Social media has grown so big that there are now over 5 billion social media users worldwide. This means lots of opportunities for marketers to engage with consumers by prompting an action such as a CTA at the end of an Instagram reel or clicking URLs on X.
The challenge is that there are many social media channels to choose from and competition for consumer attention is fierce, especially for lead generation.
The key thing with social media is to use the right networks and create the right content for each one. Analyze your data to give you insights into what platform has helped deliver leads. Once you identify the best platform/s, look at what type of content has performed.
For example, to attract TikTok users, you need to create authentic and engaging short-form video content. While real-time platforms like X, Threads, and Bluesky favor text and images and news-style content.
With social media, it can be beneficial to promote both organic and paid content.
While engagement with organic content is declining mainly due to algorithms prioritizing paid content, posting organically can help grow a community and build relationships with customers, especially through features such as polls and sharing user-generated content.
Here’s an example of a great user-generated video for technology company GoPro.
4) Engage through emails
Email marketing is an essential part shop of your lead generation strategy as it can help attract, nurture, and convert leads.
You can use email to attract leads by developing lead magnets (e.g. ebooks or webinars), signing up for email updates or subscribing to a newsletter. This enables people to be kept up-to-date with any news, launches, or company announcements to drive brand awareness.
Nurturing leads is one of the main benefits of using email marketing as you are communicating with people who are aware of your brand and have opted to receive communications from you.
“At this stage, effective email list management is important. With a strong customer relationship management (CRM) system, you can segment leads based on demographics, behaviors, or preferences, allowing you to send personalized messages that resonate and boost the chances of conversion,” said Anna Flynn, MarTech Manager at the Digital Marketing Institute.
Consider setting up automated email sequences, or drip campaigns (such as welcome emails, retargeting, or cart abandonment), to maintain lead engagement over time. Automation tools can help you send emails at scale and deliver targeted messages tailored to different stages of the buyer’s journey.
Here’s a good example of a welcome email from performance beverage company Magic Mind that welcomes a new subscriber and also offers a 15% discount to prompt click-through.
Email marketing can convert leads by providing relevant and useful information over time to move them through the funnel using retargeting emails to reconnect with leads who haven’t converted yet.
5) Build a community
While social networks have the ability to what to post on instagram to get attention: 10 effective ideas inform and promote, wider communities can also provide a place for consumers to be engaged and nurtured.
That’s why brands that focus on providing community spaces for prospects and customers may have an advantage as people look to build meaningful connections.
This is especially true for younger generations: 85% of GenZs say it’s important for brands to create a sense of community, according to Tumblr’s ‘The State of Community’ report.
Social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn are not the only places that offer community building. You can also host events to build and nurture a community. Webinars that feature experts on a topic that your community is interested in can draw in a crowd or a live event talking about a new product or service could generate or convert leads.
“The value of a community is that awareness and that affinity to your brand. So if somebody is having a great experience within your community, they’re going to have a positive association with your brand and think about you more often than what they would normally,” said Alison Battisby, Founder of Avocado Social on a DMI podcast.
How can you measure the success of lead generation?
After putting so much work into generating leads, you want to know how successful your efforts have been.
To do this you need to track key metrics tha global seo work show the quality and effectiveness of your leads. One of the primary metrics is lead conversion rate, which measures how many generated leads turn into actual customers. If you have a high conversion rate then your lead generation strategy is attracting the right audience and is effective at nurturing them.