With the rise of social media, businesses have started to see the power of social networks and their influence on lead generation. Social media sites are more than just platforms to share little tidbits from life, but rather serve as a tool for businesses to discover new leads.
Social media is usually overlooked by many smaller businesses, when in fact it is a highly effective tool for generating leads for their business. We at Tower know the importance of Twitter as a medium for establishing relationships with influencers, and helping to find ways to integrate our business with the needs of users.
Real Twitter Lead Generation Tips & Advice
Today we want to share how other businesses and agencies are using Twitter as a way to find leads to grow their businesses online.
Bryan Clayton – CEO of GreenPal
We use Twitter to get customer leads in the five cities in which we operate in the eastern part of the United States. It definitely takes some hand cranking, as there’s no automated way to pursue this strategy. However, every single day we perform a search on Twitter.
We look for the keywords lawn care, lawn mowing, and lawn cutting, then narrow the search down to each individual city where we operate. With this search, we find people who are looking for a recommendation for a lawn care professional from their friends or the local community.
This is somebody who is in need of the services that we provide, so we tweet at them and let them know about our platform that allows them to order lawn care from their smartphone. We’ve measured our efforts and notice that 48% of the time we’ve tweeted somebody in this context, we receive a sign-up for service. We are a self-funded startup so this is an inexpensive way to contact new customers for zero dollars acquisition cost.
Bio: The inspiration for GreenPal is born out of the frustration Bryan observed while operating a landscape business, and how difficult it is for homeowners to find, schedule, and pay reliable small lawn care professional. Bryan is in charge of GreenPal’s strategic direction and growth to become the platform that powers the lawn care industry.
Garrett Mehrguth – CEO of Directive Consulting
We leverage Twitter for re-targeting. Whether for ourselves or an account, we like to build our lists, import them and similar audiences into Twitter, and then grow our touches on our target market. Furthermore, we leverage Twitter as a content promotion platform to properly reach tech-savvy users. Because of the short life-span of a tweet and the more tech-centric user base, we have found Twitter most effective for re-targeting and content promotion, while less effective for direct conversion campaigns, when compared to Facebook.
Bio: Garrett Mehrguth is the CEO of Directive Consulting, a Google Partner and MozLocal Recommended Agency serving mid-enterprise level firms. Connect with him on Twitter.
Sam Wheeler – Inseev Interactive
Twitter can be a great way to generate sales leads. However, it is important to note that Twitter lead generation should always be done in conjunction with other campaigns to ensure a well-rounded approach. Here are my tips that could be an interesting alternative to the standard Twitter campaign.
Keep Your Campaign Selective and Include a Chance to Win Twitter Access for a Day
Leverage Twitter to generate interest in a particular sales campaign but don’t outright post an advertisement. Use Twitter as a call to action for a select demographic to learn more about the campaign or competition. Being selective, or secretive, benefits your campaign in two ways. First, you can be selective with the time limit of the campaign and not the number of candidates.
From a psychological standpoint, if the matter is time-sensitive users are more likely to enter or interact. Secondly, from a conversion standpoint, those who are interested in a secretive message or prize will most likely be the ones in your target niche, thus becoming an easier conversion.
Especially in the digital age, if you give your potential customers a chance to take the helm of a Twitter account (it could be a secondary company account, such as @Company_uservoice) you will also see a rise in the interest of your campaign, regardless of the message, as people will want the opportunity to leverage your position on Twitter.
You may also see great content unfold during their “hold” of your account and can recycle any good conversations through other channels. Finally, make sure to have clear rules and regulations and follow through with your promises, or else you might see a digital backlash!
Bio: Currently a Digital PR Specialist at Inseev Interactive, Sam Wheeler has been working in the digital marketing space since graduating from Northwestern University in 2012. Sam has worked for companies in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, and the United States.
Bernard Perrine – CEO of SocialCentiv
Focus User Expressed Intent
Twitter’s unique set up caters nicely to lead generation by allowing users to quickly and constantly express interest and intent for an item or product. By monitoring this landscape, marketers can cater to messaging for a company to reflect a user’s intent and generate interest on the user’s side for the company or product. By capitalizing on a user’s expressed intent in real-time, companies have a higher chance of generating interest as the user they are targeting has already expressed at least a mild interest. By monitoring target audiences on a regular basis, you can respond to intent in a timely manner with a relevant offer previously determined by your brand or business. This way, you won’t miss a beat and can generate new interest for your brand. For instance, this process allows our SocialCentiv tool to regularly achieve an average 34% click-through rate for our clients.
Bio: Bernard Perrine is co-founder and CEO of SocialCentiv, an intent-based Twitter marketing firm that drives an average of 34 percent click-through rates for its clients in a variety of sectors, including restaurants, events, food and beverage, and online retailers. For more information, visit SocialCentiv on Twitter.
Natalie Bidnick Andreas – Owner of NatalieAndreas.com
The best way I’ve gained leads through Twitter is by utilizing the “listening” technique. Twitter has a native search function that allows users to search the content, location, and even sentiment of specific tweets.
For example, for a furniture client, I’ve searched out users tweeting “need a new couch” in the location(s) of the client’s stores. Once a lead is sourced (found), I reach out to the person via the client’s Twitter account. If a user tweeted “I need a couch,” an appropriate response would be “Stop on into our store and mention this tweet for 10% off,” or something similar.
Twitter can also be used to funnel potential leads to a landing page or fill-able form that collects their email address for future contacts.
Bio: Natalie Bidnick Andreas is a digital consultant with more than a decade of experience helping unique voices thrive online. Connect with her on Twitter.
Devin Rubink – Inbound Marketing Specialist at Fun.com
Find Contacts and Email Addresses
Twitter is a great tool for finding contacts’ email addresses. Sometimes, a journalist I’d like to reach won’t have an email listed on the site they write for, but they have links to their personal sites in their Twitter bio. Usually, their personal sites have an email listed or contact form for contacting them directly. This has been effective for me in gaining contacts and getting our content pieces featured on larger sites.
Build Relationships
Twitter is also useful in building relationships with relevant audiences and leads itself. I’ve found success in getting in touch with contacts by just tweeting at them at times I notice they’ve been tweeting. I usually get a response in some capacity.
One More Tip
Another great, but less personal, tool is All My Tweets, which allows you to plug in any username and view a text listing of their last 3,000 tweets. Sometimes, you can find their email address to reach out to them if they’ve tweeted it before.
Bio: Devin Rubink is an Inbound Marketing Specialist on the marketing team for Fun.com in North Mankato, MN. Devin has a background in marketing and communications and is a 2010 graduate from Minnesota State University, Mankato with a degree in Mass Communications.
Have you used Twitter successfully to generate leads for your business? How have you used Twitter to grow your business?
Please note: Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Tower Marketing.