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Over 353 million people use Twitter each month.
That’s a huge volume of people who can be exposed to your business.
…Yet with 500 million tweets published daily, you’ll need to do something clever, witty, or funny to stand out–never mind go viral.
So, what makes a good tweet? And how can businesses use Twitter to generate more leads for their business?
We asked almost 40 experts for advice. Here’s what they shared.
A Twitter marketing strategy summarizes your goals and the tactics you plan to employ to achieve these goals. Your Twitter marketing strategy should clearly outline your plan for creating, publishing, and distributing content to your target audience on Twitter.
Also, it doubles as a guide in determining what’s working or what isn’t.
Considering Twitter has 10% of the world’s overall social media user base, companies should take advantage of this powerful social network to promote their business and build their brand image.
But to do so, it is important to have an effective Twitter marketing strategy in place.
Not sure how to create one? Here are the 7 steps to creating a great Twitter marketing strategy.
As a first step, you need to evaluate the health of your Twitter account in order to learn what’s working and what isn’t. If you already have a Twitter account, check to see how your tweets align with your marketing goals, and also, if your followers match your ideal audience, as well as if your brand image on Twitter is as you would like it to be.
Use this information to guide you when crafting your Twitter marketing strategy for optimal growth and engagement rate.
Now that you have a better understanding of what your Twitter account actually looks like, the next thing you have to do is to set clear, SMART goals. Your goals double as a benchmark for measuring the success of your strategy and how your Twitter goals will be contributing to your overall marketing success.
Before creating a Twitter marketing strategy, it is important to identify your target audience. To engage with them effectively, you need to learn about their age, gender, location, usage stats, and other relevant information. By doing so, you can tailor your messaging and content to their interests and needs, increasing the likelihood of meaningful engagement and conversions.
To get the most out of your Twitter marketing efforts, it’s recommended to write up step-by-step guidelines on creating, publishing and distributing content on this social platform. So, spend time working out how you plan to position your brand, and how to actively engage your audience.
You can’t create a good Twitter marketing strategy without analyzing your competitors. Analyze your competitors’ accounts on Twitter to identify gaps in your strategy. Try to identify the areas they excel in, and in which areas they’re not particularly performing the best.
Do they appear in Twitter searches for specific keywords and you don’t? What are their followers like? What hashtags do they use most often? How do they measure up in terms of engagement?
Compare your results on Twitter to theirs over time, and use this information to develop or improve your Twitter marketing strategy.
Determine what time works best for you to post for optimal engagement and schedule your posts to go out by that time.
Good read: How to plan out a social media content calendar
Use great tools like Databox to track your most important Twitter marketing metrics. Dig in to learn more about how your efforts are paying off, and if anything about your strategy needs to be changed for better ROI using our social media dashboard software.
Before we dive in with the tips you can use for Twitter, let’s iron-out why Twitter should be at the forefront of your mind when it comes to marketing.
Twitter was rated as the third-best platform for getting leads or sales:
Steve Yanor of Sky Alphabet Social Media thinks it’s because “Twitter does not restrict organic reach to the extent that Facebook does.”
“This means that when a Tweet is sent from an account, the followers of the account will have an opportunity to see the tweet. The same is not true of Facebook, where recent estimates put the reach of a facebook post at about 3%.
That might be why some experts see between 21% and 50% of their overall website traffic coming from Twitter:
Editor’s Note: Monitor your most valuable social media metrics in Databox through our robust integrations with major social networks.
Are you ready to make Twitter your company’s best performing social media marketing platform?
We’ve compiled a list of the best Twitter marketing tips, as follows:
To monitor the impact of your social media marketing efforts, you may have to log into multiple tools to check how your accounts on different social networks are performing and spend hours compiling a comprehensive report. But, with Databox, social media reporting doesn’t have to be a time-consuming chore anymore.
Now you can quickly assess your social media performance in a single dashboard that monitors fundamental metrics, such as:
Now you can benefit from the experience of our social media experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template showing the most important KPIs for measuring the impact of your social media marketing efforts from multiple channels. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, it’s free!
You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.
To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Get the template
Step 2: Connect your Social Media accounts with Databox.
Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.
When we asked Shufti Pro for their best Twitter marketing tip, Damien Martin’s answer was simple: “Talk.”
“Instead of liking or retweeting, try to have a natural conversation with people. Be helpful and caring, use Twitter’s search box to find relevant tweets, people and live conversations. A combination of brand personality with paid ads can be highly beneficial.”
Olivia Newman of Giraffe Social Media agrees: “Twitter is incredible for engaging with your audience and building trusting relationships with your customers.”
“You need to be finding companies and users to interact with, so you seem trustworthy and real (not just a robot churning out spam.) This can be extremely effective in getting leads and talking to people who could be potentially interested in your business and products, making it an effective platform for lead generation.” Use this lead generation dashboard to monitor the number of leads that come from Twitter.
Beth Gramling Sanders adds: “You’re not going to build beneficial relationships by automating posts — setting and forgetting. Take the time to actually be there and interact with others. Listen first, then find others’ content to retweet, reply to, and/or discuss.”
So, what kind of content should you be replying to?
Sculpt‘s Josh Krakauer thinks you should “respond to high-visibility (trending) tweets by influential accounts in your niche. For instance: Sell to a tech-connected, entrepreneurial audience? Pay attention to VC Twitter.”
“Reply to tweets by prominent figures (and those who they follow) by providing value, offering a perspective, sharing insights, and a link—if it makes sense.”
“Your insightful responses that get liked and replied, especially by the original poster, will get pushed to the top of the reply thread and boost your visibility,” Krakauer continues.
“Often there will be an opportunity to position your response to drop your brand as a suggestion, just like how you’d leave a comment in a blog post. Repeat this process by searching Twitter for people asking similar questions and things start getting interesting.”
We all know how hard it can be to get Twitter followers without paying for them.
Dave Bowden of Irreverent Gent shares a smart Twitter hack: “The biggest thing I’d recommend is going to the Twitter accounts of your competitors and following the people who follow them.”
“By building their own qualified followings, your competitors have already put in the leg work of creating a list of qualified leads. The best way to get those people to notice you is to simply follow them, which will create a notification for them, and immediately makes them aware of your brand.”
Bowden continues: “Some percentage of them will also start following you back, allowing you to market to them on an ongoing basis.”
Speaking of competitors, DontPayFull‘s Andrei Vasilescu recommends to “find tweets in your industry using hashtags related to your rivals and you’ll always find negative remarks on your rivals there.”
“In these cases, engage in conversations and respond with what you can offer to solve the unsolved problems of the common audience. More new Twitter audiences will be interested in your offers and you’ll get more potential leads.”
“This is a great way to get more or less relevant leads of your niche and most of these leads have potential to be your customers,” Vasilescu adds.
Growth Hackers‘ Jonathan Aufray explains: “For instance, I recommend you to find your competitors on Twitter, have a look at the people engaging with their content and start interacting with them by sending them tweets, sharing content with them, tagging them, re-sharing their content, etc.”
“By interacting with your competitors’ followers, you’ll make them interested by what you do too,” Aufray says.
Hello Marketing Agency‘s Shawn Persons thinks you should “keep your ideal audience or target market in mind when crafting your tweets and responding to comments.”
“Twitter is no different from other social platforms or forms of communication. Your goal should always be to answer their questions, provide helpful information, or solve a problem they are facing. Know who you are talking to and give them a reason to engage.”
Anthony Gaenzle adds: “The more followers you have who fit the mold for people you’d love to have as customers, the further your content and thought leadership will reach.”
“This can help drive up your authority in your field, recognition of your company or personal brand and drive business to your website.”
More importantly, use a social media dashboard to monitor how well people engage with your tweets.
“Twitter is very different from other social media outlets in that you are encouraged to post frequently,” says Womply‘s Dallin Hatch. “Tweets have a lifespan of about 18 minutes, so the more often you post, the better chance your business has of performing well on Twitter.”
For that reason, Hatch adds: “Your business should be posting on Twitter at least 5 times each day, but if you can post up to 20 times a day, that’s usually even better.””
It’s easy to fall into the trap of polishing your social media presence. Sure, you want to remain professional–but not at the risk of sounding like a robot.
Alan Gruntz of BarkleyREI explains: “The biggest mistake I see is when brands appear too stiff and corporate on Twitter.”
“If something looks like an ad – whether it is or not – Twitter users are less likely to click on it. Don’t be afraid to post tweets, images and memes that are goofy, snarking and a bit off-brand. Twitter is the place a brand can be rewarded for showing it can have a bit of fun.”
“I would really recommend that you experiment with Twitter video now,” Keith Keller of Global Social Media Coaching says. “It’s a very cost-effective way to extend your reach and generate more conversations with potential clients.”
Jeff Rizzo of RIZKNOWS agrees: “The best tip we have for getting leads with Twitter is to exclusively post tweets with a video—and that video should have subtitles included.”
“We find that tweets with a video get 26% higher engagement (measured by link clicks) than those without a video. Even more, with subtitles included, a video on Twitter will get nearly 4% more clicks than a video without them.”
“This makes a lot of sense if you think about the success of Instagram relative to Twitter. The major difference is a focus on graphic content rather than written content,” Rizzo continues.
See also: 13 Video Marketers Reveal The Tactics Behind Their Top-Performing Videos
“One of the most powerful things we do on Twitter to extend the life and promotion of our content is to write up to ten different social media posts. Each one is different and highlights a different take away from the blog or video we are sharing,” says Kristy Hartman of Ariad Partners.
“We then schedule those posts (with a link to the content) at different times of the day through the next 30-90 days for maximum coverage.”
When using Twitter, Alexander Porter of Search It Local thinks you should tread with caution: “Twitter’s ability to openly communicate with prospects and generate relationships can mask the black-hole potential of pouring resources into this social media channel.”
Because of this, Porter “would recommend setting low goals for Twitter and leaving the idea of a ‘conversion target’ behind for good.”
“Instead, use Twitter as a tool to educate and engage. Offer free value constantly. Published an in-depth blog post? Share it on Twitter. Running a course online? Offer seats on Twitter.”
“Twitter should target the top of the funnel prospects who don’t have conversions on the mind but need educating. Start networking with people, whether they *may* be able to convert down the line or not. These relationships may blossom into more, but whether they do or not shouldn’t be your target.”
Maybe that’s why 83% of our experts say that Twitter is an effective platform for generating leads:
“The more value you can provide, the more likely you will bring people into your sales funnel as a result,” Porter adds.
Copyhog‘s Carla Dewing agrees: “Create a blog post, then promote it on Twitter. Your goal will be Tweet engagements, but the bonus secondary action will be website clicks anyway.”
Lauren Walter of Online Optimism thinks you should get involved with “Twitter conversations that mention your company and offering fast, helpful, and personalized customer service to solve customer problems, keep customers happy, and highlight positive customer experiences.”
Editor’s Note: Need help tracking the volume of activity happening in Slack? Check out Databox’s robust integration with Slack
What happens if you don’t use Slack?
ExaWeb‘s Patrick Garde puts this into practice: “You can use the search function on Twitter and type in “looking for” + your topic or keyword.”
“You can further filter the search by adding “-filter:links” to remove tweets with links, “-filter:retweets” to not include tweets that are retweets, and “lang:en” if you want to filter the language of the tweet.”
“There are thousands of Twitter chats organized by specific groups, across all social groups, industries, and niches,” Emma Weatherall says.
“By taking part in these targeted chats, you have the opportunity to get in front of the right people for your business and show them what you’re all about. They are also a fantastic place to meet valuable new connections and develop relationships.”
Weatherall adds: “The best resource for finding suitable Twitter chats and when they’re running is the Tweet Reports Twitter Schedule.”
You don’t have to limit your Twitter chats to that list, though.
Thumbprint‘s Morgan Lathaen adds: “Through Twitter Chats your brand can showcase their expertise, engage with prospects – humanizing your brand, and further your brand’s reach. Twitter Chats are an overlooked aspect of Twitter trends that marketers should be aware of.”
“The one tip that I would like to give to my fellow marketers looking to generate leads from Twitter is to approach Twitter influencers,” says Within The Flow.
“What you should ask them to do is just share your content and pin it for a day. Your content getting pinned on a famous personality’s Twitter account would generate a lot of traffic, and if you have chosen an influencer whose audience is relevant to your industry, you will be getting a lot of conversions as well.”
Hey Marketers‘ Corey Haines explains: “Threading together multiple tweets into one cohort stream of thoughts works really well to grab someone’s attention. It’s a great way to summarize new blog posts, talk about new features, rant about problems/challenges you see, etc.”
“Tweetstorms are also more likely to be retweeted and shared, thus improving your odds of extending your reach to new audiences.”
“The biggest challenge of Twitter marketing is its 24/7 information flow,” says Marcin Niewęgłowski of Digital Now.
“It’s super fast and thus it’s pretty hard to draw people’s attention. But on the other hand, you can turn the cons of Twitter marketing into its pros. Just start to follow people’s conversations and provide real true added value for them.”
That’s why Niewęgłowski “highly recommends tweeting using Tweetdeck, a Twitter client made by Twitter [because] Tweetdeck allows you to follow threads related to your business field globally. That means you will not miss any interesting tweet (lead) regarding a given topic.”
Ellie Pearce of TJX Europe “recommends following Twitter accounts of prospective clients. If you sell tools for trades for example, try following various trade accounts such as electricians and builders. If you own a shop, follow accounts that are local to you.”
Twitter Lists are groups of similar people. You can create your own under Lists > Create New:
“Post regular content promoting your products so that accounts that have followed you back can start to see the services you offer regularly and begin building leads,” Pearce adds.
“Although Twitter has a long way to go in order to be competitive with other, more efficient lead generating platforms, you can use Twitter’s advanced targeting tactics to hone in on your target audience,” says Grace Weselak of Advantix Digital.
“Once you’ve curated the perfect audience via lookalikes, handle, or keyword and follower targeting, you can use that in tandem with Twitter’s lead generation objective to serve your ads most efficiently to receive the leads you’re looking for.”
However, Best Company‘s Benjamin Smith says: “When they see company ads, it is very easy to scroll right past them without even glancing at the content.”
“To ensure that scrolling users take the time to see your ad, you will want to make sure that they are drawn in quickly. This requires very few words.”
“The most effective way to encourage viewers to pay attention to what you are promoting is providing a short 15-30 second video or a compelling photograph with a small caption. These short videos feel easily palatable to those that are scrolling and the likelihood of them watching increases the shorter that it is,” Smith continues.
“The video should have a strong call to action that provides the viewer with the opportunity to quickly gain access to more information (providing immediate gratification).”
“The more time you put into making sure that your ad can be easily interpreted and acted upon, the better chances you have of generating leads and sales,” Smith summarizes.
Before you run Twitter ads, Andrew Becks of 301 Digital Media advises to “leverage the Twitter insights pixel to measure/analyze visitors who enter your site from Twitter.”
“The pixel also allows for retargeting users on Twitter, which can allow for an increase in conversation rates/decrease in costs per conversion from paid Twitter marketing campaigns.”
BrandExtract‘s Kyle Smith advises to “invest in running targeted Twitter ads over boosted posts [because] boosted posts are one-offs. They have a place in a social media strategy but are most effective in increasing brand awareness.”
“Twitter Ads, on the other hand, are campaigns that, when done properly, drive leads/traffic. Ads allow marketers to develop highly targeted content that will resonate with specific audience segments.”
“Because they are not one-off investments and are highly customizable, Twitter Ads provide the greatest ROI in terms of driving leads/traffic,” Smith adds.
“I would use Twitter to become a “sponsor” of a really expensive event you could never afford otherwise,” Spencer Smith of AmpliPhi Social Media Strategies says.
“Example: one of our clients has a lot of customers that like golf, and particularly, the Masters. Instead of trying to sponsor the Masters itself, we created a campaign to run during the Masters targeting only fans of the Twitter handle @TheMasters (1 million followers).”
Smith continues: “We showed a video that had golf-related content but also focused on the client’s business. The views are super, super cheap, and highly effective because they’re in the appropriate context.”
Marketers can spend 12 hours per week working on their social media strategy.
You wouldn’t be alone if you’re looking for shortcuts on Twitter–usually in the form of tweet scheduling software.
“To generate leads and sales organically on Twitter, you have to find the optimal balance between automation and physical presence,” says Page 1 Solutions‘ Daniel Brophy.
“There are many great social media marketing tools that can help streamline your efforts on the platform such as scheduling Tweets, monitoring hashtags and mentions, and using a chatbot to answer common user questions. By automating some of these monotonous tasks, you free up time and energy to invest in more demanding ones.”
Brophy continues: “Automated tools can help expand your overall Twitter presence and ultimately reach more people. But at the end of the day, it’s all for nothing if the human element is missing.”
“Online users anticipate a certain degree of computer automation, but they will likely be deterred if they feel as though they are solely talking to a machine, particularly if they have an immediate question or concern.”
Editor’s note: Not sure how are your automated and personal efforts commutatively paying off across several platforms? Start using social media reporting tool from Databox and don’t miss how your trend line is going up.
“The best tip I could give marketers for generating leads on Twitter is to stay consistent and have fun,” writes Mark W Lamplugh of Influence Media Solutions.
“Many marketers starting a new platform go out of the gate on fire but lose their steam. Staying consistent will give you an overall better chance at growth and creating a social image others will follow.”
As you can see, Twitter is an incredible platform that can help businesses generate more leads.
The best part? It’s free to use. Simply create an account, spend a few hours putting these Twitter marketing tips into action, and start seeing leads (and followers) trickle through.
Elise Dopson is a freelance B2B writer for SaaS and marketing companies. With a focus on data-driven ideas that truly provide value, she helps brands to get noticed online--and drive targeted website visitors that transform into raving fans.
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