From Side-Gig to Success: Exploring the ‘Why’ Behind Starting Your Own Business

Starting your own business can be an enticing prospect for many individuals. The allure of independence, the freedom to pursue personal passions, and the ever-elusive work-life balance are just a few reasons people choose this path. 

Interestingly, some of the most successful businesses today, like Etsy, Facebook, Apple, Under Armour, and Yankee Candle, have humble beginnings as mere side gigs. Those small projects were initially meant to generate extra income while working regular nine-to-five jobs. However, fate had other plans, and these side ventures evolved into thriving enterprises that have left a significant impact on the world.

When it comes to starting a business, various motivations come into play, and these motivations can vary from one entrepreneur to another. Let’s delve into some of the driving forces that inspire individuals to take the leap into the entrepreneurial journey.

1. Passion and Purpose

One of the biggest motivators for starting a business is the burning passion for a particular idea, product, or service. When you’re genuinely passionate about something, it ceases to feel like “work” and becomes an exciting endeavour. Entrepreneurs who identify a purposeful mission behind their business are often driven by a desire to make a positive impact on society, leaving behind a meaningful legacy.

2. Independence and Autonomy

Breaking free from the confines of a traditional job and being the master of your destiny is liberating. Entrepreneurship offers a level of independence and autonomy that is rare in most corporate settings. Making decisions without seeking approval from higher-ups allows entrepreneurs to shape their businesses according to their vision and values.

3. Financial Freedom

The prospect of unlimited earning potential is undoubtedly an attractive aspect of starting a business. While financial success is not guaranteed, the possibility of building a profitable enterprise that generates substantial income can be a significant motivating factor. Entrepreneurship offers the potential for long-term wealth and financial security, which may be challenging to achieve through traditional employment.

4. Flexibility and Work-Life Balance

Entrepreneurs often seek a better work-life balance by starting their own businesses. Although running a startup can be demanding, entrepreneurs have the flexibility to set their own schedules and allocate time for family, hobbies, and personal pursuits. Achieving a healthy work-life balance is a crucial factor in reducing stress and ensuring overall well-being.

5. Innovating and Problem-Solving

Entrepreneurs are often driven by a desire to create something new, disrupt industries, or solve significant challenges facing society. The thrill of innovation and problem-solving can be a powerful motivator, especially for those who relish the opportunity to think outside the box and create solutions that positively impact people’s lives.

6. Personal Growth and Learning

Starting a business is an incredible journey of personal growth and continuous learning. Entrepreneurship presents numerous challenges and opportunities to develop new skills, enhance existing ones, and expand one’s horizons. The process of building and running a business can be transformative, shaping entrepreneurs into more resilient, adaptable, and self-aware individuals.

In conclusion, the decision to start a business is deeply personal, influenced by a myriad of motivations that resonate with each entrepreneur’s unique aspirations and goals. 

What motivated you to embark on the entrepreneurial journey?

33 Blogging Tips For Beginners

Although we know the value of regular, fresh, informative content, the mere idea of blogging can be intimidating for a lot of people.  

If writing blogs constantly falls to the bottom of your to-do list, then we’re here to help. Our top 33 tips will help you form your ideas, keep your mind focused on the task and produce brilliant, captivating content that will help boost your SEO, build traffic to your site and establish brand awareness. 

Let’s dive in…

  1. Begin with an outline

If you find yourself staring at a blank page when you sit down to write a blog, you’re making your life harder than it needs to be. Start by creating a framework rather than launching straight into writing. This outline will be your guide to writing your blog and will make the whole process much easier as you tackle each part section by section

  1.  Answer questions

Your reader will have questions, so set out by answering them. Why are you reading this blog? Probably because you are starting out blogging, and we promised to share our top tips! Provide a solution to a problem, and you’re off to a great start.

  1. Aim for 1500 words

This may be daunting, but studies show that longer posts attract more links, likes and shares. Ensure you are hitting a minimum of 500 words, but aim for higher, and then watch the likes roll in.

  1. Keep the format friendly

Bullet points and numbered lists will make your blog easy to skim through and more accessible for the reader. Big blocks of endless text are far less appealing to read.

  1. Make it evergreen

An evergreen blog post maintains its relevance over several years. Although responsive up to the minute blog posts can be incredibly effective, if you are stretched for time, an evergreen blog will give much more bang for its buck. These consist of issues that people consistently need help with (like this one), so think about how-to blogs and top-tip lists.

  1. Tell a story

Storytelling can be incorporated into every element of your branding, especially your blog. Keep the reader captivated by learning from the world’s greatest storytellers.

  1. Write to one reader

Imagine you are addressing your blog to one specific reader. This is a helpful exercise when you are faced with writer’s block or feel uninspired. What does that one person need help with? How can you share your knowledge with them? Write to an individual, and you’ll find your writing will flow better, and you’ll secure a more in-depth relationship with your audience. 

  1. Don’t shy away from passion

You may be writing about a business, but that doesn’t mean your writing should be cold and stale. Show your passion for your work through the informal context of a blog; people respond well to emotion and genuine passion.

  1. Get your blog down, and then go back to edit

Jumping back and forth between writing and editing can make the process of writing a blog slow and frustrating. Try getting everything down first, and then go back to edit your work. 

  1. Don’t focus on yourself

This is a common slip up in blog writing – don’t make it all about you. You are trying to connect to a reader, so try to understand what makes them tick and keep your focus on your audience, not yourself. 

  1. Set a timer

If blog writing is falling to the bottom of your to-do list constantly, it may be because it is a time-consuming experience. It doesn’t need to be. Use a kitchen timer or unplug your laptop to create a sense of urgency. Having the pressure of a deadline works really well for a lot of writers. 

  1. Be humble and honest

Ok, so you are writing a blog because you have knowledge to share, that’s great! But remember, no one likes a know-it-all. You’re not writing for your English professor, so don’t feel the need to show off your extensive knowledge; share what you know, but keep it human and genuine.

  1. Write for your audience, not for Google

It’s incredibly tempting to focus on keywords, titles and headings when you’re writing a blog in the hopes that Google will rank you for a specific keyword. This is not invaluable work to do. However, it’s not where you should start. Focus on your audience. Introduce keywords as you see fit, only once you have delivered a piece of content that works for you and your readers.

  1. Understand your niche

Once you get in the swing of writing, you might be tempted to tell the world about your enthusiasm for other topics – please try and resist! Your audience is with you because they care about your niche, so this must always sit at the heart of what you write about.

  1. Make commenting easy

It’s important to encourage comments, making it as easy as possible for readers to engage in the topic you are discussing. Requiring users to sign in, complete two-step authentication or pick out all the crosswalks they can see is just going to interfere with that process!

  1. Give your blogs punchy titles

Your title is your shop front, so ensure you draw readers in with exciting, intriguing titles. 

  1. Maintain a regular schedule

Sporadic posting is one of the biggest issues with blog posting; if it’s not consistent, it’s not going to get the attention it deserves. Try and carve out time every week to create new blog content, ideally aim to write two a week for the best results. If you’re going on holiday, take advantage of scheduling tools to ensure your posting regime doesn’t slip.

  1. Know your audience

A crucial rule when writing – you need to know who you’re writing for. Is this content for prospective customers or long-term clients? Are they male, female, in the C-suite or working in junior roles? The more specific you can make the persona, the better.

  1. Use spell check

Before you hit publish, ensure you have checked your spelling and proofread your blog. Bad spelling will not only dent your credibility but will also damage your SEO. Double-check everything before going live.

  1. Let your readers help you form ideas

You need to write what you know, but it’s well worth trying to understand exactly what within your niche people are going to want to read. 51% of website traffic comes from organic search, so you need to be writing about things people are searching for your blog to perform well. You can use keyword research tools to help here.

  1. Set goals

Your blog is part of your business, so it’s important to set goals and KPIs, as you would with any other business endeavour. Setting goals will help you monitor your progress, which will also help you to understand what works and what doesn’t. Goals could be page views, comments, subscribers or any other metric that reflects your ambitions. 

  1. Use a blog topic generator tool

If you are struggling to consistently come up with topic ideas, take a look at HubSpot’s blog topic generator. It’s an interesting way to get ideas based on a few keywords that you type in.

  1. Use an editorial calendar

Once you have a solid list of topic ideas, use a calendar to keep on top of your content. With two or more blogs going out each week it’s easy to get bogged down; even a simple excel spreadsheet can help. Include your publish date, keyword, topic, title, link to the working document and a column for every avenue you promote it on.

  1. Write blogs focused on case studies

People love learning from real life experiences, so consider writing about case studies that evidence your product or service working with real customers. It’s the best kind of social proof.

  1. Fact check

When you publish any content, your reputation is at stake. Go through your whole post and check it for accuracy before hitting publish. 

  1. Post your blog on Monday or Thursday mornings

Peak times do vary by industry, and you will have the best insight into your target audience’s behaviour over time by looking at your website’s traffic signals with analytics; however, Monday and Thursday are proven to be the best days to get the most traction. 

  1. Send your blog post to people that are mentioned

Referencing an influential figure in your industry? Be sure to share your blog with them. They might share it to their circles, expanding your reach exponentially. 

  1. Pay attention to your foundation

Your first few months of blogging are an important time. Dedicate time to honing the basic skills of writing, SEO, and social media marketing, then these skills will work as a foundation for your success when you grow.

  1. It’s not writer’s block, it’s writers procrastination

Don’t use excuses.Take responsibility for your inability to get the blog written and use the techniques we advise to get your focus back and get the job done!

  1. Test your blog in different browsers

Ensure your blog looks great in every browser, and that it is optimised for mobile reading. 

  1. Always reply to comments

If your readers are invested enough in your blog to comment, it’s important that you take the time to reply. It will promote a thriving blog community and will keep your readers coming back to comment again. 

  1. Use data to reinforce your points

Good writing offers the main argument, establishes proof and then ends with a clear takeaway for your audience. Use data to introduce your main argument and show its relevance to your readers or as proof of your argument throughout.

  1. Have fun!

Finally, it’s worth remembering that a good attitude will make you a better writer. It will make the process more enjoyable and make your blogs more engaging to read. A positive attitude will turn blogging from a dreaded task to an enjoyable and creative part of your day-to-day. Good luck and happy writing!

4 Ways to Follow Your Audience, Not Marketing Trends

The key to any successful marketing strategy, nay, any successful business, is a clear understanding of your target audience.

We know this isn’t news to anyone, but we think it’s worth remembering when you’re trying to get more leads, customers and referrals in a fast-paced, trend-driven environment.

Don’t get us wrong. Following marketing, trends can get your company’s name out there and position you as a progressive organisation. However, unless you conscientiously integrate these trends into an established and well-researched marketing strategy, it’s unlikely they will lead to significant growth.

Although new popular platforms, ideas and techniques may attract attention and raise short-term revenue, ultimately, following a trend means following someone else’s lead. Doing this can cause you to stray from your own brand identity and values, and move you further away from your own customers needs.

Remember, customers can see right through phonies, so jumping onto TikTok because it’s ‘what everyone else is doing and not because you have a genuine potential to develop leads on the platform could make your company look foolish and out of touch. It could also dent your reputation and cause customers to lose trust in your organisation.

While recent years have brought marketers a load of new and innovative ways to reach out to and connect with their customers, there is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach to marketing, and whilst it’s easy to be susceptible to new trends – not least because they appear a dime a dozen in the marketing world – we urge you to begin with your audience, not the trends. Once you know what they need, you’ll have a clearer perspective on which of those novel fads (if any!) could actually play a relevant role in your efforts to boost conversions and improve customer loyalty.

In this blog, we’ll take things back to the essentials of brilliant marketing, dismissing the fads for a deep-dive look at 4 techniques for effectively listening to and learning from your audience, proving that you should be led by your audience, not overhyped marketing trends.

Do a Deep Dive on Your Analytics

When setting out to gain a greater understanding of your audience, begin by reviewing the current data you have. This includes all analyses your company has conducted about your customers since you’ve been in business, such as focus groups and figures you can gather from your marketing outputs, including website traffic, social media data, email open rates and click-throughs. Use this invaluable data to pinpoint where your customers are engaging the most and to inform the rest of your marketing activities.

This gives you a starting point to work from when learning about your audience on a deeper level — you already have some understanding of the real pain points and challenges they experience and what they need from your product or service.

From there, consider the other types of audience-related information you’re missing and need to obtain.

Ask Your Audience

Surveys are an effective way to listen to both current customers and a prospective audience; it’s the most direct way to understand their needs, as it comes directly from the source. Surveys allow you to continually improve and amend your services in line with your customers’ expectations, increasing retention rates.

Try Social Listening

To really get to know your audience and find out what they are saying about your industry and your brand online, try social listening. It gives you a useful context to see where your brand lies amongst competitors and will go a long way to inform your marketing strategy.

Social listening is not about looking at numbers of followers or likes but about how audiences react to your content and brand and reading their mood. Whether it’s positive or negative, knowing when and how your audience reacts to your brand online is crucial to truly understand your customers.

Create Buyer Personas

Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers based on data and research. They can help you focus your time on qualified prospects and guide product development to suit the needs of your target customers.

When done well, buyer personas can be really helpful. They can make it easier for you to tailor your content, messaging, and services to meet the specific needs of your target audience.

You can build your buyer personas through research, surveys and interviews. They usually consist of information about a prospects age, job, salary and education – now this information can prove useful. However, the best buyer personas include more detail about what actually matters.

What are the tasks they struggle with day to day?

Where are their frustrations?

What work do they love doing?

The answers to these questions are a lot more helpful to marketers, so try to build them into your buyer personas.

As copywriter Gary Bencivenga said: “Emotions are the fire of human motivation, the combustible force that secretly drives most decisions to buy. When your marketing harnesses those forces correctly, you will generate explosive increases in response.”

Listen to Your Audience, Not Trends

Getting to know your audience isn’t always a simple process, but it’s a crucial one. Conducting this work and doing it often will ensure you know what resonates with your audience to create the content and products, and services that your buyer personas and target customers want to buy.

Having a strong understanding of your potential customers will help you convert them into long-term, paying customers. So, start working through these steps to getting to know your audience better and begin building a customer-led strategy rather than letting trends direct your decision making.

B2B marketing on a budget – 6 strategies to maximise your resources

So, you are a small business that is just ticking along but you know that your product is great, why do your customers not see this too? A few more sales could really make a difference, but you don’t have a big marketing budget to set the industry alight.
Here are a few simple tips of how you can ensure more sales at minimal or no cost to you.

1. New customers

Creating new leads is the number 1 on businesses’ wish lists, but how do you do that without resorting to cold calling? First – don’t cold call, I am sure there is a well-oiled script that everybody in your company reels off every time they receive a spam caller. Make sure you are visible online, convenient and quick to use, and easy to understand. Make sure your potential customers can find you online on those platforms they use. This presents you with a free way to advertise yourself, so make the most of it. Fill in your bio on all the big-player-sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram. Link back to your website. Use relevant hashtags and keywords.
Engage with customers in your industry by liking, commenting, retweeting and sharing their content.

2. Improve customer experience

62% of customers will spend more on a simple buying experience. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly, fast, easy to navigate and tells your customers clearly what you do. Have your contact details easily accessible and only put things on there that are interesting or important to your new and existing clients.

3. Remind your previous customers of your existence

A sale should not be where the relationship with your customer ends. There could be a million reasons why they have not come back – so send them an email or a letter. Offer a discount or a freebie next time they buy. Give rewards for referring your business to their network. If a customer returns and has a hassle-free experience, they halfway to becoming a loyal customer. The minimum follow-up should be to ask for feedback, this gives you data for testimonials.

4. Only useful, important, entertaining or exciting content

What are the kinds of questions you are answering all the time? For every time you have explained something in person, there are at least 100 people trawling the internet for answers.
You could:

  • Do a video tutorial or introduce a new product
  • Write a How-to guide
  • Write content in ‘list format’ such as this one. No more than 10 – nobody is interested in a ‘Top 40’ and it is wasted content
  • Use infographics that are informative/important to your audience
  • You can use these across your email marketing, social media pages, and your website
  • You can recycle some of the best performing post a few months later
  • Share relevant 3rd party content
  • Include customer testimonials in your online presence
  • You could even turn these into a slide show video (30 secs max.) – videos rank highly on engagement
  • MOST IMPORTANTLY – be active online and give your customers stuff they want to read or watch, or stuff they didn’t know was important to them
5. Create a loyalty/reward system
  • customers collect points to get free stuff
  • or you give them exclusive promotions or discounts if they come back within 30 days or spend over £££
  • Offer rewards for referring up to 3 new customers
6. Prove of how good you are – Industry awards
  • Most industries have awards that set the standard
  • Gives clients confidence in your business and is proof of your credibility and expertise
7. It’s party time!

Well, depends on your line of business or industry I guess. The term ‘event’ is probably more appropriate. This could be:

  • Online – offering a day or week of bonuses, discounts, deals and competitions
  • A real-life event to tempt new and existing customers to visit you
  • Opportunity to answer questions or introduce a new product or range
  • Create an inviting atmosphere, a buzz – drinks and nibbles, maybe a DJ if your budget allows
  • free samples – or any free stuff
  • A competition, giveaway or a raffle – basically free stuff

This allows for interesting content in the build-up. Use good-quality pictures on social media announcements or flyers and distribute across all your online platforms. Competitions make for online engagement. And finally, why not print some flyers and hand them out? It’s simple and cost-effective. These tips will help you to find new leads, strengthen existing ones and hopefully get people talking about your business.

This Can Happen

This Can Happen

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Partnering with Colour Me Social has played a big part in amplifying our content and communicating our brand message to a broader audience. They are very flexible and swift to implement anything we ask of them. I would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for a reliable and flexible marketing partner.
Caroline Carr
Marketing Director

Client Description

This Can Happen is an innovative and solutions-led conference for companies who recognise that staff need support to deal with mental health issues affecting them, their colleagues or their families.

This Can Happen was founded by Zoe Sinclair and Jonny Benjamin MBE, inspiring mental health advocates who have taken the next step to convert awareness into action and make prevention a top priority for businesses across the UK.

Client Profile
Location
United Kingdom
Website
www.thiscanhappenglobal.com
Industry
Mental Health Care
Service
Mental Health Services
Headcount
11-50 employees

The Challenge

This Can Happen needed social media support for live streaming events planned for 2020. Since the landscape changed because of the Covid 19 outbreak we supported the new normal by offering a full social media coverage for the events.

  • This Can Happen – Empowering Workplace Mental Health Conference
  • This Can Happen Awards in association Allen & Overy

Services Offered

  • Content Research and Strategy
  • Social Media Management
  • Engagement Growth
  • Audience Growth

Our Approach

Colour Me Social worked closely with This Can Happen to support the team for the big online events that happened in 2020.

Colour Me Social designed and prepared the content strategy for the events by working on the visuals, hashtag strategy, audience growth and engagement improvement actions.

Interested in finding out more? Let's talk...

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Risk Business

RiskBusiness

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Colour Me Social has partnered with us for several years and support our digital marketing strategies. They are a great partner to have on board as they are both pro-active and flexible. Really impressed.
Mike Finlay
Chief Executive

Client Description

RiskBusiness is a global provider of governance, risk, audit, compliance and intelligence (GRAC) solutions to the financial services industry, with more than 220 clients internationally.

Client Profile
Location
United Kingdom
Website
www.riskbusiness.com
Industry
Financial Services
Service
Risk Management and Governance Services
Headcount
11-50 employees

The Challenge

RiskBusiness needed help with engagement, audience and LinkedIn growth. Increasing the exposure of the freshly produced monthly reports through prospecting was the main focus since RiskBusiness partnered with Colour Me Social.

Services Offered

  • Content Research and Strategy
  • Social Media Management
  • Engagement Growth
  • Audience Growth

Our Approach

Colour Me Social developed a yearly social media plan that included content curation and creation, audience growth and prospecting via LinkedIn.

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Core Talent Recruitment

Core Talent Recruitment

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Colour Me Social has worked with us for several years now and has helped us to manage and develop our social media presence, especially on Twitter and LinkedIn. They have significantly grown our audience reach and curate and share some very relevant and interesting content to keep our social channels vibrant and active. They are very responsive, and we enjoy a strong working relationship.
Kathy Koomson
Head of Brand and Marketing

Client Description

Core Talent are specialist UK wide recruitment consultancy with drive, transparency and sector expertise. They deliver an honest, expert service – while using market knowledge to add real value to the recruitment process.

Core Talent supports specific sectors and industries to include: Executive Search, Consultancy services,  Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction

Client Profile
Location
United Kingdom
Website
www.coretalent.co.uk
Industry
Staffing & Recruiting
Service
Recruitment Consultancy Services
Headcount
11-50 employees

The Challenge

Core Talent needed a hands-free social media management solution and a content strategy that supports their business style.

Services Offered

  • Content Research and Strategy
  • Social Media Management
  • Engagement Growth
  • Audience Growth

Our Approach

Colour Me Social worked on improving engagement, audience growth and quality of the content by producing a social media management strategy and a competitor analysis.

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The future of B2B marketing

We all know that cold-calling is very much a thing of the past and this will affect the status of B2B marketing. We all hate to be cold-called and are most likely going to ignore anybody who tries to do it. Most of all, it does not inspire trust and confidence in a company. Nowadays two thirds of a buying decision are achieved through online research.

According to recent research quoted by LinkedIn about 75% of B2B buyers use social media as part of their buying decision. 50% use LinkedIn as a source for gathering information on who to buy from, whilst 76% of them prefer to follow recommendations from within their professional network.

LinkedIn Prospecting

Selling your business and services to prospective customers has never been so easy as it is now with LinkedIn. At the click of a button people can look at a list of businesses that provide what it is they need. Therefore, you have to make sure that your LinkedIn profile is up to scratch and gives customers the first impression you want them to have of you.
Make sure that your profile is always up to date and links up with your website, Twitter, Facebook and contact pages.

Due to our constant information overload and fear of data breaches by social media companies, consumers want to find straightforward advice and solutions to their queries. So, while businesses might find you on LinkedIn and do their research on you, it is far more important that your website is search engine optimised and provides customers with clear information that is relevant to them.

The simplest way to get more B2B connections inside your industry is by being active online. Join LinkedIn groups for joint interests and discussions. This is an area where you can engage with likeminded people within the relevant industry, answer questions and establish relationships. This is not hard selling, it is speaking about your specialist topic and gaining others’ trust in your abilities.

Widen your prospecting scope

When you trawl through the profiles of users you interact with, you can widen your network even more by engaging with their secondary contacts. The more connections and interactions you have online, the more engagement you will receive back.

This exposure will gain trust in your brand and make customers more familiar with you. Any of the connections you have made through groups or by adding your bit to a discussion will mean that these contacts will also come and look at your profile.

If you have pictures, positive feedback or any upcoming events, let them know. In the same way that you might look at a profile and try and figure out who leads the sales team or what services are available, put yourself into a potential customer’s shoes and think about what it is that you would want to find on your profile.

What are the most commonly asked questions you get asked and can visitors find the answers easily on your website? Transparency and ease of use are the buzzwords when it comes to customer experience nowadays.

Put your name on the Pulse

If you have something to say about a topic, why not write a short article and publish it via LinkedIn Pulse? All your connections will receive a notification and in no time,  you will establish yourself as a professional persona that is seen to be trustworthy, in-the-know and proactive. This will increase your authority and your posts can easily be shared by users for even wider reach.

None of these tactics feels like the pushy sales scripts of yore that make people shut off immediately. You are not required to say, ‘You should buy X because we believe that we are the best in this industry, with 20 years of experience’.

This is much subtler than that. You answer genuine questions with genuine knowledge, have conversations about topics that are relevant to you and your clients and build relationships based on trust, hopefully turning strangers into customers and then loyal customers who will be the backbone of your business for years to come.

Now you can proactively grow your LinkedIn company page

Good news. Now you can proactively grow your LinkedIn company page.

If you have been struggling to grow your LinkedIn company page followers, there is some good news in the form of a new LinkedIn feature.

Organic growth of your LinkedIn company page can be incredibly tough to achieve. It’s possible, of course, especially if you have a good number of employees that actively share your company page updates to their personal profiles. Or you have loads of great content, including videos, events, fun office happenings or a cute company dog. Also, If you are a big business that people want to work for or with, you will have lots of followers too. But, for most small companies, reach, and engagement generally comes from personal profiles.

You could try to grow your followers with paid ads. However, that might not be ideal as the cost per follow is high, and you might not be in a position to invest financially in paid social media ads.

What LinkedIn has rolled out recently might be the answer you have been looking for. Similar to Facebook, they have introduced a new functionality that allows you to Invite your connections to follow your page.

To do this, you will need to be an admin of the company page. However, LinkedIn allows multiple admins, so it’s possible to increase reach by including as many admins as you can in this activity.

We have been witnessing a lot of positive changes on LinkedIn in the last couple of months. It’s good to see that the social media network with the strictest privacy policy is finally giving us tools that can help us grow and improve the social media presence of our companies.

Social media and lead generation in 2019 – how to get quality leads with minimum fuss

Generating more leads and better-quality leads are the top priority for businesses. More leads mean more sales. We are all familiar with landing pages and forms – however, this is not the best way to engage customers in 2019 anymore. They prefer something that is more engaging and personal, and businesses prefer high-quality leads over just quantity. Here are some tips on how to draw in your potential customers and help turn those leads into sales. What types of content work and how can you use social media ads to optimise impact?
Before you start thinking about the type of content that will generate leads for you, think about which social media platforms will serve you best. Who is your ideal customer? Are you more likely to find them browsing through their Instagram feed, or searching the latest industry trends on LinkedIn? Once you have identified where your money is best spent, you can consider the type of content you want to share to pull in customers.

Types of content that work for social media

Gated content is one way to ensure that your leads are high quality, this type is especially successful for B2B marketing. The important thing here is that the content you share must be ‘valuable’ to your customers. The only way for somebody to access your content is to fill in a form and give you their details. Only then can they access your latest white paper, webinar, case study or blog post.
Alternatively, you could create content that allows your potential customers to register their intent in other ways, for example by entering a contest. You draw them in by offering a prize that will only speak to people who are interested in your product.

This could be an extended trial period or an upgrade, or any other special deal for your product. It may even be a sample give-away or a sign-up for an event that you have planned. You can see that this will generate high-quality leads because customers are openly showing interest in your company’s product and are willing to give you their invaluable details.

Social media lead ads

Social media lead ads are another way to help you turn interest into leads. When you pay for adverts on social media, you are already paying to target specific audiences for your product. With lead ads, the focus is on making it easier to capture your potential customers’ data. The ad content could be a contest, as mentioned above or a newsletter subscription. Alternatively, you might create a quiz or a poll for your customers to engage with. In that case, the ‘pay-off’ for the customer would be access to their personalized results.

The advantage of lead ads is that the user will not be forwarded to a landing page with a form, but can stay on the same website (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) and the form is already pre-populated by the social media platform. This means that the user only has to agree to send the details through, and then they can carry on scrolling through their feed.

Geotargeted advertising

And finally, you should consider geo-targeted advertising to generate relevant leads for your business. Targeting potential leads based on their location allows you to focus more precisely on those leads that are most relevant to you. For B2B marketing you could, for example, ringfence those target users that are visiting a certain industry event, which results in focus on an audience that is more likely to be interested in your content and engage with it. And hey presto, you will generate high-quality leads.

As you can see, leads in 2019 still mainly consist of forms being filled in – however, the classic landing page form is slowly on the way out. People are still happy to fill in forms and give away their details, but as marketers, we have to find ways to make it ‘worth it’ and create minimal disruption to the customer experience on social media. The more engaging and interactive your content, the more quality leads you will snap up.