Social-media marketing enables businesses to reach more customers, have them interact with a brand and build a strong presence online. However, many companies create social pages and then fail to get people to become members, customers or advocates. All they get is a sporadic Like.

To make social pages a powerful digital marketing platform, people must be motivated. It is a process that must lead contacts through a B2B marketing funnel – from social page to digital advertising to face-to-face meetings.

Let’s see how this is done.

Generate Traffic

The first step is to generate traffic to a specific landing page from your business page in social media, let’s say, Facebook.

Write posts that offer valuable information for your target customers. Create a variety of written content as well as images, infographics and videos. Include in each post a link to a landing page on your website, for example, or to a page that offers more content. Do this for different posts on different topics.

When readers get to the landing page, they are segmented into groups according to the link they clicked. They are ‘pixeled’ based on their interests or field of expertise. Once they visit the landing page, they are already being tracked in the digital realm.

Create a Distribution List and Engage

Your landing page must ask your readers to leave their contact details. Ask them to register for a newsletter on the topic they were interested in or to read a white paper or case study. Offer a demo or suggest them to leave their details so your representative can contact them.

The moment they leave their details, you have a distribution list. But people don’t always give their details so quickly. Keep them engaged via remarketing. Give them the information they are interested in, offer them value for the details they are providing. Keep publishing content in your social pages and in other landing pages. Content must be insightful, appealing and valuable. This will make your readers share it in their own social and professional pages, thus increasing your visibility. For optimum results, this process must be iterative and never ending.

Use social media, Linkedin, your website to expose them to more specific content, to register for a workshop or tutorial, or to ask for a face-to-face meeting. Here you ask them to be more active, to initiate the encounter. The contact here is more direct, never forgetting that you must give value in return.

Call to Action

Once they register for a newsletter or workshop, your anonymous readers of the first step have a face and a name. You can now establish direct contact with them to offer your brand or service. Send them an email, invite them to an event, or try to schedule a face-to-face meeting. Build long-lasting relationships with them that will benefit both. Once again, never forget to acknowledge or thank them for reaching out to you.

In summary, your marketing plan or marketing strategy must have a clear path for using social not only for social. Be methodic about it, follow these steps to get all your social followers through your sales funnel. Pretty soon you’ll be reaping the fruits of your professional efforts in social networks.