Use Twitter to Generate and Nurture Leads

I've found some interesting articles on social networks and want to share some of them with you.

Author: Rachel Cummins

Lots of B2B businesses are finally present on Twitter, but how do you actually use the social media channel to generate business? Give customers something they really want, says Rachel Cummins, communications manager at Bright Digital

For B2B businesses to figure out how they can use Twitter to get real, measurable value it’s crucial they think first about their potential and existing customers and what their needs are. What would make a real difference to their lives, in relation to what your business offers? By giving them something really useful then you are adding value to your customer’s life: it might be a customer service channel, a place to get exclusive offers, or a resource for great information. Whatever you choose as the focus for your Twitter channel, you must make it meaningful to your target audience. This is the most important thing, whatever you wish to achieve.

We have a B2B IT security company client who was using Twitter as an online PR channel. While this is a valid way to use the micro blogging site, we thought it could also use Twitter to actually sell more products. Its product isn’t a quick sell; it involves a long and complex decision making process (via the channel and direct) before a buying decision can be made. Its audience is a very technology literate one, likely to use Twitter. Also, Twitter is great for facilitating the type of long term communications necessary in a complex sales process such as this. Therefore we began to use it to generate and nurture leads for them. Here’s how we do it:

1. Target your audience
Think about who your audience is. Are they on Twitter? If so, think about ways to search for them. As well as the general search tool, use the ‘Who To Follow’ and the ‘Browse Interests’ tools. Search out Twitter accounts that are popular with your target audience, look at who is following them. Save your regular searches. Once you’ve found some targets, save these people to a private list. Do this at regular intervals so you always have a bank of targets.

2. Post quality content
Before you embark on following people, make sure your Twitter page is full of exciting, valuable content so that when you follow your targets and they take a look at you to see if you’re worth following, they are impressed and follow you back. You have to decide what that quality content is: it could be whitepapers, customer service, news, opinion, or a mixture of these things. Make sure you are broadcasting as well as conversing.

3. Follow your targets
Use your private list to store your followed targets, and gradually go through the list following them. Don’t follow too many targets at once. Just follow a few at a time, so your followers and people you follow are nicely balanced. Hopefully they will look at what you offer, and if you have targeted them well, they will follow you back.

4. Track all activity
Monitor who you are targeting and if they follow you back. If you have a sophisticated marketing automation system, you could integrate this campaign into it. Analyse and implement improvements to targeting and following tactics such as looking at who you are targeting and what you are posting and if the two things are matching up. Track links with URL shorteners to see what types of content are proving most and least popular. Constantly optimise your campaign based on the results.

5. Interact with your followers
The best Twitter channels don’t simply broadcast, they build relationships with their followers, so try to interact meaningfully with yours. Invite conversation by asking questions: regularly check what your followers are talking about and, as long as it’s not intrusive and it is helpful, get involved in the conversation. Make your conversation with them meaningful; this is not the place to sell, instead you want to come across as a trusted expert who can help them.

6. Post links to marketing collateral
Webinars, whitepapers, videos, blogs, articles – think about what collateral you will offer to your Twitter audience. What content will be both useful to them and show off your expertise in the best light? What new content can you create? Have a brainstorm to think about content you could produce – and also use for other purposes. What existing collateral have you got inhouse? Social media is a great way to get value from your existing content. Remember: it’s okay to Tweet the same link at a later date, as people may have missed it the last time. But be careful to not overuse the same content, and always be clear about what the content is. Create a series of content that people will come back for. This part of the strategy is the most important, so plan and organise what you are going to post weeks in advance – social media isn’t all about spontaneity, despite what it might look like. Again, use a URL shortener for ease of use, consistency and tracking purposes.

7. Don’t scare people off
You may well be used to trading your collateral for information about your prospects, by collecting data about them before they can download. But consider giving some or just one piece of collateral for free (with no information required in return), that way they see the value and want more. This works especially well if you are running a series, so for example part one no information is required, but for part two you require your target to answer one question, and so on. Most people will not mind answering a question if they see you as an expert they can trust – and the way to influence their perception is to offer really high value content at all times.

8. Once you have more information, nurture them
As well as nurturing them using social media to post valuable content, once they are a lead then you can pass them onto your sales team or channel. Maybe you also now have their email address or telephone number and can use these to send emails and SMS. Whichever way you choose to keep in touch, don’t undo all the hard work at this stage. Make sure the communications that you send via email or sms also relate to the social media content, this way it’s consistent. Remember to keep all contact meaningful for optimum results.

9. Make a sale
At this stage, hopefully your target has followed you back, accessed lots of valuable information via your Tweets, answered a few questions in return and as a result built up an ongoing relationship with your brand. They are now better informed and in regular contact with you – when you pass on their details to the sales team they should be in a great position to buy.

Summary
What marketers now want from social media is to use it to generate business and to be able to measure its effectiveness. As ever with social media marketing, the main investment is time and energy, but the amount of time and energy invested shouldn’t be underestimated. With a specific campaign such as lead generation and nurturing you need to invest a lot of resource to get it right, but when you do get it right, it can be a wonderfully effective way of using social media. The main thing to take away from this is? Make a genuine connection with your target audience by offering them something they really want.

You can find more useful articles and information on business marketing at www.b2bmarketing.net

 

Nice article!

 

That was one super awesome share. Are you currently using twitter in your marketing campaign. I, personally do a lot of local internet marketing, so its been hard to see its application for local vendors, however that doesn't mean it doesn't exist....it just means it needs to be cultivated as I am sure there is a way to use it effectively on a local level. Coupons and such seems to be something easy to implement using twitter so maybe I'll explore that a bit more after rereading your post.

Thanks

 

Thats true. Twitter also has a potential to use our commercial skills of marketing any product or service. With more followers there are more opportunities!

 

@Technary - Have you used it on local markets?

 

Not yet used in local markets.

 

Curious to find out how to determine how successful those campaigns have been. I guess its one of those searches I have to start digging for all over the various forums. Someone has to have some insight.

Thanks for the reply.

 

thanks for share .
find more about it : social-media-marketing-2012.blogspot.com

 

What are the other good forums which provides better backlinks?

 

It is valuable tips, But some methods not success in Twitter. :/

 

Share your success on Twitter please...

 

Great information! Thanks

 

Yes, its valuable and specific information.

 

Yeah you have described everything with very beautifully but I think its a long target. I mean in my opinion may be you will start getting customers from twitter when you will have at least 1000+ followers.

and may be I am wrong too lol

 

Thanks for posting this. I agree with the article. The best way to gain a following that you can convert into a profitable marketing avenue is to provide tweets that have value.

Find out what your target audience is searching for, and then give them that information.

 

A single tweet surely has a great value. If you consider a tweet of a celebrity and if your link is published in his/her tweet then just imagine the amount of traffic which will get diverted to your website.

 

Awesome Article, thank you for share it with us!

 

Nice information about targeting and tracking. Some think twitter is about how many followers you can obtain but it is partially about who is following you that will help drive your business, niche or trend and how you can engage them. Twitter is about more than just numbers.

 

Thanks for sharing this articles, It's very useful.