Leveraging Social Media for Lead Generation Success

In this episode of The New School of Marketing Podcast, I delve into the art of using social media as a powerful tool for lead generation. 

Social media platforms offer more than just brand visibility—they can be a consistent source of high-quality leads when approached strategically. I’ll explore the best practices for choosing the right platforms, crafting compelling content, and utilising paid ads to attract and convert your ideal audience. 

Whether you're just starting or looking to enhance your social media strategy, this episode provides actionable insights to help you turn your social presence into a lead generation engine.

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Website: www.newschoolofmarketing.com
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Instagram: @bianca_mckenzie

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Transcript

Hey, welcome to the new School of Marketing podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. Before we dive into this episode, I would love to pay my respect and acknowledgement to the Palawa people of Lutruwita, Tasmania, who are the traditional owners of the land on which my business operates. I pay my respects to their elders, past and present. 

All right, I hello, I'm Bianca Mackenzie, and today I want to talk to you about the power of social media and how to actually use it for lead generation. So I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that you might know that I have a love hate relationship with social media and I am trying really hard to love it more because it is a super powerful place. It is more than just a place to share content. And when you use it strategically, it can really drive leads for your business, but you have to use it strategically. So I'm going to dive into best practices, tools and ways to turn your social media presence into a source of leads. So let's jump in. 

I think my love hate relationship comes from not being able to see the. It's not that I can't see it, I know it's there. But the struggle to have that division between social media for connecting with friends and social media for business, I think it's because I work in this space. It just. Yeah, if I'm there to connect with friends, I don't want to be there for business. But if I'm there for business all the time, I don't want to be there to connect with my friends. I just want to step away from it. So I think that's where it comes from. But there is no denying that it is an incredible platform for business to reach and engage with potential customers. Like if you are a business to consumer operator, there's no denying that your audience is most likely on social media, even business to business, depending on what kind of business. So it is definitely something that you need to embrace. But let's talk about using it strategically because there's no point in being online or being on social for the sake of being on social. That's kind of just wasting your time, really. So let's look at how you can use social media with a well executed strategy to really get in leads for your business. Like, how can we actually make it work? 

First things first, we need to understand the role of social media in lead generation. So we need to have that shift in our minds from awareness to lead generation. Social media traditionally is seen as a tool for building brand awareness, and there is still a place for that. Definitely keep that in your strategy. Don't just go all in on sales and lead generation. It's still there to build brand awareness, to build a relationship, to build trust with your audience. But things are evolving. You need to have a number of different tactics inside of your strategy. So one will be awareness, one will be building up authority, and one of them needs to be also lead generation. When you have the right strategy, you can attract, engage and convert your followers into leads. It's not just about being present on social media, it's about showing up with a purpose. So purpose over presence and having a strategic approach allows you to target your ideal audience. And then what you do is you offer value and you guide them through a journey from getting to know you, to getting to trust you, to literally saying, how do I pay? You know, take my money. So, to effectively use social media for lead generation, you firstly need to have goals. You need to start with clear goals. Whether it is to grow your email list, to get people to sign up for a webinar or apply for a call or any of those things, that needs to be part of what your goal is with social media. Some of it will be brand awareness that needs to be part of it as well. Some of it might be traffic to either your website or some other external platform where you create content. And some of it needs to be growing your email list. Another tip is to know your audience. So you need to understand who your audience is and what type of content resonates with them. And not just the format as in written posts with images or videos. So that's the format. Now you need to know what type of content, what kind of messages do they need to hear? Do they need to have some information and some background story? Do they need to have demonstrations? So you need to know what type of content, what content really resonates with them. Start testing it out. You need to create a content plan. So develop a content plan that keeps in mind your lead generation goals, and also one that provides value to your audience. And the way this can look is creating a value piece. That is, you are giving something to your audience. Whether that is a tip, whether that is making them question something, just something that actually is of value to them and also includes a way to take the next step. So you might give them, like, I don't know, three things out of a checklist, and then say, these are just three things on my checklist to XYZ. Want to get the, you know, the next twelve? If you have a 15 part checklist, here is the link to get it right into your inbox. So you are creating content, valuable content, and you're also giving them the opportunity to dive deeper with you and become a lead. So social media isn't just about posting content, it's about being intentional with your strategy. When you focus on lead generation, every post, every story, every ad should have a really clear purpose. That's why I want you to stop just like literally spitting out content that for content's sake, that is not well thought out, that does not have a strategy, because you are literally wasting your time purpose over presence. Okay. 

The next step is choosing the right platforms. Not all social media platforms are created equal, and especially when it comes to lead generation. And the key is for you to figure out where your target audience spends most of their time and also the type of actions they would take. And I'm mostly talking about TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. Now, your audience might spend a lot of time on TikTok, but you need to find out if that time also includes taking certain actions. Because if they are only there for entertainment sake and not likely to take the next step, like in the journey with a business like yours, then is TikTok the right space for you to actually focus on lead generation? It might. It might not be. So you need to think about that. So, quick overview of some popular platform platforms. Facebook is really great for community building and for targeted ads, as in paid ads. Instagram is great for visual content and sometimes also for influencer partnerships. LinkedIn is best for business to business lead generation and professional networking. Twitter or X. I still call it Twitter, but X is quite effective for real time engagement and thought leadership. So is threads. It's kind of the new Twitter. TikTok is very good for entertainment value, but also creating content that teaches. So, like, if you teach, I don't know, like cake decorating, that could be a really good place for you to be. Just work out how your lead generation strategy is going to work in with it. So if you are a cake decorator and you are creating a video for TikTok, and you might cross post to Instagram and you are demonstrating, I don't know, a certain piping technique. I don't know much about cake decorating, but for example, you're demonstrating a certain piping technique and then you might follow up with wanna know? You know, I don't know, five other piping techniques and the tools you need. Sign up for my free. And then you get this checklist or like, and they get maybe some other videos. So lead generation platforms, figure out who's there and how they use them. So how to choose the right platforms? Well, firstly, analyze your audience. Look at the demographics, look at the engagement, look at, like, the data on each platform, whether you're on it or not. See if you can find. And there is, like, you'd literally have to just Google demographics for TikTok, demographics for Facebook, like, look at who's using what and whether or not they are potentially your ideal clients. And then test to start with a couple of platforms, I would say, and see where you get the best engagement and the best leads. And then once you've figured it out, you need to optimize your content. So create your content to fit the strengths of each platform. So, for example, with Instagram. Instagram has reels similar to how TikTok has, like, videos. And I don't know all that much about TikTok, so. But you can create reels on Instagram, whereas on Facebook you might do like a longer post with some photos or some videos. You can cross promote cross post, but you still need to figure out the best format for each platform. And choosing the right platform is really important for lead generation. So focus on where your audience is most active and engage them with content that fits that particular platform's strengths. So they do keep changing. Like, for example, on Instagram, for a while it was just like post, and then for a while it was carousel and then it became stories and then it became reels. So work out what's what, what the strengths are of a certain platform. Now, I know with Instagram, reels are really cool. Reels are really important. They are there to, in a way, connect with a new audience. Whereas stories, only people that follow you can see stories. So if you want to, like, get into that deeper connection, stories is a good place. So I do recommend that if you do Instagram and you create a whole, like, a whole lot of content, like a free content for people that don't know you, I do recommend posting on stories as well, particularly for people to go deeper with you. And one of those ways is lead generation. Ask them, you know, sign up for my free XYZ. Alright, the next stage is creating, engaging and lead generating content. So types of content that generate leads. We all know content is king, especially on social media. And to generate leads, your content really needs to be both engaging but also action oriented. That means that creating content that captures attention and then motivates your audience to take the next step. And a lot of us create content that captures attention or that like teaches something. But we don't necessarily motivate someone to take the next step. And this is really important, get them to take that next step. Some types of content that could work well are lead magnets. So offering free resources like ebooks, guides, checklists in exchange for contact information. And this is where I was talking about, you know, a baker, like you can show one piping technique, but there's probably like another, I don't know, however many more. You know, you can ask someone sign up to get my other ones. Other ones are webinars and live events. So you can promote webinars or live sessions that provide value and then encourage people to sign up to one, be notified of future live events and webinars, but also so that you can then nurture them to purchase from you. And another one is contests and giveaways. I am not necessarily too much of a fan of those to get people to sign up because they get something for free, because it can be the wrong kind of crowd, just the freebie seekers. But if you can come up with something that is very, very aligned to the kind of work you do, like for example, for me, if I was to give away like a free ebook on not a free ebook, like if people could win a spot in my online course, that's not going to be for everyone. Not everyone runs a business that creates courses, online courses, or wants to run Facebook ads. So that could be a way to get leads. Look, I've put it in here. I am not a massive fan of giveaways or contests because it sometimes gets the freebie seekers. But I did want to mention it. So to create effective content, you need to focus on value. So make sure that every single piece of content offers value, whether that is entertainment, information, a next step, like an opinion or something that makes people think. Make sure that it offers value. And in terms of like freebies, you need to make sure that it solves a problem for your audience. Also, create strong CTA's calls to action, because if you don't tell people what to do, they won't do it. So it needs to have a call to action. You need to tell them this is the next step, whether that is, subscribe to my podcast, sign up for this free thing, make sure you like and follow me on, you know, this and this. Tell them what you want them to do. And then also really leverage the visuals. That's how people stop the scroll. So use eye catching visuals and videos to create engagement and to make them stop the scroll. You want to go, hang on, I'm here. And then, you know, work in your lead generation. So lead generating content is all about offering value. When you provide something that your audience wants or needs, they are much more likely to engage and also share their contact details. 

Now, the next one I want to talk about is using paid social media advertising. And I want to talk about the power of it. I know I talk about this a lot. I love Facebook ads, but this is where I really want to focus on my love relationship with social media. Because Facebook ads are not everything. Facebook and Instagram ads are not the be all and end all, but neither is social media content, organic social media content. So I really think that the two go hand in hand so well. And I heard the analogy once of someone saying that organic social media, organic content creation is like solar power. It's free in a way. I mean, you're spending time to create it and it has that long lasting effect because your battery stays full for a little bit longer before, like, it needs to recharge again. Whereas paid ads are like paying for petrol. So you put a little bit of petrol in, but once the petrol's out, it, like, it stops working, which I really loved. I thought it was a really good analogy. So you might want to think about using lead ads so you can directly capture information from your audience without them having to leave the platform. So Facebook, for example, has lead ads. And when you use lead ads, literally when someone clicks on, on the button, it gives them a little pop up form they put in their email address and their name and they just, they don't even leave Facebook. It's super, super easy. You also might want to think about using retargeting ads. So re engage users who have actually already interacted with your content or visited your website. So if you have a blog or a podcast or some other kind of form of content, also social media content, you can actually inside of Facebook ads manager, and I'm talking Facebook ads in particular here, you can say inside that you can go, I want to show my lead magnet, like my freebie, to everyone who has engaged with me on social media for the last 365 days, or even like on my website, you can show that to people that have visited within the last 180 days. So those people already know you, but they might not know that you have a freebie now or a new freebie. So you can get in front of them and you can use video ads. So video content is still, like, one of the best performers. So use compelling video content to capture people's attention and then get them to take an action. Now, how do you make the most of paid ads? Again, you need to set a clear objective. Like, it's always about the goals. The goals and objectives. Make sure that you put down what you want to achieve with your ads. Whether it is capturing leads, driving traffic, creating awareness, being seen, or having your ads seen by more people. You need to decide what it is that you want to achieve. Then you want to optimize for conversions. So really use conversion tracking to measure the effectiveness of your ads. And because I am talking about social media for lead generation, I would say, say that your objective should be capturing leads. But sometimes it takes a multi step approach to getting there. So you might need to run some awareness ads to get in front of the right people so that you have a big enough audience to retarget with your lead capture. Okay. Anyway, make sure that you're tracking that and then keep looking at the numbers. Test different ad creatives, test different audiences. Test different placements. And by placements, it means whether it shows up on Facebook, Instagram, messenger, reels, marketplace, those are the placements where it shows up. Figure out what's working. I normally leave a lot of it on and let Facebook figure it out because it's super smart these days. But you might find a that some of the placements are not working at all, and there's no point in, you know, spending money there at all. So test and refine. So paid social media advertising allows you to reach the right people at the right time. I love this part. It's no fingers crossed. Approach. Approach, like organic social media is where you literally put it out there and go, oh, I hope the algorithm picks it up and people see it. Paid social media advertising allows you to reach the right people at the right time because you're telling it to show it to a specific, pre chosen set of people. And by investing in targeted ads, you can accelerate your lead generation and you get more consistent results. That's what I love so much about paid ads. It's just more predictable, it goes faster, and this is more consistent. But like I said, it's not the end be all and end all. They kind of go hand in hand. All right, next step, measuring and analyzing results. It's super important to track your performance. So to ensure that your social media lead generation efforts are successful, you need to track and you need to analyze your results, because then you can look at what's working, what's not working, and where you need to make tweaks and changes. So some key metrics that you need to look at. One is your lead conversion rate, and that's the percentage of social media interactions that turn into leads. And I like to use landing pages because then I can see how many people have gone to that specific landing page versus how many have actually signed up. And that gives me my conversion rate. However way you want to do it, you need to look at how many people have gone to the page or the form or whatever, versus how many people have actually taken the action. And not everyone will. There are statistics that 20% to 30% is a good conversion rate. I like to see that higher, but it's different for everyone. But you need to track that. You also need to look at your cost per lead. So how much are you actually spending to get a lead through social media? And that is quite tricky to calculate for organic social media. But you need to keep in mind your hourly rate, the time it is taking you to create something to post it, all of that. And this is why I love paid advertising, because instead of posting five days a week spending, I don't know, one to 2 hours on each post, you can post two times a week spending. Instead of using that money for your hourly rate, you can spend that on Facebook ads and get it seen by more people. So yeah, there's different ways of looking at it. So look at your cost per lead, also at your engagement rate. So what is the level of interaction that your content actually gets? Because that kind of indicates how well it resonates with your audience. So how many comments I don't really look at likes that much because it's just too easy to click that little like button. But how much engagement in terms of comments, responses and all of that shares is another one. People, if it's shareable, they love sharing it. Look at that as well. Now, how do you know if it's working and how do you know what to improve? So let's look at how to analyze and improve your strategy. 

Well, firstly, use tools, analytics tools. Facebook has insights. LinkedIn has analytics. And sometimes you can use like third party tools. Look at where the numbers. Go inside a specific platform and look at the numbers. What are the tools telling you? You also need to set some benchmarks. So if you can at all find out what the industry benchmarks are, look at that, or start with your own. And just literally every month, look at, okay, am I doing better than last month or am I doing worse? And I really think that you should give something three to six months before you decide that it's not working. And then you need to refine your strategy. So use the data. Use the numbers that you're learning from to refine your content. Find out what's working well, create more of that. Find out what's not working well. Ditch it. So it's literally, look at what the data is telling you and then make your tweaks. Also use the data. If you're doing paid ads, use the data to refine your targeting and your ad strategy. Because every single number in your business tells a story. Sometimes it needs to be more than numbers because, like, they're linked to each other. But yeah, use the data to learn more about what's happening and then make changes. So measuring your results isn't just about tracking numbers. It's about understanding your audience and improving your strategy. When you know what's working, you can do more of that and generate even better leads. I love it. I just, I always hated numbers. My brother is the accountant in the family, and I always thought I was bad with numbers, but I wasn't bad with stories, and data tells stories, and I love looking at the numbers and going, oh, what story is it telling me? 

So let's do a quick recap. Leveraging social media for lead generation success really involves understanding the role of social media. And like I said, purpose over presence. You need to choose the right platforms, be in the right space where your audience is, but also think about what your audience is there for. You need to create engaging content. I would suggest that you utilise paid ads because you can get in front of the right audience at the right time, rather than fingers crossed with organic social media, and just continuously keep measuring your results. And if you follow those strategies, you can turn your social media presence into a purposeful and powerful lead generation machine. I really love the purpose over presence, and I think a lot of us go for presents. It's like, oh, if I just, like, post five times a day, I might get, you know, x, y, z. It's not about that. It's also not about going viral. It's also not about how many likes you get, how many followers you get. It's about how many of the right people are you getting in front and how many of the right people are taking an action to then pay you and work with you or buy from you. I don't care about businesses that have, you know, viral reels that get shown to over a million people. How many people of those who watch that reel are actually paying that business for the thing that they're selling? I'd rather have ten people watch my reel and like five of those sign up to work with me than a million people watch my reel and nobody signing up with me. All right, start implementing some of these strategies and see how they really transform your lead generation efforts. Remember purpose over presence. Start thinking about how you can attract leads with your content rather than just faff about and just post for the sake of posting. 

All right, thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the new School of Marketing podcast. I hope it was helpful. And as always, I can't wait to share more marketing tips with you next week. If you're ready to take your business to the next level with Facebook and Instagram advertising, make sure that you visit newschoolofmarketing.com to download, practice free resources, plus subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. I can't wait to go on this journey with you. Until next time, take care and market your business every day.