The following is a guest contributed post from Bernard Perrine, co-founder and CEO of SocialCentiv.
With 145 million users signing on in just five years, a Twitter presence for businesses is a necessity and a Twitter marketing strategy essential. Here are the top four elements to keep in mind when developing a Twitter lead generating marketing campaign that results in real time ROI:
Geo-location: Using geo-location is a great way to create Twitter campaigns that zero in on a specific region. Using Twitter users’ profile location to target them ensures they are in the area for the campaign and are more likely to respond, as the outreach is relevant to them.
For instance, a clothing store in Columbus, Ohio, offering shoppers a discount via Twitter is useless for people in Denver. But by targeting users within a few miles of the shop, the owners will likely see a dramatic increase in traffic.
Keyword targeting: A well-thought out Twitter lead generating marketing campaign will have a list of relevant keywords (keywords on Twitter are more conversational than those used for SEM/SEO) to watch for that indicate when a user may be interested in that product, offer or call to action. For instance, someone tweeting about needing more caffeine would be in the market for a free coffee or coupon to a coffee shop.
These are necessary to set up and establish before starting a campaign to know what words will indicate an interested user. Keywords can be found using services such as Google’s Keyword Tool.
A burger shop, as an example, may target keywords like “hungry,” “burger,” “lunch” and “dinner,” while a clothing shop may look for keywords such as “shopping,” “dress,” “blouse” and “shoes” or even “I need a new look.”
Social listening: A large part of developing and executing a successful Twitter marketing lead generating campaign is paying attention to the social landscape. This involves monitoring what is trending, what target audiences are interested in and what topics are currently top of mind. This ensures whatever content is being developed for the campaign is relevant and current.
It’s basic social media monitoring. If it’s summertime and everyone is talking about wanting cool beverages, it wouldn’t do much good to offer a discount code for hot chocolate. Integrating trending hash tags within a target audience into timely tweets can keep the promotion relevant and top of mind. At the end of the day, social listening helps marketers gain a better understanding of their target markets and how to more effectively tap into those specific interests.
Response time: This is a simple yet crucial element in a Twitter marketing lead generating campaign. When brands are timely with their promotional tweets or replies to users, it increases the possibility of a person seeing the message and taking action before that tweet is lost. Because Twitter moves at such a fast pace, brands should respond sooner rather than later in order to catch users while they would still be interested.
If a consumer is Tweeting about wanting a burger for lunch or commented on how she needs a new pair of shoes for an event that day, a matter of hours can make a big difference. It doesn’t do much good for a company to Tweet a burger offer to someone in the middle of the afternoon when the person was in the market earlier in the day or wait until the next day to share a shoe offer with someone when the event was the night before. Remaining timely on these campaigns is key, because it increases the likelihood the user is still in the market for that product or service.
Developing and executing a Twitter marketing campaign takes time and dedication but can yield impressive results. These elements fit together like pieces of a puzzle, and taking the time to ensure they are all in place can turn a moderately OK campaign into a highly successful one. Customers are on Twitter and ROI can be reached in real time if approached in the correct manner.
