The seven principles of persuasion by Dr. Robert Cialdini
Formstack lead genwithsocialmedia
1. A Practical Plan for Turning
Conversations into Conversions
Brought to you by Formstack with expert insights
from Convince & Convert’s Jay Baer
THE STRESSED
MARKETER’S GUIDE
TO LEAD GENERATION WITH
SOCIAL MEDIA
3. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media2
INTRODUCTION
It took a lot of work. But you did it. Your company now has an impressive following
on social media. Likes are skyrocketing, retweets are happening regularly, and your
content is being shared like crazy.
Now comes the critical question:
How many of those social media conversations are resulting in revenue-boosting
conversions?
If the answer is “not many,” you’re not alone.
Half of marketers still struggle to tie social activities to business outcomes, and 60%
have a hard time measuring social media ROI.1
The good news is that there are effective ways to turn more social interactions into
measurable leads—without having to invest in expensive software or
time-consuming strategies.
This interactive workbook will give you a practical plan for generating more leads
from social media. Be sure to save it to your desktop for easy access as you work
your way through our step-by-step guide.
Ready to get started? Let’s begin…
$
4. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media3
GETTING INTO A LEAD GEN GROOVE
While social media is widely known for driving traffic and building brand awareness,
it can be used to improve sales as well.2
You just have to get in the right mindset.
Start with these two steps:
Step 1: Calculate Lead Value
Do you know what an average lead is worth to your sales team? If you’re like 39%
of marketers, you may not yet have a clue.3
If you’ve never been able to calculate
lead value for your business, now’s the time. Here’s why:
+ You’ll avoid overspending (or underspending) on social media
marketing.
+ It’ll be easier to see when social media campaigns are making
money.
+ You’ll gain a better understanding of how social media compares to
other tactics on a cost-per-lead basis.
Here’s a simple formula you can use to get started:
As you work your way through the rest of this book, use this number to help
determine how much you can safely invest in social media marketing.
Type here!
x
(average sale in dollars) (conversion rate) (lead value)
= 0
5. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media4
Step 2: Understand a Common Conversion Path
How many touchpoints does it take for a potential customer to fill out a form on
your website? You won’t be able to generate more leads from social media until
you understand where those people are in the buying process based on the entire
conversion cycle—and not just last click attribution.
For example: Facebook may be a big referral source, but that doesn’t mean it’s the
only place to spend your money. It could be that people are clicking your Facebook
ads after first discovering your blog via Google or LinkedIn.
Since most leads are exposed to multiple touchpoints before converting, you’ll
need a clear picture of a common conversion path for your customers. Start by
answering the following questions:
INTERACTIONS
How are your strongest leads interacting with your brand?
For example:
+ In your marketing automation tool, what do the activity logs of your
highest-scoring prospects look like?
+ In Google Analytics, what do you see under Conversions >
Multi-Channel Funnels > Assisted Conversions (and Top Conversion
Paths)?
WHAT IS LAST CLICK ATTRIBUTION?
Attribution tells you which link (including the “source” or location of the
link) a lead clicked before visiting your landing page and filling out your
form. You can find these referral sources in Google Analytics, email marketing
reports, and form builder analytics. “Last click” attribution occurs when the
final referral source is given full credit for a sale or conversion.
6. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media5
ATTRIBUTIONS
Where do leads come from when they finally visit your landing page and fill out
your form?
For example:
+ What are the top referral sources in your form builder’s attribution
feature? (Twitter? Google? A Facebook ad?)
+ In Google Analytics, what do you see under Acquisition > All Traffic >
Referrals?
Now take these two pieces of information:
+ Brand interactions
+ Attributions
And use them to fill in the following chart. Take some time to ensure you get it
right—this conversion path will be an important reference as you continue to work
your way through the rest of this e-book.
Where do most customers first discover your brand?
For example: Facebook Ads, LinkedIn posts
What did they click right before filling out your form?
For example: One-to-one email
Where do they engage with you next?
For example: Blog posts, webinars
? Type here!
7. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media6
CREATING MORE MEANINGFUL TOUCHPOINTS
WITH ORGANIC SOCIAL MEDIA
Generating leads all comes down to well-placed nudges in the right direction.
When you answer questions, share helpful information, and refer people to relevant
landing pages, you create more touchpoints with your brand. And more touchpoints
on social media can generate more qualified leads.
What specific steps can you take to create more meaningful interactions? Let’s take
a look.
8. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media7
1. Monitor High-Intent Hashtags
+ When it comes to generating leads, high-intent hashtags are an easy
way to gain traction. For example: A Las Vegas hotel chain could create
conversion opportunities simply by engaging in conversations around a
hashtag like #Vegasbound. Use a tool like RiteTag to discover trending
hashtags and set up a stream in a platform like SproutSocial to monitor
conversations.
2. Don’t Over-Automate
+ While some autogenerated tweets and status updates can attract
new leads, you have to keep it “real.” Building real connections with real
people is a surefire way to convert leads on social media. This means
you need authentic tweets, tags, and updates that are personalized and
human. Use a tool such as Insightpool, Little Bird, or Affinio to determine
who to connect with and how best to communicate with your connections.
3. Engage with Targeted Groups
+ Sharing valuable insights in the right group environment can open all
kinds of doors to lead gen as you build trust with your target audience.
You can convince and convert not only the leads whose questions
you answer, but also the hundreds of people following along. Look for
Facebook and LinkedIn groups where your target customers are active
participants. On Twitter, a tool like Twubs makes it easy to find and
participate in chats directly related to your business.
SOCIAL MEDIA INTERACTIONS TIP SHEET
Using social media to capture more conversions can be a big undertaking.
Focusing on the tips below will help ensure your campaigns are pushing people in
the right direction.
9. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media8
Should you join that social group?
As mentioned on the last page, engaging with social media groups can be a great
way to get your brand in front of interested networks. But no one likes a company
spamming their group with irrelevant content. Wondering whether you should join a
specific online circle? Use this decision tree to decide:
Is this group
likely to appeal
to your audience?
Research which
groups will most
likely attract your
target leads.
Join the
group!
Look for another
group with active
participants and
two-way dialogue.
Review the
profiles of your
strongest leads to
see which groups
they belong to.
Are any of your
current prospects
members of this
group?
Are there real
discussions with
questions and
comments?
YES
YES
YES
NO
NO
NO
10. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media9
CAPTURING MORE CONVERSIONS
WITH PAID SOCIAL MEDIA
As you work to attract more leads with personalized touchpoints, your paid social
campaigns can help move prospects deeper into your conversion funnel. Social
media advertising lets you get really specific on who you target and what they see.
This can make it easy to get exactly the right information in front of all the right
people at just the right time.
So how can you use social media advertising to qualify leads and capture more
conversions? Use the following tip sheet to make sure you’re maximizing your
social spend.
3 WAYS TO CAPTURE
MORE FORM CONVERSIONS
FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
+ Remove unnecessary form fields. More than 50% of online activity
occurs on mobile devices, where people use tiny touchpad screens to fill
out forms.4
The fewer fields, the better.
+ Allow users to pull info from social media profiles. Simply turning on a
form’s Social Autofill feature can increase conversion rates by 189%.5
+ Customize the thank-you page users see after submitting your form.
You can drive deeper engagement by adding a secondary call to action,
like signing up for a related webinar.
11. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media10
1. Choose the Right Networks
+ Revisit the sample conversion path you created at the beginning of this
workbook. Where are your ideal prospects most likely to find you? Are
they spending more time on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest? Typically,
the places where you’re most successful with organic social media are
also the places where paid ads should generate the most leads.
2. Get Granular
+ The great strength of social media advertising is the ability to pinpoint
extremely specific audiences. You can use dozens of different filters to
ensure only highly qualified prospects will see your ads. For example: In
addition to basics like demographics and locations, you might look for
keywords that indicate a challenge you can help solve. Or you could filter
for personal interests that signal someone is likely to buy your products.
3. Be Creative
+ Studies show that fewer than 15% of people can name a brand or product
after seeing a display ad.6
An ad that asks a thought-provoking question
or makes an unusually bold statement is most likely to stand out in social
feeds. In fact, new research reveals that creativity makes an ad five times
more likely to be seen compared with targeting alone.7
Additionally, it’s
important to test different types of social ads to see which ones resonate
most with your target audience. And be sure to optimize for conversions
and not just clicks. You’ll have to spend a little time installing tracking code
on your thank-you page, but it’s worth it!
SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING TIP SHEET
Using social ads to drive more traffic to your landing pages is worth the time and
money spent—as long as that traffic converts into customers at a profitable rate.
Avoid over- or under-spending on paid campaigns with these guidelines.
12. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media11
Snapshot of an Effective Social Ad
Let’s say you have an apartment complex in Phoenix and are trying to get people
to rent units. You want to reach locals, like this guy you know named Peter. He has
a degree in computer engineering, likes to play volleyball, drinks craft beer and
watches a lot of videos on his smartphone.
What would a super-targeted ad to a renter like Peter look like? Check out our
example below. For the best results, create specific ads and ad groups for each
targeting criteria.
Locations
Interests
Fields of Study
Behaviors
Display
Age Gender
United States, Arizona
Phoenix + 25 mi
Computer Science
video watching
mobile only
craft beer
gadget gear
volleyball
x
20 All Men Women- 35
^
+
–
x
x
x
x
x
13. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media12
MORE PRACTICAL IDEAS
YOU CAN USE TO GENERATE MORE LEADS ON SOCIAL
MEDIA
Facebook: Short-Form Video
Facebook is favoring short-form video in news feeds—and consumers are, too.
These “snackable” video clips tend to be engaging, easy to digest, and convenient
to watch on mobile devices. Create a video preview of killer content overlaid with
call to action links to your landing page, and you may be surprised at how many
clicks and conversions you can capture. The shorter, the better: The most-watched
Facebook videos are 21 to 61 seconds long.8
Twitter: Attention-Grabbing Images
Using strong imagery is one of the best ways to drive traffic and conversions on
Twitter. Tweets with images capture 18% more clicks and generate 150% more
retweets compared with text-only tweets.9
All that traffic-inducing activity can
lead to some serious spikes in conversions. Try presenting closeup photos of your
products, behind-the-scenes shots of your office, or even pull quotes placed in
attention-grabbing and branded colors.
LinkedIn: Blog Posts
When used as a publishing platform, LinkedIn can be a big driver of traffic and
conversions. This social network generates three times more leads than Facebook
and Twitter,10
which means blog posts on LinkedIn can expose your content to a
highly engaged audience. Start by identifying the topics that most appeal to your
target niche. Then be sure to incorporate compelling calls to action that tell people
exactly where to sign up or opt in.
14. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media13
...TYING IT ALL TOGETHER
Social networks are constantly changing. Following the steps in this book will
absolutely help you generate more leads. But you have to be ready to adapt. The
key to staying ahead of trends as they evolve is in your social media metrics.
But there’s a problem:
You’re not an analyst. You’re a busy, time-strapped marketer who needs some
quick, actionable insights. That’s where the following checklist comes in. It includes
important metrics you can use to measure success and plan future efforts. To start,
pick at least one metric from each column to begin tracking monthly.
AUDIENCE INTERACTIONS BEHAVIORS
Measure each metric per channel, per month
# of fans and followers
# of engagements
(likes, comments,
shares, retweets)
# of direct (and indirect/
assisted) form
conversions
% audience growth # of engagements
per post
% of posts resulting in
clicks to your website
15. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media14
Next, turn your monthly metrics into actionable insights by answering these four
questions:
+ Which social networks generate the most engagement and clicks per
hour or time invested (+ direct financial investments in software,
etc.?)
+ Which social networks generate the most direct and assisted
conversions per hour or time invested (+ direct financial investments
in software, etc.?)
+ How much direct and indirect revenue is each social network
responsible for, and how do they compare?
+ Given that you should now know which social networks are most
efficient and effective for you, where should you be spending more
time and resources, and where should you be spending less?
LEARN HOW FORMSTACK CAN HELP YOU BETTER
TRACK AND SCALE YOUR BEST SOCIAL MEDIA
CAMPAIGNS. GET A FREE 20-MINUTE DEMO TODAY.
REQUEST DEMO
16. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media15
THE TEAM BEHIND THIS E-BOOK
ABOUT FORMSTACK
Formstack is a technology company that understands big marketing problems
and how to fix them. Digital marketers can leverage Formstack’s robust online
form building software as a medium to help capture more leads and pinpoint the
strategies that drive more conversions. Formstack’s online form analytics reveal
which keywords, marketing tactics, and traffic sources are sending users the best
leads. This helps marketers only spend money on the most profitable campaigns,
giving them the most leads for the least amount of money. With Formstack’s help,
companies can filter their best lead sources into their sales funnel for efficient lead
nurture.
ABOUT CONVINCE & CONVERT
Convince & Convert Consulting provides digital marketing and customer
experience advice and counsel to many of the world’s most interesting brands,
including the United Nations, TaylorMade, Cabela’s, Cisco, Oracle, and many more.
Convince & Convert Media provides digital marketing education to executives and
stressed marketers through its award-winning blog, multiple podcasts, daily email
newsletters, e-books, books, and workshops.
17. The Stressed Marketer’s Guide to Lead Generation with Social Media16
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
YOUR FORMS, YOUR DATA
+ 1 Report: Marketers Still Struggle to Measure Social ROI
+ 2 2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report
+ 3 Poll: Marketers Uncertain About Lead Value
+ 4 Mobile Apps Overtake PC Internet Usage in U.S.
+ 5 2015 Form Conversion Report
+ 6 Banner Blindness: 60% Can’t Remember the Last Display Ad They Saw
+ 7 It’s the Creative, Stupid: 3 Reasons Why Ad Creative Trumps Technology
Every Time
+ 8 Want to Succeed with Facebook Videos? Keep Them Short
+ 9 Tweets with Images Get 18% More Clicks, 89% More Favorites and 150% More
Retweets [STUDY]
+ 10 LinkedIn 277% More Effective for Lead Generation than Facebook & Twitter
[New Data]
