Before diving into the methods of lead generation on social media, it’s worth taking a look at leads themselves. What exactly is a lead? Well, a lead is a potential customer who’s expressed an interest in one of your business’ products or services and has offered their contact details to gain more information.
These leads can then be passed directly onto the sales department, or actioned yourself using a content marketing campaign. This can be an essential part of the lead cultivating process, as over 90% of business decision makers say they don’t respond to cold calling.
So, how can social media work for lead generation?
There are several methods you can use to generate a sustainable flow of leads through social media.
1) Gated content link sharing
Gated content is how the name suggests. It’s content that’s protected by a virtual gate, which users can pass through after providing some information about themselves, such as contact details.
Promoting gated content on social media is a great way to build a picture of who your customers are. It’s also a massive help for finding out which ones are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
2) Create and run social contests
These don’t have to be huge, budget-intensive spectacles, but the prize does have to be valuable enough to gain people’s attention. It should also be valuable to the people most likely to be interested in your services, not just everyone. Giving away an iPad is great, but it’s not targeted to real estate. Consider a more relevant prize, such as offering a select number of sellers free marketing campaigns for their properties.
3) Advertise on social media
Organic social posts can bring leads in, but they’re rarely going to get the reach that paid ads will. Paid ads will also let you target your customers based on a set of niche criteria.
For example, if you work in Sydney, you can set your social ads to only be shown to people within a 20-mile radius of the city centre. Tie this in with your gated content and social competitions to maximise the effects.
4) Utilise Facebook custom tabs
Your real estate business page on Facebook is a top place to start generating actionable leads. A recent social media study found that 66% of millennials use Facebook to look for coupons, discounts and contests, which is great news for marketers because these are all excellent lead generation tactics.
Tabs are small menu items located in your Facebook business page’s left column. Although your page will already have some standard tabs, you can now customize these to highlight any special contests or giveaways you might be running. If you don’t have a developer in your office, don’t worry – there are plenty of apps available that’ll help you set up custom tabs in no time.
5) Use hangouts, live video and webinars to showcase recent properties
If you’re looking for a way to offer extra value to your audience, webinars, hangouts and live videos are great methods to try.
You can either make your webinars gated to drive leads, or you can win them in other ways. One successful method is opening the webinar to a wider audience 100% free, then present offers throughout.
The same can be done with live sessions. Try out a live video or webinar teaching your viewers how to maximise their property value and plug your services at the same time.