many times have you caught yourself offering your email in exchange for valuable content? I certainly have done it multiple times. But can you blame me? When done right, these posts are simply irresistible.
Indeed, the more attractive the incentive, the more likely it is to entice potential leads to provide their contact information. Common lead magnets include:
- e-books
- gated content
- free trials
- webinars
- whitepapers
- discounts
You need to provide tangible value while also positioning your brand as an authority in your industry.
Tip: When implementing lead magnets into your strategy, ensure that the content addresses a specific pain point or solves a problem for your target audience. Promote your lead magnets strategically across your social media channels and use targeted ads to reach potential leads effectively.
Example:
HubSpot, the leading marketing automation platform, often offers a variety of free tools and resources to attract leads, including e-books, templates, and online courses. As a marketer, I find their content beneficial through its superior quality and thoroughness, which is why, when I see the HubSpot logo on a resource, I’m more likely to trust its claims.
In this instance, HubSpot’s live demo requires users to register using their contact information. This is a great tactic for capturing first-party data on their leads, which can then be leveraged for personalised communication. Even more, to make the incentive as attractive as possible, their landing page is charged with benefit-driven easy to digest copy.
Testimonials
Testimonials help build trust with your audience and demonstrate the value of your products or services.
To boost social proof, humanise your testimonials by attributing them to real individuals with names and, if applicable, job roles. Incorporating pictures or, even better, videos, can enhance credibility. After all, generic quotes can seem insincere. The more “human” your testimonial, the more it’s likely to be perceived as a personal recommendation rather than a promotion. If you’re interested, we dive deeper into human branding in this article.
Tip: Incentivise satisfied customers to leave reviews or testimonials by streamlining the feedback process as much as possible. The easier you make it for them to leave a review, the more likely they are to do it. So no 12-step surveys or endless fields to complete.
Example:
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Slack, the cloud-based team communication platform, often uses testimonials in both image and video formats on their Instagram. The reel above is a perfect example of an engaging testimonial. It not only hooks the relevant audience by addressing a common pain point, but it does so in the form of a satisfied Slack user explaining how the feature worked for her. Not only is it promotional, but also educational.
User-generated content (UGC)
And speaking of personal recommendations…
Testimonials, though valuable, can still sometimes feel manufactured. But nothing beats the authenticity of user-generated content (UGC) for creating a genuine human connection. Social media marketers have swiftly recognised the power of UGC in fostering real engagement.
A tactic often used by B2C marketers in the e-commerce space, UGC refers to content created by users that showcases their experiences with a brand, tapping into the authenticity of real-life stories.
This type of content is usually sourced organically, by incentivising your users to contribute with content, or through collaborations with content creators. There are many platforms that facilitate such partnerships, like Twirl or UGC Collab.
Tip: Encourage customers to share their experiences with your brand by creating branded hashtags, running photo contests, or featuring UGC on your social media channels. Be sure to obtain permission from users before sharing their content and give credit where credit is due.
Example:
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GoPro, the action camera company, has built its brand around UGC, showcasing the exhilarating experiences captured by customers. It only takes a cursory glance at their feed to see that most captions tag the “subscriber” who submitted the content. For GoPro, this is free content. For the creator, it’s free exposure to a community of 20M+ followers. It’s a win-win situation. Moreover, this strategy also creates a sense of community and inspires others to share their own adventures.
Influencer partnerships
Social media wouldn’t hold the same value without its influencers.
Like testimonials and UGC, they also bring in the personal touch. In addition, they offer access to a substantial audience that may not be familiar with your brand. This audience, in return, is bound to like and trust them.
And if approaching major influencers is outside of your scope, don’t worry!
Research indicates that micro-influencers can be highly effective in reaching niche audiences due to their smaller but more focused following.
Tip: Beyond traditional influencer marketing, there’s significant value in partnering with industry thought leaders for content co-creation. This approach goes beyond the simple endorsement of products or services; it involves collaborating on meaningful content that provides value to both your audience and the thought leader’s followers. Examples of such collaborations include:
- Joint webinars
- Co-authored whitepapers or e-books
- Guest appearances on podcasts
- Roundtable discussions and panels
Example:
Skillshare, the online learning community, has an extensive influencer programme. They strategically sponsor influencers both big and small, catering their messaging based on the influencer’s niche. For example, when collaborating with professional content creator Enrico Luzi, they highlight courses on video editing.
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Moreover, when uploading content featuring influencers, they do it as a collaboration rather than tagging them. This way, the content also appears on the influencers’ feeds, giving Skillshare direct access to their followers and expanding their reach.
Targeting and re-targeting ads
All the strategies we’ve covered so far tackle organic leads. But what about lead-generation ads?
As discussed, many social platforms have robust advertising capabilities.
Online advertising allows you to reach specific segments of your audience with personalised messaging and offers. By understanding your target audience and their specific pain points, you can create targeted ad campaigns that resonate with them.
Tip: Don’t stop at advertising once! Implement re-targeting strategies to reconnect with users who have previously engaged with your brand but have not completed desired actions, such as making a purchase or signing up for a trial. By strategically re-engaging these users, you can push them closer to conversion.
Example:
Hootsuite, the social media management platform, frequently advertises its features on LinkedIn. With a target audience of social media marketing professionals, the ads speak their language: snappy, filled with industry jargon and the occasional emoji. And, most of all, they address specific pain points with humour, leveraging one of social media’s greatest driver of engagement: relatability.
As you can see, when it comes to such a fast-paced environment, adaptability and innovation are key. This is what makes social media fun. By keeping up with trends and continuously refining your strategies based on data and insights, you too can drive tangible results for your business.
Future trends in B2B digital marketing: advanced B2B social media strategies
If you’ve read this far, you know that the future of B2B social media marketing is set for big changes, influenced by new technologies and data insights. I reflected on the major changes to expect in this article. But, in short, here are the top trends to watch:
- Conversational marketing: Chatbots and voice search will make interactions on social media more real-time and personalised, improving communication between B2B brands and their audiences.
- Video and interactive content: There will be a higher demand for engaging content like videos, live streams, and webinars. These formats will become key in explaining complex B2B solutions engagingly and effectively.
- Thought leadership and co-creation: Quality content that establishes authority is crucial. B2B marketers will work more with experts and influencers to create content that builds trust and positions their brands as leaders.
- Social commerce: Direct sales and transactions on social media will become more common in B2B, with platforms adding features to support this trend, helping marketers to directly capture leads and make sales.
- Augmented reality (AR): AR will offer new ways to showcase products and services, providing immersive experiences that help buyers understand complex solutions better.
Staying ahead will require B2B marketers to be agile, innovative, and tech-savvy. Embracing these trends will help brands meet their audience’s evolving needs creatively and effectively.
In conclusion
Navigating the complexities of social media marketing for lead generation requires a strategic blend of creativity, empathy, and data-driven decision-making. While it’s tempting to focus solely on amassing likes and followers, true success lies in converting these engagements into meaningful leads that drive business growth.
Supercharge your social media lead-gen
Ready to take your lead generation to the next level?
At Dusted, we specialise in delivering digital solutions for ambitious clients across a range of both B2B and B2C sectors. Reach out to us and let’s explore what options meet your specific organisational needs.
Your journey to strategic social media lead generation awaits – so get in touch now to book a call! We can’t wait to hear from you.
