How SMBs can drive business results with Twitter: Insights from our direct response specialist

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Twitter connects businesses with customers to drive meaningful conversations. But how does a business or brand then turn those conversations into site visits, leads and, ultimately, revenue?

I work with advertisers who want to drive these kinds of results with their Twitter advertising campaigns. To help them frame their efforts, I like to offer a familiar context for marketers: the demand generation funnel. For each stage of the funnel, you can apply a corresponding Twitter action, from awareness to conversion.

How SMBs can drive business results with Twitter: Insights from our direct response specialist

At each stage of the funnel, you can drive results that directly affect your business. We’ve captured the keys to success in our new guide for small businesses, Drive results with Twitter. Here are a few of my favorite insights for SMBs:

Generate awareness with Promoted Accounts and Tweets.

Your Twitter followers can be powerful advocates for your business. After someone follows or interacts with a small- or medium-sized business on Twitter, they are more likely to make a future purchase from them, according to a recent study. We also see a lift in how likely they are to recommend that business. With Promoted Accounts, you can target people likely to be interested in your business to gain new, relevant followers.

Promoted Tweets then help you amplify your message beyond your current follower base. Because your Tweets can be targeted based on interests, location, device or keywords, you can extend your reach to the people who will find your message most relevant.

Together, these products create the potential for more impressions at the top of your funnel. And If you put more into the top of the funnel, the result is often more impact at each subsequent stage.

For example, inbound marketing company @HubSpot used Promoted Accounts to build a base of followers interested in their B2B marketing content and connected with people similar to their current followers with Promoted Tweets. During their Twitter Ads campaign,@HubSpot saw a 46% lower cost per lead, 150% increase in sales from Twitter and 32% ROI.

 

Increase consideration through valuable content.

Content is the key to building relationships with potential customers on Twitter. The best way to keep followers engaged with your brand? Give people the Tweets they want.

In a recent DB5 study, 58% of people surveyed said they follow brands to learn about new products. Sharing product-related content is a simple way to drive direct response goals like website traffic and new leads. So, tweet product updates, offer sneak previews of new offerings and ask people for feedback on your products.

 

These tactics will help you create buzz, engagement and consideration. People who are more engaged are going to have a higher affinity for your business – and keep you in mind when it comes to make a purchase.

Connect with the most receptive customers to facilitate further research.

When it comes to driving direct response, it’s not just about reaching more people – it’s about reaching more of the right people. Tweets offer real-time signals of what’s top of mind for people, including their intentions, needs and wants. The accounts people choose to follow are also a great indicator of their interests.

As an advertiser, you can tap into all this valuable information with interest targeting (by category or more specific @usernames) and keyword targeting (based on keywords in Tweets with which they’ve recently engaged or searched for). These targeting options help you deliver relevant content to the most receptive audience and drive off-platform actions like site visits and lead submissions.

That’s what mobile event app vendor @Doubledutch accomplished with keyword and interest targeting campaigns. Targeted Promoted Tweets helped them join relevant conversations, and Twitter accounted for 66% of all their online advertising leads over two quarters.

Capture conversions in a Tweet.

Every business has their own definition of conversion. For some, it’s a direct purchase. For others, it’s capturing a lead who may purchase in the future. This is how we think about bottom of the funnel activity at Twitter.

With our Lead Generation Card, you can capture leads directly in any Tweet – organic, promoted or pinned to your Twitter profile. You can combine these Cards with any type of targeting available for Promoted Tweets. Now, when you create direct response moments, you can more easily capture the direct response action as well.

Outdoor retailer @RockCreek recently used Promoted Tweets to capture the email addresses of people who wanted to enter a drawing to win a free pair of Chaco sandals. They used @username targeting to reach people with interests similar to people who follow the Chaco brand. @RockCreek saw a 4.6% engagement rate and generated over 1,700 new email contacts in less than one week.

 

Download our new guide for more direct response insights and best practices, as well as additional information on the product offerings mentioned here.

How SMBs can drive business results with Twitter: Insights from our direct response specialist