How to Generate New Client Leads with Social Media

Business website up and running—Check! 

Selection of your primary social media channels—Check! 

Steady content creation—Check! 

Those wins may look small on paper, but entrepreneurs know the amount of work that goes into checking all of these off.  

Now, how do you turn that hard work on your online presence into higher income?

To challenge the old saying, just because you have built it doesn’t mean the clients will come. 

With a record-breaking rise in the use of social media worldwide over the past year, social media components are cornerstones of an effective digital marketing strategy. But, if you’ve ever seen a social media account that seems to have all of the right elements but only a few dozen followers, clearly building your online presence is only part of the formula. 

What is the key to connecting great social media accounts to a steadily increasing income? Implementing a social media lead generation strategy with concrete actions you can take to get people to engage with your account and, ultimately, invest in your business. 

In this article, we will provide you with tried-and-true lead generation strategies to transform passive social media followers into active investors in your brand and value. 

What Is Lead Generation in Social Media?

A sales lead is a person or business who may eventually become a client by purchasing a product or service you offer. 

Lead generation is the process by which prospects may become clients. 

So, when talking about your business’s digital marketing strategy, a big part of it is how you will use social media to generate those sales leads. 

What’s the Goal of Social Media for Lead Generation?

The ultimate goal of social media lead generation is relatively straightforward: send people to a place where they can connect with you so they have a greater chance of becoming a client. 

Of course, it isn’t as simple as repeatedly announcing to your followers, “Hey! This is a valuable service I offer! Come and get it while it’s hot!”

If people saw that message over and over without any other added value, they’ll likely see your content as spam, and you’ll get a quick unfollow. 

People go on social media to feel entertained, connected, seen, and understood and to inform themselves. What you post goes on their feeds along with their friends’ and family’s posts. Most of your content should feel like it genuinely belongs to those closest to them, not like an ad you want to skip on your music streaming service. 

For many people, however, the process of getting people to find value in following your brand to eventually making a purchase seems like an art form in itself. 

Luckily, digital marketing experts have studied the trends, algorithms, and formulas that help your social media platforms become a primary source of lead generation for your business.

Below, we give you nine tactics digital marketing experts use to generate leads with social media. 

9 Ideas to Generate Leads with Your Social Media Platforms

Create ‘Gated Lead Magnets’

Gated lead magnets are key pieces of information or content that draw people to your business’s platforms. In exchange for access to that information, potential clients are willing to provide their information. 

The lead magnet is most often downloadable content that is not easy to come by elsewhere, like e-books, guides, infographics, meal plans, studies, tips, or secrets. Other lead magnets could be a discount code, coupons, or a giveaway. 

They are called “gated” lead magnets because a person has to turn in their “ticket,” like their e-mail address, name, and social media handles, or even respond to a short survey to access the content. 

What information should you ask for? This depends on what information is most valuable to your digital marketing strategy. Asking for a name and e-mail and to opt-in to a newsletter are the most common tickets companies use. You then have a direct way to notify them of new products and services, media appearances, deals, and blog posts. 

Keep in mind that asking for too much information, information people might consider too personal, or requiring a credit card number can raise the red flag for a scam business. At this point, you will likely turn people off from continuing the process, and you’ll lose potential leads. 

Once you’ve created valuable gated lead magnets, you’ll see in the next several ideas that there are plenty of ways you can integrate them into your social media strategy to attract potential clients. 

Reference Your Opt-in or Downloadable Content in Your Posts

You’ve created high-quality, unique, downloadable content that will add value to people’s lives. Now, you have another thing to check off of your digital content strategy checklist!

But, how can you make the most of that content to generate leads? One of the ways is to consistently reference the downloadable content in your posts. 

In the post, you can give your followers a sneak peek at the sort of information they will have access to when they receive the content.

For example, if your niche is in prenatal and postnatal fitness, you might want to develop a guide like a “Pregnancy-Safe Exercise Routine to Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor.” In one of your Instagram posts, you can show your followers one move that is generally safe for pregnant women who have gotten the okay to exercise. Then, tell them that move is just one of several moves in the FREE guide you’ve developed.

An effective tactic that nutrition coaches often use is to take some mouth-watering pictures of healthy food and then create a link to the downloadable recipes. 

If you know there is a piece of content you have that is particularly attractive to your clients, like an infographic or blog article, you may repurpose the content so that they can only access it after they have provided you with their e-mail address and an opt-in. 

If you are interested in learning how to create a better e-mail marketing strategy, check out the tried-and-true tactics we talk about in this blog. 

Use Reels and End Them with a Call-to-Action 

TikTok gave rise to a new video format that Instagram adopted to their platform. Now, Instagram Reels has grown significantly in popularity, and it’s a great way to show your followers your personality and a bit about what sets you apart from the rest.

Similarly to how you can use Facebook and Instagram posts to build up the hype around your guide, you can use Reels to promote your downloadable content with an opt-in as well. Integrate a call-to-action into your reels. 

If you want to learn about how to use Instagram Reels to build great content for your brand, check out this article. 

Use a “Link in Bio” App to Guide People to Your Site

In Facebook, you can integrate a link directly into the post. That way, you can create a call-to-action and use one of Facebook’s several content programming options to make a click take a potential client to the opt-in and download link you have created. 

In Instagram, however, you cannot create hyperlinks in the body of your posts. There are several tools that help you solve this problem. 

In your Instagram Profile there is an option to include a website. Here, you have two options: You can either link to your business’s home page, or you can use tools that will allow users to click straight into different parts of your site or other social media platforms that interest your followers. 

For the second option, you can use a tool like Linktree or Flow. In addition to including your general website, you can include links to the download and opt-in pages for valuable downloadable content and your shop where people can access your products and services directly.   

Interact with Communities and Accounts that Align with Your Brand

Is there an instagrammer you admire? Another health, fitness, and nutrition personality who creates content you love? Engage with their content and other users by commenting, participating in their live streams, and sharing what they produce. 

Find content you genuinely like and care about and avoid just reposting content that you think will garner you attention. It helps people get to know who you are.

Boosting others’ content by sharing and engaging with it can potentially help you gain better reach in a few ways: 

• They may repost your post, which will be visible to their followers.
• The algorithm will boost your post for followers who also follow the re-posted account.
• The reposted user may be intrigued by your page and feel inspired to repost your content.

You should not repost content without giving the creators proper credit, and ideally, you have permission from the creator to repost the content. 

Include Your Contact Information Everywhere

Open lines of communication so that when someone does want to become a client, they have no trouble finding out the best way to get in contact with you. Whether it is noting in your bio that you are taking appointments by DM or linking to your contact form, make it easy for clients to get in touch with you. 

Use Live Chats and Video to Connect with Followers

Facebook Live, Twitter Chat, Instagram Live, and Youtube Live are all opportunities to engage with your followers. During this time, they can ask you questions, you can show them more about who you are and what you do, and you can give them a sneak peek of upcoming content. When people are more engaged with you, a few things happen to boost your brand and generate leads: 

• You’ll appear on their feed more frequently.
• They’ll feel connected to you on a more personal level, and they’ll be more likely to continue engaging with you.
• You can generate hype around upcoming or existing products, services, and resources.

At the end of all your connections with potential clients, finish with a call-to-action. Let them know how they can learn more, engage with you, gain access to your free downloadable guide, or participate in your giveaway. 

Collaborate with Other Professionals on Social Media 

Multi-brand giveaways, live sessions, and collaborative projects are a great way you can build a mutually beneficial relationship with colleagues and other professionals in similar fields.

Some important things to consider when you seek out other professionals for collaborative initiatives is to make sure you serve a similar niche and that the collaboration will boost all brands involved, rather than generate more competition. 

Remember that comments, likes, and saves aren’t leads. End all of your collaborative projects with a call-to-action that will generate further interest and engagement. 

Invest in Social Media Advertising 

Access to all of the main social media platforms is free. One of the main ways that these social media companies generate income is through advertisement. 

What does this mean for your brand? While you can create content that will generate organic engagement, advertising is, without a doubt, a great way to boost brand visibility and generate leads through social media. 

Main Takeaways

Social media is a powerful tool that most digital marketing experts consider essential to any digital marketing plan. 

However, creating your social media pages and generating quality content is just part of the formula to success. Key strategies like promoting downloadable content, collecting e-mails, and collaborating with other professionals are all ways to turn your awesome social media pages into leads and eventually into more revenue.