Using Facebook for Lead Generation

Facebook for Lead Generation

Facebook, the king of social media. Well for now anyway. With the rise of other social platforms such as Instagram (Which Facebook own), LinkedIn (Which Facebook own), Snapchat (Which Facebook tried to buy), Twitter and YouTube, Facebook has had to try very hard over recent years to keep its crown.

With on average 2.45 billion people logging into Facebook every month, it makes it a powerhouse to market your products and services. Let’s begin…

Also as a side note, check out the guys over at brandwatch, they have put together a great piece on how Social Media as a whole can effect Lead Generation. Social Media Lead Generation: The Complete Guide

Facebook can be one of the most powerful strategies for lead generation — if you know what you’re doing. According to eMarketer, 53% of social network users use Facebook every day, and 97% visit facebook.com each month. What’s more, 63% of companies that currently advertise on Facebook plan to increase their Facebook ad spending this year .

So, it would seem that Facebook is an effective place from which us marketers can pull leads… but how? First thing’s first: You need a Facebook fan page in order to run ads (you can’t create Facebook ads without a Facebook page).

Creating a Facebook fan page is simple enough. Just go to facebook.com/pages/create . Once your page is ready, Facebook offers three types of ads from which you can choose.

Getting Started

Social media marketing is an essential part of any online business. Although Facebook and Facebook fan page marketing has gone a long way already, Facebook still remains one of the best lead generation tools today.

According to Facebook’s global pages report, Facebook has 2.45 billion active users every month and more than 14 million small businesses have created their Facebook business page as of June 2011.

In addition, more than half of Facebook fans engage with the brands they like through ‘liking’, commenting or sharing posts from Facebook fan pages that are relevant to their interests/needs.

2.45 billion people who use Facebook monthly means that there’s at least 1 person in your targeted market using Facebook daily! Yes even if you’re targeting highly specific markets.

Every business needs to start somewhere with their social media marketing and using Facebook for Lead Generation is a great place to start.

Firstly create a business page. Include your logo so people can identify you and also a brief breakdown of who you are and what you do. There is no need to be too descriptive, just be brief and straight to the point.

Secondly, now  you have done that, you need people to like and follow your page. Quite an integral thing as you need people to see your content and want to interact with it.

As your business page is more than likely linked with your personal, you can invite your friends to like your page. A very easy way to gain a following.

Online Presence

Facebook users are more inclined to do business with companies that they know or have at least heard of, compared to those unfamiliar.

Growing an online presence through Facebook has its advantages like allowing you to connect and engage with your audience, create Facebook applications for lead capture, Facebook contests and sweepstakes, Facebook advertising and Facebook page likes.

The Facebook lead generation tips below can help small businesses get Facebook fans and Facebook page likes that will eventually turn into Facebook users, Facebook group members, Facebook application users and Facebook contest participants.

Here are the best Facebook lead generation tips:

1. Optimize Your Facebook Business Page

This will help you gain more Facebook fans and Facebook page likes.

Be sure to include all the necessary information about you/your company on your Facebook fan page like name, location, description of products/services being offered, contact details (telephone number(s), email address).

Include a link to your website or blog in the ‘about’ section so it’s easily accessible by visitors who want to learn more about you or check out some project samples for instance.

2. Reward Facebook Page Likes

Encourage Facebook users to like your Facebook fan page by rewarding Facebook page likes.

You can do this by choosing one of Facebook’s apps like the ‘offer wall’ app which allows you to create a Facebook business lead generation form.

3. Join Industry Related Facebook Groups

Gain more Facebook fans by joining Facebook groups that are related to your market or industry where you’ll be able to start a conversation with fellow group members.

You can also leave comments on posts that need attention and engagement from other group members because they’re looking for answers online about certain topics and concerns.

4.Regular Posts

Make use of your Facebook fan page daily/regularly by posting videos, photographs, updates, links to interesting articles/blogs etc. Just like how any regular Facebook user would use their Facebook profile.

Post Facebook lead generation offers for Facebook application users that have opted in to receive Facebook emails. Include Facebook contests and giveaways for Facebook contest participants.

Add Facebook applications like the ‘offerwall’ app which allows you to create a Facebook business lead generation form or the ‘fb store’ app so Facebook page likes can easily visit your Facebook business page and become active on your fan page by liking/commenting on what’s being shared.

5. Invite Your Friends

Finally, invite all your friends (Facebook friends) to like/fan/join your Facebook fan page so they will get updates about everything related to you or your company without any efforts from their part because they’re already connected with you through Facebook!

Post & Interact

Great you have created a page, you have some followers. What is next? Well that would be content.

We have harped on about content a lot in previous posts, and how important it is for engaging content to be posted regularly. We revert back, and say this once again.

The content you post on Facebook needs to be engaging, and also represent your brand. Also, don’t be too salesy. Create conversation with your posts, a comment below caption will usually help with that one.

Once people have started to comment, engage them. Interact with them. This is how you can generate what we would call organic leads. For example, if it is a post about potential new services you want to offer.

If people are commenting on it, chances are they have an interest in it. Engage them, give them advice, or even ask them to drop you an email if they are really direct. Organic leads are priceless, and help to drive a business forward without any outlay.

Paid Ad’s

A great feature that Facebook has introduced in recent years is Facebook paid advertising. This is a form of PPC or Pay Per Click advertising which has taken enormous leaps, and now finds many businesses adopting this method to generate leads.

How does it work you ask? Well Facebook Ads allows you to create targeted adverts, set demographics and set locations so your brand, or products are seen by more people.

Most companies will adopt this method, once they have used up a lot of their existing organic traffic. By placing a paid advert on facebook, you are attracting and engaging a new audience.

Also a paid advert increases your reach, as you are able to go outside of the confines of just your small network.

Now there is a process which you need to follow in order to have some success, and the process would look something like this:-

• Identify your target market

Quite simply the most important thing in the whole process. Unlike organic traffic; paid adverts will allow you to select a variety of options including gender and also target age range.

For example if you are promoting a new pair of mens trainers then age range could be 18-25 and target it males. Equally if you are a boiler company, your target market would be home owners potentially from 25+ and either male or female.

• What is the purpose of your advert?

You have two options in this instance. Either directly advertise your products and services, or create an advert for people to click and register an interest.

• Analyse the data!

Look at the results. The applications Facebook Ad Manager will give you a breakdown of how successful your advert has been whilst in circulation.

If you have aimed to drive traffic to the website, or for people to sign up to your page to register an interest, it will show percentages and figures for you to analyse.

Overall Facebook paid advertising has a place in marketing. If you are looking to further promote your brand, or products and services.

To Summarise

Global reach, billions of people every month and it’s FREE! (Well for the most part) Sounds like a pretty good deal really.

Using Facebook for Lead Generation firstly for your company to have a presence; and secondly to be able to reach targeted groups can provide great success.

However, remain consistent. Consistently posting content will only increase your chances of generating leads.

Take a look at our article on how content marketing can also help increase your potential lead generation.