Want More Leads? Get Social.

Branding and promoting businesses and engaging with potential customers via social media has become a critical marketing component across industries. And it can be an incredibly successful part of your lead generation efforts. Did you know the average American spends just over two hours on social media every day? It makes sense that 90% of brands use social media to increase their brand awareness.

If you’re not among this majority of businesses using social media, you’re missing out. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide a great way to inform your community and engage directly with potential customers.

Start by making sure your profile is a strong one. Review every element that is available to you in your profile and add as much information as you can. Make sure the details you enter are focused on your customers and highlight how you can help solve their problems and improve their lives. Make it easy to find your website, contact information and service area.

Once this is ready, you can begin focusing on creating informative content that will be interesting – and shareable – to your followers. Brainstorm to create a list of issues that are commonly seen in your area and among your customers. Think of different aspects of these issues, such as prevention, treatment, and explanation and then begin crafting content that addresses each of these. Some of your posts can be interesting tidbits, helpful tips, signs of a problem, links to helpful news articles, or even interesting things you’ve encountered in your work. Don’t forget to link to your blog and to relevant pages of your company website.

Pay attention and learn what resonates with your audience and then do more of that. Use lots of images and even short videos. The analytics tools built into these platforms can give you a well-informed picture of your users’ activity and level of interest.

Social media management platforms such as HootSuite and Buffer allow you to schedule posts in advance, monitor your visitor activities, and even monitor specific hashtags and keywords. These tools will let you spend less time poring over your accounts while maintaining close contact and interaction with your audience.

Once you have your content game down, you can begin advertising on your social media platforms by boosting posts and creating ads to be shown to highly targeted audiences. When you create these, take the time to thoughtfully target your ideal audience (age, interests, homeownership status, etc.) and even target the fans of some of your competitors. Don't be afraid of putting money into your social media efforts – the platforms allow you to continually tweak your ads and adjust spending and targeting to reflect what you’re seeing and what makes sense for your PCO.

When your content is promoted, you improve the quantity and quality of the leads you generate.

Finally, it’s important to acknowledge everyone who engages with you via social media. Respond to them. Thank them. Ask them how you can help them. If you’re able, personalize your interactions with them by using their names and referencing things they’ve mentioned. Creating a human-to-human connection is one of the great benefits of social media, and it can transform an initial lukewarm contact into a converted lead in record time.

Remember, social media marketing success isn’t instant. It can take weeks or months to begin seeing solid results, but your efforts will pay off in more leads, more customers, and faster growth for your pest control company.