Short-term thinking is holding back social media lead generation

Social media is great for B2B lead generation, but only if you approach it with care and plenty of patience.

I can say this from experience. I’ve seen lead gen campaigns that have flourished and delivered better results than any initiative the client has previously attempted. And I’ve also seen tumbleweeds, with more and more budget being thrown at the problem to no great effect.

Thankfully, the latter is quite easy to predict.  As a specialist B2B social media agency, the vast majority of clients and prospects we speak to have an excellent understanding of how social media could (and should) accelerate their business growth. But all too often they’re handicapped and left frustrated by one big problem:

Their budgets are linked to short-term targets.

The result is having to compromise on strategic thinking and long-term growth.

Because, and here’s the crux of it, lead generation is very difficult without brand awareness. And brand awareness doesn’t happen overnight.

The short-term lead gen fallacy

When faced with the blunt target of generating ‘x leads by the end of the Quarter’, the sensible approach is to focus predominantly on advertising – whether that’s through paid social or an influencer marketing programme.

This will allow you to pick up the low-hanging fruit that’s already in-market, but to find them you must cast your net wide. You’re reaching your whole target audience with a sales-focused message, regardless of their level of interest or how familiar they are with your brand, product or service.

After all, why would you waste time on anything that won’t come to fruition in time to hit that all-important lead target?

And how big is that ‘in-market’ audience we care so much about? According to research from LinkedIn and the B2B Institute – it’s a lowly 5%.

So, in any given quarter, the remaining 95% of your target audience aren’t actively in the sales cycle.

Throwing more budget or effort at that will do very little to move the dial and the inevitable result is low engagement and a high cost-per-lead.

The long-term vision

For anyone who is interested in long-term growth, the 95% are a great deal more important. They are your future buyers.

And when they come to enter the sales cycle, who is best placed to secure their business?

You’ve guessed it – the brand that’s been working to build brand awareness by:

• Demonstrating thought leadership
• Actively engaging their audience through community management
• Adopting a humanised approach to their social content
• Encouraging their employees and senior execs to build their own networks
• Viewing influencers as long-term partners
• And using paid social to amplify content across all stages of the funnel

If you’ve been doing these things over time then you aren’t only in pole position, you’re halfway to the finish line.

On the other hand, if you’ve waited until this point to start engaging with them in a meaningful way, then you’re going to find it very difficult to over-turn the deficit.

Research from the IPA more than backs this up, as campaigns that combine brand awareness and lead generation perform 500% better than lead generation alone.

Navigating the best of both worlds

An effective and efficient social media marketing strategy would treat lead generation and brand awareness as a single journey, not standalone initiatives or campaigns.

It would acknowledge that sales pay the bills, but understand the role that brand awareness plays in driving those conversions and that the user journey may start many months, or even years, before the conversion finally happens.

If you get it right, the only people who see your sales material will be the ones who are receptive to it. The rest are being warmed up in preparation for that moment.

When creating a social media measurement framework, all of this should be considered. Afterall, lead generation is a very valid and, often, a pivotal social media KPI.

But expecting top-of-funnel initiatives to have a short-term impact on leads is fanciful, and pumping resource into bottom-of-funnel is wasteful.

Instead, create a framework that shows exponential growth. Measure the impact of your campaigns over a 6 or 12-month period, allowing the impact to take hold before proclaiming it a great success or decrying it failure.

This allows the freedom to take risks. To try new initiatives that have the potential to make a big impact tomorrow, rather than a small impact today.

The B2B marketing industry has a way to go in adopting this thinking. The latest research says that short-term thinking is still the dominant force, but this presents a palpable opportunity  for the world’s more enlightened brands to pull far ahead of their competition.