Great content is only valuable when it is seen by your audience. Discover how you can get your content seen (and generate leads) with Twitter cards.
“We’re getting to a place where, because more people are sharing more things, the best way to get your stuff seen if you’re a business is to pay for it.”
When it comes to social media, you have to ‘pay to play’. Brands can no longer expect to reach the majority of their fans without stumping up the cash. The above quote, from a Facebook spokesman in December 2013, confirmed that the overall organic reach of Facebook posts from brands is in slow decline.
This has dipped significantly in recent months. From the estimated 16% figure of previous years[1], brands on Facebook are reaching fewer and fewer fans, meaning promoted posts are becoming a necessity and not just a luxury.
Other social networks have already followed suit. LinkedIn adverts and sponsored updates are being utilised to target B2B key decision makers, and then there is Twitter. The micro-blogging site unveiled their self-serve advertising platform to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) last year, meaning that anyone with a Twitter account and a credit card could advertise on Twitter.
Promoted tweets are one thing, but in many ways they are limited to what businesses can do. Enter Twitter Cards.
Introduced last year, Twitter’s lead generation cards help drive more traffic to your site, providing businesses with a new tool to market their site and services – and crucially, capture data.
Read on to discover how you can take advantage of Twitter cards to drive leads for your business:
What are Twitter cards?
Twitter lead generation cards take promoted tweets to the next level by capturing in-app form-fills from your followers. With customisable images, text, headers and call to actions, businesses can capture information including customer name, email, Twitter username and timestamp.
Twitter cards can be integrated with your CRM system (such as Eloqua, SalesForce and Marketo) and work on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. Businesses can also use the built-in analytics of Twitter cards to view key information such as cost-per-lead, and effectively optimise your approach on the go.
Twitter cards offer businesses an opportunity to capture leads and data from its customers. Outdoor gear and apparel company Rock/Creek (@RockCreek) experienced a 4.6% rise in engagement and generated over 1,700 new email contacts in less than one week of using Twitter cards[2].
5 top tips on using Twitter cards for better business:
1. Always think visual
It has been found that tweets with photos get 150% more retweets and 18% more clicks[3] than those without. With Twitter Cards you can take full advantage of the power of photos (you can upload a 435 x 375px image), so be sure to upload a striking visual image with your lead generation cards.
2. Tell a great story
The copy, image and call-to-action button in your Twitter lead-gen card all need to reinforce each other, so opt for one message per card so as not to confuse your audience.
3. Opt for a strong call-to-action
Instead of a standard ‘Submit’ button, Twitter cards allow you to customise your call-to-action. Think about what you want the user to do in your call to actions: ‘Sign up here’ or ‘Download the whitepaper’ are two options you could use.
4. Develop dedicated landing pages
Instead of driving them to another social network or a page on your website, set up specific trackable landing pages with data-capture functionality. This will allow you to capture more data (such as users’ phone number, company name and job title), that you can pass to your sales team.
5. Test, test and re-test
Create a variation of ads, with different images and call to actions, that you can trial to see which ads are resonating with users.
Have you used Twitter cards or promoted tweets as part of your marketing efforts? Share your top tips for Twitter cards and join in the debate at @BlackBerry4Biz
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[1] https://www.facebook.com/marketing/posts/10150839503836337
[3] http://blog.bufferapp.com/the-power-of-twitters-new-expanded-images-and-how-to-make-the-most-of-it
