Social media is great, but it relies on your audience logging in and seeing your content. Plus, any platform could decide to kick you out at any time (it happens!). It’s a good idea to add your audience to something you have ownership of, like an email list!
Plus, I’ve always found I make far more sales via email than any other form of marketing. And social media is a perfect way to get people on to that email list.
Here’s how you could do it!
1. Share a lead capture in your profile
Use the website link in your profile to drive people to a relevant lead capture (e.g. a free download that they have to enter their email to get). You could either use the direct link or use something like Link Tree with multiple links, and make your lead capture one of them. And tell people in your profile to click the link to get your freebie! Would you rather they have a browse round your website and leave, or give you their details so you can be in their inbox every week?!
2. Add a lead capture to your website
When you are directing people over to your website from social media, is there an opportunity for them to give you their email address? You could add a lead capture to the side panel, as a pop-up when they go to leave, and at the end of relevant blog posts. Writing regular blog posts definitely helps with this, as it provides a reason to send people over to your site for something that could directly benefit them!
3. Share content that directly relates to your lead capture
Make sure you share content regularly that gives you the opportunity to direct them to your lead capture. For example, if you had a lead capture about how to encourage fussy children to eat vegetables, you could create a post about how to hide vegetables in your children’s food. You could then end the post with “if you want to learn more about how to encourage your fussy eater to eat more vegetables, download my free guide here…”. If they are interested enough to read the post, chances are they would be perfect for your email list too!
4. Share your lead capture in direct messages
DMs are a great place to chat to your audience 1:1 and send them your lead capture! It doesn’t feel as spammy as trying to sell to them, as you’re giving them something for free. You could do this with each new follow with a simple “Thanks so much for following me, it’s great to be connected to you on here. If you ever have any questions about X, I’m always happy to help! And I’ve also got a great free download on how to do X, which could be useful to you!”. If you create a new lead capture, why not go through your list of followers/connections and send the link to them?
5. Create a post directly about your lead capture
No beating round the bush! Just tell them straight up what your lead capture is, why it would benefit them and where they go to get it! You could either share the link directly in the post or direct them to your profile on Instagram where you can’t share the link in the post. Another way I love to share my lead capture with my audience is by asking them to let me know in the comments if they want it, and then sending it to them via DMs. This achieves two things. One it encourages more comments, which increases the reach for my posts and lets more people know about my lead capture. Two, it means I can start a 1:1 conversation with them in the DMs and build the relationship even more!
So firstly, do you have a lead capture. If not, get one sorted!!!! Then get it out there and get more and more people on your list!!!!
