Social Selling: Everything you need to know

Social Selling

In an environment increasingly marked by the use of social networks, no one can escape its influence and power, nor can brands and businesses be oblivious to this trend. Thus, once we are implementing a social media plan, it is convenient to correctly optimize the presence of our brand in them, this is what we call Social Selling.

 

Specifically, what is Social Selling?

Social selling consists of using social tools to identify and create relationships with potential customers for the sale. The sales department uses the networks to add value to consumers, answering their questions and comments, and sharing content.

 

In the same way, social selling is suitable for both B2C and B2B brands, since in both cases customers carry out online research before purchasing.

 

Why should we carry out a Social Selling strategy?

As we have seen, today’s consumer is very informed. Before going to a store or making an online purchase, do a research process on the Internet. Look for prices and opinions.

 

Therefore, by applying Social Selling you increase the chances that the purchase process is effective since the messages that customers receive through the networks influence the perception they have about your company, thus increasing their trust towards it.

 

Of course, as long as those messages are coherent and have a logical strategy of recruitment and loyalty.

 

So, to attract our potential clients, we must become a benchmark in our sector and, for this, our content must be useful and add value to them. Ultimately, they must:

  • Answer your questions
  • Meet your needs
  • Guide them towards their goals

 

And, thus, differentiate ourselves from our competition.

 

How to do Social Selling?

Choose the most relevant social networks for your company

A very common mistake of any social selling strategy is launching into all the networks at the same time. But to know how to sell, the first thing you need to do is figure out where your audience is.

 

To choose the most appropriate social networks for your brand, you have to be very clear about your consumer profile and how it fits in with existing networks. For example, Pinterest is king when it comes to fashion and weddings, LinkedIn is the ideal place to promote B2B services, and Snapchat and Instagram are very popular with teenage audiences.

 

Twitter: Follow the correct accounts

Twitter tools are of great help when building your network. That’s why I recommend Followerwonk, which allows you to search for Twitter profiles by topics and keywords. Once you have obtained the list of users that interest you, you can follow them directly from Followerwonk with a single click.

 

Create your dream client list and follow them

Thanks to social selling, your dream clients are at your fingertips. You can make a list of 10-20 companies you would love to collaborate with, find their profiles on LinkedIn and Twitter, and follow them. So you can keep up to date with all their news and interact with them.

 

LinkedIn: Activate Notifications to Follow Your Leads

To use this social selling strategy, the first thing you need to do is do a search on LinkedIn with the characteristics of your ideal client, for example, Human Resources professionals in the pharmaceutical industry. You’ll see that the results show people who are already connected to you first, which isn’t very useful. To remove them, go to “Relationships” in the left column and click “Second level”.

 

Now go to the top of the page and click on “Save Search”. Choose a name that clearly identifies what you are looking for and choose how often you want to receive notifications (weekly or monthly). Ready! Now LinkedIn will notify you every time a user of these characteristics joins the network.

 

LinkedIn: Connect with your potential customers

As you contribute to LinkedIn groups, you will see more users visiting your profile. You can take advantage of this visit to send them an invitation to connect.

 

When using LinkedIn invites, I recommend that you personalize the message as much as possible to engage the user and allow you to start a conversation.

 

Contribute to existing conversations about your brand

One of the main keys to social selling is to add value to your potential customers. And to do this, you can start with a very simple first step: listen to what they say about you and respond.

 

To do this, use the Twitter search function to find conversations related to your company and start interacting with users. You can just “like” and retweet their posts or go one step further by replying to their comments and questions.

 

Share relevant content

One more way to add value to social selling is content. More than 50% of B2B buyers search for information about products and services on social media. So whatever your sector, you can surely contribute to the conversation by sharing blog posts, videos, and other content.

 

Of course, make sure they are really relevant: unrelated or overly promotional content will achieve the opposite effect to what you are looking for.

How to start an online business from scratch

Start an online business

Since the coronavirus crisis, more and more people are planning to start an online business and thus get ahead. Some because they have lost their jobs or because they see that their companies will not be able to float, others simply because they aspire to create their own business and not always depend on someone else’s company to get income.

 

Any of these motivations can be a reason to motivate yourself.

 

But, How to start an online business without dying in the attempt?

The answer to this question is usually quite simple. That implies that it is worth it to you and that it is worth it to the user who will be your client. If one of these two premises is not met, it is best to find another business idea that is better for you.

 

If you have an idea that you think is worthwhile, in the sense that you would work on it even if you did not charge for a while and you think it adds value to the user, I will give you the steps that can work for you if they are done correctly, and so on. you can start your business online.

 

Step by step to start an online business from scratch

The fundamental part of any project to start an online business is to find a profitable business model as soon as possible.

 

If it takes a long time you run out of money, time, and enthusiasm, that is why it is important to follow a method that allows you to know as soon as possible and without spending all your resources if the idea makes sense or not.

 

The most recommended method is the Lean startup, which helps you reduce risk when launching a project, focus on a customer segment, find your early adopters, and build a profitable business model as quickly as possible.

 

Now let’s start with the steps.

 

# 1: Market analysis and competition

Market analysis is the previous point to know how saturated the market is, against whom you compete, who has something to say in this sector, influencers, strategies, business models, and financial analysis. All this information requires important work from:

 

Analyze the competition

When starting an online business, the analysis of companies, products, people who are marketing products or services that could attack the same market segment.

 

Searching for information on the Internet, analyzing social networks, seeing many advertisements and advertisements from other brands … is the way to analyze what they are doing, what type of texts, images and the value proposition they use and thus we can learn a lot before launching our own strategy. ahead.

 

Analyze business to business and product to product

Likewise, an exhaustive analysis of many brands and products must be done. Analyze the brand structure, image, among others, and all this in detail.

 

With all this information we have an important starting point of knowledge. It is also very interesting to see if there are people within the team who may be users of the product or service that you are going to offer.

 

# 2: define the market segment

Once we know how the market is and what solutions are out there, the interesting part of starting an online business arrives; define which market segment you are going to target.

 

For this, it is advisable to limit the segment as much as possible. That is, choose a segment of customers large enough so that a business can be derived but as small as possible to focus and optimize the marketing budget that we will see later.

 

# 3: Develop a value proposition to start an online business

Once we are clear about the customer segment we want to target, it is time to develop the value proposition that best fits the problem of our customers.

 

In this sense, with a defined customer segment, it is much easier to focus on the problem to be solved, to know why it is a problem for them, how they face it and how we can solve it in a better way than what is currently in the market.

 

The process for designing a value proposition is as follows:

  • Define the target customer (early adopter).
  • Analyze the objectives of that customer segment.
  • Define the actions you take to achieve those goals.
  • Write the main problems.
  • With this, we propose different solutions.
  • We analyze the benefits of those solutions.
  • Finally, we choose the value proposition that solves the most important problems and with which the target customer achieves the greatest benefits.

 

# 4: Define my launch and branding strategy

Once we have defined the target customer, the value proposition and we know the market, we would enter the part of creating the brand and making the product/service known.

Know the phases of effective marketing

Effective marketing

In today’s world, once we have a good offer, Marketing becomes the most important thing. Make no mistake, because, without effective Marketing, we will not sell.

 

Over time, the Marketing system that has worked best for many people is the one that is divided into phases. They are the stages through which, naturally, we are going to get attention and, of course, sales, which in the end is what interests us. Next, we will explain each phase of effective marketing so that you take it into account from now on.

 

Phase 1 of effective marketing

Attraction

This means getting potential clients who need me to know that I exist and to come to my door. Or in other words, to get my offer put in front of interested eyes.

 

When you do not have money, this is the most difficult part of effective marketing, since attraction is almost always done with some kind of promotion, and promoting yourself is not usually free.

 

When we don’t have money for ads, we have to do a lot of that promotion ourselves. We are going to have to knock on doors, make calls, and write emails. There is no other way and yes, it is not the most grateful task in the world. Most of the time we do it, they will say no, but that is normal.

 

Phase 2 of effective marketing

Persuasion

Once I have attracted potential clients to my door, (or they know I exist and take me into account for their decisions) I must convince them that I am the best option among all possible ones.

 

If I attract a lot of stakeholders because I am an expert at making noise, but then my product is mediocre, all that attention generated has been a wasted effort. They will not take the last important step that is the purchase.

 

So, attraction and persuasion are two equally essential columns to get a customer, which is the ultimate goal of effective Marketing. If the columns are out of balance or one of them is non-existent, the structure can be seriously affected.

 

So if I want to make it effective, I will have to improve both my ability to Attract and my ability to Persuade.Ā 

 

How can you persuade? The two most important elements are: Demonstrate and have personal persuasiveness. That is, intimately know the fundamental principles of persuasion and apply them.

 

Phase 3 of effective marketing

Tracing

This is the phase where, unknowingly, most entrepreneurs fail, which is a shame because it is the most important.

 

Here we are talking about monitoring both the customer obtained and the contact obtained, but who has not yet purchased. Many companies stop their Marketing when they close the sale. That is a “beginner’s” mistake and, worse, very costly.

 

It is also important to follow up on contacts who have not bought from us. Almost all entrepreneurs play all or nothing in selling. If they get it, great, but if not, then they don’t try anything anymore. And that is the least profitable path of effective marketing.

 

Phase 4 of effective marketing

Control and continuous improvement

This means collecting data on our Marketing actions, calculating the value of the key indicators, and seeing what is working and what is not.

 

Effective Marketing is a process of continuous improvement, where we insist on what works and modify or eliminate (if it is the case) what does not.

 

How much does it cost us to get a client? How much can we afford to invest to attract one? What media are they bringing in customers?

 

Without control of indicators, effective Marketing is like playing roulette and that is a bad business strategy because the bank always wins. And yes, this last phase may be boring and uncreative, but true entrepreneurs are those capable of carrying out these kinds of actions.

The best inbound marketing strategies

Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing strategies have become very important in the world of digital marketing. In fact, these strategies are a fundamental piece in any action that aims to attract the consumer. For this, content and experiences are offered that are not invasive.

 

Likewise, inbound marketing strategies try to make themselves visible to the consumer in a natural way. And, for this, betting on quality content is the most important thing.

 

In this way, web positioning, content, and social networks worked together are essential for inbound marketing strategies to work.Ā 

 

Do you know what are the main benefits for brands that bet on this type of inbound marketing strategies?

 

  • Attract quality leads. The fact of combining good content with different marketing techniques attracts quality leads to your website.
  • Improve branding and brand recognition.
  • Marketing automation. The ability to attract and educate the user through automated messages and interactions is an aspect to be considered by any company. Besides, personalization is one of the fundamental pieces to optimize any strategy.
  • Users are loyal. In addition to adding new customers, inbound marketing strategies facilitate the loyalty of those already captured.

 

Some of the channels that every inbound marketing strategy should consider:

 

Content marketing

Content marketing is one of the best inbound marketing strategies that rely on owned media for distribution. The owned media are the media or channels that a certain brand owns.Ā 

 

Spaces through which the brand communicates with its viewers, users, or subscribers. In other words, it is the company itself that has the power and exclusive rights over the publication. The one that sets the rules of the game.

 

However, it is important to understand that content marketing is not the same as creating a corporate blog. Taking into account the behavior, needs, and keywords related to the buyer persona your brand is targeting, it will be much easier for you to determine what type of content to create and share.

 

SEO

SEO and content marketing strategies are the perfect combo to improve web positioning in the main search engines. And for that very reason, you must learn how to write SEO optimized content.

 

Otherwise, you will not increase organic traffic to your website. And there is nothing better than achieving natural positioning. Having a quality website and optimized content ensures that Google’s tracking technology will identify and index the content on your site so that it is displayed naturally to users who are interested in it.

 

Social Media

In inbound marketing strategies, offering good content is not everything. In fact, if you add to that a fluid, interesting, and constant conversation with your audience, you will be closer to succeeding.

 

Determining which platforms are most relevant to your target audience is one of the first steps you should take. An arduous task but one that is worth it. Social networks are an ideal platform for companies and users to interact and exchange opinions. And, besides, the different social ads allow high levels of segmentation.

 

Email marketing and lead nurturing

Newsletters revolve around the provision of content to subscribers. Personalized and quality content, which encourages retention and creates a recurring flow of traffic to your website.

 

Therefore, you should not use email exclusively as a way of selling or advertising products and services. It is also important to apply it as an inbound marketing tool in which automated emails play a fundamental role.

 

Besides, you must design a lead nurturing process so that potential customers take the action you want. As you know, not all leads behave in the same way until reaching the point of conversion. So you must take into account each stage of the conversion funnel and act accordingly on each of them.

Find out what operational marketing is and what it is for

Operational marketing

To talk about operational marketing it is necessary to refer first to the area where it is developed. In general, marketing is a very broad subject, there are planning activities, formulation of objectives, planning of strategies, implementation, and execution of activities.

 

In this sense, the board of any company is responsible for determining the direction of the company, determining the objectives to be achieved, and developing the strategy to achieve them.

 

What is operational marketing?

Operational marketing can be defined as a strategy to develop activities and actions aimed at selling a product. Its ultimate goal is to bring potential consumers all the information related to the goods or services that the company offers in the market.

 

Likewise, it uses as a guide the theoretical work from strategic marketing to achieve business objectives. In other words, it is not just about metrics and numbers.

 

With the development of actions and tactical activities of operational marketing, it is possible to meet the expected KPIs. That is, to meet the performance that is aspired concerning the efficiency and productivity of the company. Know if the decisions that have been made have been effective and if the previously formulated marketing objectives have been met.

 

In this sense, operational marketing directs its activities to identify opportunities in the market, and without being long-term, review policies related to the product, such as the promotion and communication of the product and its differentiating characteristics, its distribution, or its price.

 

Due to the time pressure with which it must act, for operational marketing to be efficient and meet the objectives, it is necessary that the decisions about the KPIs and timing on which it is based, and that the strategic marketing has previously set, be spot on.

 

Main functions of operational marketing

Some of the functions that operational marketing performs are:

 

Develop commercial activities

This function is oriented to commerce, they are strategies that consider the environment in which the company operates, to be efficient and effective they must be realistic, coordinated, planned, and with a set time.

 

Manage marketing groups

This activity is responsible for coordinating the activities of the people who execute the commercial policies described above.

 

Coordinate activitiesĀ 

These are the activities that are planned and coordinated from the initial design to the distribution of the product in the market. Everything in the same integrating process is concatenated since it does not treat the actions as isolated links.

 

Manage product attributes

This function is related to the perception projected by the product, its image, and transmitted values. Likewise, other characteristics determine in a sociological and psychological way how consumers will see the goods and products offered by the company in the market.

 

Manage products

It is the function dedicated to attending to the variation in the tastes, interests, and needs of consumers, due to changes in the market. For this, they adapt the policies related to the goods and services offered by the company, in terms of their maintenance, variety, modifications, as well as the development and promotion of new products.

 

Features of operational marketing

The most outstanding operational marketing characteristics are:

 

  • It depends on the strategic decisions previously dictated by strategic marketing, so both are directly related.
  • He is partly responsible for the turnover of the company.
  • Its activity has an impact on the profitability of the business in the short term.
  • Reduces the cost of both media and resources.
  • It is aggressive, urgent, and definitely visible.
  • It is related to advertising and tools such as email marketing or mailing.

Begin Growing Your Small Business with 3 Simple Tips

In sales, one of the worst mistakes a small business owner can make is believing they only need to offer a product or service, and the work is basically done. Sure, you may be able to sell that approach to a small group of clients; but in order to reach your full potential, you must do more to grow your business. It is a prime opportunity for expanding your presence, and establishing your brand. Especially if there is no close competition.Ā 

There will always be some kind of competition in your business, whether it is direct or indirect. It is natural for competitors to step on your toes while attempting to lure in customers. This can make growing your small business challenging, which is why you must work to get ahead!

Remember, having competition is a good thing. It pushes you to innovate, improve, and grow. Competitors challenge us in the best ways, reminding us of what we hope to achieve without products and services. Without someone to challenge us, it is easy to become complacent and reactive, disallowing us to reach our full potential.Ā 

Therefore, in order to begin growing your small business and avoid getting left behind your competitors, consider the following:

Keep the vision of your small business clear

Stay up-to-date on trends by reading articles that pertain to your business niche. Follow what is happening in the economy in order to strategize more effectively. Most importantly, you must listen to your clients and their needs. Ask the what and why questions to get a clear picture of what you can do to make your business better. Your vision is dependent on their presence.

Be passionate

Your attentiveness to your work, the smile you bring to your clients, and your overall energy brings people together. They say a smile is contagious, and it is one of the simplest ways to make a client feel comfortable, well cared for, and heard. People can tell who loves their work, and that attitude can bond potential customers to your business for years to come. And of course, don’t forget to tell them “thank you” for their business!

You must be willing to innovate

Investigate new trends. You should not be afraid to take new steps to improve, as long as it is done with confidence. Seek to improve and innovate your products and services through refinement and customer feedback. You never want a customer to get away because they didn’t feel heard. And, of course, do not neglect your competition.Ā 

With these three little things in mind, you will be able to remain competitive in your business, while laying the groundwork for meaningful, lasting growth. The world changes quickly around us, so we must all be prepared to change with the times—don’t get left behind!

 

Learn how to create an effective lead magnet

Lead Magnet

As a company, one of our main goals is to increase your list of clients to get more sales. For this, the solution is to create an effective Lead Magnet, so you will get your business to take off.

 

The first thing to do is to clarify the concept. A Lead Magnet is free, quality content that is offered to users on a website in exchange for their personal data. This is composed of two essential parts: the Content, the Design.

 

The main objective of conducting a Lead Magnet is to increase the number of potential customers for your business, so the “gift” offered to users in exchange for their data must be quite irresistible, in other words, you must achieve that the most users download it. It is useless to offer a Lead Magnet if no user is interested in downloading it.

 

Likewise, you have to offer a Lead Magnet that is unique, that arouses the user’s curiosity and that they do not want to leave without having downloaded it, because the competition that uses this strategy is quite strong.

 

Likewise, this strategy can provide your business with a series of benefits such as; Capture potential customers if you offer content related to your products and services. Similarly, implementing a Lead Magnet on your website is very easy and cheap, and it is a way for your clients to find you on the internet.

 

Start creating a Lead Magnet

Below you can learn step by step how to create your Lead Magnet and make it attractive.

 

Step 1: validate the idea

The first thing to do before designing an effective Lead Magnet is to create your ideal customer so you know who you want to target. Above all, knowing in depth their problems, concerns, and needs. You will also have to analyze your competition to know what they are doing, and what is working for them.

 

But beware! This does not mean that you copy your competition, but that you try to offer something better than that.

 

Likewise, you must create a great value proposition. This means that even if it is free you have to “sell” it. And for that, you have to manage it. For this reason, you will have to communicate everything that they will achieve after the download, and it has to be something that they need and that implies a transformation for the user. Let there be a before and after your Lead Magnet.

 

A good value proposition for your Lead Magnet is one that tells how they will feel after downloading and consuming it.

 

Step 2: create the best content for your audience

How can you do this? Complying with the following:

  • That will be directed to your ideal client
  • Provide a lot of value
  • Have an attractive title that speaks of the final result
  • Well written, without errors

 

Step 3: Design like an expert

In this step, you will have to decide what will be the format in which you are going to pack your gift. It is a key element if you want to design an effective Lead Magnet.

 

Once the format is clear, you will have to design the cover. And this is very important because a poor quality cover will make your potential subscriber think that the content is not good.

 

Finally, the careful layout will enhance your corporate identity and brand. By doing this, you will be applying a good branding strategy, because you will get them to recognize your graphic footprint.

 

Step 4: Create subscription boxes

When designing an effective Lead Magnet, the subscription box plays a key role in your strategy. Its most important elements are a good title, a list of benefits, a 3D visualization of your Lead Magnet, and a call to action button.

 

Step 5: Create a page to capture emails

Even if you have a subscription box in your main banner or the footer, it is worth creating a specific page to capture subscribers. These pages are called Squeeze Page and they are very effective because the person who enters it can only subscribe to or leave the page. There is no more distraction.

 

Finally, as an extra tip, if you want to succeed when designing an effective Lead Magnet, I recommend that you have a welcome sequence prepared for each new subscriber who joins your list. Do not settle for sending the typical welcome email.

 

Your target audience has just opened a door for you (their email address) and this is clearly an opportunity to start building their trust in you.

Tips to make growing a small business

Growing a small business

Starting a business is a demanding and complex task. And, as intimidating as it sounds, it’s only the beginning of the entrepreneur’s career. Whether you have a service agency or an online store, you surely agree with us when we affirm that the real challenge is growing a small business continuously and at a reasonable speed to start seeing benefits as soon as possible.

 

One of the most difficult aspects of this challenge is understanding the target audience and their needs; This includes both existing and potential customers. In this sense, you must be prepared to adapt your products and processes at any time as new audiences are always emerging to conquer and new goals to meet. So…

 

What is the key to growing a small business?

 

Below you will be able to know the best tips to make growing a small business, ensuring that your objectives and expectations are fully met.

 

Divide your business plan into short deadlines

We recommend that instead of creating a basic or very long-term business plan, divide your work year into three or four parts and prepare a detailed business plan for each of them, which is feasible and at the same time ambitious.Ā 

 

In this way, you’ll be able to track the progress of your company to help you identify your weaknesses and strengths. Being a short plan, it will be easier for you to apply decisions accordingly, and consequently, you will grow your small business quickly.

 

Focus on engaging with your customers

The relationship with the customer does not have to end with the sale. In fact, within marketing, the opposite is suggested. The ideal is to befriend him and build a relationship that lasts over time and makes him a promoter of the brand capable of attracting new buyers.

 

To build these relationships in support of growing a small business, several strategies range from exceptional customer service to social media engagement.

 

Therefore, you should advise yourself on this and start working on it. You will see how the business grows because a happy customer always returns, and in the best of scenarios, they will suggest to others that they buy from your business.

 

Internet presence

There are countless free tools on the Internet today that allow a business to easily promote its products.

 

On the Internet you can find new clients for your business in different ways, so don’t wait and create a Fan Page on Facebook, a profile on Twitter, a blog, etc., and start growing a small business.

 

Stay updated

Although it may not seem like it, one of the strategies to growing a small business is to keep up to date on all trends, whether in news or innovations in your niche.

 

It is also advisable to participate in events related to your business area, forums, specialized blogs, and others that will keep you abreast of the most important events in the sector.

 

All this creates the possibility of innovating and taking advantage of the competition. With these strategies to grow the company, you will be able to carry out your business at a higher level of income and profits.

 

Be innovative

As your business grows, you will realize that you must make the changes that your company requires to adapt.

 

More clients mean more employees and more infrastructure, you must be aware of this and not be afraid to make the changes that your business requires, remember that to obtain different results you must do different things, you cannot expect your business to be bigger keeping things as they are. as they are now.

Storytelling, why is it important for digital content?

Storytelling

The most important thing about Storytelling in digital content is that for consumers rather than purchasing a product, it is currently very relevant that brands create a connection, or in other words, where they tell a story that represents the values, perspective, and image and thus get closer to your customers awakening feelings that identify them.

 

What is storytelling?

Essentially, it is about telling stories, where they show something about the brand, and that in turn captivates or identifies consumers with it. These narratives need to be seen or feel credible, persuasive, informative, inspiring, and timely, but mostly be authentic to get them to empathize naturally.

 

When you start to make your storytelling, it is advisable to create an imaginary person with a first and last name that will be the one who will face all your consumers. Since the public, every day becomes more demanding waiting for stories in a context that allows them to have an immersion.

 

Imagine what you want to convey concretely, draw a course of action that allows you to create a story that makes a connection in a comical, aggressive, or sensitive way depending on the industry of your brand.

 

All brands must develop storytelling in digital content, the greatest challenge arises in the narrative elements, they have to be coherent, and that the public perceives what you want to propose. It is about telling the truth of the brand, exposing points of view to inspire your customers, this will make you top of mind of your customers concerning your competition.

 

Connect with your consumers

Storytelling in digital content focuses on connecting with consumers. This has become content marketing, a unique element to achieve customer loyalty because a good story can attract a customer to your brand and build loyalty with it.

 

By telling good stories, you can get your customers to become ambassadors for your brand. Be concerned about showing the values ​​of your company in each story you tell, carry out a research process, you should ask yourself simple questions: how would I better connect with my clients? What content do they want to see? On what platforms do they want to see these stories? This will create a mind map and a route to follow.

 

Google as an example of the importance of storytelling

In the words of Nathalie Picquot, Head of Branding at Google, “technology is nothing without the story behind it.” The multinational Google has been a pioneer in creating impressive storytelling and in the same simple way.

 

An example in the Google Search India campaign showing how to use all the tools the company offers entirely and subtly tells a tremendous story. It fantastically touches him and brings out the purest feelings by uniting old age with memories of childhood and the importance of friendship and family.

 

The new video platforms used by Google can give you a great advantage too, regardless of whether you are a large or small company. This example perfectly shows that just building good, meaningful, and creative stories are enough to get your brand name known globally.

 

YouTube, the ideal platform for storytelling

The YouTube video playback platform is not only for leisure or entertainment, but it has also become a strategic tool for advertising campaigns. Where you can reach large audiences and views for cheaper costs than traditional media.

 

On this platform, they can carry out A / B tests to see what their audience likes best and then launch the appropriate and elaborate message in traditional media. Well-structured storytelling can envelop the viewer, captivating him and leaving him wanting to see the story several times or recommend it to his acquaintances.

 

Lead Generation: What it is and how to get more

Lead generation

Lead generation is based on expanding a brand’s database with the contacts of people or companies potentially interested in its products and services. Thus, we call each of these contacts a “lead”, that is, a person or company that has shown interest in the offer of a brand and has shown such interest by leaving their data.

 

Besides, lead generation is a key step in the inbound marketing process, since it allows us to convert the traffic to our channels into valuable contacts for the brand, which we can then direct along the conversion funnel until we achieve them in clients.

 

Having leads is one of the first steps (after attracting web traffic) to be able to launch a digital marketing or inbound marketing campaign and get these contacts to become clients of the company or its prescribers or ambassadors.

 

Leads allow the execution of more advanced actions such as lead scoring, which serves to classify leads and detect those most prepared for the purchase and lead nurturing, an action consisting of sending personalized email chains to accompany a user during the cycle of buying a product or service.

 

How to implement lead generation?

To achieve lead generation we need users to visit our website or blog or have some kind of interaction with the brand, for example, that they leave us their email when visiting an interactive video or a Facebook Ads ad. In this way, your email will be saved in the company’s database and will become a new record on which to launch digital marketing actions.

 

To generate leads, various actions can be implemented in the different digital channels of the company and even use the offline channel.

 

Main lead generation methods

Downloadable content

Within an inbound marketing strategy, one of the main channels for obtaining leads is through downloadable content: ebooks, guides, templates, checklists, comparisons, etc. linked to the contents of a blog.

 

The strategy to capture leads through this channel is as follows:

 

  • In the first place, a user enters our blog (which has previously positioned itself in search engines using the appropriate organic positioning techniques) attracted by content that matches their interests and/or needs.

 

  • Once on our blog, the user is invited to leave their data to download or access higher-quality free content: ebooks, infographics, webinars, etc.

 

It is complementary content to the articles or posts that you can find on the blog, of a more advanced and higher quality level. When the user leaves their data, they become a lead in the company’s database.

 

Subscription to content by email

A newsletter is a way of generating leads since it is distributed by email, almost always inserted in the same body, and with the following basic characteristics: Variable periodicity: weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.

 

They usually collect different articles from a company, brand, or sector. You can also include a selection of the best blog articles. The predominant content types are informational.

 

Contests on the website or social networks

Online contests and raffles are also a good lead generation system, also serving to better understand your target, prepare them for the purchase, and retain them.

 

Other advantages of this type of strategy are:

  • Giveaways and contests are very easy to implement both on websites and blogs and social networks
  • They offer a very close customer experience
  • They serve both to attract the user for the first time and to generate leads

 

Videos

Another common way to generate leads is through videos on platforms such as YouTube or on the website or blog itself. As with newsletters, videos can be used as quality or premium content, which the user can access by subscription and thus get a lead directly.

 

A second method of capturing leads is by embedding a link to a landing page in the video itself that leads to a form where the user leaves us their data in exchange for other content or commercial offers.

 

Campaigns on Facebook Ads

Facebook has an advertising platform, Facebook Ads, which is very interesting for its ease of use and effectiveness in making our campaigns profitable, largely due to its great possibilities for targeting our audience.

 

We can place our ads both in the news section and on the right side of the screen, targeting exclusively the type of audience that interests us the most.